 How are we all doing today as I didn't check in with you and I self my name is Martin Green Rogers I am the president of the literary managers and dramaturgs of the Americas Thank you. On behalf of myself Brian Quirk the Who's our board chair Brian? Are you in here? Brian Brian Bueller Bueller The board our executive committee our past president Kentronelia and our president elect Brian up. There's Brian Quirk And our past president 2019 division in the amazing city of Chicago There will be at the annual general meeting that I encourage all of you to come to a 4 p.m. On Saturday Things that we need to do before we get started. So first and foremost, I want to introduce our conference committee There's our VP of conferences Amy Brooks who is not able to be here because she's busy doing the things drama terms do Which is amazing and so I just want to go on record saying Thank you to Amy for all of her hard work and her service in terms of helping create a conference And then we have Marin Robinson over here Yasmin Oh, I'm gonna practice her name so much. Okay. Yasmin Mikhail Mikhail, oh so close is she out there? Yasmin Issues questions Concerns, etc. Please feel free to find one of us or one of the team leaders in a room Pretty please the chair on top. We are the people who can help you get your problem solved the most quickly and efficiently So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you Very quickly, I'm going to invite Ken our past president up here to Provide a few words about an important vote that we need to do at the AGM Welcome Hello, everyone representing our organization bylaws Stand on the shoulders of many past presidents who have also worked on the bylaws We're very close to The end of this part of the journey the last time they were revised was 2005 Spearheaded by Divya Kuehler who is here We'll take all the responsibility for that and No, they're essential for any kind of organization that's incorporated We have bylaws and the goal of the bylaws is to be as clear about our mission and organization Without being too specific so that we can change the way that we do things more quickly with our leadership On the board and executive committee. So we've been through vetting them. We've been through Looking at the most reason we're incorporated in New York State and so New York State has certain laws about its corporations And so we've been trying to become in compliance with those things particularly there's a lot of language around how the board is constituted and runs and Some conflict of interest policies which they recommend and put in the bylaws Which means the bylaws are not twice as long as they once were So don't get confused by that. We're still running the way that we've been running for over 30 years But we do need to look at those so I think Marin has printed out some copies to look We went over them last night in the board meeting We've made a couple of tweaks about quorum will constitutes quorum when we need to take a vote around Who we elect for our leadership and actually changing the bylaws So what we need to do is as many people as possible if you could attend the general meeting we do need to take a Vote at that meeting to adopt these revisions to the bylaws But in the next two days if you want to read them over if you have any questions We can talk if there's an essential word to change we can do that So thank you for doing that It's um, it's boring for many people, but it's essential and actually embedded in the bylaws a lot of why we're here and how we On that note, I also want to introduce one more person to you Emily wise who is here Representing Heather Helinski who is our VP for freelancers. So Emily if I can get you to come up and do your Give us the awesome information Hello, I'm Emily. I'm here representing the freelancers subcommittee Heather is our VP of the freelancers and she is not able to be here But I'm gonna be your point person for all things freelance at this conference So if you have any questions concerns ideas about what LMDA can do to help you that you want me to convey to Heather Please let me know between sessions Also, Heather and LMDA are conducting a study on freelancers and economics And if you want to participate in this study, which is completely confidential I will take down your name and email address and send you to Heather She'll be compiling all of that information and doing interviews from or I guess not interviews, but Conversations from now until December of this year I think that's it, but if you have any questions about freelancing, please come find me Thank you So a few bar housekeeping things number one if you are tweeting or putting things on Instagram all that fun stuff Please use the hashtag LMDA 19 so I'm DA 1 9 As you post about the conference and then Sierra are you right there with the hand up in the air waving it around like She just doesn't care Please check in with her if you're interested in live tweeting a particular session Part of the reason why we're just asking people to check in is that we want to make sure there's coverage in all of the Rooms that want coverage and on that note as well If you're doing a panel in which you feel it would be more useful to the conversation If there wasn't live tweeting or if there wasn't the how around broadcast in there Please let us know so that we don't Invade people's privacy and the ability to have fruitful conversations for fear that it will live in the archives forever and ever So please just see either myself the team captain one of the conference coordinators or Sierra in order to make sure you let those Wish wishes be known. Thank you And then on speaking of how around I want to introduce Dylan Iragas who's up there Video live streaming our conference for us. Thank you so much for your service. We're so happy to have our Here I've already gotten one. I've gotten one text from one of our members in Mexico Amelia who is just thanking the heavens for the fact that how round is doing what they do? So thank you for what you do and I think we have one other group that is Is there another group that's like tweeting for us or am I making that up? So So for those who are watching that could not hear that potentially the grappler is here also and they are live tweeting for us So thank you so much to them as well So here's a list of people we need to thank and why we need to thank them number one Thank you so much Columbia College in Chicago and especially Pete Dooley for opening up your space and your time and your resources to us the Goodman Theatre and especially Tonya Palmer for allowing us to use their space and for their generous contributions in terms of time and space and resources to us and Tanuja Jagannath and Lucas Garcia who we will you will find out very shortly why I'm thanking them The new plague exchange Timeline Theatre Company the University of Chicago the Master of Arts program in the humanities Free Street Theatre Chicago shakes the theater school at DePaul Suni New Paltz and our Lessing circle patrons who helped bring a colleague from Mexico City to this conference this time around Just so you know if you weren't aware haven't seen all the amazing ways We've been spamming your email for the past couple of months about things going on with the conference Here are some things that you should know about number one We still have tickets available for six at Chicago shakes I believe there's still some tickets left at timeline for too heavy for your pocket We also in a sort of late-breaking thing the Chicago dramatists if you're a local They're offering a week-long new play dramaturgy in Tencent That's in July from the 20th through the 21st and they are offering a 40% Partner discount, so if you're interested in attending that intensive Please let me know or anyone on the conference committee know and we will get that information to you Oh, the people who are going to timeline in Chicago shakes over the next couple of days We do have a sign-up sheet in order to help facilitate getting people either lifted or ubered or whatever your transportation mode of choice is To those performances, so please go out there and sign up for those If that is something that you're concerned about or want to make sure that you're going with other people Etc And this is something and these are a couple more things and then I promise I will get out of everyone's space Uh, number one just want to remind people in case you did not know We do have a few members who have fragrance allergies So please be mindful of that as you prepare yourself during the day for to get ready for the day's conference And please don't be offended if someone says that they need to remove themselves from your presence because Because you may be, uh, you know physically affecting them in some way bathrooms are in the basement The second third floor in fit and they're all gender restrooms in the basement and third floor Uh, as I mentioned earlier, we have the AGM on saturday at 4 p.m. Please attend I am so happy that each and every one of you decided to join us today either here in person or Through the fence heavy-list interwebs And uh, I'm excited about the next couple of days of conversation of fellowship and Discovery and please take advantage of all of the amazing things that Chicago has to offer This is a fun town with a lot going on all the time so So just enjoy the amazing art artistry and chicken and um artists We do have a quiet room remind me again. Where is it located fifth floor? 511 so if you need a space to just decompress and not be Surrounded by people all the time just so you know, we have coloring books and other fun things to help calm yourself So please go in that room and use as needed Um, and on that note, I'm going to turn this over To Tanuja Jaggernauth and Lucas Garcia to do our land acknowledgement Hi, everybody My name is Tanuja Davey Jaggernauth, and I'm a playwright dramaturg producer and divisor living and working in Chicago My name is Lucas Garcia, and I'm a writer and dramaturg from Albuquerque, New Mexico living and working in Chicago Our indigenous ancestors did not call the land we're living and breathing on this weekend home So while we're thankful that you all are here with us, we cannot welcome you In the spirit of the theme of this conference crossing borders and dismantling them The organizing team wanted to hold space at the beginning of the weekend to acknowledge the land that we gather on commune at and work on We invite all of you to participate in these acknowledgements with us Using our breath and witness. There is no obligation. There is only intention We invite you at this moment to close your eyes if you feel comfortable To take a deep breath or two Feel the floor beneath you The ground beneath the floor and reach into the earth as it turns Reach up to the ceiling And the sky beyond that The sun the moon and the cosmos beyond that Breathe deep again. We are here together breathing connecting sharing and vibrating with each other While we do this keep breathing I was born in Georgetown the capital of Guyana a former British colony Before the British colonized the land. It was the home of the Amerindians specifically several different tribes of indigenous people the warus arowaks Babasianas the argunas Akawaios Batamunas YY's and the makusis When I was one year old my parents and I were sponsored by my uncles to come to the united states We moved to arizona land that was once inhabited by 16 different tribes I lived there for 21 years before moving to Chicago I am a fourth generation product of settler colonialism I came to this land in 2015 after graduating from college in indiana on the territory of the pocagon band of the Potawatomi in search of work in the theater community I was born on the ancestral homeland of the people of isleta pueblo My mother is descended from europeans who settled on the ancestral homeland of the people of james pueblo And my father from the indigenous people of mexico We believe we are from the rewadik 30, but we don't have a way of knowing right now My paternal ancestors crossed into territory controlled by the united states in 1917 and settled in the state of cancels The us invaded the mexican controlled territory that my mother's ancestors lived on in the 1840s And moved the border south over them through violent conquest Part of the knowledge and language we are sharing today is borrowed from the resolution introduced And later passed with censure to the chicago city council by the shy nation's youth council Sponsored by the alderman of the 35th ward in november of 2018 We are gathered breathing working and creating on the ancestral homeland to the council of three fires Along with dozens of tribes including the monomony miami and hochunk Who cultivated and molded the land to sustainably suit their needs since time in memorial We acknowledge that the treaties made with the people of the three fires have not been honored And the destruction and dispossession of land and life of indigenous peoples continues up to this day We acknowledge that this land was and is a site of trade Travel and healing for indigenous people since time in memorial We also want to acknowledge that while some of our ancestors especially those of us who are black and brown Did not come to turtle island and to this land willingly Or were taken and displaced from their homelands by economic or militarized violence We must still contend with how we are beneficiaries of ongoing imperial violence And how settler colonial mindsets work through us and on us Today we face as many of our ancestors faced systemic violence and oppression We offer this acknowledgement as one way of standing in solidarity within the indigenous people who live and still live here We offer this acknowledgement as one way of holding pain Rage and sorrow with our indigenous siblings just as much as joy Healing and peace We offer this acknowledgement as one way of seeking freedom and body There are 75,000 tribal members in illinois today and many of them live in chicago You can support them by supporting native led organizations Working in a variety of ways to preserve their sovereignty and culture Cultivate the community and enable erased and displaced peoples to flourish Check out the work of organizations like the american indian center The shy nation's youth council and the international indigenous youth council support native art and artists Organizers activists and people in your home and work communities in concrete ways And move with awareness compassion and bravery No matter where you're coming from or how you've got here We invite you to move respectfully with us on this land and in this space In the space of this conference, we hope that we can all agree to the following agreements and practices first be brave to listen to hear three approach sessions with open minds and open hearts and four Take care of and check in with yourself If we could all take a collective breath again, if you would like thank you for sharing us sharing with us in this way Thank you. I love how you got a nice little microphone for me Thank you so much lucas and tenuja for your work and gathering us together I I'm sure I've probably forgotten something and so I apologize in advance for that So if you see me running across the stage screaming random things I use because I forgot something but In the in the meantime Just to make sure that everyone's aware all of the sessions that are happening in the specific rooms are posted outside the rooms every day And please take if you haven't downloaded schedule already, please do that because that will keep all of our Up-to-date changes in the moment fun times Yay conference shenanigans top fullery in one place for you So we're running a little ahead And so I wanted to we Give everyone just like a few minutes to breathe and then come back and introduce or do you think we should just Doesn't matter To move directly into our keynote performance So please help me in welcoming the free street theater youth ensemble featuring their show parched We can free sheet celebrates their 50th anniversary Okay Each year our ensemble the free sheet you perform ensemble Investigates a specific theme of back to chicago's you this year we investigated about water justices and injustices This is a portion of that play and we hope you enjoy it And we know you'll enjoy it, but we also know it's 10 a.m. In the morning that coffee may not have But these kids these teens these youths me we're point everything that we have into this play So if you see something funny laugh at it you see something angry be mad at it Just to try that up you're already doing it Let's uh pretend to laugh. I'll do a joke. Why did you get across the road? The general thing and say what is really nothing we can see this going wrong and I'm like, okay, like something's not quite right Are y'all doing y'all jobs or whatever Stop And they were extremely painful And one night it got so bad that I had to call for an ambulance and so I call for ambulance when I get there They're like, you know, don't go to the ER because that's stuff like this Just get some rest and drink some water. And so I do that and then later on I go to the doctor's office You know don't she acts like how hungry we drink water? I'm like, you know, sometimes hearing they're trying to finagle my way out of that situation So she runs and tests I go home and later on she calls me and as soon as I pick up the phone she's yelling You're about to start breaking down right now. You're going to die drink some water and come back and see me later You're going to die. Drink some water Or something like that The need to use energy boosters and the muscle cramps was because I was Because I wasn't drinking water and in the end I was killing myself by myself But I started to drink water at all. I thought it was an app that reminds me when I didn't drink water I'm constantly drinking water. I'm in love with it and I completely cut out pop and coffee And I would sometimes sip on orange juice, but still constantly drinking water and love with it But I don't like it all. I don't drink tap water I mean, I always have my water filtered or I drink a lot of water I came here from Nigeria about two years ago or so and I guess in Nigeria I fell out of basic amenities Don't just assume you do not have that would provide clean water. There would provide electricity And so from young age everyone knows to roll water and to not drink anything that's contaminated in any way And so to come here and see stuff like my mission Like you wouldn't expect that to happen anymore about the country and I saw friends They were all born here and they drink the water and I'm like what are you all crazy or what like I'm drinking that water but I mean, when I almost died, they really woke me up and I realized that water did fly And that is what I'm spending it on Because you needed first survival survival is level one and everybody deserves level one The people from Michigan still have shitty water I think some friends in the Philippines, we were only able to drink the water because it's contaminated Not to mention sick Water should be a rank. You should be thankful for the water you get to have Our days Oh Cool One two three Each person can only get one pill of water to bring home for use in consumption for one week In my house in Cuba, we can't drink the water there so we have to travel Wow miles and miles to only give three bottles of water In my city of Ethiopia, the water is not safe or local You have to walk to get your water and that water will still make you sick When I visit my family in Morocco, there's always this issue of not drinking water from the tap Although my Moroccan family does it, my friends would have to stop to get water bottled The situation left my family confused and questioning how clean their water really was I I do this every day The siblings and I have to travel and dig for it We didn't have follow-ups so we held our hands to make our own We dig our kennels by the edge of the stream Dig I'd always look into the fishers I wanted to be that freak I wanted to learn how to swim And the stream took me under I had no control I couldn't move My brother threw me a lasso and everything I had to grab me He pulled me out and threw me back to dig Dig Dig When we saw the water, we would scoop it out and let it sit until it became very bloody time And it's barely enough Every day, we would carry the water home with poodles until we thought to bring our own poodles At 23, coming to the United States of my family, one daughter in my arms tried to loosen up the freedom of a fit When I got to the United States, I lived in the migrant camps for eight years All across the country I expected water to come flowing out across its clear and pristine But instead, there was no running water I still had to go outside to a designated part of the camp to get water I couldn't believe it I'd reached freedom and I didn't feel like a fish I was bound to the land I worked on and to the people I worked for We'd come here to be fished To be free We're poisoned by the water in our own homes They're killing us Where can we go Sometimes I wish I was a kid again Dig Over here, everyone gets depressed because of the rain It stinks, it's gross and sticky And then your hair gets all tangled and it feels like thick and nasty It's the worst, especially when you just wash your hair But rain and shower in Puerto Rico is kind of different It's actually the best time, it's a happy time Every time it rained, we would put it on our shorts, get our shampoo And then go outside and shower in the rain First, we'd set up our towels in my cupina Then, we would go outside in the yard Arm stretched out wide and waited for the rain It'll make about 4 million bottles of beer a day At a rate which is fair to build a wallet To make sure our people are drinking clean water Because I am tired Tired of the constant corruption and mixed up priorities Information to your followers Right here, yeah Oh no Alidia The new system wouldn't be ready in two years In the meantime to save money They switched to the Flint River water You know, one of the biggest problems in Flint right now Is that even some foundations that receive money A majority of it, we still don't know what happened to it There's no public documentation of what money went where And where it is now And y'all know there's people coming here Writing grants Saying that they're doing things Taking advantage of this And then, there's people giving me out money Lots of it Y'all know how rich people are But what does the community get? Y'all know there was a school up there That had rooms and rooms Full of water cases Just sitting in it And it all went bad Because no one told us that it was there They're always saying water And there's a water bill crisis And we come to find out What we got at least in the pipes I mean, don't get me wrong The pipes were bad before But now they are worse And we come to find out That homeowners are paying for it I mean, I pay upwards to $200 a month And at first they were giving us time To come with the money And we're like, um, screw it We're not going to pay We're not going to pay For something that you all called And then they start putting Notices up on our homes They start shutting our water off And we protest But this issue, it needs to be resolved And another thing People are bringing so many plastic water bottles here There's so much plastic Bring us pipe replacements And every hot water in Flint Needs to be replaced Because when you boil hot water And especially if you have lead If you have lead If you have lead It makes it even worse So don't do that But another thing If you want to bring us water That's much appreciated But let's all have the actual problem Bring us pipe replacements You know what? I'm going to just like That's an MMI You know what? What? oh my No! Here's a water fountain right there There's a water bottle right there That's just tap water This guy's got this great water It's designed to make you spend money On something you shouldn't And? And There's a lot of water And? And! There's tiny plastics in that water that cannot be filtered out. So we're drinking plastic. Micro plastic. Well, little plastic ain't hurt nobody. He might know! I'm drinking it and brought my own water bottles. It's nasty. They sent us a letter saying that they're going to shut our water off for, like, filtration issues. And this is in height of the Flint-Michigan scandal. So it made everybody, and I mean, everybody think that we had lead in our water. We'll try to play it off as it was the city's issue. Again, I'm not going to have water. I always have my water filtered because I just don't trust that it's clean. I mean, it's a shame. We live in a first-world country where we shouldn't have to worry about things like this. But I think about what happened in Flint, Michigan, where people are basically drinking poisoned water for years upon an end and other people knowing about it and doing nothing. So yes, I am concerned about the cleanliness of my water. And I doubt that my children are clean either. I say, let me just sit in Chicago. I work with plastic too much like no water. And people put down, you might pour it down to drain a lot of medicine. And that ends up into our river. And that ends up going all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. That's why the Gulf of Mexico has a death zone. We're sued by some other town, but I mean, with what we've put down to drain, it makes it hard to filter out the water. So that ends up into our drinking source. You know, here living in Chicago, I think that our water system is pretty clear and to the point. You know, out of school, they took us on a field trip to see the way the water system works and how the way that they purify water is safe and not contaminated. It does make me worry, though, about other people around the world who are suffering from water contamination. Oh. Will you mind sitting just cross-legged like this, or? Yeah. Okay, hi. Hi. How are you doing? I'm good. Hi, this is Ian. Can I ask what your name is? Gordon. Nice to meet you, Courtney. So, do you see all this variety? Or should we be like... Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Perfect. My name is between my mother and my father, because they couldn't get along on anything else. I was like, oh, okay. My grandmother especially, yeah. She insisted. So my parents didn't have much to say. She named me Yixi. It was a Chinese name. My real name. That's what Courtney means. Uh, Lady of the Court. Lady of the Court. Oh, this is the Court Theater. It's very important to my grandma. Followed by Xi Yun. That's me. Xi means meaning, and Yun means origin. She named me that to keep me humble, to ground me from staying too far away from my origin, to make sure I always knew where my kindness came from. And she'll always tell me this one story. Xi Yun, to be a good person, to be one that recognizes which well your water came from. It came from the water dispensers. It came from the men to live in water jugs to my house, and it came from these green water bottles during hot days, more rough strolling. I've never seen it well in my life. And the audience, too. Could you close your eyes, too? Everybody, close your eyes. Just hold on to my voice. As I take you on a stroll through my memories. My water? It came from the water sprinklers and the plaza. It came from the undeniable smell of rain. And eventually, the splashy puddles. And what followed is this murky river. This murky river is a very special river. It's always bringing new discoveries. Once, I saw a bull laying sideways, floating, or was that a dream? A child of fantasy. Some wish included being a fish and to just live so freely in water. Thank you, everybody. Open your eyes. So I lived in places where water existed. I was born in Guangzhou. Unfortunately, surrounded by canals and bridges. And my mother's family is from Sichuan, a place I only remember by salt, con and muddy water, of which I spent my retrial in this ornary. Chicago. A city connected to a larger source of fresh water and the world. So I never had to live out water. I somehow always managed to sustain my body and my curiosity. I'll give you, like, that tea. The cheer wasn't for you. It's time for the puff. All right. I swing my arm in a circular motion and put the sting of the water against it. Water droplets brush against my stand as my short curly hair sticks to the side of my face. The water is different here, I recall, as laughter bounces off the sides of the wall from the wide sea pool. Quite frankly, I'm exhausted. And it's taken all of my energy to stay at home just to create a water. Swimming in this pool room, I rinsed my brain back to running down to the sides on the sidewalk chasing to my dark red brick. Running, laughter, bruising. March 1986, the Chicago Tribune. More than a decade after other major American cities outlaw lead in new water pipes, Chicago hopes to overcome resistance from the Plummer's Union and enact a similar ban here. Imagine finding out that the pipes you assumed were safe for decades. Because why shouldn't they be? That those pipes were slowly poisoning you. That because politicians were slow to act, you ingested this toxin for years. Damage done to your body because of political inefficiency. It sounds like it can't be true, but at least everything was okay. Well, no, but everything seemed okay. Chicago passed a ban on lead water pipes later that year and took steps to update this dangerous infrastructure. But then, September 2013, the Chicago Tribune, EPA warns modernizing water systems may boost levels of lead. What? Okay, first of all, why is there a 27-year gap between articles on lead and the water? Did the crisis just disappear between news outbreaks, or was it still there all along? Also, why are there politicians telling us this information directly? This is fucked up. Sorry, this is messed up. But look, March 2014, the Chicago Tribune, how to protect yourself from lead exposure in the drinking water. Great. Why should we have to protect ourselves from water contamination? Isn't that the city's responsibility? Hey, you're doing a pretty shitty job. February 2016, the Chicago Tribune, as other cities dig up lead pipes, Chicago resists. Great. The Guardian 2016, Chicago residents blame city for water contamination in class action lawsuit. The Chicago Tribune 2018, judge says city's pipes cause water contamination, but throws out class action lawsuit. November 2018, the Chicago Tribune, city knew about elevated lead risk with water meters back in 2013. Splendid. April 2019, Twitter. New numbers quietly reported to the IVPA by the Chicago Water Department, so the city has many more lead water lines than previously thought. About 393,000 lead lines, with another 120,000 left unknown. In any case, previous mayors have left it up to Lori Lightfoot to clean up the situation. All of these stories about lead in our water are gaining traction now, after so much damage has been done that the city knew about and could have prevented. The city said, yes, we recognize that this is happening to you, but that's not our problem. What can we do? We need our new mayor to pay to replace lead water lines leading into our homes. We need our new governor to resist water privatization at all costs. We need to stop being bystanders to injustices targeted at specific communities. So fuck this. No, fuck this. We need clean water now. You got your school? Yeah. Well, now you're breaking down like the lipos in our town. Let's start with the river. I'm sorry to deliver, but the shipping in there makes me want to quiver. The lead in our pool. They need more of our pool. It's my time to get my fashion clothes with your brain. My water's fine. I use a Brita. No, fuck the Brita. Hey, don't do shit. All the time, come on. Watch, you've got to know something. Okay. Lead in any form affects children more than affects adults. And lead in your water comes with your brain and your nervous system of your liver and your bones. And the only way to fully filter our lead in your home is to install your first opumosis retracing system. Thanks. So don't worry about it. I have those water fountains every day. And even though they fix the pipes, they didn't send out a newsletter or anything. They let us drink at those fountains for weeks and they never told us a thing. I had to find out three years later from my own research. And the fact that me and my peers thought we had access to clean water when we did it is kind of fucked up. And in that case, I always cared about water. But I never thought water and justice would affect me. Even now, while talking about it, how relevant it is, I never knew that having clean water is important. It nourishes us. It refreshes us. It helps us grow. It heals and protects us. So we need to protect water. These are all the schools that have lead in their water. And although they're all over, there is a pack. 80% of these schools are enablers that are predominantly people of color. And 74% of schools with lead student of color become 80% or more of a student population. Lead in Chicago public schools almost exclusively affect students of color. Does this really seem like an accident? Because it's not just our schools. It's our homes, too. Homes on the west and south sides of Chicago, which as we know are predominantly black, are more likely to have higher elevated levels of lead in their water. Our city should be working as hard as possible to ensure that teens of every race have access to clean water in their schools, homes and lives without worrying about the cost. I looked back at this whole year and I reflect on how much I didn't know. This little water crisis started five years ago in 2014. I was in sixth grade and I didn't really understand it. I mean, I knew just like the water. I knew the billboard that said do not paint with left paint. Or whatever. But I didn't know that people were getting rashes or just playing showers like people's care was just falling out. I figured we had the money they could just move. I didn't realize that. I was just to plead in value. People didn't really have anywhere else to go. I wish I knew this stuff back then. If I did, I I would be more conscious of all the water. Like, you know how you always see things how you turn off the water when you brush your teeth or something? And it's like, yeah, right. What is that going to do? Because it seems so little when big corporations use millions of gallons of water monthly. It adds, I know this all seems so overwhelming, but it's so important that you don't stop working. Just doing research. You know what's going on in our communities? That's the first step. But it's not the last. And you're seeing this play. Seeing this play is not the work. It's not the work. I won't be able to stop and call it access pipeline in Chicago. But we can join and support actions and organizations. You can volunteer and support groups like the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, whose 2020 plan seeks to holistically address environmental racism in neighborhoods like Little Village. They also provide toxic tours which shows how the area is affected by environmental injustice. Additionally, if you want to become a voice for great lakes, you can join UIC's Freshwater Labs in their fight to turn knowledge into action for cleaner, great lakes. You can volunteer to clean waterfronts with our friends in the Chicago River. You can protest pipe lines with our friends at the Indigenous Youth Council. You can stop drinking plastic bottle water. You can talk to your representatives about making water an important issue and pressure future candidates to do the same. Right. Because helping a small tactic in overall strategy is how change happens. We need to help. We need to keep doors alive and moving forward. We must. We are the next Flint. The story has already begun. Water is only as important as life. That's where life is. Water is. Water is. Life is. So water is not a resource. Water is not an element. Water is life. And water chooses to be there. To always be there. Are we treating this friend of ours? You think water is just water, but water is so much more kind. Generous. Beautiful. Persistent. And that's what we should buy for. When was the last time you fainted your water? Conversed with it. Some too. Because through our process of uncovering and learning about water, we still went upon a story. To this one person, saying to the water who's going at home, So let's sing to our water right now so we can faint it. If you know the song, you're more than welcome to sing along. Okay. So we're going to do a quick kind of six. And we're just going to zoom right in. So the song is Moon River. So if you're familiar. It has a really good sound. So, Eeeeeee. Breaker. New heart. Breaker. Wherever you're going, I'm going your way. So whatever you're going, I'm going your way. So whatever you're going, I'm going to sing to Drifters. See the world. See. The same. The rainbows end. Waiting round the bend. Bend. Ourselfs on stage and a lot of the stories that we come up with aren't necessarily fictional. We oftentimes get them from interviewing other people and from doing our own research. Which like a lot of these things, a lot of these monologues were derived from interviews. Like just that transcript. Some of the scenes, for example, the scene that I did, the fact scene, was from my research on different articles about water and water contamination in Chicago. So, and otherwise, one thing that we do is we really like to just dive head first into projects. So we get a prompt and then we have two, five, or like ten minutes. Depending on what kind of day it is. To come up with whatever we can and then a lot of, a lot of the times from those sort of basic ideas that we come up with, we either work in the future rehearsals on expanding those or we just keep them and we're like, yes, this is awesome, go ahead. Like yeah. You can keep that one because now we have two. This is the most surprising thing that you learned while working on this process. Maybe three or four of you can speak to that. If you couldn't tell from like the Nestle baby killing thing we did in the ASMR, that makes everyone uncomfortable and we had a little talkback after like testing performances we had back in the winter and somebody told us that and they were like, we really want you to like do a little story on that or something. So put that in there and that was really surprising to me and like the fact that nobody knows it. I guess to like continue on Nestle like looking more into the company and finding like the corruption and like the little like hidden cracks and creases or whatever. So that was just like very out of wakening and it's just like it's not only Nestle it's a lot of other companies doing a lot of other stuff because it's not only water. I think it's something that we could make eight plays about water. You know, it's really hard to start making decisions about what to leave out because also everything like this is our lives, right? So everything you leave out is also an important part of the whole story and something that didn't make it into the larger version of the play is that when Chicago's water system was started it was originally privatized and only went to the north side. It had to get changed because we had the Clean Water Act, right? So it was like people were dying because of that water system but you know then they were improving the water system that already exists and then quickly building it out to the south and west sides. So we look at now where there are issues in water in Chicago and that the trend is on south and west side that goes along, right? And that supports a lot of other sort of infrastructure support that we see in Chicago and disenfranchisement of our south and west sides, yeah. And just really quick, so I joined them a little later so I got like pretty much the same thing you guys got and I was like, whoa, what's going on? And I was really surprised to learn two things. There are some things that we left out in this short excerpt today so we're talking about the jails in the prisons and the water systems in the prisons and the fact that there's no one talks about it there's contamination in almost every prison that you've been in I'm sure if you've ever been in a prison you probably already know so that was something that like really hurt me and really stuck with me because it makes her people too, sorry, not sorry. And then also that Nestle I don't know if you got during steal the water but that they take 400 gallons per minute for only $200 a year which doesn't make any like if you're just going to count the gallons that you take like in a minute you might as well just pay that I mean, so that was just something insane from our river. So much for sharing I am curious if some of you can speak to what it's been like working among your peers being a youth ensemble and the power that it's given you to really figure out yes, we are smart and have something to say. In particular for there's people that's been here for like ever and then there's people that's like hi it's my first show ensemble were really like tightly knit we're like 10 months ago when the play started and I was like I don't know any of these people but they're like I know you and then we yeah so I just they were really not been any other ensemble so this is my first ensemble ever and I don't really know but people some people tell me how theater school sucks and how oh my God we don't have classrooms that look like this so what does it mean for us to break those borders and find other ways so our students feel comfortable in these situations and also have the resources to actually be in these schools I was like I'll say something since we were talking about Columbia it was really refreshing and awesome to be part of this group just because it was awesome to see what they were able to create and such well I was going to say a short amount of time but they actually spent a lot of time and I've never been part of something so important to me and this ensemble and Free Street versus like I go to Columbia College hello it's just a new breath of fresh air and it's a lot of people who just want to make theater that matters and to touch other people and reach other people I feel like as a theater artist very often we forget that element the part of this is not just a fun thing I'm dressing up for fun this is actually important and I'm telling someone else's story so for me it was so important to be telling someone else's story instead of just like flitting around the stage or whatever Free Street was my first ensemble I've ever been and I didn't act before Free Street and I guess it was kind of out of my comfort zone but in my comfort zone at the same time because activism is a really big part of my life because like it's just like my family like we're in very big activism family like my mom works at the Chicago Freedom School and stuff and so it's like it's very in my comfort zone but I was very scared of all these people like I was like my first day like sitting in the lobby scared I didn't know where to go and then like they were like who's in the lobby what's going on walked into the theater and then like after like five minutes I was like I own this like I these are my family I can do whatever I want say whatever I want and it was it was kind of crazy and like seeing like a bunch of new people come in like they were like in their shelves for like the same amount of time they were like sitting there like hey see ya and then they were like two minutes away so it's very nice and like it's just very diverse which is also kind of crazy because I didn't like there's so many different schools and just stories between all of us so yeah I'm curious if someone could speak to my question has gone out of my head I know that John, Jerry, John, spot Oh, what are other ways that you felt supported through working with Free Street? What are some things that have very much made you feel grounded in the room and taken care of? So I've been with Free Street since I was 13 years old when I was 19 so I like Free Street is like the theater it's an ASM program but it like it doesn't stop when you walk into the room or when you walk into the building of that room it's like it's good like it goes to the rush when you go to bed when you wake up but it's like it's like a beautiful thing because it's like Free Street is also a place in which you gain identity where you gain a community and identity and within yourself like and when we like when we're not performing which is like part of the time but another part when we are like talking much and we always had check-ins about what we're doing so nothing is left at the door because sometimes as a youth member like having something left at the door is not enough for you and it's like a place where we've all grown to know each other and know who we are and what we stand for as people and know that we are stronger in ways in which we may feel how we can so that's like the greatest thing about Free Street I definitely want to check in those are like fantastic and honestly the highlight of most of my Tuesdays Thursdays and Saturdays specifically but another way that I feel supported is sort of that when we are presenting are are the things that we make especially if it's in a very short amount of time we not only does the ensemble always like do other people in the ensemble always go at you with sort of like a critically generous lens we like to call it where it's like we're not just going to deride each other's performances because like sucked like no we want to give like actual helpful feedback and be supportive when we're doing that but also we don't really take like crap it's like not giving their 100% or they're not like you can see that like they're not really invested in it not only will we be like hey like I noticed this like could you try this like not only will we get those suggestions but we'll also sort of make sure that the space that we are performing in is safe and is supportive enough to enable everyone to sort of give their 100% and that's something that I really value because I think I know for me and probably for everyone else up here that's helped me grow as an artist I just want to say that they are amazing if you didn't know I don't know if you've heard but the check-ins too I think I want to say a couple things if you're like working with youth or you're thinking about working with youth they're being a teaching artist like they are yes they are in high school and yes it means many things but like the material I give them and everything that we bring them we treat them as the same we don't dumb it down we don't omit material because they can't handle it right we make sure that we are pushing for the truth and because of that they are also I don't think there's many we try to really be the support for them but on the days that are really really hard they are like the most healing force I have and if I'm like really really really in it and I just say that I'm like y'all I'm having a tough tough day but they're so good they're like can we give you a hug like I guess we can have a big group hug and then I'm fine because they they work hard it's such a collective and working from this place of just like really wanting to support one another that like I feel that I can be my best and I want to give them my best every day because like they are also holding me up and I think that like circle of holding each other up is really beautiful great thank you so much I would love to open this up to the audience so I'm going to be running around with this mic do some teamwork of passing things if I can is there anyone that has a question a question right now oh cool wonderful all the mics so Lindsay could you count on someone with the hand thank you all so much it was really really powerful and I guess the question I want to watch or watch ask is your cohesion the support that you've talked about is really clear and evident and I would love to hear you talk about how you handle conflict in the room because it inevitably comes up in theater right and it can make us better but it's often really hard and clearly like I said your group however you're doing it you bring it and it makes your product better so if you could talk a little bit about that I'd love to hear it anything happens we talk about radical honesty and radical love a lot so you have to listen we hold a lot of just like accountability circles I think if anything happens where first the people involved checking I check in with them individually ask them what they need what they want and then talk about how we're going to have a group conversation about it and then we bring it collectively to the group where we allow people to kind of just like make their you know I statement kind of things or how they feel or what they need and we have a working document of ensemble agreements where then out of that we're going to make a new agreement we're going to go back to those but I think a thing that really helps I wouldn't say we have conflicts that often and I think a big part of that is it's not just the ensemble agreements are then like policed by us it's collectively we're all making sure and that we all agree we all sign it together and we really take those really seriously we have a really long conversation about agreements about critical generosity understanding that we don't all come from the same experiences what do we how do we talk with each other when there is an experience that leads then to somewhere where we don't agree but we also have exercises where we practice disagreement that's one of the things we do in the first week is like spectrum exercises where we purposely make people disagree and then get into one-on-one conversations with each other and that can be about something as simple as ice cream and we always start with that as an easy thing who do you like ice cream and people will be like I hate ice cream it makes me sick and people like life would be meaningless without ice cream and so we start from there and really building that in from the beginning so then as things come up we've already kind of practiced how to work with each other so in the times where it's bigger than that it really is about checking in with everyone's needs circling up and making sure that we're working on as a group and then healing as a group so then checking back in on that as well does that sound? I think you should make a space that conflict doesn't build up to a time it explodes and then release everything and I think that's what the check-ins are for we tell how hard they went so that we understand where we're at and where our boundaries are so that we don't hold anything back and then let it build up and then ease conflict making work every single day not just wait till it happens fuck what'd I do? also like we have like the boundaries that are also like written into our agreements and stuff and so like we always like not have to but like we always like ask for consent like it's just become like a built in thing like so we're not just like I'm gonna hug you we're like can I hug you? sometimes you don't want that and I feel like in theater especially like ensembles like other ensembles it's like ooh I'm gonna tickle you like in your face and like touchy-feely and sometimes that's okay but also like in our space like it is but you have to ask great I'd love to see more questions any hands hello oh that's really loud so thank you for sharing this piece it's so wonderful um my question is to all of you if during the creation process for the show you had a favorite um exercise or activity that helped you create materials or something that stood out to you during the process I really love research like it's just like we want to bring you facts not like opinions like we want to bring opinions too we need facts so that was fun it's like when Katrina like you know when she just throws stuff right at us like it's great because like it just really forces you to get your gears grinding or whatever um because like I'll just walk in and she'll be like alright so here's these three lines you need to do this and this and this and then make it go into this and I'm like alright and maybe that will turn into something big maybe it won't but sometimes it does one of my favorite examples of that specifically is with the one of the scenes that you saw today that me and Deja did um where we were digging a pool um we Katrina came to me and another one of our ensemble members was not here and it was like okay you guys have to make this scene um around the word dig and you have to say it three times and then we were like we did that I don't know like we just sat down and we were like okay let's let's dig a happy pool um and I don't know it's just it's very free and that's something that I appreciate it's there aren't really any constraints it's just take this and go with it and if it works out which it usually does and it's like good for us any other hands in the audience questions seriously give me hope for the future and what things will look like um you know in the next generation or my generation technically um but I'm wondering how all of you found Free Street Theater oh I'll go first um I remember uh what grade was that it was last year freshman year um uh I was watching Lee with my mother and she was like I love I love theater I want you to I want to put you in theater I was like I'd like to do theater and then um one of the old co-directors at the time was friends with my mom and then they just talked and my mom was like okay so I'm going to drop you off at Free Street it's a place I think you might get paid for it I don't know so just like walk in there you have a great time I was like I guess so um and then I auditioned for it um because I saw an Instagram post that my friend shared with me um so social media but I think I don't think that was important part the important part was actually going to that space and then we started the rehearsal playing games and creating stuff and then I got hooked on it um so I think that was when I found it when I went into that room and when I was being goofy and stuff I was like yes I want to be here because I don't want to be at home and that's why I'm here in the first place acting since I was in like fourth grade I'm a sophomore we're like pretty like basic I guess and um I guess like I was just like you know what this is getting boring and I like I switched a lot to the very indecisive so I like didn't like it so I like was like oh I'm going to go I was pretty like artsy so so I applied and I went to like the audition and then yeah here I am yeah I mean if you haven't noticed our early ready or heard our retention rates are pretty high so we just come one summer come a fall come a spring and we keep on coming but I when I first started at free sheet I was 14 my freshman year of high school and now I just graduated but it was like it was weird so like so one of my like wrote drafts of a personal statement and my best friend remembers like the moment in my time applying to free street through ASM more than I do but like before I started free sheet I was like debate logic that's it that's all I want to do with the rest of my life and so it was like the summer right after my freshman year of high school I was just applying to like programs when after school matters and I don't remember like the other choices but I do remember getting the getting like being asked to come in for an interview and then as soon as I come in for an interview this girl Claire she's like a previous ensemble member but I'm facing her and like we're mirroring each other and like it was super awkward but then it was fun and then it was like an open space and I came in on like one of the days that they actually had rehearsal so everything was super authentic super fresh and super nice and Katrina over here was super nice and I don't know like that was like how I found free street and then it was like the space is what keeps me coming back and like the consistency I joined free street in 2013 I like before I graduated eighth grade when I first joined no one was there I came in like the wrong time but I was making I was making my own way there by myself and I was just interested I've been interested in data since I was also three but like the thing was is like um I think it's like when you walk in a room you kind of like have a place where you know you belong like there's a place like no one was there and that's like the beauty of it like the room could captivate a person like I stepped into the room and free street used to have like these black balls that were all like chalkboards and every youth member that would come in or weren't even members would draw on the board like randomly and it'd be like things that like you would never see but like at that moment when I walked in it was like I knew that like I wouldn't be here like I want to know like I want to do something important I want to give back to somebody and let people know things are important like at 13 you don't really have like you have worries but it's like no one's here at you so it was like the beauty of like being heard for the first time was like the beauty like the most amazing thing about a free street when I first joined okay so I joined the spring of my sophomore year and now I'm also graduated shout out but I joined because my friend Rivka I did theater with her at my high school and it was sucky it was like so bad and my director was just being really rude and she was like why don't you come try out free street it's a lot more front it's a lot more fun it's like after school it's not every day and so I was like okay sure awesome and then I got I went to auditions and I was like oh this is a party and one thing that I really loved like immediately about free street was also the focus on sort of social activism and social like consciousness because in the theater that I did like it was very I guess basic theater like not but not in the derogatory sense just like it's what you expect theater to be and so going into free street just sort of blew away all of my expectations and I got to engage a bunch of different parts of me not only just like acting but also creating and writing and researching as I said I love that yeah Hi my story is a little different so I'm originally from St. Louis, Missouri and I'm from here I came here for Columbia College of Chicago I'm a rising junior yep I had to think about it so I can tell you exactly where it was it's really funny it was a couple months ago this is my first show here with free street and I was sitting in one of my my directing one class and I had a friend Will Petway he sent me a text message that was like hey dude can you do the show for me also can you be there like five o'clock also that's in like an hour and I was like okay yeah well uh-huh and I literally biked my little bike all the way up to free street and I didn't know anyone and I just showed up and I was like hi hello my name is Deja can I okay cool so um this is the first ensemble that I've been a part of that is really good at like holding space and I think that that's a really um key part of their attention right is that like we said when you step in like you know that you belong and you know that that's where you're supposed to be and you're able to create whatever you want to create and we kind of just run with it um so yeah it was awesome I loved it and I'm also doing 50-50 so I guess you're stuck with me now I'm sorry come see 50-50 questions and you can see me later or I can or we can say it but I don't know we have about five minutes for one like brief question so if anyone is feeling inclined should I talk about wonderful this weekend yes you can talk about this weekend and free street is also um Koya Paz the artistic director is doing a session with um Chloe Johnston on Friday at 230 so if you're interested in learning more about free street there's time within the conference and on Sunday which Katrina will talk about yeah so free street I'm just going to give you like a little historical background real quick free street came out of the 1968 riots here in Chicago and a bunch of people came together and they said uh what's going to make this city like rejuvenated and happy and they were like a theater company I think that's like the only time in history they were like it's the theater company and so um Patrick Henry our um founder and artistic director back then um we did that 90% of Chicagoans had not seen theater and those were people predominantly on the south and west sides and so decided that it needs to be free street theater so they went in a truck down to the south and west sides and would just pop up and do performances that were free so our work has always been free or pay what you can and we always pay all of our artists and so all of this comes from challenging the notion of where theater belongs and who belongs like and so turning 50 you're like how do we celebrate that history of 50 years of that work and we decided to keep challenging ourselves and on Sunday we are performing in all 50 wards of Chicago in one day um so we have 10 11 cohorts of artists going out they're each doing about five wards um and doing five performances so um I feel like if I stay on the information right now you're just gonna need to look it up again later anyway but Sunday throughout the entire day throughout the city you can catch a performance each engagement is only an hour and then we pack it up we drive and we go to another one and it is a mammoth of a project but it's very exciting and I hope that I know the conference ends on Saturday we'll be doing some of the wards um and they'll be doing parts of parched and the rest of the groups um are all responding to the prompt of what is still here how do we survive yeah join me in thanking FreeStreets even though um so what I need uh to try and make regional lunches go smoothly now ideally when we were planning this conference we were thinking um so so we may have to be kind of spreading out and finding corners in the building rather than elsewhere I want to point out that there is sort of a loungy area in the basement there's also sort of a loungy area on the fifth floor um we still have the third floor the third floor and then there's the space on the fifth floor that we can use that will be our quiet space but it is free for the lunch now we're very polite and respectful and gather everything up carefully the other thing is that just to make sure that people who have special eating prohibitions get their food um we ask that those who um ordered a vegan vegetarian gluten-free or kosher lunch that you let them get their lunches first so that we make sure that their lunch just doesn't disappear if you ordered a lunch or not we may have a few left over at the end that we can sell you if you didn't get one um and you are welcome to participate in the regional lunch whether or not you bought your lunch so find your person so what I need right now is to get VPs from the regions to come up and I'm going to hand you your your region and I want you to kind of wave your hands so that other people from the region so