 Hello, welcome friends. I'm Nicole. My pronouns are she, her, hers, and I'm one of the producers of today's sessions, along with my colleagues. Hi, I'm Hannah Finland. She, her, hers. Hey, I'm Marie Lumsdale. She, her, hers. Abigail Vegas. She, her, hers. Today, we are so excited to have with us the artists who have been building community and creating art with intentionality across boundaries that are geographic and socially created. We're going to be in conversation with Rachel Spencer, Spencer Hewitt, Claudia Alec, Ashley Hansen, Cole Alvis and Ty Defoe. All of them are doing exciting work and we'll hear more about that soon. This is the fourth in our series of online events. As you might have heard last week, we are committed to a practice of community tithing where we work to extend 10% of our cash resources to other collectives and organizations providing relief with a focus on serving the most vulnerable populations of freelance artists. We will be paying our speakers today, as well as commit to a tithe towards an organization doing this important work. This week, we are contributing to them to the American Indian Community House in New York City. AICH is a nonprofit organization serving the needs of Native Americans residing in New York City. To learn more about them, follow HowlRound on Twitter at HowlRound, H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D. We'll just tweet it out this website and they'll also be tweeting out other relevant links as this conversation continues. So, if you get something out of today's conversation, add it to our tithe and we'll send it on to AICH. You can venmo us directly to at C-O-V-1-9-F-A-R that's at Cove19-FAR through 4pm Eastern tomorrow, April 8. These funds will not go to HowlRound nor to us personally. They will be added to the pot for our tithe. You can also visit our website, www.covid19freelampsartistresource.wordpress.com, which is C-O-V-I-D-F-R-E-E-L-A-N-C-E-A-R-T-I-S-T-E-R-E-S-O-U-R-C-E dot W-O-R-D-P-R-E-S-S dot C-O-N. You will see a link to the funds raised and who they went to. But don't stress if you can't give, we're all in this together. In addition to our gratitude for all the panelists, we'd also like to thank HowlRound, specifically our colleagues Vijay Mathew, JD Stokely and Thea Rogers for the vital role they're playing today. We are also so grateful to the ASL interpreters supporting this call as well as the National Caching Institute. They're doing the live captioning for the session. And before we go any further, I'm going to pass it to Nicole to lead us in a land acknowledgement. Thank you so much. So as we've gathered digitally, we will be honoring the many Indigenous peoples whose land the facilitators and panelists are gathered on. We do this practice as a way of acknowledging the people who were present on Turtle Island as the past, present and future caretakers of the land. I invite you to breathe as you hear these names. Nicole, calling in from Yamasi and Muscogee lands, also known as Savannah, Georgia. Hannah calling in from Kikapu, Kikapui lands and Miami, also known as Central Indiana. And Marie Lonsdale calling from Olone and Chicheno land here in Oakland, California. Nicole Vega calling in from Kuali Thicken lands now known as San Antonio, Texas. Rachel Spencer Hewitt calling in from the land stewarded by the Lenny Lenape people, now known as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Claudia Alec calling in from the land of the Olone people also recognizing all those who have been displaced and enslaved through colonization. I'm Hannah Hansen calling in from Arapaho and Cheyenne land now known as the Front Region Colorado where I'm quarantining with my family. I also want to acknowledge the traditional Dakota homelands of the Wapatin and Wauhapukute tribes now known as Granite Falls, Minnesota, neighboring the Upper Sioux community where our organization is based. And me, Cole Elvis calling in from Dush with One Spoon Treaty territory where the original caretakers include the Mississauga Nishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Nations, now known as Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Cool. I mean, Thai-Indigenous calling in from Lenape Coking. I had to wear the historically first caretakers of the land, the Lenape peoples, and also the Haudenosaunee, the Canarsie, the Mohegan, the Shinnecock and out on Long Island. There are many folks who have passed through the waters where the Hudson and the East Rivers meets and shout out to the Mohawk iron workers so we can cross over from Brooklyn, where I'm actually located. And a big shout out to all the urban native folks who are still here making, creating songs and stories of the First Nations people. And on behalf of the staff of HowlRound Theatre Commons at Emerson College, they wish to respectfully acknowledge that their offices are situated on land stolen from its original holders, the Massachusetts and the Wampanoag people. They wish to pay their respects to those folks past, present and future. Adrian Wong of Spiderweb Show in Ontario has written this digital land acknowledgement, sorry y'all, this digital land acknowledgement, which we want to share with all of you now. Since our activities are shared digitally to the internet, let's also take a moment to consider the legacy of colonization embedded within the technologies, structures and ways of thinking we use every day. We are using equipment and high speed internet not available in many Indigenous communities. Even the technologies that are central to much of the art we make leaves significant carbon footprints contributing to changing climates that are disproportionately affecting Indigenous peoples worldwide. I invite you to join me and join us in acknowledging all of this, as well as our shared responsibility to make good of this time. And for each of us to consider our roles in reconciliation, decolonization and allyship. Thank you, Abigail. So, speaking of technology, when or if, but definitely when the internet connection freezes, we invite you to take a breath and do a body scan and just release those held parts of your body. Or it might be beneficial to reflect on what's been said so far and where those ideas land for you. You are in good company today. We have had thousands of people joining us for these conversations over the past few weeks. And we invite you to share that you're present with us using the hashtag, hashtag artist resource, hashtag A-R-T-I-S-T-R-E-S-O-U-R-C-E and hashtag howl around, hashtag H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D to join the conversation online. How about I unmute myself? There we go. Anyway, that brings us to our Reflective Five. So the Reflective Five is the pause for us to check in with ourselves through mindful breathing. This week's Reflective Five will happen at the top and the bottom of the conversation. And so we'll do one now. Notice some challenges that have been arising for you this week. Inhale, one, two, three, four, five. Hold, five, four, three, two, one. Exhale, one, two, three, four, five. I'm delighted to pass the mic to Hannah Finland who will be facilitating today's conversation. Thank you, Nicole. Thank you for your guidance for that moment of pause. I'm really excited to share the virtual stage with these folks. When we think of our guests today, we think immediately of their visionary leadership, their advocacy and their depth of lived experience embedded within the communities, within communities that are regularly pushed to the margins in and outside of the culture sector. They have shown over and over what collective action, total access and community care looks like in the arts and culture. And they are not newcomers to the challenges of isolation that we are all facing now. Instead, they have been here, ringing the alarm about our field's lack of attention to its people, its creative engines, while simultaneously developing art practices for themselves and their communities that are sustainable, imaginative and flourishing. So we're going to hear a bit about their stories one by one. And then we're going to move into a group discussion with some prompt questions from our producing collective and some prompt questions that members of our group today have for one another. But I want to remind us all that, as we listen, this conversation isn't necessarily about replicating these folks' models. Instead, it's about sharing practice to inspire you to find your own solutions. So we, before we move into this sort of one-on-one moments with each person, it is my privilege to welcome for an initial icebreaker, our friends and colleagues Rachel Spencer Hewitt, Cole Alvis, Claudia Alec, Ashley Hansen, and Ty DeFoe to the virtual stage. Hello, friends. Look at them. Look at them coming in. Hi. Hello. Hi. Hi, hi. So we're going to take some time and folks have prepared some remarks and we'll talk a little bit about the prompts they're responding to, but just to get us all sort of warmed up. Because it's just continuing to be so weird to not be able to reach out and high five you all. We're going to start with just a softball one, but depending on your state of mind, depending on where you're at today, it could be harder. And I'm just going to ask each of you to share and we can go perhaps in the order that we're going to go for our presentations. Share something that you've done today that you're proud of. And I'll invite everyone who's watching right now to think about that too. Maybe take a minute to meditate for yourself. Just one thing that you've done today that you're proud of. Ashley, can I ask you to lead us off? Of course, yes. So I think, you know, I'm really trying to each day balance community care and self care. So on the community care side of things being proud of starting to sip through SBA and cares act stuff to try to help help people figure out this whole big clunky system on the self care side of things. I had a candlelight breakfast and found it to be really was special way to start the day I highly recommend eating your oatmeal or cereal or granola whatever you're eating over candlelight. Beautiful Claudia can I call you in to share. Great. It's a bit early. So the thing I'm most proud of today is that my quinoa bake was a success. Perfect. Cole, what are you proud of today. Annie, everybody, I am proud of signing the petition that I received from our lovely panelists and fellow person here tied to foe land is sacred stand with the mush P want to know log tribe. I live in Canada so my zip code didn't work. But hopefully they will accept to know to know and and they did. Well, beautiful. Thank you, Cole, and maybe we can get that resource out so folks who are watching today can sign as well. Rachel, what are you proud of today. I'm proud of today keeping my children alive. I have two of them. And in a moment of productivity when I was tempted to work I decided to do 20 minutes of stretching instead and use that time to really consciously meditate and embrace the fact that they may walk in on the call today. And I want to spend my energy and resources on engaging with people and not on embracing that part of my life. And that's an intentional practice. And I'm proud of myself for doing it before noon instead of like afternoon when things have already gotten exciting. So, um, yeah, just getting your kids to the day is a big thank you. Well, wait that moment I think I hear at my friends in the background already Rachel so we'll wait that moment where we can wait to them. Hi, will you round us out and let us know what is making you proud today. Yeah, what's making me I guess proud today is I was able to drink some clean water, noting that's a resource that is still existing and just being really grateful for the water that we have. I was able to take a shower and do the things that I need to do you know to keep it fresh amidst what's happening with coven where many others are also fighting that at the same time as this virus so feeling grateful. Beautiful. Thank you all some really wonderful and deep accomplishments today from the quinoa to the shower to the petitions to the cares act. So I'm going to transition us into hearing from each of you one at a time which I'm really, really excited to do. And just to offer that as a producing collective we asked folks to spend about three or four minutes, introducing those who are watching to their work. Each of the five of you. And we asked them to one briefly identify themselves in their work. We asked about some of the strategies mantras operating structures or philosophies that they've deployed in their work all of these humans pre the COVID crisis that they've also found useful during this time. And then we've also asked them to talk a little bit about what keeps them motivated what's giving them hope and or to what legacies do they attribute their work and their efforts. So we're going to go in actually the same order, not a mysterious order just first initial first name. And we're going to start with Ashley and then I'll help transition us down the line. So Ashley. Thank you. It is such an honor to be here among heroes and heroes and I just thank you for inviting inviting me. I am coming into this conversation with two hats. I am in the founder and director of the Department of Public Transformation that works with the intersection of creativity and civic life and rural communities and site specific theater company place based productions, telling history stories and future of rural places through site specific large scale musicals. So, you know, our work is locational and relational and it centers deep listening to people in their places. And that practice of deep listening continues to be the anchor for our work during this time, and whether it comes in the form of having one on one conversations with folks in our community just to check in and see how they're doing, listening to what our regional partners are doing and finding ways for our organization to support or connect the work that's already happening, or providing a platform for rural arts and cultural workers across the country to share ideas with each other. In any of these instances, the practice of deep listening helps inform us where the greatest needs are so we can turn around and be better advocates for our communities and our field. As an organization that works with rural cultural workers, we have had to be creative about ways to connect across distance for quite some time. So for example, you know we've been hosting off the clock monthly digital happy hour for rural arts and cultural workers for the past year. And in general our work can be quite isolating just based on geography alone. The happy hours have been an amazing touchstone for folks to stay connected with each other, and to the broader conversation around the rural arts movement. And I will say that our last off the clock had the largest attendance, as I think and noticed and felt and witnessed our rural leaders really looking for tools and resources that are rural centric right now because our needs are different and a lot of ways from urban spaces. There are moments of connection with other rural practitioners that I'm really finding hope during this time it's been incredibly inspiring to see the immediate and creative action that our rural collaborators have been taking to connect their people places and resources over the past month. I think one of the many benefits of living in a rural place is that in most cases you know who the vulnerable community members are. You know the best way to contact them to ask what they need, and you know who to go to to ask for help or support. They are your neighbors, your collaborators, your friends. And watching my friends across the country step up and design implement and share these really creative community specific solutions to the largest collective challenge of our time has been a great source of motivation and inspiration. For this work we stand on the shoulders of giants, as they say and I have the privilege of learning from and working alongside, although at a far geographic distance but alongside my rural arts and cultural colleagues and collaborators on a daily basis. So my only hope is that our organization can continue to amplify this work and act as a source of connection with rural people places, creative solutions resources in times of crisis or in times of calm. So, again, thank you for having me be part of this conversation. Excellent. Thank you so much for sharing Ashley Claudia. Can I invite you to share next. Sure. So, I'm the executive producer of a company called calling up justice it's a trans media company that's producing performances of justice online on stage and in real life I began this company about two and a half years ago. And I think of it more as a practice it's how I live my life and it's me living my dream. My projects include doing consultations free consultations on a weekly basis, but long term projects are doing equity consulting for the fool's fury company, and acting as the guest director for the fury factory festival and co president of the board of the network of theater so I'm working with a lot of just national movements for funding as well as just looking at what our field is going to need. I'm advising the national disability theater I advise howl around. I'm an advisor for the national theater project with the new England foundation for the arts. I'm also working with the doors Duke foundation on a commissioning project. And specifically with calling up justice we're doing projects like the every 28 hours plays we produced a digital poetry slam with California Shakespeare theater, we have a project called the justice quilt where we have been doing digital story circles for over a year. And currently, we've got a trans media Facebook page, and we have been doing weekly digital and trans media producing in an age of pandemic pure exchange sessions online. So when I began this project, two and a half years ago I first went back to the beginning of my, my practice and I asked myself what was most important to me back in the day. I grew up in a rural area in Montana. So I've always been obsessed with accessing cultural productions across distance and my and I recall being young and frustrated that I couldn't get to the plays I couldn't get to the video of the plays because technology wasn't there and I couldn't get to New York. Then I moved to New York and I still couldn't get into the theater because I didn't have enough money to get into the theaters. So then my second obsession was alright. Once you figure out how to share work remotely, how do you also share it equitably so everyone can access it. I spent 10 years working at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where all of my programming was centered on accessibility physical accessibility accessibility for all populations marginalized populations. And also, I had an outdoor theater so I was ideating ways to produce inside of a climate crisis where your outdoor stage might not be accessible to you in unexpected moments. So trans media producing felt really, really important. I started this project by doing something I called hashtag walkabout where I called up all of my freelance friends, all of my disabled friends and all of the people I knew who were digital nomads and a few others to ask them. How do you travel around the country, create a base of operations, but then also how do you function if you're trapped inside your home for possibly a week at a time or 10 days at a time and still remain productive. So my planning has always been one where I plan for the unexpected. Potentially, I will be there physically potentially I will have to collaborate digitally and I try to program all of my work around that. In this wandering of the country inspired by invitation. I've been witnessing the intersection of cultural production and social justice, sort of a dramaturgical study of our art psychology from a non institutional perspective. And the biggest challenge to social justice outcomes I witnessed was a fundamentally unsustainable and inequitable economic structure. Most of the money's going to rent it's not going to the artists. And everything seems to be designed to serve the most narrow demographics. So in my practice, I use an intersectional lens. I designed for the maximum accessibility and the maximum outcomes of justice. I use Crip time. I schedule with intention and balance. I do relaxed meetings. You know how you have relaxed theater. I have relaxed meeting style. And I create a schedule for myself, but I create a schedule that works for me. So, I'm just going to do a quick vote quote from sins invalid this is their skin tooth and bone, the basis of movement as our people like disability justice primer, and in the 10 principles of disability justice is recognizing wholeness, valuing people as they are for who they are and understanding that people have inherent worth outside of capitalist notions of productivity. My balance is found in family, friends, field service, learning, self care, ideating about the future and radical generosity, and I make sure that I have a really rich circle of friends that I can contact over the Internet through a multiplicity of platforms over the phone and also in person. The thing that's keeping me motivated right now is the necessity of this work and the amazing human beings who have been working on solving these problems for all of us for many, many years. I don't want to make any of this up. I am standing on the shoulders of giants and learning from those who came before me, and also learning from people who were doing things every single day. So, I shall pass the mic to someone else to continue this conversation. Amazing. Thank you Claudia and we've tweeted out via the how round Twitter, at least one of the resources you offered so thank you so much for that. I see Cole on the screen Cole, will you take the mic. Hi, my name is Cole Alvis. I'm a chef artist based in Toronto Canada, which means I have Metis and Chippewa, as well as Irish and English heritage that comes from the Turtle Mountains, which is the southern part of Manitoba and the northern part of North Dakota. My artistic process places rigor equity seeking values and community leadership at the center. And through shared leadership platforms I work with many incredible individuals. My company I run with Indra Kasapi is called Lemon Tree Creations, an indigenous artist run organization called Matadoun's Collective. I run with Yolanda Bennell, and a National Arts Service organization that advocates for indigenous and culture diverse theater artists called Yolanda Bennell, and hopefully Donna Michelle St Bernard and I are at the helm, along with with others. And I've been reflecting on a call to action that a low could be men and a gender queer non conforming writer and performance on Instagram live recently, pushing us to be more ambitious with our empathy, and by practicing intersectionality. Prior to during and after this pandemic I think it's it's essential that we're vigilant as allies to protect everyone in our communities, which includes recognizing the ways oppressions are compounded and often present at all times. I think with this time in in my home that I'm grateful to have on on these indigenous territories I'm choosing to find hope in myself and to do what I can to cultivate that in my community that that is an active choice that I can make. And what I can choose to do with this privilege that's been afforded to me being born in this body at this time and on these lands and waterways. One of the relationships that I'm grateful to be continuing to pursue is with a two spirit artist in the Turtle Mountains on the North Dakota side. This is where my family left when their children were taken to a convent. And it's the source of the fracture of indigenous knowledge and language in my maternal line. And recently I've been able to reconnect with a cousin there, and I met a two spirit artist named to want to get sick, who feel it's relevant to name and also as thinking about ways of being the value and the principle of reciprocity is something that I've been sharing with my auntie and anyone else that's coming back with me to to the Turtle Mountains on the North Dakota side. So I have access that I that our family has had when they left community and moved towards whiteness marrying white people and in the case of my parents seeking oil and Alberta and and so it's it's a conflicted thing for me to have the access in class that I do because of those choices, but then also see the consequence of that on the land and the water. Thank you so much for having me be part of this discussion and I'm looking forward to hearing from the rest of you. Beautiful. Thank you, Cole. Rachel Spencer Hewitt, I invite you up to the screen. Thank you so much. Yes, so I am the founder of parent artist advocacy lead for the performing arts which goes by pal PAL it's a national resource hub solutions generator and digital and physical community for caregivers in the performing arts, and there are many organizations that support them across the country and pal has long been advocating like many of the people on this call for so many of the initiatives that have made this time of crisis accessible in terms of the way people are connecting with one another. We've long been offering live streaming caregiver support, not only on site, but also sharing digital resources for caregivers. We've been providing free webinars for resource support on our Facebook lives, and also Facebook groups for caregivers in communities. So we've been using digital resources as ways to connect people who otherwise feel tethered to their physical space, because this isn't a new concept for many people the difference is just that it's now a global reality. I am an artist, I'm a mother of two, an actor by trade, and my day job is actually digital content creation and management, and I have over five years of experience in developing digital spaces, artistically and logistically, while solo parenting and home schooling. And I just want to give voice and visibility right now that homeschooling is not the same as crisis schooling and creating a digital space doesn't necessarily mean that you've created an inclusive digital space and so just to give a voice to those connections, which we can talk about a bit more later. And I'm here to also speak to our mission, which is that for parents and caregivers, our caregiving obligations have long shut us out of spaces and shut us in. While we're full time providing for our families and caring for our children trying to find space to breathe and create and negotiate supportive work policies, and the obligations have long been on us to advocate for ourselves and we've been pushed off as a niche group, or here's your affinity group that you can meet with at lunch, when now that it's a universal reality and we all need it, people seem more ready for the conversation. And then reflecting on my personal experiences with those and, and there are five principles that I think that everyone can take away and apply not only to our lives now but in how we rebuild our systems and our structures and that's first starts with mindset shift, which is that everyone is vulnerable. We may be vulnerable at different times but it's going to take empathy when we are when we all are able to go out again or feel healthy again. To remember that crisis happens all the time to individuals. It's just unique now because it's happening globally, and we can't forget that support is always necessary. To work from home policies are possible for every organization, supportive scheduling to reduce burnout and financial burdens because access to digital spaces is also a class reality and an economic reality do you have the equipment. Do you have Wi-Fi how else are we supporting people financially, and we also need to shape the space and caregiving support for funds. I would say that I want to acknowledge the women of color and the leaders of color who have long advocated for caregiver supportive practices and I'm going to quote Alicia Turner Sonnenberg from Moxie Theater Company. She used the term self generosity in a webinar that we did on the Facebook live page yesterday and also Kaya Dunn who is a teacher at UNC and she was talking about how we can let go of this need to produce and be active at this time and I just want to reflect on that that as we share these resources is to give us all space to breathe. That's gorgeous Rachel thank you. Ty, will you close us out by sharing your responses to these prompts. Here you tie. All right. So, this is tie, you can see my name, and I'm going to start my video. Now, hello everyone, Boojoo tie again. I want to talk a little bit about some of these prompts, and wanted to say my artistic process aspires to interweave social justice ingenuity, indigiquering and environmentalism by all means possible in this global pandemic, because more and more people are beginning to understand what this is and also relate to the arts and the interconnectedness of all living things and I think the one thing that stands out to me, in terms of thinking about this from verbalizing it is talking about the great hoop or the great circle of life, noting that all things are are connected that there isn't a hierarchy when there is shared leadership and we can talk more about that if you're interested, but this is something that, you know, I'm drawing upon elders and ancestors and also some other folks within the native indigenous community. And like I said I'm here in New York City, you know doing lots of work with the American Indian Community House, as well as native folks across Turtle Island, and I wanted to do this quote from Judy who's the co artistic director at Native Voices. She said that never waste a crisis. And she starts this off when we are part of our virtual talking circles, hosted by Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas. And this is a place where intergenerational folks are able to come and connect. And so what I'm finding during this time is a cultural resurgence of people calling upon the conversation and to create story dialogue by any means possible. I've also noted some things that I've been seeing and participating in such as the social distancing powwow on Facebook across the country. And this is where social gatherings weren't able to happen in the United States you know from like 1978 and below that so now it's a it's a good time people are dusting off their regalia getting those songs started and creating art, which is great finding another way to connect. There's also folks who have been going on into learning language learning classes and this is something that I've been participating into. So it's really great to have, you know, the resource of the, the interwebs, the internet to connect with people and to check on people back home. One thing that has been most special during this time I think as an artist, in terms of finding that connection has been meeting with the elder brunch that happens Saturday and Sunday from 10 to 12 rain or shine here on zoom. And it's a time to just listen and show up for elders to see what is needed in their homes, as they are, you know, going through a lot as well, you know, a lot of the indigenous elders. And I think that I've been trying to, you know, in terms of bringing some of these philosophies into fruition is the, you know, the as Cole mentioned earlier the Wampanoag Nation and the mash P got their tribal government, their tribal sovereignty status revoked. And so there's this huge petition going on right now with folks signing it. So that just brings me to the point of that this conversation yes COVID is happening we all must take care, but it's also a yes and conversation. It's a yes, and and I feel like consistently for so long. You know, queer folks marginalized folks, indigenous folks have been doing this yes and conversation. So I'm also interested in the philosophy of opening up that circle a bit more with the arts and, and the world the everyday learning and how to connect so I'm doing a lot of arts at this time in an interweaving and interconnecting as it relates to anchoring in values, and some of those values are to honor and to celebrate to decolonize and recognize time space and resources in all stages of practicing to expose and dismantle any kind of bigotry or biases or disrespect and opportunity to create new practices and accountability being viable how do we retain the accountability over the socials and just want to give a little plug here if you're interested in the art showing April 10th and 11th with all my relations collective where some of these values were implemented, we're going to do an excerpt of Gisha by Gizhig, which is revolving sky for folks to promote some food medicine out there. It talks about star knowledge and did you queerness and connecting together so that we can all have been reading this book in the morning to have some radical hope for this time. And I'll leave it there so we can get to the discussion. Please reach out y'all have my information. I am so open to zoom talk text chat about what's going on but also how do we uphold and take care of the, you know, the sacred circle of all living things the two legged the four legged the wind and the rooted during this time. Thank you tie. And thank you everyone I'm going to invite you back in with your videos. And also just acknowledge that our producing team has been putting out links to pretty much all of the resources and organizations and collectives that you all are either a part of or referenced so if you're interested again and all of the magnificent work that these folks are referencing you can find it on how rounds Twitter feed. So please do go there and we'll keep doing that throughout the call. So, who that was a lot of beautiful information and I thank you for putting that out into the atmosphere it's a, you know, something that I feel like folks can go back to and watch the recording and deepen into. But I do want to take some time to lead us through a little bit more across talk. And I've just a few questions for you folks and we can sort of popcorn them. And this one I think, hopefully just dive an angle and straight to the heart. I've been reading as all of us have a lot of folks different experiences of this moment of this crisis. I did a quote on body worker Susan raffles blog recently and Susan wrote, I keep being struck by how the things we should be doing in response to the coronavirus are really the things we should be doing as a way of being alive. How, if it does, does this resonate with y'all. How does it apply to your experience of individual and collective survival and how you are sort of meeting and supporting and investing in that for your work. And I'm going to anybody who wants to jump in, it's free to jump in. I, when I read that quote, and thank you for sharing it for me. What's what keeps coming up is how universally in this moment we're all being asked to say yes to the reality of being human. This idea of how, you know, this, this virus makes no discrimination that it takes a collective act for us to feel strength and for us to seek health and to improve all of these conversations in terms of sick leave caregiver support lack of child care. Crisis at home, the domestic disputes. These are all realities that I feel when we allow ourselves to believe the illusion of everything is fine workplace policies that are based on a best case scenario. We are absolutely rejecting the reality of what we are, which are vulnerable dynamic human beings, and this time is asking us to say yes to that vulnerability to the fact that we are mortal, and, and the fact that we are responsible not for our own health, but for each other's health. Like this is not a solo operation, we are not asked to engage in this life for this, like individualistic bootstrap my success idea. Our success is, is a collective effort. How do we flatten the curve for the world, how do we engage in best practices to support everyone to center the vulnerable, the elderly, the people who are immunocompromised is such a lesson in centering our practice on the people with the as opposed to the people with the least need and then building support for people with needs after the fact that it's not an afterthought, but it's our priority. I think that that should always be the case of how we build structures and and go about how we think about engaging with people. Hello, this is Claudia. So I've been feeling the strange mix of deep deep cynicism and deep deep hope in this moment because in crisis there is opportunity. There's the opportunity for transformation and the opportunity for further exploitation. As I was wandering the country and kind of assessing what I thought was wrong with the American theater scene. My, my biggest reason for not publishing most of my findings was I didn't have a good replacement. I didn't have a good answer, because most of our structures were designed to maintain themselves to maintain themselves despite the people inside of them saying this doesn't work for any of us. And in this moment of everything breaking, I go, Okay, can can we acknowledge that the way we were doing it was bad. And can we do things a different way now. Yeah, I'm all for different models and being inspired to make change and I'm conscious of how the virus doesn't discriminate but that the structures and the systemic nature of how things have been certainly does. And I'm, I'm thinking again about one of the two spirit artists that I referenced who participated in as a water protector. The total mountain chip was were one of the first to ban fracking in in the turtle mountains and, of course, that's a significant way that the oil industry continues to find profit. And, and then when I consider the poverty that I want to get lives in it's, it's stark for me this inequity that is normalized and not only that it's inequitable but but that one must be within relationship with the land in a productive way or in an repetitive way, and that that is being normalized is is just really shocking and unfortunate to me. And so if we could look at this as an opportunity to make change. Yes, please. Hi, I'm going to say yes, yes and yes to all the things that you said Claudia and Cole and Rachel. And, you know, I was thinking about this to and about the system and access so I'm going to yes, and yet to about the idea that some of coming together in the connection and the system being broken all those things. I feel like there are, you know what I'm also finding out on these conversations with elders it's like, wow, sometimes for the first time, folks are clearing their schedule right Saturday and Sunday mornings to sit down and listen to the wisdom that elders who have had this like vast experience and lived much longer on this earth they have, you know, there are things that they say, like live carefully, what you do will come back to you, except what life brings you cannot control many things. And if you honor your elders they will show you the way in life, and a lot of these sort of, I guess like indigene things across many nations across Turtle Island have been shared, and I feel like it was interesting one elder was like wow I feel like I asked what I need for several years, and here it was like a zoom call of, you know, about a dozen sort of in between ages who are asking this because of this pandemic, and it was turning something and making something into a gift so that we can move forward as a means for perseverance and survival, and also wanted to underscore the additional laughter being medicine and the cynicism from folks who have had such passed down historical trauma has been really healing at this time as well. Yes, yes, yes to everything my friends have said and the yes and in honoring tie which you said before, in our rural communities in an Indian country, a lot of this is not new. We're acutely aware of the limitations of our health care education child care system and have been advocating for access to broadband and healthy food options for a really long time and it is definitely been amplified during this time but it's something that we know really deeply and I hope I hope that this is an opportunity for our statewide our national our tribal leaders are general public to have a better understanding of the geographic inequities that have existed for some time so we can continue to push those agendas forward and provide more access to my optimistic side of building on Claudia's feeling complex during this time you know I said, I hope that this gives our country, the opportunity to hear the song that the rural folk have been singing for a long time, and hopefully build empathy and to become more complexifying our understanding of rural challenges, finding opportunities where rural and urban neighbors can learn from each other, where we can find moments of urban rural solidarity. But my pessimistic side is worried about how this challenge will widen, not lessen the perceived rural urban divide. And I hear folks in my region say things like, of course, we can't get tested out here. There's an assumption that we're lesser than and undeserving of equal access to health care and it's just like a known thing because of our zip code. And that sentiment is really real and really hard to overcome. And I hope that this opens the ears to that call that's been being made for a long time. This is Claudia and the concerns of our rural community. I feel like I'm hearing that echoed in most of the communities that I belong to so that's being echoed really loudly with the disabled community, all over the country in both urban and rural areas The disabled community a are the, the ways of surviving in the world that we had already designed. Those are the ways everybody is surviving in the world right now and they are straining the way that we have been surviving so so it's already impacting the disabled community. I know when I've been chatting with friends from the black community. Most of us are deeply aware that black people are dying more. People are dying more in the United States and that should not. There's no good reason for that in terms of science. That's 100% behavior and the way our country works. You know, I think it's real interesting that some folks thought that they could poison our systems and they would have no negative impact. It's all connected. I guess that's the lesson we're learning, we're all connected. Thank you. Thank you, folks. And I mean, I think that, you know, the depth of experience and just the examples that you all are offering into this conversation is, you know, one of the reasons why we wanted to bring you together and so, you know, to kind of angle into that a little bit more deeply. This idea of social or probably more aptly put, physical distancing is something that due to a variety of circumstances, each of you has had some familiarity with some relationship to the communities you work within and along to. So, you know, while many of us have been scrambling for meeting and experiencing a new version of what it means to be quote unquote alone. What we've seen and what we've heard over the last 40 minutes are, you know, calls to action are deep and thoughtful resources and a general sense of, you know, we may not know everything that's going on but we got you we have responses in this moment so here you all each speak a little bit about what leadership means to you. And, you know, that's what that's we're putting you here because we are looking to you as sort of leaders in this moment folks who may not have all the answers but do have a breath of experience from which we can or which we can follow. So speaking a little bit about what leadership means in this moment and then I'm also curious, you know, there's a lot being asked of leaders in this moment so what do you feel like you can give an offer to others and what are your personal systems for preserving some some of that for yourself. What are you sort of holding back to make sure that you're keeping yourselves healthy and whole. Anybody can start. I'll hop in here. So, thinking about that physical distance and geographic isolation which has been a reality for rural cultural workers for a long time so we have a lot of creative strategies for staying connected, and that I think are, you know, beneficial all of the time, not just now. We recognize that and in addition to being, you know, stepping up and being community organizers and really helping, you know, on the ground and in community work. Rural artists are often the ones to also bring bold vision and hope and joy to their communities so we invited our collaborators across the country to contribute to a list of ideas for creative compassionate and joyful connections during social distancing stuff that people have been doing, you know, already for a long time but wanting to share that as a as a resource. And also just seeing world leaders really step up and create space for conversation and connection for field art to our people to articulate their needs and really identify what collective resources already exist. And how we can help meet one another's needs like there's examples of you know community websites being created. Mary, welcome and police Washington blue sky center in New Kuma, California, Fergus Falls, Minnesota. There's some really incredible successful examples of immediate creative community organizing being led by artists and connecting, connecting the most vulnerable community members to the resources and that kind of echoing what Rachel had said earlier that tangible awareness of our actions are affecting others. And it'd be great if that was how we operated all the time and I really do see there being an opportunity to learn from some of our rural colleagues about the way in which they center vulnerable community members, all of the time so I would say look to your rural leaders in this moment. Hey, this is tie. Hope you can hear me here. I wanted to say that some things that you know I've been finding most useful as a creative artists and connecting it all together since that seems to be the running thread and theme to is participating in artistic jams. And that are like facilitated by folks that want to also practice leadership which has been so wonderful, getting in the minds and the opportunity to collaborate in that kind of way with the next generation of artists that are coming up as well You know, elders who also at that time who wants to still participate in creative art making which has been great. I'm also made aware that, you know, time is one of the biggest colonizers. Right. And I often talk with Lori will worry about this about about partnering with time and the idea how can we partner with time to create a type of risk and resilience as it relates to creative art making. Through some of that work with all my relations. We have found really like you all do here, taking those five breaths before starting meetings and throughout the process because we ain't going anywhere we cannot go outside right now we can do things so, you know, take the time needed to form the reciprocal relationship as Cole was mentioning that I think is really, really important to do like we have the time so gift that to ourselves as makers and artists. This is Claudia, I invested in my space. So my space is full of the comfy blankets and the beautiful artwork and all of the things that bring me joy. I can't turn in a direction without seeing something or being able to reach for something that sparks joy in my life. I made sure that my home does that for me. I got plants to take care of there are things that are alive that depend on me I love taking care of those plants. I already had a practice of doing digital brunches with folks. So I'm still doing my digital brunches where we meet on my zoom and we have coffee and breakfast is and whatnot over the computer we're doing that. I have a weekly meditation practice. And so I've been inviting people to do silent meditations with me online. That's been lovely. And of course, epic epic text message threads with my family means or life. That's self care for Claudia. I want to interject here and say the text message things I was listening to an interview with George Saunders and Cheryl strayed the other day and the uncertainty of this moment and all that one of the things that we can best do is be necessarily aware of the things that are happening by documenting them because we may not actually know what will be important to this moment until later. And we may be able to see those threads when we look back later if we properly documented what we were thinking and feeling and so that keeping the text message threads and and making sure that there's a documentation of what what we were experiencing feels really significant to me right now. Colin Rachel do you want to share around this question of leadership and also taking care of yourself as you give. Yeah sure I'll jump in. I'm definitely resonating with the opportunity to be present at home with the way that I make this my space and whether that's picking up a knitting project or a book that I've been meaning to get to thinking about what is the foundation that I often prior to this pandemic was launching from or operating more often outside of and is there an opportunity to really invest in who I am here to to make me stronger in the world. And definitely the connection with family and friends where often a lot of my work is now happening over zoom but friends and family are also discovering discovering zoom so it's it's a lot of this. That has its own level of exhaustion so definitely limiting screen time is is a useful practice. Also, confronting some of the, the conversations that maybe I have not been choosing to have with with my family around identity and around what it means to be my full self and that's ongoing work and and challenging in and of itself, but he's not present for me in this time. Yeah, for for me this has been an opportunity to engage with leadership to ask questions that can't be avoided by going into an office or going into a space that is absent of children or dependence because when you're zooming into people's you will you will see it the the children will crawl on you they're being surprisingly great right now but that's because my partner is on nights, and he just woke up and he's taking care of them so it actually might. So happened that they don't join this zoom call, which would be rare, but I think the questions that I would offer leadership to be asking at this time is where is the financial disparity in my community. When we asked that question for power said where's the financial disparity in our community. And we've started the pal COVID emergency relief fund for artists with families because as people are getting laid off and as productions are closing, and as unemployment is becoming difficult to apply for these individuals are not just buying groceries for one they're buying groceries for four or five. And there is no, no daycare, there is no school, there is no caregiver. It's an opera last year in 2019. My most expensive month for childcare was hookah little emotional creature. Wow, was women's and national history month, because of all the gender parity events. I had to attend for equity and I spent hundreds of dollars on childcare, just to show up. And it was, it was too much. The rest of my year was completely altered by that because of the inequity in the fight for equity and so what I would encourage is at this time as we're planning our 2020 to say, where is the financial disparity. How expensive is my free event for people who have to pay for childcare, how expensive is my free streaming event for people who need networking opportunities but can't access my space. How can I create conversation. Once I'm able to get back into the office but other people still can't. So that's the question I would offer leaders to ask where is the financial disparity in my community. And then for immediacy right now as an individual the power that you that you have is to remember that caregivers can't zoom out. So, when they are not on calls they're being touched and needed and whether it's an elder dependent or whether it's a child, they're on the clock 24 seven engaging there is no such thing as a checkout, especially now that people are sheltered so the only ways that you can take care is to offer to them a little bit for groceries or offer to do a virtual call with their children or with their elder dependent so that they can step away and read a book or do the work or file and do a call while you're reading a book to their children online. The other side of it takes a village is something that I got frustrated hearing when I had my first and then my second because I was like it always take the village why are you telling that to me now because now you're so out of practice being my village that the learning curve is too steep. So now we're getting a crash course and being a village, I would just engage that like as leadership we can say okay how can we continue to be a village from this point. So self care, I think for for myself and for parents, like be really explicit with those boundaries and other people and say, I am not meeting with you before noon I'm not zooming with you before noon because that is time that I need to care for my full time work here in my home and here in my space and know that you are the expert of your home that was something else that deleted Turner sunberg offered, you are the expert at this time with what your ecosystem needs and so by giving yourself that agency and that power, you can remove that burden from having to fulfill everyone else's expectations like full permission to let go what the teachers and the bosses and everyone is telling you you should be doing to produce it this time. That's yeah. Rachel thank you. I wish we were in the same space where hearts are beating together. You all I want to acknowledge that we were technically supposed to stop at three and I feel like there's a little bit more I want to dig into and also to recognize ties expression of partnering with time. And Claudia just brought up something really important, which is that you want to say it Claudia. I'm just joking but it's real real relationship with time is messed up time didn't do nothing to you times alright time is fine and that what we need to do is get a different relationship of time that isn't being controlled by white heterosexual patriarchal capitalism and white supremacy, but time didn't do nothing I'm okay with time. So let's flex I'm down for whatever. I love it. I love it and as we create our village, as some of us are creating our villages for the first time, we are going to be flex for just a moment because I want to. There was another question we wanted to ask but I, but I, we had a question that Ashley wanted to ask actually other the rest of the group, which seems like a really beautiful way to end actually. I want to invite you to bring that in Ashley and then you know there's quite a bit of other stuff that was sort of rolling around in all of our heads that will try to share and maybe, maybe we can post about it maybe we can. You all can we can share some writing after the fact but Ashley do you want to jump in with that question. Yeah I mean just hearing all of the amazing work that you all are doing. You know as leaders we often work towards collective action and we move quickly we act. And this is really a time for collective reflection. So my question is, as kind of a takeaway for the people participating in this call. What do you hope folks spent our spending time reflecting on during this time in our of our collective reflection. I hope we're reflecting on how much of our systems and our maybe our own expectations of ourselves are aiming for a goal of success, as opposed to source point of compassion. Like how can we start to flip that, like as a daily practice of compassion for ourselves. And it's a part of the practice within the the theater work that I do. How can we tell stories and cause the least amount of harm. And I'm, I'm thinking of that as moving forward and then in this period. Also reflecting on some discordance with with my family, what does it mean or how can we create platforms where people can disagree. I think it does a real disservice when folks suggest to not talk about politics or religion or whatever it is at the kitchen table because that means we aren't practicing how to be in the room with each other and how to manage that discordant and find consent consensus. Yeah, I get you me correct for that. They're reflections on reflecting. I have been doing a lot of writing recently on what I call the white imagination and the limitations of the white imagination and the places in myself where I felt like I was failing to be able to imagine solutions because I was trapped inside this white imagination because I'm hoping everybody is just bouncing up against the walls of the white imagination and the patriarchal imagination and the capitalist imagination and finding some liberatory ideas to do something different. Thank you. Wow, I love that movement in there Claudia that was like in zoom I'm like I need to move. So, in my reflection, yeah, I think. Yeah, I'm reflecting on reflecting but I get to like also think about, you know, things like magic, which is like, well, here's like like queer indigenous person gets to think about magic because I have like the time to do so. It's fantastic in between things so yeah I just wanted to thank everyone and also how to change my background on zoom to which you know oftentimes in meetings I don't get to but now is sort of also like socially acceptable to do. So I've often been doing that and teaching people how to do it because it's so fun to also bring people to a different visual world which is also very theatrical experience. Beautiful I love these backgrounds. Oh, you all this is really fantastic. I know we're going to breathe in and out in just a moment with Nicole. You know to close us out I just want to actually offer one more quote from a hero of mine hero writer of mine, Rebecca Solnit, who wrote recently an opinion piece of New York Times about what we're all facing and I think, you know I was like reading I was like oh it's so interesting it sort of goes with and then you all just the brilliance that you have offered us throughout this call has really made me feel like I just want to put it out into the world to close us. Rebecca wrote, but like so many other disasters this one has revealed how interconnected we are, how much we depend on the labor and goodwill of others. We are in meshed we are in social ecological and economic systems, and how prevention or survival of something as deeply boldly bodily personal as a disease depends on our collective decisions and those of our leadership. And in our cultural field in our field of cultural producers you folks are our leadership so thank you for shining a beacon for all of us. And thank you for being with us today. And we're going to offer the producers going to offer a little closing but just our deepest gratitude to you thank you. Oh my gosh. Your conversations are so incredible. I always come with my tissues and my hydration of water. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So as we move into taking this conversation deeper within ourselves. This last reflective five is around. Can you think about an artist who has a strong community practice that inspires you. Right. I know I just got to sit on this webinar with, you know, these amazing folks, and so I hold you all as I do my reflective eyes. One, two, three, four, five, hold five, four, three, two, one, exhale one, two, three. Thank you so much, Nicole. So before we completely close out we want to offer an exercise thinking about today. What are three things that you want to explore more artists you learned about tools, websites, articles, books, podcasts, past projects that you want to come back to. And we invite you to commit to learning more and exploring how you can apply these concepts of connectivity tools for connections across physical boundaries and authentic community building to your practice as an artist. So write down three things that come to mind right now and take some time, maybe 30 or 45 minutes later today or during the week to check them out online or on social media do that research. We really invite you to take some time to move into a space of curiosity and learning. And I've learned that when I write things down. I'm more likely to follow through. So everyone, thank you so much for being with us today. So I just want to give a round of applause to all of our panelists. Thank you for being here. The recording of this conversation is going to be available within 24 hours on howlround.com and our first sessions which include topics including emergency funding, legal support, national advocacy, financial strategies for individual artists and reimagining how we gather are already on howlround.com. If you learned something from this conversation today, spread the word and spread the link. We always welcome feedback and suggestions for next week's Tive donation. So if you have some, please send them to us at artistresourceathowlround.com, A-R-T-I-S-T-R-E-S-O-U-R-C-E at h-o-w-l-r-o-u-n-d dot c-o-m. And on that note, we have a correction from our second webinar with Amy Smith, which was focused on financial strategies for freelance artists because that took place before the CARES Act was passed. We wanted to offer this update, which is that as per the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, a single member LLC may apply for the SBA Paycheck Protection Program or PPP. Applications for self-employed individuals will begin this Friday, April 10, 2020. Information was developing quickly at that time and we are doing our best to keep up. So when that webinar was recorded, that information was not yet available. So we encourage you to contact your bank and look for that resource through your existing banking relationship or Google SBA approved bank and see if you can find a loan servicer who could work with you. Thank you so much for that. So we'll be continuing these conversations every Tuesday on HowlRoundTV at 2 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Central, 12 p.m. Mountain Time and 11 a.m. Pacific. Join us next Tuesday, April 14 for a conversation, Attending to Our Spirits. All of these conversations are Attending to Our Spirits, but yes, healing and enduring time at this, during this traumatic time. I'm sorry, my screen is jumping, folks, so it's a little hard for me to read, so thank you for your patience. We'll be announcing more Tuesday conversations soon, and we hope you'll join us. We also want to lift up our, yes, our incredible partner, HowlRound, they provided us with the platform and technology funds for the ASL interpreters and captioners, as well as some support for our panelists today. Awesome. And before we go, we want to see the commons in action. We've talked about the commons a lot. If you've got something out of today's conversation. I know I did. We want to ask that you direct that love and support towards the American Indian Community House in New York City, which is where our donation today is going. You can use the Venmo, which is our Venmo we set up once a week just for this, which is C-O-V-1-9-F-A-R, as in freelance artist resources, to give any amount, a dollar or three. Let's see how abundant we can be. We as a collective will be donating $750 to the community house, and we're challenging our community who are tuning into this call to help make it a thousand. So, if you can help us, we'd be much, much, much appreciative. We'd be very grateful. That's what we would be. Very grateful. Friends, let's take care of each other. Keep connecting. And for more resources added every day, visit the WordPress resource site COVID-19 freelance artist resource.wordpress.com. And we encourage you to join HowlRound's mailing list to be advised of future conversations. Thank you so much to Rachel Spencer Hewitt, Claudia Alec, Ashley Hansen, Cole Alvis, and Ty Defoe, and thank you for spending time with us together today. Take care, and we will talk next Tuesday. Bye, everyone. Thank you, everyone. Thank you so much for having us on. Thank you. Is this thing still on? I guess donate. If you care, you'll donate. Love you all. Take good care. Oh, I'm supposed to not be talking.