 Welcome folks, we're just going to give people a moment or two to get in the room and situate themselves and just naming that I know, especially for those of you who have been with us all day. This is like your fourth or fifth zoom link of the afternoon and that's a lot of jumping digitally so thank you. And thank you for your patience as we let folks do that. All right, so I think that I will start us off as folks hopefully continue to arrive. My name is Leilani. I use she series pronouns. I am the program officer for theater one of two at the New England Foundation for the Arts working with the National Theater project team. I am a multi ethnic woman with a very pale white skin, long dark hair, big red glasses and dark nails that I keep trim and shiny and you'll see as I just circulate aggressively at the camera throughout this session. I am going to be facilitating this panel, which has a very broad sort of context and bucket that I'm really excited to dive into after the conversations we've already had today. The panel is on defining community. And before I turn it over to our panelists to introduce themselves. I just want to shout out the beautiful community building work they did in the prep for this meeting just now. And sharing and holistic approach so feeling really grateful for the folks that are present. I am going to start with the person closest to me on my screen, which is Renee. Renee goddess here. I am a black queer indigenous fem. I'm wearing a black dress with little green and cream leaves and a gray sweater and my skin is like a, ooh, like a, like honey with cinnamon in it. Yay. And my background is a window to my right camera left and my beautiful plants behind me with my favorite, my favorite mantra which says ease so slow so soft so silent. I can hear myself living because my mind is always eavesdropping on myself talk. Passing it on to summer. I had a feeling it was going to be me and I just wasn't ready. I wasn't ready. The lot to follow. Hi, everyone. My name is summer L Williams I use she and her pronouns. I'm one of the co founders of company one theater. I'm under the weather so I have a cough drop in my mouth. I am a chocolate brown black woman with long sister locks that are going a little bit everywhere if I'm looking at my camera right wearing a purple sweater. I have a fun ring on my hand and glasses that are large and lovely. I am really excited to be here in community with you one of the co founders of company one theater associate artistic director and a director about the world. I will pass it on to Jarvis. Yes, thank you. Hello everybody. My name is Jarvis screen pronouns he and his. I am the founder and artistic director of Jag productions which is based in what a rejection Vermont. I am black. I am wearing a gold cap and a sort of yellowish hoodie with this urban outfit or sweater that has like holes all over it. Yeah, I'm really excited to share space with everyone my background is like a white wall with this painting of a law, a red vase with some flowers in it that I got from the listen center which is this donation based furniture and clothing store here in white reduction and to the left of me is a window with my sort of turquoise tea sitting in the windowsill. And I'm going to pass it off to our ticket or lackers panelist. Okay, great. Hi folks, I am Karthik. I said Romanian. Sorry, I'm really an interpreter. Okay, great. And I'm Karthik Subramanian, my pronouns are he him his. I work with summer at company one theater. I'm one of the co executive directors and managing director there. I am a 35 something year old South Asian man with a beard black shirt and a blurred background and black hair. And I've been at company one for about 1314 years now starting not as a founder, but as an assistant stage manager backstage and then work up to production management and now I'm in leadership. Very excited to be in this conversation. Thank you all for those generous introductions. I am ready to get to dive in and I hope our attendees are as well. And I am going to do what I tend to do as a facilitator which is start things off really big and broad. And I would love to hear from each of you about how you define community. No other details no other catches just like the word community. What is it. Jarvis speaking community community. A tribe. Someone that folks that I can be accountable to folks that can that I can call that can listen to me that can that are serious about healing and personal transformation community is intimate. Community is stopped. Gentle loving community is having access and being in touch with the natural world. What are the things that are sort of like around me immediately outside that I can be in conversation with community. Community is spirit to me as well and my like own individual kind of relationship with spirit. Community community like for me is like sharing food together eating together that that's also community for me. Community is folks that I can be raggedy with right that I can that I can show up to with like custom my eyes. I know that like you know I'm I'm I'm held and I'm good. Community community is like home home places where I can feel like I'm home. Home in my body. I'm going to let folks just unmute themselves and I know that there's got to be things we want to reflect off of that because there was a lot of nodding and head moving and snapping happening so hit those unmute button. I'll unmute. Like all all yes yes yes yes yes yes everything you said Jarvis and I want to add community is. I think of like when I'm thinking specifically of my community and what we've been doing built you know like intentional play intentional care. There's a lot of intentionality work that we've been doing. So I'll say for that there's just like who like when I make a choice we're making a choice right we've been building a lot about what choice is what choice looks like what what all the things that have to do with choice. And intention so there's that. One of the other things that we've really been building, and we've had, you know, a lot of opportunities some really simple lessons and some much more difficult lessons to learn about community and building safety. And what it looks like to be safe with each other and around each other and to hold the space of safety that allows us to be honest, more importantly. So it's like, yes, being safe what is safe space look like how do we get to that place where everybody feels like this is the place for them. And then we learned a lesson really not too long ago about we can go ahead and like create the space. And can everybody be honest in that space is that a thing we can do do we have a skill as a collective to then also be honest. So that's a thing that I'm saying our community is really working on and really finding an evolving through in terms of building what our community looks like community what is community community is evolution. We've had a lot of evolution like a lot of people, specifically over the pandemic that has us all in different versions of understanding our ourselves. I'll do that for me ourselves. This pandemic has us all on different levels of understanding ourselves so that space of evolution as a community has been really pivotal is specifically because we've had a lot of death in our circle. And so that that space of evolution, when a creator is no longer around but their work is still around and the way that you have to talk to each other about how that work continues, why that work continues. Those sorts of spaces of evolution have been really, really important for our collective over the last couple of years in particular. What else community community community. Oh song music, you'd like must be must always have must there must be a pulse happening that is our community. It is also important for us for our community to be intergenerational. We don't do productions if there isn't a child in the thing. If it can't be written in or put in, we don't do it because how is that showing the world. So those are the sorts of spaces that we really like living in the music living in the intergenerational aspect of the things that our cultures bring to us which are like you said food. Like all of that. The word I'm looking for is it's I'm going to say hope that feel like that's the closest thing in our community that defines the work that we're doing and the way that we're evolving through understanding hope. In my immediate world, I would say my hope has been dwindling a little bit. And so as a leader, you know, how do I work with the fact that my internal core has shifted and the original version of this thing that started eight years ago has has shifted. So, yeah, I'll put hope as a big part of what our collective is living in, maybe not in that word, but definitely in practice and working through it in the different forms that we come to our work together. Those feel like the big things that I can add to what Jarvis said, passing. Thank you. See, this is why y'all are the panelists, because my answer was like those with whom I share experience lineage and space. That would be my, that would be my whole answer. Some are perfect anything that either of you would like to add or uplift from that. This is Karthik speaking. Community being food just speaks to me. I am Indian, South Asian, it is just how it is core. One of the things that I did stepping into leadership, I have to go back and do an analysis of how much our food budget increased by, but that was like core to me. For me, but also I think at C1. It's not just community, but it's communities, noting that we exist. There's many parts to our identity than many parts to my identity. And so therefore there are many communities in that. And yes to everything Jarvis and Renee said and for me. But communities are where you recharge, whatever that might be communities are together. And I have a three year old now, who pretends he's 30. But I kind of started thinking about community and the context of him. I think that in, I think a world that is complicated in all the ways it is with hope and despair, I suppose in equal parts communities. In the context of him I started thinking about how communities is what we build to keep each other safe. Hey, summer here. Yes, co signing all of the above, and I will simply add. One of the things that I've been wrestling with since the beginning of the portion of the pandemic when we were all isolated is. Oh, it's been a great deal of time looking out of my window and looking out into my neighborhood and think like this is my community. I understand what my communities look like in my personal professional like all of those worlds colliding life. It was my first time really thinking about well, why don't I have a sense of what this community is truly at that period of time when I was standing looking out my window like what's happening in the world. One of the things I came to realize is that what actually defines community for me and then I think as a little bit of pardon me everyone I'm sick everybody knows that's just what it is. Um, so that that a feature of community is about being communal that there's something that we are all doing together and whether that's sharing a meal sharing in the workload sharing in the laughter sharing in the joe of a sharing in a tear sharing in the worth of warmth of a fireplace like we are all sharing whatever that dynamic is. And so one of the things I'm thinking about. Now as we're going forward with all of this chaos as our continued backdrop and I don't think that's going to go away anytime soon is how do we sort of get busy and get together and making sure that the community is actually being communal by way of doing things or several things together and that doesn't mean exactly at the same time. It means a, there's a focus there's an energy that's drawing us toward each other, and then moving forward and that to me that that starts to get at what community is. And all of everything that we've all talked about is it and think about how vast and deep the understanding of community is that we can put all of this language around it. It's still not quite hitting on that shared experience because it's a body. It's a feeling it's a heart centered thing I think when done with all the love and intention that community requires. Thank you. Leilani speaking. There are so many directions. We can go from all of those wonderful definitions. One thing that I think I'd like to reflect back is the various forms of a word that I heard from Jarvis first which was community as accountability and from summer community as being communal. Right and those and from Karthik thinking about future generations and from Renee thinking about past generations, even if those ancestors are very. For me the way I would phrase that would be very close very present ancestors, and I don't have sort of a narrow thought there but that idea of accountability, intergenerally, intergenerationally and and what does it mean to be accountable. Right, how does accountability shape community, especially for theater artists. Right, what does it mean to be an accountable community member in the world of theater. That's a big loaded ask, but we're here so. Well, Well, just to start high summer here. The. What are we actually holding. What is it that we need to be a held accountable on or like what is what is that thing because I think. The conversation being held here between us. I think our strategies around accountability and community might be different than the way other people utilize accountability to build community and I think sometimes that accountability can actually be against creating community. It could actually be exclusionary. If there is a. If there are our systems meant to uphold the way in which something has been done before that is often a barrier to building new communities. And so I think thinking about what that accountability. What are we actually being asked to hold there. I love that and I love the thought that you can have accountability to systems and that 50 communities can be built around within outside of for or as part of systems and that can be good, bad, or neutral and that's all part of how we are defining our our communities and how our communities are sometimes defined for us right the space that we're stepping into. Does anybody else want to reflect back on or build from what summer just shared. I'm trying to put the pieces together. accountability. You know, a lot of our restructuring in the last three years is around the conversation of that specifically in that. So much harm was created in the first three and a half year three years really, because one we didn't know what we were doing. So we just three things at a wall, and two, when it came down to receiving resources for trying to figure out what we were doing, the places we went were generally white places we were getting systems from white systems. We weren't, we weren't accessing things that felt like us. But we wanted to try so we just kept sort of moving forward. So now I think that conversation as we've really I mean in the last three years we've let go of doing any programming any like we are, we are to the tail of like sweeping house now we are building a brand new board we are no longer calling it a board we are a language. I am really working out as some user grant writer and spend so much time using those words, really reframing so our accountability is on the ground. I feel like our accountability is rooted in the systems that we have to create while in this space of crisis because our community is in crisis and was before the pandemic in a big way and then through the pandemic has just really evolved in different ways into more crisis so really continuing to hold that space of redefining as much as possible as often as possible, and trying to figure out how we can be accountable to to the present. While recognizing how much the past effects, you know, all of our mental health and all the things like that so yeah I think a lot like our like our like our working system our accountability spaces rooted in very much like on the nose day to day, every phone phone conversation and trying really hard to, because I think you're right summer it's like what are we accountable for what are we accountable to what is that conversation it took us a long time to understand. Right, it took us years to even understand that just because we are black brown indigenous Asian Arab queer humans doesn't mean we're safe for each other. It doesn't mean that we automatically have the skills to collaborate the way we want to. It took us a long time to figure out what our activations are what our triggers are who communicates who doesn't communicate who doesn't like to communicate who's trying to get better communicating, you know, all of those things of just the day to day when you're living in underrepresented communities as you all know, just that day to day constant checking in. So yes, I think that accountability feels very real right now and we're trying to build and learn, we're really trying to learn from it. And we're holding ourselves accountable we're not allowing other people to define what that is and I think that that's what I was trying to say thank you December for just helping me understand we are thank you the long version. We are defining what accountability is we are understanding what accountability is and we are grateful for spaces like this, where we get to see more folks like us who say and then like wait. I know what that is. Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I think connected related to this is that company one thinking about what is our accountability to our communities. It actually brought up one of the things we started exploring right before around the pandemic was like going back to it's community but communities, and we started playing around with this notion of circles of communities, recognizing that within our individual practices in the institution but also our respective departments like there were different communities that we were reaching, and it required us to be specific about who those communities are or at least start thinking about the intentionality of who you're trying to serve or reach specifically because I think in that intentionality of identifying communities we have to think about the privileges and the implications of each of those communities and sometimes the individuals in those communities. And I think thinking about that also has us now thinking about what is our accountability in relation to helping build and continue building that community because what we need to look at it is like 50% like or like over 50% different community are BIPOC audiences, and I use that very broadly that also 50% of our audiences are white, and what our work looks like in relation to the people in those communities and noting that even BIPOC is a very broad term that's encompassing too many different identities and privileges and marginalizations in that but getting specific about it and thinking about when we get that intentional the work we do what is and this is pulling a little bit from Summers point is, what is the pathway we offer people through our work then, and how we offer those pathways. And in some cases do we even need to offer pathways because for some communities it is just enough. And maybe it's necessary just to build the space to be because sometimes that space doesn't exist is a little bit of how we were thinking about it to this is Jarvis. When I when I think of accountability right now. I'm thinking about yes, like all of the conversations that is that we've been having that we're having that I've read about that I keep reading about and for me accountability right now is an embodied practice to myself. Myself in terms of how how can I be in relationship with my body. And where I can hear and be present for what my community needs and what what what I need. And I, I've been thinking about about how so much of my, my, my work within my community right now has been like, what does the community need and how I act on that and how my own kind of personal practices have been. I've been showing up to them when I've been like burnt out right and reflecting on how my embodied practices have been becoming a hobby. And if I want to be liberated as an individual and wanting my community to be liberated, I have to be accountable to these practices for myself so that I can be the person that I need to be like for my community so accountability for me right right now is this sort of embodied practice of showing up for my own kind of personal, like, liberation, and, and interrupting those cultures of like internalize and externalize systems of oppression that are keeping me from living my life. And if I can't live my life because I am I am not tapping into these embodied practices that that interrupts the system then I'm living a lie I'm no good to my community I can't be I I I yes I can have ideas about creating these sanctuaries for black creatives to come and to do all of this amazing work but what has been happening right now with me personally is that my body is letting it has been telling me that like you're kind of living a lie right now you need you have to return to your body and I I that's where accountability is showing up for me and I'm seeing how it's also showing up in my community because in order for me to like continue to transform myself I've I've got to I've got to have a rigorous practice on how I'm sort of like listening to spirit listening to my body so that I can it's a weird word to say I've been I've been listening to Adrian Marie Brown talk about like prophetic practice and none of the terms of like, you know, a prophet seeing the future, but like an embodied practice that allows me to be connected to the present to right now and in in that space I can actually like here and know what what what accountability means to me what accountability means means for my community and what what needs to happen right now so that's that's what's happening on my end on like community is like first like I have to be accountable to myself and my own kind of embodied practices so that I can serve my community in a more profound way. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you all for all of those thoughts and and that sharing so far. A question that I would love to pose to this sort of group is about you just, I would love to hear about your experiences of building and finding and maintaining community specifically in New England. Right. You're each representing different parts of Boston is not Vermont is not main. And what what that has what that has been like for you whether you have experience in places other than New England or whether New England is sort of one of the frames of your communities. Also uplifting that I love that language of communities and not community because it is true that I don't know of anyone who exists in one single community, not anybody not anywhere. So I would love to hear more about that experience for each of you whatever you're comfortable with sharing of finding building maintaining community in New England, either either as an individual artist or you know as a theater runner whatever, whatever you want to bring to that sharing. I think I'm going to start because I think I'm going to be brief. It's summer, by the way. It's, it's interesting. I am a transplant so I am not from New England at all came to Massachusetts for college, founded a theater company stayed theater company still alive I am still in Boston. I don't know. I feel pretty certain I would not still be in Boston. But it went for my theater company. And that's a hard pill to swallow sometimes because the, the journey to community making is a tricky one. It takes a lot of time. And you have to be super duper willing to be authentic and also willing to be vulnerable and also willing to wait. I do think there's a little bit of like, we got to see if you're going to be around. We got to, we got to feel this out first. At least that's been my my sense of it. So, organizationally, we use time, careful intention and the, the desire to seek true reciprocity as our sort of initial sort of tenants as we walk toward trying to be in community be in communion as we start to build communities as an organization. I'll second that and keep it short and say same just really time it's been a big learning curve. And I didn't go to school for this we didn't so it makes it harder sometimes even like this room, figuring like it, you know, getting here feels like it's on point now for the work that we're doing. People were in the right room, but I don't feel like it's come like this it's really just been like super trial and error. I do a lot of like Google researching of names and people and just watch people from afar and believe that I can't touch them so I'm learning that I can reach out I think it's been a big part of me just learning like how to reach out how to communicate with folks that I have the right to do that that I can do that that I'm not beneath them or below them. So even like imposter syndrome but really just understanding one's personal power. And then doing that as a collective. And yeah so yeah I'll second what you said summer about time has been really the kindest version for us of anything that we've endeavored into when we and that's in our mission statement non urgency is in our mission statement, where we're in an African led space so we don't a urgency just works differently in our company because it works differently in our blood. And so, yeah non urgency is a big part of communicating with each other and learning and growing and being. Sorry that was Renee Johnson. Oh, gosh, the non urgency. And having that in your in within the context of your company I that's that that is that is really beautiful. I have built community I moved to well I didn't move. I like came to Vermont for summer from New York City to work on a farm with a friend of mine. And ended up being like, Oh, this is cute. It's lots of space and trees and people are, it's kind of a maker culture and you know, yes it's like really white but I don't see a lot of people so. And then, and then met a met a person that has a significant amount of money. And did some work for her for a little while and then her family gifted me with some funding to start my company and so like the first I would say three years that money just sort of allowed me to create a body of work that then put us on sort of like the map or or within the people, you know, people were able to see who we were and then that brought people inside the theater and into our space and. And then we were able to kind of identify like people that were like ride or die and so then yes it now is requiring like, you know, um, a lot of time a lot a lot of time a lot of time and as I become more in tune with with my body I'm just sort of challenging these sort of structures in terms of time in terms of like fundraising in terms of like production production production because like now. Spirit is just like yeah no we're not doing that anymore so i'm really like like we are not and i'm like dang okay um so i'm kind of sitting in like the aftermath of capitalism and going going going and. And picking up the pieces it's scary but like I think I you know spirit and bring me this far to just be like. Figure it out now i'm just i'm trying to remap what it means to kind of be in relationship with my community and the people that fund it without like you know taking 20 calls a day to talk to people about the work. Mine is. I identified taking the 20 calls the day at work to let my community at C1. Be able to do like do their artistic practice, not because they can't by any means but I find the joy in that like, like I find the joy and not the joy and. I'm perhaps getting some problematic white systems, but like I find the joy and I identify as an arts admin, because it's Karthik by the way sorry. I identify as an arts admin and in that like I do find my joy in my spreadsheets and my finances and to find the narratives in that to find the trajectory in that and I enjoy the. Like I started as a stage manager, so I started from backstage in service of work that is happening on stage and then became a production manager and then moved into this it's been this natural growth of. Always existing in service of and it's something that's always given me a lot of joy and I think part of existing in company one is also been as my growth I've been able to bring other aspects of my identity into the work every time I've grown like I am like I like to define myself as an Indian American sorry Indian I'm American and I'm Indian American like I like in any one of those communities I feel like a part of me can fit in and to come into C1 to be able to bring that version of myself and to support. This is how I found and I think part of my practice through C1 and we speak to this is we intentionally don't identify as any one theater of color like we are intentionally multiracial intentionally building multiracial and multicultural communities. I think many of her entry points in that has been similar, which is I'll speak for myself is we can bring the fullest version of ourselves to the work. So in the work we do, are we able to create spaces where people are able to bring their fullest versions to it. Uplifting that communities are made up of many and communities survived by having Jarvis in community and by having cars in community and by having those different verses of joy and also of like fulfillment and that is incredibly beautiful to hear like very different like this is what I need for to be in service to my community and in service to myself and how those for some folks look identical and for other folks look very different. And hopefully we are all part of communities that allow that fullness. I think that that's really important. It is our wonderful panelists are comfortable with it I do want to open up for maybe some questions prompted by our attendees I'm seeing lots of like note taking happening sort of off screen and lots of little emoji react popping up. So, if there are questions for folks. We get good with that panelists, if it comes from the chat or the attendees fabulous so panelists are game. If you're most comfortable putting things in chat, go ahead and do that. If you are going to ask a question using voice please do identify yourself so our wonderful caption or sherry can accurately caption that for folks. We have a question about for Karthik about elaborating on a multi racial community. Yeah, some are, this is Karthik by the way some are also what do you for support if I mess up this question. And this actually came out of. The post murder of George Floyd, when folks started putting out all their anti racism statements. And we kind of started digging into who was putting it out why they were putting it out and it felt at least in theater, like the field had shifted a little bit into the binary of you are either a theater of color, or predominantly white institution. And we felt like at that point I don't think we would have identified quite as clearly as we can now that we didn't fit into the binary of that conversation. And as we dug into it, we kind of realized the ways in which we don't identify is because it stems in when we talk about communities the community of a board the community of her leadership the community of her staff. The community for programs stuff the community of who we were serving across all our programs was truly multi racial. It wasn't just entire like it didn't skew in any particular demographic that way. And it was also intentional because of the kind of work we wanted to be doing and who we wanted to be talking. And our mission is building community at the intersection of art and social change. And that meant building community, or it was like building communities in that concept. And that's where see one identifying truly as multi racial came to me. So I don't know if there's anything to add to that. Sure, I'll just say, historically we have always the makeup of the company has always been multi racial multicultural intentionally. In the early days, you know, Boston is super, I believe I should say Boston is pretty committed to its segregationist history, and remains really bound to that. And so, initially, the initial founding of company one theater. One of the things that we saw at nauseam was, you know, unless it was a new August Wilson piece at the Huntington, there weren't very many offerings for black people to see themselves on stages for young people to see themselves on stages for queer identities to see themselves on stages at the time of our founding in a significant way, meaning not necessarily subculture or counterculture, but just present. And so the evolution is more about the way our profile was viewed from the outside and not necessarily a great shift internally, but it was really about the way the outside world was encountering us and based on, you know, I show up to direct something that may be written by someone who is also brown like me. And suddenly, there is a box that I am in and I am checking, right, and it's not because I'm checking that boxes because the box is being checked for me, because someone else has made a decision. Also means that they perhaps get to opt out, because it is a subculture it is not culture. And that is a big part of the problem for me. And so, the shifts that part they're speaking to is really about us sort of naming for the world, who had been really trying to name for us all along who we were and what we were doing. That last sentence I just for folks who have been able to be present today really just uplifting that that connects some of the themes when we were talking about community theater versus theater in community versus professional theater versus consumer theater. It is echoed in the piece from the ensemble of color, where we heard the repeated frame of names, names, names, names, right that idea of community being defined from outside and in the present just naming that that last sentiment from some really sort of encapsulate some of the themes we've heard a lot today. No judgments or guidance on that just naming that it has been a resonant theme that was not built into the program other than with who is in the program. And it's definitely a piece I will be carrying to really contemplate in my definitions of community and communities and exploration. I just want to have a little bit of time if there's more questions or anything panelists want to uplift, especially for our four wonderful panelists if there's a question or prompt you hope I would get to, and I did not feel free to take the baton from me. And I will keep monitoring the chat if anything comes up there. Digital community building from Claudia, just that digital community building with a question mark, as we sit here today on zoom. We're starting to the screen. Hey Claudia. I'll be the first one to turn on the mic and say it's hard. So I'll say that it's really hard, I think, and it's possible and it's doable. And there are different strategies and I don't know if I know any tried or true way. However, I do think one a smaller target has been helpful in our sorry this is summer by the way my bet. In terms of our programming to curate sometimes a smaller space to try to figure out, does it have the same vibe, like what can we do to make this event have the company one by, even though we're not in person. So are there good beats in the background. Are we encouraging everyone to unmute are we encouraging everyone to be camera on are we encouraging everyone to show up as they are in their household with whatever is going on there because we are in your homes and so we can't deny that and people other people live there and you got stuff to do there. And so like don't apologize when another person comes into the shop right. And all of those things and sort of. And I think I'm thinking about I'm thinking about this in a bunch of different ways like we did a digital fundraiser that was good. Actually, I thought it was gonna be a little weird but it worked out. We've done a bunch of different programming we've done, you know, a great number of rehearsals rehearsed a whole talk on play online never met any of those people in real person in real life right. And performed it digitally. And so there's a lot that can happen, but I think it's about knowing who you're trying to do it with, and really being thoughtful about what we're asking everyone to gather and stop and do, because it has to be the buy in is more because I could be home, nobody looking at me brought off right like that could be what the situation is, and I'm choosing to be here and engage. And so a part of that is that there's an entry point, what am I offering in terms of the conversation in terms of the vibe in terms of the opportunity to further connect to get deeper with any of the other people who are involved. And, and then how do you, and this is I think the trickiest part of all of it. Is there a way to build momentum from one thing to the next, because our, our in person person gatherings, but that community building community always comes with the promise of the like, okay, I'm going to meet up with you and like now we're going to get the coffee or do the thing like it comes with a lot of that promise. So how can you build some of that into that digital space as well. Those are my thoughts, not answers. I was just here. One of my, one of the things we did initially was really help people be digital. So we had funding and we got some more funding to make people to make it accessible. And that really, I don't like that felt very grateful that we had the opportunity to get that funding. It was for some it was for like, we're building an app so the original grant was written to think about building an app and taking time to get ready for the app and then in the end, the funding worked toward being able to really move that money somewhere else so I'll say for us that digital community building has really been on the like providing people with the services they needed to be in community. And then once people had their devices one of the things that was really simple and people really loved was just not just was eating together was having a lunch together was zooming like we were, we took it back like to middle school, like we were on the phone for hours together, except not on the phone. And we like we're really trying to use the propaganda of like people do like video things so like we can't get you to talk on the phone but I can't get you to show up for dinner where everybody's talking about food for two hours and showing everybody their food for two hours. Like, yeah, really trying to figure out what were some of the ways that we could use the digital space that wasn't for art that wasn't for work that wasn't for producing at all, getting folks really building relationship through the digital thing. And now that has really spanned into like, we do we have three hour phone conversations now I'm like, Oh snap, I was supposed to be an appointment with the baby. I was like, yes, I feel bad but I don't. So yeah, I think the digital community building part has been a game changer for us, because it's brought some of us who are older and age back to being that middle school high schooler who spent those hours, like that with people in real time. And then for the younger folks in our group, it's given them an opportunity to really see how adults get to build with them in the room. And when it's not centered around producing when it's just centered around being so yeah accepting anything in the background and he sat whatever needs to happen where you need to be just continuously folding that into how we're asking folks to show up. Just naming that intentionality has been a real theme in this conversation. And in this day, again, our other community focused panel the intentionality of thinking intergenerationally the intentionality of naming multiple communities the intentionality of treating space as digital space and not as, you know, what I call meet space which I recognize is kind of gross, but that that theme of intentionality before I turn things over to key to to exit us from the day I did want to up with a couple of things really quickly one there is another entire day of programming that you are all welcome to attend to there is a continued live stream of the event via our partners at howl round. You can see information about and speaking of building digital community in Hoover, whether you have it as the app on your phone or the website or from the emails from me. You can see these wonderful panelists and the panelists throughout the day profiles there are links to their websites to their social media there is info about their biographies. The performances are there available as an archive, the land acknowledgments are recorded as part of our participation so you can continue to engage and follow up and connect in that space. Today, tomorrow and through the coming week. The last thing before I pivot is I just want to open the space if Renee goddess Karthik summer or Jarvis has anything that you would like to share to sort of close this moment before we transition to the next the floor Mike camera is yours. Just to thank you, not just a thank you a thank you a thank you to all y'all thank you thank you thank you. Same I unmute it just to offer a lot of gratitude. I got to say I wasn't quite sure what this conversation will look like. Initially, I was like, Oh, I hope something works out. But this is actually been wonderful. And it's so nice to meet you Renee goddess and so good to be in touch with you Jarvis. Ditto ditto. Thank you. Thank you all for allowing me to show space with you all. I'm going to email you somewhere I'm going to email all y'all and figure out ways in which we can stay in touch for sure. I think you know my boy. So I see you all the time. Thank you for saying that gratitude. And if you ever in Boston, please set us up. I was going to say I'm down there all the time you let me know what I need to come see come do I'm an hours 12 minutes away from y'all. Let me take the train down there. Let me take the train. Give me a reason. You're coming from my old home to my new home so get on the I can meet you any stop on that train track anywhere along the way. York at least once every other month Jarvis at least once every other month. Yes. I want to add the specificity of gratitude for your time your experience the fullness of yourself, your professionalism and the communities that you can each brought into the room with this panel. I was also raised in a collectivist manner and understand the idea of when you are speaking for yourself and also speaking for your we so naming and thanking that thank you for showing up at the end of the day where you've done the 20 phone calls. In addition to a performance and Q&A that was incredibly emotional and raw from that, while coming in from New York and you know traveling maintaining New York and Vermont home base, while sick with families at the end of the day so just Mahalo. Mahalo no way. Thank you. And I'm going to turn it over to keep that and I'm done talking for the day. This is Kita speaking. Just again, late middle aged, light skin native and black woman, large blue frame glasses, white and multi color earrings. I actually had to put on a blue sweater because it is cold in my office. A turquoise shirt and behind me are my homelands Montauk point. And that's really where I'm going to start is in my language, saying Tabutni, which means thank you. And I so appreciate this day. Some of the things that I have been hearing as we have been going through and I've been writing notes all through this and I have, aside from cold, I have real chicken scratch handwriting so we'll see how far this goes. But there are things that I keep hearing that are really resonating from community to communities. Right. We're all talking in plural there. Disrupting mythologies, especially things like well funded production values, well financed production values don't necessarily equal excellent productions. You know who communicates, who is trying to communicate how do how are they comfortable communicating. All of those things are important. Especially in this conversation holding ourselves defining accountability for ourselves which I think is part of what this convening is about is we are doing our own self determination in this space. Something that struck me earlier art is to replenish joy. And I really love that. Speaking of not being apologizing I'm being accosted by a 17 pound cat at the moment. So he wants his dinner. You know, accountability as an embodied practice of showing up for my own liberation. Thank you for that Jarvis that's, that is something that I was, I really caught me and resonated with me at that moment. The right to reach out who has the right to reach out. You know, the time to put down roots time to be accepted. The time to invest and challenge the times of systems that we're engaged in. Karthik, the joy in my spreadsheets. And again, shout out to recovering stage managers we run the world. I'm sorry, we do. You know, enabling my community to do their work together. I really want to lift up which in reflection has been part of the conversation I've been having outside of these rooms. Jacob brought out this kaleidoscope of partnerships. And it struck me so hard because I've been struggling with, especially in the theater community this idea of color blindness, which I think is an ableist and racist. Philosophy. And be enjoying the world through a kaleidoscope instead of being colorblind. And what that means and how just a shift in perception of what is joyful and what is beautiful could actually change the way that theater is working today. So all of this is centered around being around us being in New England around us being, you know, within this, whatever theater means, and those of you who talk to me over time know that I refuse to define theater, because for some of us are traditional practices have been split apart so that music is separate from theaters separate from dance, whereas they were always an integrated practice. So I, I'm finding this space very helpful and around us finding our beings within New England and within the theater of colleges so I really, really thank you for these conversations today. I'm thanking you in advance for the conversations next week. I will be holding that space that's near to dear to me which around indigenous theater makers. So, I, I don't have much more to say I do want to shout out the amazing NIFA team. Thank you, Leilani. Thank you, Derek. Thank you, Mina. We're never letting you go. And how supported I feel through this process and I hope you feel that I have support you as well. We couldn't do it without each other, and I certainly couldn't do it without you. And we have another day together. So, I actually have to do my language homework. And so that's what I'll be doing after leaving this. And, and I thank you all for being here today, and I'm opening up for anybody else who wants to add anything in before we go. And I'm about to cough again. I did a lot of the talking today and I just wanted to thank folks again for their patience and their intense attention, and also the grace when a whole variety of things went left of center. So, thank you for holding that space for me so I could help facilitate this space for others. If there's nothing else, please feel free to go refresh yourselves replenish yourselves. Let us hold you here. Thanks y'all. See you soon. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Looking forward to connecting. Yeah. Bye. Thank you so much y'all. Thank you. Thank you so much. See you soon. Bye. Thank you, Leilani.