 So we're getting our recording started. We're gonna let attendees in soon. If you're not up at the mic first step, feel free to turn your video off for now. That'll actually allow the live stream to pick up ASL cleanly. And we'll bring you into the space when it's your turn. Any great play of the modern Europe to say nothing of the classics, any great play of our increasingly diverse canon recognizes humanity in all its complexity, recognizes the contradictions and the hypocrisy not only of our society in a way that is about yelling at America, but of our own human hearts in a way that looks ourselves in the eye and in the mirror and says, I too can contain multitudes and multitudes not only of beauty and wonder but multitudes of selfishness and hate and self-hate. Our job together as citizens, as citizen artists, as creators of theater, as practitioners of democracy is to complicate the story. And even in this time of reckoning around race and injustice where it can be, it can feel very righteous to get on board with that work. And I like having moral purpose, but I caution us all about too much righteousness. Civic religion properly practiced is not about righteous certitude. It is about doubt. It is not so much about impression management and the performance of virtue, but it is about recognizing the ways in which we are all failed, we are all fallen, we are all faltering, and we're all trying to do one notch better. And to close the gap between our creed and our deeds is the very definition of true patriotism. To close the gap between our professed ideals and the ways we're actually living is the actual definition of artistry. 30 and Under is defined by presidents. If you're 30 now, then the first presidential election you might have been able to vote in resulted in the first black president. We all know what followed. 30 and Under is defined by going from gig to gig, not being paid what you're worth, or not being able to find a job because the older generations are not retiring the way the generations before them did. It's quitting because a job doesn't need our work life standards and no one will figure something out. 30 and Under is noticing the number of they, them, she, they, these are no-pronoun easy people in your front groups. It's growing up in a country constantly at war on terror, but not technically at war because Congress hasn't declared war since 1942. 30 and Under is growing up on the internet and having every moment judged and saved forever. It's speaking a second language of internet humor that many of our elders, including vintage millennials, simply don't get. It's growing up while watching video after video of black and brown people shot by the police again and again. It's going to school in this pandemic. 30 and Under is defined by school shootings being a normal and expected occurrence. It's doing active shooter drills right alongside fire drills. Doing that while knowing that there are people who think you, a child, are an acceptable casualty so that anyone can own a gun. It's knowing climate change is also colonization and immigration and ableism and zoning laws. Why didn't you act? Don't you care about my future? Is it even ethical to bring a kid into the world anymore? It's just wouldn't have clean water yet and water is life. Knowing this is likely only the first pandemic we'll live through because who knows what emerges when the ice melts. So how many more times will we clap for essential workers and not actually help them? We have maybe seven years left to stop with their mom that are contesting. 30 and Under is defined by so much more but you get the picture. And also going back to your point about, you know, I love when people see the whole me. Personally, it's challenging to even put forth the whole me if I'm the only person from a nationality, very honestly. So while you can create the more safe space for me to, you know, be safe and feel heard, unless I see more of me, I don't actually get to explore other versions of me that I have not brought into the room today. I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. But when 1996 happened and lo and behold, the TCG conference was back in Princeton again, August Wilson was the keynote speaker. The audience was packed and awestruck as he spoke, man. Do you know why I know you were awestruck? It's because decades after wanting to simply belong to TCG but not having enough money to do so, well, now I was TCG's president. Hello again. I'm Nicole Solter, TCG's board chair and more importantly, the runner up for this year's TCG Disco Queen. Now, a lot of people said I should have won and I'm not saying that, I'm actually publicly congratulating theater director and educator Lisa Portes in the great state of Illinois for her victory. It was an honor just to compete. And some people are saying that I should have won, that's all. And if you're wondering, what's Nicole talking about now? That just means that you missed the TCG Gala after party and it was the best virtual party ever and I hope you never miss it again. But like I was saying, I'm Nicole Solter. I use she, her pronouns. I am wearing a gray jumpsuit and glasses. I'm an African American woman with long locks and I am zooming in today from the unceded land of the Lene Lenape also known as East Orange News Jersey. Today I have the honor of introducing Rob Joy. Now he's not the TCG Disco Queen either in case you were wondering. No, no, he's something better. He's the chief of staff of the National Endowment for the Arts. It's an honor for me, not just because federal, federal arts advocacy is a huge part of what TCG does. Thank you, Lori Baskin. But it's also an important part of who I am. See, I started my arts advocacy interests as a theater intern at the NEA under Gigi Bolt in 19. And like so many of you, I see my identity as an artist as inseparable from my identity as an arts advocate. And if that conversation energizes you too, please join me for the breakout session right after this arts advocacy, more important than ever. But before we get there, we have the opportunity to hear from Mr. Rob Joy about the exciting things happening at the NEA coming up. And while we will not have time to take questions if they come up for you during Mr. Joy's presentation, please feel free to send them to chief ofstaffatarts.gov and we'll drop that email address in the chat right now. So please join me in welcoming Rob Joy to the mic. Hello, everybody. My name is Rob Joy. I use he, him pronouns. And I'm proud to serve as the chief of staff for the National Endowment for the Arts. At a time of enormous consequence for our country. And at a time when we all need what art brings us. I'm very pleased that you could make time today to participate in this virtual TCG conference. I'd like to start by saying how grateful I am to work for an administration that values the presence and importance of the arts. This commitment to culture and creative expression is represented in not just standing up strong cultural agencies, but it's embodied in a belief that the arts have an active role to play across the federal government and in all aspects of civic and community life. Personally, I'd like to say how cool it is to be here with my colleagues at TCG. Although I'm zooming in from the Seattle area. I'm from Chicago. Which is one of the most prominent cities in the world when it comes to live theater. I had the great fortune and another lifetime to work closely with Deb Clap and the League of Chicago theaters. In many ways professionally, I grew up in the theater. And I had a board chair. I'm from Steppenwolf Theater named David Hawkinson. And I feel like I've received a lot of mentorship and support from both David and Martha Levy. One of the things that was top of mind when I got my second vaccine shot was the idea of going back into the theater. And in particular theater in my hometown. While I'm here with you today, I do want to say just a heartfelt congratulations to Teresa, Lori, Nicole, and everybody at TCG for 60 years of service to the field. I come to this meeting with a deep respect for your work. And a great deal of admiration for your increasing focus on pandemic recovery, climate action, and systemic anti-racism. While I'm here, I do want to say a few words about some of the overarching focus areas for the arts endowment right now. And I also really want to encourage you to stay connected with a really talented NEA theater team. I think I have a slide that gets after four overarching priorities that I just want to say a word or two about. Essentially these are priorities for the agency that I think also align with the priorities of the Biden-Harris administration. There are four overarching themes and then I'll drill down on a few of them. The four overarching themes are restoring the creative economy, uniting and healing the nation, advancing equity, opportunity, and justice, and strengthening our agency and our ability to serve the field. On this first point of restoring the creative economy, this is all about reversing the damage from COVID-19 and getting creative workers back to work. Before the pandemic hit, the arts and cultural sector was approaching a trillion-dollar industry that supported over 5.2 million jobs. As you know well, few sectors, if any, have been hit harder by the COVID-19 pandemic than the arts. Our theaters were among the first organizations to close their doors at the start of COVID-19 and they'll be among the last to fully reopen moving forward. On March 11th, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act, which was the second largest stimulus package in legislative history. The purpose of this $1.9 trillion relief package is to defeat the pandemic, is to restore the creative economy, and to prevent more businesses from permanently closing their doors. We're thankful to the President and to Congress that resources for arts organizations and arts workers hard hit by the pandemic are included in the Rescue Plan, including $135 million for the National Endowment for the Arts. The tail end of April on April 29th, the Arts Endowment was pleased to announce the awarding of 40% of these funds to state arts agencies and regional arts organizations. We are also in the process of rolling out our 60% American Rescue Plan program direct revitalization dollars to arts organizations. We anticipate that that program will complete the review process and be rolled out publicly in mid-June. We see the American Rescue Plan as a step in the sector's recovery and a signal of more to come. I want to say a few words about two other themes. One is uniting and healing the nation. This is really thinking about the power of the arts to help usher in a healthier and more hopeful future. The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to maintain a robust portfolio of programs at the intersection of the arts healing and public health. We were very pleased to roll out a suite of resources around the art of reopening. And these are tools, evidence-based tools to help arts organizations reopen safely and successfully. The last item I want to say a word about before we leave contact information for our NEA staff team is the importance of advancing equity, opportunity, and justice. And this focus area is really about the power of the arts to illuminate urgent issues of social justice, racial justice, and environmental justice. Recognizing that the arts and equity are essential public goods, we're working to center equity and fairness into everything that we do from our relief efforts to our ongoing programming. We see advancing equity and access as a team sport, and we look forward to working closely and collaboratively with all of you, not just to reopen or return to normal, but to build back better so all of our communities can thrive. As you work to cultivate a just and thriving theater ecology, we hope you view the arts endowment as a ready resource today, tomorrow, and into the future. In closing, I'd like to encourage you to stay connected with our very talented and accessible staff team at the NEA focused all about theater. And I think we have a slide that lists contact information and names for our NEA theater team. They are available to assist you with technical assistance and provide guidance to help you navigate the grant application process. With that, I want to say thank you again. I would like to express our heartfelt congratulations for 60 years of service, and we look forward to working together. Enjoy the rest of the conference. Thank you. Thank you so much, Rob, for those remarks and for everything that you and the NEA do. Hello, and welcome to the second week of TCG's 31st National Conference. Again, we are so glad that you are here. My name is Erica Lauren Ortiz, and I am the director of marketing and production at TCG, and I use she her pronouns. I am zooming in today from Lenape Hoking, the unseated lands of the Lenape people, colonally known as Manhattan. And so for visual needs and access needs, I am a black woman. I have black hair, wearing a black shirt in front of a very colorful background, and I have a medium amount of makeup and a large smile. Thanks, Erica. Welcome, and I'm Adrian Bidu, the deputy director and COO of TCG, and my pronouns are he and him. It's so nice to see all of you, and I cannot wait until we're back in the theater together. Today I am zooming from the land of the Lenape peoples, and for visual needs, I am male of Indian descent. I have short black hair with a dust in the gray, and I'm wearing a light pink and purple checkered shirt. At this time, I'd love to throw some heart emojis and big thanks to the lead sponsors for today's open infantry, the National Endowment for the Arts, Shuler Shook Theater Planning and Light and Design, and the Sherry and Les Miller Family Foundation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So today is week two of TCG's 2021 virtual conference, our theater ecology. I am sure I am not the only one who is still thinking about Eric Lou's inspiring opening plenary, where he broke down the laws of power and fired up our civic imaginations. I also just want to lift up the extraordinary work of Anne Charlone, Sam Moriali, Sarah Machico Haber for co-leading the 30 and undertakeover. If you have a favorite memory of that, or something else that resonated with you from last week, please feel free to share it now in the chat. And earlier this week, as Madam TCG board chairperson mentioned, Nicole Salter, we held our first virtual gala, and it was so good. Speaking only for myself, it was the moment I needed to laugh out loud with our community, and it was a lot of fun. The performances from Cambodian rock band and the theater laboratory were incredible. The remarks from honorees, Ricardo Cahn and Michelle Ramos were invaluable reflections of this field and where we must go. And that after-party with Drax superstar, Shaquita had us all rolling on the floor, laughing out loud, and trust you will be seeing our very own Lisa Portez wearing her beautiful TCG disco queen sash at the next in-person convening. So I don't want y'all to feel jealous, but you should. But there's good news, because if you experience that fear of missing out, you can still experience the gala. We're going to drop the link in the chat right now. It's TCGgala.org. Check it out. Also, this was our first gala since we adopted our new mission to lead for a just and private theater ecology. And it would be so special to share that moment with all of you. Plus, Rick shared a pretty great story about his time at TCGg's board chair that you don't want to miss. Also, 51% of all the money raised at the gala will support a theater relief fund that provides microgrants of $500 to black indigenous and all people of color theater makers. And right now we're at 45 grants, and we would love to get it to 60, because it is our 60th anniversary, or diamond anniversary. So if you could give a little bit, please do. It's all for a good cause. So thank you. Yes, to 60 microgrants to celebrate 60th anniversary of TCG, we can do it. I definitely believe in us. And I heard that charge from Nicole during the gala. So now one of the things that we do, when we have a virtual conference, that's a little bit harder than when we have an in-person conference. It's really hard to take our time. We don't need to cram everything into three days and a bunch of hotel rooms. We can do this over two weeks. We can do it over a whole month. And you know what? It's still a conference. So a reminder to all of you that we don't usually hold, or we didn't hold many of our usual affinity spaces this week or last, but our time together is not over. We will be gathering and celebrating black, religious, and all people of color as well as black theaters, indigenous theaters and theaters of color in affinity for a whole week, June 7th or the 11th, including our annual, you cannot miss this, our theaters of color party. So please stay tuned more for that. Thanks. Thanks, Erica. Now before we get started, I want to share TCG's land acknowledgement of the chat. And I encourage you to share your own. I also want to say that while land acknowledgments are important, they are not enough by themselves. We must also take action in support of native led movements for justice. In the chat, I'm sharing information about the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, which was created to end the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, and two-spirited peoples. Please share your own opportunities for action in the chat. It's also important to recognize and support the abundance of contemporary native theater that is being made in communities every day. Thank you so much for that, Adrienne. And while we acknowledge our plenary sponsors earlier, it's my pleasure to also thank all of our funders, sponsors, exhibitors for making this virtual conference possible. And as I name them, please feel free to give them action or share some love in the chat and be sure to connect with them. They're these really cool visual virtual exhibitor rooms and mighty networks. One of them even has cats. There's the Doric Stuk Charitable Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Schubert Foundation, the Hearst Foundations, New York State Council on the Arts, the Wallace Foundation, the Ruth Easton Fund of the Edelstein Family Foundation, Fisher Dax Associates Theater Planning and Design, the Sherry and Les Biller Family Foundation, Charcoal Blue, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Shilershook Theater Planning and Lighting Design, Threshold Acoustics, Walt Disney Imagineering, the Thomas S. Keenan Institute for the Arts, the Arts Insurance Program and Instant Encore. Heart emojis everywhere. Thank you. Now, before we get started, I want to encourage you to write down reflections, resources and questions from today's session on the padlet. I'm not just saying that because I like saying the word padlet, padlet. Although I do like saying the word padlet and you'll hear it a lot, it's also because the padlet is a great way for us to collectively share our resources or a memory from today's session and questions for the panelists. So please share your thoughts on the padlet. It's not my pleasure to welcome our plenary speakers to the space, Sheikhaj, Anton Jones, E.G. Bailey and Shavonda Brown. Thank you so much. Hello and welcome. We will start up with the video. We're excited to be here. We're gonna start up and open the session, set the tone with the video that we've prepared for you all. I'll go off screen. It looks like they need just a minute. Anton, this might be, it looks like you're going. Okay. We say over and over again that art keeps the enthusiasm of social movement alive. That when you're at a protest, when you're at a school board meeting, when you're at an intersection and you hear a poem, it activates the heart and it activates the imagination. My name is Tish Jones and I have been called here to represent ancestors whose blood sifted the poems of my little brother's hands he plays in the sand and they bless him. Four fathers who existed before my forefathers and raised men to raise men, hence the son and the raisin. Then a generation of beautiful black women born and bred to believe that beauty belongs to everyone but them. My name is Tish Jones and I have been called here to represent the missing piece. Peace. Artists here see and believe that sometimes seems crazy because it seems like impossible in this vision of possibility of what true community, true equality and equity really means and not only do they vision that but they actively work towards that. I can't shake poetry. I don't know if I chose poetry. I think you're a poet because you need to be a poet. It feeds me, it seems to feed my community but also it gives me something to do with my grief. It gives me something to do with my rage. People are tired of dying senselessly. We are tired of it. It comes on indigenous people and Latinx people but it especially falls so hard and so consistently on the descendants of slaves. The pandemic of COVID-19 was preceded by the pandemic of COVID-16-19 for black folks. The pandemic of enslavement weathered and weathered our bodies to the point to where when COVID-19 hit it had fertile ground by which it could germinate. Black people don't make up the majority of this country. However, was really making up the majority of deaths from COVID-19. Healing isn't a straight path and it isn't something that feels good all the time. We can't just only, we can't just use water and soap during this time. We gotta get out the alcohol. We gotta get in there and make sure that all of the infection that has been there has to get out. We're here today to heal the pain. The weapon for them to get us can penetrate, just ricochet. They serve for the fam, not the fans unless you came to fan the flames. You need a gun, I got a band and you know that we can bang it. I'm just chilling with my brother in the summertime and that's all the kids kicking back in the sunshine. Maybe we can live freaking black, maybe unwind, take off. Thank you so much. I just wanna acknowledge all of the Twin Cities artists and activators that were in that video. That is a work in progress, but we are leading an effort to archive and document our experiences in this moment. I'm Shay Cage and I'm joined here with my colleagues, Shavonda Brown, Anton Jones and E.G. Bailey. We are all black Twin Cities theater artists. Many of us come from traditions of call and response and once we get the energy from you, we give that energy twofold. So I see it happening already organically but I'm just gonna lift it up and amplify it and say, hello, please introduce yourself to us. These virtual rooms and spaces that we're in now, they seek to separate us but just ways that we can know that you're there and you've given us energy. So hit up the chat and say your name, where you're from. We would love to know what cities that folks are coming from. Yeah, and just show some love. We're gonna start, yeah, we just wanna start by acknowledging our ancestors. We do that in everything we do. They give us strength in this work. We also wanna just welcome everybody that chose to be here. We know that there's other places that you could have been today but you chose to be here and spend this time with us. Like I said, there's four of us here that are guiding the session today but there's many others that are doing this work. Together between myself and Anton and EG and Shavonda, we move pretty fluidly between being performers, heads of organizations, educators, mentors. We're often audiences and we're also often called to be consultants. And yeah, just acknowledging that it's a heavy lift to be in this work around naming systems that seek to prevent, present roadblocks for the work that we're trying to do and that we're not the only one. When we even though we represent the Twin Cities, there's many of us on the ground and there's many that have been doing the work before us and will after us as well. In the name of George Floyd, we just wanna put his name in the room right now in our city. We wanna acknowledge Freedom Summer that we experienced in the aftermath of his death last year and this space that really seeks to hold up a magnifying glass to American theater, to black folks who experience American theater and contribute to its growth, to young people who grow up in it, who are looking for a window or doorway into it, to institutions that steer to those that are making brave anti-racism moves in this moment and those that are frankly playing it safe and easy to all the unnamed community-based and social structures that nurture theater, black pathways and anyway, we see you. For our time today, we'd like to offer a very short framing followed by breakout discussions so that will allow us to go deeper. Just a really quick thank you to Emilia, to Teresa, to Ann, to Devin and to all those that are holding us up that extended this invitation. A lot of times in this, you know, it can be very easy to be isolated here in the Twin Cities in Minnesota. So this framing for our session, we are very intentionally asked to like be able to not just, you know, present at the top but to actually go deeper, to really invoke a nationwide conversation that doesn't stop with just this session. So we're gonna be trying to figure that out with you. We imagine that there's brilliant and smart folks on this session and so we'll be tapping your expertise. In our opinion and our hope and our dreams, we will be co-creating a roadmap together of strategy of expertise, tackling systemic systems. We will come back after the breakouts and we will share out. And we know that we have until 12 30 our time, one 30 your time. So we will be coming back with at least 20 minutes left from the breakout sessions. We will share out from those sessions and also just get people to populate the chat. And we're gonna actually keep all of that information so that we can have a follow-up from this session. Those of us that are in these rural or metropolitan, you know, there's many of you that are in those in large areas, but there's also just remembering ones that are in rural smaller communities that don't have a lot of contact. And even for us in the heartland that do have a level of accessibility, like I said earlier, it's still very easy to be in what's called flyover country, a place of isolation, if we're not careful and intentional. And these kinds of spaces allow us to create a different kind of intentionality around the systems change work that TCG is talking about and that we have been activating in our city. It's very exciting to be in this space with you all today, we know that it does take a village. So this is some of our framing and we will share this pass the baton to Shivanda. Hi, I'm Shivanda and as she said, also a black person, I go by she, her hers, sometimes day. And I would just like to say that, you know, in the summer of 2020 over 250 artists signed a document titled Revolution Untitled. The following are parts that echo our mindset and experience last year, as well as the energy behind our desire to shift systems in theater and holistically. We start by saying his name, George Floyd. This marks the continuation of a living conversation. For today, our intent is to come together in powerful ways to respond, reclaim and rebuild a new way forward, calling forth a cultural shift. Our movement includes a revolutionary shift in the arts world, re-centering the arts ecosystem to foster a foundational meeting ground that, a meeting ground that advancing nourish black artists in sustainable ways. The nations and the world's eyes have been fixed on Minneapolis, the land of the Dakota people for just over two months. During that time, those eyes have witnessed a city-wide uprising emerge. Their eyes saw wild rioters and the spectacle of looters breaking into businesses. Our eyes saw the truth, justified community rage. Justified community rage, bigoted intruders set on agitating us during a time of raw collective upset, during what was already a time of pandemic and vulnerability. Hi, my name is E.G. And to continue what has been said, we protested across the Twin Cities and laid flowers at 38th in Chicago. Today, many of the nations and the world's eyes have shifted away from Minneapolis. That doesn't change anything for us. We're still here building something new, envisioning a new ecosystem for black theater artists here. A future that values the essential role and advancement of black theater artists. Systems must shift, root racism must be overturned. We see the diversity and equity statements we do. We also see history in our cities. As our community continues to shape this identity in the wake of the brutal murder of George Floyd, we reflect on what engaging in a national conversation really looks like for us. My name's Anton. I use he, him, pronouns, black man, bald head, currently wearing headphones, usually wearing headphones in this current Zoom environment. And a black T-shirt in my basement with a distance of Vikings, you know, sort of Vikings drop hanging behind me. Continuing from where E.G. left off, we have dreams, hopes and concerns about the future for black theater artists. We affirm, we are centering those typically at the margins. We are mobilizing, and we will be setting a strategy and infrastructure. We are entering brave space that speaks to institutions that refuse in the necessary ways this moment in time, calls for, calls for, are as simple. How are theaters being explicit and creating immediate opportunity and hiring, process and advancement opportunities? We have not forgotten our commitment to our ancestors. I have not forgotten my commitment to my daughters and to the next generation. And we vow never to forget either of those. So, so she should I just move right in from there? Should I move on to the frame? Thank you so much. Yeah, I think we want to just make sure that we, that framing was really important for us. One, because it's really easy, I think our movement is characterized by many voices and many lots of us putting all of the things into the pot. And so collectively even sharing space and vision is important. Anton, we're gonna have Anton who is the head of Climb Theater here in the Twin Cities frame up what our time would look like in these breakout rooms. We will have four spaces. And we again, we really, we chose topics that we've been talking about over the last year specifically and we know that there's others, but one will be focused on audiences. One will be focused on youth development. One will be focused on career advancement. And one will be really looking at leadership. So Anton, I'll pass a baton to you if you want to just let people understand like, you know, how we're using, trying to use the padlet. We're also trying to collectively, you know, populate the expertise and the strategy and ideally figure out a way to be in touch after the session. Perfect, cool. Thank you. So yeah, so if you've seen the padlet that was sent out you'll see one, two, three, four. Now there's five different little boxes there. One is called Shay, one is called Anton, one is called EG, one is called Chavanda and one is called the Sandbox. This is for the most part, depending on the room you're in, acknowledging that all four of us engage and interact and facilitate in different ways. And we want to be able to do that in the spaces that we are in. Also noticing that in this world of Zoom and chat, that if we use the chat function in here, it's very hard to kind of gather and compile what's happening in breakout room because the breakout room only gathers what's happening in the chat in that breakout room. Unless it's changed in the recent update. So the way to use this is the comments, just like you would do in a Facebook feed or in a chat room. The difference is it's one unified document. That's because we are gonna be in a room with a group of 40 potentially people for like 20 minutes in the lens of equity. If we were to be equitable for space to share our voices, that gives us each 30 seconds, if that. Not a lot can happen in 30 seconds of sharing. This allows us to kind of do a little bit of both. Someone can speak, someone else can be chatting their thoughts, responding, guessing, adding comments. The sandbox is for anything that doesn't fit within. So you might be here in something and you might drop an idea in the sandbox. That comes from a philosophy that I brought to Climb Theater that I call radical playfulness. The idea that we can change the very DNA of society through the act of play. And taking the idea of how you build a sand castle. You never get the perfect one, but you all come to that box together to build one. So the sandbox exists for that as a space to kind of drop any thoughts, mentalities, ideas, initiatives that might not fit into what EG, Shea, Shavinda, or I or Aram are asking of you all. After that, we will come back to the space and take a look as a large group at what has been compiled and how do we turn out these thoughts, these ideas into action. That's the most important thing. We've been doing a lot of talking since George Floyd died. A lot of talking, that discussion, a lot of statements. But in the time of that talk, another man died. Not even take a year. And so we've got to move things to action. So don't worry about moving yourself. You will be moved. I want to thank the people on the backstage of this event. Always acknowledge that you can't put on a play without the backstage, the stage managers, the technicians, the designers, the production managers. And that's the same thing here. So I know there's some people behind the scenes from what we're doing right now that are keeping us going. And they are the most, often the most unrecognized people in our field. And the ones who are not getting the recognition work that they need right now. So I just want to acknowledge that right now. So for the ones backstage, we made a quite slight tip of the time is that we will not be doing a round robin. Once we break out rooms, we will stay there for what, 20 minutes, Shay? Yeah, about 20 minutes. We know that we will be brought back at 12, 10. So we'll maximize our time until then. Yeah. Yeah, so 17 minutes, roughly, when we're in those rooms, probably 15 back when I'm done, is that once we're brought back in here, that I will stay in this main lobby. Shay will go to one room. Shabunda will go to one room. EG will go to one room. You will be distributed evenly amongst those. And those in how round will be staying in this room with me. You will not talk to all folks, but you will be focusing on one of those four elements. My room will be focusing on audiences. How do we impact audiences? Shabunda is youth development. EG is career advancement. Shay is leadership. You may be like, I wanna talk about youth development. No, these are all inter-correct connected. You cannot address youth development without addressing leadership relationship to it and the audiences and career advancement. So you want a diversified voice within all of these spaces for that reason. So it is random. And lastly, time is malleable. Time is definite. The 15 minutes short time is intentional so it gets us to not think too much and just get stuff down as fast as possible. Does that make sense? I'll Shay and Amen. Thank you so much, Anton. I think we're moving to our spaces. We'll see you there and we'll see you back here in the main room as we share out. We believe the future is ours. Thank you, everybody. So I'm gonna open the breakout rooms right now for those who are in this room. If you don't get a notification to join one, this is your breakout room. If you do get a notification to join one, click that button. It's in your lower toolbar. If you need help throughout this moment, they're in your breakout rooms. Just click that question button in the middle toolbar and we will get help to you as soon as possible. If you have access needs that need to be met, every room has captioning and the ASL interpreters are gonna stay here with us in this main space. And it's looking like I'm just doing a quick scroll. It looks like people have landed if they need to land in their breakout rooms. If you still need to go to a room and not be in this space, just click the breakout button on your toolbar and click join. And with that, I'll hand it back to you, Anton. Cool. So I'm looking at it right. I got 40 folks left here with me. If that's true, I'm gonna switch my view as well. Just kind of drop a thumbs up. If you wanna be on screen, you can. If not, you don't got to. But just so I get a few thumbs up in the chat, just so I know that y'all are here. Awesome. So cool. So as I said on the padlet, I have that purple Anton one. We are focusing on audiences. We have 15 minutes to change the very DNA of how we look at audience and their engagement theater work. So either through, if you rather speak your mind, you can say it and I'll put in the comments for you. But I'm gonna put a question out here. I'm gonna give us three minutes. That's right, three minutes to fill that padlet. If you're focusing out in the HowlRound crew, you can do the same thing. But in that Anton one, the question is, what does a radically transformed audience look like? What does a radically transformed audience look like? Another radical means change the very DNA of audience in American theater. And use that Anton in the comments of the chat or you can store it out there. And as the multi-generational, yeah, any other ones. Just do that chat or you can say it out if you don't if you just wanna speak it, I can pop it in there for you. Hi, I'm Kate. I think like free expression, like free reaction to what we're absorbing and receiving, like that there's not a correct way to react to art. Yeah, I'm hearing a dismantling of theater etiquette. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Other things, free reaction, multi-generational. I'm dropping, man, playing theater etiquette. Know that if you're worried about spelling, I don't care about spelling, I'm a playwright and I spelled them wrong all the time. I probably will hear and I wrote the same computer etiquette. Other things, what is it with you? I would say one minute. I'm seeing a hand from Jessica. I'll also just offer, if folks wanna use the virtual hand raise button, I think it'll help Anton see you. Yeah, gotcha. Perfect. Hi. Hi, I'm Jessica. I was just thinking an audience that's able to sit in their discomfort. Sit in their discomfort, yeah, I love it. Oh, I see Jessica's hand and Larissa. I just went, so I'm... Oh, sorry, sorry, Larissa. Hey there, yeah, I'm just gonna uplift because I do it all the time because it's shocking to me how many people don't know that I work a lot with Coeur of Stone Theatre Company and they have never charged for a ticket ever and they've been around for 30 years. So it's possible to never have a ticket price and continue to exist. So, and that radically transforms your audience big time. So, I love about this whole... Oh, sorry, sorry, I saw another hand somewhere. I heard a voice. This is Jeanette, I'm calling in on phone. So forgive me. I just wanna uplift by, for and with creating new plays, bi-authentic voices with the communities that they are written for. And that's been something that's radically transforming audiences for us at Ultra Theatre on the land of the coastline. Gotcha, thank you. So, I know it's, if you're thinking about that same thing, use this chat. I'm gonna kind of, but move us to the next question because we've got 10 minutes, three minutes we're done in that one and there's for sure more about this idea of what an audience, what is in the area of audience development, right? Now, the next question is, if that's what we know it looks like, if we were to accommodate every single thing in this chat, all our audience, American theater audience and global audience, what are the barriers that exist right now of seeing that happen? What are the things that are making us say no? So for example, yeah, free tickets, but then you have the board being like, well, then that gets me relying on grants now. And now I've got to deal with the grant funders and what they want to give us. So what are the barriers and pitfalls that are getting in the way of this radically transformed audience that we know of, that we can label? Same thing. I think the desire to leave no one behind gets in the way a little bit. The desire to leave nobody behind. The unified giant audience. Yeah, can we truly please everybody and reach everybody at once? What else? I see in the chat that money prioritizes audiences, a lack of vision as well. I'll uplift those vocally. Also, Ayana, I see your hand raised. Did you want to add something here? I would love to respect to the previous question expanding to a global audience. I love continuing what we've done in this virtual space and have heard from people around the world that they are loving this time because they can sit and experience theater around the world. And I'd like to see more of that. As I mentioned earlier, this idea of like expanding the American theater audience, right? And I'm hearing global theater audience breaking that continental divide as we are sitting in this room of a place to publish this American theater magazine. So how do we take that global perspective with our audience development and leverage and leverage what Zoom and its pandemic has provided for us, right? What are other barriers? And I remember the hands, I see Jessica raised her hand there. There you go. Yes, hi. I know it seems like everything now but accessibility, I just think accessibility in general, it's not just about ticket prices, it's about outreach and like, being able to reach other demographics in terms of your audience, no matter where you're based. So I think accessibility, thinking about accessibility on so many different levels and how it affects our theater audiences. Yeah, I'm hearing the idea of, yeah. As we talk about access and equity and inclusion is a racially diverse audience enough, right? What about if you're a black man in a wheelchair or now we were going with two different, two different marginalized units, right? So how do we truly address accessibility on all fronts, financial, physical, regional, transportation, right? Love it. Other, and yeah, other hands or statements before I go to our one more question before we kind of wrap it up. Not question, but last step of this before it breaks the big group. I see, is that an Angie hand? I just, you know, I admit not to give like a pat answer, but I feel like part of one of the, some of the things that I've been thinking about a lot are the like thinking about theater as a business as opposed to an art making prospect. And I think that gets in the way a lot of any of all of these goals as an institution be bigger rather than relate more deeply with the communities around us thinking about like the goal of wanting to have national recognition or international recognition or be as big as some other theater company as opposed to really just focusing on what we're doing right now and the authenticity of our connection with the community that's around us. Yeah, so as I'm hearing this, like, that's really, thank you for putting that out to this idea of, our questions are our goals and ideals, the right ones from an audience development standpoint, right? Just trying to be the bigger, the next big thing, the next hot thing is the production enough. I remember an article years ago about that argued that the production is actually byproduct of the actual theater work. And that if, and the moment you can find we have commodifying or monetizing the process, the ticket sales are, now we're about ticket sales worrying about how do you really, into what 90% of your time as a theater maker are it's everything before the curtain goes up, right? Yeah, I see Chandra's hand. Hey there, it's Chandra from Atlanta. I thought of something just now. What if you could buy tickets to the theater in a movie and not just on a movie, buy tickets to the theater in a region? So I buy tickets and I'm buying tickets to everything. It's like a, it's a pool if you will. It's a crazy idea, but it breaks down barriers. I love it. And it's also kind of your already jumping point next question is so now, versus that what if this last four minutes where we kind of get brought back in, we are going to make some, based on all we've talked about, we're going to make some ultimate decrees. We run the theater world. And we're going to say moving forward, here's what we're going to do for the, for the sake of the audience, not the sake of the leadership, not the sake of the funder, not the sake of the ticket hold subscribers. They're already the audience or the audience who is not there. Like, and here's a good example. From now on, we are going to only sell at our state theater tickets for the state of Minnesota. And you go, whatever the hell play you want to go to, what are other decrees like that? I want you to put them in the chat or throw them out here, but what are those great broad decrees that will radically transform it for the sake of audience? And, and, and just because I can't, if, because we have a lot of folks in here, but let's kind of just rather than, if you can just unmute and throw it out. And it might make it too chaotic. I don't know, but I'll use a chat prioritize so I can kind of see, see that in the, in the padlet. But, but, um, We're going to empower our patrons to change their communities by equipping them with the tools and knowledge that they need to be active. No, I'm facilitating, I'm also active participant. I'm going to throw one out that I've been, is like, we will only have community curated seasons. Oh yeah, that's awesome. Oh, I love that. What else? What are other ones like? What are other other decrees you're going to do in your, in your community or the global community or the world community? I gave you $10 million and you're, for my nine options, not an issue anymore. $50 million, billion, maybe. Oprah's funding you. How about that? The Oprah's funding. Go ahead. Thank you. Radicals is maybe everyone gets a living wage. Everyone gets work late paid for all of the work that they do at every stage of the way and not just for the five weeks of rehearsal. Everybody gets a living wage. That will impact the audience, right? Yeah. What else? Every living wage, we're going to be committed differently. Spread the millions around so that it's not going to one theater company. Make theater part of the core curriculum in public education. More like events surrounding like plays that involve the audience. Like more, yeah. Just more events, like a fuller experience. It's not just like you go and see the show. It's like you go and you discuss the show and you connect and you share like story circles and, you know. Yeah, I'm hearing like expand the experience of going to the play, right? Yeah. I see Kate's hand up the corner up there, in my corner at least. Oh, that was Kate. I'm sorry, I was typing what I was hearing, but not, yeah. So they expand the experience. We got one minute before they're going to bring us back in. So, and as we're coming here, so they'll be kind of popping in as we're talking. What, and so thinking about this audience, what is, what is more decrease, more decrease out there? I'm typing down in my own shorthand what I'm hearing y'all say. I think one that I've been thinking about it is like, I'm the director of a theater company in Minneapolis. And when I came in, you know, I am now 41 years old and I'm the baby in the room age wise, but maybe 20 years of other directors nationally, of ones that operate at a million dollars plus. And what happens, and I've been telling my staff and people on my client is that 20 years from now when I'm 60, I want to be, I want to average the median age of executive leadership that once reported a board to be between the age of 22 and 40. Wouldn't that be cool? What happens if we have youth on our boards and require that? What can things like that work? We have other, other, I thought they're popping in too soon. I just put in the padlet include theater and law enforcement training. Ooh. Anton, I wanted to vocally check in, first of all, to just affirm the, my God, I love your idea about the median age. There was programming last week about young people in our field just saying this really resonates. And also it's 111. I wanted to vocally check in. Do you feel good about closing the rooms? Everybody will be bought back automatically. Should we wait a little more? What's up? Yeah, let's, I'm cool to bring folks because we're gonna continue with this. Next step is while we're waiting that folks are coming back in, our padlets long, look at the padlets. What's been happening at other speeds at these other rooms? You may not know what the context is, but take it all in. And we're gonna come back and continue with this kind of decree kind of actionizing this amazing amount of stuff that you put in. But I'm cool to bring your folks in, if everyone else is. Closing our breakout rooms. So get ready everybody. Welcome to those who were just abruptly brought back from their breakouts. I know it's always the most, the worst little experience to just get sucked back virtually. Facilitators, I'm finding you to spotlight you. Tia, I was about to make such an incredible point, Sam. You don't even wanna change. I'm sorry, y'all, please make it. You've got time. Go ahead and make yours, EG. And I wanna encourage my group to continue working in the chat, I think. Even though we're all brought back abruptly, if you still, if there's still, let's populate the padlet as much as we can. Go ahead, EG, and finish your thought. No, I was just, I was joking. I was just, no, we were having a great conversation. So, but yeah, no, I'm good. Okay. Then I wanna, so just in this moment, I wanna acknowledge two things that the, what I said in my group is releasing the tension around time, because never having enough time. And it's like, oh, just when we start a conversation. So I guess for us in the Twin Cities, we would maybe just acknowledge that as a beginning. We would like to acknowledge this as a very, very beginning as a point of departure. We would invite you all on a national level to be in conversation with us. A lot of times, anyway, we framed it up at the beginning. And I think it really, isolation is really clear. It plays a huge part. So if you are interested in that, I'm gonna put an email in the chat and then also invite those of you and your sessions to put your emails in there if you wanna follow up with us. But our email, staff.qroups.email.com. Yeah, but also, so what I've done also in the pad, kind of how that went on spot, I've popped in a contacts drop into Padlet. So you can kind of, same thing in your comments, just pop it in there. And I'm sure there's another way of doing it. And that way you can all, we all had that one little spot there in the padlet. This padling is cool. So we, thank you so much, Antoine. We're interested in following up really soon. And again, gleaning knowledge from what you all are doing, but also sharing what we're doing. When we say radical, we're actually, it doesn't mean that we're not thinking about 10, 20 years from now, but we're actually saying, what can we see in 2021? Because there's a refrain of lip service. We're also not interested in spending energy in areas that don't feed us. So we're interested in that conversation. Funding is always an issue and capacity, particularly for Black and BIPOC folks who are stepping into great leadership right now. So we are aware of many things, but at the end of the day, we feel like there's a fire beneath our feet. And we are pushing for a radical tomorrow that looks nothing like today. And so those that are able to step into that brave new space with us, we're excited to be in conversation with you. We're gonna do, like we said, and use this time for quick, bulleted shareouts. But again, it's just the beginning. So I'm gonna turn it over to Shavonda, your group. If there was anything that you guys might wanna lift up, we know that the session is over at 12.30. So any few things that you or anyone else in your session wanna lift up from the padlet or the conversation? Definitely. Well, we had a really great conversation in a strong beginning with the Institute of Equity and Activism, talking about the work that they're doing and the plan that they're creating for theaters all across the nation to join and be a part of with some of the work they were doing. And then there was a huge conversation about transportation and the need for free tickets, the need for train tickets to get to places, to get to the theater and how one organization, they did that. And all of a sudden they were seeing a boom and who was able to come and be a part of the theater and their programs there. We talked about dehyarchializing the theater space. We talked about creating intergenerational relationships which have been really helpful to people like Simone who was in my group who said that. We talked about having there be more than just assimilation happening when we invite black and brown students or bodies into these majority white spaces, but really having our voices be heard in the space rather than asking for us to just assimilate into the program that's already there and already put into place. Oh my gosh, you guys talked about a lot in that little tiny amount of time. That's amazing. We really did. Like I really got jumping. I was like, let's jump in. Let's just jump in because we have such little time. But I did want to leave folks with this quote by Maya Angelou though. She said, history, despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage need not be lived again. Ashay, Anton will pass the baton to you. All right, so cool. So our group focusing was focusing primarily on that idea of audience and some of the things that I'm kind of holding onto and others can for sure drop some additional thoughts into it is, one, a breakdown of audience, of traditional theater etiquette. And what would that do from an audience experience standpoint? We also talked about, we talked about the American theater audience to kind of expand globally. We look at the theater audience, take that American regional division away from it, the continental divide and look at what does it really need to be radically transformative of audience just in general. Another thing that is still kind of sitting strongly with me is also the idea of intergenerational to make sure we're looking at a truly intergenerational audience. We talked about access, not only financial accessibility, but physical accessibility, regional accessibility which leads into kind of what was Chibanda was talking about in terms of transportation, but to really look at accessibility in all the ways it's necessary, both on the stage and off the stage. We talked about community curated seasons where we really lean into the community who we are serving and give that community a stronger role in selecting our seasons. And we talked about also balancing the budget disparity within the professional theater world. So the money that as the money is going out from funders to make take an active role as a collective group of companies to make sure that there's a pretty even, a much more even distribution versus the same big players getting the same big money. And I sense, and so yeah, so that's some of the things that I'm holding with me and of course you can also look at the Unpadlet which has a lot of good stuff in there as well. I'm gonna pass the baton to EG but to me I might just put you on deck to maybe surface some of the things from our Padlet and your initial comment in our session. EG, the baton has passed to you. We talked about investing in people when you look at career advancement and not looking at sort of transactional situations where you're only bringing someone in for one project but looking at within the organization and seeing what opportunities exist and taking a long-term view of how to integrate black theater artists into organizations. There was conversation also not just in terms of staff but also in board make-ups and making sure that the make-up of the board also represents the make-up of the very community that you are making the theater for. And some folks talk about examples of how when there has been investment in black theater artists, how the evolution can happen where they then move to the place of being able to start their own theaters. And we've seen that recently with several black theaters that have been created in the Twin Cities but continue to make it a long-term relationship as opposed to something that is, which is often the case, just a job situation. And yeah, I think that's it. And there's a number of other things on the Padlet too that we touch base on. Thank you. Sunmi, I'm gonna pass the baton to you and I can double down on some of the feedback offerings in the Padlet too. Okay, great. Hi, Shay. I'll just reiterate what was kind of piggybacking on what Eiji said, but just board make-ups need to shift and then I offered that a lot of black leaders are being put into positions of power now during this transformational time, yet systems aren't set up to support them to succeed. And they're existing in systems where it's not fun to be the only one in the room. And so that's not only for black leaders but BIPOC leaders across the board. So in the Asian-American community, we talk a lot about the glass cliff and about how people are just being put in positions to just be pushed off because they're not set up to succeed to begin with. And I'm not good at multitasking, so Shay, I'll give it back to you to reflect back from the Padlet. Yeah, one of the things that I said in the end is like, what is it, and it's also what we've been asking in Twin Cities, what does it actually take for us to shift into a radical space of dreaming that allows us to dismantle some of these, just the structural things that don't serve us. And I think that that is what we would love, I would love to spend a lot of time on. And as I look at some of the feedback from our session comrades, I see consensus-based leadership models. And it's funny because I was in another session just last week and there was a reference to consensus-based leadership models as if it's like, that's just for community-based, or small level, et cetera. There was a judgment placed on it. And I just feel like, what are we advocating for in terms of these shifts that really hold our people? Because we also see that when our people go into institutions, particularly, there's a huge turnover. So, but then that's the part that we don't get to talk about. Like, what is it that could have sustained them in those positions? I see redefining the word leadership. Now that's the one we could chop up for days. And what do we mean? It's like the same as we talk about community. What do we mean when we say community? What do we really mean when we say leadership? Value-based budgeting, I think is incredible. Empowering black leaders and shifting from hierarchical leadership, so the same as the other groups, models that are tied to Eurocentric ideas of success. And I think acknowledging our white allies that are in the room that may be in positions of co-creation with us and that there's the layers and layers of white supremacy that need to be removed in order for you also to be involved in this conversation with us. And our own ongoing battle with the systems that we have internalized, I think is another conversation. Cultivation of leadership in ways that lead to success that goes back to what Sumi was saying. What are all of those stop points along the way that will ensure success? That will ensure, particularly for us in Twin Cities, the passing of the baton? It's like, what systems do we have so that it's not just looking out for myself? Now I've landed in this new role, but what about the next one after me and what is my work once I get there so that we're also not just always looking at the system? We have a very vibrant, I think there was a very vibrant input across the four breakout rooms. And I think this sets us up for going deeper down the line. I wanna just open up the floor. I know there's over a hundred of us and we just have about five minutes left, but it's our practice again, it just creates space. So I'm gonna open up the room and if there's something that somebody is really passionate about saying, keep it concise but populated. And if you don't need to verbalize it, out loud, you can put it in the chat. And I think we can save this chat. I think it would be a very valuable resource as well as the padlet. I'll open up the floor if there's anything that you feel like you wanna share from your city, your strategy, your own personal experience. But don't leave us hanging. Sabin, Simone, Kim, Tony from our group. I can offer just based off of all of this conversation and really how our conversation was going also about education and really approaching the youth in this industry is radicalizing and changing and creating a world based off of their optimism and meeting them where they're at. Amen. Somebody else. We have time maybe for one more and we're committed to ending on time. We know there's another session. One of the things that we found in rebuilding the Susies in Atlanta was that we couldn't just say, well, we're gonna make room for other people at our table. That's just flawed from so many perspectives to start with. What we realized we had to do was to just completely break the table down and rebuild it so that there is a system in place to guarantee the success and inclusion that we were trying to achieve and the diversity that we wanted. I'm gonna open it up to my comrades, Shavunda, Anton, and EG for any closing, yeah, any closing comments as we continue in the Twin Cities to do this work and again, to be reminded that we're not alone. We come to this conversation as black theater artists but we know that the ways that we show up in community are in alliance with others, BIPOC allies and those that are really committed to shifting systems in this work. Anything that you all have to say in closing? Go ahead, EG, go ahead. Well, you know, I think for me, it's really looking to the future generations, who are gonna be the theater artists in the next 10 to 15 years and are we doing everything that is needed to prepare them to be in the leadership positions and to not make the radical shift temporary that is only, you know, because of, has a consequential result of what has happened but more a permanent change and a permanent level of equity. Yeah, I just want to kind of throw out as I want to thank you all for sharing a lot and just a little bit of time, and acknowledge how much little time we put into this and that time is not enough. We never have enough time to change the world. And so to keep in mind that what we are doing is the art of alchemy. We are trying to do what has never been done before which is eliminate, eradicate, racism, classism, sexism, ableism, intellectualism and that's never been done in the history of humanity. And so we are doing that and attempting that but it takes more than one session. The work begins after we leave here and it's being able to talk, reflect and act like actors are trained to do on stage, to be present but to be live. It's not a then and if and it's continually going and finding your own time to breathe. Yes, I would like to ask about to stay the course. And yes, you know, and thank you for everybody lifting me up because I did have my baby and I was typing and she was just like just crawling around. But yeah, these, my babies, these young people, they see us, they see what's happening and they ask all of these different questions and I would just say, I would like to encourage everyone to speak your dreams because I'm seeing my personal dreams and personal things that I thought I couldn't talk about publicly that have been happening, racial injustices that shifts are starting to be made and created. And so that we have to continue to speak that truth of what needs to change and what needs to be shifted out loud so that it can continue to happen and that other folks who have those other seeds planted within themselves see the possibility for the blossoming of it. And that these little ones aren't experiencing the same thing that we have had to experience or those older than us just finished Cicely Tyson's autobiography and she was speaking to some of the same things that are happening right now. That change really gets seen with the generations. Oh Shay. I wanna throw one other radical, radical idea out there. What if for three to five years, every theater in the US was run by a person of color? What would that, what shift would happen? And on that note, I see your mic open back up to Vanda, but we're at time. Yes, I was just saying yes, I say. Thank you for that EG. What if, and not just what if, but how do we make that a reality? We're gonna end with our video. I know that this, yeah, just reminding people that we're not at a rival point. We're also not at the very beginning. We're somewhere in the middle. I saw people acknowledge trauma and some of us are extremely, extremely exhausted in just trying to do this work and lift up others. But we refuse to take no, we've seen, we know that there is a promised land. We know that there are really immediate things that could be moving and shifting. And we know that there's some that are doing that. But I think that we invite this national cohort to be in conversation with us so that we can move faster, smarter, faster. We thank you again for your time and we'll turn it over to Sam. Could we please give the police departments to the grandmothers? Give them the salaries and the pensions and the city vehicles. But make them a fleet of vintage corvettes, jaguars and Cadillacs with white leather interior, diamond in the back, sunroof top, digging the scene with the gang saline. Let the cars be bad ass. This is not to entertain, but to intervene, hit the veins into bodies and into brains. Shift the system and the mental state from those who've been a fit to those who've been enslaved. This is the game. Stopping the music to adjust Tamika's arms, carol shoulders, Tyesha's laces are undone but there's an derelict down to top. My mother, a drill sergeant of sound, hears hesitation, an unsure shuffle, a skip to beat, again she shouts, don't cheat. This serve for the fam, not the fans, unless you came to fan the flames. You'll need a gun, I got a band and you know that we can bang. Before I was born, there was movement. Paddles pushing pent up people through oceans of pain. That explains my fear of water. When I was born, there was movement still. Lines, paths, roads, circles, and tracks. Check it. I had my first perm in elementary school, went from coarse curly black hair to straight thin, then what are you gonna do with this dude? We are the million artist movement, let me tell you about all about, black liberation without intimidation and we sure do need it now, what do we need now? A big five floor in a basement building, kinda looks like a prison, kinda ran like one, two. The fifth floor was for the actors. When you're sleepy, she will start humming and rub her back while you drift off. We listened, we learned, we shot in. The third was whatever, the second was past and the first was us, the theater class. Barefoot but promise my shoes next summer, then I can dance downstairs. I can look and listen. I can make thunder too, I think, while pressing my ears for flowing. When you're wild and out because your heart is broke or you don't have what you need, the ground must take your hand and lead you down by the gardens. You can lay down amongst the grasses and roses and dahlias and irises and lilies. Thank you so much. I just wanna give so much appreciation to our facilitators, to you bad-ass parent facilitators. And I just wanna let you all know this conversation we'll continue at the conference. Later today, we're going to have a session with Tanya Pinkins leading through a black woman's lens about disparities in Hollywood and theater for black women. We also are going to have a session with Jose Salis, who is just such an amazing journalist and that session is going to be in Spanish with English translation. So native Spanish speakers, please pull up. And this is just one of the first sessions that we're doing this way, but it will not be the last. Please join us and just again, so much gratitude for today's session and we will see you all again very soon.