 chair of the public theater in New York City, where I have been performing, presenting, facilitating, watch me work for 11 years. And it was started just for those of you who don't know it's June, so I might as well tell you it was started when I sat down and decided that I wanted to hang out and do a show, a play, which would consist of me working with other workers, whether they be writers, artists, visual artists, whatever, other people working on whatever they wanted to work on, we would work together. And then I would talk with them about their work and their creative process. And that's how watch me work began. That's the way it's always been. And now we usually do it in the lobby of the public theater, or sometimes I do it all over the world wherever I might happen to be. But now during this very interesting chapter of the world experiment we are here. I'm very appreciative to the public theater for making it all happen. And for how around coming on a few years ago facilitated our live stream. And now our fabulous, beautiful world here that we are virtual meetup spot on Zoom. I really, really appreciate you guys for showing up some new faces, and some folks that we've seen a lot like Jim, because you're my go, you're right in my little square there, hey, and all these other people who are wonderful to see. Anyway, I have a few things to say before we start. Usually what we do is we, well, I'll tell you how to get in touch. But I'll tell you first, and then I have a little bit of a blurb, then I'll tell you how to get up. So usually what we're going to do this, we're going to work together for 20 minutes. And then after that 20 minutes of time, I will talk with you about your questions about your creative process. We have plenty of time for that. What we don't have time for is to talk specifically about something that you've actually written and to get this kind of specific feedback. We're more talking about process, not product, so that everybody can be part of the conversation. Audrey will tell you in a sec how to get in touch. But I just want to say a couple of things given where we are and who we are. And yeah, so number one, if you're out protesting today, or you have been out protesting in these past few 300 years, thank you. Stay safe. And stay peaceful, please. Please stay peaceful. Also, if you're not protesting for whatever reason, everybody protesting or not protesting, keep doing your work, please. Keep showing up for yourself. And that's also a very good way to show it for your community. However, you might define that. Showing up is whether it's in the streets, with arms and banners held high, or at your desk in front of the page or whatever, that's really the best thing you can do. But the really, really most, most, most important thing we can, we can all do is register to vote. Please register to vote. Make sure you get your suite behind, I say that in an appropriate way, over to the polling, your voting place in November, especially, for extra credit, get a friend to register to vote to and make sure they go to vote, please, in November. And I'm going to be real straightforward about this vote, blue, vote, we are in code blue people. There is no conversation to be had about that. We are in code, this is code blue, vote blue in November, please. That is the most important thing you can do if you want, if you're wondering what can I do these days, I feel very awful home, register to vote, go to vote November, code blue. And I will just go out of the limb here. In my opinion, writing in Bernie is not an idea. Writing in Bernie is not a demonstration of principle, it is a demonstration to my mind of privilege. This is an emergency. Okay. So, yeah, here we go. We're going to work for 20 minutes. And then we're going to talk with you about your creative process. I'm just going to tell you how to get in touch. I'll just go ahead, take it away. First of all, I second everything that you said, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. If you have questions, and you're inside of the Zoom, all you need to do is click on the raise your hand button, which is likely in the participant tab located at the bottom of your screen on a laptop or the top, if you're on an iPad or a tablet. If you are watching on HowlRound.tv, you can tweet at us at AtWatchMeWorkSLP with the hashtag HowlRound, H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D. And you can tweet at us at Public Theater NY or right into our Instagram. And if you have any issues, please feel free to chat me and I'll help you. Okay. Thank you. So, and again, at the risk of I kind of opened the door for political conversation, I would like to talk about your work and your creative process. Please, after we work together for 20 minutes, I appreciate that. Here we go. Right. Here we are. Happy to talk with you about your work, your creative process, what you're writing, what you're not writing. I don't see any questions quite. I see a question. Are you there, Kendall? Hi. Hi. So, um, hi, Susan, Lori, how are you? Happy to see you. Thank you so much. You too. Um, I have a question. Um, given the last, you know, few months, few days, I've been finding that sometimes it's been kind of hard to, you know, sit down, write or even, you know, read or, you know, make something because, you know, the world is crazy. I was wondering if you've been dealing with that too. And if so, have you read anything or maybe found a certain routine that you have stuck to that you have, that you've cloned to that has really helped you? That's a great question. In difficult times and even when times are easy or easy, it's, I feel it's good to have a routine, you know, not everybody agrees with me on this, but part of my routine, these weeks and Mondays through Thursdays showing up at Watch Me Work, that's part of it. That's sort of like one of the blocks. So you have little modular things that you put in your day, right? So I like to start my day with a meditation practice. Do you have a meditation practice, Kendall? Yoga every day for the past, yeah. Great. So I'm sorry, you cut in and out. You said you had a yoga, you said? Yoga. Yeah, I do about it. I try to do an hour and a half of yoga before I start. Fantastic. So does that come with a, do you include a meditation practice on there? Or, I mean, or is it the meditation practice as a go? I try to have a FEMA meditation practice, but I definitely could be a bit more focused on just the actual like breathing itself and the actual like focus as the meditation requires, I think. Mm-hmm. So maybe before, or my yoga practice says that the yoga postures get you ready for meditation. So maybe what you might want to do is after you've done your beautiful asana for an hour, an hour and a half, you can sit and for a little bit, you know, 10 minutes or 15 or however much time you have, 20 minutes if you want. Or you can do meditation first thing in the morning. That's a nice way to, you're just sitting and breathing. I find that very helpful. Okay. So then, you know, some kind of journaling you can, you know, again, you're making yourself a little schedule that you don't have to do it, but you find that your life is, feels better when you do your little schedule, right? So you've got your yoga practice, you're going to add a little meditation on there, right? And then you have a little bit of writing practice. You create a schedule for yourself. I've, since I went on hiatus for my big ass job, show running genius Aretha, which is a huge job. I've been working nonstop because everyone's on hiatus but me. So I've had to turn in scripts, edit episodes, do rewrites, all kinds of have all kinds of meetings with actors, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all kinds of things. So I have not actually been just sitting around and oh, yeah, you know, you know, I feel like, you know, books that are maybe inspiring or books that encourage introspection might be a good time. You know, reading, I was just reading some essays by Maya Angelou. Those were kind of exciting and fun to read essays by Toni Morrison, poetry, things, Pema children. It's awesome. You know Pema? Is that helpful? I mean, it's like, pick a book, pick a time, sit down with it, pick up your notebook, ask yourself to sit down with it for 20 minutes. And this is what our practice is for. It's gravy during the easy days, but during these difficult times, it's the, and I don't eat meat, but I'll just say it's the meat and potatoes, you know. Me neither. It's the tofu and potatoes. Exactly. It's the satin, oh, that's kind of weird, but it's a tofu and potatoes, you know what I mean? This is the heart and soul. This is something that's going to keep us not calm and not sedated, you know what I'm saying? I've had friends who are drinking a lot these days. I, whatever gets you through the night, but not my staying, you know. We want to stay, we want to stay present and awake and able to respond. We want to feel our feelings, even if it, if it's painful, you know. Yeah. We want to direct our, our feelings toward the appropriate people. So we don't want to fill up with anger and necessarily direct it at our child, although I have, you know. No, I'm not angry at you. I'm angry at, you know, someone I can't even yell at because, you know, I don't, you know, what I mean? So we want to direct our anger in the appropriate places and we want to direct our love to everyone who's wearing a mask. No, you know, you know, is that, is that helpful? Can I, that's great. No, it's like what you're like, because what I'm, what I'm hearing is like, just finding ways to sort of like ground yourself and stay present and connected to what you want to make and, you know, not, not lie to yourself about how you're feeling, but don't let it inhibit you from wanting to be an artist and create. I think that Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for translating that. I appreciate it. Oh, translate. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Kendall. Up next, we have Roxanne. Roxanne, are you here? Yes, I am. Hello. I just finished a 10 minute play and I'm having my first reading in a couple of weeks in a writing group. And I just wanted to know what, since I'm so new to this, what is the purpose of a reading other than just hearing it out louder? Is that the purpose or what are some things that I can take away from a reading? Well, but did you congratulate yourself, Roxanne? I didn't, not yet. I should have congrats. I finished. Yeah, you finished. Well done. There you go. There you go. So many, we forget to do that, you know, those of us who are good at working and not as great at celebrating, you know. So congratulations. Congratulations. Now you've got, so you've got a reading group. Are they actors? They're not actors, they're other writers. So yeah, not actors. Okay, okay. So that's okay. It's okay. So they're going to be reading your play aloud or just read it and then give you feedback on your work. They're going to read it out loud and then I'm going to get feedback. Okay, okay. So I think the purpose of a reading group is a couple of things. Number one, which is not about a reading group at all, it's about you. You can hear your play already. You have the ability to hear your play already or your novel or your screenplay or the whatever, right? You have that ability, okay? And it might not be fully, you know, gorgeous and fully formed, but you do have that ability. As writers, we want to remember that we're like composers and anything who can hear the music without employing a full orchestra. Okay, right? So we have the ability to hear our play, our work already. Now, what's great about a reading group is their amplifiers, right? So they're amplifiers. So they're going to be like you're going to be like, yeah, oh my goodness, right? So you're going to be able to hear it bigger, louder, more, more, right? Okay, that's going to be fun. That's going to be a lot of fun. The other great thing about a reading group is that you get to build community, right? Okay. Now, you want to make sure that when you're taking notes from the reading group that people love you more than they love the idea of seeing one of their ideas in your work. See, because like, for example, me and you, I love you more than I love the idea of seeing something I told you to do, you do it. I don't care, you do it or not do it. I just got stuff for you. You know what I'm saying? Okay. So that kind of that can you want to make sure that they're that kind of, you know, okay? Okay. Okay. Write down what they write down what their notes, if you don't like them, their notes, it's okay, smile and keep writing. If they say something stupid, you know, note, note, giving notes on work is an art form in itself. Not everybody is a skilled. Okay. So if you like them as a person and they give like a stupid note, it's okay. I've gotten lots of stupid notes and given lots of stupid notes in my life. You know? Okay. But it's a wonderful opportunity to build community and to hear your work through these beautiful, generous amplifiers. Congratulations on finishing your play. Thank you so much. Thank you, Roxanne. All right, up next we've got Ryan. Ryan, are you here? Hi, see, Ryan. What's up? Hey, how are you doing? I'm good. I'm good. Or yeah, you know. You know, yeah. But I just before I even speak, I would just again thank you for this space in the sanctuary. And it's nice to see familiar faces on the zoom. It's kind of amazing the zoom element of watch new work. The theater of getting to watch people work is pretty special. But I'm I'm I know we spoke a lot about our COVID plays or like or I loved I've enjoyed the unpacking of how to approach that or not approach that and I will most of my writing comes from journaling. And it's I did it wasn't until I really could until I saw when the rainbow was enough or and at the public this year and I understood that I trying to write choreo poems. And that's sort of and and I've been coming to watch your work. I feel like I've tried to or been able to find how to use my voice or in this and during these times how to use your voice and your privilege. And so I so I started I took a I have this taped above my desk. I don't know if this is backwards is backwards. It's just too encouraged to keep writing about the pandemic experience and that you'll know when you get there into it. I think most of I think as I'm rambling I feel the journaling that I'm doing it feels like it's the research that about how to document or understand what the fuck's going on. And I and when I did my I did a solo performance and I what able to get me my writing into this performance was when I set a date or timelines or Lord I've been I've really taken that from watching work of how to like you set yourself a date and then I mean if you jump in we're gonna show up and and perform for them you will then then you have to be ready for for that date. But I guess as I'm we're in this moment and as we're like going through it I guess I just also want to encourage people to journal because it's just it's as well as their own writing but it's been helpful to try to process but I um I guess I guess I'm on I'm uh I don't I don't uh I guess there is no I guess in my note I said you will know you in my notes as you know when you uh you'll know when you get there to the end of this journaling experience and I don't know if I'm just if that I feel that I'm letting myself process it but I don't know if that's like letting me off the hook would like not a real a real timeframe um or if uh or I guess this is just how I'm trying to analyze my process or just to keep going and to really trust that uh when I arrive to when I have this massive work that I will take from a handwritten journal to then type it up and then to look at it in that format if that is uh if not setting a uh a timeline now if if that is uh if that's okay or if like that's uh I guess that's my that's the root of my question or like that's where it's hanging out. I mean what you can do I'm not thrilled that Intzazaki Shange's work for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enough gave you sort of an idea about like hey this this is maybe the kind of thing that I'm doing too. Protesting again outside um sorry it's kind of tricky to hear um so I'm glad that that her work has given you some kind of like ha ha this this could be the kind of thing that I want to do too um in terms of the the time frame and all that it is tricky it's it's it's said when we started this however many weeks ago that um one thing that it's easy to pace yourself and you know how far you're going but when we don't know how far we're going or how long it's going to take it's hard to pace yourself yeah they're outside good good um so what I would suggest since you've got pages and pages of journaling you might start to type up your journaling you know so you can do it so part of your writing day can be typing up some of the pages maybe a page a day and part of your writing day can be writing more things okay yeah okay so instead of looking for a finish line that's one way when we know you know that's that's one way we can we can we can organize ourselves right you can do it internally and say half my day will be this half my day will be this and no matter what the day is you can apply that to your day okay cool yeah yeah that way you know okay yeah I don't think that makes I feel like I have an all-or-nothing approach and it's okay and not to jump on uh uh a sub-bacterial but I sound like I uh I was at Barclays last night and was out in the streets and I think if anyone feels comfortable doing that you know they're in and they have the right protective gear to do that and as a white ally to to follow our brothers and sisters to to protect them because that's why we're that's what we have to do and uh and just to and if you're doing just uh just to keep track of this time too is just is just all I've uh gathered thus far but um but I like yes the all-or-nothing uh I like I I think it's time to start typing yeah yeah yeah but thank you for that last thing you said too thank you that's why you're one of the best Ryan thanks man thank you Ryan thanks Ryan all right we've got Lynn up next oh my hey am I you are muted hi Lynn hi it's good to see you it's so good to see you I've been here all the time you know as you well know uh probably but I've been protesting since I was very young um I mean I marched in the 60s and the 70s and Jesus in LA in the 90s and um it's not the same it's breaking my heart because uh though there were violent things in those days and there were uh disruptive people in those days it seems to me the destruction is organized in some way and I felt for the first time uh scared you know just scared you know I'm an old white lady uh uh but it was dangerous for me that's how I found and um and it's like we do not learn from history I was I was reading there there's well Stephen Hawking wrote a book called the history of time and I was sort of rereading it I have to read it a lot because I don't get it all you know it takes a long while to sort of but there was one thing that he that struck me last night and uh it was about entropy and how he said uh he was talking about how entropy gets even more and more and more disruptive until something uh something reaches out to change it that's not his words exactly but that's what I got from that and I thought you know it's the first time I didn't have hope or I got scared you know I don't mean to I mean I write about it and um but living without being able to imagine a future or knowing what that feels like just the imagining part not having that because we are in a place of unknown I hope I'm not bringing anybody down but it's um that's the hard part I mean to be present is great I mean it's the only it's what you want to be in the moment but not to be able to imagine especially for the younger generation um to imagine a future you know right now it's so hard and so I you know what you and seeing you know yes last week somebody was afraid to speak about their rage and and then you said you gave them you know comfort and affirmation that it's important to feel and speak your rage uh it feels like this cosmic rage you know that is is clouding the love and the the peacefulness that makes our humanity you know so and as much as I you know how much I love you and appreciate you having you've attended watch me work for so many years and I'll say two things from love welcome to a place where I live pretty much every day yes and I know from having yeah I knew because we know each other and having from having lived here in that kind of place for 57 years now having my parent watch my parents and my grandparents and my cousins and aunts and uncles having lived there I will say to you this is where the work is because you know because you don't you know and you've already joined in the marching and all all that beautiful stuff this is where the work is that's what also that's what pema children would say yeah difficult time this is exactly where the work is this is it this is the moment this is the the the the thing this is the place where you do your work and if what you what you find it impossible to do is imagine a place where you can get better that is the work that is the work we know the alternative you know the alternative so that is the work that is that we you need to pull your focus together joining communities like this and other communities march if you still are you know able interested and and still feel okay you know I marching in the daytime is is oh you know in the daytime when it gets starts getting you know feeling that the violence is organized sure it is organized even if two people organize it it is organized by home is my question and the idea is just because say you go into a bar and you're you're having a good time and a couple of let's say people who knows men women doesn't matter a couple of people get liquored up and start fighting and throwing things right are all bars bad no two people organize some stupid start doing some stupid shit right and that's that's the that's the that's the thing we have to realize that there that some let's say criminal elements who take advantage of certain situations whether they be bars you know watering holes or rightful justice protests will do stupid shit people always doing stupid shit unfortunate shit stupid shit to you know what I'm saying so so yeah but you know there they are they get all riled up and they think they're going to do some stupid to prove something or other you know okay or or they have some political justification for looting the store because black bodies have been looted you know they have a they have a conversation you know they have a but the point is I think Lynn for you aside from those folks whoever they are for you this is where the work is right here right when you cannot imagine a future number one welcome to where I live every day and it is my calling to imagine something through it is my calling to come here and go hey everybody here I am and if I can do it you can do it if I can show up so can you and I very much appreciate you saying that because that's what a lot of us for that's what I was feeling over the weekend like cheese you know you know as a just I hope I'm not taking too much time oh gee am I taking too much time we got we only got set for we have one can we have one more I think we're gonna have one more question but thank you back okay yeah thank you and I'm actually gonna grab Karima she's Asha's mom Asha before she's amazing at the public I'm Karima you're Asha's mom yes I am I would just like to say thank you for everything because right now I know we're dealing with writing and all of that and that's great and that's very much a part of who I am but I'm I'm I'm in a little bit of weird space because I was because I write about stuff about race anyway and I was been working on a piece that I am working on that hopefully I'll be finished with pretty soon first draft but I I'm in this weird place and the places is that I keep finding even now through the conversations of trying to make others feel comfortable and I can't do it anymore because I think a lot of some of what we're really seeing even though it's not right to burn and tear up or whatever that's not right but I think a lot I think I think what we're feeling a little bit more of is that it's enough it's not like this is it's been happening so much and so long that is is at a boiling point and everybody wants to sit down and discuss everyone wants to talk about it we've been talking about it when it has to leave the talking and reach a point of the willingness to let go of certain privileges so there's there's justice for everybody and I just feel like we just dance over talking and we dance over this and we talk about this and we talk about that and we still come back to the same point I don't see change and people in color are not in a position to make the change we don't have that kind of power like that so people have to get real and stop acting like they don't know what it really takes to make the change stop pretending I told my niece she called me and I said if I if you were sitting here and I kept pinching you and you said auntie that hurts and I keep pinching you and you say auntie that hurts and I said well let's discuss what we can do what are we just I know what and she would look at me said stop pinching me because the point is that hurts the point is is that all these discussions have to become come to actions come to real change and I know our rambling I just have to say that because I don't want to I am angry but I'm not I'm angry because in reality it's nothing new it's always been happening and I think real Smith said it the best way only now we can make we can take um record it and it's being seen more but it's been happening so I just feel like I don't know I don't know and I'm trying with my own piece not to just stick with the focus of what my piece is about and not try to dump all of the other stuff this right now going into it but I just feel I just I'm just tired I'm just tired I'm just tired these same conversations I'm just tired that we can just have fairness you know so that's all that's all I totally hear you Karima um but again I would say that to Lynn this is sister this is where the work is it's a different it's a different it's a different place you know you're in a different place then land you're a different person you know all that but this is where your work is spiritually okay this is where your work is this this is where it is and to and to think of you know they have the power to change things we don't I totally hear you and and if we could focus on the things that we do have the power to change I agree with that I totally agree with that and I and I'm totally for that but we have to recognize if I whoever is truly in charge has the power and they have to understand that and begin to make a choice within that we have the responsibility of how we react to what's happening and how we react and how we go about it now like I said I will not promote violence I'm not going to promote that I'm not going to ever promote that because me I mean everybody may not believe me as a woman who as a Christian who believes I'm not promoting that but I am saying that sometimes you have to look at the root of things and deal with the truth and stop trying to cover just pull the veil and get real I think that's exactly what's happening now we're pulling the veil and getting real but for me in my practice it's not only do I pull the veil and see the faults of all that have been hidden previously but I really also in addition to everything I'm doing to unseat the ones in power who are not respectful like me that's part of it the other part is to really have a chance to look at my own actions I'll agree with that and focus on the if there's only a little tiny thing that I can do about a little something like this watch me work this is relatively small in the in the world you know it's it's minuscule but here we are and I would just say in addition to and in addition to focusing on the big picture let us not lose sight of the smaller pictures that each one of us represents like on this screen you know and let us cherish an honor I agree I agree it's after it's after it's after six o'clock I agree I'm so sorry I've got lost I got lost you keep talking which I know we just have a limited amount of time yeah so sorry it's after six o'clock that is on me my skills today are lacking I tell you that we've had a long day at the public theater so you really have it's so nice to see you Karima thank you everyone for being here so we can sign up by 3 p.m eastern time every day monday to thursday and I will send you a link between 3 and 4 30 p.m eastern okay thank you all thank you so much for coming see you tomorrow we'll talk to you