 Hi to those folks and thank you as well as for questions and comments that you may have we have to make sure that you guys have one of these delivering that so Jeff Betsy we'll be running around so we'll do our best to get to you as soon as we can and now I think it's time to introduce Idris fabulous playwright poet author natural teacher really cool guy we're so happy to have this relationship with Idris currently you can see his work in remix 38 right he's one of the playwrights there with that play and just a couple of years ago we celebrated his work how we got on which is like being produced all over the place these days we're really exciting so Idris you ready here we go Idris the bed probably felt very nice this morning you were like supposed to be on spring break I'll try to keep it I'll try to keep it evocative and interesting there's gonna be a few parts to it first I'm gonna kind of talk about myself in my own work then we're gonna talk about your work and then hopefully we can have sort of a back and forth conversation so basically this is a conversation about process about artistic process and everybody in here no matter what field of the game you're interested in you're gonna spend some time trying to develop your own process and it's everyone's is gonna be different so everything I say today is just you know I'm still I'm still a work in progress myself I'm still trying to figure out how to do this thing myself I kind of don't know what I'm doing so I'm still trying to figure all this out myself you know like like like every creative person so you know this is these are these are merely things to put into the air concepts to put into the air so open up some conversation I might come back a year from now be like I was wrong you see somebody do something good just be like I'm gonna do that I'm gonna do with the other person you know it's gonna be wolves instead of people thank you that's my speech piece I do tend to ramble on like a senior citizen so I'm gonna start my name is Idris Goodwin and I was not always named I was thrilled about I was about to talk to me about 35 years it was something I'd never written about I've never really written about my name until someone just quite simply asked me hey you should write a little something about your name and I want to start here because I think I think you know the big headline for today is make it personal always make it personal so this is a piece about my name called say my name thought it came out of a book my mother still has it it's crude and orange and the title says African names inside the book it says something like Idris means immortal but I don't think that's right my mother's name is Patricia my father's name is Don their parents Thelma James Ruth and also James their siblings Alicia Teresa Mickey James Jr. Alvin they were 1960s Black Power children they had afros they wanted to give us some names with throat and vowels in Detroit I was a minority the ladies at my church asked why do you give that boy that African name why are you gonna give that boy that Muslim name there are names in the good book strong apostle names there are names in the phone book strong regular names and the suburbs I was a minority my middle American classmates asked now is it Idris is it Idris is it Isidore is it Ivan is it Iggy how about I just call you I how about I just call you E how about I just call you something other than your name age 11 I asked my mom if I can change my name to something else Mark Tony Sean something else being named Idris in North America will arrest people you must grow patience that's so unusual that's mad exotic it sounds Turkish it sounds Greek are you a Muslim age 16 two Arab dudes come to my register they get big eye when they see my name tag they're curious how the name made its way to a target in suburban Michigan disappointed when I tell him about the orange book called African names some 10 years some 10 years later I'm in the Middle East where they pronounce the name beautifully not all straightened and flattened given it a joyful bounce Idris is a prophet in the Quran age 20 I'm new to Chicago I'm clean the cigarette butts out of a restaurant urinal for minimum wage my boss is a big stereotype of a man with like a turban neck and a sport jacket and tinted glasses and a thick as Mike did cuz must ask Chicago accent he unzips at my urinal the one I just cleaned and then he says I'm gonna remember that name of yours how about I just call you any and my name became Eddie tell his assistant suggested he stopped for fear I would claim cultural insensitivity the gentleman from the UK tells me the Welsh have a myth there's Maracos mule entries the jazz world Idris Mohammed televisions Idris elbow what does it mean philosophic cashier what does it mean prophetic cleaner of urinals how do you say it what does it mean where does it come from I call myself Idris it's like my grandma says it but she's probably not saying it right all storytellers engage with the past just like most of the stories we got when kids they start once upon a time we honor and bring with us our influences we work with improving traditions creators are all beholded in some way to the greats and the so-called greats canonized and fed to us in school as we continue to whoa I said something controversial it was as we continue to continue we are the collective memory of our circles and the collective memory of our country of our world blending the past and the present utilizing the various cultural artifacts of our lived experience turning them into symbol and metaphor which is to say that the past is always there whether you like it or not the jazz musician the modern dancer the painter the actor all develops their own specific mode of looking back and looking forward now in the field of crafting stories I found the best rule is to always make it personal and I don't mean autobiographical per se it's not all about you but it kind of is and I believe a regular practice of self reflection is important even as you try to find the truth in another's celebrations and tragedies the ability to access and find that truth related to your own experience is critical you guys know that book where the wild things are okay so when the author that when they were gonna make that book into a film the author and spike Jones got on the phone and and he told spike Jones listen just just make sure it's personal to you I tell your story and use my book as you know as the landscape but make sure it's personal so for myself the way that I engage in a practice of regular self reflection was through hip-hop hip-hop music and slam poetry community engage me in a regular practice of looking back in my own experience and try to make art out of it now I'm not necessarily here to tell you to all become hip-hop artists though I don't know be the worst idea but it certainly works for me hip-hop this personal clarification hip-hop is built purely on a foundation of cultural rally and I take my cues from the DJ in the turntable list of hip-hop's analog early days when one had to tape and splice completely repurposed technology for one's own means in other words it started with the vision and then the tools were more to fit that vision as were the venues and as were the audience the DJ's initial job used to just be to let the record play talk a little bit and sell products but in the highly competitive landscape of the 1970s West and South Bronx New York you had to stand out and out of this comes the invention of the breakbeat a breakbeat is a rhythmic musical loop born from the breakdown section of a funk soul disco jazz or rock record basically it's the part like the chorus comes in and then the bridge happens and then it just goes down like you know that one song when they go Anyway, you know that's dance to the music that's that sly family stone anyway so that that's like a breakdown right and the break So, in the analog 70s, these crafty South and West Bronx DJs isolated the breakdown sections of the popular record and employed a second turntable and this new fable doohickey called a crossfader to live loop the breakdowns that move the dancers to tear up the floor. A breakbeat is that driving rhythm in which b-boys pop and lock and windmill, in which MCs ride, call and await the response. It's a dynamic crossroad of lemon language and the foundation of hip-hop performance. These breakbeats pulled from the funk and soul records that spun around my house growing up were now disfigured and new in an exciting way. They drew me to the page with a furious, reckless abandonment. I was using the straightforward rhyme schemes taught to me through fairy tales and nursery rhymes but abusing them with the sounds and the attitude of the day. You guys want a little demonstration? Yeah. Well, you know, unfortunately, I don't have like a beat or anything. Man, does anybody out here know how to beatbox anybody? I don't know how to beatbox anybody. Hey, you sir, the jacket, come on up here. Yeah, you. Hey, give a round of applause for this guy. Give a round of applause next to me, buddy. So you said you could give me a little beatbox for us? I can. Alright, cool. Let's do something. 30, what he got? What he got? What he got? What he got? They'll ask people to say this is the art of the tongue and the wind from the lungs. Since man has begun, lyricism had grown. Ever since I was young, punk deep rooted, call it sick. Because it came up through that soil polluted rap music. Just all this hate is outrageous. Don't they know what's contagious? You can't ignore these beats because it's what God gave us. So while we're panel discussing, I'll take you to the bus and the kids is outside making up something that wasn't. It started out with the dust before the shops, tall tales on the money. Or the month of the year. The process of doing all these theater conferences together. Because you know, Brian's a very in-demand talent. And so we see each other out there in the field at the conferences and whatnot. And we said, hey, we should start a band and we should only exclusively perform at theater conferences. So together, Brian Keatt and I make up the band called the Fantastic Boom. It's not, thank you God, it could have collapsed. But that's fine. No, we're not just a band. It's more of a movement really. Anyway, so let's talk about you here. So I have a few things. You know, I watched a lot of TED Talks in preparation for this. And what's big at the TED Talks is people like to like bullet point number like boom, boom, boom. I have that. I have like six things. Little, little do-dads, bits, do-dads, little things. So the first thing, and this again, these are the views of myself. The attitude of the little girl does not necessarily, you know, don't make them guilty by association. This is just Idris Goodman talking. Alright, so the first thing is that nothing is sacred. Well, obviously like your family and stuff like that. But like, as far as like in the field of arts, right, nothing is sacred. And do not waste your time at all chasing the idea of originality, okay? Nothing is original. Well, the Colonel's Herbs and Spices recipe definitely was pretty original. Now, everything that you're doing is a continuation. You're picking up the ball and carrying it further, right? You're taking the torch and you're carrying it until your arms get weak and you've got to pass it off to somebody else. And I'm not necessarily condoning theft or even homage or duplication, but rather repurposment of the pieces and the foundation. The viewer, the beholder, gives the object value. A holy text is paper with symbols on it. The believer gives it value. We make objects in hope that someone will believe in them. And by believing in them, they'll believe in us. August Wilson said we should be writing better plays than check-off. And I think he's right. Not to throw shots at check-off. I mean, he's dead and everything. It's true, look it up. He's dead. He's dead. Number two, experience is bottomless. Everything has to be personal. I highly encourage this through writing memoirs or essay or personal reflection. As I said, this is what being a rapper did for me. The bad report card, the day she said no, the day I bought those shoes. Seriously, I wrote a rhyme about the day I bought some shoes. In my on again, off again forays into recording and distributing music. I made an album called Break the Palms. You can get it on Amazon, go check it out iTunes too. At the time I wrote it, I was living on an apple farm in Corralas, New Mexico. No more of the insane, kinetic Chicago life. I was chilling. And my friends in Chicago said, what are you going to write about now? Apples? My friends were kind of jerks. But actually being taken out of the chaotic environment helped me see clearer the paths and roads upon which I traveled. Three, everything is a remake. Politics, social issues, family issues, personal woes, the clothes, words and consequences have been altered but the conflicts are the same. The blues man, the opera singer and the rapper all use their voice to lament and mourn. We want, we desire, we fuck up royally. We tell ourselves stories in order to live. We tell ourselves stories in order to live and we want another story every night. And just like when we were kids, we wanted every night but a little different each night. Whether or not someone calls you a hack or contrived or cliche is a matter of your execution. Four, embrace the remix. American artists are remixers by nature, especially those of blended culture. Bruce Lee was a remix artist. James Brown was a remix artist. Jean Michel Basquiat was a remix artist. We're a country in which the entire world is represented. The entire world's influence is within us. Yet we are still developing our own, still recognizing and dismantling the divisions. But we are Americans and we make remixes. Five, culture is key. You all have culture. You all have stories and legacies drawn from your culture. In Remix 38, a show I wrote alongside Basil Cremendile, Justin Kurizkis, Amelia Roper and Jackie Sybil's Jewelry. We utilize bits and pieces from actor theater of Louisville's past to create works, much like the beatmaker takes drums from a certain track, horn samples from another track and pulls them together. I highly recommend you watch the documentary Copyright Criminals, it's on Netflix. Storytellers lift structures, tropes, archetypes and symbols. Number six, read the book Can't Stop Won't Stop by Jeff Chang. And even though I'm telling you, you don't have to be a hip-hop artist, unless you're smart. I'm just kidding, you're all very smart. Although I'm not telling you to become a hip-hop artist, I definitely, definitely, definitely recommend you study it. Hip-hop is a true mirror of our complicated country. It is brash and idealistic, criminal-minded, spiritual, hungry and unpretentious. And just like that of this country, traces of the entire world are woven into its fabric. Jamaican DJ culture, Japanese electronics, African drums, Chinese kung fu flicks, Spanish slang, the English language. This is why, when only in its infancy, it quickly circled the world. In just 40 years, there are now multiple generations of formidable rappers, beatboxers, beatmakers, term table-ists, visual artists, DJs, fashion designers and entrepreneurs on every continent and every corner you can imagine. Though I teach hip-hop courses at a college, I am first and foremost a practitioner. Therefore, my main aim is for students to create. And it's deeper than having a fun time with assonant sounds. The true goal is to spark an urgency to represent. A good student of hip-hop will constantly represent for their community, either given or chosen, and re-present themselves. On the song public service announcement from his eighth album, Jay-Z begins with the line, allow me to reintroduce myself. Even at the height of his popularity, Jay-Z restates who he is, because he knows who he is is in constant flux. Hip-hop is concerned with the present, with relevance. A good hip-hop student will draw from his or her personal well and express it with an urgency of the noun. Express it like someone has a gun to their head. The hip-hop artist of course seeks wide recognition, but first must receive validation from his or herself and community. This culture, unlike that of mainstream entertainment, dares you to announce that you are somebody. It is a call for you to talk in your own vernacular, embrace your accent, your big hips, your lisp, your kinky hair or non-existent savings account. It dares you to mythologize yourself. No matter the images projected by the chart-toppers, hip-hop is still a folk art driven by the impulse to seek better and fresher modes of expression. Acknowledging and building upon, but certainly not feeling eclipsed by, that which came before. Hip-hop celebrates a vast array of cultural iconography, but holds nothing sacred. After all, this culture started when the DJ touched the record instead of letting it just play as intended. He didn't do it purely out of defiance. The DJ did it because he saw a fresher, better way to get the dancers moving. And the dancers met his gesture with better fresher moves. It is one of the most beautiful origin stories this country can claim. And now it's time for y'all to tell your origin story. Thanks, y'all, for listening. Yes, I definitely would love to hear from y'all now, and we can do questions if you want to do questions, but if you just want to talk or just share a thought that you had during the speech or even this morning before you got here, whatever you want to do. We have someone in the front row. I just wanted to say, coming from the perspective of someone who was born in America, I don't really have any type of cultural roots that I can really find. I really like the last thing you said, that it's one of the better origin stories that this country has, because it's something that America has created and not just taken from another country. So I thought that was really, really cool. Right, just, and you know what, I want to say something about this too. I think oftentimes, I'm going to keep it a hundred with y'all, okay? I think a lot of times, those who don't perceive to be from blended cultures, which is to say, white folks, let's keep it a hundred. I often feel like, well, I don't, you know, what's my, you know, but to me that's, every artistic process begins with a question, right? Everybody came from somewhere, y'all. Y'all didn't just like, come out of the ground, like, you know, like just like, cool. Where is the store box, you know? This cinnamon scone, new Bruce Springsteen CD. I can go on this for like an hour or two. Secret, DSW. Anyway, I have no idea what I was talking about before, but, no, seriously, on the strength, like, that is the work. I mean, you know what I mean? Like, we all got to do our job, right? And I believe, I'm definitely, as I get older, you know, as you get older, the things, like, you actually get over less. Like, the things and the struggles start to, you get more sensitive to things, really, in a way, because you start to understand the meaning of things, and the valuable things, the older you get, and it gets harder sometimes to let things go. But I think you also get way more optimistic and hopeful as well. And one of the hopeful things that I have is that we really start to get, like, we really start to get to know each other. This is not about, like, some benetton, like, we are a world, like, you know, diversity, whatever, whatever, but that we really get to know and value all of the different walks and stories, you know, that exist in our nation so that we can own who we are. Like, we all are this. I'm also, you know, the Chicano guy in LA. I'm also the white dude in Billings, Montana. I'm also the Native American, you know, in Arizona. I'm also on all of these things, because these are my people. This is my nation. And so all of our job is to tell our stories. And you do have a story. You do come from somewhere. You know, you may not like it. It may not be sexy or interesting or whatever. But that's your job as a storyteller. You got to harden it up. You know what I mean? Like, when rap started, like, when nobody tried to hear no, like, ghetto stories, like, you know, Motown music and all that stuff, it was all dressed up. Everyone was trying to see more sophisticated. You know, black music was always like, we're trying to, we're showing them that we're sophisticated. Duke Ellington, all these guys were all dressed up and they were straightening their hair and all that. And rap was like, we're here, like, we're actually, this is who we actually are, but we're not, there's nothing, there's, look how beautiful we are. Look how beautiful we are. And that's a brave thing to do and that's what you, that's what we all got to do. So you do come from somewhere. You do have something to talk about. You need to tell your situation. Because I don't know it. And I bet it's awesome. You guys, yeah, you were trained at the Mike Institute. All right, when you hear it over, Mike, you got to hit it like this. You see what I'm doing? You guys watching? Got it. I was real sticky. I look at my chair. Is that cool if I sit out? Yeah, that's fine. I'm sitting here and like, as I started answering questions, I just got like lowered down. That's a very interesting point. It's the luminati again. What's going on? I'm just starting out and like, I have, you know, constant like uncertainty. I don't know, you know, what I'm doing from the next couple of years. And I was just wondering, you said at the beginning that you still feel that you're a work in progress and you still feel like you don't know what you're doing all the time. That feeling of like uncertainty ever really go away. Or is it ever like, I'm a summary for asking now? I think that's a great question. You guys are doing great on the question front so far. Here's the thing. And this also comes from, I recently became a parent a couple of years ago. No, don't clap. I don't need applause for that. I need a hug down there. But you start to embrace the chaos and where you start to take this sort of zen like comfort and the inevitability of not knowing and the inevitability of that there will always be uncharted territory. And so you start to just get comfortable. Like that's just what it is. That's just life. And that's why you do what you do. You know, that means you're a real artist. That means you care because you're like, I don't know. Like, but you got to like love that curiosity. You got to love that uncertainty. It's deep. Well, but it really comes just from, you just got to keep making the work, man. That's it. You got to keep making the work. Surround yourself with people that you respect, that are smart and who's craft you respect. And just work your ass off, man. And know that sometimes you're going to fail. And that's great. Failure is, you learn more from failure than success. Like for me, you know, like I just like keep knocking stuff out the park. You know, so like, it's really hard for me because like, I'm not like learning nothing. It's like everything I do is like, it's like awesome. You know? Yeah. Yeah, man. So, so I don't know if that answers your question exactly, but yeah, just, it's a beautiful thing, man. It's a beautiful thing. And that just means you care. The people, you know, the people, the people who, who don't accept that and like, don't aren't comfortable with that. Those are the people who quit. You know, those are people who need to know and like, just get intimidated by it, you know, so. The only artist who never asks those questions and is just completely comfortable with it is Samuel L. Jackson. Samuel L. Jackson is chilling. He's just like, yep, this is what I do. Playwrights in history have written about, you know, very controversial subjects. So I just kind of wondering like, what advice would you give to like, playwrights that are writing about controversial subjects and, you know, a lot of, like, particularly everyone in here that's from Kentucky, like, well, they're going to know the Bible Belt. And sometimes they're going to write about issues that people don't want to hear about. And that's hard to deal with. Sometimes I was just kind of wondering, like, how do you deal with that? Well, I heard some, I was a, I subscribed to the playwright Christopher Diaz. He wrote the Labyrinth Entrance to Chattanooga. I subscribed him into my class a couple of weeks ago and he was talking to the students. And he said, he told this little anecdote about when Tony Kushner came in and spoke to his class when he was at NYU, I believe. And he said that Tony Kushner told him, ultimately, all we're doing is writing about relationships. So that's really, that's really the thing to focus on. You know, it's like, you're writing about relationships first and foremost. And if you always focus on that, it doesn't really matter, like, the milieu of, you know, that you're working within, that these relationships are taking place in. So as long as you're writing about those relationships an audience would go anywhere with you, you know what I'm saying? And I always love that, like, I always love, I mean, one of the things that, like, bugs me a little bit about, you know, it really grinds my gears about the industry is there's a little bit of this fear of, people get too focused on the milieu. They get too focused on the dress, like, what jacket the play is wearing. And to me, the whole point is like, if I can believe in, like, kings and castles and swords and people speaking in old English, like, I'll go anywhere. Like, an audience will go anywhere. As long as the play has a foundation of those relationships, you know, we'll go anywhere. We will watch a movie about personified children's toys for, you know, we'll go see three of those movies and we'll be like crying because, like, that is to relate. Like, I love that moment in Toy Story 3 where, no, stop crying. Yeah, that movie made, like, $500 million by itself. It just kept, it was one guy who would five million by time. So, it's there's that moment at the end where they're like, oh, I'm a spoiler if you haven't seen it, but I know how y'all seen it. So, there's that moment at the end where they're like, on the incinerator, you know, and it's looking like they're not gonna make it and they just been looking at each other. Like, just looking at each other, like, skin's starting to melt. And they're looking at each other like, damn, y'all. We've been like, shit. It just makes you think about the whole journey you've had with these people. So, anyway, it's like, that's what we do. Like, that's our heart. Like, we grew up on stories about, like, princes and frogs and dragons and all this kind. You know what I mean? That's what we, that's what we do. And that's, as audience members, we want to go there, you know, so, as long as you just keep it about the relationships, man, it doesn't, it doesn't matter, you know? At Key University and our theater department is putting on a new works festival this year. And I'm just... And you like me to give you a play. Absolutely, I would love to give you a play. It's a solo show. Yeah. So, it's my friend here. Boom. Into, um, we're not putting on somebody else's work through acting or directing. It's our own work going out there and it's our own stories. And all about stories. I love the moth. I love slam poetry. I'm all about people's personal stories. And I know that they can be so powerful because when we give ourselves permission to say, this is who I am, like what you were saying, we give other people permission to say, yeah, this is who I am. However, I have seen some... I've seen some poets. I've seen some personal storytellers. And I watch them and I say, man, this person's all wrapped up in himself and I don't feel let in. I feel like they're just kind of doing a lot of naval gazing and ooh, this is me, this is me. I'm so... And so when I'm creating this piece, I'm always asking myself, man, is this just pretentious? Am I just full of myself here? How do you find that balance? And how do you make sure that you're always engaging the audience and bringing them into you and that you're affecting them in some way versus just kind of sitting in your own stuff? Word. It's deep. It's complicated. But really, I mean, I think A, that just comes through just being... Just always really being super critical of going back to the purpose. Like what is my purpose here? Why do people need to hear this story? Because even when you're writing as yourself, you're writing as a version of yourself, an aspect of yourself. You're creating a character or persona. And so you're not really writing you. You're always writing a character to a lesser degree. And so it's always being a little bit of that self-critical, dramaturgical critic of yourself as well. Like in making sure... And listen, if you have an awareness of that, you're probably not going to participate in that because you know what you don't want to do. And that's the first step right there. It's like I definitely don't want to be like homie over there, you know? And so it just comes from that process of making work and then analyzing the work yourself. Having a circle of people that you trust who will keep it 100 with you. It's just process. It's just going to take time to figure out. But also too is this thing about execution. It's all about execution. It's like, yeah, we all have a story to tell, but you have to learn the craft of storytelling. You have to figure out effective modes and effective techniques for storytelling. It gets into the execution of it. That's where the artistry comes from. And there are a lot of busters out there. Busters, they walk among us. They suck up funding. They take up space, you know? They're just their clowns. And you've got to like, destroy them. With your awesomeness. Your light must push out the dark. Dopeness must push out the whack. Let the church say, amen. We're going to pass around the plate. The ghetto. And hip-hop kind of helped me through a lot. And it helped me, you know, develop into the person that I am. And so I wanted to know, like, who was like some of your biggest inspirations in the hip-hop community, and how to help you through things. Cool. I'm really excited. I'm really excited. I got this commission from Interact, you know, Interact Theater in Philly. So I'm really excited. I've never been to Philadelphia before. So I'm really excited to go and work on and play there. The hip-hop question. Man, it's hard for me to answer because it's not hard for me to answer, but I'm trying not to keep you here all afternoon. But, you know, I was in the 70s, baby. I was born in 77. So hip-hop music, you know, has sort of grown and developed, you know, I've grown and developed, like, simultaneously. So, you know, so many artists, you know, along the way, but, you know, I would say right now, I'll just tell you right now, I won't feel it a lot. Maybe that'll be easier. But I really love that Kendrick Lamar album, Good Kid Man City. I think it's, like, such a beautiful piece of art. Like, just like an album. It's the first album in years that I've had to sit down and be like, because I heard songs, and I was like, eh. But when I listened to the entire thing as an album, as an experience, it just, oh, like blew my mind. So, I'm really feeling that Kendrick Lamar album. I also really like, oh man, I'm trying to, he was like, the roots are my favorite, you know, I'm Philadelphia again. The roots are my favorite music group, period. So I'm always inspired by them and their work. On the theater tip, you know, Danny Hawk, who did that, played Jails Hospitals and Hip Hop, a soloist. Jails Hospitals and Hip Hop was a huge one. It was a huge one for me. Just to see, like, someone in the theatrical landscape like, bringing this sort of Hip Hop energy into that realm, but not in an authentic or, like, contrived way, like in this very authentic way, it was really inspiring. So, yeah, I would say those, that's the best I got for right now. I'm also falling back in love with Notorious B.I.G. too. Just because, like, I love, like, he's so good. Like, it's like the first lines of a song. He's like the master of, like, the first line. You know, it was all a dream. I used to read Word of Magazine, relax and take notes, hot, sick of it, your average. Live from Bedford Stuyvesant, the liveest one. Anyway, this is very exciting to me, okay? Maybe you disagree. Question. When did you feel like you found your current voice when it really solidified for you in your writing? See, I feel like that's a trick question. You're like, when did you find your current voice? Well, you said before that we're always reinventing ourselves. I didn't want to lock you in this sort of thing. Appreciate that. I'll say this. I think artists work in, there's always a new door. Like, you go through a door, and you spend some time in a certain room for a while, and then you discover there's a new door, and then you spend some time in another, you know, it's like when visual artists have their blue period or their cubist period or whatever, you know, you like go through these different doors. And so, I would say when Howie got on, when I first premiered Howie got on, or first started working on Howie got on in like 2010, 2011, that was sort of the beginning of a new chapter for me as an artist. Right now, I would say that I'm beginning the process of moving through another door. But that whole time was really about really getting deeper and embracing even deeper, you know, the well of my lived experience, like really to the letter, like really digging into those details and not being afraid of being like, yeah, this is my story, you know what I mean? I think there's a weird thing of being like, no, this wasn't about me at all. I'm that brilliant of an artist that like, ah, could write the voice of this, you know, donkey, because I'm so, you know, it's like, no, like this donkey is my dad. Like, you know what I mean? Like really, no shots, no shots. But like really, really just like, just really getting into that well of lived experience and like owning it, you know? So that's kind of where I've been in the last few years. Wait here. Don't worry, don't worry. Last night, tell the people, be honest. A little bit about being a teacher and what you like about being a teacher, maybe what the most exciting thing is for you. And also what's really difficult about being a teacher for you? Well, one of the things I love about teaching is the students are brilliant, you know? They come up with great ideas, but like, they don't, like, nobody knows them, so I can like take all their ideas, and put them on and they'll be like, hey, that was mine, and I'm like, I'm sorry, you can't get in, you're not on the list. I have drink tickets. No, seriously, I'm not real. I mean, listen, it's a cliche, but it makes me a better writer, so like hands down, because it forces me to, I gotta have something to talk about. So it forces me to like, to always be thinking about, oh, I think I, like, you know what being a teacher made me appreciate and understand serial roles, right? Whereas like, as a playwright, I was just like, no, it's so whimsical, blah, blah, blah, you know? I'm a serial role, it's watching right now, like, what, this, my, what? I'm just being a serial role, it's definitely not watching right now. And like, beef, and it was like some hip hop, like, playwright and beef. Like, who this bitch? Man, you gonna say my name? It's on, son. Hashtag, serial role, don't play. It's helped me appreciate more playwright, like, it's helped me, it's broadened my horizon, and I've learned more, because this exposed me to playwrights, that I'm like, I wanna illustrate this technique or idea, and this writer does this brilliantly. This writer does this brilliantly, you know? So like, Sarah Rule's writing taught me all about motif in playwrighting, like, that she works in these beautiful motifs, you know? Which again, like, you learn traditional playwriting structure, it's all this sort of very rigid, very, like, hyper-masculine, like, rigid, like, control-freaky, string-burgy, borderline, misogynist, like, I'm insane. Pintreer, I put it like, and she instead works in these beautiful sort of motifs that are, you know, more cyclical in nature, you know what I mean? So it's just broadened my own horizons. That's one. The other thing is, like, you know, just, I'm collaborate, I don't look at it as like, you are the students and you will sit here, and I will tell you what it is. I look at them as collaborators, as fellow artists, and it's like, I've been doing this longer than they have, but to me, it's just like, that's just superfluous, you know what I mean? So they just, they constantly drop gems, they, I get excited, you know, I get really excited, like, truthfully, when we're, like, reading their scripts and there'll be a line, a scene, or a concept. Even if it's a concept not executed well, just a concept is, like, exciting. Like, we had a student who brought in a play which was, like, it was, like, this crazy, like, 1980s style, like, cocaine, like, paper heist, boat, like, it was on a boat. It was, like, this total, like, fifth of town, black widow type main character who was, like, killing dudes, like, you know, she had, like, all the guys were in love with her, she was just like, you're ugly, I hate you, do this for me, and they would do it, and she would, like, kill him if she didn't do it. And we were, like, riveting, we were so excited, the whole class was like, we were all helping her re-write it, and, like, you know, I was like, let's just, like, kick-start a campaign, like, make this play right now, it was tripped out, you know, but we were so excited, and so I love that, too. It's just when, like, everyone just gets excited around an idea, just in that creative headspace. So I see it as a real honor and a privilege to be able to do it and to have people put that, you know, that trust in me. So I think every artist should also, I think everybody should teach as well, like, if you make art to me, it's the same thing. You know, it's just, it's more collaboration. South and Galveston, Texas, there's a lot of stereotypes that come with living in Texas, and you do hip-hop music, and there's a lot of stereotypes that come with that. How do you create work without people interpreting it or falsely installing the stereotypes of your background? None you can do about it. It's just gonna happen, man. People, you know, people, listen, I'm going on record here, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart. Some people just gotta die. They should speed up the process. Soon to be coming out of college, how do you keep that uniqueness and, you know, your charisma and everything? How do you keep that while still, like, allowing the professional world to, like, shape you into a, you know, professional? Well, you know, I was not always this unique and interesting and weird process. No. I mean, listen, you know, when you get out of school, you just gotta keep, you just gotta, like, just be about that life, you know? You gotta just work and, like, collaborate, and, you know, this is a process, you know? And, you know, I think just experiencing, being open to things, but also sort of getting to that place where you're able to say no to things, you know, comfortably and know why you're saying no to them, but also being very open to stuff and really, like, listening, you know, I'm still learning that. I'm really trying to learn how to be, like, a better, more present listener and trustee of my collaborators, but also be more discerning about who to collaborate with, you know? So, I think just being open, being well-rounded, you know, trying to give yourself a diverse experience as much as possible, seeing the beauty in, you know, like, getting over this thing about, like, this is the art that I make and that I like and things that aren't that art, are lesser arts, you know, which is a thing I suffer from a lot of times, too. But it's that, it's that sort of, like, that's your job as a creative person, like, is to be open to all these things, because most people aren't, most people in the world are closed off, especially in this country, so your job is to be the opposite of that to other perspectives, other ways, bring them gently into these other, you know, at first, gently at first, and then being like, pow-ow, your face, son, you know where you can run, I got you, got you, figuratively. Yeah. I mean, listen, the short answer is just hip-hop. That's what you're saying. Study hip-hop in New York. And Idris, I think that brings us to time. Okay. Hey, gang. Listen, I'm teaching a master class. It sounded weird to say. I'm teaching a master's class at 12 o'clock. If y'all want to come get your pin game on, just writing exercises or whatnot. So come to that if you have the inclination of the time. But otherwise, enjoy your day, enjoy the rest of the festival. I'll see you at some shows. Thanks for listening. I work at Colorado College, but we're in an open relationship, so don't tell Colorado College that, though. So if any of you want to come visit your school and come do a thing or talk or rap or not rap or listen to you rap, highlight your boy. I'm on Facebook. I got a web site. I'm on the Twitter's and all that. Face to grams. Come find me, say what up, though. I'm available. Peace.