 Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Muriel Borsch-Tarrant. I'm the Artistic Director of State Harbors, New York City. And I'm co-hosting with my favorite person here, Erin. You should self, Erin, and we would like to, it's our closing, it's our closing event. And what we're going to do is we're going to talk to all the artists. But first, I would like to start with their land acknowledgement. Thank you, Muriel. My name is Erin. I am the literary director and drama target New York Theatre Workshop. One of the company, along with Lomama, we have been fortunate enough to co-present the reflections of Native Voices Festival over the last two weeks. And thank you to all of the artists who are here with us today. It has been a really tremendous couple of weeks of experiencing art and traveling from our bedrooms. To start with, I want to start with New York Theatre Workshop's land acknowledgement, which we developed in conversation with Safe Harbors. Manhattan has always been a gathering and trading place for many Indigenous peoples. We're nations intersected from all four directions since time immemorial. It was a place to gather and sometimes seek refuge during times of conflict and struggle. We pay respect to all of the ancestors past, present, to their future generations. We acknowledge that our work is situated on the island of Manhattan, Manhattanet, on the island. Traditional lands of the Munsi Lenape, the Canarsie, the Ukechag, the Matenacoc, the Shenacoc, the Reguanc, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. We respect that many Indigenous people continue to live and work on this island and acknowledge their ongoing contributions to the area. Thank you very much, Erin, and I would like to introduce a community, a longtime community member, Ben Jibo, who is going to do the opening prayer for us. And also with one of my dearest friends, and he is going to introduce himself, Ben. My name is Ben Jibo, and I'm a world member of the Angtansu tribe of South Ikura. My family unit is the Red Lightning, and it's a great pleasure to be here with my friends and family and connecting on this important work that you continue to do. And as we think about all the people that are with us, and not with us, and with us, and not with us, and here and there, we're always a community in flux, in change, in move. And for that, I would like to do a prayer in traditional language that are coordination, so if you could please rise wherever you might be, because it's important to you stand when we pray, and say some words of encouragement. So, tokashila, munchila puhupila, tokashila maku docas, grandmother, grandfather, we thank you for all that we have, that we're all related. Think of all those things, the things that fly, the things that crawl, things, the mountains, the rivers, the lakes, the air, the minds of people. And we say palamia, and we ask for protection and blessing. Amen. Palamian, thank you. Oh, thank you very much, Ben. And he's also on our board of Safe Harbors, and I want to acknowledge that. And I would also just like to talk and just say one thing before we start, we did it, people, we did this festival, so we need to give each other a really big hand. We did this, oh my goodness. It was like doing a festival on Netflix. So, I would just like to, I don't want to talk about me, haha. Nick, don't say anything, neither do you, Moses. So, I see you nibbling. So, let's start with our guest artists who are part, and some people who are part of our Repertory Theater. And Erin, you know, I'm going to start with Jasmine, you know, and she's going to tell us a little bit of background and then you can ask her whatever you would like to ask. So, Jasmine, I'd like to start with you, introduce yourself, who you are, what nations do you come from, what land you're on, and, you know, where, you know, what you felt about moving in your piece because you were a guest music artist. And what did that mean to you and how we worked and how, you know. Thank you. Hi, everyone. My name is Jasmine Goodspeed. I am of the Knitmuck people of Massachusetts. I'm currently on Pekum Tak, Nunatuck land, Knitmuck land. And I am with the Safe Harbors Ensemble. I'm excited to be working with everybody, being able to collaborate with other Indigenous people is so important, being able to see Indigenous works of art, even now during COVID is healing and needed. So, I just want to say that. And I was part of Music Weekend. So, I got to put in some songs and, oh boy, that was, it was an experience. I have a bit of a recording set up here. When COVID started, I was like, okay, I need to figure this out how to continue doing stuff. And I am on TikTok a lot. I'm picking up a lot of tips from people on there. And so I got myself a mic and MXLR and a whole little setup. And I've recorded some tracks. My songs are musical theater songs, which was very different from some stuff that was in there. I think I was the only person who did theater songs. Which is cool because there's not a lot of Native people in musical theater. And I think that's something to note and to think about. And I would love to see more Native people in musical theater and see those opportunities presented for Native people to have. I mean, there's no reason why we can't be casting Native people in big parts. There's no reason why we can't be putting shows on Broadway post-pandemic for Native people. These shows in this festival are good enough to be on Broadway. And I'm sure if there was a musical in this festival, then a full-on Broadway musical that could go on Broadway. And why shouldn't it? Why shouldn't there be musical theater for Native people written by Native people on a big stage like that? And that's something that I've always thought about. And that has been really important to me. And so excited to participate in Music Weekend and present those songs. So, yeah. Yeah, thank you. Do you want to talk a little bit more if people weren't able to catch their songs? What the piece that they're from or pieces that they're from and the inspiration for those? Yeah, so the first one was from a musical I wrote for my senior thesis called 1675. It's a musical about my tribe's history back during King Philip's War. And the reason why I turned it into a musical in the long run was what music says to me are all the things that words can't. And if I were trying to write a play about all of the history, it would be, you know, an epic. It would just be nine hours long. And there was a little part of me that was like, no, I want people to remember this. I want people to ball their eyes out singing these songs. So I made it in this way where it used some cliche narratives to try and capture people. And make them connect to the history easily. And so the first song that was that I submitted to music weekend was from that it was from the main character, who's a member of the praying town and native which is a whole history that I won't get into right now because I'll be talking for forever and I can talk for forever, but I won't do that. I encourage everyone to go look it up though I encourage everyone to go research King Phillips war and Dear Island and what happened. Lisa Brooks's book, our beloved kin is really good for that and there's books on King Phillips war as well and I highly recommend doing that it's a pivotal moment in history. So it's, it's just her moment of internal struggle. And then the other two songs were from a little project that I'm doing with some people that I met on tick tock. Where we were like, after avatar the last airbender came out we're like what if we made a parody musical about avatar the last airbender. And that that happened. So it's been great working with that team and playing around with those concepts. And it also, if there was a musical about avatar the last airbender, it would be an amazing opportunity for native people in musical theater. Thank you. I really liked hearing that's great. So I think that we should do the King Phillips war and we need to do it during Thanksgiving on Fifth Avenue. And I think we have to go we have to fight on air, and we have to take over Thanksgiving Day parade. Let's see what happens. And we should call it I don't know. What do they call it a sit in what do they call it it's a special word for anyway. That was great Jasmine I really liked it and I really liked what is it called flash mob. Yes a flash mob of King Phillips war. We should do it live. Everyone should dress the way when we're going to attack go beyond Fifth Avenue. But Jasmine, I really like the idea of taking things and focusing and really going to wherever we want to be as native people and I think that's really, really important that we're, we have voices distinct different voices we're not all thinking the same we're not the same tribes. We're not our nations we don't all pray the same way. So everyone has an, where I feel for say farmers, everyone has an individual voice to do what they feel their work needs to be. Right. So the next person I would like to call on is Moses goods. And I'm going to just introduce him really where is he. Okay. I see my dear friend who I love very dearly we've known each other for years. We've wrote many things together and work together. And I was so happy I was getting every year I tried to do someone from Hawaii, our sisters and brothers from the island. And Moses, can you just tell me a little bit, you know your background and Yeah, hello, how am I going over Okinawa, no Maui, my yo. Moses, I am originally from the island of Maui, but I'm currently living on Oahu. So there are actually several islands here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that make up the Aina or the Pai Aina of Hawaii. I'm from Maui but currently living on Oahu and beautiful though often rainy Manoa so it might rain on me and if I do I'll go into the house. Anyway, I just want to start off by saying Mario, I love you and I want to thank you and I want to thank safe harbors and Aaron and New York City, New York Theater Workshop and Josephine and all the people that that put this together. Thank you for doing this because this is why I do what I do. It was very difficult when I decided to have a career in theater. I was, I was very disappointed because of course there was no represent representation. I didn't see this on stage or any script and I didn't like that so I made the decision to become a professional theater artist that represents who he is which is, which was a risky thing to do. Logically, you really just want to go where the work is but I didn't want to do that and so I started this mission to do what I do and now more things are happening and more spaces are available for us to come together and talk about our work and see each other and support each other and I just thank you guys so much for continuing to do this. Last year you had a highly at the festival and her amazing group and this year you have me and I'm so thankful for this opportunity to connect with all of these amazing indigenous artists. What else was I supposed to talk about my work. Yes, your work. Okay, so thank you for bringing up Duke which is the piece that was featured in the festival this year. Duke was actually one of the piece I created back in 2015 so I've been performing that for a while touring it here and there. And when you called me and said okay I want you to record one of your shows I'm like well just so happens that we actually put a team together and got a nice recording of it because, although I've been an independent artists for for years. Right before the pandemic started, I went back to working with the Honolulu Theater for Youth, which is kind of a theater I always go back to because they've helped me along the way so much, and they'd commissioned me to write another piece. So I'm like well I'll just spend a year, you know back with them as an artistic associate, and then the pandemic it I'm like, phew, because had that not happened I would have been completely out of work because all of my gigs as an independent artists would have. They were gone, and this children's theater wasted no time in switching from, you know performing on stage to developing content for for the internet and for TV, we actually came up with a television show that we did two seasons of so you know we didn't know what we were doing we're a bunch of theater artists just kind of figuring out how to what's a what's a camera angle what is what's a zoom and all this, but we did it and we had we have, you know, we have a TV show that we're looking to continue but anyway that's sort of how I got how I'm getting through the But of course that is not the extent of my work I still do my own my own work, not just children's theater force. But even that is, you know, I'm, I just got some money to get some a couple more cameras and to really figure out how these things work because Jasmine you're talking about tick tock. I mean, I'm about to be 44 years old. I don't know nothing about no tick tock. So I didn't got a tick tock account. And I'm like, How does this work. So I got rid of that so I'm going to stick to like I got I got a YouTube channel and other things I can kind of you know it kind of makes a little more sense to my old But this is such a weird place that we're in as theater artists, trying to figure out how to do our work in other ways on TV, you know, on in social media. And I'm enjoying much of it, but much of it scares me because this is this we're so out of our our realm. But for the most part, I'm just going to make the best of it and just just give it a go which I which I have been. Did I talk about my working. Yeah, that's another question. I guess I mean, as was true with so many of you I the work translated so beautifully from one medium that to another medium and I'm curious if you wanted to talk a little bit about the process and what it was like to go from the stage show to the beautiful film that you made. You know I talk about about how how how hesitant and fearful we are as theater artists did to make this switch. But then you got to remind yourself we are we are artists, we know what we can do. And we know what we do is pretty good, you know so you just got to trust your strengths. Now there's going to be some adjustment to do to do any different things but just know that, you know, I've been creating art for where I don't want to date myself but for a really long time. So I have I know a finger to and luckily, along the way I had be I out of necessity, I became a playwright I started off as an actor, but because the stories weren't being told I had to write my own stuff. I became a writer over the years and now you know that's that's kind of what I'm leaning towards a little bit more is more, you know, more of an opportunity to write for myself with four others as well, and just really digging into what I already have have laid in terms of the foundation of my art and just leaning leaning into that because it's not going to be the same it's not going to be what we created but it's going to be something entirely different. Most of it is going to be beautiful. Some of it ain't going to be that much, but you know, a lot of it is going to be pretty amazing work and you know the thing is we're we're resilient as actors right as artists and we're going to keep doing what we do, because, you know, most importantly, like a, you know, to go back to what I said before, we're here to represent who we are, you know, we have to do this work. It's not, you know, it's not a choice. We've committed to serving our communities we've committed to telling these stories to putting our heroes on stage literally right and so it's not like I can just not do something, I got to do it it's my kuleana. Yes, absolutely, absolutely. And we've had many discussions about how you know how do we see excellence and what does that mean and you know how do we train you. Yes, me and you both were talking about when we were doing the Institute together. How do we do that training respectfully how do we change going into different realms with, you know, the sometimes a very racist realm of theater and we talked about we had huge discussions and how you change that particular paradigm. And when we I think it yeah me and you were talking about that some things aren't pretty because birth itself is not pretty. If you think about it, it's beautiful yes but it's not, you know, it's messy, and you know, and birth and to relook at you know, I mean birth is the only thing to really think. And I loved your piece Moses I loved your, you know, when you did the native, the native Jim Thorpe, and I really liked you know that our whole idea and then you had to go and do the fake Indian shows which was very funny. So the next person I would like to call on is Santy, who's a very, very, you know, old family friend and you know we've been dying to work with each other for a very long time. And I would just like for her to introduce herself and land she's on in her work. There you go. Hi, everyone. Hi, my name is Santy. My hood in a show. My name is Douglas, which means picking up the sky and going to the Mohawk language. I'm home at Six Nations right now, and I've been here grounded in the Cooning since last March. I was on tour and our tour got cut short due to the pandemic. And so it's really nice to be able to connect with everyone. Yeah, I'm Mario for helping and get, you know, everybody connected and it's great to meet new people. And, and happy to present Blood Water Earth, which was international indigenous women's collaboration. I've been doing a lot of work as a triptych series on based around just women creators and Blood Water Earth was sort of like a remix of some of the beautiful images by Louise Petiki Bryant, who is Maori from Autorua. So she was one of my main collaborators of her beautiful imagery and that in that those photos, the video we shot in Autorua, which is kind of like my second home. And really missing it because I was supposed to be there all of December working on a creation lab with other collaborators. So I was happy to be able to share that with with you and in the Safe Harbors audience and mama audience and happy that we did get to work together. And unfortunately not there because I love community New York City. And I was there last year in January for the ISPA conference and, and, you know, really wanting to connect out with with more with people. So this was online opportunity. So now go Erin. Yeah. No, thank you so much. Your piece was also so beautiful. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the creation of the piece. I love the most media elements of it and the water in it. And I'm curious about how you built the piece before it was recorded. So Bloodwater Earth we premiered in 2018 at the Woodland Cultural Center. So all of the elements that you saw in the video, including the pool of water was was developed progressively from the premier. And it's toured in and went to the Auckland Arts Festival last year. And so the opportunity came up in September to do a hybrid performance. So we had live streamed it through Celebration of Nations First Ontario Performing Arts Festival. And so it was already and we recorded it at that time because you know we and it was on Six Nations. So one thing I've learned about the pandemic is an which is really great is that Six Nations has everything that I need. We have tech people we have a AV studio we have musicians we have recording studios we have artists and collaborators so we shot that perform that live stream and recorded it at through the red door, which is a AV tech company and and so you know I brought my goal and for my company, which I didn't introduce is Kahawi Dance Theatre work with about I would say 90% Indigenous hires and collaborators so even my stage manager, Lindy, he was able to come to work on that and basically they we were able to transform their site so we made the little stage because it was on the cement floor was sort of like a sound studio and then we got a you know the large basically it was a white plastic tarp, which we did the projections on. And I had asked Lindy Kenoshimeg to expand the pool area because I really water is such an important part of that and in the video I was we were in the pool of water. I run off pool from the ocean. At Keri Keri and so that connection to water and birthing and women and womb water was really important and cleansing and purification and in the reflectiveness of it and the darkness of it moving into sort of dark waters and the possibility of potential potentiality and for me as an artist I really love imagery and I think very in cinematically and with a lot of design. So doing that and creating that space was was really fun for for me to finally get a big pool and then I'm like the next time it's going to be a bigger pool and it's going to be water and I'm going to be in water everywhere. So what you've got to see is the recording and then Shane Palos who's also from Six Nations he he did an edit for us specifically for the festival. So that was great it was perfect timing to be able to share that again. I really loved uh you know I was looking at it really reminded me of metaphor metaphor reason metaphorists metaphorist metaphorists metaphorus metaphor whatever, remember metaphorists metaphorist metaphorist metaphorist metaphors. Remember metaphor of Morophys on Broadway maps, this is how this is how far it happens to me every time at the end of this festival it doesn't matter. I called, this always happens to me. Do you remember that on Broadway, Erin, with the pool and they did all those Greek stories? Yeah, it's the Mary's coming, yes. Yeah, yeah, it really not, you know, and I really liked that idea, Santy, that, you know, that it's the original people, the original idea. So you know what I mean? So you see where like, they kind of took that idea of us with water and wombs telling old stories and how do we come out of the water and telling those stories within the water and how our waterways are so important to us, you know, for those of us who are on the East coast and especially, you know, and, you know, cause I come from an island people too, like those are very, very important stories. And I saw that why I particularly picked this piece with Moses too is because there were these water stories. There's all these water stories. There's all these water stories that come out with each other. And I like that idea that indigenous peoples, no matter where we are, you know, no matter where we are, we have one thing in common that is borderless, right? And that is that we can talk about our survival from the land and it not always this downtrodden story, you know, and it was this wonderful uplifting story on both birth and then, you know, you had Duke, you know, and it's like these wonderful stories on how you mend them and how we see each other as native peoples, right? Or as indigenous peoples, right? So the next, and I love both of your pieces. They were wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, you know, can't get it out of my head. And the next person I would like to call on is Nick Billy. We're going to go a little bit into Nick Billy. Let me explain Nick for a second. Nick Billy has been, we have been partners, partners in crime and collaborators for how many years, Nick? Probably about 35 years. Something like that. Something like that. And we met with Benjibo as dancers. And we've been working with each other since, oh, for a very long time. And so he's also a founder of Safe Harbors. He's also a founder of Don't Feed the Indians, The Peace, and he's also a founder of the Repertory Theater. And he's also a, he's also my associate director. And I would like to introduce Nick Billy. And there you go, Nick. My name is Chimichukma and Nick Billy. I'm Chakka Muskogee from Oklahoma. It's Jay Shtongoa, he's saying hello in Chakka and Muskogee. Yeah, it's been, first of all, whoo, you know, what an experience to have, you know, to do all this virtually. Thank you to Safe Harbors, everybody in Safe Harbors, including individuals like Benjibo, who is a board member, Jared Packard, who's also a board member, to New York Theater Workshop and LaMama. And also to each one of you on this panel, you're all amazing individuals. And I'm so grateful to share this virtual space with you because it does show, as each of you have been mentioning, is that we're all diverse, we're not monolithic, and we all have different ways, different expressions, different creative processes, practices that are really important for the world to see. And, but as far as being working with Muriel, Josie, Pam, Danielle, for Don't Feed the Indians, that is a show that was, really does show the diversity of native people that we all don't look alike. We're all different shapes and sizes. Touching on colorism, we're a little bit, you know, we're all different shades of nativeness, of indigenousness. And I think that's really important for the world to see and that we don't, we're not just beads, feathers, and little bitty tomtoms going, hey, yah, hey, yah, hey, yah. We do that very well when we do it, but it's not, that's not who we are. So, and creating Don't Feed the Indians, a divine, commie pageant. First of all, I wanna say I miss Kevin and I wish he were here, and he is. So, but it was creating that together, collaboratively, creating stories through improvisation and what was a hard process for us, but it was also a necessary process and it was a very important learning experience. And it also created community, which is, we shared a lot, you know, we share the work, we share the piece, we share everything. So that for me was important because it created community. Let me just move into the piece that I did, called Stajada, which means Indian in Muskogee. And that was a challenge. It was a very positive challenge, though a good learning experience because Danielle Soames, who was the director, thankfully she was the director, it helped me a lot. We had very little time to transition from it being a stage piece to a filmed performance piece. And because I work full-time and I just came home from work and Ben is at work. He's at Bellevue. And so it was a challenge to really create a film piece where we had no time to transition that the stage piece into it. We filmed it in one day, it was completely, all the five scenes were filmed within like between 10 30 in the morning and three 30 in the afternoon. And it was on a zero budget. And it was just, it was cold out. We did it outside, so it was 34 degrees. But so it was a challenge. The other part of this, and this is kind of like when we did the fireside chat too is that this is my first offering of my performance, I like to call it my performance stuff. And it's my first offering. And I'm so grateful that I could do it with Safe Harbors who had my back all the way. Thank you, Safe Harbors. New York Theater Workshop, thank you so much to you panelists too for being here. So it was truly a challenge, but it was also one that I felt was necessary because as I spoke about in the fireside chat, I'm willing to challenge my own sense of native stasis. And through doing this piece, I'm hopefully pushing toward and pushing into an unconventional form of unconventional form of thriving. So because we native indigenous people do thrive regardless and resilience and thriving, depending on the dictionary you get it from, it all is sort of westernized. But I think that we native indigenous people can reframe that and all of you performers, all of the artists on this panel are doing that. So thank you, I appreciate that. And I'm not alone in this. But I also would like to ask Danielle for her thoughts as being the director and how difficult and demanding I was. So I'm just gonna turn that over to Danielle. Is that okay? You already did, so I don't know. Yes. Let me just introduce Danielle for a second. I just want to say that Danielle was also a founding member of Safe Harbors. And there was a time when Safe Harbors was only me, Nick, Danielle, and Kevin and Josephine when she wasn't in school. So when we say we're founding members, there was literally the four of us in a cold room with no heat at one point. So Danielle, introduce yourself and talk about don't feed the Indians what it means to the transition from directing. Cause I have been the main director for most of the pieces, but now I feel it's important that we have other native directors that it can't just be one person all the time. There has to be us to continue to have people talk in our voices, in our own voices. So Danielle. Hi, hello, everyone. Say hello. My name is Danielle Soms. I'm Mohawk of Guanawake. I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and also in New York City. I'm thrilled to be a part of this. I would say that Muriel is a great director and learning from her and her style as well as storytelling and ensemble work has been a blessing to me because it really helped me channel some of my directing mannerisms. And I would say I'm really happy to have directed Nick Billy's piece Stajada. That was like a wonderful experience between him and I. And I would say that we had challenges that we didn't know we would have to deal with. There was the environmental challenge. There was challenges with editing. There was challenges with sound. There was challenges with little cars going by. And I mean, everything you can name happens like chickens and dogs and people talking in the background and then machinery. I was like, oh my goodness, thank goodness we have these mics because if we didn't have these sound canceling mics we would have heard every single thing. So adding sound and layering was a definite addition to cancel out any of those outside noises, I would say. But it also forced us to be laser focused with time. So I created a very tight schedule that we actually ended up finishing quite early because we just kept going. But in that we were quite exhausted by the end. And if I had it to do again I would say that I would go back and maybe split the filming into two days instead of one full day. But because like Nick said, our schedules he was working I was working, Ben was working. So all of us had our conflicts and we had a very tight schedule. We had to just do it. And we said, let's get it done. So we rehearsed for about a month once a week in my apartment and it was good that we did that. And then when we went to do the location scouting at Ben's house, I filmed part of it so that I could easily translate to the videographer what I wanted to see as far as setting up shots. And luckily I took a class at oh gosh what's that school called? Oh, School of Visual Arts. I took a class at School of Visual Arts in documentary filmmaking and I had to create a film there and took a class in Final Cut Pro. But editing is its own set of skills. And I don't have it. I would say that once I once I receive noise canceling headphones, thanks to my husband he gave me noise canceling headphones. I heard everything. And then once I heard everything I was like the nitpicky director of, okay, right here, this second to that second, I knew this second to that second. I probably drove our editor crazy, but it is like tech. When you're in theater tech week, it's how we can. So I just equated it to that. And I just said, listen, it's like tech. We've got to add sound, we've got to add lights. We have to really create the element that this is happening right now and add that sense of storytelling where it could translate into film. And it felt like we were just making a film. But I know that it was theater into film. I would say that I was surprised by the outcome. I was happily surprised. And I think that when you don't have skill sets that you go to school for there's a lot of self-doubt that comes into play. And I definitely had a lot of self-doubt and questioning, is this how it should be done? I don't know, is this how it should be translated? And the thing is what's beautiful about this festival is that variety is the spice. So this is what makes all of our individual pieces so unique and so inspiring to others is that we all come from different nations and we're bringing together our stories. We're bringing together each other's stories but we're creating them in different styles and elements that maybe we didn't even know existed within ourselves. And then it's translated into the vision of this beautiful performance piece that then is on film. And now we have this as an archive to continue for the future, which normally in theater, you don't have that as an archive unless you get permission for it but this we automatically had to have permission. So I think for that, it really lends a lot to each of us because now we have it as part of our portfolio and we can continue that moving forward and creating new things. But don't feel that Indians has been like a little love child of all of ours. It started off with Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. I don't know if Muriel wants to talk a little bit about that, but we were all pissed off. At this piece because it really spoke true to what we are against stereotypes and making fun of history. And it was just one joke to many that we created Bloody Bloody Oops as a farce to Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. And then from that spark the idea of don't feed the Indians a divine comedy pageant. And it really was something that we all came together. Almost like we have our own club and here we are talking. We had a lot of discussions to create the script and we tried a lot of scenes out and we had a lot of fun and we laughed so much. And I think that when we went on the road we realized that now we're traveling with this piece that started off as a seed, just an idea. And then here we are, it has come to fruition and we can share it with everyone. So I really am happy to be a part of it. And I also miss Kevin very much and I do think he's with us and looking over us right now. So I'm really thankful for New York Theater Workshop for Safe Harbors for coming together. Our meetings that we would have to bring Safe Harbors as an idea into reality seeing that this festival has become reality is amazing. And it just shows that if you put your mind to something and if you have the right set of people that also are of the same mind and spirit that they want the same things your dreams can come true. So I would say to everyone watching this that don't give up. And even in this time of visual artistry, keep at your work and try new things, see what's out there, learn. Because this is a time that we can actually come together and create something beautiful. Thank you. Thank you so much. I was hoping, Josephine, that we could bring you into the conversation to talk about both don't feed the Indians from your perspective. And also something that Muriel has said is that TPTails came out of don't feed the Indians. And so maybe we can talk a little bit with Amber and Muriel and you about how one became the other. Yeah, so my experience with don't feed the Indians I played Moon Night Child. And we first started it when we did oops, bloody, bloody. That was like my first year in college which was a conservatory program at the American Musical Dramatic Academy, so at AMDA, which is really, which is a program Jasmine is familiar with. I always throw her in there with it. But it's a conservatory and it's very hardcore on making sure that somebody in this program is gonna get on Broadway. And that's your curriculum. So you're from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. kind of vibe and it's just musical theater in New York City and that's all that is what you're consumed with. So my first year very much like how like Moses was saying he was talking is like, yeah, like going into it, I'm like, oh, there's gotta be musicals out there. There has to be something, but there's not. Like News Flash, anyone who's watching doesn't exist. So, I was like a whole thing, like I was all excited. And it's so strange when I think about it in retrospect because like I come from obviously like a theater family and I was still, I was already like doing readings and stuff like that. And I was surrounded by a theater community but like still like this optimism in your brain is like, you know, this little like white ingenue. Like that could be me, but you know, it doesn't. So anyways, that was the program I was going through and in school like that was like a big thing that I learned. I was just like, oh snap, like there's really nothing for us, you know, and I just came from a very like different background, like honestly, I wasn't used to like that many non brown people in a capacity of like classrooms and like 24 seven and then like these like super racist musicals. And so then we worked on Oops, Bloody Bloody at the same time. So it was kind of like an insight to like I was having like this downtown insight to like what's going on in the theater world. And then I was going to like my school which was located uptown. And like it's kind of like more like like for New York people, there's like uptown, there's downtown, you know what I mean? They're like two completely different worlds. And that's how it felt. It was just like, this is not real. Like this is not okay. And just to see just like the the ignorance on my teacher's end and my curriculum's end, like they really, it was such a blind blind eye. They really just, it did not occur to them like that there are more than, you know what I mean? Like I guess like white leading people and then background brown people really. So it was like this whole thing and that was my first experience into it. And so I really started learning about the tropes and then like in some ways it kind of helped me because I was able to study a lot of these tropes because I had access to like, you know, AMDA and how to access to all these musicals and all these books and like you could and these recordings and you could look at the tropes. And so in some ways, and I'm like my teachers hated me and you know, I wasn't like the most like well liked student, but I had a lot of information on like all of these things from like just being able to study them. So when I came out of school, it's like I already knew what was like, what's happening. This is what's going on, right? And that was great about it. And then when we did Don't Feed the Indians and we actually like finalized on a script and we did it at LaMama, like that was a really great time for me because that was like, you know, I had developed this part basically and then I was able to do it. And it was just, it was an amazing feeling. It was an amazing time. Like for me, it was like the beginning beginnings of like my adult grown up career that's like outside of school, outside of free readings. You know what I mean? This is the first time I was like being paid and doing this and like, you know, it was a big thing for me and career-wise I had a lot of opportunities after that. So it did, it was kind of like a catalyst into me continuously doing work. And then going into TP-Tale, so then simultaneously, I guess it'd be about three or four years ago, Muriel started, Muriel was my mother, but she started working on a, she started working on her newest one-woman show, right? And at the time we went, there was a lot of different names, there was a lot of different things we were going through, but she started development up at Dartmouth. And we had come from the Directing and Ensemblance Institute out of Minneapolis. So it's like, we were already really on like the same wavelength about what she was trying to do and what she was talking about. And, you know, I helped her kind of co-write in the beginning, not co-write more. So like, what is that called? Dictating, right? So she's talking and I'm taking notes, right? I think that's what's called, okay. But anyways, basically, scribing, scribing, that's what I was doing. So I was scribing for her at the beginnings and oh my gosh, we had these stories, we just thought they were so entertaining. Like we had this whole gypsy story, we were just telling my grandmother about it, about like my, and apparently it was like super racist, but obviously like me and her were not aware. Like the only thing I'd seen is like my big fat American gypsy wedding, which I love. I'm addicted to reality TV. So it's like, we came into it with this whole thing and then everyone at Dartmouth's like, that's really racist actually. We're like, oh, okay. So it was like, we had all of these really insane stories. There was Gladys who was cut out of the final script. You know, Gladys was a white woman who was friends with my mother's grandmother and they used to dress her up and she was awful actually, but she had money and she would give her family money for gigs. So it was just like, we had some really interesting stories in there. But, you know, more so looking at the scope of the story, a lot of those things got cut and that was kind of my beginning into me working with her. And then we went up to Double Edge and I participated in it in Double Edge and then my dad was directing it. And then so for this time, you know, a little bit of my catalyst, you know, my original plan as a producer of the festival was like, you know, for Nick and my mother, they were the only ones who didn't already have prerecorded pieces. So I was like, you know, we're going to go into New York Theater Workshop. We'll use the theater while it's empty. So it'll still be recorded theater. And that whole plan just kind of backfired because then, you know, later on, like, you know, New York Theater Workshop is kind of like dragging their feet. Like we don't really want to like do it. And I'm like, what is the problem? Like I don't understand. Like no one's going to be in there. And then they were like, yeah, we had to put in a new ventilation system. So no one's been in there since pre-pandemic. I'm just like, what? And then I was like, okay, this isn't going to work. Like we can't have, we can't put people at risk in a building that no one's like been in. And you know what I mean? And it was like a whole, like we really had to think about it. And then I understood like, okay, now I get why New York Theater Workshop didn't really want to do this. So kind of went back to like, okay, we're back in the environment. Like now we got to do environmental pieces. So we have to start to think about that. And you know, for the TV Tales team, it was me who I co-directed and I was mostly on the producing end. And then Amber was co-directing and that's Amber Ball in the corner. And I'm about to throw some of this to her because we can talk for days about this. And we also had Sarah Bailey who was the cinematographer and then she came with a production assistant, Gracie Burwell. And Gracie is actually someone I went to Amda with and Sarah is her girlfriend and she moved to Brooklyn and like Sarah is a great cinematographer. And I was like, let's like make this happen. So I ended up kind of being fun in that way. But you know, Sarah is such a responsible person that she's like, I'm not going to film people inside. Like I don't feel safe about it. Like, and it was like, okay. So we ended up doing all of it outside and like, oh my gosh, like it was like two days. We're supposed to do it right after New Year's and then like there was a COVID scare. And that a lot of times like with the production of the festival, there was a lot of COVID scares. And it was something like we really had to be mindful of. Like we can't, I'm not going to force people to do something outside of their comfort zone and their responsibility when it comes to COVID-19 because like, as we know as native people in this country, we've been devastated by it. So it's like, I can't do that. I don't feel morally okay doing that. So there was a lot of like complications behind the scenes like phone calls, like so-and-so's mom has COVID, so we got to cancel filming this day. And it was like, oh my gosh, like New Year's and like Christmas was like insane for me. I was like, oh my goodness, like what's going to happen? Are we going to have pieces? And basically we ended up having to push it back a weekend for the filming of TV Tales because of that. So it was already cold, but it was like extra brick because it was like, it was January now and it was cold as hell. Like it was so cold, I felt like, oh my gosh. And like plus like, so we basically squoze it all into two days and Amber, who is my co-director, you know me and her can talk about the process of it, which was also pretty insane. Very similar to Nick and Danielle, we had no idea what we were talking about. And like one thing I think is kind of a funny story is like me and Amber, you know, Sarah, who's like a real cinematographer, she's like, oh, can you guys put together a shot list? And me and Amber are like, what is the shot list? So we don't look it up. We don't do anything. We're just like, okay, let's write a shot list. So we just start typing away. And we're like, okay, right here when she says this, do this and right here. And it was like literally like five shots on it, right? So we give it to Sarah and Sarah is like, what are you guys talking about? We're like, we sent you the shot list. Like what are you, what else are we supposed to do? And then we finally looked up what a shot list was. And then like we read back through and we're like, wow, this was very unspecific. It was very, it was like literally like when she says danced, wide shot. When she says go, close up. Like it made no sense at all. Didn't talk about location, didn't say where we were, didn't have a schedule. Like it was crazy. So I'm going to pass this over to Amber to talk more about like, you know what I mean? Pretty much the process of TV tales, but it was good time. We made it happen. Another thing I said to Sarah was like, I'm not going to lie. It's very beautiful. We're talking to her and the editor. I was like, but when I was there in person, because I'm like a theater person, right? Like I don't really know anything about film. I'm trying to learn. I was like, it felt real ghetto. Like it looked real ghetto to me. And I was thinking in my head like, oh my gosh, what is this going to look like? Like this is not looking good to me because you're looking at it in person. And Sarah's like, yeah, but that's not it. You got to understand, look through the monitor. And I was just sitting there shaking my head like, I don't know how this is going to come out, you guys. Like because basically I had to be on set. Amber was an onset because there was only one person in New York, right? Gosh, it was so complicated. But I'll have Amber talk more about like the script and the real ideas behind it. I just orchestrated it. So go ahead, Amber. And I'm wearing earrings Amber made, made today on purpose thing. So glad you got them. They look wonderful. I could not, I did not know those were mine. I was like, those are very nice earrings. Yeah, this whole process was like a puzzle, but we didn't actually know if we had the right pieces for us from the same game, if they were facing the right way. So it was literally just going along and piecing everything together. But yeah, the way it started was actually last year when I saw the piece for the first time at 2019's Reflections in Your Voices Festival or was it 2020? I was 2020, I was last year. Yeah, the way I watched it in the way it was set up and my mind for some reason it kept popping up that it was already this pilot show that was going to be like the series of adventures of like young girl in 1970s Brooklyn and all these people just popping in like Gladys at some point, like Gladys comes to dinner. So like in my head I was like, this is interesting the way this can like span out and like create all these like different series and adventures. So when it came to this year, it made sense I guess to like have this kind of like film version cinematic pilot experience of it. But we did not know how that would build or what that would look like. But the best reference that Meriel was giving us was also like Mean Streets. Mean Streets, Mean Streets, the montage. It was like, if there's one thing we have to get right is the opening intro and the montage. So that's like where some of our inspiration came from too. And Meriel is like, this is your script too. So if you wanted to talk about like the process and inspiration. Okay. Oh, well, you know, the one thing we did is it's the first time, was first time doing this piece without my husband because he was the director, he was the dramaturg and everything. So I knew he couldn't be, because he was on stage with me and I was talking to Morgan Janisse. She's probably listening right now who is my dramaturg and she kept on saying, you're gonna have to re-change the script if we're going to do it. So we talked about that a lot and the first thing that Morgan told Amber was, don't forget Meriel lies. And she lies about the script all the time. She'll make believe she wrote something, she didn't write something and then say, oh, I forgot it. She is the one writer who's always taking her stuff out. If it was up to her, you'd have a page. And then she's, I have to memorize this. And I do, I say that, right. And they kept on catching me, right. And I forgot I wasn't the, I was a director at one point. And I'd say to Josephine, Josephine say, why are you doing that? I said, Amber told me to, and she would call up Amber and she would say, did you tell my mother that? She said, I never said that. And they would both like yell at me. That was caught in my life. She kept calling cut, she kept calling cut. She'd be like, okay, cut, start over. Like, no. I forgot I wasn't directing. So I didn't like the way it looked. So I would say, okay, cut. I don't know, like that. And then she would scream from the other end. She'd be like, you are not directing this piece. So that was an adjustment, right? And I would cut out lines like crazy. And then Morgan, who's watched it said, I've missed some things. Yes. I was like, does I have a script this big? I was like, I have to memorize all these lines. My God. You know? So, you know, and I'm so used to doing that. And, but I saw what I, what I really liked about it in general. And I think in, with everybody's piece, not just this piece, what I liked about it is that we saw people who wanted to fit into there, into the business of the business of what we call showbiz. Every one of us, we tried. We tried, you know, the dance world, you know, everything. You know, we tried the musical theater world, we tried. And what we all created was pieces that can talk about our own experience and taking all that training, that so-called Western training and taking that and making it our own, right? And I felt that very, very important. And what I think is very cool about this too, is that we see another generation, right? Coming up with all of these pieces. We see these storytelling in works of another generation coming up and how most of us who are parents center or some of us who come from conservatory, you know, we had to take a lot of this type of bullshit from people saying, you don't look Indian, you know, you're too fat to be an ingenue, all of that type of stuff, right? And we kind of made a place for that. And I think what, why I did save harbors, don't feed Indians, teepee tails, it was several things, but to me, they're always connected. Is one of them is that I was a mom and I had a, me and my husband both, we were parents and we had a child coming from conservatory theater, right? And so the same things that were said to us were being said to her. And then we would have, me and him would have discussions like I would coach Josephine on weekends, right? And there were times you didn't want to be there. I'd say, you have to stay, just get the technique and do it down. But me and my husband were saying, how many of these programs does this happen to a native, does it happen to a native kid? Where they, and this is happening to a native young person where they have a supportive family. What is it like for the ones who don't have support? And that was the whole idea behind, don't feed the Indians. How do we get the musical support, the stage managing support? How do we bring people into it? You know, and how important that is, right? And so from TPTails, I felt the same thing bringing the director's labs that people who I've worked with or trained myself to give them the same thing with Jasmine, give them the steering wheel, right? And we started that last year. We started that, well, this is it. I'll come in, I will look at what you need to do. And then I just give you advice, but it's your piece. You know, if you're having real struggling problems, you know, that's what I'm here for, right? And really trying to develop that shadow method, that shadow methodology. So really that is what I really loved about everything here, Danielle too. Danielle started as an ensemble and Nick had this piece and he really, and we, him had huge discussions because we were writing the same time we were doing Don't Feed the Indians, right? And we had these discussions about how to, you know, what do we do with all this other work? And what came out of Don't Feed the Indians came out of director's lab, three, well, three one-person shows and have a complete Repertory Theater Ensemble and this festival, right? So I feel that's what I feel it was all interconnected and it all sprouted into one another. We're at 532. So, Aaron, do you want to ask some questions or? Sure, well, I want to invite anybody who is watching to ask some questions and they will get them to us as well. I just want to make sure people know that that avenue is open. And I also just want to call into this space. Everything is a circle looking for Tiger, Lily and death and mourning after, which were absolutely as brilliant and moving as all the pieces that you all made. So just to bring in the range of the tremendous range of the work that you all did to put this together. I mean, I have many questions. I'm curious, you know, what were people's experience of seeing this body of work in conversation with each other? If anybody wants to speak to that? So I sort of, I binge watched a little last night because I hadn't seen a lot. In my defense, I'd seen a number of the pieces already. I saw Don't Be the Indians in New York a few years ago. I saw Anthony's piece. So I'm familiar with a lot of the work that was there, but not all of it. So last night I'm like, I need to be watching this. So I'm binge watching things. And I'm so glad that I did because the work is just, man, it's incredible. Nick and Danielle, you talked about doing that in one day and being unsure of what, ugly brown, man. That floored me. That was such a powerful, just that your whole piece, but just things in the work that's been created by people that I know and I'm connected to is just so encouraging that, you know, look at my native brothers and sisters doing what they do. Muriel, I mean, Muriel is Muriel. She can be Muriel no matter what, but Muriel on the stoop of the house where she grew up is something next level Muriel, right? And I've already known about, you know, when I met you Muriel, it was that the gathering had you, yeah, Josephine, your daughter and your mother and your aunt all in the same space. And I'm like, whoa, this is native. And it's happening right in front of me. Because it's about our family, right? It's about our genealogy. And there were three generations of you there. And then this year piece, when you talk about your grandmother and add that and just like, look at what's happening to end with Josephine dancing and doing her thing. It was just like, whoa, look at this. And this is what native people do. We talk about where we're from and where we're going in the next generation and the past generation and it all being the same thing. It was just a wonderful experience for me to binge watch things last night. And I'm so glad that I did, but I just, all I can say is I'm so happy to be in this space where this work is being created and I'm a part of it. I'm making new friends and hopefully we'll all work together and do things together and keep meeting in circles like this. Cause I just, I just love it. Santy, do you have any reflections on the festival as a whole? To be honest, I'm going to have to binge watch after. My company is, we just actually launched on Friday our own online work offering. So I've been occupied with that for the whole past while and doing as the independent small company and being the only full-time person, I just finished an audit and I have grants to do and file reporting. So my time is quite limited. So unfortunately I didn't get to see a lot of things, but it's funny because if we're talking about the pandemic and it is a time of slowing down, but in other ways it's also, I'm just completely busy as well. So I don't actually see a lot of things out there because I'm producing or I'm working. So unfortunately that's my situation there. No, sure, sure. Congratulations on getting your piece out into the world of not. Great. Do you want to bring it home with closing thoughts? Yes. I would just like to have closing thoughts from Jasmine. What is the next thing? Make it like we're ready to close up. So make it like three minutes, Jasmine, of what you're thinking, what your future works, what you're, where do you want to think about going? Who you'd like to thank, things like that. Well, I do want to say I absolutely adored the pieces in this whole thing. I loved seeing Indigenous works and getting to experience the brilliance of everyone's brains, like the stuff that everyone's thinking of and how it's all so different. And like calling in, yeah, looking for taggathily, I think that was one of my favorite pieces. I absolutely loved that. I loved the discussion of it and the really raw moments talking about like queer identity and that in what it means and blood quantum and how that affects us as Native people. And I know that's something, those are things that I definitely connect to a lot. And I, as for like future things I'm looking forward to working on future projects with safe harbors and those plays. I can't wait to do theater in person again. Oh my goodness, I just long for the stage and lights. I have like so many colorful lights in my room that I try really hard to emulate stage lights sometimes and it's just not the same. It's not the same feeling as going up on stage and for me like musical theater is the thing for me and finishing a song and that moment where you're looking out at the lights and the people and the music stops and there's a brief pause and then the applause and you just feel like what just happened? All right, okay, right. Okay, next thing. And it's, there's nothing like that and getting to hold hands with everyone at boughs and just smiling that big with everyone and laughing and cast parties. I can't wait for that again. And I'm super excited to be writing again. That's something that the pandemic has allowed for me and I hope allowed for a lot of people is to have time to be with yourself and to grow in those ways and come back to those things that maybe you didn't have time for before. I know I didn't have time for writing for a while but I've gotten back into it and I've been playing around with play ideas and I've got a play that I started writing and a musical that I'm currently working on. So I can't wait to see it, Jasmine. I hope there's something funny in it for me. Amber, do you have any last thoughts or with your experience or, you know, three minutes? Yeah. Well, first, Mariel, thank you for bringing me along in this journey. It's really an honor to like help. It's also my program director. Yes. Yeah, it was really an honor and a really special gift to help tell this story in collaboration with Josephine. And I think that was what's really key is like this mother-daughter duo telling their family stories, like this self-determination. And I'm really excited to see how it develops more. But as for closing thoughts, yeah, it's like this festival is an absolute gift for indigenous people to come together and tell our stories, buy our own wants, needs, and desires. And I think what's really exciting to think about is like what's going to be coming in 2022 with the festival, Emerging Directors Labs. This has really become like a wonderful launch pad for Native people. And I thank you for that. And I see all these people in here and it's an honor and a gift to be here too. Thank you, Amber. Danielle, do you have any closing thoughts? Three minutes. Sure, thank you. I want to say that I watched three of the pieces with my mother who has Alzheimer's and she stayed thoroughly engaged. So I just wanna say thank you for that. And that's a testament to the storytelling and how you can bring different generations together through it. So I was pleased with our work. I think that I got so many different ideas after I saw Duke and I said to myself, oh man, okay, so this is a theater into film. So I wonder how much I would need to make our show, Stajada, if we had that money, I don't know how much it cost you, Moses, but I was thinking, wow, this is really high quality. So with the film and the background and everything, I was very impressed that I felt like I was at a theater watching Moses' his show. So I'm really excited that we can translate stories of theater into film like this and have that experience. I thought it was only available in one of those high definition, they have those high definition films that I was like, what is this? But now I see it, okay? Now we gotta use it. That's what we need, that high definition feel from our pieces into film. So it's a challenge, definitely, but this festival, it made it a reality. And I also think that it boosted self-confidence. And that's one thing that a lot of native people lack is self-confidence, and that's from years of oppression. So thank you, New York Theater Workshop and Mama, and thank you, Safe Harbors NYC for making this come true because I think that we can build a lot of self-confidence among our native brothers and sisters. I'm happy with our reflections of native voices. Yeah. I'd like to call on Josephine, three minutes, closing thoughts. Oh, well, I just thank everybody for participating and working with us. A lot of times, we are a very small organization, although we try to make it, we try to delegate and seem bigger than we are, but we really are not that large at all. And Muriel's working full-time on this project that we just finished, which is the Reflections of Native Voices Festival. And as was I, you know what I mean? And it was great, it was really great to have people really working with N-Pam. You know what I mean? N-Pam was like our festival coordinator. She was one of our biggest supports, I mean, literal supports through this entire thing. And then of course, I mean, but I mean, outside of the admin and what goes behind the scenes, it really is the participation of the artists as well, right? And working with us and being understanding with us and feeling comfortable to reach out to us. And it was a really great process in that way. It was like, everybody was, as far as my working mind and organizing mind, like everybody worked perfectly, you know what I mean? And that was really, really nice. And a lot of times it was kind of, you know, a tele-amber a lot of times, like it's really nice working with Native peoples because of this, because there's already a lot of times like this automatic understanding between each other because everyone's wearing multiple hats. Like first of all, this isn't a normal circumstance for anybody. We're in a pandemic still right now and we're trying to do things virtually. And then also for our organization in particular, we recently lost a managing director who was more than a managing director, was my father and was Muriel's husband. And then that was a huge hurdle to get through, you know? And in August or July, when, you know, we were figuring out, okay, we have to start talking about festival stuff. It was really scary. It was like, who's gonna do this? Like who's gonna look at the monies? Who's gonna make sure this gets out to people? Who's gonna make all of this happen because he was a big force behind the organizing in this organization. And so to be able to get through it and to say that we did it and we really sat down and use these skills that we didn't even know we had a lot of times, you know, I'm not used to this at all, but it was really great. And then just to have the artist to be as supportive as they have been within that process was just like chef's kiss, another, you know what I mean? Another thing to just make everything run a little bit smoother. And so I can't thank everyone enough for that. And then, you know, just, I think of all the very talented friends and family who I have, who I was able to call on and I was able to say, you know, do you wanna work on a project? And, you know, just finding that network of people who you meet and you're just kind of like, do you edit videos? Oh yeah, you do. Do you know how to film things? Oh yeah, you do, right? And just bringing all of that together was really wonderful to be able to do, I felt. And it was wonderful to be able to like, you know, employ Native people and employ people of color because, you know, I know outside of this as a working artist that like, there's not a lot of jobs for everybody all the time, you know, especially if you're a young person, especially if you weren't already, like, you know what I mean? Set up with a, I shouldn't say young, but emerging, right? Emerging in this industry right now was like the scariest thing ever. And if there was something you had in mind that you wanted to do, it's like, it's shut down. And so it's really wonderful to be able to do that because, you know, you can see like people are hungry, people want it, people want to do things. And it was nice to feel like we participated in uplifting people in that way, you know, like even Indigenous vibrations, which was the music weekend that Jasmine was a part of and a few other artists, it was great to hear other Native peoples' feedbacks afterwards to feel like, oh my gosh, it's been forever, like since we all listened to each other's music, since we've had a social engagement to be able to look at people and listen to people who normally on a normal basis, we'd see every other weekend or we'd see every other month, right? And just kind of realized it's still very bizarre. We're all still doing things virtually. Like we're still here looking at a Zoom to do all of this and it feels so strange. It's like, oh, it's the end of the festival. Like, oh, there it goes. You know, because usually it's a whole thing. It's like mayhem, like, oh, we have to organize. We have to do all of this stuff. And it's been totally different this year, but I just really appreciate everyone's patience and everybody wanting to work and everybody wanting to work with us, you know? And, you know, this isn't like end all and be all, I think in my mind, I'm like, this is a set up for a future collaboration. And like, I think that's something we really look forward to is 2022 and what that brings, right? To be able to have people back in person and to be able to fly people out here and to be able to, you know, sit there and have runs of their shows, not just virtual runs, right? So I'm very excited about that. I'm excited for the future, but I'm very thankful for like all the really wonderful people were interconnected with in some sort of way, including our own ensemble who really came in and pulled their weight for a lot of pieces as well. You know what I mean? When I think of Danielle and Kirby and Nick and like all of us, we all were in there like all hands in. So I'm very grateful for that. I'm grateful for LaMama. I'm grateful for New York Theater Workshop's team, especially who really, really worked with us and, you know, tried to make sure we were out there, tried to make sure we were doing our stuff. We had our pictures up and everything. Like it's really been great. It's given a really good process with everybody and it makes me excited to look towards the future for everybody, you know, and to see everyone's pieces. So I think it should be great and I enjoyed all of it. Oh, my favorite pieces. I can't say I have favorites because that's rude, but I'm gonna say, I have to say that the ones that I like, Blood, Water, Earth, oh my gosh. First of all, blew me away. You know what I mean? Just like the entire element. I knew it was about birth. I was like, this is about birth. I get it. And it was like, I loved it, really, really enjoyed it. And I enjoyed like, like Adrian Harjo was on there. We told my boyfriend, I'm like, Adrian's out here, you know, cause it's like just all this interweaving of people who you know, and you don't even realize they're working on other projects. And so that was like amazing to see and the music for it. And obviously the movement of it loved it. You know what I mean? And then Duke was like the same thing. Like, so like Duke was like, oh, we were like, this feels like this is on Netflix already. You know what I mean? Like Danielle said, we're like, oh, this feels like a Netflix special. And then of course, to see Nick's piece, Ugly Brown was one of my favorite pieces as well within that. I love Ugly Brown. I mean, it's just, it's so raw. You know what I mean? And that's like, that's Nick's style. It's just raw like that. You know what I mean? I enjoyed all the pieces looking for Tyree Willie. I enjoyed of course, like I enjoyed all of them, but while you guys are on here, I just give you guys my little accolades of what I thought about it because we really, truly enjoyed them. When we sat here and we watched them put it on the video. I'm not your mother. I did it. I'm not going to compliment myself and Amber, wonderful job. You did wonderful. I think I told you that when we filmed it. She bullied me for a few months there. Okay, Nick. No, you know, closing us three minutes. Yeah, it's what an amazing experience. I mean, I wish there were, this wouldn't work in person because I would love to be in the presence of each one of you because you do give me a reflection. It's kind of like how this festival is named, Reflections of Native Voices. And for me, each of you have given me a reflection of something that wasn't available for many of us and into a lot of, to a certain degree is still not available. So I thank each of you for giving that to me. And for, you know, and for being able to work with Muriel, Josie, Amber, Kevin, and which makes me a little hurts a little bit to say that, but and thank you, New York Theater Workshop and LaMama. And one other thing is that again, kind of going back to the fireside chat is that since I am an older performer, I want to encourage other native people who are older and who have stories, stories that are not traditional, that are come from a place of displacement that begin to explore those and tell those stories because those are important to me as well as the other stories that are already available. So, and yeah, just thank everybody for giving me a reflection to see that I'm not by myself and I don't want to be by myself. So thank you, each of you. And thank you, I guess, mostly to Muriel and Josie for all your intensive labor for this because it was without your efforts, I couldn't have done this. And Danielle, thank you for being my director. You're a brilliant and amazing. And without you, the video wouldn't have been made. So thank you. Thank you, Nick. Moses, three minutes. Oh, I thought I did already. Just reiterating just everything that I said, just being in this space and talking about our work, not just for ourselves, but for those watching, those native people watching and realizing that, yeah, our stories deserve to be told and deserve to be on stage or whatever that stage looks like. Maybe sometimes for the time being, it looks like this and we're still gonna tell our stories, we're gonna still do an amazing job. I too would have loved to have been in the presence of everyone in this room. I know that we will for the time being, but just looking at this as for the time being, we're looking at this, what we're going through as just a way to boost the art that we create. It's weird, we don't like all of it, but it's gonna help us and we're gonna use this to continue to create and reach people. I mean, the work that we're doing right now, at least for the past couple of weeks, anyone in the world could have seen it and that's not what happens when you meet in a single space in the live theater. So that right there is amazing. And we need to look at these things for what they are and just go with it for now, but it's not gonna be permanent. We will meet together again in the same space and we'll have our cast parties, which we miss, although it's funny when Jasmine said that. It's like, I've been doing solo work for so long that my cast parties are often just me anyway. So I'm like, I'm always have a cast party, but I do miss gathering with other artists and just having that fellowship and talking story. Haven't seen you in a while Muriel, like in person. And I want that, I miss that. And the time will come, the day will come, but for the time being, let's keep doing what we're doing, making awesome stuff. Thank you. Santy, last thoughts? Yeah, Goa, thank you. And I love hearing everybody's words and it's encouraging to keep moving forward and keep creative and also kind of embracing this digital space. So a lot of questions over the past few weeks when we think about moving into this digital realm is like, what is an Indigenous digital space? Like what is the space that we're creating? What's out there? How can we tell our stories in this new way for the time being, but also in the future? So we'll go back to live performances and I love being in the live space, but also then there's this other whole realm that we can tap into and grow and find new technologies. Like what is our new platforms and how can we create works that, as one of my friends says that leaps and is able to move beyond the screen like in an exchange beyond the screen even though it is on the screen and that it affects us. And so it's inspiring, it's encouraging to keep going. So thank you for committing to this digital space because that's just a reflection of our times and probably where we're gonna be headed and for those people who are interested in building Indigenous digital platforms, it's exciting. The hour ago, thank you. Thank you very much to everybody. I just would like to do my closing thoughts and who to thank. I would like to thank Safe Harbors because without them, this would have not been possible at all. And that's everybody in administration, including my personal assistant, Shelly. Pam, always, always Pam is our honorary in-in. I know you're not supposed to joke like that these days, but she's been with me for a good Jesus 10 years now and she is always there and she said, this sounds like a fun time. I'd like to thank Nick who's always been with me from the very beginning when we thought about not doing this and really thinking we had to do it. And Danielle and Jasmine who's very new and Kirby and Anthony, Moses Santi. I'd like to thank my executive director, Christina Terrant, who's took over the reins, and I just want to say we're going to close out with the song and from my nephew and he's gonna say a few words, but I just want to say I really, the support of everybody in this room who's so worried about our family, we're one family and we're really understanding that we're all really mourning. Safe Harbors is very, very mourning. And that's, we weren't thinking about that. Me and Pam were talking about it, how hard it was for all of us because not only me, but we lost my husband, who was the father, he was a founding member, he was our cultural artist, he was our director, he was the person, the go-to person, he was the managing director, and he was my husband and my partner. And so it's hard when you lose your general. So I would like to just go to the video of my nephew, Craig Merrick. Hello, I'm Daki Api, Craig Merrick, I'm Aki Api. Hello, my relatives, my name is Craig Merrick. I'm the son to Faith Merrick and the late Kenny Merrick Jr. I was asked by some of my relatives here at Safe Harbor to help share a bit of music and sing a traveling song to end the festival, the beautiful music and the beautiful talent that has been shared these past couple of weeks. I'm the lead singer for the We Chosen These Singers. I'm originally from Leimdeer, Montana, out in Southeastern Montana, and I'm Dakota Sue on my father's side. But this traveling song was showed to us with my time traveling with my late father, Kenny Merrick Jr. And it talks about an encouragement song is what it's called. And it talks about how hard life can be sometimes, and to take courage of that. And we all know that we're all facing that right now with the pandemic and everything being online, being distance, being wearing face masks. Life is very different today than it used to be. But this song that I'm gonna share with you, it's an encouragement song. ś Hey, hey, hey ś ś Hey, hey, hey ś ś Ha, hey, hey ś ś So stay away ś ś Shut up ś ś To this place not to touch it ś For everyone who came on that, I'd just like to thank our funders. We'd like to thank the Mellon Foundation, NIFA, NPN, the Doris Duke Foundation, ART, New York City, and our individual donors who made this festival possible. I'd like to thank the New York Theater Workshop staff, Erin, Linda Chapman, Morgan Janisse. I would like to thank Mia Yu of LaMama and the whole staff at LaMama and for viewers like you. And of course, HowlRound, Abigail and the whole staff there who made all of everything here possible with our support systems. I thank you, goodnight, and wonderful work, everybody. Yeah, we love you.