 So everybody, it is so great to be with you. My name is Kathy Edwards, and I am the director of the New England Foundation for the Arts. Thank you. So yeah, I'm the director of the New England Foundation for the Arts, which we all call NIFA. So for those of you who, you know, keep getting confused when you hear NIFA, that's the short version for us here in New England. And with me here from NIFA is a great team, including Jane Preston, who you're gonna hear from in a few minutes. But our partners in hosting this convening are the incredibly brilliant folks at HowlRound. And it is my pleasure to turn things over to David Dower on behalf of team HowlRound. I love the applause, let's keep, let's, I'll hand it to someone else and we'll applaud them. Good morning. Okay, that's gonna be a convention, so good morning. There we go, that's where you are. I am going to read the land acknowledgement this morning before we begin. And I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this event is taking place. The Massachusetts people, the Massachusetts and Wampanoag people, and pay my respect to their elders, past and present. Thank you, David. A few words about the New England Foundation for the Arts. NIFA invests in the arts to enrich communities. And we accomplish that in several ways. We grant funds to artists and arts organizations to make work and bring that work to communities here in New England and around the United States. We connect our constituents to knowledge, learning, networks and relationships that allow them to do their work better. And we conduct research into the creative sector and its impact. We do that in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and with the six state arts agencies in New England and also with private foundations and individual donors. As part of our grant making portfolio over the past five years, NIFA has made a series of grants to a fantastic group of artists who made work that told powerful and moving, even brilliant stories about the military experience. And they developed those stories in really interesting, genuine collaboration with members of the military communities that they chose to focus on. And we wanted to gather them and their peers because there are a number of brilliant artists working in this space and their partners from military communities, from healthcare communities and some of us in the kind of funding and philanthropic sector who really care and wanna learn from this work. To be here for this convening. So I'm so thrilled to be here with those artists, with other artists, with other experts folks with really informed perspectives and all of you. And now I'm gonna turn things over to P. Carl to represent HowlRound again. We're doing the mic handoff. So I'm Carl and I'm the director at HowlRound and I just wanna point out, like if you're a HowlRound staff, you might raise your little hand that yes, great. So yeah. It's an incredible staff of people and Jamie Galoon on our team who's sitting there has been incredible as you know from putting this convening together. I'm gonna just say a couple words about HowlRound. HowlRound is primarily an online resource. We connect people through nuanced, complex, controversial dialogue conversation around the globe. And then sometimes we bring people together in a convening setting like we're doing here to talk about really interesting and provocative challenges in the theater field and the performance field. So that's why we partnered with Nifa on this event. And then just one other thing to say, which is in case you aren't 100% clear where you are, you are at Emerson College in Boston. Sometimes people don't know that. You're at Emerson College in Boston. It's a downtown vertical campus. It's a kind of downtown off the Boston Common here. And Emerson College has a thing called the Office of the Arts. And HowlRound lives inside the Office of the Arts and the Office of the Arts manages all these beautiful theater spaces, some of which you will see this weekend. So that's where you are. And next off, back to Kathy. This is the last you will hear from me. But before we continue and I turn things over to others, we thought it would be a good idea to formally share some of our top desired outcomes for this time together in the next few days. We hope to leave with a sense of community amongst ourselves as a cohort with a shared understanding of why participants come to this work and of how to build trust between artists, arts presenters, healthcare providers and military communities who don't often partner together. And we hope to develop clarity on best practices for practitioners working in this field so that those practices can be shared more widely after this convening and so that they can inform future investments in this work. And I would say underlying the whole thing, we really had three key questions. And I'm gonna give a shout out to Jeremy Nobel who kind of informed these when he led a panel for us a number of months ago. What makes this work important? What makes this work successful? And what can make this work even better? Thank you. So I just wanted to talk a little bit about the form that a lot of these conversations are going to be taking and our role, all of us in the room about around this conversation. Let me start with our role. You know, we do these two or three a year how around does these convenings? And every time there's a convening, there are more people in the practice who are left out than are in the room. And so we always start with a reminder that you're not anointed necessarily, you're delegates to a larger field of practice that is attempting to interrogate those questions that Kathy just raised. And so if you could keep that in mind as you move through the weekend, you are both contributing from your experience and then hopefully going back into the field and disseminating what's discussed here and during the conversation, most of the conversations will be streamed and there are people who will be watching live who consider themselves part of the field of practice, also part of the conversation. We may actually hear from some of them via Twitter during the conversation at various points and then it will be archived for anybody who wasn't able to watch it live, they'll be able to engage it there. And so if you could just sort of keep in mind this notion of yourself as a delegate, it has as much to do with what you've learned bringing into the whole conversation and less to be about let's look at my work right now or let's look at my opinions right now. It's a subtle shift that helps with the fishbowl conversations. Some of you have done these with HowlRound before. Some of you have done them in other circumstances and so I wanted to just describe quickly how these fishbowl conversations work as it relates to the way HowlRound works because it's slightly different I think than some of the more standard processes. It'll look familiar. There will be a center table and there will be a listening circle on the outside of the table. What I'm hoping and Karl and I will be facilitating them, what we're hoping in the conversation is that the people at the table will speak to each other, that the conversation becomes informal around a table and that the people on the listening circle are actively listening. You're gathering for the field, the conversation that's taking place in the center. At the center of the table you don't have to be speaking for anybody other than yourself. We on the listening circle are actively listening for the learning and there will be a moment where the whole circle reflects back. This actually comes from work that David Bohm did. I don't know how many of you ever read or study David Bohm's work but and I've adapted it based on some experiences that I had in the Southwest with the Seed Institute if anybody's ever been to any of these conversations. There's actually an ongoing conversation between native elders and Western scientists trying to map a language bridge between native ways of knowing and Western science and it's science broadly. And part of the philosophy of this particular conversation and the way we manage it is that the dialogue actually exists. There's a field of practice, there's a conversation going on and our circle is about bringing what's needed to be said into the center of the room and that if anything's missed that didn't get to the table the listening circle will pick it up. So you're really being asked to listen for what's not here, what's missing in this conversation thus far. What's my contribution to this that only I have that if I sit here quietly, won't get in the room but if it's already in the room I don't need to say it again. So that's kind of the mindset of the experience of these official settings. So there won't be tapping in and out. Again, you're not anointed necessarily you're not the biggest expert in the room because you're in the center. You're actually an expert on equal footing with everybody else in the room around this field of practice and you have information that needs to come into the room in order for us to achieve the goals that Kathy had laid out. So that's just a little context. I'm happy to talk more about it. Once it's going you'll get a better sense of whether or not we're actually doing that and I'm happy to talk more about that as we're in it. So Jane. Thanks, David. I'm Jane Preston from NIFA. And good afternoon everyone. I can't tell you how excited I am to actually be in this room with all of you because you have all been part of the planning for today and tomorrow and Sunday. It has been a truly collaborative effort and I'm just so grateful to every one of you and for the people that I've met and I feel as if Jamie and I really already know all of you and I think if we were to put out our intention and our hope for the few days is that all of you will feel the same way about everyone in the room and just have these relationships that I know we'll just build and build. From the very beginning of the National Theater Project in 2010 we started to support in the very first cohort work that artists were doing with military and veterans communities and that is built with other grants in NTP and also over the same period of time the grants through the National Dance Project and I want to acknowledge Kita Sullivan who is NIFA's director of theater and Sarah Nash who is NIFA's director of dance because they were instrumental in the first visioning of bringing these artists whom we've supported together and those artists, the lead artists who are Liz Lerman, KJ Sanchez, Linda Parris Bailey, Andrea Assef, Ann Hamburger and Judith Smith really became the core of the planning and we're talking almost two years ago to start to work toward this day and that core group identified their collaborators, other artists whom they respected who were doing this work and so the invitation list and the topics were all built again by all of you in this room so that's why we're I think so ready to have these conversations over the next few days. The artists, the NDP and NTP supported artists have prepared kind of live case studies for us to have and to experience the art throughout the convening and those are interspersed with the fish bowls or the discussions that David just outlined to take a really deep dive into the various perspectives that we have here and then to bring them all together and on Sunday morning we're gonna do some reflection about what are the key things that you're taking away from these discussions and that you will bring into your work going forward. So we really view this as a beginning. We have a wonderful documenter in the room who is way back there, Maureen White, whom you will see throughout the days. Maureen will report back on the beginnings of what we learned and found through the convening and we will then as I said start to distribute that and start to build upon it. None of this of course would be possible without funding support and as I was saying about two years ago that's where we, Sarah and Keita particular were taking the lead on a proposal to the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Fund for National Projects and Duke's funding is so important to NEPA in so many different ways but certainly for these few days and additional support from our great friends at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and at the National Endowment for the Arts. So welcome, welcome and we'll get to work pretty soon. I'm gonna turn it over to Jamie. Because she's been, this has been a wonderful collaboration for me so I so appreciate Jamie's work. The feeling is mutual. Welcome, welcome everyone once more. So I am Jamie Galoon. I'm the Senior Creative Producer for HowlRound for the purposes of this weekend. I am your logistical any kind of question person so you're gonna be hearing different housekeeping items from me throughout the weekend. This is one of those times. Anyone who is on HowlRound staff or NEPA staff has some handy dandy tape on their name tag to make it pop a little bit. Just know that if you have a question about Boston or where to find a pharmacy or what restaurant is good we are good people to ask those kind of questions too. Also really important to note we all need to use microphones when we're speaking in this room and there's a couple reasons for that. One, we want everyone to hear what is being said but two, as previously mentioned we are live streaming a lot of these conversations and it's very important for the sound of that broadcast that everybody uses the microphones. We are also going to encourage you to say your name before you speak. There's a lot of us here and while we have name tags it's hard to read from across the room. We are also live captioning the conversations in these rooms so there is somebody watching the video in Texas transcribing what is being said and if we say our names it's easier for them to be able to obviously type along more accurately. I also want to remind everyone that we have our journal series on HowlRound is not over yet. We have a piece today by Nolan Bivens and a piece tomorrow by Roman Baca and so please keep reading along as we finish out the wonderful week. And oh, last but not least I just wanted to give an opportunity for folks who are planning to go to the Longwood Symphony Orchestra Concert to raise their hands or just indicate if that's part of your plan so that folks can look around and see each other and in case you want to go together tomorrow. Can you please raise your hand if that's something that you're interested in or have thought about? Amazing! I know you're not the only one because I didn't get, oh, Michelle is going, definitely. And maybe this provides the opportunity for other folks to think about if they want to go and take advantage of the generous half-off discount that was provided to us. Okay, great, well that is all from me for now. We are going to transition into our introduction session at 12.45, it is now 12.37. If you have not written your 55 words story, you have seven minutes to write it and put it in this basket before we get going. Thanks so much, everyone. Welcome to Boston. So excited you're here. This is your two-minute warning, restrooms or coffee or story. This is your two-minute warning and then we will begin. So we're going to go ahead and begin. I guess we begin. We're going to go ahead and start this part. So many of you have done this particular set of exercises that we're beginning with. Jacqueline was quite a proponent. No, no, I'm just kidding, see if you're listening. We're going to do a little bit of a cultural mapping exercise and one of the reasons that I wanted to spend time on this and that we put it at the top of the agenda. It's unusual for us, I don't know if it is for you guys, but it's unusual for us that we would have such diverse communities in terms of practice in a single conversation. Normally HowlRound is focused very directly on the theater field or performance field and in this case we've got people from multiple walks of this field of practice. And so I wanted an opportunity for you guys to meet each other in that way. And then also there are lots of us in the room who have different expertise and some of it is singular and some of it is part of a larger conversation. And there's also every one of us has big gaps for what this conversation is. And so we want to enter the vulnerability part of it. And so part of this exercise is to sort of point out that we're all equally vulnerable in different directions in terms of not being an expert in a certain part of the topic. Okay, so it's going to involve moving about the room and it'll be a little chaotic. And every time when you get to where you're going, if you would take the time it's taking for the rest of the room to settle down, to just introduce, just share your name with each other, just your name you don't need at any affiliation. Some affiliation will be implied by where you wind up. We're going to use different parts of the room so you're going to be literally walking from one place to another depending on which part of the map you're in. Okay, you ready for the walking? All right, so I'm going to begin. This is a personal relationship to the military is the first question. I can't see you and the paper with my glasses on so I'm going to do this and now I can't see you. So I'm counting it. I shouldn't have said anything. All right, so we're going to go to four different groups. And then if there's no group for you that I've named then you'll stand here in the center, okay? Hopefully that will be empty but if not it'll be an interesting conversation starter. Okay, so if you are current active military, why don't you come stand here? If you are a veteran, not currently active, stand here. If you have an immediate family member in the military, stand there behind that row of seats and if you have no direct personal relationship to the military currently, stand in that corner behind those chairs. So in the time it takes to get there, give each other your first names. Oh, well, Jean, I've talked about it. That's it. Okay, you can call that a direct personal relationship. So that would be immediate family member in the military. There's active duty. Yes, so current active duty. Veteran, immediate family member in the military. Well, like Bill's father is deceased so he's going to that place but he's not current or no direct current relationship with the military. Personal relationship, not professional. Any relatives or you yourself? And I'll do this. I'm asking first, that's why that's turning up. Thank you. All right, so I'm gonna just do a little bit of noting this map, okay? So there are a couple of things. We have two active duty. I'm surprised by that. Thank you for your service. I thought there might be more. And this is veterans. Thank you for your service. We had a lot of confusion about, we had a lot of confusion for this group over here which was immediate family member in the military, correct? Or no direct relationship. Immediate family member, yeah. Immediate family member. And then no direct personal relationship to the military. And at this moment today, immediate family. Yeah, so yeah, spouse, children, parents. Let's just do that. Spouse, children, parents, sibling. Spouse, children, parents, sibling. Whoa, the group changed. Sorry, currently. Yeah, and one of the other questions that came up which I didn't anticipate but I should have, this is, I should have highlighted it's personal, not professional. Many of you have a professional relationship to the military. That's partly why we're here. But what's your personal relationship? That, and so family relationships, immediate family, or parents, siblings, children. Currently, today, right now. Don't get, the main thing is for you to meet people you didn't know when you came in. So take all your questions, turn them to each other and say hello, all right? It's not a debate and there's no grades. All right, if I could get your attention one more time we're gonna move again, we're gonna move again. Make your best guess and if you really can't go anywhere stand here in the center, okay? So here is your personal experience of making art. Your personal experience of making art. So current active practitioners, currently making art, here, have practiced professionally but not currently, you go here. One is currently an active professional practitioner, that's here. Practice professionally but not currently, you don't have to move until you've heard all the choices. It might speed things up. Currently an active professional practitioner over here of the arts. In the arts, have practiced professionally but not currently are going here. Have an artistic practice or hobby but I don't pursue it professionally over there. Had past tense, an artistic practice or hobby but I gave it up over there. No direct experience of making art. No direct experience of making art will be right here. And again, meet the people you arrived to and it's about understanding each other's areas of expertise and holes in expertise. Got a lot of practitioners in the room. We got some, say hello. Okay, I'm gonna move you on again. I'm gonna move you on again. Take note of who you were in that circle with. Did you get where? Okay, good. Yeah, there are some people who sit in many communities. This is a question about your professional role that you're in today at this convening. Your professional role today at this convening. So if you are a military professional or veteran, go here. If you are an artist, go here since there's so many of you are already there. Today in your professional role in this convening, if you're here as an artist, if you're here as a military professional, if you're here as a presenter, go there. And if you're here as a funder, go there. I would say funders and service organizations there. Yeah, that's where you would be, yeah. Direct service funders that corner. Presenters that corner. Yes. And say hello, do you know everybody in it already? Good, so introduce yourself here. Are you stuck? Because reporter, service organization. Yeah, I think service organization there. And your role? Yes. Great, can you do me a favor? Would you go just say your name in each circle? I would let, I'll be, when you're done with that one. Find someone you don't know yet and say hello. It's interesting how many people had to be in more than one of these circles today. And are you guys in this circle? Oh yes. Just making sure I didn't have another one by mistake. Okay, all right, here comes the next thing. This is a different exercise, a little more complicated. You're gonna have to sort this out yourselves. All right, so you see the circle that you're standing in currently. And even if you have more than one circle that you stood in, work from the one you're in currently. It's your professional role. How long have you been in it? Just put that number in your head. How long have you been in the role that you're in now? You don't have to necessarily say it out loud to the room, but you're gonna, it's gonna be revealed in a moment. Okay, so we're gonna use this side of the room and we're gonna make the circle here. It's gonna be a circle that goes down this aisle, that aisle and somehow circles in this open space, okay? So let's, your, can we just organize ourselves in relation to Judy in a circle here based on how long you've been in your role? So Judy, what number is this? 30. So this is 30 over here and it's gonna go up clockwise. All right, so it's gonna go up clockwise. So we're at 30, we're gonna be at one over there and just organize yourselves. You're gonna have to talk to each other to do it. It's sort of like boarding at Southwest. What number do you have? So it's like a clock. In the job, in the job, in the job. Yeah, so zero to one is up there and it goes up to 30 over here and 30 and beyond. And if it needs to spread back this way, it can spread back this way. So I'm gonna say it again. In the job, in the job, in the job. So this is over 30 and that's less than 30. All right, so let's pull this, let's pull this part of the circle closer around cause we're gonna make a whole circle. So let's, let's pull it back. You're 55? Great. And you, what are you at? One, good, okay. So Liz, you're probably, you're probably here in the job that you're in, in this room today. What, when I said your professional role in the circle you were standing in. So yeah, you were in the presenter's circle, so your role in that, your time in that role. Oh, I'm a presenter at different places. Yeah. How many years have you been a presenter? Pick your choice, whichever you'd rather do. Represent your experience or your job, or your place in the job. All right, so let's pull this. So let's go ahead and close up the circle. So are you at like zero, one? Early, yeah. So let's close up the circle. Close up the circle. Can you guys close up the circle so you're in single file shoulder to shoulder there? Close up the circle. There you go, there you go. Great. There we go. So I believe Liz made a bold statement and Liz said she was the longest. Ah, I see, all right. So Linda, how many years are you standing in? 44. 42. So 44, 42, she wants 50, give her 50. Again, this is all self-reporting. No one's keeping score here, and you? I wanna say two to three. Two to three? Where's two to three? Welcome, you're two to three. Okay, so take a look at who you're standing with. And is there anybody who's on the circle who's saying, yeah, I'm standing someplace, but that doesn't represent my time in this work. Raise your hand if you're standing somewhere but have much different experience of the amount of time that you've spent in the work. Okay, so just shout out the amount of time you've spent in the work. 15 years, 24, seven years. Who else had their hand up that it's really? Four years, yeah. Margaret, 30, 40, and where are you standing? 20 something there. Yeah, well, in this job, you can go wherever you want. Yeah, yeah. Who else feels really misrepresented by where you're standing? Yes, Rob? Okay, so there's a 30 there too. And yes, there, okay. You feel misrepresented by where you're standing too? Yeah, say it, number, 28, great. So we have jobs and we have time in the field. We have both things. They're separate things and some of us have spent a lot more time in the field than in our current job. And some of us have been in the job the whole time. Yeah? Yeah. All right, from here, I think we'll just deal with, kind of, raise your hands for these things if you can. And is that all right for everybody? All right, so here we go. Raise your hands if you've never been on the stage performing and take a look. This is all about how many gaps and expertise there are in the room. Raise your hand if you've never been on a military base. Never been on a military base. That you remember. Were you? Raise your hand if you've never been in a VA hospital. If you've never entered it, entered a building, visitor or for care or as a professional. Raise your hand if you've never been to a Broadway play on Broadway in New York. Raise your hand if you've never been to Iraq or Afghanistan. Okay, raise your hand if you've never written a grant. A lot of fundraisers in the room. Raise your hand. Raise your hand if you live in the city, town, or general area where you were born. If you currently live in the same general area where you were born. Raise your hand if you've ever worked outside the United States. Worked outside the United States. That could even mean on tour. Raise your hand if you've worked, okay, put your hands back up if you've worked outside the United States. If you've worked outside the United States in more than two other countries besides the United States. More than three countries. I'm sorry. Interesting, volunteer, go ahead if you've volunteered and you've been in other countries volunteering, yes. If you've, so more than three, more than five, more than 10, more than 15, who's left? Okay, Margaret, how many countries have you worked in? Ha ha ha, Keith, how many have you been in? Okay, yeah, great. And then now raise your hand if you've never left the United States. Great. So that whole thing was just about getting an understanding of the range of experience in the room. And hopefully you found yourself in the majority on some things and in the minority on other things and you can appreciate both sides of that equation. Where you are vulnerable, others are vulnerable. And today is about moving out of that, moving from that space of vulnerability to sharing what your expertise is in it, okay? So that's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna start now with this experience of the stories. So has everybody turned in their story? Yes, do you have it? It goes in the basket. If you haven't turned it in, it goes in the basket. So we're gonna start this process. So why don't you guys go ahead and take a seat while we get this started? Take your seats. Oh. That's quite right, no problem. Yeah, good. Okay. So now we're gonna get this, we're gonna kick this off. And we did a little bit of cheating on the exercise. But essentially the way this exercise is going to run is we're going to read a story. Someone's going to read a story. I'll start it. The person whose story that is will step up, introduce themselves, just your name and your affiliation, and then pick another story out of the basket, read that story. And the person whose story that is steps up, says their name and their affiliation, picks the next story, reads it. The person whose story just got read, steps up, says their name and affiliation and reads it, okay? Clear enough? Here we go, let's try it. So I have the first story. Julian, beloved father to me, World War II Navy Cross, USS Savannah, bombed September 11th, 1943. You pulled shipmates from burning turrets, brilliant literary editor, teller of stories, what went untold, unknown, what if you had written? Age 90, hospice nurse saw PTSD, asked you about nightmares. You said you'd never dreamed since the war. Then when you're done, you put it here. I just blew it. Jane Preston, Nepha, nothing on stage, but chairs and a few lights. Five veterans shared stories, interwoven monologues of wars unknown to me beyond protests and a TV screen. They played themselves and it was powerful. After, we all talked to each other. Some people cried. I felt the distance between us narrow. It moved me beyond words. Jamie Gleam, howl round? I remember him as a baby, banging a wooden spoon against the carpet. Now wearing boots and khakis, he is disassembling and cleaning his rifle against that same carpet on leave for the weekend before his wedding. My nephew says, in the English he does not use during his Israeli army conscription, startling, isn't it? Deborah Cash, Boston Dance Alliance. Texted photo of my daughter and I on the Mekong River to Paul Chudy, I hope I got that right, veteran who participated in healing wars. He had told me the first thing he did in Vietnam was thrust his hand in boiling water so he wouldn't have to carry a gun. The message reply, Mekong, my favorite place in the world. I'm Liz Lerman, a choreographer and at the Institute Professor at Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at ASU. So tell me about yourself, mama. I need to trust you. I am granddaughter of a five-star great-grandmother. I am honored to work with you and the brave men and women that served our country and keeping our nation safe. My experience with members of the armed services has been humbling, inspirational and inspiring. Thank you. I'm Dr. Michelle Steffanelli from the VA Healthcare System in Porto Vaco, Washington. There was a time I thought the military and art would oppose forces. Art is civil and social and the man said, fighting for the one's country can round out be unfit, it's citizen. I have swag, Leonard. Art will heal. Art helps us win hearts and minds and becomes a bigger win soldier. I'm Christopher Boucher, performer with On Guard Arts. Performer with On Guard Arts. The arts have changed the direction of my life. I imagined being in law enforcement, but through by pure chance I ended up in a writing group and then as a playwright. Maurice to call, TCG. Our first year of the military family first program became a moving lesson in the power of shared family arts experienced to heal deep wounds. Example, estranged family. Coming together, oh, okay. Coming together traumatized vets find laughter with their kids for the first time in years. I'm Michael Reed from Arizona State University, Gammage. Veterans, artists. Veterans, artists. Veterans are not victims. I'm sorry, yeah, that's bad. Trauma doesn't always need to be tragic. I'm sorry. Sam Pressler, Armed Services Arts Partnership and Comedy Bootcamp, not that basket. Didn't have a good penmanship teacher growing up. I visited you in your space. I chose my music carefully, thinking about how it might make you feel. What memories were sparked by the melody? What buried emotions arose from the harmony? Why is it that the music has brought tears to both your eyes and mine? What new memory have we forged together? Hi, I'm Lisa Wong. I'm a physician at Harvard Medical School and part of the Arts and Humanities Initiative there. Love the art in yourself. Fuck yourself in the art. Love yourself in context, but only with your family, your friend, your team, in big pictures of our town, from our planet. Love us hard, love us deep. Love to serve, serve to love. Loving, we are worth the fight. Yeah, Susan made me do the salty version. I was so hoping she had to read it. Bill O'Brien, NEA and the NEA Military Healing, Creative Forces, NEA Military Healing Arts Network. My father saw World War II Pacific action. Speaking fluent Japanese, he was on staff of the Sugamo prison during the occupation. When I was four, we joined him. I no longer have the doll houses, prisoners. I no longer have the doll houses, prisoners made for me. I do have dad's words. Quote, the Japanese are good people. They're like us. Only their leaders were wrong. Chris Dwyer, RMC Research. This is written as a poem and the title is Rewards. I'll become a family physician, birthing babies, healing, caring, curing. That will be rewarding. And it was. Then to the dark side, administration, paperwork, policies, budgets, board meetings, ah, board meeting, I'm late, rushing. She grabs my arm, recognition. You run this place, right? Yes. You saved my son's life. Thank you. How rewarding. I'm Sarah Cass. I'm with Creative Forces, the NEA Military Healing Arts Partnership. Raised in a military family, my dad is a retired Marine and my mom is an active duty Navy nurse. I used to visit my mom on her ward for lunch at Bethesda Naval Hospital before I joined the Navy. Then one day, I woke up on the other side of the curtain, leg gone. Hello, I'm Paul Hurley. I'm a performer in Healing Wars. I was created and put on this earth to bring. To bring. Bring, make, and. And take. And take art to places where it needs to be. Born in a coastal town where the tide ebbed and flowed and painted my environment. Pianos and saxophones, my lullaby and soundtrack. Hey, I'm Bert with Carpetback Theater. Speedkill my cousin tonight at eight o'clock in this theater. Shameless plug. Tell him what you're gonna tell him and tell him again. The smoke session, freshly minted civil servant on an active duty installation quickly learns the importance of understanding Army culture, language, and history. Patient, I want to smoke my first sergeant. Psychologist, imagining a gun and cloud of smoke following bullet discharge. Doc seeks help. Give me a second. Supervisor, belly laughing uncontrollably. No, he is not homicidal. Scott Engel, Intrepid Spirit Center, Fort Hood, Texas. I am a daughter of a retired colonel with one of the highest discharge records in the US Air Force, nicknamed Darth Vega. Working in theater wakes no sense to my flight line weathered father. But once when I was dealing with a difficult partner, theater, he referred to them as a hostile enemy. So I think he gets it. I'm Abigail Vega, Latinx Theater Commons and HowlRound, daughter of Darth. What defines the life of so many, I only encounter as a headline. Except at tax time, as I write the check, pay for the bombs, wonder from afar whose lives will be forever changed. War, three letters so concrete, but also abstract, existing only on TV in the news over there. Never for me. Hi, I'm Maureen White. I'm a consultant to NIFA doing documentation for this weekend. Strategically pick a typed one to avoid the unreadable handwriting. Memory, in my youth, age is irrelevant. Military hospital, Father Air Force, mom hospital procedure, feeling anxious to visit. Father driving in car, white walls, beds, nurses, doctors, voices speaking, chilled, smell, mom in bed, tubes, machines. Sick, helpless, take away her pain, she assures me, feeling helpless. Let me take any pain. Hi, Keith Thompson, Liz Lerman Projects, and Rutgers University. Sorry, it's just because the font is so small. I helped organize an arts residency, despite not knowing what a dance company was. I recruited other war veterans without involving myself in the process. I did not believe dance would convey a veteran's story. During the performance, I cried, unlike ever before, and discovered the power of performing art for veterans. In my voice. Is it yours? I helped organize an arts residency. So, Artie Grote, director of military affairs at Kansas State University and an Army veteran. And he got me in trouble already. She got here late and got me in trouble. I have to do this trick, too. Four veterans convened, four intensive months. Stories were told, common experiences shared. A masterful teacher taught how vulnerabilities can become strengths. Suffering is optional that within us runs the blood of, we should know that word, griots. Griots and shamans. The stage has become a hallowed ground, a temple, a sacred space. Collective healing has occurred. This is post-traumatic growth. Hi, everyone. Anthony Torres, combat hippies. When there are no words, look inward. Symbolize the unknown until it becomes clear. Take form right before you, from you. The colors of your soul emerge from a paintbrush. Embrace your emotions. Do the shapes you mold with clay. This is your voice, your visual voice. Talk to me. My eyes are listening. I'm Melissa Walker. I'm an art therapist for the Department of Defense and also part of the creative forces team. When my grandfather got back from World War II, my five-year-old dad asked him why he didn't have a purple heart like his brothers. Dad held guilt about that, even as an adult. Grandpa died on September 14th, 2001, and dad prayed he was too out of it to understand what had happened three days earlier. Hi, I'm Andrew Carlson, University of Texas at Austin. Volunteer hospice care for a woman on Medicaid. Cancer in her spine. Drug addicted in pain, selling legal scripts through her eight-year-old son on the street. Not this theater of war, but a theater of war all the same with a similar recipe. Class, race, pain, loss on the ground, healthy and heavy in the streets, in the states. I'm Carla Peterson. I'm a Mangalisi National Center for Meeting with the Brass. Military conference room meeting on real estate and environmental issues. Civilian state employees on one side, uniforms on the other, highly stylized negotiation. I hear lots of sirs, intermittent vocal projection and acronyms. Things do get done eventually if it's done their way. That was not strange, but their way was, to me at least. Dave Slatery, sorry. Dave Slatery, Massachusetts Cultural Council. Fallujah 2004, Operation Phantom Fury. You step on an IED that doesn't detonate, then one of your men steps on it, killing him. Quantico, Virginia, 2010. With your family in a loaded M9 in your hand and you wake up and realize you almost shot your kids when it was just squirrels on the roof. Jeremy Nobel, Foundation for Art and Healing, Harvard Medical School, Center for Primary Care, and the Arts and Humanities Initiative, thanks. The first time I worked with a veteran was Ilya Arca, Arsas. 2005 project, The S Commandment, with Matthew Howard, co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War. In 2012, I joined Speed, killed my cousin as the director, and have been facilitating arts workshops for veterans in partnership with the Carpetbag Theater ever since. Hi, I'm Andrea Saf, Artistic Director of Art to Action and Artist in Residence at the University of South Florida. And that was Ilya Arsas, The Fifth Commandment, that I was referring to. OK. First time, John Bisbee, a Vietnam veteran with PTSD featured in my play, The Draft, attended an early-stage reading of the play. It was the first time he had heard his story told in public. John called the next day. He said he'd slept through the night for the first time since the war. Hi, I'm Peter Snow, and I'm a playwright. I live right here in Boston. Art brings us into unknown worlds, enabling us to perceive the other with fresh ideas, fresh eyes. We can then bring this to others. War spelled backwards is raw. Hi, everybody. I'm the Artistic Director of On Guard Arts. I'm very happy to be here. I did. I said Anne Hamburger, didn't I? Oh my god, I'm so tired. I'm sorry. Jesus. Anyway, straight off the train. Multitasking. OK. Yo, yo, ma. Here is why I went. Passion, beautiful music, and inspiration. It was the Nancy Hanks lecture I almost didn't go. Near the end, veterans walked and wheeled on stage, instruments in hand. The music began. The song was about coming home, not a dry eye in the house. Music corpse rocked, an unforgettable night. I'm Julie Richard. I'm the Executive Director of the Main Arts Commission. Uncle Perry, career army, veteran of three wars. My earliest memory of him was 1966 in our living room sobbing with his sister, my mom. Five-year-old ears could not make sense of the words, but I remember them still. Germany, camps, ashes, ghosts, children. He carried those heavy fragments, and I never knew him whole. Hi, I'm Ruth Walks. I'm at Virginia Tech, Executive Director of the Moss Art Center. The Lige, dinner at the American Legion every Monday. The food isn't that good, but it's cheap. I like the applesauce. My grandparents, my parents, my sisters and me, and our waitress, Edith, our regular round table in the back. The bar is hazy with smoke. My clothes smell like smoke. Dad will do the laundry tonight. Hi, I'm Madeline Bell from the Flynn Center in Burlington, Vermont. I've learned most of what I know about the world, suffering, far places, dreams, through the arts. When I don't know how to react or process something, death, boyfriends, political turmoil, I find some art that might lead the way. I have a lot more to read and experience. Hi, I'm Travis Amiel. I work with HowlRound. I recognize it in performance. 9-Eleven on screen. This just in, a plane has crashed. While Wagner's I'm Cherie Puss, Morn's white ashes are poured on the dancer's head. She explodes into a hip hop frenzy of anger, then suddenly pirouettes soar on tiptoes, floating. Repeat, repeat, repeat. The frenzied battle, the soaring beauty, our eternal dance. Hi, I'm Helen Stoltzfuss, and I'm co-artistic director of Black Swan Arts and Media in Oakland, California. I can't talk to veterans. I do not have the right. All of my dances are about AIDS, about living in the Castro, about gender and the struggles of marginalized queer people. Linda says you're wrong. Your stuff is about understanding human struggle. Some of these vets are struggling. At least give them an ear. Joe Good, artistic director of Joe Good Performance Group and professor at UC Berkeley. As a World War II Navy surgeon, my father-in-law was twice shipped home from the South Pacific with battle fatigue. A loving family man and cardiologist into his 80s. Alvin, nonetheless, suffered from depression and nightmares. Years after his death, we found a cache of contemporaneous letters heavily censored. He evidently did an ungodly amount of laundry. Susan Fader, Mellon Foundation. Several years ago, I volunteered in pastoral care at a local hospital. I realized what it truly means to encounter human interaction without any foregone expectations or conclusions. Without judgment, I met people without knowing the answers, being present to their needs and with an open heart. Doctors heal the body. Who heals the soul? Cheryl, I came in with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in New York. I was once asked what I do by a stranger in line at the bank. I told her I was a dancer. She just couldn't put dance and me together. She thought for a moment, then said, oh, you can walk. When I said no, she laughed and said, I was very funny. I'm Judith Smith, and I am the founder and director of Axis Dance Company. And we're based in Oakland, California. I probably should have brought my glasses. Yeah, I just can't get used to having things on my face, which is kind of funny since I use a wheelchair. Growing up with men who were either being drafted or in fear of being drafted, service was not optional. C&A was a real part of family discussion. My sister, Marcy, a marine, my brothers joined the Navy. My West Seniors encounter, no, my next serious encounter was with the children of company members who needed employment without glasses. Hi, I'm Linda Parris Bailey with the Carpet Bag Theater. Play right. OK, it was highly edited. Oh, OK. I was honorably discharged from the US Army in 2001. In 2012, 11 years later, I shared my story for the first time in a story circle with a nonprofit community-based arts organization, Carpet Bag Theater. That was the day I stopped contemplating ending my life, but instead decided to live life to the fullest. That was not planned. Drop the mic into my hand. Patricia Jones, Carpet Bag Theater Creative Arts Reintegration Program, CAR. I want to find one that's short. I don't know who wrote that. That was not it. My patient with cancer was admitted. I went to see him asleep when I got there, decided to wait. He woke up, saw me and smiled. Years later, he was back with reoccurrence. Told me how comfortable, told me how comforting it was to see me that day. At time of fear and anxiety, he would never forget effort, minimal, impact, priceless. You just must stop. Thank you. That was beautiful. Mora McWire. Mora McWire, a nurse at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and a daughter of a World War II and Korean vet. And that is actually a very special story to me, because it reminds me of how sometimes we impact people in ways we don't even realize at all, like ever, unless that person comes back and shares it with you. So that's my little piece that I think about all the time. Need glasses in the opposite direction. The day before, he was shouting firing commands to his artillery battery. Today, he was completing an improvisational, choreographic exercise. He rolled, jumped, supported, and was supported, his body by another 7,612 miles away from the war. Through these exercises, I felt needed by others. Through these, I discovered that I can still contribute. I guess we're providing context. That army veteran just got back from his honeymoon. He married one of my dancers. Sorry. I also have a little bit of a cold. I'm not this Basie. Roman Baca, exit 12 dance company. Infographic of the Clinical Trial Supply Market Survey that was conducted by Arena, Sonoco, ThermoSafe, and Berlinger last year. Have him remind them that if they attended any of the CTS events last year, they were probably asked to fill one of these out. And this is the compilation of the results. A third point to mention is that before lunch, Bob Albanese from Clinical Supplies Management and Brooke Naples from Sonoco ThermoSafe will be presenting the results and taking questions. Did I just read a pharmaceutical ad? Advertising is everywhere. Should I read another? I think you should read another. Some comedians slip that in. Take two. Those were some hard words. I ain't that educated. All right. The applause stopped. Our eyes met and instantly became wet with tears. This is my story, she said. And for eight years, I've held it in and you just embodied it and allowed me to release. We embraced. I understood. I'm an advocate in workshops, host veterans, open mic. Deborah in speed, kill my cousin. Thank you for putting your name because then, you know, it's not weird. Andrea Mosley with Carpetback Theater. Mommy, can you come home with me? No. You know I have to stay here. I see tears in their eyes. Let's gather in a circle, I say. We all sing and sign. Mother God's child. I say love. It is a flower. And you, it's only need. Movement and words reunites them in love. Rob Richter, Connecticut College with my glasses. Using the arts to heal and advocate for social change has been my focus for much of my professional career. Before coming to the State of Connecticut Office of the Arts, I was the Executive Director at the Writers Block Inc. One of my most memorable projects was while working with the Safe Futures Women's Center on our Raising Voice Against Domestic Violence Program. During the course of the project, we offered free open arts student sessions to victims, survivors, and witnesses of domestic violence as a means of healing through the power of the arts. I've also seen how the arts can be an empowering influence in young people's lives. The arts is a healing mechanism for those fighting through statistical barriers and gives voices to those who have been historically underrepresented. In April, Connecticut Office of the Arts will be hosting an NEA sponsored roundtable discussion on the arts and healing. One of the topics will be on arts and veterans. This is a subject that I am greatly interested in as my mother is a veteran of the United States Air Force. I am hoping that I will learn this weekend, what I will learn this weekend will help to inform my agency's conversation and greatly influence our work. It's my neighbor. I'm Adrienne, a Jefferson Connecticut Office of the Arts Program Associate and Special Projects Coordinator. All my information was in that. Healing began the moment I started to accept all the means I am. Without judgment or expectation, I stay open to an experience myself. I'm constantly shifting, artist, mentor, queer, veteran, curator, trans, guide, technologist. I come out every day. And that's more than okay because encouraging and witnessing change is a beautiful joy field thing. Madison Cario, Office of the Arts, Georgia Tech. I gotta put the glasses on. There were 12 active and veteran military collaborating with songwriters during a retreat weekend in Austin, Texas. Each of them carrying their own personal trauma from the war. An IED that took the life of his fellow Marine, her sexual assault by a fellow soldier, the loss of a limb by another. Their catharsis became music. I'm Todd Stein with Mid-America Arts Alliance in Kansas City, Missouri. After pizza, Manuel leans back, describing the smell of the oil, fires and flesh in Kuwait. He's deep in the process of remembering. John interrupts, stop it, stop talking about this. Manuel pauses, embarrassed and confused. Should the story not be told? Or is it that Manuel should not tell the story? Learning new things. Victoria Marks, Choreographer, Professor at UCLA. Dartmouth's undergraduate veterans are 23 young men, but not as young as the other undergraduates. They're pretty serious. They think before they speak. It must be strange to have been so far beyond the campus life before coming here and be drawn to comment on the military strategy of Agamemnon in the Iliad. Margaret Lawrence Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. My dad went to college courtesy of ROTC. He was a small town kid who saw the world with the Navy. He loved travel, but not the regimentation of Navy life. He read books on the deck of the naval destroyers, ripping pages out as he went and letting them float to the sea. Their blank faces are staring back at me as we are engulfed by the sterile white glow of the room. I freeze, just start. Semper paratus, nothing. Official US Air Force song, mumbled singing. Anchors away, movement singing. The Marines hymn, cheering, singing, shouting, clapping. The Army goes rolling along, crying, singing, clapping, dancing, tears. Hi, I'm Brittany Costa. I'm in the Army National Guard Band, and that's actually from Playing for Veterans. And I'm also here with Berkeley College of Music, Music Therapy Department. My father, Ernest Eugene Jennings, was a senior master sergeant in US Air Force. I loved him dearly, and he showed us the world. From Naha, Okinawa, to Rapid City, South Dakota, to learn to love, underserved. Hmm, this is hard to read. So, love to learn culture, understand people from Yanabaru, fish harvests, to celebrations at Devil's Tower, to flying black squirrels. I'm Colleen Jennings, Rogansock, Executive Director, Arizona State University, Gammage. And I have worse handwriting than you'll ever have. My parents had hoped it meant I was going to be a doctor. Didn't happen? When I was seven, a family friend came back from Vietnam. Philip was staying with us to recuperate. My mother had tried to prepare us for his stay using Life Magazine photographs. I answered the door the day he arrived. He was backlit by the sun, all silhouette and shadow, a hunting rifle over his back. I vomited on his boots. I tried to slip it in the end so I'd go last, but it floated up. I only knew Granddaddy for a little while before he died. He gave me my favorite stuffed animal, Mr. Rabbit. Years later, I heard he fought in World War II. So I searched for his name in my history books hoping, but his name was nowhere to be found, nor anyone who looked like him. Hi, my name is Ada Wumi Ok, and I'm with HowlRound. I was born on an air force base in Cleveland, Ohio. My father's job in the military was to get gay men in the military to confess to their homosexuality. He's done pretty well with his ultra queer child after many long conversations. I'm still Carl from HowlRound. This is called Music As Healing. In jail, a preacher came and during a service wanted to pray for us individually, playing a country gospel tune no one responded. I offered to play using gospel and soul chords I began. They opened up slowly one by one, and the whole atmosphere changed as the hardcore broken men were led to tears. I'm not reading that. I'm gonna sit back down, this is ridiculous. Carlton Relaford, also known as Star, from Carbetback Theater. Spear killed my cousin tonight at eight. Not in this theater, but in this building in the other theater. I'ma find it, trying to hide. Overhead as a child, maybe that, okay. Overhead as a child, jets streaked across the sky. I learned not to mind their shriek, which my mother calls the sound of freedom. Where I come from, frogs and sails abound, but not the kind you might think. My brother grew up to be one. I grew up dancing, and now help artists do the same. Sarah Nash, New England Foundation for the Arts. This is called Thank You So Much, Please Don't Use My Name. Raised Deep South, MP number one, watches as a truckload of Iraqi prisoners pulls up. All skinny, all standing. She sees young boys, old men, and soldier age. MP number two laughs, tossing three titsy rolls in the middle of them. Three bend, retrieve, slowly unwrapping. Take a tiny bite, like this story. Pass it on. I was trying to watch how to do this. Hey, Marty Pottinger, just came up from Philadelphia. Good morning. Daddy, yes. Did you know the ocean is coming here? Yes. What if when we wake up tomorrow, the water is here, and I'm like, ah, can we take a boat to school? You'll be grown up already. Probably after college. Why is there pollution? I don't know. Can we stop it? I don't know. Nice to see you. I'm Vijay Mathew with HowlRound. Always up for a challenge, willing to take risks, shamans travel to other worlds, and bring back the elixir that heals their communities. These warriors have traveled to the depths of hell, scorched themselves, and bring back the tonic for our burns. Marcel Castellanos, a theater maker and artistic director of the combat hippies. We always dance for our warriors. Honors, beats, fists and feathers raised, water warriors, culture warriors, fighting warriors, jailed warriors. Sun defense our cultures from your feminists who don't understand. Those on the outside see only the fighters and not left behind. Not the left behind trauma. We know the eagle sores on the prayers of all warriors. Keeta Sullivan, New England Foundation for the Arts. And I get the last one. Poppy was in the Air Force. He died when I was a baby, but I look happy in photos with him. Grandpa Bing was in the Navy and Grandma Joyce flew from Massachusetts to Guam by herself with my infant aunt on her lap. I feel removed from their stories, but would like to learn. And I'm Ramona Ostrowski and I'm the Associate Producer of HowlRound. Thank you so much. This was so lovely. And so there you are. I believe we're on our way to a break. Jamie, do you wanna, 15 minutes? Is that where we are? Yeah, we have a little, we finished early. I'm so impressed with us. This bodes well. We are now on a break until