 We're good to go. I've been given word. We are good to go. Welcome back everybody. Welcome back to all of you. I hope you had a good lunch or break out in Philadelphia here where we are and did not melt too terribly in the heat. Welcome. So we're back now on HowlRound. For those of you who were with us earlier this morning, welcome back. And for those who are just joining, we're thrilled that you're with us today for this experiment that we're doing in hybrid convening. I am Alicia Tonsik. I'm the Executive Director of NET, the Network of Ensemble Theaters. And we've got a really, really exciting conversation coming up for us. So I'm not going to say much. But the thing I am going to say is a really important thing to say, which is that we are all on stolen land. And that is something that I want to really explicitly acknowledge. But I also want to ask, you know, those of you who are on HowlRound can certainly go ahead and put some land acknowledgments into the chat if that's something you're inspired to do. But I kind of wonder if I could ask us to maybe make a commitment together to do something a little more than that. And not necessarily in a public way, but if we could maybe take the moment that we have sort of become accustomed to taking in these beginnings of gatherings together and just take a little minute to pause for ourselves and maybe think internally a little about just like one additional step, one next action. What's the next thing for you wherever you're starting from that each of us might be able to commit to doing that would actually be an action of learning or an action of repayment. Something that we might do that would actually be more than just acknowledging that is maybe another step toward honoring. So I'm going to say for me there's a new moon coming up later this week on Thursday. In two weeks after that there will be a full moon coming up. So I'm going to sort of put in my head for myself as a sort of accountability moment to maybe say that by this Thursday I'm going to come up with an action for myself and maybe by the full moon two weeks later I'm going to make sure that I've actually done something toward that action. So if anybody is interested in joining me in that or some other similar that resonates for you kind of practice I invite that. But I would love to know that you know the beauty of the moon is that it's there for all of us wherever we are. So I know that that way when I'm with that moon in a few days or the new moon that is still there but we don't see it and when we see it fully in a few weeks that I'll be able to remember that I promised myself I would be accountable to myself and this community. So if anyone wants to join me in that I will hold you with me as I do that and I welcome that welcome that with me. So with that I'm going to turn us over to so we have two fantastic net board members who are part of this session with us. And the first of them is Todd London who's going to take us into this session and also help to moderate some conversation at the end of it. And the second of them is God free who will hear from as part of this conversation. But I'll turn you over to Todd for now. Thank you. Hi I'm Todd London. I want to bring into the room one other net board member which is Kerry Cole who was instrumental in beginning a series called inspiration on demand creators in conversation that net pioneered over the earlier days of the pandemic. And Kerry couldn't be with us here. She was originally going to be with us here in Philly. So I'm sort of standing in for her but she is the umbrella over this next conversation which is truly exciting between God free Simmons and Rodessa Jones and God free will introduce Rodessa. But I want to say a word about God free Simmons Jr. who in addition to being a net board member is the artistic director of heartbeat ensemble in Hartford Connecticut. God free is an award winning actor producer director and playwright who has spent more than 30 years amplifying the voices of marginalized people and communities. He brings with him an extensive background working with ensembles as an actor off Broadway and in regional theater teacher director playwright and producer. In 2012 he co-founded Civic Ensemble a regional theater in Ithaca New York. He was a producing artist for off Broadway's epic theater ensemble for four years including acting in a dozen productions. He won the 1999 Odelko Award for best supporting actor for his performance opposite Leslie Uggums in the old settler at primary stages in New York. He's a lifetime member of the ensemble studio theater and sits on the board of the network of ensemble theaters as we said. And God free is coming to us on screen really big from Hartford today while Rodessa is here in the room. So I'm going to give it over to you. God free. Amazing introduction and yeah it's great to be here. I wish I was there but I have I have an amazing 10 year old who is in in his camp. Actually he's 11 just turned 11. Don't tell him I said 10. I'm still getting used to this 11 thing but but in any case yeah I but I wish I could be there but I'm glad for the technology to be able to do this on here. And so I'm going to I'm really excited to talk to Rodessa. She is an amazing artist performer teacher director. She's co director of the acclaimed performance company cultural odyssey. She founded and directs the media project for incarcerated women which is an award winning performance workshop that's committed to the personal and social transformation of women and it's now it's 23rd year. She's also recipient of the United States artist fellowship and and through that she expanded her work in corrections and educational institutions internationally. She's conducted a media project in South Africa prisons working with incarcerated women and trained correctional personnel and local artists. In 2012 the Department of States of the United States and the United States Department of State Educational and Cultural Affairs Bureau named her as the arts and envoy for the U.S. Embassy. She is a Pew fellow currently which is why we are so fortunate to have her on the East Coast right now. She's received many other honors including the Frank Rhodes chair at Cornell University and which has been extended I think even into into this year. I don't know how many times that's happened probably not much and which is where we actually initially met. She's been a visiting professor at Dartmouth College as well as a Montgomery fellow fostering the advancement of the academic realm of the college in ways that will significantly add to quality and character of the institution. There are so many things to say about Rodessa. I will end on this one. She most recently was the the voice of the character Lulu in Disney's soul. A feature way animated film that won a couple of Golden Globes and I was gonna say didn't they do an Oscar as well? Yeah and it started Jimmy Fox and among other folks and it's amazing. I saw it and it's just it's actually a lovely animated animated film. It's a lovely film period about soul. So Rodessa if I left anything out that you want shared please let me know but I give you all Rodessa Jones. Thank you. Thank you. I'm good. I'm good. Thank you, Godfrey. Godfrey directed me and it was a play about climate. The climate change at Cornish. Yes. Yes. And he's a fabulous director and even a more so a fabulous human being. He listens. You know, last night we had this long conversation about wellness and self-care and life and history and it was so much fun. It was like we were having a pajama party but you were in Hartford and I was in here in Philadelphia but it was lovely to be heard and we got to just say so much to each other but good afternoon to you. It's good to it's just good to see you even if it's so science fiction. You know, it's like so science fiction. Yes and no. I know here we are the 21st century is truly here and Alisa I take you up on the challenge about the moon and I'd love to begin our conversation with just a piece of music from Richie Havens and it's Ring Around the Moon. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Saw to hold a buried treasure. Desire was his tale. Desire was his tale. Yeah. She really did trust him. She really did trust him. So she took him down to her secret in the forest, in the forest. Tell your lies, sing Dressel Drills. Did you once think maybe, call to all the merry men. The princess is having a baby. The princess is having a baby. Ring around the moon. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good afternoon. We can jump up here. Oh yeah. Thank you, thank you. Rodessa, I, you know, I'm so, I think you know, I think you know this about me since I directed you. I like sometimes removing the even like breaking down things like as they're happening and kind of like removing the fourth wall. Did that, were you just inspired to kind of like with that song? Did it just kind of come up with you like, oh wow, this is where I'm going to go with that? Did that just happen? Did that just emerge? Well, I heard Alyssa say about the moon and about the people's land, the Native Americans and my sister is writing for reparations for black people right now across the country and she met with that wonderful activist. I think her name is, she's the white woman that does the blue-eyed, brown-eyed project. She's an Iowa woman. Oh, Jane Elliott? Is that okay? Jane? My sister got to spend three or four days there with her a couple of weeks ago and then just hearing about the moon and I have a great, great grandson. I have to, you know, I'm a great, great grandma. I have to go into this and you would love him too. He's delicious. But I have his mother who is now 32. He's two. I used to take his mother out and sing to her during the full moons. I would just like, we'd have our bath and she would just like, I'd wrap her in a blanket and that song. So it all, it all came with us being here in this room today and I just felt sifted and I just loved the faces and the colors of the folks here in the audience and it's wonderful. So I guess, yes, would be the answer. It just kind of came in. We're going to begin this way, Ro. We're going to do the thing this way. But yeah, yeah, I love that song. Richie Havens, I love that song. Yeah. Yeah, he's amazing. It's funny because I know that we spoke when we were talking. I know that one of the things that we were thinking about many into is healing and that's what I, that's, that felt like where that, where that song kind of like sat for me in terms of like starting that way, beginning that way. And I'm interested in this idea of healing and the space where that sits for ensembles, for, you know, making performance, working with different kinds of ensembles because you've worked with many different kinds of ensembles, right? Just varied in terms of just like, you know, the spectrum. And I'm curious where you think healing, where does healing sit with you in terms of your, of your process? I mean, I think I have an idea about it, but I wonder if there's some value in discussing that with, with this audience. Well, when we think about healing, the National Ensemble, the National Ensemble Theater Network and us here, Theater, I think Theater is, is rooted in very ancient traditions around healing, storytelling. So much of the work that I do everywhere is about getting people to share their story. You know, it's like working with incarcerated women has been profound to talk to women who are in lockdown for everything from drug peddling to murder and to ask them what happened to you. And they look at me like, you seriously, you want to know, are you ready? And now, and so out of that, and I have a wonderful team of ex-offenders and midwives and social workers and women who love women, you know, just we, you know, we, we feel each other, but they would listen so intensely. And I started to think we've got to create a series of questions that we can always set this conversation off with. And one of them is, what is love? You know, which again, is so rooted in storytelling, theater, you know, you know, we're all such silly, I love, I love the human race. We're such incredibly romantics, you know, we're all like flowers that that God, if she is there, decided, I'm going to make that flower look like that, that flower. So back to what you're saying, yes, it's all about healing. How do we come together? You know, it's like, with the COVID happened in San Francisco, we were in lockdown, boom, you know, it's like the governor said, everybody's inside or whatever. But when we did get to go into a supermarket, I was telling you about this last night, I was amazed at people that bought toilet paper, people were just like, clean the shelves full of, I'm like, what's up with, is it diarrhea that is it, what's going on with folks that, that everybody's cleaning up the, cleaning out the shelves of toilet paper? So I come in the store, I'm the only brown one, you know, I live in Noe Valley in San Francisco. So the community is a lot of things, but sometimes I'm the only woman out there talking, colored woman, right? And I see this woman in the supermarket, and she's like filled up her grocery cart with all of the toilet paper. And we're all bitching, everybody's complaining, you know, she should be, and it's like, and I'm like, well, I got it, this is, this is a scene. So I just like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna improvise now. So I walk up to this woman, I go, girl, and she's an elderly white lady, and she's like, huh? And I said, girl, you can't have all the toilet paper. She's like, I can't. I said, no, you can't. And everybody's like, yeah, yeah, you can't have all the toilet paper. And all of a sudden, it's everybody's character comes through a theater, you know, everybody's there's the bossy person, there's the very femme tall handsome man who's like, honey, I am taking me some toilet paper, you know, and we're all like in a circle. And this woman's loving the attention. She's a little scared, because what what what has happened here at the same time, what do you do during the COVID when you don't get to be with each other very often? I'm so glad that theater is my religion. You know, it's like, it's it's so where I found myself, I feel like I can offer healing to people and I've been healed. I mean, I've been heard in theater. You know, I make a body of autobiographical work. And it's written the fact that I want it to be seen as a very at a very early age. I wanted my story to be told. You know, so I started writing pieces about my life, you know, and I was very fabulous. I was a I was a I was a new dancer back in the day. I danced in the peep show, honey. They never danced like I danced, but I rocked it, right? Then I took it to theater. I was like, the legend of Lily Overstreet became a phenomenal piece about new dancing in America. And all of my girlfriends was like, Oh, you gonna tell people? Yeah. Because all dancers were doing it. We have the bodies, the legs for it. But it was a secret, right? We're talking the early 80s. And I made this piece in the world, the world opened up and it was and so many people confessed that they too had danced nude. I mean, I met women who were straight up prostitutes to feed their children. And it all came down through this joyous ritual of making this piece about dancing nude for the public. You know, so yes, it's all about healing. I think I hadn't I hadn't thought about the way you just put it, but it's really about healing. You know, yeah, tell the story. You know, once you hear somebody's story, it changes your relationship to that person. It really does. It really does. Yeah. Well, and it sticks with you. You don't those stories. I feel like when we when we everybody's story stays with you. Like I think that there are people who, you know, yeah, you can forget stuff, certainly. But there's something about stories and other people's stories that I feel like just stays with you. And I don't know if it makes up who you are as you go forward. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. But I don't forget them. There are so many other people's stories that just like they just get stored away and they're just they're just they're just with me. They don't become my stories. But they just but they just stay with me. And another thing when you talk about that healing, every time I've been in trouble, whether it's been psychically, physically, or whatever way, theater has always saved me. It's always saved me somehow. How so? It's really, it's really interesting. I mean, you know, you know, I tried that LA thing for a while and just kind of washed out. I had a hard time even finding a like a job. I remember going for jobs and you had to have like a I had kind of like these things happen where the universe was telling me you don't need to be here and I wasn't listening and everybody else, everybody was kind of like, God, for you, you know, you should stay. You have to give it a couple of years. LA, you got to give it a couple of years. And I just kept on kind of having one weird freak thing happen after another in terms of like, monies, like people paying me and bounced checks, cars breaking down. It was like kind of like a rolling weird cycle. And then I got pretty, pretty low and pretty at the end of my tabular and I was just kind of like, I have to go back to the theater. I have to go back to, you know, the thing, you know, and of course you go back to the thing that you know, and I knew theater, like I knew what to, you know, what to do. You know, I came back, I came back to New York and, you know, and of course booked two things right away. And as part of how I began my association with Cornell, that was one of those, you know, one of those auditions. But even if I'm out in the world and I don't understand something, I'm trying to figure something out. Theater helps me figure it out. I was having this crisis, a bit of a crisis when Obama was elected, because I don't know if you had this feeling, Rodessa, but once he got elected, I was like, okay, great, we did it, but I could see what was coming next. I know it would look like Trump. But like, you could see if you had any kind of vision. I was thinking about that very thing this morning, Obama and then Trump. Yeah, continue, yes. Yeah, so I just could see the thing happening and it was very discompany. I was thinking, I got to figure this out. And you know, and me and a young white man, Brand Adams went down south and interviewed a bunch of folks, a hundred people about the election and made a play about it. But I was able to make sense of it. I was able to kind of, and well, did it fix anything? No. But certainly for me, it quieted certain things down and helped me to process and help me to kind of figure it out. Yeah, it seems like just whenever, you know, whenever I need it, theater and storytelling kind of does the trick, you know? Well, you know, like I said, it's really, it's my religion and it's a medicine, you know, that when we meet with each other and you're talking about President Obama and I remember, I got to go to the White House and meet him and Michelle Obama. Yeah, my brother Bill, Bill did just, the dancer, Bill got a Presidential Medal Award and this kind of thing. So I was there in their company and they, and one thing he is still the smartest guy in the room and the best looking guy in the room. It's like, and Michelle of course is like, you thought not, she's the queen. See, she's, she's the queen, you know, she's the power behind the presidential throne but seeing them and knowing that what was coming, it broke my heart that the country turned over and all of a sudden this man shows up and says, see, well, they're not doing this and they're not doing this in black versus white and white is better and for the country to take that dive. And we were all, well it was like, I think it was just, it was opened up that we're not so perfect and we're not so happy and we're not this real democracy, this republic, republic that we think we are and it was really shattering for me but Hamilton, the musical, was one of the things that lifted me up and people said, oh well he took such liberty with history, it's fine, it's art but it was Hamilton that shows up and all of a sudden I get this package because I gave KQED, my radio station in San Francisco, I gave them a donation and they sent me the original recordings so all of a sudden I'm reading and looking at this notebook but again it's back to theater and it made me feel better and just about our country but no, no, no, it's, we're in, we're all right though, that's the other side of it, we're all right, you know, I think about Black Lives Matter and what happened with young people when George Floyd was killed on camera, I loved it that they all went, oh hell no, you know they just went and somebody was saying to another journalist they were saying, well why do you think the murder of George Floyd was so, so, so present? He said because everybody was home, we all saw it, remember the COVID, we all saw this and our children were looking at us like really? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no and all of a sudden they've taken to the streets, all of them, the white, the black, the blue, the gay, the happy, the straight, the blue, they were all in the streets, you know, and I love that and it was so theatrical because, you know, just to keep it alive everybody had to do their own thing and it stayed there again. Well, yeah, well, then for me, I have a theory about this that I don't know how it's, I don't think it's really very advanced but, you know, I think that the fact that if you remember, he called for his mother and that's why most of those folks who were, you know, protesting were white, like probably if you did like a, like a, like a poll or whatever, I would say a majority of them were young white folks. I thought I liked some moms, I think and it, and it was because he called his mother because, because finally it got through, oh, he's a human being. Yes, yes. Like coming from the mother, calling for his mother and I keep wondering if he knew what he was doing, like if it was just, like, was there some part of him as he was, as he was leaving, that he knew that if he made that, that call, or maybe he was just calling for his mom and that's what you do and I know that that's a part of it, but I feel like that was such a core part of the response to that. But I think it also had to do with everything was shutting down. Oh yes, absolutely, absolutely. Cutting off the wind and then you're back to that very, the first archaeological site, which is womb, mama, and it's like, you know, and that's that connection that I thought all that happened when I, when I saw it, I thought, oh my god, and this man who's sitting on top of him, don't you hear him? Don't you feel him? You know, and here and then back to ring around the moon, the song, you would just talk to this and all of a sudden we're back to that again, you know. And but I think in my family, I have young nephews, they are all, honey, they are chocolate drop, they're wonders, they're rappers, they're fine and they know it and all this, you know, they know all this stuff. But when that happened, when they were calling me from across the country saying, Aunt Rodessa, this just ain't cool, you know, and it was like, and I love it, they were calling Aunt Rodessa, you know, it's like this ain't cool, but it's, but I think everything you just described, what we saw, the fact that we were all home, I think it all spoke to the very present day dilemma that we were all having. And then the young woman that said, no, I'm gonna, she was filming the real thing and she turned it in, you know, like this is just wrong, you know, it's wrong. So yeah, but the drama of it has been amazing. I think that the country has changed on a certain level because the drama, our children are not having it, our young folks, they're like, they will, they will question everything we say. And sometimes it's exhausting. Just do what I say, okay? But it's like, those types of things, I want, I want them to be that bright. And I was thinking about storytelling and healing. My grandmother, my big mama was my mother's mother. That's how she raised us. That's a, that was 12 of us kids. And she would keep six to eight kids sometimes while my mother and father worked in the fields. And she, storytelling, that's when I first heard Grimm's fairy tales and all that stuff through my grandma and stories of the South, you know, Burabit, I heard that through my grandmother's voice and gaze, you know, and, and she was a wonderful magical storyteller. She was a real shaman, you know, and we were watching her dance and skip around, but she played all the characters. And I remember that this was early, early stuff for me, then it takes me back to the jail, you know, like, you know, telling these women my story of having a baby at 16, you know, and they were like, just, I said, you know, I was, I was a mother before I was a woman, you know, and, and they got it, you know, sitting in a circle, they're like, yeah, I feel you, I feel you. And it's, but then somebody would say, well, what happened to you? And I said, well, you know, I stopped looking for love in all the wrong places, you know, and I had, I started taking care of myself as a woman, as a human being. And I think it's a lot of people back to what you were saying about just being scared and eventually moving towards that light of the thing that you, you know, heals you, you know, in a jail talking to people in prison. And storytelling is just like we're all brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers. It's just like everybody knows something about storytelling, right? Something about storytelling. And that's the root of theater. It's like, you know, real stories, makeup stories, fantastical stories. But in the theater, we, we create circles at events. And here we are. And we're telling stories right now. Yeah. Do you, do you get a sense that because I'll be honest with you in my, in my career, I've had, I've had a bunch of like experiences where healing has happened, you know, working on a, on a play. But I would argue it's not the norm. It's not the norm that to kind of like, oh, a rehearsal when there's like, kind of like healing of it, there's kind of like a remarkable lack of ritual or has been, do you think that's coming? Do you think more rituals coming? Do you think more kind of things that like being in the room is becoming healing? Or is it just kind of, I don't know, do you get a sense of that in the, in the field happening at all? I think that more rituals are coming because they can, it can be more inclusive for people. And it's, and it's older than just like religious intention. Rituals. Right now, the Medea Project, we have been, that's my company in San Francisco, the Medea Project Theater for Incarcerated Women, the HIV Circle. We, the whole pandemic, we created rituals around resilience, around resistance. And it was like rituals was what everybody kind of grabbed on to. What kind of rituals, and as we, as we are talking today, think about the kind of rituals that you engage in every day, you know? There is a wonderful choreographer, Amara in San Francisco. And Amara used to say, I'm praying even when I'm brushing my teeth. And I thought that was an amazing image. She says, I pray all the time, you know? I'm thankful all the time. I just looked to the sky and go, thank you. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. It's thank you, son. Thank you versus bitching. We can bitch, you know? That's a lot of stuff, but it's late. It's over. Look at the Ukraine. Look at COVID. I mean, it's over. We can't be bitching about that stuff. We gotta like figure out how do we, how do we lift up now? It's late. Love that. It's late. It's late. That's how do we lift each other up, you know? So, yeah. Yeah, I think, and I think rituals will be a big part of it. The kind of training that I feel like I do with young people, you know? Particularly young women, they bring in, they bring in all of these, I had one young woman. I worked in Texas. She did all these paintings with her menstrual blood. I loved it. She did all these wonderful paintings with her menstruation. And she was like, she just said, you know, I think that they can move things. She said, I love painting. And people were like, ooh. And it was like, I thought, this is pretty amazing. And so when you just said ritual, I thought about her. I thought about she's in Texas somewhere. I wonder what's happened with her. Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. I agree. I agree that rituals is what's coming next, you know? It's a light, it's a light for everything else, you know? I think the idea is like low light. If people can get some wonderful healing from the religiosity of the church, as my sister's out there somewhere going, yes, we can row. Anyway, wonderful. But I just believe in the stones that have laid human history. And you think about Africa. You think about the Greeks. You think about when women ran the world. Because women ran the world long before. And what was that like? When the matrons were, the goddess was, you know, I have this book that I didn't bring with me, but it's all about Mary, Jesus' mother. And now she was so pissed off that all these people showed up and decided her son was some magical person. And it's a wonderful story about a goddess, Mary. If any of that matters, I mean, I love Sheba and all that kind of stuff. But Mary, if any of that matters, or if it's just a great story, what a story. What a story to have had a virgin birth. My God. What was that like? I'm not right. But then I teach my female inmates about, you know, classical literature, Greek literature, Roman. We use Persephone. We use these stories as a way to hang stories, or their story, onto what's happening in the world. And they're ancient, you know. But just Persephone alone comes to mind. And of course, there is Daphne, who turns into a tree. There is just one, and right now I'm going blank, but there is so many wonderful stories in Greek and Roman classical literature that I use with incarcerated women. Yeah. Yeah. What are you looking forward to with the Pew Fellowship? So you're there, Philly, which I'm really excited about because, you know, I will get to see you more. And of course, we're working on a project with you, an art ensemble called Book of Gwen, which will be happening next spring in a production, hopefully. But I was curious about what you're excited about in terms of your fellowship. Well, it's so magical because I drew up a very good plan, you know. I was going to come to Philadelphia, finish my One Woman Show, The History of My Vagina, and I was going to do a whole thing, I was going to do a whole thing and paint it bright. Paint it bright is physically no more. So all of a sudden I'm here, but I'm working on two books, and the Pew has said, look, just do your work. Be an artist in Philadelphia. That's amazing to me. That's just amazing to me to be like, you know, but I have to report back, trust me. Yeah, I got like, I can't just leave town in a year and go, oh, that's great, bye-bye. But no, it is an opportunity to dream and to be and to explore. Speaking of dreams, I had a dream this morning. I overslept for this conference, and I was in a big yellow Oldsmobile, 1958 Oldsmobile, trying to turn on to the street where this conference was, and I woke up because I couldn't get through the street, but that was just a dream I had this morning. But here I am, but back to your question. I'm just, I have such a lovely friends, and my company and everybody's saying, just go be you. Just go, take it easy. Just go, take your time with it, you know. So I'm giving myself these next two to three weeks just to dream. But I am working on my handbook for theater for incarcerated women. I'm working on the history of my family, another American story, and I'm working on pamphlet on women and women's bodies, and it's entitled, If I Had Known My Life Was My Own, you know, all the things that we're told about our bodies as women and who owns our bodies and what we shouldn't do. And then there are men sitting in power that can actually, you know, decide, no, no, no, no, no, it's literally off with their head, you know. So I'm writing a little pamphlet on that, but and the Pew's been just so supportive. They just want to know, well, how's it going? And I've only been here like maybe eight days now, but I'll keep you, I'll keep you in touch. I'll keep you informed about what it's going to be. Yeah. And the piece that we're working on through partially through a grant, through NET, and also gotten a grant through the NEA is a piece called Book of Gwen, which is really interesting. It's about a woman, Gwendolyn Reed, who was an actor here in Hartford as she acted with the Federal Theater Project back in the, you know, the thirties during the heyday of that project in Connecticut and performed a lot over the years in Hartford. It was one of the first actors at Hartford Stage, the kind of Auguste, you know, company here. And while doing that, she also worked in tobacco fields for a lot of years. And she also played Aunt Jemima for Quaker Oats for 18 years. And she was a literacy advocate. So in the start, she was early head start advocate as well for children. Yes. Yes. Yeah. And so, so yeah, so we're working on that, on that, on that piece, you know, together, we've got some amazing performers working on it. And I'm co-directing with Bernice Miller, Tenille, Watkus, and Vanessa Butler are also a part of it from Hartford Ensemble, and I'm really excited to work with you on it. I've done some investigations and interviews with folks. I'm curious what you, what, what is, you know, when we work on these kinds of things, there's always a thing that keeps bugging you, not or nagging at you. It might be a good way, but the thing you keep kind of like noodling on, you keep on kind of coming back to, what's the thing for you with my book of Gwen that you kind of, that just keeps kind of kind of meddling at you or tugging on you and whatever way that is? I am constantly thinking about what was her life? I mean, she did like other things we just mentioned that she did to lift the people up. And at the same time, the whole other story of the simple apartment that she had with chairs that were everything to sort of scale for children and her mom dies, of course, which is so Billie Holiday, you know, Billie Holiday the singer, her mom was there and it gave a light to her life, but then her mother dies. And so I'm often thinking about, gee, Gwen, what did you do deep in the night? You know, what did you cry for deep in the night? What were their lips that you wanted to kiss deep in the night? This is the woman lived alone, you know, and did all this stuff and was Aunt Jemima, you know, I mean, it's like, you know, it's so to answer your question, I'm haunted by were you happy enough? Were you loved enough? Was that somebody to wrap his arms and his legs or her arms and legs around you and it was all good, you know? And so I think just being the actress too, to be working on this piece, what can I bring? What kind of heartchats is that gonna, how's that gonna color stuff, you know? And that's my secret as an actress and with Gwen is that this was, did she walk the floor all the time? You know, it's, you know, I always say to people that the black woman is God, you know, and I think about George Floyd's mother, I think about all of the young men that have been gunned down in the streets and we're all taught that our sons, our sons, and when you're a black mother, and it's like, you know, you don't get no recourse half the time, you know, they kill my babies, they kill my baby. And so when we're talking about George Floyd and her calling on him, she's sitting somewhere when they murdered my child. You got to get up and get going. Nobody want to hear, they're gonna hear, they're here for a while, but they don't want to hear this. You know, you know, what is your problem? It becomes that kind of a thing. And when I was coming home, I always tell this story, I love telling this story, coming off from Jamaica about five years ago, from vacation, and I'm wearing my, the black woman is God T-shirt, right? In the customs, Miami. And these beautiful young black and brown people, it's about six, I think they were maybe Dominican because they spoke with a kind of a heavy accent, but they, but anyways, they love my shirt, you know, it's like beautiful shirt mama, you know, I'm a mama now, yeah, it's okay. So I said, thank you and I'm headed up to customs. And then out of my eye, there's another big, big, round, red man, you know, a white, he's probably Southern minister. He's furious at the T-shirt. He's looking me up and down like, what the hell? And he's, he comes over to me and says, you're going to have to explain to me, what does this here mean? You're going to have to one little black boy. They were behind me like magic. The little boy said, she ain't got to explain nothing to you, man. Sit down, dude. I was like, you know, and he was like, and I love that my children, it was my, my children were just right there, you know, first I was called mama and then they just said, you better live alone, you better take, you better give it a rest. So it's, we are living in such a magical time. And I, oh, I wanted to say that being in Philadelphia, I want to look for the underground railroads. I really want to look for those stations. I want to look for some of the oldest black churches in, in the city because this is the, this was the first national capital, you know, and, and also my Medea project, they will probably, we're going to go live across America while I'm here. We're going to do a, a video, a, a live video feed, but these are the things that I'm dreaming of and making happen. So a lot of this happened in them, of course you and me, hopefully we're going to work on our show. So. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. That's great. I love that story. You gotta tell you, you guys put up new man. Sit down, bro. Oh my gosh, that is so funny. Oh man, I love those stories. Godfrey, I'm just popping in for a minute. I wonder if you guys want to move towards questions at some point, either from people live in the room or maybe. Let's do it. Let's do it. Folks live in the room and over the transoms and all that stuff. Let's do it. We have a great time talking to each other. We'll talk with other people. No, I'm just sort of popping in. I mean, feel free to keep talking. It's just, I know that there, there are people somewhere out on HowlRound, and I don't have a direct connection to them. I don't know if you can see questions, Godfrey? I don't know. People can write in on the chat, so I can't, I haven't seen any, but are there folks in, are there folks there? Who's there? On HowlRound. Yeah, it would be on the HowlRound site, yeah. Oh, oh, I don't have the HowlRound site up myself. Here we go. We're live. Okay. I had a question about your work with Theater for Incarcerated Women. I guess like how do you build those relationships? And like, I know that access to prisons change with like the change of the wardens. So like, how do you manage to like have consistent relationships in doing that sort of work? Because I started at the city jail in San Francisco 20, 30 years ago under Mike, Mike Hennessey, who was the incumbent sheriff, who really believed that art saved lives, you know, and he allowed me, when anything I could dream, he would help me to make it happen, you know. And this was how I started. And last night, Godfrey and I were talking about love and healing. I think and the women have to feel that, you know, when, because I was lucky to just, I was able to walk in and say I was going to teach aerobics because that's what they told me, but the women didn't want to do aerobics, but they really wanted to talk. They wanted to talk. They wanted to talk to me. They wanted to figure out, well, you know, why are you in here with us? Why you want to be with us? It's like that kind of thing happens a lot, you know. And I would tell them anything. I'd tell them anything about my children, my life, looking for love in all the wrong places, life a danger, but dangerous men. And they would be, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And you just got to come with love, truth and beauty, you know. So I didn't have to work hard at maintaining the relationships. They were wide open at wanting more from me, you know. And I'd talk to them about what an artist activist is, you know, and that they have the stuff they have. And I teach all over the world, you know. I've taught a lot in South Africa and brilliant, brilliant community, you know. But, no, everybody's hungry for that connection. They really are. So that's how you just got to come in there with truth. But you got to be real. Don't come in stupid because they're going to be the first ones to eat you alive. You know, they really, they can eat you alive. But, no, I have such wonderful daughters and sisters and mothers in and out of the prison system. And it's just that I just brought my whole self, you know. And they were waiting for me, I guess. Yes. So, you know, don't get home tonight and go, oh my God, I should have asked her. Thank you so much for your presentation so far and just learning about, I was like, oh, we should just like hear your whole life story. So you have time for that, right? Joking. So I guess I then quit in lieu of that. I love, I'm really into sort of artists utilizing their tools to kind of be involved in like the thing that we dislike a lot, which is like the political system, right? But so do you have other experiences, like the one you had like this relationship with the sheriff or, you know, in your travels and are there other, yeah, let's go this direction positive kind of ways in which you've used your artistry within the political system for, you know, for the good. Well, you know, one, I found out that there are a lot of children's prisons in Alaska. They look like college campuses, but they're children in serious lockdown, you know, and they have women who come in and, you know, they're there to help the children, I mean, to be with them and they were glad to see me. These women were, because I started to really talk to these, I mean, we're talking nine, 10, 11, 12 year old children, you know, who've, you know, that was a time in America's judicial past where everybody understood that a kid under a certain age could not be charged with murder, you know, so kids were given the guns by the gangsters and they was told to do this and that and that. And then as time changed, the age, the age of variant happened. So here was, I had like children who were 12, 13 years old, and they had never had anybody to talk to them like I did. But the other side of it was I had to go and I told them, I said, I'm only going to be here for six weeks, eight weeks. And they were like, yeah, you know, they're all over me because the women that are in charge of them, they're glad, they're glad that I don't mind that these children are just draped all over me. And when I got ready to leave, though, I had to tell them I'm going, I'm leaving. And one little girl said, Miss Jones, you're just like the rest of them. You leave us too. And I started pulling back on taking gigs in children's detention and facilities because, you know, I'm an artist, I'm magnificent, I'm very smart, I'm a grandma, I'm a great grandma. But at the same time, they, there's a whole lot of other stuff they need to shape them. And the system, like Brian Stevenson often talks about this, you know, that he's an amazing lawyer and activist. And he talks about we still know what to do with children. You know, we still got children in lockdown, you know, that's a big one. But no, that, that tends to your question. I loved working with children, but it was breaking my heart too. And I knew I had to leave. I can't, I can't stay for the whole time. And, and they're just babies, you know, they're babies that take a wrong turn or, and they suck in their thumbs and they're, you know, they're, they're, it was just, it was stunning. But the realization that this little girl told me that you're just like everybody else, you're going to leave us too. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Thank you for sharing beautiful stories. Thank you. I was wondering, is there any surprising joy that you find found during the pandemic that you can share with us? It's a surprising joy. There is this man that I love. And he's very famous. He's an actor and all that. And he called me out of the blue when the pandemic hit. And I was like, hi. And we talked off and on for two years. And then the MF is gone because he's got it like that. He can just fly off. But that was lovely, you know, and to just, you know, to, and I would tell my friends, they say, you know, you're a 73 year old woman and you got a boyfriend. You got a boyfriend. Who's this? You got a boyfriend. Who's that? And it was like, they just loved it. And then what happened? And then what happened? And it gave me so much, it gave me another kind of attention, you know, and I love that was one of the lovely things that happened. My company brought some beautiful work to me. The Medea Project online, we did some amazing stuff online. I had a whole challenge from the California Arts Council to do, to teach people who wanted to go into the prisons and use art to work with prisoners. And my women was just right there. And that was like a 16 week process, I think, where we actually taught, we taught artists who wanted to work in the prisons how to do it. And it was all online, it was beautiful. And then the other one was returning home for the ex-offender who got out when the COVID happened. Women got out, they were released early. So they were, they were coming back from jail. And just to have a group of artists, writers, ex-offenders, and we all wrote poems that spoke to the return, the return to home. And just, we've made some beautiful basic magazines and stuff. So I had a great time and I'm so blessed to have such a smart team, you know, just these women that will make anything happen. Then my children, my great grandson was born in 2020. And, and that was my excuse to hang out with him all the time, COVID. No, I, you know, I had some wonderful things happen. Yeah. And I'm just trying to be grateful, you know, that was something that we're supposed to learn, you know, that's, and I hope that, I hope everybody got kissed and hugged enough and discovered all kinds of things about yourself and, you know, and, and gave it up and, and gave love and sweetness to other people. I hope that happened too, because we couldn't see everybody, you know, it's like, I could see my family and this friend of mine on the phone. That was lovely. But it was like, and I liked being, I had a beautiful garden. I liked living alone and working in my yard. But it was a really, it was very different to be, for the state to say, we're closed. You can't do anything. You got to stay home. Yeah. I was talking to a jazz musician, buddy of mine, Keith Loftus. And he was saying, you know, I God for me, I just, it occurred to me, I just never stopped. I just hadn't really just stopped and took a break. And I mean, you know, the jazz cats, I mean, they're playing, they're playing all the time, man, they're going, you know, you know, this, uh, right, interest, right. So they're going all the time, man, he said, I just stopped. I just had to stop. I just never stopped. Yeah. And, uh, yes. And my, my, uh, my partner, A.G. Sockmore, who's a jazz musician, they've just finished a whole nother album. They're, y'all, this happened over the course of the, of the COVID, you know, just, but then they get to do what they want to do. Music is so healing, you know, it's like all of a sudden it isn't work for them. It's like, I just get to play, I get to play 24 seven, you know, that kind of thing. Yeah. So, but that's wonderful to hear. He just, he couldn't stop. He didn't stop. Yeah. Yeah. We do have a couple of questions from the, how around chat from Shyamala Morty. This might be good for both of you. Shyamala says, this is also inspiring. I would love to hear any particular tools or exercises that you like to do with ensemble participants. And Shyamala is from the Post Natium Collective in California. You want to jump on it, Geoffrey first? You know, um, uh, wow, they're just like so many, right, Redessa? I mean, you know, one of the things I like to do, which is really interesting, I do this at the beginning of, and it's particularly good for like, for new groups, or, you know, I do it at the beginning of like, say like an acting class or a new ensemble that's coming together. It's a mapping exercise where you set up, you engage the group in deciding what the map is at like, what's north, what's south, what's east and what's west on the actual floor. And um, and then once you decide that, like the city where you're at, you basically do an easy thing where you say like, okay, where do you live there and place yourself on the map where you live. And then we talk about that for a bit. So then the next time we do the world. And so they have to cut the world like, you know, on the seam and lay it out. So you have them try to, you know, you have to basically have a conversation about, well, what's the center and what's like, where's east, because everything is east of somewhere and everything is west of somewhere, right? So you write, so you've got a kind of like, it's a political conversation kind of, you know, you don't want to lead with like, this is a political conversation, you just want to at some point maybe note it, but you figure out like, okay, what's the map? And then you talk, then you start to ask people, all right, you know, place yourself in the world where you were born. And then you keep going back, you go back to like the, your parents where one of your parents are born, preferably someplace that will make you move on the map. And then grandparents and then great grandparents. And you don't, and it's not just that in between each little move, you're asking them questions about like, where, well, why did you end up there? Oh, that's interesting. And people start to get, you know, and so people start to find out all this information about each other. But more importantly, they start to find out stuff about themselves. And they start to connect with the story of their ancestors. And then they begin to bring in their ancestors in the space. Because they're up there in the space, whether you like it or not. Why not honor that and lean into that? And I don't care who it is, like brown, green, white, whatever, right? It's, they're here. They're with us. And how do we bring that to our work? And so I like to kind of start with that early on. Yeah, it's, and I, as I listen, I'm listening at a very high end because now my work that I've loved the most has been so basic. It's like sitting in a jail and you go around, everybody has got to tell you who named them. And all of a sudden it connects them back to something, before life hurt, you know, it was like, you know, who do you love? You know, who loves you is a big question for all of us, but particularly for women who are locked down. It's like, who loves you? And somebody will say their name and they do a gesture and everybody's got to be so focused that we do the same gesture together in a circle because it's about getting people to listen and engage because then everybody's waiting for their time to talk, you know? So it's that very kind of basic stuff like that, as well as the hunter and the hunted, which is, we're blindfold. So it's all about sensory. And as an actor, you know, getting in touch with your other senses, I'm constantly saying to women, you know, if you lose your sight and you got to move through a dark garage to get to whatever, you know, how can you do it? A better example is if you are moving through a dark garage and you can't see, let's play it that way. And then we'll put a mask on. And there's the hunter. The hunter, as an actor, the hunter has their own intention. And the hunted has their own intention. So mine is like, I love it that these two things together, we've got to use these two things together. Yeah. Yeah. No, those are great. I love the ones that that like you're talking about that really connect to your story and brings that in the room. And then the story that is outside of yourself, who loves you? And who do you love? Right? You know, your ancestors who named you and maybe why? Do you know that? What's in your imagination? Can you paint the picture of that story? But just even aligning it with like a movement? Because what's what's interesting is that both like these exercises engage you physically, right? Like you're making a move while engaging with this stuff that's with you all the time. Right, right. And and what working with with certain kind of writings inside, because some of the people inside just nobody ever gave them permission to pour it on the page. Or the real Roxanne, when I first started working in the jails, she was in lockdown. The real Roxanne, I didn't know that they knew the community knew, but I'd heard of the real Roxanne. But that's a $20 story. But she was in there and I and I asked her to lead them and some rap stuff. And she, you want me to, I said, I said, girl, you know, like, you're the real Roxanne. Come on now. They rocked it. And it's just that nobody has ever had them put pen to paper. And then in my own company, there is like, Faye, Angie, Lisa, Felicia, these women are like at the forefront of these exercises largely. And Faye gets, she'll get this beautiful writing. But then she'll talk to the women about how it's music. How are you going to deliver it as music? So all of a sudden they're getting a double dose of like, dramaturgy and acting in there. And they're like music. And she's like, Yeah, this is music. Let us move it. Move it like music. And then I took a piece that the women wrote to Auburn State Prison, men. And it was a piece called I was the baby. And this young man was this young white man. I mean, he was like kind of alone. I found out later he was just his crime was just off the chain. But that's another $20. He was so he was so beautiful. And we're reading this there. He and his group. There's him. And there's three, four black older black men and him, right? And they're reading the poem. And it's a the audience. And if I say I was the baby, everybody says I was the baby, you know, the whole room. And but it's all about the abuse that this, this person, this girl took at the hands of her mom. And this kid starts crying this young man. And he and he looks at me and he says, This is my story. And I said, We're gonna perform it. You're gonna you got the lead voice. And the brothers was like, We got you, man, we got you. And he started to read the poem. And these four black men who were the old geez, they sang a song entitled daddy's home. I don't even know this song, but they had harmony. It was like, You're my love. You're my angel. Shout a lot. You're the girl of my dreams. So you got four elderly black men all like in time. And this young white man is sitting out front saying, You know, my mother used to beat me. You know, I was the baby in the whole room is like, I was the baby. And these brothers are like, Daddy's home. Daddy's home. And the warden came up. The person who brought me to the prison, she said, Don't look now, but the warden is standing in the doorway because people were crying, you know, they were crying. But that was like, just bring the women had written this piece, but to take it to a male prison and take it to a whole nother level was phenomenal. It was yeah, phenomenal. One last thing, I don't know if we have time for this one last one is is great. And I think it's really great just for communities, not like ensembles, I think that exercises are things like this that are really good for communities can be really useful for ensembles. And that's just a simple story circle. And I'm sure a lot of folks were listening to know about the story circle methodology pioneered by John O'Neill from Junbug Productions. But you know, I would say Google it, you know, John O'Neill story circle. But it's really the simple everybody's got the same amount of time to tell a story. No one gets no one is interrupted, right? We're not commenting on anybody's story. And it's it's about the listening. It's really about hearing other people's story and usually starts with food, right? You got food, food is important. You have some food there early on, have the story circle process at the end of it. There's a methodology you can find it online. It's one of the most deceptively. It is so simple. It is deceptively extraordinarily deep. And there's a facilitator who has, you know, who comes up with a kind of a prompt, everybody's telling a story about this with the same prompt, tell a story about a time when you felt like he belonged or not. For example, just simple as that. And then the stories that you get and the connection that you get and that feeling in the room where you feel like you can sing. Yes. Yes. It's in South Africa when I the first my first day in natural arena prison, I said to the women, I said, we're going to write letters home. We're going to write letters to our children. We're going to write to our community. We're going to ask forgiveness. And they're listening and listening and listening. And finally, this young woman says, like Papa Mandela. And I'm just outside of Johannesburg and my heart just stopped. She goes, she says, you're asking us to write like Papa Mandela. And they're like, yes, because it's South Africa, right? And all of a sudden, the room is taken off because it's like, and they tell me that Nelson Mandela in the early days, he'd have to write the same letter at least five times just to make sure the letter got out of the jail because he couldn't trust that people would not destroy the mail. And these young women in lockdown knew this. And they started telling me about where the museum was, go here, go there. And they were also like just checking me out with, what do you know about Mandela? And of course, you know, of course, we all know. But it was interesting that that was like a point of entry for me. It was like my passage, you know, it was like in Africa, that was my rights of passage that that that I was excited about Mandela that I was listening to them about Mandela. And that the whole idea that Papa Mandela, Papa Mandela, yeah, the old people say Madiba, but the children say Papa Mandela. Yeah. I hate to be the one to break in because this is so beautiful. And we had a request for another story that from Faye, from your company, to have you talk about the women's HIV circle. But like you said before, that's another $20. Maybe another time. But Faye's going to be handling that. So Faye, I'll have them reach out to you about the HIV circle. Okay. She's going to be handling that while I'm gone. Okay, good. Alicia, to you. Me break in and give them time. You know you did that. But you guys are so cute as a scene. That's because you're a board member, Todd. With great, what is it with great something comes great responsibility. Power, power, power. I just this this has been a tremendous gift, at least for me to get to listen to. So I hope it has been for you all as well. You know, Redessa, I remember over 20 years ago when I was living in the Bay, having the blessing of being introduced to your work and the inspiration that you and what you do in the world has been to me ever since. So it is a true honor to have you with us here today. Thank you so much. Thank you. And Todd and Godfrey and the rest of my intrepid board, who, you know, you, I don't know if everyone knows, but like many organizations like net, our board is made up completely of working artists and practitioners. You have to be a net member to be a net board member. So they are all of us and all of you, and are putting in this service to the field on top of all the work they're trying to do. So I am incredibly grateful to both the work that you bring and the commitment and the passion and also in terms of inspiration. It's just it's a real gift to get to be in the presence of all of you all the time and the constant reminder of all the incredible things happening out here in the world. Thanks to you all. And thank you for just pulling it all together and making this happen. So to that, we're running a little behind surprise, surprise. Welcome to the experiment. That's what happens when you get good people in a room talking about good things is you want more. So but we are about to do a little transition here. For those of you who are with us now and are expecting to carry on forward, we're probably going to need a little bit of transition change over time here, probably 10 minutes or so at least. But you will now, if you've been with us on HowlRound, you'll now be coming back to us in a private space in Zoom. So look to your registration information about that. You should have gotten a link. If you haven't, send us a message and we'll get one out to you. But we're about to move into probably the most experimental part of the day in which the the technical wizardry that has been happening thus far is only going to get more intense. So we're excited to actually lean into that experiment with all of you and to get your feedback about what was fun, what worked, what was what was hard. So what we're about to do is move into about a three hour chunk where we will start off with a cycle of these short art based mini workshops where you will in Zoom and here in the room together be in hybrid mixed breakout groups together. We have three amazing artists doing these little workshop pieces for us. And so you'll sort of travel together as a group and cycle through all three of those little workshops. And then we'll all come back together for the end of the day into just a big open community. What do we all think and what do we need to say to each other Town Hall and Forum Space and leading us through all of that. Siobhan Wave to the people, Siobhan O'Clocklin is going to be our MC and Joker taking us through this whole piece that we're about to move into. So you definitely want to come back for that. That's why she's looking exactly. This is exactly right. So let's all take a break. Let's give folks a chance to get us all set up and hopefully we'll see you back here in just a bit. Thanks. Thank you all. Thank you so much. Peace y'all. Right now. Have a good one.