 the inside is on the case. The case is on the case. We have the audience and the project. We can actually have the discussion. The samples of women sharing ways to share how they do that. There's no way you can ignore that from us anymore. Come on, come on. I'm going to push out of this as well. Here we are. I'm going to start with the screen. I'll see a amount here for everyone. That's it for tuning in. I'm going to start with the audience. So welcome everybody to the Marquee's Theatre Centre here, the Graduate Centre CUNY and thank you for waiting a couple of and it says some people are late, are sort of supported from the National Black Theater who helped us. But I think we now wanna go and start. My name is Frank Henschker and the director of the Martin's Theater Center and together with Ancher Uebel, who's my co-director of programs. Ancher who's here, we prepared this, what we think will be an extraordinary in evening celebrating the art and cultural life and spiritual forces of Yoruba. It's a fantastic project that was developed by the world crew in the Young Vic and we have with us Elise Döndsen, who is the mentor of the project. She coordinated all the five players. She will tell a little bit more about the project just for you to know. She runs a program that is actually legendary in the world for over 25 years. She creates, runs and develops the international writers program of the Royal Court. I think it is without any equals around the globe and it has done so much for the world, the global world and for an understanding. So it's a really big, big honor to have you here. She flew in from London to be with us and also to make sure we do it right. And we did, I hope. So again, thank you for coming. And she will say a very few words then our director will say some introductory words. The reading will be about 85 to 90 minutes and there will be a little panel discussion here. You don't have to stay, but if you want, you come here then after the discussion as a reward is a little reception in case you're still here for longer. It is some wine, but I don't think you all can get it. So, but we have water and pretzels and that's exciting. So now is the moment if you have a cell phone, take it out and I'll do the same and make sure it is off. Sound off, is it? Oops, yeah, okay. Well then, so again, thank you for coming, especially in this busy time, the holidays, we need great theater, but we also really do need a good and great audience. So it means a lot for us that you come here. And I hope you will see the world a little bit differently whenever it comes to Yoruba and after the evening. Elise, give us a little... Just a little, this project started in 2007 more or less because by sheer coincidence, we were working as Frank says, we were with writers all over the world and we had a project in Nigeria, we had another one in Cuba and we had another one in Brazil. And I always say the project started on a beach in Lagos where some of the writers said, where are you going next? And I said, well, we have a long-term project in Cuba. And they said, oh no, no, you must tell us about our religion in Cuba, Santoria. And then it moved on where the writers in Brazil actually asked if I could bring some soil from Nigeria to them. And we did all of that. And it took many years, but by 2010, we had the young Vic on board and the director, Rufus Norris. And by 2013, we produced Feast at the young Vic. And it's absolutely thrilling to see it having a further life here. Thank you. Hey everybody, how you guys doing? Great, good. Thank you so much for being here. We have been working a little bit last night and most of today to present a little taste of this amazing thing for you. So what you're gonna see is a staged reading of this piece to bring to life a little bit of what the production was in London a couple of years ago. There's music and projections and a little bit of dance and some amazing actors. But most of us wanted to say thank you for being here and enjoy Feast. Okay, Ori, Ori, Ori, Ori, your head. Ori, the in my head, the entire yoruba kocha comes down to Ori, see your in my head, who you really are, whether you know it or not. The whole of this universal belief system comes down to this concept. Ori, your advice work is to know you're Ori and live by it. Know you and be, be, be, be, be, be, be, be, be, be, be. Just be. So thank you all for staying and first of all, and first of all, I think Agulia is the director but also the actress to deserve really another round of applause. Maybe I ask Elise first, what comes to your mind when you see the New York one day rehearsal of a project you worked over for a year in the UK? Just amazing. And to see your responses is really just shows how the story works everywhere. Tell us a little bit more about the original idea. It's such an unusual project. Tell us a little bit, mention it, but how did it work and what countries would playwrights, how do you coordinate the? Well, we had playwrights originally from the three countries that we've been working on in this project, Nigeria, Cuba and Brazil, but we decided to bring in the United States because there were so many great writers, we could work with them because we know that there's, you know, that this is really related. And of course, how could we do that and not bring in the UK as well? And there's a huge European culture there. So in the end, we knew we would go for five writers, but the original project had probably, oh, between 15 and 20 writers from all of those countries coming over to London on two occasions, it should have been more, but we couldn't always afford it. And walking together in this workshop with Rufus Norris and myself and musicians, we had a Cuban choreographer and we had a Shola Akingbole who did the music and Michael Henry, so from Britain. And over a period of time, we had to hone it down to the five writers. So Brazil was Marcus Barbosa, Cuba was Junior Aguilera, the UK was Bollehan and the US was Tanya Barfield, which is a shame because she's in LA, so she's not here. And I forgot, oh, Nigeria was Ratsumi Babatunde. So in the end, those were the five writers and of course, in weaving the stories, the actors and the director all managed to put that together too. What did you discover on the process of developing the project and it surprised you that you... I think almost the same thing that surprised me today, that there are just some forces working in this story that's sort of beyond any of us and that touches all of us. It very specifically touches the journey that was made and the cultures that have been so deeply affected and have had such an effect on other cultures. But I think anyone who sees this work really respects how much of the story is part of them. I saw that here. Yeah, so thank you. Rufus, by the way, now became the director of the National Theater in London. So that is also quite... His god, Hisorisha, is a Shossi who has one arrow but always gets a bullseye. But that is amazing. How was, as the last question, how was the audience reaction in London? How long was the run? Tell us the space where it was done. It was at the Young Vic, a beautiful theater in the main house and the audience was absolutely packed and full and lively and participating. You can imagine there was lots of opportunity to participate. So it was absolutely joyful, as well as being a very deep and profound and tragic story as well. Thank you. We asked you some time ago, but not too long ago, when to put your teeth into this apple of a play. What was your experience? It's been amazing. It's been such a whirlwind. I mean, for me, the thing I was so excited about is I feel like we're in this moment in history where we get to kind of put pieces together that feel like they spent centuries getting torn apart. So it's really exciting to be able to think about Euroboy culture, West African culture, African culture as a large and where the bonds between Africa and the rest of the world have been maintained, you know? And I mean, it's so the kind of classic example of what this means to put everything together. We were having rehearsal today and Larry, our amazing musician, Max, who's our amazing tap dancer who studied African music, he's from Austria and then our dancer who's from Cuba. We're rehearsing and she started doing a dance such as a Legba's dance and both of them just started singing a Legba song and they just created this amazing music together. They've never met each other before. They come from three different countries, but there's something that unites all of them. So it's been fun to kind of see where all those pieces are and to bring in these amazing actors, many of whom are Nigerian, some of whom are American and just kind of see what all those kind of connections and fusions are. So it's been fun, yeah. And do you have a personal connection also to Yoruba or how do you know? You know, it's so interesting. I mean, for me, what's been great is I also get to learn, so my family's from Ghana and but it's so interesting because as I was talking to a Nigerian Yoruba scholar the other day, my family, my name is from the Ewi tribe in Ghana which kind of spreads from Ghana to Togo to Ben Min which kind of sits on the border of where Yoruba is also. So there's like even just linguistically these kind of connections even though it's not my particular cultural religion or anything like that. So for me, it's been also a great learning experience too. You know, I mean, I think there's a lot of things within our larger continental African culture that we can all connect to but learning about the different orishes and the gods and all these kinds of things I've been learning for years to be able to bring that all together now as the tour. Yeah. And so very often what we see in New York is in quotation marks the well-made British play that has a beginning and an end and people sit around the table and then they talk and things, this is so different in the structure. I mean, the way it's a collage perhaps the great art form coming out of the 20th century but how do you feel, does that work theatrically and the dramaturgy of it and would audiences respond to this year? What is your? I feel like actually people can respond to it almost sometimes even more deeply when things are set up in vignettes than when they're set up in a narrative through line just because the way that we talk and we think and we remember the way that we have memory is not linear, you know what I mean? So it's really, I feel like all of these vignettes it's about us capturing the spirit of each of those vignettes and letting those things live together. But I think that that kind of floating nature of it that feeling of, oh, this thing is present but it's also ancient. Those two things are living with each other at the same time. So I feel like in a way it feels almost more natural than structuring everything It's like it's just being in a way, you know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely, I do. And I do like the archeology of the project and it really feels like there was some digging over centuries and taking things out and the temporality that actually perhaps life and life was not linear like one, this one dies and maybe it is a circle, maybe things are connected. You know, there is no history of theater. It sort of was the Greek and then there was a time nothing and then the French and the Germans and then Dada and this and then project. You know, playwriting, maybe, you know, there is something that connects us all on a level and especially of course this project. So it really made me think of ways how that's a temporality of the modernity of a culture and this archeology could be brought on a stage and such a lively matter. And I thought it is quite inspiring to see and also perhaps a model for projects about many, many other subjects, about many other cultures because that could be the case made. This is what works here, it could work for others and perhaps it is a playwriting of a 21st century to go away from the one author and to collage material and still have a dramaturgy. Shadeis, thank you. I think you just discovered that Western culture isn't the only form of fire. No, no, no, no, actually we do a lot here. No, I don't know, but what I just mean is that what you articulated beautifully is the drumbeat of indigenous cultures around the world. We have been expressing ourselves from an indigenous point of view that has been powerful and that has created transcontinental languages and rituals and ways of understanding and being that have sustained this globe. And I think that it's brave and exciting that this piece is brought here because what we can see is that this... And it's reflective of what's happening in the world right now, right? These kind of the coming down of walls, the coming down of colonial thinking, of linear thinking, ways to rethink our wellbeing and our holistic care of each other comes from these nonlinear kind of indigenous ritualistic cultures and languages that tip the mainstream art world on its head and creates possibilities for what can be, which is so exciting. And like now more than ever in this day and age, how exciting to have something where you can recontextualize something as traditional as the derivation of some of the institutions that brought this here with this wonderful folkloric stories that kind of are a quilt of indigenous culture. So what was your reaction to the story watching it and seeing it? My reaction, that's an interesting question. I would just say this, National Black Theater was founded in 1968. So we kind of tackle a bit of that time period. And what we were committed to when my mother founded the theater was ritualistic theater. She didn't believe in the fourth wall. She didn't believe in art for art's sake, right? So she believed that our purpose for creating art was to create dialogue, to create healing within our communities. And you couldn't do that if you didn't tell your stories from your purview, from your PO view. And that if Black folks in particular were going to find any liberation in a country that brought them here enslaved, we had to have a past that did not begin at our enslavement. And so that the natural connection would be to the continent. Now, the continent is huge, right? Why Yoruba? And so what I found to be about this piece in particular that was so interesting, what kept popping up for me in a way you did an amazing job, was that Yoruba culture was like the Underground Railroad, right? This common language spoken on transcontinental, in transcontinental ways that created a common language hidden by Catholicism, by colonialism, by all of these things. But it's point of preservation with liberation. And we see that from the 1700s to today in this play. And so for me, that was remarkable to be able to kind of trace through narrative this journey of our liberation by any means necessary. The play did start in the 1700s. You came, I think, a couple of minutes late, but so it is truly a quite remarkable way of storytelling. So would that be a play that could be put on? What do you think? Would people come in New York? Would it have to be changed? Who could put this on? Or is that something that is better suited for London? No, I mean, so that's the thing. We've been doing Yoruba plays since time immemorial, like since the beginning. If you come to the theater, all of our walls are created with art that tells the folklore of Yoruba. Who's the playwright who's in the blue and brown waters? It's a Roma training. So he's doing Yoruba stories. So can it be done? Yes, it hasn't been done since for centuries. Now, who's the audience? And how do you turn on an audience, a traditional theater audience, to something that may feel less traditional? I think that's the key, but will it work as theater? It worked tonight. It's worked for the last 50 years that we've been doing it, it continues to work in modern playwrights. And I'm sure what you found with all the playwrights that you worked with, that it was an incredible experience that really translated to audiences. But finding the audience that can really appreciate not only the cultural references, but the power of what you were describing in non-linear ways to perform and look at theater. I think that's what we have to figure out completely. Any more? Comment people, maybe we open up to some questions, but some more? I think one of the things that's really tremendous about this piece that Shade is kind of touching on as well is about where do stories get told and how do those stories get told? So for example, the work that MBT has been doing for the past 15, 48 years now is all about how to tell stories about black people from around the diaspora. I think the thing that's really exciting about the piece is these stories are stories that we hear. I mean, I'm first generation American. It's like when I hear them arguing around the dinner table, it's like that's a story I know. It's like I understand that dichotomy of existing kind of also between two cultures. It's very familiar. So then it's not about is it understandable or relatable or accessible, but more about where are all these stories gonna get told? Not that they are difficult to understand but who is getting to hear these stories and where are the stories getting told? And I think that in a place also where we are as a country figuring out how to rewrite narratives, how to rewrite the narratives of who we are and kind of our popular culture, we have to take all of the core of who we are and make sure all the stories are getting told so that we can make sure that we're telling a correct and true narrative of who we are. You know what I mean? Thank you. I think that's two notes for your comments and to see where is the audience, but I also might bring in an audience, a new audience center and another one. So I can't wait to see that. And I wish I had a little magic hat. I say, here's enough money, do it, work three months on it. I think it would be a sensational production actually. I do think quite a landmark play and that could be maybe even variations. I think written again, right now, so another one. So that is what would bring you back. Elise is actually a Brooklyn girl, right? And now since 25 years at the Royal Court in London, but maybe some comments or questions from the audience, some impressions that would be very meaningful for Elise and for the director for you to hear some. It's a great project, but there is a little trap. I mean, it's too early to see if you are gonna fall on the trap, but it's kind of like a view of the African identity from outside. So it's kind of like a colonial view of African culture. So my question that the segue is, do you plan to do other projects, let's say for East African languages and stories and South African and because Africa, I think it's kind of like a colonial view that it's like this one unique like block, but it's very diverse and very profound and very diverse. And is the project gonna go there or you're gonna stay with Yoruba? I think, I just want to say that I call all of this work told from the inside, not from the outside and that all of the writers were telling it from their own experience, which was mostly inside the culture. But yes, to answer your question, we work all over the world and we've just had an incredible project in South Africa with 12 writers working in many different languages. And also we actually started our work 25 years ago in Uganda and East Africa. So this isn't telling the story of Africa. It's telling a very specific story, but where we say the more specific, the more universal it becomes. I'm just curious why you thought it was not in any kind of, what felt colonial about it? I mean, I don't know about the project, but I didn't know if there were more languages. Like... Oh, that they were speaking English, is that why? No, no, no, no, no, no. They're like picking Yoruba and then making the connections, like the Nigerian connections, let's say with Brazil and Cuba, while, why Nigeria? It could be like other places. Well, that's the seat of the Yoruba is in Nigeria. So you can go to Oshogbo to the bush, go to the Oshun groves. I mean, it is the seat of Yoruba culture worldwide is in Nigeria. And it has roots and diasporic reaches out throughout the continent and throughout Brazil, Cuba, America, Nice. So, yeah, but maybe let's go with you had it one and then two and then three. Then four, maybe. So that was definitely a provocative question. I'm tempted to answer that, but I think that more people have things to say. I wanna say that I really enjoyed the play. So, I think everybody who was involved in it, I'm a graduate student here in urban education and I'm particularly interested in linguistics. So I saw myself reflected throughout it. I'm also an initiated priestess in Haitian voodoo. So I'm looking at it and I'm seeing myself reflected. I'm seeing what I call in this trans-languaging happening, there's trans-dialecting happening that I can relate to growing up in New York City, being African-American, being growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Flatbush, Brooklyn, where there's all kinds of multi, there's a multi-ethnic black identity throughout New York City and then particularly in those areas. When I think about, in terms of the audience, I think, wow, how wonderful would it be for youth, particularly in New York City, to be able to be exposed to that? So the children who were here, they were a little bit young for some of the content, but for more mature audience, for high school, I think that it's crucial to have this kind of work because it's speaking to their experience, it's speaking to that third space, that you were talking about, kind of third world, third culture children, it's speaking to that identity. So I think it's really important. And then I also wanna say that, as I was watching it, I was thinking about, I'm not too much read up on it, but I was thinking about Vedic Clark, thinking about literary theory, I was thinking about Vedic Clark's idea of, what is it, it's diasporic literacy. So it's something that I'm really interested in, it's the idea that you're interpreting that there's certain forms, certain folklore forms, certain forms of expression that it's critical, you have to have this kind of diasporic perspective in order to translate it, in order to understand it. So it's because it's not rooted in one tradition, but it's something that kind of happens, like this creolization that happens with language, with expression, with identity. And so that's what was running through my mind, is this, wow, we really need more of this diasporic literacy, we need more texts, we need more, just more forms of literary expression that reflects that, because so many children, I grew up in the 80s, and forget about it now, these children who are growing up now, it's even more so. So I think that a play like this is something that more accurately reflects their lived experiences. So I think that it'll really take off in other, really throughout, wherever you have black people, it's gonna take off. And then I think other people will be able to connect to it too, but I'm particularly interested in the children. Thank you, yeah, thank you. What was number two, was there, yes? Thank you. Sereme, with Ushungu Bay, Uyunle, I'm speaking Garifuna, is a language that my ethnic group, from where I come from, speaks still, and we're strictly connected with Daruba, of course, because the African from where we descend, came to San Vincent, the Grenadines, where they mix with Caribbean and other indigenous people, Ladawaks, and we are the results and still, my people still lives in Central America, where we developed and still fighting. Something that is very important, I really appreciate of this play, is the fact that it's not resolved. What I mean by that is that you just picture yourself and identify yourself with that, because you're looking everybody very well defined, but because you go deep into the spiritual part and you have to find yourself. And I think that is a very important thing for us to connect and not forget the aspect, the aspect that really holds off. Shadee, that's your name. You mentioned something that really strikes me very much, is that you said that in order to identify yourself, we have to go to all the aspects of the Yoruba tradition, the religion aspect. And I find that in us, and it's important in order to be strong in this actual time in 21st century, we need to connect and to connect with our identity. And that force, also I saw it in the representation of different deities, is that we as a woman, we represent that. And we need to connect with that. Thank you. Hi, I'm of course an academic and an Africanist, and my work is exactly this. I begin in Yoruba land and I go all over and I spend my summers between Nigeria, Brazil, Cuba and the South. And I'm writing, my next book is actually on dramaturgy and on literature and the connections in all of these using the Yoruba paradigms. So I'm very interested in finding out if there's a text, you know, written text that I could use because I already have the paper in my head that I'm going to write. There is a text, yes. And where I can get it. And also I would love to speak to you more because I work with an Afro-Brazilian theater group in Brazil, Bando de Teatro doom. And they're doing... In Salvador. In Salvador, yeah. They've been one of the groups that have been involved in this project. Yeah, and I was like, this is exactly what they would do and kind of like bringing that stuff, bringing it all together. And I'm working in translations of the Bando's work. So, you know, this is really bringing all the work full circle. And I congratulate you on this. Tell us a bit, what did you see in the play when you watched it? Well, definitely the connections and the way that the deities are expressed all across the, you know, in the different realms. And even the fact that at the very end you brought in the Shangot. Like, well, you brought back to Trinidad and, you know, I immediately thought of the Trinidadian Baptist, you know. And then, of course, the white priest who was initiated. There's a whole new layer of phenomena that's coming out in the African world. And so it's like, and of course, Assesse, you know, Yemoja, the songs and everything, those songs are very pan African, pan diasporic. There are songs that are very particular, but those songs in particular that you use, you find them everywhere. Everywhere you go and you travel, that's those are like the essential songs, you know. So there's so much. Everything is there. And the characteristics of the deities, it's all there, you know. I have to say, I love the white bubble owl because one, you know, you see more and more of it. And it's always when you walk into a room, like. But then when you think about it too, like one of, so my head is Yemoja. And one of the places that I was raised was in the Oshun groves in Oshokvo. And if you've ever been, it's a UNESCO sacred site and it's all carved with new sacred artwork. And the mother of the grove is a German woman, Susan Wenger, who passed away a few years ago, but she was a Oshun priestess and the artwork that has come out of Nigeria for the last however long, she was really the foremother of protecting and making sure that that work got into the world and preserved. And so I love that, even that bridge. Well, I'm working basically like in this genre as well, but I'm just starting into it. But from a dance perspective, yes. And I'm gonna do a project this coming spring. So I was like, that's why I came out to see it. So I really appreciate this is going on and I would love it like the text as well. But first I want to say that this particular format of nonlinear storytelling kept me present. So it was very like what she said that the children can really relate to it because it keeps you so present, you don't have to think about the past. And you're thinking about the past, you're thinking about your present, you're thinking about your future. And that nonlinear thinking actually like affords us that and like lets us be able to create from this moment because it keeps us right here in the moment, like while it's happening, as opposed to thinking like things are happening in this timeline, but things are happening. And right now, so that was, that was really appreciated. But I have a very specific question. It deals with the like toward the end, the last text when the white Bible out came, right? And when he spoke at the end, so I was thinking, okay, I would love to know, like have a translation for what he was saying to him. So that was the only part where I was like, okay, I was just very curious. Like I got the point, but then I also wanted to know like what was being said. Think about it like opera. Half the time you don't know what they're saying, but you can feel it, you know? And I think it's powerful that the year, yeah, the year of a language is being spoken. One of the plays that we developed through our playwright residency was in a BBO, 30% of it was an in BBO. So the opening scene is two Nigerian women at JFK airport speaking their native language. And the playwright who's a Ghanaian, no, Nigerian, first generation Nigerian, she made sure that 30% was done in a BBO because, because this is what I thought you were getting at was, Africa is not a country, it's a continent. And the tongue of our people is very, and we never get to hear our tongue, right? We hear English, we hear French, we hear all of the derivations of the colonial, of the people that colonized the continent, but to have that moment where you actually get to hear your, but you don't know what it is, but you could feel it. And that's what, and it happens all the time. Opera is perfect, it's all in Italian. What the hell are they saying? I don't know, but I love it. And I'm a subscription holder. So I think it's just going off of that too. And all these different things that we're saying about connectivity between places. It's that, you know, like one of the really interesting things in the script, the way that the language is written out to guide the actors is phonetically so they can, they can hear it, but the Yoruba language is a tonal language. And so when we think about the way language is spoken and then a language that gets stripped away, but then gets pushed into other things like music, right? So suddenly there's like a new vocab, like the music has taken over the vocabulary of the voice and that's something that has pulsed through time, right? So that even someone as a tap, I mean a tap dancer, the evolution of that form of dance is all connected to those rhythms. So the things that he's speaking are the rhythms that we feel inside of us. It's our pulse. It's like the way we understand the breath and who we are. So even without, even without the words, I think that was the intent of having him speak and it wasn't projected exactly, exactly. And in the sense that this person, there's a truth to him that is connecting to the truth of the father, you know what I mean? Yeah. I should just add that of course the play was written partly in the Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese and they would, and that bit was translated, but so there were many languages involved in the play. Yeah, I was just gonna echo what they both talked about in terms of, to me the flash point was the white bubble out. I was in Cuba yesterday and I went to a rumba ceremony and half of the dancers were white. And I walked in and I was really shocked but it was momentary because it was so, everything just gelled. It was like I saw that for a minute and afterwards I did ask one of the performers, I said, oh, how did you come to do it? And he said, oh, a British guy too. And he said, oh, I just took a million and one classes, that's all, you know? But it was with so much ease and just the communication between all of it and it was really impressive for me and I really actually liked that about the ceremony that they were really, that the language of the dances and the culture and was sort of transcended all of that. Which you don't see here as much, which I think was beautiful for me and seeing it there, just sort of again with the white guy just sort of brought it alive. And not to say that sometimes that is problematic, right? Like it's not, and what was great about that scene was everybody had a different reaction, you know? And ultimately the blessing was recognized by the elder and that's what really mattered. But that dynamic can be troublesome, it's not all gravy. I just wanted to add that many of the people I've talked to over the years, one of the things they talk about is how Africa is colonizing everybody and how in fact the powers are being inverted through the spiritual paradigm. And within the spiritual paradigm, everyone comes to the sources of knowledge who are usually black folks and they're bowing down to these sources of knowledge because they recognize that this transcendent sphere, this kind of other articulate, this other knowledge is something that they need. Like the young man, the man who needed the instruction from Yemezah to go get his biofuel wealth, you know? That they're understanding that there's something else that they're gaining and so they're willing to forget or they transcend their ethnicities and their colors in order to kind of bow to what Africa has given the world. Okay, thank you. Actually I'm a Yoruba person so I grew up in Nigeria so I really enjoy the place so I like the culture and the tradition that it portray and then the links between the Orishas, the Yemoja, the ocean. And I think a long thing that I mean, that was missing like we didn't see, I mean, Ogun, I mean, which is a very important Orisha Yoruba land as one of the, I mean, characters there and also towards the end, I think instead of Babalaw revealing something of, I mean, it should have been Romila so because he's the grand priest. And I think another thing maybe in the play, like Kola not also playing potential in Yoruba land and I think it may be that or Kola also set certain stage maybe when you are talking about Ruri, for example. So Kola not will have been an important symbol that can be used so in the early guide. So I really enjoy it. I think it's really good. It's so many difficult choices to make because I agree that Ogun is a very important deity too. But I think that there's also something to be said for breaking from tradition because you're right, you're absolutely right. And I think that's the, that when you start to link the tradition with theater. And especially, I don't know the playwrights but a lot of first generation have one step removed from the tradition tradition. So they may not throw Kola not, but they understand who's the Orisha for their head. And I think it's important to start telling also first generation stories of how their culture got translated through their other, their that third experience. So you're absolutely correct about the symbols and the way the tradition is traditionally practiced. I also wanna add that there is something very exciting about the mundanity of the transatlantic translation of tradition. And of course, to focus on the women. I mean, that was a decision that all the writers made that they would choose the three female, the strongest female deities. I was excited to see the children here. I think that was, I'm just so sad to see not here for the Q and A because they could have really given us an insight into their culture. In late nineties, I helped develop the New York City Board of Ed Project Arts website. And one of the things that I tried to do and did was try and look at where the kids were coming from and what their interest was but music, language, fashion, and sex. But a lot of their culture, especially the black kids, came from Africa and they didn't know that. So one of the things that we were trying to do was show them their language and their music that it came from there so they would have roots because many of us don't have roots whether we're black or wherever. We come from some other place. And I loved your comments about what I call experiential storytelling, the nonlinear storytelling because that really engaged you. And I loved that it was in the middle because we felt like we were not just we versus them. And I think that's one of those things that's there. The question is, how do you bring this to young people and revise it so that maybe they catch on and wanna learn more about their culture? I mean, at National Black Theater, we do, I mean, we've done Orisha plays forever. I think the folklore of Orisha plays and indigenous cultural plays is, just lends itself to young people but our founder, my mother, Dr. Barbara Antier, the point of putting on these kinds of productions were for, I mean, our first ensemble like our opening company, we're all teenagers. I mean, now they run the show and they're elders but it started out to give youth an identity in this country that gave them roots past their enslavement. I would like, no, I'm sorry, I'll ask one of the actors. I think that, you know, I think the interesting thing about a piece like this is because it's something that we, it's something that we don't see very often. I think we're tempted to frame it as something outside of ourselves when it's not, when it's something that's very integral to who we are on every level. So in terms of, I think bringing young people in, bringing all audiences in, it's about just making the connection of who we are fundamentally as people rather than yours. I was saying this about Shakespeare, people say, oh, I feel like it's something outside of themselves. It's not outside of us talking about something very essential to human nature. And I feel like that's the thing that this play captures too. It's like, what is the, how, how is it, how is it, how, how, what's the way that we're all connected? Not that we have to reach outside of ourselves to access something. How does it affect us at our core? I would like to, I'm so sorry, but one of the, one of our actors, how did it maybe come a bit closer here and Yuchen can give you a mic, but how did it feel to be asked to be in the play? What did you expect and what came out of it? And so what was your experience? Actually, I'm gonna try not to cry. It's very emotional for me and I'm surprising because I have been in Washington state actually doing a teaching artist residency out there and I have a two month gap. So I came to New York and then I think the day after I landed, I got an email from Awoye, like, would you like to be in this reading? I got your contact from Chinere Anyangu who is a really phenomenal casting director who really does a great job of staying in touch with actors of African descent, usually first generation African-American. And it's been emotional for me because first of all, I'm sitting in this room and I think for the first time in my life, I'm realizing that, well, I'm Yoruba and I'm first generation Nigerian-American and growing up, I grew up in New York City and I would meet people who were first generation, Caribbean-American, first generation, Puerto Rican-American, first generation, Dominican-American. And I always felt some sort of tie to them but I never knew exactly what it was and now I'm 30, I'm gonna turn 31 on Wednesday and just being back in New York and specifically being in this room, I'm seeing people who are from St. Vincent's and I see the Yoruba and them, Haiti and I see the Yoruba and them and Trinidad and I see the Yoruba and them and that's like, whoa, Yoruba is, most people, there's a lot of people who are Yoruba. You know, it's not just Nigeria anymore. So now I feel like, okay, I've got these cousins across the world and that's why all these years they've been somewhat speaking to me spiritually. It's also emotional for me because when I have finished reading the script, I was reminded of a romantic relationship that I was in. It was my first relationship and it was with a man who was Igbo-American and he was a little bit older than me and he practiced capoeira and so he would tell me these things about Ifa and I didn't know anything about Ifa. My parents raised me Christian. My father was Muslim. There were a lot of Muslims in Nigeria and usually people who go down that path choose to, well, I can't even say it's a choice because of the type of schools they go to. They're not encouraged to embrace Ifa. They basically have to cut it off and they still are Nigerian and they're proud but the religious aspect is cut off. So being in that relationship, it made me open my eyes and sort of reconnect with Yoruba heritage and so this play reminded me of that reconnection and how important it is for me to hold on to that, especially now that I'm coming into a time in my life where I'm thinking about family and what am I gonna pass down to my children? Are they gonna be watered down or because I know I'm already watered down and I don't want them to water down anymore. So it's been very crucial for me, not just as an artist, but personally to be a part of this reading and I really do hope that it becomes a production here in the U.S. Thank you so much, thank you. Thank you. Well, I think that it was a wonderful, I think a moment to keep in the room and think about it and approach it, but I think I would like to thank you all for coming or so thank you so much for Shadeh for joining us again. I believe this is a remarkable and at least to have the vision with the writers to create something. It's an experiment. You never know how do things work out or they come out as a very courage and I think you found something in there and it is really our hope that it works out. So perhaps if you know people who are in the position to make decisions, you don't tell about the story or maybe somewhere you do your own work or included whatever it is, but I think this was a remarkable evening. I'm so honored and proud that we could do this here at the Siegel Center. I was the summer in Sao Paulo and I saw the Afro-Brazilian Museum and you told me about the play and it was such a world, somehow something that spoke to me is that we now finally should do it and I'm really, really honored. Also thanks for answering. I said, no, it's not possible. Yeah, she said, Frank, forget about it. You can't do this. It's confusing, dance, how can you do it as a reading? And I said, that's a good reason to say, yes, we can, but we went back and forth and she said, you have to watch the DVD, at least, yes. But I also want to thank Anshir for helping us to make that happen and to everybody. So thank you and join us for a little reception. Thank you.