 Ladies and gentlemen, Mark Bob Moody-Joseph and Daniel Bernanke remain. The session is flowing from the magic of the artist and the music they represent to with our constituents, not as scond of your responsibilities, but rather recommit to who you're responsible to for the cultural stakes. You'll be in your meeting and you'll kind of flow in and out of A-PAP memories, from performances to volunteer board presidencies, from agents to directors of engagement presidencies, all in service of provocation and empathy, all in service of the landscapes where people collectively escape, a collective experience in service of the aesthetic and the civic. Our flow is the generation of a connection between the world and its clearly fashion beauty, this house of cards stacked like mirrors. We make intimate space for social mirrors. Our flow is a touch of ego, some splashes of bravado, and a whole lot of hours unseen. Flow from rehearsal studio to the kids in the home to ushers to budgets to some airport company in snow. The performing arts is a cold game. Performing artists got a real task. Speak of creative truth when the truth is so creatively abused in unprecedented ways by this country's unprecedented head of state. Tistic flow holds the high road of our country's current moral debates. Can we agree that the shows are the mode that the culture is our product? What kind of culture do we want to make? Shizka's merely mocked the black bird with his slice the black bird's throat and asked her why she does not sing. It's start, no exposure to art of the wrong class of the wrong cast placed on the lower track at six years young, ain't recovered since. We asked the black bird why she does not fly while the law walking off with her wings. So savage these for whom America's a beautiful spacious sky. We slice the black bird why she doesn't sing. No exposure on of the wrong class, lower track at six years young. We ask the black bird why she does not fly while the law walking off with her savages. Only see equality in 63 black and white dreams. Isn't it so savage to dream at last free? Isn't it so savage to dream at last free? Dream at last free. Dream. As the APAP reminds you, you're not alone. Courage to sing and the humility to sing praises. All in service of the culture that suggests. You're an APAP NYC 2017 Conference Coaches. Simone Ethelston, Liz Lerman, and Kenneth Spencer. A huge welcome to friends, colleagues, collaborators in the room, those who are watching us online, to the opening session of the 60th annual conference of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. And what about those artists? Nice round of applause for Mark, David Joseph, and Daniel Bernard Romain. That was incredible. Such a powerful and meaningful and inspiring way to launch our time together here. We are again making a number of this year's conference sessions accessible over the internet, courtesy of Culture Hub and howl around the live streaming service. So please start to invite your friends, your colleagues, your family members to view many of our online offerings and streaming events, both live and those that are archived on the APAP's website. Simone, Liz, and I have had the privilege of working for almost a year with an amazing conference committee to bring you five days of broad, diverse, and inspiring speakers and discussion opportunities. This has been a deeply meaningful experience for me as an artist or magical experience for me as an artist. To serve in the role of conference co-chair over the past year and to play a role in developing this year's conference theme of flow. The concept of flow has been quite relevant to my career as a magician and to creating a wave of sensations and focused awareness that leads to a transformative experience. And with my current work, I find this to be a powerful phenomenon, a process to bring people in the margins of society for whatever reason, bringing them into the mainstream of the community in which they live. Our hope is that each of you over the next few days will find many transformative moments and that you'll achieve a sense of belonging as vital contributors to the flow of what we do collectively in the APAP community to enrich the lives through the performers. Simone? Indeed, Kevin. In the room this evening, we have artists, presenters, agents and managers, producers, funders, and other colleagues who make it possible for us to be presented to a wide range of audiences and communities across the country and around the world. And certainly, over this past year, we have been reminded that there is a need for the power of artistic expression to cut through ignorance, bigotry, and misperception set forth in our humanity. Far from the last year seeing makers, our role as makers of culture to cultivate, support, and promote the value of the arts in communities struggling with issues and conditions that undermine safety and well-being is now more important than ever. It is a great challenge to design programming for an event like APAP NYC that attracts the well-being of values close to 4,000 people. And the three of us are thrilled to be working with colleagues who you see listed on the screen as part of the conference committee. Let's give them a round of applause. Our goal of the conference committee is to make certain that today and over the next four days, there are opportunities to share information and ideas that you can apply directly to your work. As we move through the marketplace, experience the bulk of artistry and talent in our fields and exchange information and ideas in professional development sessions, we ask you to consider these questions. Who in your community doesn't have a sense of belonging within your organization? And how can you use the tools, resources, and artists presented at the APAP NYC conference to transform that reality? As we work with our organizations and move out into our communities and the worlds, this will make for a stronger field and hopefully a renewed and more expansive sense of community as we truly are our brothers and sisters' keepers. Also, please make time to reach out and meet new colleagues, especially those who are joining us for the first time in the front of the country. These five days can at times be overwhelming, even for those of us who have attended many for many years. Please reach out to help each other and sustain that sets of flow over the time we have together. Our co-chair, Liz Serman, renewed her state of flow in 2016 by relocating to take a position with the Herbert Institute for Art and Design at Arizona State University. Thank you. It's so great to meet our co-chair. I just want you to know I'm on telecom now, which means I think if I do, I get to be the next president. Thanks, Simone. With my move to Arizona, it's become the opportunity to meet and work with an extraordinary number of deeply talented artists and creative thinkers around the country, many of whom are here, including Dan Romain, who you just got to hear. I'd also like to emphasize how this over the past year and especially in recent months have made all of us aware of the need to engage with our communities and our governments in acknowledging and perhaps bridging the growing chasms in our country. I think it's so good that we're together at this moment to help each other think personally and communally about the work ahead. As a committee, our discussions led to the concept of flow initially proposed by the positive psychologists, Mihai Chik Samihai. I went to YouTube to find out how to say that. He suggests a total immersion in an activity where your state of mind is completely focused on what is doable that somehow then the usual obstacles will fall away. Although these amazing phone calls with 30 people on them led to many disputes about the singular definition, there was a unanimous interest in the metaphorical possibilities of this idea. So we explored a lot of other ways in which the concept relates to the arts and what we do in the presenting field. And from that process, some sub themes for the conference surfaced. How does the creative mind figure in finding flow? How do we find flow together as collaborators and partners? How does innovation and disruption, which is one of some of the core processes of the creative act, how do they contribute to flow, and how might we harness creative flow to achieve the social change not only that we need, but that we demand? These are questions that will be addressed by partners and in conversations with you throughout this year's professional development program. There are so many wonderful examples of individual organizations and partners who are working to achieve this kind of flow, work that cultivates change, repairs damage, and brings people together in imagining a different future. This includes putting forward images and experiences of art that emboldened and aid in fighting these challenges and setbacks, and of course we just saw that, heard that, and felt that. In addition to reserving some of the professional development program time, we know that you're going to want to take advantage of all the incredible experiences of live performances ahead of you. Plan for your future programming, deepening your sense of belonging as a valued member of this APEP community. Kevin? So, I'm here to encourage you, don't hesitate to introduce yourself to any members of the conference committee, APEP staff, board members. There's also an information desk, which I've visited many times since I've been here one day, right across from the registration desk. If you need any specific information, if you're feeling a bit lost, overwhelmed, you need a hug, whatever, come by, and we'll try to help you out. And finally, all of this goes without saying that this task would be nearly impossible for us, if not for the work that APEP does, the year-round work that APEP does and the APEP team does. They've been responsive to our interests, our concerns, and they themselves have entered this conference state of flow in about February of last year. So, they hit this thing really, really hard and they really hit flow over the holidays, much to the chagrin of their families and friends. We want to thank Mario, the staff, and especially the over 100 volunteers who are going to be with us over the next few days. Yes, some of whom are at the information desk and know me well. So, here to share some of the highlights of what you can expect in the days ahead, it is my pleasure to introduce the man who is in the ultimate flow mode right now, APEP's vice president of programs and resources, my friend Scott Stoner. Welcome, welcome. It's great to see you all. And on behalf of the APEP team, I want to say it's truly a pleasure working with this conference committee and the co-chair Triumvirate you've just met. They are true givers. Each gave to us a measurable level of thought, candor, inspiration, and that's what we needed to guide the conference programming this year. So, are you ready to go with the flow? Please take a deep breath, put down your reading materials, buckle up your seats, and listen to the following guidelines. First of all, flow tips. First, this is not a fashion show. I must run stage. I'm wearing a tie. But you need to dress for the temperature changes, from room to room, from venue to venue. I found out it's 99 steps from the Sheraton to the Hilton. I do it every day. For me, it's a minute. If it's under 30 degrees, it's a little faster. But do that. Take time to eat, drink, and sleep. There's only so many hours in the day and the night, but physical substance is necessary. Urban kitchen aims to please. It's open. Ask for help. We do have over 100 volunteers, 20 staff, 24 board members, and they've all got ribbons on their badges, or a green shirt. Or otherwise, just go to the information desk. And finally, make a daily plan to use your app or for the technology challenge to the program guide. There's over 360 exhibit booths, 1,000 plus showcase performances, and close to 80 professional development sessions. So I'm sorry if you missed this morning's forums and this afternoon's up next pitch session and the new colleagues orientation, but in a short while, we're going to bring on to this stage a group of firebrand artists to share their perspectives on current affairs nationally and globally, and how we as a field can play a key role in affecting social change and resilience that will be needed in this new year ahead. Saturday flow tomorrow at 9 a.m. promises to be a really provocative discussion about creativity, innovation, disruption, and their importance in bringing about change that leads to success. And then you're going to want to discover how a very talented group of artists find their flow in our popular Saturday Bishakasha format. Again, this year moderated by our good friend Liz Lerman. And the Expo Hall is also open tomorrow. It opens at 2 o'clock from 2 to 6.30, plus we have professional development sessions available between 2 and 5. On Sunday, join your colleagues for consortium meetings and professional development sessions and the 11 a.m. Planner A session that is going to focus on collaboration, creative collaboration, the how creative teams find their flow together. And don't miss a cameo appearance by a special guest from New York's artist community at the beginning of the session. In addition to the Expo Hall on Sunday afternoon, we hope you will consider also attending the Sino American seminar, which is about booking and touring artists from China. That's from 2 to 5 over at Desheretin. That brings us to Monday. And our annual five minutes to shine takes place on Monday morning followed by the APAP member meeting where we will expect to announce a new name for the organization. The annual APAP awards luncheon begins properly at noon and we are so pleased that Ben Vereen is going to serve as our master of ceremonies. The event includes the winner of our five minutes to shine competition and of course the award of merit presentation to Laurie Anderson. Monday also we're so pleased to be celebrating this year the 20th anniversary of YIPCA, the Young Professionals Career Advanced Program for Young Classical Musicians. So please honor this program and this year's award recipients is a showcase and reception at Carnegie Hall on Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. The showcase flow, of course, they're going to be happening. Again, over a thousand showcase performances here in the hotel and around the city and we know you're going to be spending your evenings and parts of some days experiencing the work of an extraordinary range of artists who hope to perform in your community. They're available here in hotels, I said, across the city and they're all available on the app or in the printed program guide. That will bring us, if you're still live, that will bring us to the flow finale finally on Tuesday morning in the Trianon Ballroom, we top off our main flow of events with what will surely be memorable time spent with who I think is today's Renaissance ideal Taylor Mack. So, APEP is the place to be, the center of our biz, the place where it happens. Find your flow in the great expo Mojo, it's the place where it happens. Create a flow, showcase a galore, yours to explore in this place where it happens. Open your mind through open exchange, bring about change, this is the place, this is the place, the place where it happens. That's all I got. And now please welcome our flow master himself, Mr. Mario Garcia-Doram. There once was a gentleman from LaPOP who came to a conference called LaPOP. That's the best I can do. Sorry. Thank you, Scott. Scott's our poet. Anyway, welcome. I have never been happier to see all of you and welcome all of you to this conference. It's been a challenging year in many ways. It's been a good year in many ways, but I'm really, really happy to be here with you all. I want to congratulate Scott and everyone who contributed to this terrific program and the conference committee and all of you. We all appreciate these generous and dedicated members who together with our hardworking staff make this annual convening possible. There's another special group of individuals whose support is critically important. Please join me in expressing our sincere gratitude to the many sponsors who provide critical resources we need to make this event, to make an event of this size so successful. So please consider I read them off. Hold that excitement. So first, I'd like to thank generous programming from our colleagues in the government and foundation world. These include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Arts, the American Express Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Wallace Foundation. We also receive generous annual conference support from the National Endowment for the Arts. I would also like to thank our sponsors, IMG Artists, Kepler Speakers and Opus 3 Artists. Our Silver level sponsors are Alan Harris Productions, David Belenzane Management, Canada Council for the Arts, ICM Partners, KMP and Cami. And our Bronze level, sponsors Cenarium, Dawn Elder Management, Instant Encore, the City of New York Mayor's Office of Media and Readers Forum, Palm Grand Arts, Do You Speak Jembe, StarVox Booking, Umbel and WJ3 Records. And we also want to thank Culture Hub, Gig Salad, Cossin Talent and Sage Artist. Now, we all know how important sponsors are, so please give them a rousing amount of applause. Thank you. And if you see any of those individuals, please thank them on my behalf. Well, I'm hardened to be here today to welcome and thank you all for making this annual pilgrimage to APAP. I would like to introduce someone else who represents a large team of dedicated staff and who also appreciate the annual gathering of the APAP community and are here to serve you. I am pleased to introduce you to the general manager of the New York Hilton, Mr. Lawrence Ziren. Please thank you for the opportunity just to welcome you to the New York Hilton. It's an interesting setup. I can't see anybody in the room. That's pretty cool. I'm obviously not one of those performers, right? I'm not used to it. I'm normally not on stage at least. I just wanted to welcome you. We've had a 48 years of partnership with APAP, which is extremely special. We've been partners for a long time. We've been partners for a long time. I would like to give us again as your opening performance said earlier on, I think the theme of the opening performance was kind of you're not alone here. You're not alone in this. Luckily enough I'm not alone in this as well. There's 1,300 team members that are here to serve and to be ready to just be a great person. Thank you. If you're looking for me, that's where I would be. Thank you. Thank you. There's another group here that I would really like to welcome because I was one of them at one point. These are the newcomers who are first timers. First timers, would you please stand? Thank you. This year we joyously celebrate the anniversary of APAP's birth. This was made possible by a small group of concert hall managers who came together in Madison, Wisconsin. They were all distinct individuals but what brought them together was a shared sense of vision, purpose and values. I'm deeply touched to be here 60 years later with so many amazing, committed and courageous individuals whom I consider to be part of our APAP extended family. I'm proud to be a member of the community, a member of the community belonging, of being a member of this body of professionals who have dedicated their lives to making a difference in the communities they serve. I value the power of the freedom of expression and breaking creative boundaries. I value our respect and acceptance of difference. In these times of great uncertainty, I take comfort for those who would otherwise be denigrated or marginalized. It is the common values we share to make life better for all by enabling authentic and sustained access to the creative arts that make me so proud to be a part of this organization. And now, I have the pleasure of introducing a distinguished playwright, novelist and screenwriter who will frame this evening's focus on the arts, community engagement and social change. Ayad Akhtar is probably best known among many of you as the Pulitzer Prize winning author of the play Disgraced, which ran on Broadway and was nominated for a Tony award in the 2015 season. His novel, American Dervish, has been published in 20 languages and his plays The Who and the What and the Invisible Hand are also currently in production around the world. The son of Pakistani immigrants and returning up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, we expect Mr. Akhtar has an authentic perspective on Muslim American identity. But I should note, when asked about that in a New York Times interview, he simply said I am trying to tell the best story I possibly can. We look forward to hearing more from this prodigious American writer this evening. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage Ayad Akhtar. Good evening. Good to be with you. I want to read these remarks in pieces of paper rather than teleprompter. I want to thank the planning committee for the invitation to address you all. When I was first approached about offering these introductory remarks, I inquired about the committee's hope for what I might say. Something uplifting, they responded. Something about art's potential to change the world. Right. I wasn't sure I told them that I could really do that. I toyed with offering my apologies, politely declining. I couldn't see how to be uplifting and at the same time force the conversation I thought needed to be had. I said as such, they responded, by all means speak your mind. I thought, okay, Chinese have an interesting proverb that I'd like to start with and I quote, in the house where the son kills the father, the causes do not lie between the morning and the evening of a single day. The political events of the last few months in this country are not the result of a single day's election tally, nor of a season of campaigning that brought to those who paid sustained attention to it more nausea than anything else. No. The recent political events are the quaking eruption of a tectonic shift that has been at least two generations in the making. A shift that long ago infected our nation's soil. The logic of the market. The rules of the market. The market's language and being. Value reduced to its exclusively monetary meaning. Competition not as a striving toward betterment, a striving for as the Latin etymology of the word suggests, but a struggle to wean out the weak, deify the strong and offer up the lowest price. Our language and experience have become polluted by the ethos of finance. We seek upside and minimize our exposure. We consider the best use of our sweat equity. We invest in relationships. We communicate our deal breakers and negotiate around our competing interests. Indeed, even our greatest human intimacies are increasingly nothing more than transactions. We have become customers to reality. The market has reached so far into us. It has replaced our old deities with a new one. The religion of commerce ruled not by Yahweh or Krishna, but by another disembodied abstraction hovering far beyond us, whose well-being we tend to with unflagging collective attention the economy. We are terrified of its humors, grateful for its dispensations. We are exhorted to appease and placate the economy with our ritual purchases, for indeed the spending of money has become our daily act of penitence and absolution and rapture par excellence. When our economy is well we are a happy people. And when it isn't, premonitions of ultimate doom are never far. How did this happen? How did the logic of finance, its devouring and monetizing imperative make money everywhere and in any way? How did this aberration, this deformation come to stake its dubious claim on every part of every one of our lives? This is the real question not what art can do about it for what can art do about it? The logic of finance has only delegitimized what art does best which is to nurture and develop the most invisible, interior intangible parts of us. What use is the soul's growth if it doesn't make you money? Indeed, what use even to speak of a soul in the near totalitarian era of the market? We are customers first and foremost. Of course the humanities are useless to us. To wit. Little surprise that we are gutting music education on every level. Long ago, we ceased being a culture capable of truly knowing that responsiveness to the world is fundamentally rhythmic. That attunement to cadence and phrase, the embodiment of beauty in song that these are in capacities requiring development and that their development is something more central to us than the periodic table. It's an education in being wishful thinking warm, well-meaning expressions of weakness in the face of realities cold truth which apparently only money makes apparent. And so an education in music or philosophy or literature or performance and that list shows on is of no fundamental use to us in this era of the economy for these do not help one secure existing wealth or accumulate future wealth. These are the only terms of the good in our world today. Wealth is our only genuine societal covenant. Art's great capacity is to renew and restore, to remind us of death, to cleanse and nourish us to offer us a path to a clearer more vivid sense of ourselves and each other. But art in the service of commerce cannot do any of this. Not really. Indeed art in the service of commerce isn't really called art anymore. It's called content. Content to be distributed across platforms enabling the swift and frictionless monetization of the viewer's attention. Art becomes content which becomes a branded entertainment which becomes advertising. How far we have fallen. Percy Shelley the great English romantic writer believed that poets and philosophers were what he called the quote unacknowledged legislators of mankind. Really? Maybe not so crazy after all if you take your definition of poetry and philosophy and lower it as we seem to do with everything these days. After all who is most effective at influencing and transforming the way people speak and behave today. How they think what they believe to be worth pursuing worth being. Indeed which storytellers if you will are most deeply shaping the imaginal landscape of our time. Those who have been most effective at turning their content to commerce's use. Those best at selling themselves. Those best at art as advertising. The Kardashians and Jenner's the Jay Z's and of course yes Trump's of the world unacknowledged legislators indeed. Of course most of us in this room do not believe we can compete in that way and we don't necessarily want to. We're outliers suffering the prevailing cultural sickness endeavoring often at great cost to ourselves to tow a different line and we know that peculiar and common discouragement of trying to articulate the good we are attempting with it never quite landing on our listeners. That mind you is part of the problem for when we are transformed from citizens first into customers and consumers foremost well then different rules apply when I'm the customer I know what I want and I pay for it and you give it to me that's the social contract but art's different. It's not about giving a customer what they already know they want just at a better price art as essence is always about being known and at its best is not something given at all but shared art at its truest has never had an easy place in the economy of commerce. We here in this room may indeed be towing a different line but make no mistake we have not resisted the corrosive effects of this rampant unconscious materialism in our world today. Needing to bridge the divide with those who do not understand the culture that will not understand we change the way we talk now we embrace the terms of tangible good social justice advocacy changing minds opening perspectives empathy we objectify and quantify arts good we find our fight we make our case and articulate the narrative we turn ourselves into sales people for our causes and with time we grow hide bound hide bound by our battles beholden to our identities committed to promoting and celebrating our differences but let me submit at its best art has always been about unity not difference and that in this age of art denatured by commerce in an age in which at its best art appears to be a tool for advocacy art loses its deepest and truest meaning any vision of art as a vision of advertising by another name is just that a commercial such as the world we have allowed to come and to be in we have allowed that world each of us if there is any hope for the future of our human experience as opposed to our mediated monetized experience we would do well I suspect I hope I submit spending more time pondering that matter then struggling to make our case for art as a vehicle of change thank you Ayad please come back thank you Ayad we just a reminder we have these plenary recordings these plenary sessions recorded so you can share that with friends so thank you we can scroll up a little please and now I have a he's a magic I have the unique opportunity to hear from five individuals who are also making a difference in the face of in the face of derisiveness and disruption by engaging audiences in thoughtful and meaningful ways we know that conversations like this are most effective when there is a dynamic and insightful moderator so we naturally turn to a past APAP NYC keynote speaker who in the midst of the devastating economy set back this country face six years ago introduced us to the concept of resilience and how we might apply to it organizational capacity and strategies for strong or a strong sustainable future for those of you that were here with the keynote of the following individual it was an amazing almost life changing keynote so I am of course referring to Robin Archer yes you can applaud she is those who haven't heard her I promise she's amazing a native Australian who holds an honorary doctoral degree from multiple universities and citations of merit from multiple countries Robin is a singer, writer artistic director and public advocate for the arts she is currently the chair of the Gold Coast Cultural Precinct artistic director of Light in Winter in Melbourne and chair of the National Institute of Dramatic Arts inaugural Master of Fine Arts named Cabaret Icon at the 2016 Adelaide Cabaret Festival she continues to form recitals throughout the world so as Scott has written for me here so you think your schedule is overwhelming it is nothing so ladies and gentlemen please welcome our moderator for this conversation Robin Archer thanks very much Mario and because we're so used to doing this in my country these days I will do it here to acknowledge the original inhabitants of this land we meet on and pay my respects to their past, present and emerging and extend that respect to any other First Nations people who are here today our topic for this opening plenary invites us to consider how we as artists and programmers, managers producers, agents can use our skills to serve as catalysts for the kind of engagement which can lead to social change AAD has already thrown out a special provocation and I'll follow with another Reza Kuestani a beautiful Iranian playwright who still cannot get a visa to the United States at an event a couple of years ago in Amsterdam he said people say to me it must be so difficult for you to do the work you do in your own country and he says no I reply to them I do my work, I write my plays I present them, I get shut down two or three times a year and if I wasn't getting shut down I know that I'm not doing my job properly this was the cut then came the thrust he said you in the West talk so much about your freedoms your freedoms of speech etc. I think that you have so much freedom because nobody listens to what you say you present no threat you represent no danger so is this true are we toothless in the face of current crises as a singer my area of specialty is the repertoire of Germany in the 1920s and 30s a time following the New York stock exchange crash of 2829 when the German currency was rendered absolutely valueless there was deep despair high unemployment and a feeling of disenfranchisement one powerful orator gained political power by saying I will make Germany great again I know who to blame he gave despairing communities false hope through easy answers but we know that life is not like that but there are no easy answers and that it's the arts that most effectively explore the ambiguities, the complexities the nuances of the grey areas between black and white right and wrong, win and lose and for me singing the complex political songs of that era is in itself a political act one of Bertolt Brecht's poems from that era goes my young son asks in the bad times where there still be singing yes, there will still be singing about the bad times but is that any longer enough only to articulate the crisis are we obliged also to be activists and to discuss this today we have one of the most fantastic panels I have ever been given the privilege to to moderate Brie Newsome is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and an award winning yes go ahead an award winning filmmaker writer, composer, singer community activist and organiser she says that these are not separate endeavours art is activism and activism is art as she seamlessly blends her talents in pursuit of social and economic justice Brie currently works as a western field organiser for Ignite NC a project of the Southern Vision Alliance and as a founding member of Tribe a grassroots organising collective dedicated to empowering underserved communities in Charlotte, North Carolina please welcome Brie Newsome and now at first I have long been trying to make the connection between art and sport and at first for this conference we are about to meet an Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad is a member of the United States fencing team and five-time senior world medalist including this summer's event in Rio de Janeiro a graduate of Duke University with a dual major in international relations in African studies and a minor in Arabic Ms. Muhammad currently serves on the US Department of States empowering women and girls through sport initiative named in Time magazine's list 100 most influential global voices please welcome to our stage Ibtihaj Muhammad we're also delighted to have with us this evening from Los Angeles Martha Gonzalez a singer, songwriter and percussionist for the Grammy award-winning band Quetzal she has collaborated and toured with an amazing array of artists Ms. Gonzalez is also a feminist music theorist and assistant professor in the intercollegiate department of Chicano, Chicano, Latina, Latina studies at Scripps Claremont College she describes herself as a Chicano artivista an artist and activist and this is included catalyzing the transnational dialogue between the Chicano's Latino communities in the US and Jarocco communities in Veracruz, Mexico a recent blog described Martha as the writer of songs that inspired as well as serving as a way to check oneself please welcome Martha Gonzalez this is really a panel to write for us this is really a panel to wrangle this is good so please welcome back for our conversation our absolutely remarkable opening speaker Ayed Akhtar so I think that we should start thinking about this idea of artist-activist Ayed throw out a marvellous provocation about the way that we have possibly been guilty of entering into this economic era and not looking after the core things that we are supposed to be about an artist is essentially about their art but I know that there are people on this panel who think that it is much more than just that and Bri I'd like to start with you let's have your comments on this well certainly I think that it could be argued that not every artist is an activist I don't know that every artist makes activism or a cause necessarily or even a political cause the central focus of their art I would argue that there's no such thing as a political art but that's maybe another point but I do think that it's undeniable that artists have always played an essential role in social change if you look especially at any point in history where you have an oppressive power rise to the forefront it's not surprising that artists tend to be one of the first groups that get targeted simply because of the power of art to move and to change people and we have so many examples too of social movement obviously a very powerful thing in and of itself but very much reliant and dependent on art to communicate if you look at the civil rights movement of the 60s I mean you cannot tell that story without the protest songs another example that comes to my mind when I think about the power of film is the struggle for AIDS awareness and AIDS activism and I mean it's true that the film Philadelphia had a tremendous impact in really bringing the awareness and understanding of the struggle for AIDS rights and activism to the forefront of the public consciousness so it just really cannot be understated and I know that there was a period of time where I was just solely focused on pursuing film and music and I was always politically conscious you had a political consciousness but I have really come to a deeper understanding that there is there really is no separation in my mind between my art and my activism as I said I don't think that that there is such a thing as political art even in a decision as simple to write a role for a black female character like you have to understand why that in and of itself is a political act do you also think that I mean my impression is that artists who act for change are called political artists but those who don't act for change are not called political artists and yet surely they are as you were saying everything is a political act I add your take on that I mean I just spoke for 10 minutes about that exactly maybe I'm eager to hear what some of the other folks think good so come back to you very good Martha you're clearly involved in processes of activism using art where does your balance sit in this well you know I consider myself an artivista and yes it is marking a brand but not necessarily a brand by calling myself a Chicana artivista I don't necessarily want to brand myself as much as I want to focus on the kind of work that I do I'm an artist who singer songwriter and percussionist who has it's still a lot of time and energy in my group Quetzal and our work is really reflective of our community we write about Chicano identity feminism about our community ways of empowering our community but then I also we've also been really involved in creating process based work where we're not coming up with products but mainly using our skills as artists to engage communities in these processes of collective songwriting method which we've utilized throughout the country in prisons detention centers but then also in to make policy legible for communities that are affected by funding or Proposition 47 for example in California and so that's been really important to us Fangango movement for example is also using our skills to engage community and participating in the music and art making for the sake of participating and building community to instigate a kind of dialogue so I think that I feel like I fluctuate through both worlds I feel like this body ships through all of these different spaces I write about this stuff as an academic I write about the process I write about myself as an artist on the stage as well as an artist in the transition community for me I agree with you art is always political it's always rooted in the body if you're a white male creating art they create art oftentimes and we create political art because I'm small Mexican and fiery or whatever so it's like that in itself the fact that we're able to make these kinds of distinctions and not name whiteness for what it is I think that's really important that we that also has race and it has power there's a place in society that's really centralized and we are other and that's really dangerous I think to look at and we really need to look at everything that's out there as rooted in a place and a body and a privilege or not just your very act of taking up a sport like this makes you a presence which is undeniable your messaging even when you are simply practicing as an elite sports person that's what you have to do your practice is intense as I guess elite artists in some ways there are similarities but the very fact that you are there doing what you're doing in many quarters as a statement how do you feel about that when I chose to even participate in the sport of fencing I felt like from the very beginning at the age of the tender age of 12 was kind of challenging the norm not just within the sports arena participating in the sport that was predominantly white but also from the cultural perspective as a girl and coming from a Muslim family it not being very common for I guess my parents to even push their girls into sports so pursuing sport as a career path was from the very beginning just kind of out of our cultural boxes out of the norm and I guess my involvement in sport as a Muslim woman who does wear the hijab it's always felt like activism for me because I was from a very young age again always seen as different within my sport itself but I think that just like you said my presence in sport being a woman who wears the hijab kind of challenges the narrative that has been set forth for the Muslim community and kind of flips it on its head because when we think of Muslim women we don't think of them we don't think of Muslim women in my opinion in the way in which we really are we're very diverse we don't all wear hijab we're not all Arab we don't all live in the Middle East we're not oppressed we have voices and I feel like just being a woman an American woman on the US Olympic team I think just in itself challenges that narrative like I said I don't think that it was by choice to be an activist not to well I guess in a sense it is because I know especially for the United States we're kind of pushed in a sense where when you get to the Olympics you can't speak on political situations and that is I think that was always that was always set forth like that was the precedent but for me it's been important to speak not just for the Muslim community but also for even myself as a minority as a female I think it's my social responsibility to kind of give back and be a source of change and I've always felt that way I understand that you do a lot of speaking at the moment a lot of inspiring other people what are the main needs out there in for instance the young Muslim community in America what do you see as the principal need well like I said I think it's really important for us to have not just our boys involved in sport but also for women and I know that that is a challenge within the Muslim community to stress the importance of having our girls involved in sport and not just for all the amazing things that I think can benefit communities and having our girls involved in sport whether that be from the perspective of them just having you know strong leadership skills and them just developing just believing in themselves from a really young age and also having healthy communities but also I think that it not only is important for our girls and for our boys but also just for I think our communities as a whole do any of you see a fundamental difference between the kind of role models that sport provides and the role models that the arts can inspire Bree is there anything any difference in your mind or do you see them the same way see it more in the same way what type of arts you do because there's a certain athleticism that can be I mean dancers are athletes I think a lot of times people don't even respect the extent to which dancers really are athletes so I think there's a certain athleticism in performance even frankly if you're sitting at the piano playing if you are like seriously a piano player you can understand there's an athleticism involved in that as well and so I think that culturally artists and athletes tend to carry the same kind of significance I think it's kind of ironic in a way to rule around artists not at making political statements because the Olympics is one of the most political events that there is and it always has been and has historically been the site of major political statements being made whether it's Jesse Owens running in Germany or it's athletes raising the black power fist in 1968 so I think that there's a lot of similarity there I'm also not surprised that you see a lot of crossover between athletes and artists and I think in a way the sport when you see her fencing that is art to me it's certainly a beautiful thing I also think of for myself and my sport and all the work that he did not just inside the boxing ring but outside the boxing ring as a social activist and wanting to be a proponent of change so I don't think that I'll ever come close to the work that he did outside of the boxing ring but that's what I think of in terms of wanting to leave a legacy outside the sport and being a proponent of change but I don't think a lot of I mean I could be mistaken but a lot of athletes nowadays with few exceptions are really taking on the voice of the using their voice as a sense of you know to say something political or to object or to because the funders go away and they make everybody uncomfortable and they're like why are you talking you should be playing you know the impression of people like Brown I forgive his first name sorry my husband would kill me he's a huge basketball fan but like there are a lot of athletes that are really doing you know say that again LeBron James James that's his name that's right right? but very few people I mean you look back if you look at classic sports I know seriously but if you look back at my husband watches a lot of classic sports and as we watch how amazing what a great how articulate the athletes were in talking about their sport their contracts what they were going through how they saw their responsibility to communities to their own communities and beyond you know they weren't afraid to do that very much and I feel like more and more athletes aren't really doing that as much I have to hear you say to speak the way you do and the way you're talking about how you recognize what you're challenging with your the hijab being an opening Muslim woman I think that you hit the nail on the head when you talk about endorsements and you know the financial opportunity or missed opportunity and speaking up and speaking out against especially for us now in this political climate we're like afraid that maybe in some way that'll kind of jeopardize their bank account and I'm sure with someone like LeBron James for him like you know it's probably a drop in the bucket to lose a few million but for some of he probably has lost something oh no I'm sure but you know I think when we think of it from like Muhammad Ali's perspective I know that he had a very very spiritual perspective on the way that he thought about money and also about wanting to help others but he was never you know in this world but he thought of it from like a religious perspective and I think that there are athletes not to maybe the magnitude of someone like LeBron James but I do think that there are athletes who believe that that is you know at the forefront of their you know that's more important than even their career is to speak out against injustice a couple of you said in our earlier conversations that despite the conditions at the moment you thought that there was still a kind of hopefulness I'd be very interested to hear what I'm sure this audience would be very interested to know what the nature of hope might be at the moment Martha? Well I wasn't in on that conversation I might not have been but you know I go through waves I think that hope is always present and I think that if you consider yourself somebody who works on your craft and yes as you know you have to make your living and engage and connect with the communities I think you can't help but have hope because you work with communities I work with communities every day where I'd be like throwing my hands up you know but to watch these senoras that we work with in East LA and the kind of how they get up every morning and keep going you know I mean I watch my mom go off to work every day work washes women's hair all day long you know and I can't complain I get to express myself you know I have you know there's so much to do we can't like we can't give up and art I think keeps is intrinsically feeding us as we're expressing ourselves but it's also sort of if we're connected to communities I think it's also they're generating hope for us as well So Bre you were talking about a kind of hopefulness in the middle of I think I hope I don't misrepresent your comments of escalating hate crime since the election and how did you see hope in that context? Yes absolutely I think first of all it's important to acknowledge that the fear is extremely real especially for people who are living in the most vulnerable population so the undocumented members of the Muslim community in my community mean everyone's feeling the threat but I just I think it's really important for people to recognize how afraid people are legitimately afraid and I think that their fears are justified that said I completely agree I think that a lot of my hope comes from my proximity to the community and being around folks who are doing a lot of the work on a community level these are people whose names are not in magazines these are people whose names are not written in history books but I see them every day making a change and it lets me know that there are for every you know evil act that is in the world there are millions of people out here who are really working to make a better world who are committed to making a better world and I think that's what gives me hope I have hope in the people I've seen just looking at history humanity we have the ability to evolve and I think art and creativity speaks to our ability to create and shape the world in which we live we don't you know yes we inherit the world as it is but we have the power to create and shape it as it goes forward and I think that art is a continual reminder of that we have the ability to put something in the world that was not there when we got it so I had coming back to you how do we recalibrate if there are pockets of hopefulness if proximity to communities and people who are working hard to make a better world what's the possibility of recalibrating what artists have been doing to contribute possibly not to a better world which is what you're into how do we get back again how do we find the soul again well of course I have no idea of course that's fine that's the obvious excellent obvious truth taking that as a starting off point what was the question again just if we have gone so far down the path of entering into this economic era and taking on its language and that's becoming our value system in a way how do we even begin to start recalibrating so again I'll say I don't know but let me say this that if we think of the great tradition of tragedy and on what purpose that served within the sort of collective body of the society of the society in which it was born the Greek society reminded of the Taoists who have this idea that in the moment that you fully open heartedly accept the inevitable reality of your own death in the very next moment is the Tao the Tao is born from the very next moment tragedy has always operated at its best at its most essential as a way of confronting us with the reality of our death individually the reality of death socially it's only from that kind of confrontation with the finitude with suffering the acceptance of those things you know Cornell West had a really wonderful response in The Guardian to you know what could we do now in the era of this I don't even want to talk about it we said we could learn to suffer again learn to actually suffer for what we believe in because we have forgotten how to suffer we're so enamored by the fleeting neo-reptilian pleasures of our devices and we have lost the capacity we have lost the capacity cognitively to suffer and then we want to talk about change change what? just change the screen have a good screen saver that's your change so it seems to me that the legacy of art the tradition of art has within it the resources to empower us and bolden us to renew us but it comes at great cost it's not just talk and so I don't know you know how to respond to it because I'm just talking this evening in Amsterdam where Amir Reza Kluwestani made those comments was an evening to honor a free version of Belgium and Peter Sellers a former awardee of the Erasmus Prize made the opening comments and he praised Free for all her work over 30 years and said he was very proud of his work as well but he said we have already seen in Europe what the worst excesses of the extreme right can do we've seen the bestiality that occurs and if he looked at his work and Free's work over decades he said I have to admit that as much as we love you we've actually failed and if we don't develop new tools to be able to combat this then we will fail again and again and our work will be worth nothing and when the moderator asked Free Lason so what would the new tools be she hesitated for a moment and then she said I just think we've been too polite and I think that's hand in hand with the idea of suffering there's also something that Mario mentioned my talking about resilience quite a bit and one of the things about resilience is if you want to remain resilience there is a certain amount of pain in that you've actually got to start reducing your footprint you've got to start reducing the lifestyle indeed the reptilian pleasures may have to decline if you really want things to get better and so what and less concern about my well being what's so preoccupied by my well being I'm trying to advance my agenda so that I can be well it's that kind of individualism at the heart of that's what is polluting the environment that is the inducement that finance offers so you're talking in relation I'm sorry you're talking in relation to as artists is that what you're saying because I can't go into a community I have to suffer more in Boyle Heights East LA but so tell me who is to suffer more how should we approach communities okay because I think it's really important that we with the kinds of skills that we have that we've developed that we've studied whether you studied it or learned it by oral tradition or whatever that we go into communities yes we do we try to make a living in the paid work and we're here and we try to do all of those things but that we're also really cognizant of engaging and disrupting the market by doing more process-based work we need to engage more process-based work where there is no fucking outcome we're just engaging communities for the sake of engaging and connecting and whatever happens is great and that we don't expect anything in return that they don't expect anything or an outcome at the end of it that we're just spending time together doing music rather than being on our devices in my case music but there's theater processes perhaps there's dance processes and so if we focus on process more than product then that's a way of disrupting capital markets poison our own sense of spirit perhaps but I wouldn't want to go into a community and say we all got to suffer more I'm not sure I'm advocating I think I'm so reluctant to be a spokesman in any way because I'm just sharing I'm sharing the very real daily results of the crucible that is my consciousness in relation to the world and I don't want to tell anybody to go and suffer but I know I have to learn how to suffer and so that's all I can offer is that that's the conclusion that I'm coming to is that I have to learn better how to be able to withstand because it's going to be it's been bad and it's going to get worse and it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better so what do I have to do? well I certainly don't want to go into a community I don't want to go into your community and tell people you're welcome you have to come I'm your escort it's clearly an urgent time in many many different places in the United Kingdom they are facing all kinds of challenges around the Brexit again from communities who are feeling disenfranchised whether they are or not they felt it and I know in Australia young potential cultural leaders are now talking about the need to be able to talk to people whose views are different from theirs they can no longer simply ignore them and I think if there's one thing that's going to come out of these incidents both in Europe and in the United States of America it will be that you can't afford simply to say as one might have 30 years ago oh you don't like my art well too bad I'll just do it for the people who do like it we're coming to a point where you've got to come to grips with the effects that can happen when you don't acknowledge what people are feeling at the time it's an urgent time it's a time of crisis and I think I agree with Aya that it could well be getting better before it gets worse what are the first things that you do now I'd love to hear from everybody what's the first thing it do as a practitioner in this moment Brie? I think it's really important I think I'm kind of like Martha I really choose to be an artist I think it's a great experience one of the things that we really are looking at as community organizers and communities that are frontline communities where they are suffering and are feeling the effects of the violence state most acutely is how do we have that resilience in the midst of the resistance and all the other struggles that's going on and art is a big part of that so as an artist to come in and create as you're talking process art serves in facilitating spaces for healing spaces for joy as black people we have to carve out space for us to have joy in the midst of a constant morning because it can be something else every day we have the down in North Carolina we have the Michael Slager trial going on and Charleston we have the Dylan Roof trial going on the Charleston Massacre and then every other day there's a police killing and so I mean this is part of a pattern of history that we have lived with and I think that resilience through art if you look especially at African American culture is something that has always been there and is a strong element of how we practice resilience and so I think that art is an essential function we don't call it art by the way and I agree I think that art and artists these are labels that we put on ourselves we have to commodify what we do but really I consider myself a creative it is being showing up in a space and it is being in a certain way If you ask what's your first instinct at this moment what's the most important thing for you to do in the current climate I think for me it's all most importantly it's to stay true to who I am I think that there's this pressure that's being placed you know under certain communities minority communities to kind of you know in some way change to make themselves you know see more American or to like you know aspire to whiteness in a sense and I want us to continue to believe in like the diverse America that I know you know and for us to be more accepting of one another and for especially in particular for our youth to be comfortable with who they are and not have to change and morph into someone else's ideal until like who they should be and not and when I you know speak to these these different youth groups and different communities particularly within the Muslim community I try to encourage them to you know not allow other people to dictate their journey for them I think that so often we kind of force you know cultural norms societal norms on our youth and I think it's important for them to you know believe in themselves and believe in their journey and I think that's always been important to me with talks of walls and deportation there must be incredible fear amongst the communities that you work with in Los Angeles what's the first most important what's the most urgent thing for you at the moment actually you know I think it's really important for myself as a as a artivista I think it's really important for me to always keep one leg in the community they are my moral compass and the next thing I think is to continue to create right to not let the sense of at times that hits me a hopelessness breakdown and inside of me where I feel like I can't do anything about it that will never happen music keeps me going it always has and the next thing I think that's really important is that we need to network to build community and alliances across other communities right I think it's really important for us to work in a local sense and I'm not talking about super sizing or growing of some big organization I'm talking about being strong in the local capacities and then being able to bridge across other communities and struggle and so the immigrant communities and the kinds of deportations that they're facing and all of this scare is very much related to you know black youth and state sanctioned violence right it's very much related to that as it is related to other hate crimes across the country and to if we begin to connect more I think we're going to realize that it's all about power right wielding and isolating powers and and dividing up resources and if we haven't learned anything from past social movements we have to do our research on those social movements and what happened how they were extinguished right aspects of them were extinguished how they were appropriated right how even rebellion can be marketed right so we need to be very careful of those things be very aware of the market build at a local level so that and be strong in that sense so that you're able to move across a network with others and struggle and so that we keep it going and we're always one step ahead of whatever it is that it's trying to overcome and dissipate and finally I add as somebody who uses words so magnificently it's such a great skill it's so beautiful what's the most what's the most urgent thing I don't know I mean I think for me I just want to keep becoming a better writer which to me means that my craft can encompass my craft and my imagination can encompass wider and wider contradictions and that the terrifying beauty and you know enraging despair and extraordinary rapture that we are capable of and the terrific violence that may be ahead is all part of a vision that I'm able to share with those who come to see the work that we can find some kind of space I don't know if that changes anything or doesn't change anything it's what set my course when I was 15 and had a high school teacher who changed my life she made me fall in love with literature and I've never wanted to do anything else since then so I'm just doing the same thing but I'm trying to do it in a way that is awake to the world the message is hold true hold true to yourself be aware of the context flow change it's going to be necessary but never lose that thing within and that's what we know artists have profoundly amongst us in our world ladies and gentlemen please thank our remarkable panel thank you very much please can we have another round of applause for these fantastic individuals and advocates and warriors and speakers thank you Kepler speakers not only helped us and bringing Brie Newsom to this stage they are also sponsoring our opening night party so please proceed down the hallway to our opening night party have a lovely evening stay up too late do everything first night APAP whatever that is and enjoy yourself thank you so much for being here thank you