 years, and I miss her so much. There were two kinds of convenings. There were the national ones, like the ink weather and the carnival, but then we also held regional ones. There was a regional convening in New York, one in Seattle, Pacific Northwest, one in Dallas, and most recently the last one of that cycle was Miami, held in July, and something that we learned, we learned quickly out of coming out of Seattle and have refined sort of the difference between a regional convening and a national one, that are both under the auspices of the LTC, is learning how to, I mean, the way everything must prioritize the regional conversation. You know, folks are coming from those regions, they're sitting on the steering committee, there's still like, the amount that you have to really think about going deeply and letting the convening come from the community, rather than us bringing it to them. It was super important, and so like everything from consider like the way that the invites go out, and or the emails that the partners that we choose to go with first, to the way that the calendar is set, because in Seattle was also the first time that the LTC was thinking about strategic planning, and so there was an in-person steering committee meeting that was planned, but what ended up happening was that the national convening took up a giant slot on the calendar, and so the regional folks, we kind of brought them in, and then there was like a closed door, and then there was like going back into it, and over time we figured out how to keep that balance better of letting, continuing to hold to the regional space, and taking advantage of bringing people together from the steering committee in person, because a lot of our work is done virtually on Zoom. I'm fully remote, I like take calls on trains and coffee shops in my kitchen and everywhere, and so yeah, so over time I think refining all of those things, there was so much learning, we have a document of wisdom that just accumulates all of this, the Abigail setup, and so... A document of wisdom, that's so good. We're going to pass some mic to Idris, but I want to name that Latinx Theater Commons in some way comes out of some really old school organizing traditions of Latinx communities, and I just personally feel like y'all are way ahead sometimes, but because you're able to draw on those traditions, those organizing traditions that are so historically powerful, and just a lot to learn from, so please pass the mic to Idris, and we're gonna, I know you're here to represent all the things. So I'm glad we're at evolution, because I don't have much history to rely upon. I'm not sure the age of the organizations that I'm representing, and I'm not a member of any of them, except for BTN, and I think now the Black Theater Commons, because on the West Coast, there's a bit of a disconnect from a lot of the Black Theater organizations, which exist either in the middle or on the East Coast, and Johnny spoke to the multiculturalism that we enjoy out here, I think has us focusing a bit more on the work itself from project to project as opposed to looking at coalition building. I think our only coalition here is Attain, which just began as the Association of Theaters of African Degends, except for Manitou Takamo again, but again, BACCE is not a part of that either, because we tend to veer more into the queer community, so our alliances are more inside the queer community to be able to work, and we just produced El Rio, which was a bilingual Latinx production, and we are in the mission, so we are quite naturally more focused on the project. That, I think, needs to change, and being one of the older traditions of theaters of color, Black Theater, we have a lot, I think, to contribute to each other, and I think that once we're looking now for the West Coast delegation to attend Black Theater Commons, which is happening in the summer, and the Black Theater Network, which is also happening the next summer, I do know Black Theater Commons has its origins in August Wilson's essay, The Ground On Which I Stand, and that is one of the guiding documents that, and so he created that out of the Black Theater Commons at Dartmouth, and so the Commons is, again, returned to Dartmouth last year, and will come again, I think they started in May of 2016, they revitalized it. But again, on the West Coast, we don't even, as a, on mass, attend the National Black Theater Festival, which is the largest organization, I think, convening of people of color. I think the number went into the tens of thousands, two years ago, or three years ago now, and well, Timmy, I thought Biaque and I were there, and we're death of Jones, and Don Lacey were there, we were the only people from Northern California that were there, and there were a few people from Southern California that we hooked up with, but largely that gathering has happened on the East Coast, unbeknownst to a lot of Black Theater practitioners here, so we're just starting to wake up, but it's a great gathering, and I think a lot of the coalitions that we have have happened at night over drinks at that place, so I think one of the things, every time I see a festival of people of color, I can tell, a lot of theater commons I see reorient, I'm like, ah, we need, we need that, we need so many more, and part of that yearning, I think, is just for space to be together, to know who each other is, what we're working on, and because the National Black Theater Festival is seven days long, and as people are there for the duration of Suisse and Salem, there's quite nothing else to do, that we have a lot of time to do coalition building, and so I wanted to give a shout out to Monica and Dunu who asked me to come here, who is, who's convening the BTC next year, and has asked me to help her identify delegation from the West Coast so that we can become more involved, and I think we're at the place where we want to reinvent the wheel somewhat, because I feel there, and Monica and I talked about this, that there are Black people in all y'all's faces, right? So there are Black Asians, there's Black Middle Easterners, there's Black Latina, and they, a lot of times end up in our space without those connections being made across culture, and so one of the things that Monica at the Craft Institute has done, two things she's doing, one is the Black Vitality Commission is looking to bring together leaders of all these different Black coalitions, and I've been a part of a few at the August Wilson Center, one at Amherst, one that was at Penn State, this was about 10 or 15 years ago, and part of it is that we are, we all went back to our little holes, and we never met again. Are we subsumed into these other groups? So there can be a, there could be a too generous of a coalition, like we have too many, and then we get spread out so then, or one falls by the wayside and we jump on the other, and so the Black Vitality Commission is looking to bring together the leadership and to create programs, actual programs around diaspora, which would include Black Latino, Black, Native, Black, and so there's actually, she told me there's an African diaspora state that has been created, a state like Connecticut that is going to have like a governor and a full, so that the diaspora has an actual home to call their own, which is really something amazing, and then the other thing that she's looking at is cross-cultural collaboration, so there's one of the reasons we gather is to protect our work, is to protect our work, and I would say here in the Bay Area a lot of Black plays get done, but we have one historically Black theater, two actually, one which is a Reinhansbury, which lost their leadership about a decade ago, and it's been struggling ever since, and a little known theater called Lower Bottom Players, one by Ayodele and Zynga in Oakland, in West Oakland, who has created, done the entire August Wilson cycle twice, I believe, and yeah, so, and then my theater company, and so we call ourselves Black also, so I think Black has a good one. African-American Shakespeare, yeah. Oh, African-American Shakespeare, thank you, African-American Shakespeare, and so those are the four companies that exist here on the West Coast, connecting to the larger, both to the larger Black networks, but also this idea of cross-cultural collaboration and the protection of the work, and so there's been a lot of controversy about Black work being done at White theaters here, and so why not entrust the work cross-culturally, why not entrust the Black work to the Latin theater company, why not entrust the work to to Rina, why not Rina, entrust the work to MTC, so that we have some kind of community agreements and principles that we're upholding and we don't have to create this kind of energy around a White theater company receiving funding, receiving audiences or, you know, all the kind of what we call vampirism that tends to happen intentionally or not around the the structures that are here and how we have to work within them, and so Craft Institute is creating a rolling premiere and is looking actually for work like El Rio, which has Atatata Black, Seminole character is leading a Guatemalan refugee across the border and is written almost entirely in Spanish and has some Gullah words and I'm forgetting the Guatemalan language that the name was a little bit, it had it was it was tri-lingual actually Yeah, thank you. And so we embarked on that work because why theaters weren't able to sort of understand, they kept wanting to make decoders or into like five or six characters when it was really clearly a tradition that as an African-American I understood that El Rio, the river, was embodying these characters, it was moving the action, and the number of theaters that Andrew Sancho's playwright sent it to kept trying to collapse it and fix it into a western a more westernized structure, and so it ended up in my lap because I kept saying it's percolate just the way it is, it's percolated the way and he said are you sure because like so-and-so they're on a sending a rep to this and so I think that this rolling premier network might be a great place at the Kraft Institute to start to look at how we can be more inclusive in our interpretations and even in how we're perceiving the projects that we're perceiving across each other's culture. This is great. You said so much, Idris, this is so fabulous. I want to just, I don't know, I want to lift up some things first of all going back to some of the challenges that you needed in the beginning about how particularly with black theater the regional differences are really big because the history, the regional histories of African-Americans in this country are so different in different parts of the country, right? And so it was really interesting to hear you talk about California and how the experience here is different but also the kind of regional isolation that can happen and how we all we all need to be mindful of that as we're trying to create truly national coalitions. How do we do that that really is accessible and inclusive to everyone, right? And I think Kata's had that challenge as well. But then that, but you've quite organically led us into the next part of the conversation that I want to have which is about how do we across identity groups, across networks support each other's work because you quite rightfully said that you know what often happens with work by artists of color is that kind of predominantly white institutions are still the center of all the exchange of all the rolling premieres of all the major funding that goes into them of you know quote unquote audience development initiatives right and all that and what if we just you know to quote and grew you up in Yongo just move the center yeah move the center and we all start to work with each other yeah yeah yeah this was exactly the idea that Monica and I were talking about is that then those who were previously at the center being on the edge of all this work would have to come through us to create the work and I also want to just say that the vitality the Black Vitality Commission is also looking across platforms and so the leaders that come together are also film directors and people who are creating on YouTube and creating in other on other platforms because there's a crossover and there's also more money sometimes on the film and so how do we create these projects that go from theater to film without losing that continuity without losing that connection without losing that cultural strength that was created inside the community building space that theater is once it gets to a screenwriter's hands or in Hollywood how about if that person comes also out of our coalition and we're able to also create alternative revenue streams through that process also. Wow. That's awesome. Yeah go ahead and clap your hands. So I'm going to bring Armando and Joan back into the conversation around this this question of how are we going to work together across networks and identity groups more. Yes and understanding that we're already there. We're already in each other's community. Yeah. Identity is so complex in the 21st century. I think it's really here. Oh wait here's the mic. Oh sorry. I'm really here. I don't know how much it's like that on the but here with Campos Santo I work with Campos Santo, Joan or Suprava. We are out of maybe just how small we are maybe that we all know each other and we all love to work together that we tend to create projects that cross each other's culture in an effort to work with that person we want to work with but it also is part of our strengths. We have limited resources. We have limited spaces and so and we were born together at Campos Santo and BNPC were born together out of intersection for the arts and we have to say mothers and fathers and grandfathers and Renee Yanyez is the godfather of everybody. And so we sort of are naturally in the house together a lot with each other and so I think that we naturally do that. How can we help that become a national movement? How can that become the way we work nationally and I think this is what's the importance of why Monica wanted a West Coast delegation to be at BTC was to talk about how the project itself the project that you choose is actually the beginning of creating that cross culture. Yeah. Yeah when I think of cross culture I think Leslie Ishii and another amazing given because of her approach is so intentional. I remember her coming to she comes to as many LTC convenings as she can and walks into the room caring and being aware of the way that she's when she's visiting in a space the how that's not a neutral act and and how to like that balance or that awareness of the taking and the contribution and so I just want to raise that up and I will certainly definitely be at Kata in Hawaii and we are we're trying to figure out how to how to get the finances to send a small contingent of LTC folks too. Little plug we want to have a conversation about statehood with some Puerto Rican folks and Hawaiian folks so there are definitely things that like across our communities we can be talking need to be talking about and learning from each other on for sure. I wanted to say the you know the what you were talking about in terms of like the kind of co-creation and holding each other's work and trusting each other with that work I think it is a function of like the you know a lot of the West Coast is so multicultural and so a lot of our organizations and artists have been working together you know across those like I don't I wouldn't even say cultural divides but the commonalities. Intersectional. The intersectional yeah and and so it comes more as a natural you know it feels more natural here and so but I love the really the idea of formalizing that kind of a network in terms of really starting at the artistic basis for it you know which is the work itself because I think a lot of times in coalition building we get into these conference settings and we're so we do have to keep our you know the lines like on building infrastructure and what are those structures but at the heart of it we're all here because we love the work we're all here because we're theater makers or we we love theater and this kind of multidisciplinary like you know performance work that we all support and because we we think that that artists and culture have this intrinsic value in like our lives so so I think starting back at like the you know doing the work is a really beautiful way of just like showing rather than telling yeah I want to open it up in just a moment to audience questions and conversation but so I would like to know for in this context of us here in the Mina community being kind of at the beginning of network or coalition or alliance or consortium or we're still trying to figure out what it is common building the comments yes um from the point of view of the networks that you've been connected with like what advice would you offer to us about uh you know the chat both the coming from the challenges and also the successes like what are the things that you would say oh yeah definitely do this or definitely don't do that like some um you know some advice that you could give about this work of a network or coalition building I think it's important to have off time time for people to speak and to meet each other and to just like eat food and have cocktail and talk that's really important because sometimes we go to conferences and every day is packed with a workshop or something you want to go to and I don't mean just lunch but like an afternoon mingling down I feel like that's really important and I think being really clear and about I like that you have closed sessions I think that's really important to be able to speak openly and then I think also to the open sessions to really see who's in the room and recognize the potential of the people who are in the room who may not look like what you thought yes should be in that room yes but that you know why are you here at what's your interest I say that out of the idea to that black we open the door to whoever is interested in black people and if you have a real interest because the work is going to subvert you in that already and so you're going to be a little more blacker when you leave the room than you were when you're home and and as if we really know what that is but we have an idea we know when it walks through it's called a reason for where we know what that is but that but expansiveness and and expanding and yeah keeping that keeping it that attitude very contradictory thing but you get the LTC convenings were notoriously like jam packed when we because the Latino theater company produced the ink went to a theater festival it was four weeks long it had 19 theater companies amazing concurrently all of the companies were mixed into 10 labs so talking about getting to know each other through the work they were exchanging artistic creation methodologies with each other in those labs and in the I think it was the third weekend the there was a weekend in the middle of the festival when all of the companies are mostly all of the companies we're going to be there because there were some that were just there for the first two weeks some just for the second two weeks but we we at the LTC brought in I think it was like 60 something folks to convene at the festival so on top of the theater companies and all the artists that were part of theater companies we brought in more folks and the schedule flipped around so that everybody could see all of the shows in three days plus parties so we did get plus lunch and then John Francisco coffee was really generous and kept everybody caffeinated very little and so the yes the programmed time together but then also the unprogrammed time when folks can choose their own adventure and figure out who to have that drink with or can take time for themselves because it also becomes then a question of accessibility right those marathon days and being in dark spaces and with a lot of folks so keeping all of that in mind we we revved the engine really hard and but then figured it figured out because we're so hungry to be in these spaces with each other we want to squeeze as much time but then also honoring our human bodies everybody wanted to come we were all figured out about Spanish yes yes and yes like all the same things which is it's true like when you get into that space and when you have the privilege of of getting to design that space and having all of this um intention in the space it's like it's hard not to appropriate every single minute because it is so precious to have the time together to be in rooms where it is it is just it's like for a lot of the younger folks who come into the the kind of conference setting and it's honestly they're saying this is the first time I've been in this type of space and and so to know that's that's something that we take very seriously and want to make fun and you know beneficial to folks but there also is that thing about understanding the culture of the place that you're in which we want to leave time leave space leave ritual for if people want to engage in that until I think that's a really important thing that we like to do within kata is when we are in the place it's like really uttering you know what what what is there that that probably is unseen by most people and so I think that makes our time together really special and we can also with the spaces that we're in that we you know there's something that is of us that is left behind and that we can continue to build on so that's kind of aspirational in yeah that would be that would be the advice there's something I want to lift up about the concept of confess that's coming up in August 2020 in on Oahu in Hawaii is that it's a really interesting shift for kata because it's the first time when we're going to be in a place where indigenous culture can be centered because here on the continent we talk a lot about immigration and migration and everything shifts when we go to Hawaii and even for board members and conference planners to figure out to understand not figure out but to truly understand what does that mean and how do we do to check our check our own behavior to truly be in solidarity and truly center indigenous leadership it's a it's a really beautiful new challenge and it's also going to be full of some really complex conversations about indigeneity and colonization and immigration and all of our various very complicated histories I dream of a day actually when the national black theater festival would dare to land in africa this is about what you're saying the power I wanted to add two things that I learned from the institute of directing and ensemble creation one was about community agreements that would be another piece of advice community agreements and the other thing that happened that was profound there was that the non-millinated conversation didn't have that can you explain what does that mean for viewers the white people weren't in the room but the thought of them wasn't there we were talking about our sales only and so my advice would be to push in that direction as far as you can to lead the dominant culture out of the room and that's a way of also just rethink during everything and let me just say that's so interesting to me that you just said that because actually we didn't have white folks in the room but we had white allies who were committed to being allies in that space right and so it doesn't again it's about who who's at the center and who's who is their space for and it doesn't have to be exclusionary it has to be about we're all showing up committed to this and I'm not necessarily physically but the conversations that we have are not always about what the others are doing right yeah all right so we're going to open it up to some questions and comments from all of you who've been listening so patiently I'm not sure if you can have somebody help with running a mic thank you yeah we have about another 25 minutes to have some conversation thanks thank you I know that we're here talking about you know whatever we're going to call it coalition but I would like to know when we're going to have the American POC coalition because that sounds like what we really want in general so you know we we have really endeavored to try to build people of color comments and coalition I think we're just right now at the beginning of that but but there are like larger questions that as people of color in this country that we want to be able to rely on each other for and and you know a lot of what Idris was saying about not doing it in in like the conversation isn't centered on you know white culture white in terms of who is holding power but it's like what are we building for ourselves and so I think that that is something that beyond like building a coalition where you're in affinity with with a group you have like all this commonality with and you want to do some work that there is also that other part about reaching across coalitions in order to build something larger and I think that's the same idea that we mostly get from our own cultures and communities because we work so collaboratively together and so it's kind of like ingrained I think in a lot of us to do that but I think there are like aspirations we've heard from you know Idris about the work that they're doing around around building that also and so I think that that's that's something that I think is a big desire of a lot of folks in the room you know I want to say too that there's a little bit of trepanation in that concept because it does sort of recenter ourselves as minorities in a way as opposed to when we're at the black dash by theater festivals it's us and that I think it would want to be an organic and centered around real work and not a place where funding is parceled out or that kind of thing where it gets so so easily goes so wrong yeah well and and also if you go wrong because we don't fully understand each other's histories and current political reality is cultures and challenges yet right so I feel like there's so much work in that aspirational goal there's so much work to do uh I mean even within an identity group which isn't really an identity group it's such as Middle Eastern and North African it's it's full of so many identities or Asian-American or Latinx right or all the different identities in blackness right yeah there's so much learning to do from each other within and we need that time and we need that time to build community and to build collective power and then we also need to do that work across communities in a way I mean we carry stereotypes about each other as people of color often we have you know we have racism in anti-blackness in Middle Eastern communities right not gonna lie about that right your class right and of course other isms classism ableism all these things but I'm excited about the aspiration or also want to be like really grounded about like the work yeah that we need to do to do it well so it doesn't just go haywire so I mean in the same spirit of this conversation I really appreciate I love the idea of shifting the center of bypassing the white theater companies and turning to each other and considering a decolonized creating a decolonized space for making theater amongst all of our communities and and having these conversations with each other if you colonize the anti-racist space yeah yeah so I just wanted the complication we have here too in the Bay Area is that a lot of what we're calling white theater companies actually run by people of color yeah so what do you call is it's the same system my people black black leadership and they their place skewer towards African-American ideas sometimes because hi so I had a question I loved what you all were talking about in terms of like activating regional activity and I had a question about transparency and accountability between like a regional level and a national level and like how that structure looks for for each of you if you have any insight that would be great yeah um so uh the so before I was part of the LTC steering committee I was a co-founder along with many folks in Los Angeles of the Latino Theater Alliance of LA and we kind of modeled ourselves after the Alliance of Latino Theater Theater artists all to Chicago um and I think so um their satellites we have a lot of crossover when when I was at the LTA LA we were we were just on our own it was like the there was a plugging in to the LTC through individual members who would keep us surprised what was going on at the national level but we were we were holding our own convenings we were meeting each other in LA in our different spaces and seeing the work um so they were running in parallel or they're right now we're talking about what what it looked like for the LTC to convene a round table of the alliances where they're at now um a lot of them are in transition um several of us who were there in LA who were leading those conversations have gone off to do other things in different parts of the country um and so and in Chicago the leadership changed over as well and so we're reaching out to see what it would look like to bring each other together or to bring everyone together on a call but um there isn't there isn't a formal tether from LTC to the regional alliances except for the fact that we're a lot of the same folks in both rooms. I wanted to also say that for for us we don't have like a set structure in terms of regionally because we're working as kind of a national board um we did want to kind of really look at at regions as a way to keep in contact with our our membership or with folks who are interested in what we're doing but it's not you know not something that exists right now and when you ask about accountability I think you know that takes structure meaning people persons to to and a clear like what is the role what is the goal um in terms of like the national national part of the work it's like what are you hoping to achieve and then the the last part which is really hard to get to is how do you evaluate that you know in order to to have a system of accountability you know in general sense you have to be able to assess it like um according to the standard and so that's a really hard thing for organizations that don't have infrastructure or don't have like you know like an evaluation kind of rubric for their work um I think you know I'm sure you you've gone through this with LTC much more than like getting one of these others yeah yeah I would agree yeah I would say that there's uh not yet I think that's part of what Monica and I were talking about is not working on the region because there hasn't even been in black theater coalitions a real recognition of regionalism everybody's sort of been lumped into the idea of black theater and uh sometimes uh there there are companies I think our company included that feels a little left out of the conversation because it's it doesn't include queer work often it doesn't include African work of which we're that's a strong uh our company is strongly Nigerian queer Nigeria yeah so where do we go okay so yeah just uh to offer a different example Adi Anagavidiya on the Syrian committee uh championed the Miami convening and there hadn't been an energy to convene regionally the folks in south Florida and um that I'm aware of or that folks are aware of the in the Latinx space and so um specifically theater because I think that there had been convenings that were all arts but specifically Latinx theater and um there we going back to the idea of you leave something behind when when you convene in a space folks there were energized to form a regional alliance and um you know we we just have to be prepared to leave the necessary tools that we have for them to to self organize yeah hi um thank you all so much for for for being here and for sharing your experiences I think it's the convening has really come alive and I and I wish so much that Shannon was a part of this conversation yes um the you know the the experiences of native artists is is so important to this conversation um my question um I'm a writer based in Los Angeles and uh I wanted to know um two part question uh what your recommendations were for like upcoming conferences I know coming up so if there's any other events or gatherings that you might want to shout out or just share um and um perhaps uh why do I say perhaps um maybe some some the theaters that you could recommend uh for us to submit to so that we can we can continue this this um crossover well there's uh there's the btc the black theater college is having a darkness in the summer of 2020 and so it's the black theater network um is happening in oh I'm not I'm forgetting I'll remember before you please um also there's a women's theater festival happening in San Francisco at Bob but I'm not sure the date of that but I know that March and April March and April 2020 great thank you uh so what I said earlier we produced 11 convenings in six years we we had a separate strategic planning meeting last year in 2018 at um Prince Stendery the Fornes symposium that we produced and um there was a recommendation that came out of that to stop convening to have us a longer a longer throw in between convenings and so um our our next convening will be close to the LTC there's a we're doing a creative renewal retreat that's uh for the steering committee and advisory committee folks so that we can realign ourselves as we enter a new generation of steering committee where the a lot many of the founding the people who were there from the we are in the beginning or not they're on their committee now and um in the next couple of weeks I'll be able to tell you one that the LTC will be doing in 2021 but we'll have to leave it at that for now okay um as far as like opportunities um I think I get to you think I got two really good ones which are the national performance network is holding their annual conference December 10th through 13th in New Orleans as I spoke about like it it's off there are a lot of cultural what I call cultural centers of color to attend that conference it's really amazing this network which which really supports a lot of artists of color a lot of touring work and also folks who fall into you know what you would say is like really unseen and marginalized work and so I would check it out in the end up web the conference is open to anyone who wants to apply for that and we're we're going to be rocking that in December the other one I mentioned was the the conference in Hawaii 2020 and that is going on from August 7th through the 16th it is also open to everybody um just in terms of there's going to be like an application process coming up with a submission of work and panels the panels you know panels and work as broadly defined it is not like specifically focused I would say like the conference is not specifically focused on any any one thing except that we do know that we are highlighting the work of Native Hawaiian artists and Pacific Islander artists but also to talk about coalition building there in Hawaii and for the Pacific Rim and but there is that there's a lot of room for these kind of cross cultural and cross coalition conversations with them not so there we are taking we're going to be taking proposals for all of that starting fairly soon and I think registration is open and we have a we have a job for someone in Hawaii anyone wants to kind of rock that with us I also I just I want to shout out Kata to be it has a history of being inclusive of Middle Eastern theater and yes because we in 2016 when it was at Oregon Shakespeare Festival the National Asian American Theater Festival including a pre-conference that focused on our communities and you know it's complicated because we were looking at in that case the frame of Southwest and Central Asia which of course then leaves out North Africa so at the last good meeting in Chicago we had a panel that was an open plenary for the whole contrast that that was more inclusive of Middle Eastern and North African artists so Kata has really been very mindful about being inclusive of our community and I think wants to continue to be a good meeting space for those who can get themselves to Hawaii so do we have other yeah there's I see I have one yes I found the BTN for those who interested has a couple of papers it's in July in Detroit and I think just if you recognize that if it leaves out North Africa and then we pick it up right and then North Africa ends up in the Black Theater that we I think we just keep our eyes open for that intersectionality that all my dreams will come true I just want to bring in so we've been talking a lot about like our ideas for whatever our group will be and about advocating for work for artists and also for greater visibility I want to see if they're other than the convening of other initiatives or actions that you guys have taken in your coalition that were successful or not successful and just kind of brainstorming some ideas that you guys have done that maybe we can file from that we used to publish a blog called cafe on that that was that was another initiative that came out of those early meetings that has been absorbed into Greater HowlRound and the HowlRound Journal but that's an idea we it was a volunteer editorial board we did raise money to contract out some for an editor who was Virginia Escobar for a time and that was that was an interesting thing where we like where we set the parameters for the conversation that we were having online where that could be disseminated the hashtag still makes it into all of our convenings hashtag cafe on that but yeah well I think we're about to start a blog because you have to write it right now share the responsibility for your responsibility but um I think I've just been mulling told yeah you know hopefully with the new ed with really focusing on what are the how how is the continuity carried out between the live interactions or we always use other conferences in order to try to get together too and so attending you know uh attending the uh the inquisitors or attending you know any any types of opportunities where a group of us can continue to build we usually do this food loves to kind of formalize our little touring circuit um what I was going to say for artists coming from California of course uh you know uh if you go to cci arts um there's a there's a quick rent program which or artists and companies you can apply for professional development opportunities and have it somewhat subsidized so I would encourage everybody in the room to you know as you hear about all of these opportunities and to kind of expand your learning to really think about it in that way if you're building a coalition it makes sense for you to attend some of these to see what it looks like in action and so for California we're we're kind of lucky because we have some resources yeah so uh the question was some things that worked and some things that didn't work um so I'm going to speak a little bit to what was failure um and we used to have a magazine too should be allowed to these magazines fail fail fail we used to have a beautiful black theater network we used to have a beautiful magazine called black math that's now like jett and ebony it's like you know you could find it at the library but no more and it hasn't necessarily been replaced by online but I I spoke earlier about some coalitions that don't exist anymore and I think that the lessons I took from one of those was the one at the August Wilson Center in particular part of that was the August Wilson Center was also in trouble and so we weren't able to gather that there again anymore but also the the steering committee reached out and there were there was cross-cultural coalition building and not so was there the Asian-american theater association from New York was there and that was the first big kind of blow up it's like why are they here what are we doing I thought we were talking about us and then these really uncomfortable conversations about black theater were it were at the table and the contribution from Nata was was just like gone by the wayside and that that kind of idea and I think out of that that one of the reasons that didn't happen was that there was too much disagreement in that room around just what umbrella we were under about who we were and who should be in the room and who was it and not just not to but like even my stuff like why are you here why are the academics here why are there so there was so I think a really clear vision is really and an outcome for the next step is really important I think we have time for one more question so thank you so much for all your insights so informative I was wondering if you could comment and share your experiences with your kind of planning before you had a formal leadership and funds or a space or a convening how did you get that all like started started did you start with an online program did you start with fundraising did you start by coming and on profit and you think about pre-structure that needs this all really sustainable I just quickly one of BTN's strengths was connecting itself to the National Black Theater Festival so every every National Black Theater Festival which meets every other year is preceded by a BTN conference and then BTN has the regular conference in between years so I think they gathered membership visibility and continuity to connecting themselves to the larger festival in a similar way to the how we're talking about a coalition like a cross coalition there's there's so much that's just kind of like tending to the ground so that it's fertile enough for something to spring up that's so kind of like hard to name because it I think folks were gathering under a tree at TCG or at APA at a specific lunch table or you know like these are the the ways and and then I mean when Karen Zacharias convened those folks in in DC and it was just eight folks who had this big dream for the Boston convening or what became the Boston convening it that's just like there was something ready to spring out and so I mean looking around at this room I feel like it's happening food I think not for nothing like you know food put some snacks out and invite some people the the pre-step is I think that I think you've done a lot of the pre-step I was able to attend the theaters of color um coalition building that was here which is uh and a lot of the findings in terms of your steering committee or your the surveys that you were doing tells me that you've done your homework you kind of know who's know who's in the room although potentially what you're doing is you're identifying other people who are not there who you who you definitely want to reach out to so I think one you've done like an awesome amount of groundwork on that as far as like the structure of it I would just say Kata came out of a lot of those uh companies those original companies holding pieces of it meaning they would house the conference or they would house a conversation and it's pretty much amongst uh looking at what are the the the collective assets that people have it's like who can share out this piece and so when we've been able to convene in in Minneapolis due to Kenjiya and and companies there who were in Kata it's really through it them kind of hosting us and so um and then yes food food is the second part uh and drinks so at the same time that the meeting was happening at Herina the Kinan Valdez was traveling to different regions and putting out a call there's there's an email address called Latino Alliance now and don't email it because it nobody logs into it anymore but the password was shared with the folks of the different regions and so and so there was you know how like people are archiving their emails so fast um it was like a recognizable email that people know what it was about it would share out the notes um and different regions were able to log into it and able to kind of like go through and see like oh did this work or like what what agenda did they use and so we were sharing a lot of information just through a shared email account um that was that was something that just came to mind oh that's a long time ago wow thank you um so we have to wrap up um but I want to give a shout out to um Taranj and Golden Thread for hosting this to Shannon uh who unfortunately couldn't stay the whole time but it was so important to have her with us uh for the beginning and please give a hand to Oliver Cannon potential names for organization so uh thank you for being here thank you for trusting us with this conversation thank you for sharing your expertise your knowledge um and being generous with your ideas uh just so you know the steering committee will be meeting this afternoon to basically draw up a plan for next steps we have already kind of decided that we're going to have an online presence so I think that's going to happen sooner rather than later and the the need for communication with the group um has been uh brought up more than once so I think that's going to be a priority for us as well so um stay tuned we will be in touch um party annex be open for our little requests those little tickets yes so I will open up the annex for some food sharing and snacking and final words of wisdom that you may want to contribute to the walls and to for folks to pick up your uh belongings anything else right next