We invite you to perform at the Círculos de Etnografia, a new immersive performance experience at the SHA Fall 2026 Conference, "Choosing Each Other: Multimodal Ethnographies of Friendship as Community Care," October 2–3 in New York City.

The Círculos de Etnografia reimagines SHA's open mic tradition. Inspired by Paulo Freire's círculos de cultura, a collective knowledge-making practice rooted in Latin American popular education, this format moves away from the European salon model and toward a space that centers the cosmopolitan and Indigenous backgrounds of our community. It also responds to a growing concern: that the academy's embrace of "multimodality" too often treats as innovation what Indigenous and Global South communities have always practiced as their primary mode of knowledge transmission.

In practice, the Círculos de Etnografia is an immersive event in which multiple performance stations operate simultaneously. Guided by a Performance Doula, audience members move clockwise through the space, stopping at every station. After several rounds, audience members will have the opportunity to take their turn at the performance stations.

We welcome poetry, spoken word, storytelling, song, movement, short readings, and all forms of embodied ethnographic expression. For more information, https://www.humanisticanthropology.org/ethnographycircle

Performance guidelines:

• Performances must be acoustic (no microphones, electric instruments, or amplified sound).

• Performances must be no more than 3 minutes long.

• Weather permitting, your performance may take place outdoors.

To sign up: https://forms.gle/aTdWDm1pyFTsu8e49

We hope you'll join us.