 15 seconds, we'd like you all in your seats in 15 seconds. 10, nine, seven, six, and I pass it to Clyde. All right, y'all, is it me or is it really hot in this room? All right, all right, just wanted to check in. Ignal, we're hot in general. We know that, it's almost caliente, but not, but it's also hot in the room. So, you know, I think what we want to be mindful of is not being hot and bothered, right, in terms of what's to come next. And, you know, this wasn't, maybe it was easy for some folks, but, you know, I was kind of walking around and trying to check in as we're doing our timekeeping thing, and I heard a little frustration here and there, and I also heard laughter. I just want to acknowledge all of it, right, because what's to come next is, we'll ask for you guys to present your respective visions and strategies, and then we're gonna do some coalescing and some consolidation, and this is gonna enable us towards the later part of the afternoon to then get really concrete about our own individual access points into what we identify as a community. Does that make sense? Are we pretty clear about that? Cool, cool. So, I'm gonna start with A, and that's advocacy, and ask you to come up and present your vision and strategy, and we'll start on this end and we'll move forward this way, okay? Yes, put it up. And the full group, yeah, I'd like to see who's up there. Yeah, everybody, come on up. And we, you know, it's brief, it's three to five minutes, but I think you should be okay with that. We had a very spirited conversation in our session, and in spite of Mario Arnesto, because he's so shy, we were able to engage him in conversations, so. The advocacy touched on a number of issues, but in topics with respect to what we thought about advocacy and what the advocacy agenda would be. More specifically, however, our vision statement is that by in the next 20 to 30 years, we wanna develop a strong community of advocates that includes artists, the arts community, as well as our audiences, that understand the role of advocacy and the importance of advocacy with a very specific advocacy agenda, addressing issues of equity. We came up with a few strategic actions that we are suggesting and recommending. One is that we provide training through strategic alliances on advocacy and the use technology to make this training more widely available to communities, just like we did the sessions around the country today. The training on advocacy be conducted using technology so we don't have to convene with respect to doing that training. And those strategic alliances can be such organizations as Americans for the Arts, who has a political action committee, which is with the Arts Action Fund, and advocacy is a strong part. NALA, the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, which has an advocacy institute that brings people to Washington. But again, using technology, we can not limit it to those individuals who come to particular cities to get that training. As important as it is to develop a cadre of advocates, it's also important that when we convene, that we make advocacy part of our agenda at these convenings, and that we can include those in our agenda so that it's never an afterthought, but it's actually part of our thinking, as well as some of our planning sessions with respect to advocacy agendas and the importance and demonstrating that advocacy is an important role that we undertake, recognizing that we wear many hats, but without the advocacy, we can't change the agenda. We also are recommending or suggesting that we also need to promote Latino artists themselves, and as individual artists, and the work that they create and that needs to be promoted and developing alliances around the country so that work in particular that may be done in festivals doesn't just stay at that festival, that more knowledge and awareness of the work that's being created by Latino playwrights and artists or ensembles needs to be seen and be promoted, and one way of doing that is to promote it through alliances of artistic directors, both of Latino theaters and non-Latino theaters, because we really need to advocate for that and promote that. Publishing is obviously one aspect of it, but making people and artistic directors or even literary managers aware of these plays is without that awareness and appreciation, they're not gonna necessarily produce or present the work. And lastly, we recognize that Latino theater commons here at Emerson is not a program and it's not an organization. However, we also believe and know that Emerson is planning to develop a campus in Los Angeles that will have a program there, that we believe that that particular campus have a focus on Latino work and the Latino theater commons be a program, a signature program of that campus, that it makes sense to do that. And we make that recommendation in the spirit that we know that we have been welcomed here by the president and that Emerson has made a commitment to such convenies and gatherings, but that an initiative or an effort or a program may be more fully developed and supported as a program of that campus. And that demonstrates the commitment not only of the president and the institution, but actually of the entire educational system it can be a beacon for others to follow suit. So that's what it is. Anything that you want to add? Anyone? Yes, a message. I have a message for Luis Valdez, si se pudo. Oh, and one last thing that is very important I'm just looking at David, is that very important that we connect local initiatives with respect to anything that we do to promote artists with national movements or national organizations that we can't just stay local, that we have to be engaged at the national level and regional level to make certain that our voices and our efforts are being heard and recognized throughout the ecosystem. Thank you. Once again, the advocates are advocating already. So give it up for them. Thank you. So technology was one of the things I heard or the use of technology. And I think then it's appropriate that we move to another strategy group and that is Cafe Onda. So if the Cafe Onda group can stand up and model what we just saw, where you put your easel pads front and center and you give us a report back and then you post them up right here on the wall. Thank you. Hello, this is Cafe Onda. So we're gonna, I'm gonna read the vision statement and then we're gonna talk about our three pillars of that vision statement. The Cafe Onda will be the online hub for expression, advocacy, and networking for Latino theater. I'm gonna hand it off to our representatives of each of the pillars. All right, so the three of us will share this element. And this is Georgina, our clown. First element of expression is, do you hear that? Elements of play. Steven Tyler is Peter Pan as icon. That was my contribution. Podcasts, gotta have podcasts, gotta have a voice for creativity, collaboration, writing. Design work by designers should be on this, including stop motion, animation and videos. There should be some poetry. We gotta have a calendar, an interactive calendar where everybody can put up their events, their gatherings, all their funding deadlines, all stuff like that. Hyperlinks featuring tweets. I think what's left is Instagram, 15 second video reviews. Inviting artists from other disciplines to participate with us. Inviting visual artists to make work based on Latino plays. Want me to do it? All right, so second pillar, advocacy, which is what we've been doing. This is great. So we've talked about creating, essentially making the website a giant protocol for dramaturgs, a place to put work for others to find. We wanna include sampling of different disciplines of work. We want to have excerpts from plays so we can feature playwrights and they can put up little 10 minute samples and if anybody wants to get the rest of the play they can contact the particular agents or the playwrights themselves. We also want to have a unified voice speaking out, responding quickly to events that affect the Latino theater community such as Michael Kaiser, Shakespeare Theater, all that stuff. A monthly hashtag, cafe on the conversations. So a monthly discussion online to talk about particular questions or issues concerning specifically Latino theater community. And we also wanna have a regular scholarly presence so we have reports from the field from scholars, not just from universities but from educators, community organizers, social workers and so on and so forth. And now I'm gonna pass it off to networking. Great, so as networking we wanna have cafe on the, be the place where we can find each other and find each other's work. So as such it would be a central place where we could have dynamic profiles of Latino theater makers. So if you're a playwright, if you're a director, if you're a designer, if you're a dramaturg, you could post a profile so we could know who you are, where you're based, what you're interested in so that we can connect with each other and collaborate. So for example, we can identify each other by practice or by region or city. So having all those filters available. This could be a place for a new play map for all Latino, Latina productions. A place where we could have a production database. So as this timeline behind us represents, sometimes productions happen that we're not aware of. And so the scholars don't know about what we're working on to then write about it. Dramaturks working in institutions who want to be able to advocate for a play can then look it up and say, it's been produced at this amazing theater that we may not be aware of. We should be doing this play. And have it be a place where all this incredible research and work, videos, dramaturgical articles, all kinds of information can be posted and shared and have a life beyond those productions. Have this be a place for a dynamic calendar for productions and deadlines. So if I know that you having a production coming up in Chicago in three months, I can plan to be there and support you as you do your work or as we're ready to apply for awards or for potential funding opportunities to have this be a place where that can live. And also, as we talked about, having this be a place for scholarly spotlights we can share our work with scholars and have a conversation. All right, so just one last thought about this is very quick, which is like, you know, because I am the, so right now I'm the editor of Café de Hona, but I use that term very loosely. I want to express and emphasize the fact that we are all the curators. So, you know, if there's anything of particular interest or topic or things that you want to share, you can talk to any and all of us, including myself, and pitch your ideas and we pay you to write these articles because we believe that your time in your words are worth a little something for the cause of Latino theater. Do you want to say something? Also, a couple of elements we didn't mention is 15-second Instagram video reviews that anyone that goes to see a show can create and we could also be a platform for your little 15-second sort of commentary on a show that you've seen. And then in the future, Café on that TV. Thank you. Thank you guys. What we're hearing thus far, and we're gonna encourage one of our stances of active listening, but what I'm hearing as I listen is, you know, some very broad kind of longer term initiatives and some really immediate things. So that last thing we heard was really immediate. That's what you can do. You can go to a show if you use this thing already and you're on Instagram or Vine and you can do that and you can post it and you can hashtag it. So that's actually gonna be the next phase, but we need y'all to listen so that you can help us kind of begin to consolidate some of these brilliant ideas. So we're gonna ask the next group come up and we're gonna stay with the CEs and that's convenings. Please get up and give us your love and give us your ideas and give us your thoughts. And I promise there's gonna be a really fun break after all of this. I wanted to point out that we were told to write a sentence, so we did. In the following, we wish to not do to others what has been done to us. We envision in 2046 a shift from us in our convening to a we as our racial diversity and hybridity becomes realized. We envision convenings that are multi-generational with blurred geographic and perhaps metaphysical borders attended by thousands and blessed by our Latina president. Our strategies to organize locally, regionally as we have and nationally as we are doing to share knowledge and information and groups but more significantly building on the one to one that happened here and now and today. To utilize cultural centers and shared spaces and also the models of those shared spaces. We spoke about the Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin for example that it was a 30 year thing in the making between activists, community activists, scholars and La Raza itself for 30 years and finally we got the city to pay for it. That we want to use those models over and over again. And LATC another good example getting the civic support but not the dominance of them deciding how we do it. Three, schedule yearly national covenings that rotate locations as in the four corners that we started today here and include universities and other organizations as we have but more significantly continue the multi-generational almost guild idea of the one to one transference of knowledge that's so important by standing there with our elders together. And last but not least, we make a promise now to really do this. Give it up to the Venus for actually listening to our instructions. Thank you, thank you for sentences and other things. Other things. So next I'd like the scholars to come up. Scholars please come up, give them scholars some love. I think they did, so we're done. There is a magazine crossover. It's fascinating how we're all thinking on the same lines. The scholars group followed directions and we wrote, would you read it? Our vision, any one of you. Scholarship and documentation. We added documentation because that was supposed to be in the program, we forgot. So we're interested in scholars and theaters and artists and university, permeability. Hi, I'm waiting for that Latina president. So number one, creating networks between artists and scholars and we thought of two ways to do that. The first is to fundraise to bring more Latino artists to scholarly conferences so we can have dialogues. The second is to build relationships with Latino theaters to foster residencies for scholars. Number two, you laugh, we're coming. And number two, to develop an interactive archive, probably electronic for Latino theater. That's following directions. Oh boy, okay. So, you know, there's, I guess, like a meta-narrative that's emerging, right? And then we all get to do some dramaturgy together, right? That's, you know, to keep the metaphor going. So scholarship was mentioned and scholarship mentioned networking. So how about we get networking up here next? Moderator was the fabulous Richard Perez but he has seated the microphone to me and I have to tell you working with this ink has put the mancha de platano back in my hand. So. Okay, the one thing I want to acknowledge is, yeah, I know. From Puerto Rico, you know. The one thing I want to acknowledge is that in fact, there's a lot of cross-pollination between these things that we were just asked to meet. Obviously, networking is very related to advocacy and cafe onda is going to play a key part in what we are about to present to you. So I'm going to start with a vision. We acknowledge as activists in the field that there is abundance, networks, and access and that we, through convening mentorships, open platforms and existing national programs to expand support and illuminate Latinos in the American theater field. And these are the strategies. Oops, may spell. To infiltrate existing national programs by deliberate participation. We love the word infiltrate. And again, you know, a lot of us started doing theater because we are activists. Number two, identifying regional delegates that will help disseminate information to broaden our knowledge of each other's work and understanding of each other's work, available artistic resources and funding opportunities. So again, that identification is the second strategy. Number three is to basically leverage cafe onda to be a dynamic resource for connections and exchanges. So there you have it, networking. So you may see Guinan adding little sheets of paper below here and he's attempting to coalesce around vision first, which is part of what we'll do once we get through all of this and then we're gonna kind of delve together into the strategies. So I just wanna keep saying that. So that was networking. That was great, thank you. Next up, we're gonna do, what do we have over there? Help me out. And art making. Okay, so let's do mentorship next. Can we get the mentors up please, thank you. Group was on mentorship, which is the sharing of knowledge and training and we had a really profound conversation because that's definitely something that all of us feel that we want to be in service of is giving ourselves to others and to upcoming artists in the profession as mentors. But we also talked about, I think the harder part of the conversation was the fact that all of us also need mentors even as we continue to develop and grow at the highest levels that we aspire to in our careers. So I'm going to turn it over to my wonderful group members to describe a little bit about what we came up with our vision statement towards the future in thinking about mentorship as very much a tree with many branches. So rather than having a defined statement, we talked about the branches on the tree. Shoulder to cry. Human collaborator. Positive energy. Confidant. Love. Advocate. Ass kicker. Leader. Nurturer. Mutual respect. And now we're gonna talk about our vision plan. We came up with a very defined sense of what we could do immediately today among everyone in the room. We thought that mentorship should be going both ways. Not only should we think of ourselves as mentors, but also as mentees. So we thought it would be great if everybody in this room walked out of here as a mentee and as a mentor. Even you, Senor Valdez. Valdez. Everyone, and we take that very, very seriously. Each and every one of us should look around the room. Who is that person that inspires you and how can you open yourself up to inspire somebody else? It's imperative in order for this communication to continue on into the future. And that person does not have to be younger than you or older than you, depending on what you think of as a mentor or mentee. And I also wanna just plug one of the things in the voice of technology. Some of the old technology still works. Pick up a fucking phone. Number two. Another thing that's come up during our stay here is that we really feel that we need a how to. We need a workshop of best practices and case studies. So, Jose Luis, how did you get your board to give $15,000? Just we need to know how that happens. Wow. No, how did you get a play to this theater? We need instructions. We all feel like we're empowered. We need some more tools. So we'd love to do another convening where people show the ways that they've done it and we improvise on that. And then part three, we talked about what a national directory might look like if we could build a national directory where we put down all the programs that are currently available, whether they're paid internships, unpaid internships, internships by other kind of design so that we could have a formalized place where people could, we've heard the word networking, and then we wanna be able to eventually see the establishment of a development fund for mentorship because paid mentorships are obviously very critical. But I think in summation, the biggest thing we wanted to see was the cultivation of mentorship, not as something that some aspire to or some are doing, but that's an organic part of the work that we do. And here I'm reminded, I wanna quote Diane Rodriguez because at the Equentro I thought that she said something really important in Los Angeles and that was she said that her goal is she walks through a door and opens it for others to follow through. And I think we're always looking for new doors to open, which is why we need to think about being mentors but also seeking out mentors to help us in finding the next door to open. And we talked about short-term mentors, but we also talked about the need for long-term mentors and a balance between the both. Gamer, just leave them out for a second. All right, thank you very much, thank you. Give it up for the air condition, it's on! Yeah, thank goodness, okay. So next up, we're gonna ask that the art makers join us. Art makers, the art making group. So we are the dreamers. And we're also the storytellers, which is why this was really challenging for us. We had some profound conversations, but I have to say that we're not as pragmatic as some of these, but that's okay, no judgment. This is who we are. So I'm gonna ask various people to read for us. Rose, would you like to read our statement? We did come up with a vision statement, it took awhile. It's a beautiful thing. Art making in the theater. Thank you, Luis Valdez. In the theater of Inlaktish, in 2046, the artist will be the most valued member of the community. By reflecting stories where the community can see themselves, there you go. For the castles? Okay, the castles, institutions, each have a resident scholar, playwright, designer, director, and group of actors. To work together, collaborate on local, national, and international levels. Okay, so we had a very intense conversation. And the conversation was really about theater of the future that we mentioned castles are, are the castles already burned then? And if they're not in 2046, because we had a much more practical conversation that it's only 30 something years away, right? So it's gonna look exactly the same. And if it's gonna look exactly the same, some of us felt that maybe if we were really members of a community inside of an institution, if we did have a scholar, if we did have, not a repertory, but we had actors that were essential members of an institution that something would change in the way that we think about how we run theaters. So that was a little bit of that, you know? Well, how about just to offer gender parity? Let me let Josefina continue. So one of the things that we see happening is that the structure of playwriting, for instance, won't be a male linear structure where it reflects a man's orgasm, right? Rising action climax, resolution, they fall asleep, right? But it'll be more orgasmic, multi-ergasmic, where it spirals up, spirals down, and it'll be much more encompassing of female energy and female stories. There was just one more thing. We're still art-making here, people. We're still art-making. There's one more thing that I think needs to be repeated, and that's something that Lupe Valdez said, which was at the core of what we want to do as art-makers is find a place where love and respect exists. True humanity, thank you. I was gonna say a joke about the play, but not anymore. So last but not least, festivals. Festival crew, please step up. Festival crew, to the mic. Festivals, and this was actually really exciting because we're talking about festivals, not in 2046, but in 2014 and 2015. So it was very great to be working on projects that we know are actually gonna happen. So I'm gonna talk about the Encuentro at LATC, and then I'm gonna hand it over to Lisa. So for the Encuentro at LATC, we also follow direction. Vision, our vision is through direct and respectful artistic encounters over a four-week period, the Latina-Latino Encuentro will celebrate and assess the level of artistic excellence of our field. The three strategies in which we want to use to engage and reach this vision is, one, the collective and democratic selection of work, taking into consideration companies, bodies of work, ensembles, touring productions, productions that have the ability to tour not only to LA, but also beyond, and also urgency, the urgency of the work that needs to be seen. Strategy number two is thoughtful feedback in various playwright-driven and selected modes. So we talked a lot about the NASA and the format of feedback, what was deemed brutal feedback, and what we talked about it, there's been a development of dramaturgy and forms of feedback in which playwrights themselves could talk about who they want to hear from and in what format they want to hear from, like the Lerman or something, different techniques to have feedback, and those sessions would happen in the morning after performance. And then in the afternoons, as Jose Luis mentioned, the creation of new work through shared methodologies, improvisation, and collaboration. So what was really exciting, because I just was thinking around about this in my head for a little while, and it was so great to get a group of people thinking about what this thing is going to be in 2015. And we decided it was not going to be a festival, it was going to be a Latino play, a Latino new work, Carnival. Un carnival, ustedes saben. And so it's going to be centered around eight pieces, not seven pieces, two from each of the four directions. Two, two, two, two, centered around those projects. But then we wanted to have, we wanted to expose as many writers as possible, so we wanted to have a one-minute play festival, a 24-hour theater festival. We wanted to have three directors, three Latino directors from around the country come and work with three groups of students over the course of the week and create a 15-minute theater piece. We wanted to have what we call the booths of the great Latino theaters in Chicago. So each Latino theater in Chicago would have their own thing they could do, a 24-hour play, a site-specific project, popcorn, a dunk, you know, I don't know, a support booth, a bobbing for plays, but we wanted to create a real sense of carnival around our work. We decided this is going to be, what did Richard Montoya say? No notes, no feedback. No notes, no notes. Just a celebration of our work in 2015, and then that will be the first seat of, I hope, a long history, right? Great. And now I'm going to check in with you guys, we're going to figure this out together, right? This is the comments, this is how we're doing it. And not everybody listened to our instructions, so we got to remix a little bit. So would it be helpful, this is a question to the group, to take a few minutes for all of you to come up here and to kind of span what's just been put out, because obviously you can't read it from where you're sitting, right? You've listened, but would it be helpful to kind of also now read each and every one and take a few minutes to do that, because we have some time between now and our next break, and we can build that in. Is that helpful? Can I hear a consensus? Yeah. Yes? Yes. Folks want to do that? Yeah. So let's do that. Take a few minutes, we're going to give you five to get up here and kind of just walk across this and take in, if you want to, take in what's been said from a strategy and a vision perspective. So as you guys are looking at the wall, you're looking also at what's similar, you know? What connects? What, you know, where's the synthesis? Because we're going to start our editing. We're going to start narrowing some of this down, and then we're going to make some decisions as a group. We got a couple of more minutes, folks. So just scan it, take it in, do a little reflection. All right, y'all. We're going to ask that you start gathering yourselves. Head back to your seats. Start quieting down. We have some work ahead. I'm going to get out of the way. Kinan was charged with doing something real specific, and that was to do a little, to model this, essentially, across vision. And not so much to say, this is what it is, but to put it all together and read them as one so we can hear that out loud as a group. Kinan? So do we have everybody in the room? So as Clyde said, I'm going to just weave the narratives that have been created. I'm going to weave the visions that you have all created for us. And just take it all in as a type of quilt. In the following, we wish to not do to others what has been done to us. We envision in 2046 a shift from us in our convening to a we, as our racial diversity and hybridity becomes realized. We envision an effective understanding of advocacy and a strong group of advocates. We envision Cafe Onda as an online hub for expression, advocacy, networking for Latino theater. We envision scholars in the theaters and artists in the university. We envision convenings that are multi-generational with blurred geographic and perhaps metaphysical borders attended by thousands and blessed by a Latina president. We acknowledges activists in the field that there is abundance and access and that we network through convenies, mentorships, open platforms and existing national programs to expand and support and illuminate Latinos in the American theater field. We envision collaborative thinking and the relationship building. We envision cultivation of a mentorship culture. We envision through direct and respectful artistic encounters over a four week period the Latino Encuentro will celebrate and assess the level of artistic excellence of our field. We envision eight pieces representing the four directions in a carnival of theater. In the theater of Imlaques in 2046, the artist will be the most valued member of the community. By reflecting stories where the communities can see themselves, the castles and institutions, each have a resident scholar, a resident playwright, resident designer, resident director and a group of actors. We all work together to collaborate on local, national and international levels and we envision love and respect existing with artists at the center, creating multi-orgasmic spiraling theater in 2046. For all of us and I wanna, let's hear from Twitter. We want Twitter to set worth the Twitter world to check in and chime in on this and get their feedback on what we're hearing so far. And now we wanna attempt, and it's gonna be very difficult to consolidate or begin to at least consolidate some of these strategies. But we're gonna start with consolidating these groups. So we started off with eight, advocacy, cafe onda, scholarship, networking, mentorship, art making, festivals and convenings. So now, from you guys, we're gonna ask with some new easels and we're gonna note take here. If we had to get this down to four, four, what would those four be? Maybe two are obvious, cafe onda and festivals, networking, advocacy is an obvious one. I mean, they're all obvious. I guess what we're after is what are the platforms we have that we know are already happening and can those things happen in the context of those platforms, right? So we know scholarship is a whole another platform as well, correct? Can we agree upon that? We know that there's some festivals happening. Can we agree upon that? We know that in many ways convenings are festival of ideas, of people gather, correct? Yes? Yes. So can we perhaps in the context of our goals for today agree that convenings can happen in the context of festivals? In fact, what I heard from the carnival was that you literally remixed an idea on an idea, correct? Lisa and the festival group in terms of how you're thinking about 2015? Yeah. Yeah? Okay. So we have a platform and cafe onda that will support advocacy, expression and networking. Advocacy and networking. As a separate category, Diane, is that what you're saying? Advocacy and networking. Advocacy and networking. All on the cafe onda. All together. Yes. Okay. Advocacy and networking. Great. Networking and mentorship as it's... So Luis, you just said and you said scholarship and mentorship together. Well I just really agree that I actually think that maybe scholarship and mentorship really do live side by side. Right. That's an intellectual idea but also a building and a kind of thinking around our portfolio. Great. Luis, any art making and the creation of new works that services the foundation of Latino theater? Our works? So I'm gonna ask you this then, right? So for the creation of new works. The creation of new works. So can we agree then that festivals and for the sake of this conversation that part of what the festivals are gonna be about is what you just said. All working in the creation of new work. Art making in the creation of new work. Can we agree to that? Can we agree that we heard that from that? I think it's something separate. I don't think I did. Yeah? Something separate? Yeah. Okay, so that's our fourth plaque. Our fourth pillar. Right, we're staying with the theme before. Okay. That's okay. So art making, let's fill that in. Art making and the creation of new work. That's right. I mean the English theater's right on Facebook even after 400 years, you know? Right, right. So we need enough Latino works to sustain the identity of the theater. Because we also acknowledge yesterday in my act of listening, what we all acknowledge with it, we're just a drop in the bucket. This thing is just beginning. Right? Right. We said that yesterday. So that's why that's a plaque. Great. Okay, so we've established our fourth. That happened a lot quicker than I anticipated. That's what I'm saying. Yes. Of this conversation. I wonder if you have a headache because that's all of our convening. Yes. It's not the other way around. That's an interesting point. Yeah. Yes. We do our convenings. So that's, we're gonna remix that. Convenings and the festival's falling into that bucket. Karen. I feel like mentorship is a verb. Yeah, but it's also part of art making. I think it organically that mentorship is part of each one of you. All right, so let's put that life over here. If I was on a screen, you know, I'd just like slide it over, right? So I did my talk cruise and that movie, you know, I just went like, I'm glad to fuck you. I'm fucking. So, All right. Yes, Olga. The capacity is the form for scholarship. It's the form for art making. It's the form for, I mean, so I would say the cafe on that life, like mentorship is en una onda por todo. Yes, yes, yes. So this is the next part. Exactly. We knew we were gonna get to here. So we're right where we are. So the thing is, the thing is now on the cafe on that, what can we say from what we've heard all across? Cause we just said, hey, this is all across. We have all these strategies that we've outlined. There's a lot of overlap. If we can put it some of that in this one bucket, what would it be? What would be those things? From the strategies we've heard. This is like a pop quiz. Were you really listening to what was up here so that we can then begin to put some of these vests? We actually have a list of all the different internships at different universities that are good for training, for looking at artists, things like that. It could be a reshoot. The solidation of that information, which is tangible right now, that's a thing that can happen that coincides with some of this. We're just trying to will it down. So we're trying to do. This is not definitive. This is just step number two towards the end. It has profiles of artists, scholars in the field. The director, directors. The directory of profiles. Something that could be, again, data that already exists, right? This is a practical thing. I'll see you in terms of, and we can begin to consolidate that on the cafe on that. Now, remember, I also wanna put this back out there, remind everybody that we're gonna ask you, right? The reason why we're doing this, we're gonna ask you to find your way into these things, right? That's the next step. So as we're saying though, be as grand as you need to, or as practical as you need to, but then also think about your role and relationship to whatever ends up on you, okay? Yes? So just in the spirit of sharing information, you can copy it on the platform to do that. Daniel Sardash, one of our recent reporters, showed a wonderful example of how she applied for a grant and she got feedback from Dan and then she redid the grant and I thought that was a really kind of cool case study that might be kind of transparent to be setting information up like that, practically. Like, you're the example of what not to do, you know, kind of like what Tim was saying. Here's an example of adjustments and suggestions that you're supposed to do. And that can be, yeah. Well, you got in different groups. Were you in the same group with different groups? Yeah, in different groups. So best practices and case studies. And that could be, again, blogs. That could be stuff that's documented by scholarship. David, I identify real value with this as a platform to bring blue-collar theater artists from the same company as large universities and institutions and funders. Okay, so pack that a little bit, right? In the context of Cafe Honda or are you moving to the next bucket with the scholarship mentorship? Well, I guess I'm kind of relating Cafe Honda with Latino theater commons. Because right here we have United universities. We have universities, we also have foundations and we have blue-collar artists. And it seems like we're all in the same room and it's such a unique opportunity and it seems like Cafe Honda could be a platform for that. I'm gonna also slide that into the parking lot because I wanna hear a strategy and I don't hear a strategy. So to think about that in terms of something specific that the consolidation of that is a strategy, right? So you know what I'm saying? Like, Diane? You're parking the idea of the Cafe Honda in all four categories. And I think you should turn it in all four. And I think you should put mentorship in all four. So you have the headings, advocacy, networking, scholarship, convening, and art making. Very clear. And through all of them, Cafe Honda affects all of them and mentorship is an all of them. Okay, can I hear? That's an idea. That's an idea, so you know, I'm not doing it, we're doing it, right? So I'm gonna revive what you just said. So everyone heard what Diane just said? Yes. So we build that consensus in this process and then we remix it. So Lisa, and then. I came up with a discussion in our wisdom group earlier. I don't exactly know where it goes, but it goes under scholarship or advocacy networking. And this would be a shadowing out of the O'Neill Institute. The establishment of the Fortnance Institute, for training and art making. And it was a specific space where the coordinates, the library, the people that she mentored are and where they mentored others. With that idea of a Fortnance Institute, I don't want to be a boss. Okay, so that sounds like you should go and come. To create a digital comment that will link people who don't have ready access to resources through institutional frameworks. I'm using so much bullshit language that I hate right now, but just barely. That don't necessarily have ready access to resources through institutional frameworks like academia and other more traditional frameworks. To be a place where all artists, regardless of blue color or any other background, international artists, can go and access resources readily. Does that work as a strategy? Because at this point we're talking to each other. So do we hear that? Because she's ripping off of what David said about access for folks who essentially don't have or come out of institutions, right? Who don't come out of formal training, right? That's what you're in part what you're saying, David. No, no, I say blue color. It provides so much of a few resources. But I, David Lazzano, don't have access to that. But through the comments and government, maybe I do. And so this gathering of resources has allowed me to have some sort of access to that. And David, that's what I'm thinking that way. It's getting clearer, it sounds like. Kevin, just give us a second. We have Octavia, then we'll go Kevin. I think we need to build up our canon. I think there's a lot of work that we already have as theater artists, but we still need to build up our canon. And to serve that, this is kind of a suggestion for like a mix between art making and convenings. But I love the convenings of writers. Get writers together in order to work together, give each other exercises. This, I guess, ties in really well with the Fortness Institute, because it would be a great place where we could do a retreat. We could all gather there, sleep together. Well, we may not sleep together, but you know, sleep in the, you know, stay in the same on the grounds, you know. I just came out from Marfa, Texas, where I stayed at El Cosmico with Eric Ann and Virginia Grease and other writers and musicians and poets. And it was amazing because we all hung out together, we cooked together, and then we shared work. We even gave each other exercises. And so I think I'd like to propose something like that, like a festival of writers, but there's no presentation, no actors, no directors, no production. Just get together and write. Oh, no, but I love actors. I love actors, I want actors to be involved too. Actors as creators, you know? Not that I want to cut you off, but we do want to kind of get to some things in it. And there's a crystallization of something, right? So we're riffing off of each other, and that's the point of this, so we can crystallize. And then what we're gonna have to do sometimes to support us as co-facilitators in shepherding all of you and all of us towards the next phase of this particular process is sometimes repeat or slow down. So we can do our best at no take and get to where we need to get to Kevin. And you find out where different opportunities are and where different things are available. You can say on Cathayonda, oh, I work at Art Somersand, and so I have these five spaces available to me when they are available. Hey, this week in November, nothing's in the black box. So why don't we see it? Does anybody want to come use it? You know, so, and that can work in grants, that can work in, you know, reading opportunities, next question. Yes. Under Cathayonda or advocacy and networking when they're there. Okay. The idea of compile submission opportunities, building on that idea of a 30 place, but almost like everybody who's asking for a place, 30 or 50 gets sent to them at the same time that are all out in the place, so they can't say that they don't get anything because they just arrive like a huge package and they're like, you know what I'm saying, but to everything that, you know, they're looking for any kind of place. There's 30 place or 50 place. Okay, so I have a question for getting there. So we're having a little discussion. We're saying that Cathayonda is under all. So if we wanted to place that somewhere, would you say that was under a part making? So I'm going to call that then place submission opportunity list, place submission list. Yes. And also just sending it, taking her idea putting it forward after all these places. So what are you calling it, 30, 30 or maybe it could be 50, 30, sending it back in. I'm going to quickly go back to Diane's suggestion so we can fill in some of what's up here. I see you, so give me a second. Any other hands that I need to see? David and then Richard in the back. So just give me a minute, no more. Can we just move Capem-London to every single piece here? Yes. Capem-London, Capem-London. And so as a lecture. Well that's just little David. Okay, great. I know. Also move to festivals, move that in forward because we have two festivals that we know are happening, right? So can we acknowledge those under convenience? Okay, great. So we have Thalala, David, Richard. I just want to remind everyone that Maria Irene Fornes was also a director. And she was the director of OWN Work, which is really important and I think as directors we are, I think we need to develop the next generation of interpretive artists and I think that as directors we can find our voices in networking and developing and understanding what an aesthetic is in terms of working with Latino plays in the convenings through the Fornes Institute, through Cafe Onda and having those discussions that way. Yeah, I'm putting this out there, this may be, I don't know if this applies, but each region or locale creates their own advocacy plan and that it links to a national advocacy plan. Sure, that each locale and region develops its own advocacy plan and that it links to a national advocacy plan. Thank you for saying that because earlier I believe it was Mark Valdez who talked about the micro, the net microfests and he said that their goal was to work regionally to have impact nationally. So I want to underscore that and reiterate it because you just did that, David, so thank you, right? So wherever I can I'm gonna connect those dots because that's in part our charge as well. So we got Richard, then we're gonna come back to Diane and then we got Lisa. Now this is the thing, we just heard on Twitter because there's a conversation happening while this conversation is happening, right? That they're asking us to talk in the mic which is why I got the mic back in my hand because they want to hear us because they're a part of this conversation. So this is what we're gonna do. We got a second mic over here, we're gonna leave it in the back, I'm gonna ask for one person to help move that mic around towards the back end of the room. Is that cool? Thank you. Yeah, I was wondering why we need cannons? I'm kidding. No, not cannons, not violent cannons? Cannons, we need cannons. But following up when I'll tell you, and I don't know where it might be long, convening advocacy, but there's a great term that we all learned at the NEA which where I'll be at the end of the month, but peer review without cheese mitt and with, you know, is it there? Peer review, writers getting together, peers are peers, review, honesty, without cheese mitt, bochinche, or deckers. So question to the group, is peer review, does that live in art making for the sake of this conversation today? Art making, do we have consensus? Can we hear yes? Yes. That's a pretty, okay, good. Hold on, hold on, hold up on this side. And scholarship. And scholarship, so let's put it on the boat. Thank you, let's put it on the boat. So then Diane, Lisa, and then we'll come back to this side of the room. I saw a couple of hands. Juliet, Diane, Lisa, Juliet. I'm sorry, really quickly. We heard some amazing things that people are proposing, and now we're proposing more, and that's confusing. I would really love to hear what resonated with people today of what we heard, because people took some time and thought into what was presented, and I think it'd be cool to hear what resonates. I, so I'm, so I'm. Well, thank you, because I thought that's what we were doing here, not necessarily only introducing new ideas, but actually based upon what we heard, putting them in buckets, right? And then, so that's part of the charge. So forgive me if you feel like that's not happening, but that should be happening here, right? So it's, you're right, people did put in some work. So what's, again, so then to ask that question, what's, what did we hear that resonated that's not here that we need to put on here? Because that's really what we have to do. Thank you, let's put that up there. Lisa, and then Juliet, and then Olga, and then we'll come back over here. I just wanted to pick up on two ideas that I heard come out that didn't quite get captured. One is Kevin Becerra's idea, which is, this goes under advocacy and networking, which is resource board, yeah, essentially resource board, a free cycle, yeah, where we can pool resources and people can use them. And the other one was Clalox's idea, goes under art making, development of Latino directors. There's not enough of us, Latino and Latina directors. Okay, where would that go? Art making. Okay, so Juliet, Olga, and then we'll come back to the side of the room. I am on the side, I moved over. Oh, you're over there, okay, Juliet. Yesterday, McDonough brought up this idea of the safe house, where are you? Where's McDonough? Oh, okay. Okay, so safe house, a place to develop work that is completely safe. And I'm thinking maybe there's, we start with safe rooms and we start with salons or salon, where people gather in their communities and in a safe environment, develop and devise. So, my... And that could be under foreignness, too? It could be under foreignness. Right, right, so that's part of it because I wanna acknowledge, I see you, bro, we're gonna get to you, Olga, and then we'll get back over here. I can frame this correctly, is that ArtsEmerson has been such a fabulous partner and collaborator on bringing us together here that we wanted to approach them about continuing that collaboration and that they're building this magnificent building in Hollywood, in Los Angeles, and that, as far as I can tell, they are starting to look at what kinds of programs will be housed there. And so, a very practical and I think strategic recommendation for us to come up with as a group is to absolutely applaud the partnership and the collaboration from Emerson that has been shown so far, but to take it to the next level and say the Latino Commons should be a program of the new campus of Emerson in Los Angeles where there's so much art making taking place among our community, so that's the story. Yes, I just really wanted to back what David said about this regional advocacy plan which links to a national plan. I think that's the key to this whole thing personally because I think you start grassroots because we're so diverse and there's so many places around the country that every spot has its own plan which then links to the larger idea which is the community and that takes care of Emerson and LA and a peer review here and a safe house over here that may be right for you but it's not right for me and all these sorts of things we're talking about that are swirling around. We have to respect the pockets but then also have the national idea behind it. So to me, David's like, that's right on, man. That's it, that's the key to this whole thing. And part of what's gonna happen when we come back and I see Ann and I see Sandra is that we were gonna then go from, okay, how is this applicable on a national level? How is it applicable on a regional level? How is it applicable on a local level? How is it applicable on an individual level? So to underscore what Diane said because I think this was important and I wasn't just kidding when I said it was a pop quiz we did want to distill what was layered behind these ideas. So I'm gonna ask that as opposed to just instituting new things that we respect what was back here because we were all listening actively and we begin to, under these buckets that we did agree on advocacy, networking, scholarship, convenings and art making. We did agree that certain things cross all of those buckets that we also agreed to pull out. So I'm gonna ask that everyone who was in a scholarship or in a group think about what you came up with because you came up and did a presentation. So we're gonna go over here to Ann, Sandra and then we'll come back over here. Ann, yes. I just want to make sure we had the detail on the festival so if we could put the LATC Encuentro and the DePaul Newark Carnival. Yeah. No notes. No notes? Something that really stuck out to me is the one on one, the individual and something that we can all do today is that everyone leaves the room with a mentor and a mentee. I think that would go under advocacy and networking. Hi, I'm Regina. I think our group and I thought that this was extremely important to infiltrate existing national programs by deliberate participation. Deliberate participation. That sounds like advocacy. That is important because it includes things like the New Play Network, like Net, like applying. Like NPN, like applying for the map grant, like being part of Creative Capital. I mean, the list goes on and on, really, really deliberately infiltrating those existing programs nationally. That's a small, yeah, profound and incredibly powerful thing, right? Acknowledge, let's acknowledge that, right? I was struck that there was a handful of people that got up with the NPN, right? We talked about it. It was just a handful of folks. Your commissioning, Dalalak, we heard that. That's a tangible thing, but you know, I was like, wow, right? Okay, so we're coming to a close on this and I wanna acknowledge, this is gonna be hard. We talked about it. We were like, oh, we're gonna get to this place. This is the home stretch, right? So what we're gonna do now is we're gonna head into a break, but you're not gonna get up just yet. But what we're gonna do now is we'll head into that break. We're gonna caulk us a little bit. I'm gonna ask you guys to caulk us a little bit, because this is the comments. Have conversations during this break. And think about following Diane's suggestion. And Mika, you have something back there, right? Yes, Micah, my bad. My guest, we know something that's bright. So I had two thoughts. One was that we need to expand our definition of developing Latino theater artists because we need to help develop those actors, those scholars as well, because we can create as much art as we want, and if it's not documented. So that's really important that we expand that definition. And I am so fired up by this idea of the Emerson in LA, but I also have a slight reservation because it's a national convening and it could be very LA centric. And so I think about the Royal Mexican players and the good work that they're doing, Milwaukee, and what we heard from our brothers and sisters in Florida about feeling isolated. And so I think we need to be careful with that. We're meeting in New England now. We're potentially meeting in Los Angeles at a year that we're going to Chicago. What's to say that we can have a convening around Mario Ernesto's festival, right? What's to say that we can't do something in New York. We just heard some incredible news from Rosalba, right? About some stuff that's going down. So, you know, this isn't the time to edit. This is the time to build, right? This isn't the time for limitations. This is the time to realize and put words out there that have meaning and power because that's what we have all acknowledged on this board. All right? So I need you guys to take this break. I need you to do some caucusing. I need you to respect the fact that we broke up into these groups so we can come up with some strategies. And there's some real clear strategies out here. So as advocates, all of us, you know, come back with a few points because we're going to ask for points, not new ideas, but points that are already here, right? And I'm going to pass the mic to Olga because there is a fun thing that's going to happen too. I hope you feel this is fun, right? Because you know, this is what I do, right? So here. Oh my goodness. This is going to be so much fun. Okay, now I'm confused. La mica, ¿verdad? Maica, Maica Spinoza y Marcos Marjera. After a like a pause, like a 10 to 15 minutes is inviting you or inviting you to go down. So you've got like 10, 15 minutes of a break. You're going to do it here, not downstairs. We flow. So you just have to go out into the lobby and they are going to lead you, guide you, inspire you through the most amazing physical expression of I'm not going to tell you what because that way you'll go there and check it out. But, but, but, but. It has to do with mentorship. Now you told them. All good, all good. Well, that's what I meant. So now you know, mentorship. So, which means, and cafe onda, it underscores everything. And one more thing, if there are things that resonate for you, come up and circle them. That'll be really, really helpful to us in our process. So grab a marker and circle some of the strategies that have some resonance. Thank you. 15 minutes. Maybe more.