 All right, we're preparing the luncheon meeting. Good night. Shawl off. Great. So, welcome everybody. Hello. Welcome everybody here on the first edition of the Segal talks. My name is Frank Henschkern. I'm the director of the artistic director of the Segal center. And this is a big moment for us. As you all know, like so many others, our Segal center is completely closed. The greatest center is closed. CUNY universities are closed here in New York. It's a ghost town. And it's a new situation. We live in this time of Corona. And we all have to start making sense and think about making art, maybe also really take a time to think it is important. We are overwhelmed, I think, with so many things, but it's a global crisis. So many of our fellow artists are in a completely different and new situation. So I'm honored to have today for the first time here on our Segal talk, Kristen Martin from the art center, the great New York incubator of the downtown arts. And of course, the brilliant and great Taylor Mack, who was also part of the landscape. Of course, a big, big rock here in New York. So thank you guys both for coming and welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. Yeah. So what's happening? Maybe we start with Kristen. Kristen, the art center most probably lights are out. It's dark. The place that's normally bustling like a beehive. What's happening? Tell me. Well, we had to close our doors on March 12th along with the slew of other theaters that day. So we had to close our doors on March 12th. We had to close our doors on March 12th. We had to close our doors on March 13th. And we had a wonderful group from France. And they were able to do their first performance. And then they weren't able to continue. They did a very beautiful thing that night. And they did a showing for our staff only. Before packing up and going back to France. And we did manage to get them all home early. As we had hoped. We had to close our doors on March 12th. We had to close our doors on March 13th. We had to close our doors in these times. And so. It's been really beautiful and fun. And invigorating to connect with our artists. Past, present and future. And it's been also really beautiful to see how many audience members are tuning in to the online activities. We've had over 15,000 people connect to the online programming that we started just on March 16th. So that's been really. I think it's been really beautiful. And it was a beautiful experience. It was a really beautiful feeling at a time that is very challenging for all of us. And for the world. But to find a way to still connect as a community has meant a lot. And how's your family? How was your, what's what's, how, what are you dealing with on that front? We're all here. My son is home from college, obviously, because his college is shutdown. to help with that and we're cooking great meals every night to keep ourselves positive and seeing friends for Zoom parties and stuff and my mom's a couple blocks away and we face time with her and walk six feet apart from her but we're that's what we're into here in this strange desert town of a city like you said. Yeah such such a radical change of all of us in this theater. The theater is about communication it's about community and not having that Taylor what's happening where you cannot imagine you in not leaving an apartment? Well I'm actually in Massachusetts right now hanging out and just all I'm every day all I do is I'm working on this thing called the Trigalup NYC which is just I got the idea as everything was shutting down and worked with a bunch of other people Christian one of them to help make it happen and in a week's time we we put this site up where we've got over 50 donating artists who have donated content for the site original and exclusive content for it and we're raising money for artists who are in need right now today we just picked our first it's not a prize it's commissioning so we're going to be commissioning somebody with $10,000 to make more content for the site and we just were able to do that today we picked the first person today so so that's nice even though it's modest it's something it feels like something that instead of just hibernating I was able to do on my hunky little cell phone on the internet because we don't even have wi-fi I'm on a dirt road off a dirt road but but it's it feels it feels nice to participate in some way in all of this so that's good and you know just trying to find the creative solution to all of it yeah tell us a bit but it's like a subscription based yeah it's how does it work what's the idea what was it inspired by um well it was it was inspired a little bit by a few things Elizabeth Suidos was a mentor of mine and she put my name forward for a grant years ago the pdrs read grant it was my first grant I ever got and before that moment for the first kind of 33 years of my life I was always living week to week and as an adult even as a kid I wasn't quite sure how I was going to eat every week and so before that time and then after Liz put my name forward for this grant and I got it I I've never had that fear I've always been ahead you know I flattened the curve of my financial stress you know and so I've always been able to eat since then since I was 33 and I got that $7,000 so to me it was about what can we do to change people's lives so we can take that element out of out of their lives and there's so and it wasn't I didn't have to apply for the grant I had to fill out a form once I was told I basically got it but I didn't it was just I just got the money you know so it wasn't there was there was very limited variety it was just there was very the gatekeeping was artist to artist it wasn't panel or or it wasn't a giant board or anything like that all deciding how these things work it was just like this person can help this person so that's what inspired it and also that I overheard a young woman in a theater lobby say that that yesterday she had three jobs and today she has zero jobs and I thought you know this is a person who's living week to week how are they going to survive they don't you know I don't didn't know her finances but I assumed you know that she didn't have enough to like weather this storm so we're just figuring out what what we can do it's a subscription base so you pay $10 at the very least of what we offer options where you can pay more if you're if you're game to it's $10 a month or we have a $25 a month option and you can also just donate if you want to and you don't want to subscribe but I think it's amazing to subscribe because the content is unlike anything you'll see in any kind of other subscription based art site or you know entertainment site so it's a bit like a Netflix for for downtown artists where you subscriptionally based artists will be paid as Netflix commissions you know writers screenwriters directors has no alternative way yeah and basically how it works is every time we we make $10,000 we give it away that's it's that simple so once it's $10,000 it gets to the next person yeah um Kristen you you are in touch with countless armed artists especially of course from New York what's the situation what do you hear from your peers from colleagues what's the situation well I mean it's really dire um it was really good news on Friday that the freelance people are included in this bill but when we were starting this we had no idea of that to be the case and from what I'm hearing a lot of people are still having trouble that is particularly here in New York that the site keeps crashing and even when you call on the phone line there's problems so I think it's still hard to to get the unemployment but basically every single artist I know their gigs are gone and they're gone for the foreseeable future um almost every artist I know is also not being paid for gigs that they were engaged in for this month even so it's with no notice so like the complete security net has fallen out for our community um and I think it's a it's a really dire situation um and I think that's the reason that so many artists were game to be part of this project I mean the 50 artists that agree to participate are phenomenal people from all different walks of life um but I think all of them have been in that spot at one time or another where you don't you don't know how you're going to even buy your groceries and I think that that's why 50 people were like yes I will I will I will give content to help make this happen um and create this for our community and I think it shows the um the loyalty of the community that some of the people that are subscribing are artists that are like in pretty dire straits so when we were looking at the list it was really moving to see the list of people who've subscribed to paying the ten dollars a month right now even though they're some of the people that were very that were hoping to help you know it's very remarkable yeah and the videos yeah the videos are really lovely like Taylor is saying like the people are sharing something that's what they're feeling right now in response to what's going on or a recent work that you haven't been exposed to yet and there's a level of like intimacy that is really beautiful and not it's not produced and it's not fancy most of it is very personal and heartfelt and it's some of our greatest theater makers right now who are sharing that content with us maybe some names of people who are involved two-time Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage there's tons of my Carther winners like Sarah Rule and Dominique Mariso and Basil Twist just put some stuff up there Sharon Bridgeforth wonderful playwright poet we got Annie Baker and Helga Davis Everett Rachel Trafkins sings Puff the Magic Dragon to her baby and she's just gave us a new video too so we're gonna put that up tomorrow I think we're gonna yeah yeah I mean it's just so many different kinds of people that the goal was to ask people who kind of are rooted in the off-broadway off-off-broadway performance art scene in New York so that it's very grassroots so that even if they've exploded their careers have exploded they kind of are rooted in this world so that they're connected to the people that we want to help you know yeah so in a way for sure also is a time for us all of us to think because we are forced to stop in the middle of our tracks and as Kristen said almost immediately a show starts the one evening the next day it's closed what are you guys thinking what's what is on your mind what how do you make sense of it for this world what is what are your thoughts you want to go Kristen sure um thanks Taylor I mean I think that we're in like literally a reset button has been pressed a pause button has been pressed and we have to examine as a field how we go forward as a city how we go forward as a country as a world how we go forward I think that if there were ever any doubts about our global connectedness those are those are dismissed you know no one will think that anymore that we're not globally connected and I think that we're in a time where we really have to think about what getting together means what what community means and how we can define and create community in different ways because I think that we're in our homes at least here in New York City I think we're in our homes at least another six to eight weeks um I hope it's not going to be that long but I think it's likely you know um so I think we have to think about as a field how we survive you know um every organization that is a nonprofit arts organization that shut down right now is in a cash crisis um of some sort um there's and that is also the other people that are in our field and how they're paid and how they continue to be able to to pay their rent and participate as citizens in our economy I mean it's it's it's a vast moment for examination and for assessment yeah and I um I just keep I just keep thinking about the creative solution to every you know that's my that's my technique I learned in the clubs as you know in I call it incorporating the calamity you know so um I'd be performing in the club and on my ukulele and then two two guys would be having sex over here and the whole audience is watching the guys have sex right because it's gay club so it's just fun that's part of the energy of it but you know if something is threatening to take the story away from the storyteller then you have to figure out a way to incorporate that threatening thing into the story at all costs right or otherwise it steals the story and recently it's been the trump administration and trump who've been stealing the story from the american people and now it's this pandemic um and uh and so we have to figure out a way to incorporate the story into our that story into our lives um and and make something out of it I mean that's that's the only way I know how to how to survive uh emotionally um uh but maybe even uh economically you know um how we all can do that together so so that's I just like we're creative people I mean Rachel's thing at the Tony Awards Rachel Chetkin's thing you know where she said it's diversity is in our field is a failure of imagination in a field where you know our job is to be imaginative and I think that's one of the great things about being a creative is that okay let's hunker down let's figure out what we can do how can we how can we um create solutions to the problems and um rather than trying to make us all go back to the way things were uh how do we move forward um and so that's uh that's what I'm all I'm meditating on almost every day is is that yeah and I I love what you just said Taylor and I feel like we're in a time where um you can tackle what you can tackle and I think like trickle up was is such a beautiful project because you had this idea of how can we help people and and and it's really on a grassroots artist to artist level the artists that are donating videos are selecting an artist to receive a commission you know and it's a one-to-one relationship and it's getting $10,000 into one person's hands in our first week and hopefully we're going to repeat that as quickly as possible you know to get through the 50 artists that are going to get this funding and that's with the support of the community that that can happen and it's a one-to-one person-to-person relationship and you can solve a problem on a one-to-one person-to-person level and then the other thing we're trying to do in terms of uh colleges uh universities um uh is figure out some kind of academic uh price for it or something like that so the students can have access to the material because it's really educational I mean to see uh Matt may or read cut material from an Annie Baker play that's not something you're going to see uh anywhere out you're not going to see that on Netflix so um I think that's really uh something that um it's going to benefit our community in the long run not just financially but also the way that we share work with each other so uh that's something that's our one of our next stages I'm trying to figure that out and if anyone out there wants to help and knows how we can get access to the academic people let us know yeah maybe to offer like a subscription base like others do at online and then people who are registered as students can go I'm happy to to receive our library or department can help and I'm certainly uh could do that but that's I mean it was Peter Brook who said you know Stephen is when there are two people in a room and someone watches some people now say maybe you don't even need someone to watch it's like brights you know uh educational place but there are two people in the room you watch and that's gone it's like the essentialists play piano but there are no strings still we have to do what what does it what does it mean for you guys to think about theater and what it is that's it do you think it will be different let's say we come out of it will that be a different well I mean theater's different now right I mean it's certainly different from how it was with the Greeks where it was um all the everybody that was in the military when it was only men that got to go uh it was in these huge amphitheaters you know uh and and they were accomplished right so that's all kind of changed although I will say being on Broadway felt like I was in a reality TV show competitive TV show but that's another that's a conversation for another day but uh but you know so I think things have changed already and now they're gonna change again and then they're gonna change again and so the room now right now is a box right it's like our little computer boxes and our cell phones and my my dear friend Glenn Marla was a wonderful performer and um performance artist and puppeteer and uh Glenn Marla who uh decided that he wanted to do uh he was tired of looking at his face in a box and so he was going to have his chosen face in a box so he had makeup night he created this whole clown persona right so that when he has these zoom meetings he can have chosen face in a box you know that is theater that is performance art whether or not it's two people in a room that can touch each other physically that it's still people in the people in a box touching each other at least emotionally and intellectually personally you're saying here art center will be different will you make different choices it's really I really don't know yet um right now I'm just trying to be very alive with the artists and the programming that we're able to do right now and as we learn more um we'll figure out how to navigate that next terrain you know we um every show we do is different whether it's a piece where you come in that is immersive and your data is being integrated into the score and into the visuals or you're moving all around the space and every nook and cranny like we did with Taylor's Lily's Revenge or with Zoey Martinson's recent Black History Museum like so we're we're gonna have to re-examine what our relationship is to the audience again that's part of what we do all the time it's scary for sure about what this next thing's going to be and how long we're all going to be living with it um and when people will feel comfortable walking into a theater again and sitting next to other strangers um that's a it's it's it feels very uh the reports are so all over the place it's very hard to understand what our future looks like um but it makes you re-examine your present in an interesting way and find ways to function and create and feel that we have so many more tools now to keep us going than Shakespeare did you know um the Nelizabethans did uh that we can even have this meeting right now is something that they wouldn't have been able to do when they were dealing with their plagues so um so I guess you know I I'm I'm obnoxious with my hope but I I I do I I'm one luck we're all gonna die that nobody gets out alive so we might as well uh try to figure out the best possible way to live you know I think Shakespeare yeah I think he was born in the time when the plague started he wrote something king lear under quarantine I mean artists have been and be working but I'm still um Kristen are you going to give different themes to artists or do they choose what they do is there already are things coming in where you feel this is a corona related uh aesthetic uh choice or production of course production methods are changing clearly but what's with all content is there something you detect what's coming in um well we've been making a sequential community video um I'm I'm sure a bunch of people have seen the really beautiful video that was made with like 40 choreographers and they each finish a phrase and the next choreographer picks up the next phrase so we were inspired by that so we started the BAM for Joe Manila's BAM thing yeah so yeah so um we were very inspired by that so we asked uh 10 artists to uh create a 10 second clip um but multidisciplinary um and so it's called the series is called co-video and the first one was called co-video social distancing and um so for the last 10 days we've had each little 10 second clip up one at a time but today um the whole video is revealed and is on our Facebook and our Instagram um it has amazing people our associate artistic director Amanda Siklowski, Basil Twist, Christina Campanella, Highting Chet, like just amazing range of folks um so that's exciting um so and our second one is going to be called flat on the curve and Lisa DeMora is the first one on flat on the curve so we're going to be launching those every couple of weeks and you can see the little 10 second clips every day so that's one thing that we're all doing together even though we're not together so that's a new thing for us to be doing it's an exquisite corpse video collaborations across disciplines um we're uh doing a live stream Taylor did our first one last week um and Sarah Farentine did one this past Friday so every Friday we're going to have an artist sharing something that is new or old or that is in response to the times or not for 10 or 15 minutes this Friday will be Rajah Feather Kelly um so you know we're just trying to find our way I'm working on a zoom opera with Kamala Shankaram and Rob Handel the zoom opera is is is going to have six performers and it'll be live streams on the here site in a couple of weeks I think we're going I think we're going April 24th but we're having a lot of fun rehearsing it you know over zoom we're figuring that out finding out what the time delays are for singing and music because it's an opera so it's it's super fun so no one will see each other in the entire rehearsal process and the opening at here art center will be on a screen yep they're gonna well we see each other like we're seeing each other right now yeah yeah and so that is amazing the question is will theaters or performing arts places now create permanently kind of an online digital presence will it be just the time of a corona or would it be something you also for i mean brecht wrote about said his theater is for the the children of the new technological age we now live in a digital age you know and for the children this is theater for the children of the digital age perhaps also still toys are us a little bit you know but i'm sure it will getting serious so perhaps and that's what i think there will be no longer just in time of a crisis when you can't do anymore that maybe will be a new side i'm like me of opera there's ballet there is drama that might be the online presence do you think this will happen or seems like it's it's already happened before this most of the theaters i know have some kind of online presence and you know everyone's always trying to stream they're always trying to get me to stream my work i'm always saying no no no no you know it's a lot but it's different if you're a live performer or activist you know and but now you know well we don't have that option right now until we come up with the creative solution so you know i would say see on the other side or at the creative solution so um so i i think uh yeah the people will continue this is great that that the hero at center can get 15 000 people to come and check out their stuff in in a week isn't what the isn't normally what the hero at center can do because the capacity is only 100 people right so so that's that's incredible that they can reach more people um yeah you know i don't i think i don't think we're gonna lose the we're not destined to lose that we we get to hang out with each other um physically in a room uh if that's true then then humanity is dead you know like i mean we're gonna figure this out at some point because people have to procreate so i think we'll figure that aspect out we'll all be able to hang out in a room together again uh you know whether it's a couple months from now or or a couple years well it'll happen you know so but it's exciting that in some ways that the i love the unions but that the union rules have kind of laxed a little bit that are helping people be able to put their work out um that uh uh just in this time right now until we can figure out how to how to still support the artists after this time and i think it's um uh i i i think it's gonna open up doors in terms of from audiences to venues and in larger ways and people becoming aware of organizations more that they would normally because everyone's home you know looking at boxes yeah i'd like to echo uh what what taylor was talking about in terms of unions because i do feel like that is an obstacle in some of the disciplines it's not in all though so like our online programming is dance uh music and puppets because they're not under equities jurisdiction but we're not showing any of the theater stuff um because we weren't allowed to film it so that is that is an obstacle right now in the theater field that there isn't very much that can be shared there's there's situations in which you're allowed to do documentary versions but you can't you can't show it in these in this context and there is some live streaming that's happening where the unions are doing new regulations they're making it possible but um equity has been so against the videotaping that actually it's deserving parts of our field right now in terms of being able to share our work with our communities oh don't hear you i'm sure for for trickle up and nobody asked the unions you know if it's okay i guess you you went ahead um and yeah because it's all how is that working it's the level of like instagram video it's not um you know it's uh uh it's not people are aren't performing necessarily like matt mayer isn't like uh he's not performing something that uh the production of the flick you know on video he's reading some cut material um so it's different i think uh we're not we kind of escape the rules that way because we're not we're not taking money away from artists based on putting this content that wouldn't have existed otherwise so that's that's the difference it's like when people try to make money off of free labor from actors then then that that's kind of crappy but um based on the success of the actor's sweat equity that they put into a production or something like that but this is more just like journal sharing and things like that so um it's uh i think it's it's slightly different kind of thing and it's it's actually filmmaking so it's not really um it's not i wouldn't call it theater i would call it uh it's i don't know what you call these films these i would call it shorts we're making shorts i like that digital journal are you both journaling are you writing things down what happens i don't have time i'll do is write people emails i am in love with arts administrators and creative producers right now because uh i see how much work they have to do and how many questions they have to answer that they already answered in another email but they have to do it again because everybody reads emails differently but maybe let's talk a bit also about new york theater i think every crisis perhaps crystallizes you know what's already wrong or catastrophic like you know the hospital crisis show uh the government for decades you know has starved hospitals all over the world there's less and less money available in europe especially and one of the reasons that the virus spreads is perhaps also because of that new york theater we all complain always there's no money and no space and now it is truly there's no space and there is no money but what did you feel was wrong anyway and what should be really changed if there's something comes out that a government or a civic society or a city of new york the citizens as we need a new theater for new time what do you feel was so wrong and is there a chance to do something better we usually are a community um like all the theater companies like we have a an artistic directors poker game that's existed for like 10 years there's an artistic directors breakfast that's been going for about three or four years now um there's a slack channel that we started once covid started so that we could all share what we were learning as quickly as possible there's a group of us writing um city and state and federal officials together with a bunch of us like 50 or 60 or 80 theaters signed on to it so i think that crises like these like 9 11 this but this is like 9 11 on steroids it's not 9 11 it's so much bigger but um it that's what robert lions said i'm quoting robert lions when i say that uh from new ohio theater um but but we're we're having to come together because we know by coming together we can be stronger than if we're out on our own we're not in competition with each other we're in collaboration with each other to figure out how to solve this together and how as a community we can work to solve it together um so i i just think we're all gonna show our best leadership and our best listening skills and our best collaboration to get us to the other side of it yeah yeah i don't know i don't know it's interesting i have no energy in me to think about how things were wrong before like i just like like of course i had my complaints about how the industry worked before a couple weeks ago but uh they all seem so trivial now so i don't know i'm just happy that everyone's trying to figure it out together right now yeah and i mean i got an email from the mat i sometimes go to the opera and they said donate we are struggling and i wrote back i would like to but is it true and i once read that that the chief electrician gets 1.5 million dollars a year you know as a salary i think a distribution you know of resources perhaps you know um should be different and i think uh that the vital community that also makes new york new york a community that as Hilary Miller in her book shows you know really also in the 70s and 80s was there to save new york they made the contribution they did not leave they made it a city where you know art was possible and made it ultimately attractive to become what it is now it was on the brink of going broke at that time it was a dangerous time and a group of great citizens and leaders helped new york and so i feel that this is also a moment i think where the people in charge of distributing the resources and they will be scarce but also to really think this is a community that of course we love Lincoln Center we love the great institutions but that also the work what you guys do what you're involved in will get more more more attention and support and i think this is something i hope that also will emerge because you guys are going on you're doing the work most probably the big institutions are closed i i don't follow everything and maybe there's some kind of online presence but creative work is happening in small spaces as always but also you you are proof of it we had just a couple of weeks ago the great christian lupa a great polish theater director who talked about his work and also back to Kantor whose rehearsals he watched for the dead class and he talked about and also in other interviews that a theater should be you watch a corpse you know you stay something in the room in the middle you try you realize all the sudden what's life and what's that he said this is what i want audiences kancha said to to look like it's an old buddhist i think also supposedly saying you spend a night you know with the corpse and so now in a way i feel something like this is happening and really people are dying people we know they die premature they die with the virus because not just because of it they already have conditions but still really people are dying and um it's scary and i'm concerned you know for loved ones as you know i'm sure you see kirsten's mother with 75 you said or 74 and others you know i'm sure she's fine but will this will this 74 yeah i'm sorry but will will this perhaps you know also is that a moment for us who make theater and theater ultimately makes gives meaning gives sense sharing an experience with the audience will will that make us uh better theater makers or do you feel um theater already was good but just not heard no i don't i can't i heard this pundit one time on the cnn the wood blitzer asked him you know what's going to happen with the election and the pundit said uh i don't know i'm not clairvoyant that's not my job and wood blitzer said well that is our job here at cnn and our jobs tell the people what is going to happen and you know i screamed at the um television on the plane that's not your job you're not supposed to make the news you're supposed to report on the news so in some ways i um i guess i'm i i don't really want to predict what the if if we'll get better or not i just want to hunker down and try to um be as good as i can and uh and hopefully um find people that are wanting to do the same you know and support the people that um are wanting to make good work i mean one thing that i'm seeing from all of this uh is uh i i i feel more intimately connected to everybody than um than the kind of uh competitive rat race that uh you can so easily fall into in the city so that's um that's been nice i and i hope that we continue that way i at least for a few months after all this would be nice to not feel like we're in competition with each other and instead we're just all trying to figure something out together because that's really all arts ours that's all the arts are i think it's just people trying to figure out how to live a virtuous life in an unvirtuous world you know mm-hmm yeah i really second that and i think that you know doing this project has been a labor of love to help idealistically go for something as a group and the group of people working with nigel smith and emily morse and morgan janas blakeside out like the amazing people to think through this project this brainchild of taylor but for each of us are adding our own little bits to helping to make it come together and it's been a really beautiful affirming project in this time where that it's really easy to only see the darkness but i think that there's a lot of humanity and hope um that we all carry within us and that we can share with each other right now yeah and and the other thing is that it's an idea that seems so obvious you know subscription-based performance work individual videos to make money so that you can commission artists that need money to make more work that seems like such an obvious idea but it wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for the pandemic so so in some ways i think of course many other things are going to spring forth that uh should have been obvious to us but that uh orange and and now are becoming obvious and and so i i you know lear debesine talks about the the um uh hayley flanagan yes flanagan's hold what was the wpa the wpa um and and she's been trying to revitalize that you know for a number of years now and um you see how oh this could actually help make this happen the fact that the pandemic is happening we could actually get a real support even despite trump you know uh we could actually we could put people to work again to make theater uh in a serious way and um there's an opportunity here so i i i i i hear what you're saying that um this could create opportunity in a lot of ways just i think we also should perhaps talk on the on the political you know us artists and artistic producers maybe also for our global listeners you know what is your evaluation of the political situation what we are in now and um also that kind of tsunami we are in without even corona um what what do you feel how will that turn out what will what will happen here in american how do you feel as artists in that society we live in um i don't know i'm trying not to know so much stuff i'm trying to just like oh taylor we've lost you oh now you're back now you're back i was just saying i don't know i'm i'm trying to just wonder more i'm i'm we're working on this piece at the art center about socrates and socrates always said he's you know why is this person in the world because he's the only one who will admit that he doesn't know anything you know and um and uh and yeah that's kind of how i'm feeling right now is i don't know anything right now i'm just experimenting but i'm really happy that a bunch of people are going to experiment um with me and that i get to experiment in their projects and i guess that's that's where i'm at in that in that consideration right now i'm with you christin yeah i i mean i am a director by craft and i've been a uh a co-conceiver and co-creator with other people but i'm not usually the one that i'll adapt language but i'm not usually the one generating language but i've been starting to do that in this time that feels helpful so i did like a totally crazy thing and i shared something that i wrote um that's going to be up on trickle up you know what i'm so nervous all these people are going to see it but i did it you know so i just think you know it's a time to like put ourselves out there and to take risk and um i um when trump got elected i left a lot of my arts boards and i started serving on the community board because i felt like i could have more of an impact in that arena at that time i wanted to be more involved with grassroots politics um i've continued um to to serve on the community board and to get involved with things um thinking about uh volunteering with the city council member to get involved in different ways there um i i think that the the national arena is not the place where i feel like i can make a difference or what i think um can carry um right now so i'm looking at how local can i have impact local um and feel like um i'm someone who can contribute something to the conversation and i can learn from what's being discussed and learn from the processes that other people are going through so yeah just um from our we can also submit questions it's to seattle talks at gmail.com and vg march since she wants to see the link of the site taylor is talking about i think it should be if you watch on hull round it should be uh below the screen again thanks to hull round and emerson college for for hosting um this talk um it's just uh www.trickleupnyc.com trickleupnyc.com yeah he got an email from rebecca frost oh sorry .org .org we haven't quite set up the .com yet okay so it's gonna be but it's trickle up nyc.org nyc.org so we have a message from rebecca frost from minneapolis and she thinks the university of minnesota could be also helpful uh to subscribe and their students would be interested in this and any person send it a question she watched the 10 videos and the quality or the best idea she she likes they largely stem from what is rather than constructing a new reality and um she says they take up very little physical space and they are like a brief haiku and so unintentionally you're knowing uh intentionally you have created a new theatrical form that could be described as short form amateur videos of existing material or very wet paint with little regard for the how of the presentation so um she thinks uh want to know if you agree have you not seen her forward as a form is that um I don't think you know if you if you think you've nudged it you aren't the one who's nudged it so I'm not the one to say that we'll let the people decide that in 50 years but um but uh circumstances are I do find it fascinating I find the video is really beautiful and fascinating to watch um I think it's maybe because the the generosity of spirit is about trying to help other people as opposed to promote yourself so much um which is what Instagram tends to be more about is that you're promoting a product or yourself or yourself through a product and these just tend to be people really just sharing their um sharing their art uh with a lot of humility and yeah the amateur um quality of the filmmaking and some of them aren't some there's a couple that are quite um beautiful linodges has a combination of both the amateur sitting in front of a screen but also um editing and and uh beautiful other film elements involved in it and tie to foes also has all this beautiful animation that comes in um so uh that that that that kind of um real professional in terms of the the uh and when I say professional I just mean like considered um but considered art of some someone like Sarah a rural reading a poem that she's worked really hard on but the the the vulnerability in the humanity of not every element is um as polished as the poem is quite beautiful it's the juxtaposition that I've been going for my entire career is how do you put virtuosity and imperfection on the stage at the same time so I think that's what's quite beautiful about um the videos as as I see them yeah you know they are great and I think a great way to to to work and also to stay um to stay in contact I mean it's our first uh seagull talks we should have prepared something that at least we could see one video on the screen but we will get to it and maybe we can once in a while play one of the one of the things to remind people of it and uh oh this is what I also can I just say this too that the that we're not just raising money for artists who are um um this is the one thing that I think could change that would be great is the gatekeeping of of um our of the arts field and um and that we're not just raising money for artists who are established or who um whose gigs all got canceled that we're doing that too we're we're trying to do that for those people as well but we're also raising money for the person who um whose gig who is an artist who's an amazing guitar player or whatever but uh they didn't have a gig their gig was busboying you know being a busboy and so like we want to we're trying to share the space with everybody and that's um that's that's our hope is that we can um give gigs to somebody like that as well as somebody who's uh got the 20 years of experience or you know who's um and and then there's another beautiful thing is our dear friend clove um uh offered uh Ruth Malachek videos you know that have never been seen before so hopefully we'll be able to put up some video of Ruth Malachek um uh you know so I think there's a historical um room for this and there's also room for it for it for the past to be in dialogue with the present um as well and um it's just it's quite sweet you know yeah could be a great archive like kennisgoldsmithsubu.com site you know that is a fantastic collection which he has a conceptual power I think it's his greatest poem which he um also put together also maybe something to look at which is open and free but that this could also be a storage a memory machine you know of a of a new york theater yeah and we're building I mean it's a week old so we're still figuring out what it is and it's changing every day and um but I'm just so happy that in a week's time we got somebody $10,000 it's a sensational and also the amount of artists you put together in that time that in a way the global crisis that provoked it also has global tools for us to connect to work from home to have things delivered in a way and also to stay connected so it is in a way all connected and I think it's it feels like a giant devised art piece I mean I don't tend to make devised work but I I tend to be really collaborative work yeah it's one piece together it feels like a giant devised piece because everybody makes their own video and they and put it up so it's it's it's I don't know I find it I find it incredibly moving I I feel like the content is way more interesting than what you find on Netflix personally for me so yeah and maybe people in Japan or Italy or Germany might say this is a great idea that comes out of the New Yorker community that could be done for for for for their own work yeah so that that would be would be a good thing so um are you guys reading something are you listening to music we should listen is there something we say I just this was meaningful to me is there something what yeah so can we start with Kristen what do you have post-colonial love poems yeah tell us a bit what Natalie Diaz she's a wonderful poet and it's a really moving piece so do you maybe read us will you read us one poem but it's one you liked that it was meaningful uh I don't know is that okay to do it's because it's yeah that's that's fine in a radio also you can read a poem and um uh they're kind of long I think they might be too long Frank too long yeah I'm looking for one that's short enough no most of them are like a couple of pages well or a beginning of money like you can look but Taylor what are you um what are you I do you have time or do you listen to music what do you do how do you get your idea my husband listens to music while I type yeah what what do you listen to he we he got really into bronski beat the other day okay he's had that on a loop and uh you know it really holds up I always kind of thought oh is that cheesy 80s music and stuff the arrangement's quite wonderful and uh and especially that it ain't necessarily so and you just think wow what what wonderful ideas they all had and and they're activists and it's been kind of uplifting you know we've been a lot of queers I think have been feeling a little triggered because uh I mean the first two people that I know who died of of this were gay men who had survived the AIDS epidemic so um uh a wonderful queen uh Mona Foote um uh who was a real leader in the club scene in New York City and um totally fit totally uh no kind of uh pre-existing condition issues uh and so it was kind of uh scary uh but somebody who was about I don't know maybe um six years older than me or and who had you know been through uh the epidemic the AIDS epidemic um and so to die of this feels like you know and there's a meme going around gay gay social media which is like oh all those years of safe sex and now I can die of a handshake you know yeah like you know so I don't know there's a lot of triggering that's going on um uh in terms of those feelings that people had from that time coming back and memories and things so so it's um it's uh it's just an emotional time I think and um I don't really know what to say about a little bit of that but uh acknowledge that that's happening and and also acknowledge people sometimes ask me like about 24 decade which was 24 hours long and you know took up a lot of space and blah blah blah and people would say well what made you I had an interviewer want to say what made you feel like you could take up that much space you know and uh I think she was fishing for the you know privileged comment and stuff and and and which is probably true uh but the other thing was Larry Kramer you know Larry Kramer is who what made me feel like I could take up that much space like like you don't have to ask for permission to participate in in the creativity of your own survival and so uh that's that's how I feel about right now is we don't have to ask permission that's why we did this thing in a week um was because we didn't want to have to you know we didn't want to have to like fill out a form to ask permission to be able to do it and pay the seven thousand dollar fee to be able to do it we just were like no we're just going to gorilla this thing and we're going to put it up and we'll figure out the details after it's up so now I'm figuring out the details now yeah and um and just so maybe the end there are personal projects you work on is there something we say this is giving me an idea I don't know maybe maybe too early to talk but is there something um you're working on at the moment which in case we all get back to our normal lives which we will be seeing is there maybe all your current projects what are you doing Taylor you mentioned earlier Christian your opera but just tell us a little bit I think that's what our listeners to hear what you're working on and what's on your part I mean Christian I'm the resident playwright at the Hero Arts Center so I'm working on a new piece for uh here um called The Hang uh with composer Matt Ray uh who was the musical director and arranger of 24 decade uh and he's a real jazz guy so he's we're making a jazz kind of opera um and uh and it's just about people hanging out together actually so it's like you gotta be an interesting project to write during this time and um we've been writing about it I keep having the question of how much do you go into the consideration of what's happening right now or how much do you just stay on track um and uh I think it's probably the answer is going to be a yes end um but I I'm I we're just kind of like working a little bit every day on it you know now Trickle has been taking up all of my time but but he's he's composing uh to some things I've written so um so we're so so yeah but that's you know moving forward a little bit at a time and there's a couple other projects that I won't go into but um uh yeah it's a lot yeah Kristen uh what's what's uh well the idea the zoom opera is the most immediate thing right now as I said with Rob and Kamala uh but Kamala and I have a longer term project that we're we're just in the beginning stages of called Joan of the city which is a kind of Joan of Arc and uh it's meant to be outside uh with mixed reality glasses and there are like seven different Jones and you follow your own Joan in the street like a group of like 15 or 20 audience members follows each Joan the Joan that they've chosen to follow and every now and again the Jones cross each other's path and the audience members can change flow but the Jones are all uh perceived as mentally ill and as a result are homeless and so the piece is trying to address this issue of the people that we don't see and the perception the lack of understanding and compassion that we have for people around us and eventually all of the Jones arrive in the place and lead their audience members there and then we're all in the same space and there's no mixed reality glasses anymore they're not seen their her visions anymore and and through their glasses now they're seeing them everybody has a shared vision in the same space and so we're just starting that piece um and doing a lot of thinking about it um and we're just in the beginning will you are you considering you know the the social distancing aspects right now or are you just like we'll just wait and see how how's that in the process yeah I mean we haven't revisited the concept of walking in the streets since uh since this started so yeah that's going to be a whole different thing yeah definitely well that will be will be interesting I mean becoming close to the first at the end of our first seagull talk and and really thank you guys um for for for sharing your time I know how busy you are how much you do and we all admire you if you Kristen for running the great here art center and and for Taylor Mac next you know the great things you do coming out of New York I know what you did in Berlin this great great success you brought to a very big city that has that long um tradition of cabaret singing was a great thing and there was over Andrew got you in there and and that you brought something from New York to the world so really fantastic and thank you and it wouldn't have happened if the places wouldn't have been open like the years and many many many others and that's was my hope that you know everybody will watch a little bit more careful about the artists who do work and who think it's essential practice actually to do art in the time you live on so thank you so much again thank you to hall round vj and cia for for helping us my team which is san yang and may and great jackie so um you know I hope it will will go on us in the off to a good start and thank you for participating for our audience to send us some questions or emails or recommendations and please do go to trickle up nyc dot com support this i think it's that org that org we're working on it so we got the calm but yeah we just haven't like we haven't figured it out yet we have not figured out yet five million reasons why it's complicated and people can submit to you guys right and they can uh maybe in the future yeah i mean we're gonna see we're too small of a little organization you know it's all volunteer and there's like there's a lot of us you know so uh we're we're not quite doing the thing where anyone can submit at any time but we're but maybe we'll get to that place yeah good and if any big donor of any big foundation listening to this if you want to invest it is smartly wisely something that really will benefit a lot of artists but also a community this is listening to do so thank you all and goodbye and i'm gonna click now on the little red words that leave meeting and uh on my second zoom talk ever and thank you again and good luck and stay in touch thank you