 Good morning, everyone. Good afternoon, depending on where you are, welcome back to the National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation, virtual weekend. Hello, hello, everyone. I am Andrea Asaf. I am the artistic director of Art to Action, and I am very happy to introduce this wonderful conversation that we are about to have about mentorship on behalf of Art to Action and Pangea World Theater. However, I would like to begin with a land acknowledgment, and I will invite Suzanne from Pangea World Theater to join us for land acknowledgment this morning. Hello, Suzanne. Hi, Andrea. Good morning, slash afternoon. I'm very excited to be here with all of you and I'm so excited for this panel. First, I would like to say that Pangea World Theater and Art to Action acknowledge that we are on the sacred traditional lands of the first peoples of Turtle Island. For Pangea, it is an honor to live, work and create art and community alongside Dakota Ojibwe and all first peoples in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Art to Action is based in Tampa, Florida. We are on the land of the Seminole people, and we would like to pay respect to indigenous peoples past, present and future. And as we grow in our work of decolonization, we endeavor to build relationships at the speed of trust and move from acknowledgement to action. We invite you to say hello in the chat and introduce yourselves and acknowledge the first peoples of the lands where you are currently. Please name them in the chat. And if you would like to learn more about the first peoples of your lands that you're on, you can visit nativeland.ca and I think we'll drop that in the chat as well. Thank you Suzanne for joining me in land acknowledgment this morning. So I am very excited to introduce our amazing panel you are in for such a wonderful conversation today. And if we could have that panel slide I would love to show people who everyone who's watching who are about to spend our time with and introduce the folks who are going to be on the panel. So if you've never been to the National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation or if you haven't been in recent years. The thing that we would like you to know is that we have really gone through an evolution and made quite a shift from where we began with peer exchange. We evolved from peer professional peer exchange to thinking about how we really transfer knowledge about directing and ensemble process to the next generation. And we had a next generation Institute and through that process. We kept hearing the same thing that people wanted more mentorship. They wanted more relationships they wanted more learning that was based on long term relationships. And so in 2018 and 2019. We shifted the model of the Institute to a mentorship model. And what that meant is that we invited master artists artists in the field who were leaders of ensembles ensemble companies or directors or teachers or some combination groups and then we invited them to invite their mentee. And so the conversation that we're going to have today we get to hear from pairs of mentors and mentees. So the artists that we invited to be part of the Institute process and the mentees that they invited to bring with them. And we all journeyed together for a week to two weeks in a process of collaborative mentoring in this new mentorship model on when we first did it in 2018 it felt like the right direction to continue. And we continued it in 2019. So, these are the pairs of mentor mentee partnerships that you're going to get to hear from today Leslie Ishii and Kiki Rivera, Idris Cooper and Kehinde and Curtis Kirby the third and the punker from Pandia World Theater and all of it will be moderated by the wonderful Alex Mena. So without further ado, I would like to turn it over to Alex. Thank you Andrea. Thank you so much everybody with both of your organizations for hosting this panel. It's incredibly close to my heart, and I just deeply appreciate time and space being made for this really important topic that really I think lives and sits at the center of our work in our field. So I'm Alex Mena, I use the pronoun she or hers I'm calling in from Tongvaland here in Boyle Heights East Los Angeles. I welcome you all to be a part of this conversation so I am a collaboration obsessed human. I thrive and have found my healing through ensemble practice and the healing art of theater so I welcome this all to join in on this conversation. I do feel comfortable there will be a specific moment towards the end where we're asking people to join with some questions, we'll go through that when it comes but throughout please populate that chat with responses and answers of your own for what I'm going to ask to these amazing, amazing panelists. Before we get into it. Sorry I'm already getting emotional. I do want to take a moment and name that I was invited to the Institute last year. For my first time through my mentor, the recently departed Diane Rodriguez, an amazing human friend, and true shepherdess of many mentees all across the country. Diane Rodriguez had an incredible career that was really launched with the bathroom casino. And so she really started her theatrical career in the streets in the fields on flatbed trucks doing activism work through theater. And that has really informed me and my practice and although it has been a really challenging and difficult thing to grieve somebody that meant so much to me through COVID through the uprisings. I've also found an amazing amount of spiritual strength and growth by being able to connect with other mentees of Diane's throughout this process and there are so many of us I can't even name them all, but I just want to bring them into this space with me and say that we are dedicating this panel to our mentor Diane Rodriguez who spent so much of her time banging doors open and holding them open for the rest of us to enter so I really invite you all. If you had a relationship with her or just heard about her incredible work if you could take a moment and bring her into the space with you and anybody who has shown you the same generosity of spirit that Diane showed to many of us by keeping those doors open. I'd like to move us in to an opening ritual. So so many of us. There was a question asked at a panel yesterday about what are what are commonalities between all of our practices. And I think ritual might be one one commonality we all have different practices and different rituals about creating space. So many of them center around the circle. I'd like everyone if you have a moment to take a piece of paper and a pen. And we're going to borrow a little bit from Pangeo World Theater and use the idea of two minutes but I'm going to ask you to use them actively. So if you haven't had a moment to breathe today please use these two minutes to breathe to ground yourself to place your feet on the floor to reconnect to get comfortable to accommodate those now gas those butts in those chairs. I'm going to ask you to write or draw on that piece of paper. Anybody that you need to bring into the space with you to help us create an open a sacred space together. So we'll just take that time in silence during this time I'd love to invite the panelists to turn their screens on and participate with us through this. And at the end of my imaginary two minutes I'm going to ask everybody to actually turn their cameras on and hold up their piece of paper to them camera so we can see what everybody wrote. Is that all right with everybody. I'm going to repeat the prompt. Who would you bring into this sacred space together they can be here they can be on another plane write their name or draw them or an object that makes you think of them on a piece of paper. And in about another 30 seconds to a minute I'm going to ask you to hold that up to the camera and panelists at any point in time please turn your cameras on. I'm just asking everybody to join you in a moment in that activity. Don't think too hard don't draw to perfect really just bring in that energy and that essence of these humans who create sacred space with you. Y'all almost ready to bring them in and share them out. I'm really feeling the air heat up with some energy. I know some of a struggle with that energy transfer behind the screen but I am a believer that if you are sending it out you can also receive it and with each breath I feel more and more of that energy. And I'm going to ask everybody to go ahead and get ready to hold up your piece of paper to the screen turn that camera on. Show us who you're bringing in. Beautiful. Okay I'm going to try to get some screenshots. Yes. Yes, beautiful. Hold them up hold them up we're waiting for a few more. Oh my goodness thank you. One more moment. Oh my goodness yes bring them all in here. Oh I love that. Thank you all so much and as you go ahead and put it down and turn your cameras off take a deep breath collectively together as we get ready to dive into this panel all about mentorship. Thank you all for joining me in that activity. The space has been made. We are here together. All right. I have asked our panel to do self introductions. They can include anything they like, and I do have two guiding questions all right. So I learned this practice, both from Sharon Bridgeforth but I think first from Daniel Alexander Jones I want to bring bring that energy into this space. I'm asking our panelists, who is your artistic lineage your ancestral line of teachers and artists, and what practice or ethos, are you planning on passing on. So whoever, whenever we're ready I'd love our first group of panelists to share out together. You have about two minutes and I'll try to keep time so we can we can all get our answers in. All right. Please will you kick us off. Hi. Hi everyone. Yeah so I'm Idris Cooper. I'm the leader of artistic ensemble black artist contemporary cultural experience in San Francisco on seated. Ogoni land and we pay taxes to the. So, go real to land trust. Okay, and a collegiate Joe turn on your camera candy is part of my ensemble and my mentee and also my teacher. My teachers are Linda Paris Bailey, who's in the room today. And we're Desa Jones who is not here but I called her in on my paper. My other teachers that I'm a claim mentor Lori Carlos mentored me to grad school. My acting lineage comes from Linda Paris Bailey to John O'Neill Jerome Preston base HD flowers. The third, EJ Fisher, the second Daniel Chumley and Bill Duke, a deal of Barnes and Danny Glover. Those were my acting teachers and mentors. I'm going to go again, Amar Tabor Smith and Brit Blair Lee Whirly and Barbara Dilly came to me through the world for university and gave me my contemplative lineage that I practice today, even as a non Buddhist. And my directing mentors are Shabaka Henley. Sati Jamal Oscar uses Reggie Montgomery and Professor Alan and Bay at the University of Iowa. That's me. Thank you so much if we were in person man how amazing would it be to chart that and have their names on the wall. So thank you for sharing. Alright, can you can you can you add on. Okay. Hello everyone. My name is K&A Collette Joe, and I am a member of the ACCE this black artists contemporary cultural experience. My mentor is Idris Cooper and if I will say, and some of my other mentors are also Rodessa Jones, Ruth Beckford who's passed on to the ancestral world. Gloria Weinstock, which is my first acting teacher. And there's so many excuse me. But I'm feeling their energy and and though I may not through my nerves I may not be able to mention their names but I do send them so much love and appreciation right now. And also Idris Cooper is she's my mentor my sister my friend. And she's my teacher, my guide, and, and she's in the room today. So hey, Idris I appreciate you so much. And I think that's it. I did I forget anything. No, but if you want to add anything about you or your prep like anything that you are passing on. Alright, I think right now was coming to my mind that I would like to pass on in terms of my process is is is is staying true to self. I did a lot of studying in communities, other than my own community. And I, you know, found myself constantly questioning myself and not really knowing and understanding myself, because I spent so much time studying myself and so I would definitely want to leave that study yourself know yourself love yourself be true to yourself so that the work that we create and leave on reflects that and speaks to the importance of that. Thank you what a way to kick it off. I needed to hear those words today and I'm sure so many other people did so thank you. Leslie. Hello, thank you so much, Alex thank you for your lead. Thank you to Pandio World Theater art to action and this National Institute honor and a pleasure to be here, and to be with my mentee Kiki Rivera, and just this great reunion. Oh my gosh. Gosh, the artistic lineage the ancestral line so many teachers. I always have to get pay homage to my grandmother, myself Sakamoto, my mother and father Georgia Marie issue, all descendants and survivors of the US concentration camps during World War two. I'm fourth generation. And yeah, just proud to be Japanese American and learning my own political education through that lens. I'm I also pay homage to be cure Hada. I to pay homage to a deal of barns one of my first acting teachers, and Lou Bellamy, actually, but that takes me to Yuri coach Yama, and my brother Mike, who are tremendous activists bringing art, creativity together in direct action. I also want to pay homage, because I've had the great honor and fortune of working with legacy BIPOC theaters, native voices, East West players, panumbra, El Teatro Campesino, and they have greatly shaped who I am and how I pursue, but also I've been able to reclaim myself from a more western white paradigm of training. What I would pass along so many things. But I think what comes to mind is, I never forget that us telling our stories is healing us reclaiming our stories is a way for me to actually gain my analysis and my political education the truth. I have a strong political education. And with that, because I've come from being in a larger, more Western conservatory, I always say please, for myself and others, please always have your own self determination and your own rhythm, your own breath rhythm even. So thank you. I'm currently on clinket on knee of the Alcaquan and Tocaquan peoples, also known as Douglas and Juno Alaska. Oh, you gave me that breath I needed. All right, Kiki, come on down, continue the passing. Malolava le paia male mamalu ale tato ma futanga, my maunga te tele seio o itato fa nawiti ta lofa. First and foremost, I give praise to our great creator for the love and kindness to all of us. I'd like to give thanks to Pangea World Theater and Art to Action and HowlRound for gathering us here today. I'm so thankful for this opportunity to be here before you all and speak. Although we know Kiana or Kiki Rivera, I'm a child of Andrew Suza and Pui Pui Formatu, the granddaughter of Mary Sino in Gracio Rivera, and the granddaughter also of Makarita Sangatu and Pui Pui Formatu. I am from Waianae or Ahu, Hawaii, and currently I am on the Aina of the Tongva and Keach people. My artistic lineage of teachers and artists, you know, there are so many people and I was writing down all these names and I thought, oh, I don't want to forget anyone's names. And so I thought, okay, the thing that really matters to me is the people who come to mind when I am about to make a major decision or whenever I am performing or directing. Those people include, of course, Leslie Ishi, Haile O'Pua Baker, Fatasi Manu Klutz, Fran Luhan, Victor Roger, Elizabeth Wickman, Walzac, Lou Genjong, Victoria Noobl, Sammy Choi, Juli Yatzee, Andrew Valentine, Tamara Montgomery, Glenn Cannon, Terence Knapp, Steve Schick, Ole Aken, Eric Inos, Carmen Morgan, and everybody at Art Equity. So many people. The practice or ethos that I'm passing on comes from is Théo Leva, and that is a Samoan philosophy that focuses on sacred and secular relationships. And I feel especially lately that a lot of people are teaching me the importance of community and the importance, the relationship between myself and other people and the relationship also between myself and the land and the place they come from. And I think that is always very important in going forward in creation and especially the creations that we participate in in this space that I love through the Institute and what drives rituals. So Théo Leva. Mahalo. Thank you, Kiki. I'm going to bring up our last pair, DePunker and Kirby. Hi, Alex. Thank you for inviting me to be a part of this. Artistic lineage, ancestral line of teachers and artists. It's like you stand in front of an ocean and you're supposed to introduce that. And you have a timble called voice. But I come from India. I originate from India and so my grounding has been first at home. You know, my mother is a poet. And so I grew up in a house and my sisters used to dance. So there were always rehearsals at home. And so I grew up in that house. And then we were sent to missionary schools, you know, which were all English medium schools. And the entire education period is in English and very western and colonized. And every city that we lived in has its own language. You know, so we always grew up with sort of a multilingual vernacular. So our breath was always multilingual. So English in school, you know, going to church, sitting down for Mass, coming home, seeing all the rituals at home and every day some festival which you participate in. The grandmothers would strongly say that, you know, why speak in your mother tongue. Don't speak in English. Don't be that. And then when you go out to the shopping, you know, to shop anything is a local language which is Hindi. Or wherever we lived every city has its own language in India. So, so I think these multi, you know, it's always these intersectionalities of multiple truths, you know, socio political racial, you know, language, religion, language. That's that I think is the ocean in which I always swam. Yes, so, you know, at home, the non-western education came from Natya Shastra which is, you know, the treatise like what is the Aristotelian Poetics. So it was Natya Shastra. The second century is written in second century BC. So, and I had a, but the person who really transformed my life outside of home, mothers, grandmothers, teachers, was one teacher called Vishnu Bhatti, a professor called Vishnu Bhatti. He always would tell me that, you know, you know a lot about others and he meant the western world is that a person like you should know about your own. And I did not know what it meant because I was so colonized for a large part of my life and I was an undergrad and then I went to him and he taught me Sanskrit. And so the language in which all these books are written, and then my whole world just expanded open and then I read Natya Shastra and he taught me. I mean, and it was all from oral culture, you know, he would never let me read the text. One day we'll talk about the politics of space and he'll keep the book and I'm still struggling on the pages. He says, leave the book and then listen. So I think listening as a tradition, listening from this teacher Vishnu Bhatti, and it was, and he was such a generous soul, it was never this over that it was this exists and this exists. And I take constant comparisons and, and I think, and I think that really spoke to me and, and, and coming from a street theater background. So it was always rooted. That's why I never understand when they write say I don't know what to write about my question to them is up to a live. So the street theater is a strong lineage I must say that I have. And what practice or ethos are you passing on anything that my mentee will like to receive everything that I have been taught I will pass on. I have been blessed by teachers. If 100 was required from them they gave me million in teaching in, in thinking in sometime very rigorous, you know, disciplining because of the martial arts background but artistic background. You know, I think what I would like to pass on is craft, rigor, rigor of craft. You know, and the unspoken, you know, in not just Alex where they say that, you know, the rigor and craft is just the boat on top of the ocean, and the whole ocean is the unspoken. The unspoken is the philosophy where all this lies about how to be a better human being you know craft, my teacher always say, you know, don't, don't get arrogant about craft. Even a dog is taught in a circus to jump through a circle of fire that button, you're an artist understand the philosophy and so everything I think to put it down in three words, craft, rigor, rigor of craft and philosophy. And whatever Kirby and would want to have, I will pass on to Kirby so those are the three things I would say. Okay, I got to say this metaphor of the ocean and the unspoken. I mean, I'm going to invite us all to jump and dive into it with you it's the metaphor is stunning and really going to stay with me so thank you for sharing that. Thanks. I'm going to pass it to Kirby. Yo, what's up. How's it going I see in the chat a lot of friends and family in there and so it's good to be here. For you those that do not know me. Buju, when to go and just because mind getting do them. I'm from the boys for a band of an issue not be here in Minnesota, about 90 minutes from the border. I am also African American and indigenous from the lower half of the America so it's totally an honor to be here and to be with you. Definitely honored to be in this space. Who I am I work with a group of youth on indigenous youth right here in Twin Cities, probably, maybe a two or three miles away from where George Floyd was murdered on and on those that is the community that I serve. I'm a directing fellow at Pangea World Theater and a member of their ensemble so that that that is where I start my teachers in life have been all the elders that have came before me that have put in it could have been it could be 30 seconds. You know, two, you know, hours and hours of time you know just watching observing my grandmother is sharing day. And I've learned everything from her. I was raised by her from the day that I came from home from the hospital and she's been a teacher in from that moment forward and anybody that she's put in my life. I've met DePonker and Mina and Leslie and you know, the names go on Mario Turan of Linda Linda Paris Bailey everybody has had a moment in my life and in teaching me something and my culture has deeply rooted and been a guide and a tool for me. Growing up in the as an issue not be we have ceremonies we have celebrations and all of those are art form. Everything from those from dancing to singing to just watching your elders land and grow those are the. Those are the people have taught me and they have guided me this far and they continue to guide me. And, you know, I, I, the reason why I do theater why I tell storytelling is because that's how my people got here to this point, you know, without storytelling, without performance without songs and dance. That's what makes it so special and unique and that's, that's why I'm here today and I, I work to serve my youth and anyone that comes in the generations that come after me. So what I want to pass forward is just like DePonker said anything that I can pass forward and just, you know, worth ethic and you know, really, I want to pass on to them I think collaboration, connecting with people that will take you so far in life and when you work hard and you, you meet people and you, you, you are true and you're good to them, they will be good back to you. So, um, DePonker took my other two minutes so that's all I have. Thank you. You're allowed to continue if you'd like, I do know we got more to talk about so. Thank you. I just want to wrap up what I think I've heard a little bit from everybody. We've heard about staying true to yourself we've heard about. Oh my gosh how did Leslie put it about self enterprise. Oh man, the word. Thank you for your determination. Thank you. We've heard about passing on the stories and our dances on how they are essential to us we've heard about swimming in the unknown and expanding our minds and decolonizing. We've heard about our lands and are those who have come before and the richness of our families and so much more. As I like just even start repeating what we've already heard in the first few minutes, I'm already starting to feel myself expand and bro with group patients through this process and I just want to remind us all that that that is what ensemble does is it refills our tank doesn't it. So on that note, I would like all of us to answer on the panel, the following. Let us reflect on the experience of being officially paired as mentor and mentee about a year and a half ago. What are the logistics out about the experience right at the Institute itself. What are you still processing. And most importantly, what did the formal title due to your relationship so I asked that because maybe you were already mentor mentee. Perhaps you were already collaborating and behaving in that way but didn't have that label, and did the label shift anything in your dynamic. I'm going to give everybody about two minutes to answer. Is there anybody who really would like to go first. Kirby, your, your, your voice is still so present me do you mind kicking us off with this. Yeah, for sure. Everyone back that question I'm just playing. I got it. What sticks to me. I think last, last year I was a, it was like my third time so I felt like, and it changes every year. But honestly, like I've been a mentee of the Ponker on first some, some while now so that wasn't new to me but like I said I think some of the names I've echo before have built along lasting relationships. And I like Linda, Linda and Jonathan brought us down to, you know, perform my ensemble my youth ensemble down to Tennessee and that was like a like a mindblower for them, because you know they only a lot of them don't travel without without their square mile radius you know one time I brought my kids to a restaurant that was in Roseville and it's a local suburb here and he said wow I've never been to Roseville, and I promise you it's like six miles up the highway from this house you know. So for them to go like to Tennessee and to be in a completely different atmosphere than you know, African American predominantly African American you know and they're indigenous and for us to share that culture exchange. And there's many more I've you know I recently directed as assistant director for Leslie easy so I think the the Institute is so much more than just 12 days or just it's really truly lifelong lifelong mentorships that you get out of it not just by your original mentor but by all these great professionals these Titans, these, you know these people are so colossal. And so that we wouldn't have this feel we wouldn't have a place in the field if it wasn't for them. So I think for me I, I never went to school to do theater like I said I grew up dancing singing you know I was in youth ensembles and just to be around this and to get that it's like getting up. You know you're getting a master's in 12 days so it's truly just amazing in that way and I'll pass it on from there. Thank you, who else is feeling moved. All right to conquer see you unmuted come on. Yeah, you know, I'm just focusing on the first question that you said ancestral to in India there are no theater schools, you know, some might have started recently you know like in Delhi there's an university here but generally we grew up with no that it's not taught in schools no theater no profound. So you learn it. You know so you seek mentors you seek teachers I mean there is no MFA BFA. In fact, when I went with my Western degrees. You know, many of the teachers went down on the knees, and they were buying to me like this or the master of fine arts and what I, and it was a joke. You know, because so you search for mentors and and who and whenever when a teacher sort of accepts you. It's a blessing and you're very lucky to be accepted back home, you know that that he really calls you a teacher and then a whole life journey begins and so. Specifically to the your question of over here, you know when the word mentor and mentee be invited. And those terms. Actually, I'm so lucky that you know, I consider Sharon day to be my mentor. I'm living everywhere in my art in my philosophy in my creative thinking in my critical analysis. Generosity of spirit. You know, ability to forgive I mean I'm not saying I have mastered it I think I have to take many books to be anything what Sharon is. I've been a presence in my life and then there are many teachers over here, you know, Linda, no book or elders whom whom I've met into this conference. But, you know, I think I was, you know that terminology does not begin the journey that journey had already begun. For me, when I was invited in, you know, in this, in this, in the, in this rich Ojibwe culture, and I saw alliances I saw similarities, the ancientness respect of elder respect of rituals storytelling circularity. All these just spoke to my heart and for a change I was in walking into a room where I just says felt that my God I'm home. And this was far away from home, you know, in a distant foreign land. And so, so I just felt that you know, and because of my commitment to Sharon and the learning. And when, when we were supporting Kirby, you know, I just became completely accountable, you know, accountable accountability got heightened, I think that's what it was. I mean the love was always there as a family it was always there as a brother, it was there, you know, but I think when it when that those terms are, you know, is a term of accountability so because in India. Nobody first nobody asks you first that you know what's your name. The first thing they'll say who student are you. And you know that's what they want to know. And your name is inconsequential, it might come or might not come. So who student are you. And so therefore when you are portraying a student's name, your teacher's name, you better shape up, you know, you tell yourself that. So to me when I walk into a room and I say, you know, I respect Sharon I respect no book or respect Linda, you know, these names that I better shape up to be worthy of that those names, you know. So to me, it just made me more accountable to my learning from this side of the lineage, and then complete commitment and became very protective of Kirby and you know his smile is also another mentee. So I became very sort of emotionally protective outside of the of the rigor of the craft. Absolutely. I love that you're bringing in that this, these relationships are not just about teaching a practice. And in fact like school would school doesn't tell you is how to, how to build relationships and how to work through challenges and how to relate to humans and I know that my mentors have passed on. The number one thing they've passed on is grace to me. So thank you for bringing that up to punker. All right, who else would like to answer this question from our panel. Please feel free to unmute yourself. Hi, I'll go. I'll jump right in with the Pongra mentioned in Linda Paris Bailey, who and noble code and Linda was the one who recommended me to the directing Institute and it's responsible for my being here. And she was my first acting teacher, one of the first, the first person to take me seriously as a theater artist when I was about 10 years old. So the, the possibility was not there for me to reconnect with her. And so, as I left California, I was kind of aware that I didn't really know what I was going into. And I didn't have Linda there as that anchor. And I, I knew noble code was going to be there and I hadn't seen her in maybe 30 years, I think it was. And Sharon Bridgeforth, who I hadn't seen in probably 10 years and had just met once or twice and Carol McCord who I hadn't seen in 30 years so I had these possibilities of reconnecting with people, but kind of in a space where I didn't know who was going to be there and I had to expect one of the first things that struck me was that first night at the dinner in the restaurant where that's now burned to the ground and a year later I watched the owner of that restaurant. So gracefully, as this restaurant was burning remind the world that people were more important than buildings, but that night he started to speak and something started to shift I felt something's really different about this right. So I looked around the restaurant and then you conquer got up and spoken. There was just something really familiar, but different about the way people were speaking and what they were speaking to. And I glanced around the room and for the first time notice that the room was full of people of color, exclusively. And another glass was that there were mostly women in the room. And that was shocking. And then also told me what I was experiencing was this home, this kind of familiarity this family, and I was immediately welcomed in by that experience. What stands out for me besides that first moment was the reunion of, you know, noble code and Carol and I met in that connection, and then I started to uncover all these connections that I had to people in the room through their teachers and through their cohorts. And even we were going through one ancestral. This moment sticks out big and ancestral lineage exercise and CC started to talk about her grandfather, who I realized was part of my family, and had driven me to school. Every day on my elementary school. And so I had never met her that moment stands out to me just that connection and meeting Anton and realizing that I knew his mother, those kinds of things. And then the third thing that stands out is the exchange that happens because you often go to conferences, and you get. A tremendous exchange of processes and containers and exercises and games. And a lot of times I come back home, and I have notes that I go through to try to remember. I didn't have that. The notes were in my body. The processes were done in a way that was so embedded that I continue to this day. I brought, I bring in an agreement to everything I do. Which I went back to teach at the school stage bridge, which is a training program for people 50 and over. And I brought the agreements and look like a genius when I was there. We embarked on our first original production, inspired by jazz, Sharon Bridgeforth jazz workshops. So so much of what I experienced there. And then the last thing I want to say is about the mentor mentor relationship. So I think they probably named me her mentor before to me, but it really didn't stick until it was named at the Institute and I really felt the responsibility. Because in my mentorship. There's a lot of the people that I've named not all of them, but a lot of them there were struggles in those relationships. There were struggles, even to claim those people as my mentor because some of them have even been canceled in the theater community. Right. Some of them have been me to doubt. They're not always the ideal role model, but they taught me something so I claimed them as a mentor. What I want to be is an ideal role model mentor. I don't want to have a fraught relationship with my mentee. I don't want to be practicing things that embarrass my mentee, or that make my mentee have to defend me or explain why I'm being an ass. So that is really important and has really been cemented since I've been at the Institute, that responsibility and all the way back, because Linda represented me here. I have to like the bunker said, I have to be worthy. I have to be worthy of LPB's legacy in this Institute and in the world and so I hope I make you proud mom. I, oh my god I'm just so emotional I know that we'd be like in like such loud applause for everything you just said a lot. Thank you. We could just keep us moving for sake of time we're going to be good to time so it's good back to us. Who else we have three more I think I'd like to write on in and I'll make it quick. But what I experienced was a rebirth, being in part of the the conference, two a year and a half ago. I, I came in, you know, not really sure what I was getting myself into he just invited me, and I said okay, and I thought it was going to be about theater, and it was, but it was more so about freedom, and it was more so about reclaiming our voices and I did that I I'm an actor. So I use my voice in that way but in real life, I tend to, you know, shrink I tend to be silence. And that's just based on kind of how I was raised and brought up. And so, I was freed in those two weeks, and it was more than anything that I had ever experienced in all of my years of of education and I, you know, I went to two private colleges. Majority of the students there were of the worldwide I was one of few of, you know, in my class and and, you know, leaving leaving Minneapolis and leaving this experience, I realized my responsibility to use my voice my responsibility to use my art as a way to advocate to disrupt, you know, to use my, my spirit to help show other people what freedom really is and it really is about owning yourself, owning your story, owning your voice and so I really do appreciate, you know, being offered the opportunity to participate. The process was very freeing. I loved being able to meet so many people I mean I didn't know. I don't really think I knew anybody before I came there out, you know, Idris probably was, you know, she was the person that I knew very well but I met and developed, you know, relationships in that time with with individuals that I'll never forget. And so, and it deepened the relationship with with me and Idris as well. Because I didn't know a lot about Idris I mean I she's my sister and my friend but there are a lot of things that I found out about her in that experience that just shifted, you know, everything that I everything in me. And how I felt about art and how I felt about being a black woman in art and it just shifted shattered all of that. And it's like I got to restart and I got to restart on our, you know, our in our relationship I got to restart on our on my work and a restart on life period. So I came back and I spoke up. I spoke up in several instances, and, and it wasn't always, you know, received well but I felt good about it because I felt like, you know, if I got a voice and I might as well use it and I need to use it to to protect to heal to to enlighten and to guide people and so I again I think you all for this opportunity. And yeah, it was a it was a it was a eye opener. You know, it busted my spirit right on open. Thank you. Yes. All right, Kiki and Leslie either of you'd like to take it. Sure, I'll take it. So I think there has been an invisible cord that has attached itself that that was there probably that I never knew about between Leslie and I, we met at our equity 2018. And we didn't have a lot of encounters together, but the ones that we did was very special and it was very deep. And when she invited me to this tonight, I think there are so many people that we met in that cohort and to think that the ancestors placed my name in her in her head was such a blessing, and I feel like, I feel like this has been like coming home like everyone has said, and that lamp. And that fire is the heart of the Revolution. And and there have there's all of these invisible cords that have been pulled that has pulled us together that has brought us back home to the village of all of these movers and shakers and and the change that I've been longing for in theater. Yeah, so I just, yes, everything that everyone has said is has been my experience and I am so grateful. Thank you. Well, I have to just jump right in. And keep please join me. Um, you know, we were kind of reminiscing about yeah how did this happen. We met at art equity, we were in the same affinity space. And I might have, I think I was maybe facilitating that particular group at that time. But it, yeah, and then I remember Deepakar, Mina, and, and Andrea invited me to the Institute and saying, Oh, now this time you get to have a mentee. And I was like, Oh, first of all, I just go, Oh, I'm accountable. You know, I need to rise and be my best self, which you hope you always do anyway. But there's something about that. And I've had other mentees and I was just thinking about this particular space. I always try to think specifically what works well for that person or for what the needs might be or we're just supporting the creation of community in this space. And one day, because I, with the consortium of Asian American theaters and artists, I was talking to Leilani Chan, who's a wonderful member of this family too. I said, Leilani, I get to choose the mentee. What do you think about Kiki? And Leilani was like, Yes. That was it. Yes. I was like, Yay. And had just kind of come to me because I do a little bit of meditation that is just sort of Kiki. I think it's Kiki. And then, you know, we were, we're planning still it's been put off because of COVID but to take the conference and festival, the National Asian American Theater Conference and Festival to Hawaii. So I thought, Oh, this is maybe just a beautiful confluence of activities and engagement together and what can this mean for Kiki so that that was just a, that it just felt right, right purpose. As I say, yeah, yeah. I'd like to add to the language of of this experience and the village and how our mentors are our in the village. There are parents there that that are Makua are our figures that that strengthen us and that provide that foundation and then needed to just put that into that space too. Yeah, well, thank you. Well, I can honestly say too that I might be sort of the designated mentors, as you will I take on that with such humility, and I honor it to honor Kiki, and I have to say, a lot of the time Kiki is my mentor. So I learned just as much as a beautiful exchange. Thank you. I think that's like an amazing segue, Leslie, because I think mentor mentee we sometimes think it's only one direction, but it absolutely is sick, a cycle and a circle. And I remember, I'm going to shift a little bit from our agenda here, but when we had first met for the, for the prep of this, Leslie you'd said something that really captured me which was about the, the intertwining of life and craft. And I don't know if you want to, if you can elaborate a little bit on that with Kiki on how that functions since the, the, the gathering. Sure, thank you. Well, I think I was reminiscing when we had our prep meeting about, you know, often in it like an academic setting when you're taking on, or you have mentees mentor relationships. So about that academic sort of structure and achievement in a particular way, you know, can be very oppressive actually very dehumanizing. But I was sharing with this group and reminiscing about how, where do you get the opportunity to, to intertwine your craft of playing together. And then you walk and you go eat the lamb bowl at the international market, Kiki and I were pining after the, we were remembering the lamb bowl and the ice cream place and, and just walk along and talk, and maybe lay on the floor after such and you just kind of uh huh, look at the ceiling and breathe and you know just taking the time to really in a more relaxed way in a real way, build a relationship. And I recently, I just want to call in a dear friend who's becoming a wonderful friend and colleague, Marguerite Hanna, and out of Georgia in theater, and Marguerite says, get to know me before you need me. And I'm like, Oh, that is the essence to me of coalition of solidarity building. And so just getting to take that time where we're playing, building our craft together experimenting. That just meant the world. This is such a different structure at the Institute. And I was also saying to the group, if you walk in, and everyone and he said, Well, who's the director, because it's got such this beautiful horizontal sense of play and collaborative spirit. I think we naturally we would all stand up, or we would all make ourselves know, or we would just look around like, Oh, what we're all playing here, you know, there isn't a hierarchy that way. So that struck me tremendously. And that sort of, to me spoke to just the way the Institute unfolded. Yeah, and the joys and the depth and the learnings. Yeah. Amazing. Kiki, don't feel like you have to do anything to add to that. Yeah, I don't think that there is a separation between life and craft, they are one in the same and especially in this group. It really, we see that we see that our life, our craft, our, our desire to change the world are all the same and we cannot separate those things and I think coming from a background of academia, academia, Western academics, everything is so separate. And that is so oppressing. And so when we talk about indigenizing and decolonizing our theater practices, it is not separate. It's all inclusive, it's holistic, and, and this space, this, this fire that keeps that holds us together is where that has happened. Yeah. Yeah, amazing. Yes, we can't cut ourselves open and divide ourselves right. And yeah, so what I'm, I often think about like what is it about white body supremacy culture that feels that it is not support like it does not make better art and I think it's exactly that right it is that if you are not building into your process a way to get to know each other as humans. I don't like to say this often but I think you're doing it wrong. And I think a lot of us here share that ethos or a depunker and Kirby I'm going to throw it to you. I'm kind of going in the same direction. How do you all remain committed to each other's growth in both directions. And do you have any like tangible tools you can share with people about how you engage in that. I haven't seen this guy since the Institute, I think. No. No, I think the depunker is truly like a friend family or brother a everything you could truly imagine and more, you know, you all know the punk or most people know him. I always feel incredibly grateful that we have, you know, I did a play with him when I was like, five years old or somewhere around there's called shadow lines and then it was, it's so, you know, when we start, we start working on I start working with this youth data ensemble sharing on my grandmother said, you're going to work with the pocket and he's going to direct the plays and you know, and so that went on for a couple years and all of a sudden he was like, you're going to, you're going to direct you know, and it's still like that you know our relationship is still like that you anything he needs, you know, when he calls I go, you know, it doesn't matter if it's to go hold the ladder to hold the string to do theater work to to whatever it is because that's the commitment that we hold to each other and it's it's the same as reciprocated. And the only reason why I am here is because he makes me believe in myself, you know, sometimes you don't have that are you're not when you're young you don't really know what direction you want to go in life I grew up you know playing football and I played in college, and you know I love working with you it's like any which way I can help a youth grow. I'll do that but this this theater. Um, is an incredible tool and incredible. And sometimes I mean just watching my kids I want to cry watching theater I just, that's what type of emotion it brings out of you, and it has so much power, and the power that it holds. Um, is the power that I feel and the connection that I feel with the Ponker, you know that that connection that energy it doesn't matter if I talk to him every day doesn't matter if I talk to him every two weeks you know, every time we go it's and it's like, um, growing up with growing up with my grandmother and that's my other mentor you know, she always gives you a little bit you know a little bit at a time a little bit more to the story a little bit more. And that's how it is with the Ponker like even today I learned something more from him. Every time that we look up that we get to be in a together and just hold conversation. Um, it's truly incredible and we you know I assistant direct a lot of plays that he does on and so many other things you know that we do together and ceremonies and things that we share together. It's truly an honor so I'll pass it to big D. Thank you for what you said. It's, you made me cry. It's like, I think what he said and what, you know, other people in the panel are echoing. How, how do I remain committed to each other's growth I mean, as long as Sharon day is walking on this earth, I will remain committed to a grandson. And I, I, that's, that's, that's it, whether Kirby wants me around or not immaterial. No, I'm playing. I'm just committed. I'm committed because I really is a holistic relationship. It's, it's, it's every, every day, every time we meet every play that we do. The relationship goes deeper and, and is that is not just the curve is not Kirby just about, you know, the whole, we work very closely with the whole community we are so honored to be invited into the community into the indigenous ways of working into the rituals into, you know, by Sharon and Kirby and by Kirby's family. So, so you're not just we meet in class and after 45 minutes you go to another class, and then you go to another class. Yes, all that I've done but being present to that family bring present to the challenges and, and and I think my, how I'm remaining as long, I mean the hunger, what what makes me completely glued to Kirby it is hunger for learning and my hunger for learning and Kirby's just deep humility and openness to learning the craft. You know, and so, so whatever I know whatever my teachers have taught me I want to sort of share with Kirby and, and I remain committed to him to, you know, with the craft with the, with critical thinking with listening with deep listening and those things. Those thing Kirby teaches me at every step, if 50 is required from Kirby when he towards his students, you know, he in order to do the workshop Kirby goes from house to house to house to house picks these kids up. You know, and then they are then we do this powerful workshop and then he goes and drops them to each and every, I don't know how many teachers who might have met in my life, I've done that I mean I don't know. But that's what Kirby teaches me and so my commitment to Kirby is very in some ways very selfish because I want the field to have thousands of curbies. I want the field to have thousands of Kiki and Leslie and, and, you know, and, and Idris and, and, and kahinde I that is the world that I envision and, and to me. And the names I'm not mentioning I always hesitate to mention names, because there's some names that I'm not mentioning and you know that people who have contributed to my whatever growth or mistakes. They are responsible for it. So, so I just that that's my commitment to Kirby's growth and Kirby's the, you know, as, as long as hunger exists, you know, we'll journey together, and he teaches me humility. Thank you. Absolutely. The future the future the future the future the future is also now so can day I want to throw it to you with this question about. We're all living through coven we're all adapting our artistic practices we're all adapting how we connect. And what about coven or anything that's happened in this milestone year 2020. What about it has deepened or released your need for this type of mentor mentee relationship whether with Idris or with other mentors and mentees that you might have. Yes, this has been quite a year. And I would say that coven made me stop and really reevaluate my values and and really look at my community like Idris and and I we don't live far from each other. And so I just just looking more at deepening the relationships that I have with the people that are around me and and also repairing my relationship with myself and healing the relationship with myself. I think that experience a lot of things have come up for me and Idris and I we often talk about our experience, I will give you know we would hear something or experience something we'll give each other that look like, you know, reminds us of something that we've heard our experience in during our time in Minneapolis and so you know overall coven has just made me feel so much gratitude so much gratitude for Idris for her boldness for her ability to see in me sometimes what I don't see in myself. And and also just looking at myself and and art and really unpacking that you know because I was classically trained and that did something to me and thank God I met Idris because Idris really with care just and and also with with so much care but she like you know did not allow me to shrink or to like back away from something that I feared or you know she would push me you know push me forward anytime to we were you know we would have a production and I would feel unsure about myself she would be the one to be like you know we hear let's do this and a lot of times that's just what I need I need to get out of my head and more into my body and so even with our process you know like even with us using music to free ourselves before we even go into the work you know you know yes Idris has has really been instrumental in you know me waking up as an artist as a person and so I've been spending a lot of this time during covid reflecting and asking myself the necessary questions to take me to the next level in my humanity in the next level in my art artistry and I owe a lot of that to to my mentor my friend my my my guide Idris Cooper who has been the first one she was the first one to free me I was right I came you know back home from from from NYU and I was all confused and didn't know what kind of artist I was and what kind of artist I wanted to be and then I saw met her and I saw the way she approached art I saw the way she approached the world and I wanted to I wanted whatever that was that she had and I don't remember how we connected but we did and we have been tight ever since and so we you know even during this time of covid I'm so grateful to not live too far from her we have been bonding over gardening you know looking at you know in appreciating the beauty that's just right around us that so often we may you know overlook because it's so easy to overlook some things sometimes important things because we so caught up in the the rat race or the world pool of you know expectations and desires and so on and so forth so I'm grateful for covid I'm grateful that it allowed us to deepen our relationship and and grow our own food yes and I think that's it for now. Thank you I'm seeing in the chat so many people are really resonating with a lot of what you had to say so thank you. Right before I hand the mic to Idris I want to just remind everyone if you have a question that you'd like to ask one of the panelists please put your name in the chat so we can start stacking and Idris I'll pass it back to you same question. Oh yes hallelujah. God is good the goddesses are to blame. I would say, I remember how we met. And it was at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre and K&A is a twin and you know a twin by their names their names are Tywell and K&A in the Yoruba tradition. And when I met a K&A, I was struck, it was the first K&A I had met outside of my husband's family. And my husband came into the room, and I said look honey K&A, and he took one look at K&A and ran do you remember this ran from the room left his wallet left his jacket left his glasses. I went after him and he was sitting in the car, shaking, and he said I feel like I saw my sister. I feel like and he had lost his twin, and he had found another one in K&A and from that moment, I don't think I was even allowed by the ancestors to ever let K&A go. So that that moment sealed our relationship. The mentorship actually offered the opportunity that my mentors have given me, I think what mentors do a lot best is introduce you to things and drop you into experiences that change your life. And Rodessa, Linda, they've always given me opportunities and at some point, I was getting these jobs from Rodessa, and someone said when are you ever going to get out of the shadow of Rodessa Jones. You're your own person, you don't need her. And I wanted to slap them, because they haven't understood what life and learning is about. I am still under the shadow of Rodessa Jones. Thank God for that big old palm tree she is, that shelters me from all the elements. I never want to not be under the shadow of someone. Everything I learned, I learned from someone else. I have invented nothing. And so I think that that learning process is so integral. There was a question on the table like what can this dynamic duo do. We can throw a party me and K&A. We can throw a hell of a party. And I promise you, if K&A and I are throwing the gig, and you come, you're going to have a good time, you're going to feel good as hell when you leave. You're going to be well fed. You're going to have all that you need to drink. You're going to be have dance your butt off. And that is how we actually create and that energy from came K&A is a visual master, like if you give her a room and say we're going to throw a party when you come in, it's going to look like the Ritz ballroom. It's going to be gorgeous. And everything would have been taken care of. COVID. So when we left the Institute, we had already started to change. Both of us had already started to stop working for other people and commit ourselves to the company. And the company has started to change and started to really let go of toxic relationships. And that was starting to happen. And then in November, it'll be a year tomorrow. I lost my husband. Very suddenly, it was devastating. And my company was at my side. That's who my phone calls were to members of my artistic company that had supported me. There was no other people that were closer. That life and art are separate. Happened right then and then cold that happened. And so between then and now I think both of us and the company started growing our own food and taking care of ourselves in our community, taking that into our hands and being responsible for that. And we have cut toxic relationships to the point where there are so many committees that we refuse to be on that are examining. Oh, how do we move to this, you know, this new me to black lives matter to the theater moment. We divorced ourselves of all of that. And one of the things that I love about the Institute was when we got there. We were all people of color. We weren't there to talk about racism and oppression. And all those things, those were byproducts of the art we were there to create and to be invited into a space and say we want to talk to you about your process. Now, we want to talk about what it's like to be black and female in the theater. No, we want to talk to you about your process. That privilege has struck me and stuck with me. And in every room I'm in, if we're not talking about process. I'm out. I don't know if that was the question, but I hope I answered something. You answered everything. Okay, like I am just sitting here a holding you thank you for sharing with us about the loss and the importance of having those people around you that are going to hold you up. And I think you also shared with us this reminder. We can talk about art and craft all day, but if we're not taking care of ourselves and putting putting work first or art first like it impacts the work as well so thank you for that incredible reminder. Oh, I'm just so moved I have to share with you I too lost a partner. September 11. After the Institute and I don't know that I would have been able to fully survive it the way I did had I not had some of the experiences I had at the Institute that were life giving. And that reminded me who I am so thank you for that also just like a very good reminder. We have 10, and there's lots of love coming for you here in the in the chat, you just so in our last few minutes. Let's do away with any of my, my questions and I would just love to hear closing thoughts, things you'd like to pass on tools, feelings needs anything that you'd like to share in your last few minutes. And I'd love to hear from everybody. Is there someone just burning to go first. I just gotta say that the spiritual food in this room is rich, and it is plentiful. And, you know, my, my spiritual beginnings was as a Jehovah's Witness, and they always talked about about this new world about this paradise earth about this new system. And I feel like it is here. It is in this room amongst these people. And, man, so lucky to be here and to get all of this in. Thank you so much everybody for this. Yes and I would jump right on thank you so much Kiki it's so good to see your face. I would say that you know, one of the things that really that I still hold very dear to me is the community that we built there, the family. The truth that we built the healing that happened in the room and the healing that continues to happen. And so I would just like to, you know, to encourage people to just encourages all to just really tap into our communities, hold each other tight even though we can't physically hold each other. You know, send, you know, send us, you know, a smile send a high five whatever because, you know, it's, it's not easy being in this life it's a beautiful life. I love living, but it is a hard thing to do. And I am so grateful for my community. I'm so grateful for the people that surround me that lift me up that hold me up when I can't hold myself up, you know that holds me accountable that challenges me to be better. So hold tight on to your community. You know, don't don't put yourself, you know, second always put yourself first. And, and healing is the ultimate, you know, pathway to freedom to better day to all of the things that we desire. You know, heal yourself first so that then we can send that all that healing energy out to our community and then out into, you know, the world. And so with that, I would like to just say thank you all my community. I love you all so so much. And I am sending virtual hugs to you all and I hope to see you all again in person one day soon. And so my other mentees when I'll cap it off and then pass it on to the big dogs. Oh, just, just like I said, honored to be here on without without Pangea World Theater Art of Action without the directing Institute. I don't know where me and my ensemble would be. It's a pleasure to grow leaps and bounds with you guys and through our ups and downs and just really learning to hold true to who I am as a person and being able you guys loving me authentically as my authentic self and what I bring to the table and I and I love everything that you all bring to the table as well and each and everyone and every time that you guys are courageous and speak up it gives me the courage to speak up every time you guys throw idea out there or something. I catch that you know so like I said everyone in here is my teacher. And I truly mean that not on no corny BS just that's for real like I truly learned something from everyone in here and I'm honored to see where this world goes and if we all lead with love. And I would encourage that that is what's going to bring us forth, you know, not not, you know, staying in our lanes and continuing to harness what we have because I remember there's a point in time where I was like, it will be cool to work at so and so on theater but I think one thing to Parker has really taught me is like, sometimes you have to sacrifice things like money or other things in order to make sure that we all arrive at this point and we're not, you know, we're not climbing up a ladder and we're raising the ladder together. So, um, I'm excited to see where our journey brings us and love. Thank you Kirby all right mentors you got five minutes collectively to to sum up before we pass it on to our closing. One of you want to start. I want to second all of those things and, and just thank everybody for those special like conversations with Kirby on the side about like improving the native indigenous black relationships and taking all that back with me and watching the people mentor their children Carolyn had her children there and I reminded of the actions that we did. While we were there phoning and how Adelina had us on the social media during protests and connecting ourselves to communities and finding ways to really be active. It's a great institute that I'll always always always taken I'm missing people. Like I miss my cellar I miss cat I miss Adele I miss Diane and walk in and I know you're all here but you can see we can't see you. Thank you Suzanne and Kayla and Alex for holding this for Mina and the punker, like starting this revolution. It continues I went to Dallas and ran into some really wild spirit I can't remember his name right now but he just told me it's left on cat I think cat or Marcellus couch, and just like the connections continue. And that to me means that the path is open and welcoming, and you're on it, and you're on the right path and the gods are watching the insects is watching out for you. So this is just a huge stepping stone in that journey. Thank you all. I miss you. I guess I'll go. Oh my gosh, y'all, I feel like I'm going to start weeping. Thank you all for all that you've, you said and shared and I learned from you all. This Kirby the third, getting to work with you at Pangea. What a gift that was Kiki amazing to work with you and continue our relationship building. Idris, I miss you. I was just saying how I love when we're out there playing and kahinda same that sense of play that we all achieve together and build. Mina and debunker debunker mean his name is on your scores. I can't help but also mentioned Mina. The fact that you and Andrea bring us all together with the Directors Institute. It's family. It's family and it's love and it's deep. And Alex, thank you for your leadership. What an amazing moderator. And so just deepest gratitude. I will just say this, I feel like just briefly it sums up that, like I mentioned, self determination, our own rhythm, finding the truth and sharing stories with each other helps me actually build the truth of a real political education, my own analysis and healing. And I know that together in this Institute, I feel like we are healing generations. So thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you. Thank you, Leslie. Oh, that was the punk or final. Oh, sorry, Kirby. No, I'll just say in love to Leslie. I know I want to, I want to hug her. All right, debunker final word and then we got to hand it over. Our, our, it's our field. It is our field. We don't need anybody's permission Kirby. It's our field. And we are all the gardeners of our field. Number one and number two money. We should be resourced. We will be resourced. You know, we are going to break down the systems in which we see that money only exists in one place. We're going to shift that the money will come the resources will come to us because labor needs to be resourced. So these are the two things and I know that and we call ourselves ensemble creation. It's a rigor is some muscle ensemble just does not stay static does by itself ensemble has to be worked on. So, so I'm just provoking all of us to, to work on calling it and to making it a real ensemble so that we never let anybody no one will fall through the cracks and that's my commitment. That's my commitment to you Kirby that's my commitment to the field. And as and that's all I have to say that it is our field. We, we shape it. Period. Over I am feeling on fire my friends. I think that's the perfect note to all take a collective breath on that resource on that lineage on that power and on that path to liberation through ensemble practice and with that Andrea I pass it to you. Thank you so much Alex moderator extraordinaire. Oh my goodness, she did that thing y'all. She did that. You all did an amazing. What a beautiful inspiring powerful moving conversation, please give some love in the chat to all of the panelists, and to Alex for being a fantastic moderator. I'm also grateful for just having this time to hear from you. I will say that on behalf of the organizers of the Institute Pangean Art to Action. It's extraordinary for us to actually get to hear this reflected back to hear what lasted what stayed with you and what lingers what you took home, what you continue doing. I feel like we are learning so much from this conversation about what it is that we're actually doing with the National Institute for directing and ensemble creation by centering people of color by centering women identified and LGBTQ and two spirit artists in leadership. And to hear that articulated by all of you is very powerful and moving and I hope that it is something the entire field all of you out there watching on how around and our colleagues in the theater field. I really hope that you've been able to take with you some of these learnings and best practices that this panel articulated. I'm here to thank you for joining us on this journey throughout our virtual weekend, which is the first time we've ever done this with the National Institute for directing ensemble creation. And we have a wonderful closing for you for the public segment of our process here on how around. I want to thank and shout out, Thea and thank how around everyone around for supporting us and live streaming this weekend, it's been an incredible opportunity for us to share more of what we do in the Institute, which is, you know, essentially a closed ensemble events, even though we always live stream some events and we have community events that are open to the public in the Twin Cities. And, and we always want to be communicating and sharing with the larger field but this particular weekend has been an incredible opportunity to share out thanks to the support of how around. I get to introduce folks that we refer to as our Institute elders, and we call them that, not only because they are elders in our communities but also because they have joined with us since the beginning our first pilot Institute in 2012 and some even before, and been our mentors and guides and advisors, and the folks that we regularly check in with and collaborate with as we are constantly evolving new iterations of the Institute. So as we would do in an Institute, if we were all together in a great big circle at the end of a session or a process, we would gather, and we would invite our Institute elders to reflect back to us, what they have seen and heard and felt and what they have experienced in this process over this weekend. So I'd like to invite Sharon Day, Linda Paris Bailey and Nobuko to come on camera and check in and see if Mina has anything to add to our welcoming of Institute elders as they arrive. Well, it's just our way of looking at other ways of doing this like really as we decolonize ourselves within the Institute. It's also giving primacy to oral ways of doing things and also, you know, most of our cultures have storytelling as such a deep part of our work and so part of storytelling is actually recounting what you're doing sitting around the fire telling each other, you know what you saw that day and what you did that day, and what's important and to analyze and so we believe that this is both a documentation method that is really reflecting back what's happening but it's also deeply personal and deeply and we really respect these voices. So I'm so happy they're here. You're so grateful that they're here with us in the Zoom and able to offer the reflections. Thank you Mina. So we'd like to ask Sharon Day to begin if that feels good to you Sharon and then Linda and then Nobuko. Okay. Well, good afternoon. I'm happy to be here today and where to start. I took down some notes as people were talking and some of what I heard was this, that we need the freedom to find our own voice. Our authentic voice from within our own identities and and I think even as we find that voice within our own identity as we learn about each other, which the National Institute of Directing and Ensemble allows us to do is we learn from each other and we share and collaborate together. And one of the things I think that's so important is that by learning from our own authentic voices and we share that we're able to leave some of that Western indoctrination behind and that's where it needs to stay is behind and it's time for us to tell our stories because you know those other folks they've had thousands of years to get things right and and they haven't and we are in the midst of a global epidemic that proves so many of the values that they hold are those values that they hold are killing us and that's that's not a hypothetical you know that's something tangible that we see and so I have a voice and you have a voice and again the song that I quoted when we started the other day about you know I have a voice and it's quiet but together we are a mighty choir like thunder and rain and I think you know that's that's where it's at that's what I've been hearing and you know as I watched my you know DePonker speak and you know and my grandson speak and all the other panelists you know Linda said in the chat you know I'm weeping openly and of course I was weeping too and just to see you know these relationships over the years between you know the mentees the mentors broaden and deepen you know that is a you know what a beautiful thing what a beautiful thing and so the other thing I heard was that theater is a tool that has so much power and those connections and lastly you know what I've heard over these days too is in the midst of everything that's happening in the world you know this weekend you know this is a bright light hope you know hope in the world of and you know and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel now and when we get there we want to get there together so please be safe take care of yourselves and and continue to spread love like honey thank you so much Sharon Linda you know thank you Sharon thank you Sharon thank you all that were on the panel thank you Meena and DePancore and Andrea and all of the staff can you hear me I should check that first because I don't want this to go unheard I always tell young artists when they encounter something that is really meaningful to remember that these people will be with you for the rest of your life even if you never see them again and I have felt that impact in my life and what I hope to do to try to do is to pass that on to someone else that the impact that artists like John O'Neill and Robbie Macaulay and James Sapp and Rodessa Jones and Sharon and so many of the people that spoke during this weekend the impact that they have had on me I hope that you this generation you are so wise and so committed and compassionate and you have learned not to be assholes these things are important they are so critically important you know I've been working on a piece that speaks somewhat to mortality and you know I have thought a lot about mortality and you know birthday so I just this weekend makes me very very clear that as we pass through you know we had better hand off whatever we know to someone else and it's not like mentorship goes one way somebody said it and I've always never believed it because there are smarter people than me who are out there in front of me behind me and the gift of giving your art and your heart and your soul to other people is what we hope to do with our lives at least I do I do wow I had an opportunity and I'll try and shut up but I'm kind of feeling when we in Carpet Bag celebrated its 40th anniversary I had an opportunity to work with bring back several directors, dear friends friends that I wanted to work with all my life so I want to just give a special shout out to Idris and to Leilani and to Steven and Mildred who re-entered my world and gave me such gifts and really helped me to understand how far we can take this art like I said I better pass it on because I'm going to lose it but thank you all so much you are the gift of my life thank you sending love to you Linda sending you a great big virtual hug right now thank you so much for being one of my mentors woman tours dear friends and collaborators for so many years thank you Linda and Noboko I don't know how to follow Linda but Linda while I'm talking I want you to think of something you can sing after this okay or help us sing together because I think we should sing our way out of this and the word that comes to me right now is generosity I can't think of a more generous space than I've been in my life than this space and it's just it's so giving and so open and so it makes me know what's possible in this world what I heard that stood out to me was commitment to each other and we have commitment to each other as mentors and mentees who are on equal ground in the circle and we have commitment to our communities and the world at large and because we have this heartbeat that you've created for us that we could actually feel we can actually feel the heartbeat that you, Andrea, Mina and Dupankar have allowed us to gather around this fire Sharon Kirby to allow us to participate in indigenizing and not only our practices but our heart and that's a rare space to be in and I feel so grateful that I can just sit here and listen and remove my body with this morning with Sandy, Sandra and Dora and just the wisdom of body and heart and political understanding and also the thought came to me is that this mentorship is like is anti-western this comes from our cultures passing things down from story to story to story this is the way it was done through one person passing it on to the next and I invited my granddaughter into this conversation to listen to it because I want her to know this, this exists I want all young people to, I think everybody should hear this conversation whether you're an artist or not and we are all artists, we are all creators this is what I believe that we're all here just to create we've been born to create that's why we're here everybody is a creator so to make our work is to help people believe that and that we can create not only on the stage but on the bigger stage that we live in a better life for everyone I can't thank you enough Andrea, Mina to Pankar who and also just to acknowledge that you know you also had to live through this terrible moment, traumatic and I know I've lived through similar when we and when we had the LA uprising just to see see things burning see your community burning down around you see people dying around you it's hard and I can feel that in your voice and I can feel that in your approach right now the urgency that we all feel this is our moment this work has never been more important than right now and so go to it and sing it and say it and perform it and dance it and Linda my roommate who I just feel is just the one who is so relaxed and so big and so her heart I would like to ask her to sing something with us or for us or whatever just sing us out please Linda where are you I'm here sister I'm here with me I'm still you know mopping it up Linda if you need a moment we want to do a few final things and then you could really take us home with a song is that okay okay yeah give us a give us a moment because we do want to acknowledge all the staff and everybody was made really made this happen together and I'll turn it over to Mina and Dipanga for that and then Linda if you could close us out with a song that would be just perfect thank you thank you so much Andrea and I just want to say that this was just so moving thank you so much Sharon Linda and you know it's you you call out our names you know Andrea Dipankar Mina but at the same time I just want to say if this institute would not be possible without all of you who come and participate every year it won't be possible without the advice I mean every year we go and sit at Sharon days table and say okay what do we do next how should we do this what should we do how can we do indigent I mean how can we plan ceremony you know and so and that's that's the first thing we do before we even begin the institute and then we also you know talk to our African American elders in this community and talk to them and so we actually invoke the elders in our community before we begin this this journey and the first person we go to as I said is Sharon Day we talk to Linda we talk no becoming this wouldn't happen without our elders but it also wouldn't happen without all the participants in the institute who come here with such a generous spirit because it's you know it's one thing to have an institute another thing to come with your entire body soul mind that takes that demands a lot of you so I just want to thank every participant who comes here with their entire selves and participates and trusts this process to participate in this extraordinary journey that we embark on almost every year right now so I just want to thank everybody who's ever been at an institute and hopefully new people that we're going to meet new friends that we're going to meet in the future and I also want to say that this absolutely would not happen without our staff our staff is amazing they are just such a support such a support for all of us they are behind the scenes and they don't get seen but they are unbelievably an ensemble they behave like an ensemble they take things on and I am so thankful to the staff and I know Suzanne is going to say a few lines and open it up to other staff members yes please staff members open your videos so that we can see you and I you know thank you Katya thank you Kayla thank you Emily Molly Sarah Adlin thank you thank you thank you Adlin I don't want to forget any names every single staff member is a step step up for this institute thank you Ismael thank you Tanya who's been an amazing tech for this institute I don't want to forget names and then thank you Julia everybody did their little bit for this institute so I just want to really thank you I hope I haven't forgotten names and I know Suzanne will catch me if I've forgotten any names at all and I just before I hand it over to Suzanne I want to just thank the funders because our funders for this particular institute have been the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and then we've had lots of funders in the past but I just want to name those specially thank you to HowlAround for really providing this space for us because this has been amazing and now we have an archive of unbelievable things that people can watch over and over again they can go back and do the morning movement again they can do the masterclass to inspire themselves a second time or a third time and Doris movement class as well as well as watch these videos and I know I'm going to send them to my people in India because they better watch the mentorship you know and just learn from all these amazing people and so I'm just glad it's going to be I don't know if you want to say a few words before that but Andrew and you said it all gratitudes gratitudes gratitudes thank you and Suzanne and Tanya please take it away okay thank you just thank you all yeah Tanya and I we're going to come on and just make sure to uplift staff which Meena did a beautiful job of just again yeah there's just such an amazing team and really resonating the incredible ensemble practice that happens in the institute is also this amazing ensemble practice that happens behind the scenes with the with just production crew staff it's just incredible I feel like sometimes we just intuitively know what we need and how to hold that with each other but I know Meena had mentioned socially like Emily Meena and holding down that tech support the whole weekend with Jenny Zander as well it's just was so incredible Molly Adolin Katya Kayla Kayla who I feel like Kayla and I want to hand over to Tanya really quick and it's really hard to sometimes find your soulmate in technical production and I'm very honored that I found to Kayla who has just been here at the Institute for years and it's just amazing and now meeting Tanya who was just such a blessing so I'd love to uplift Tanya's voice in the space Thank you Suzanne thank you Andrea I see you I feel you from here what a beautiful example of working together in ensemble practice I need two minutes it's been an honor and a privilege to be of service in this space thanks for trusting me to support as I'm able Thank you so much Tanya for joining our team and our process and just jumping into this this Institute experience in this virtual weekend and thank you to all the staff of Pangea Thank you on behalf of Art to Action and I want to thank Dora Adreola who's our board member and one of our founding artists as well and thank you all for joining us I want to tell you I get to announce that we are planning more to come that we will be having some more virtual offerings in 2021 and we hope that those of you who've been it both in institutes prior and following us on how around this weekend will continue to join us so please connect with Art to Action Pangea World Theater follow us on social media get in our newsletters so that you'll know when our 2021 virtual series is coming out we look forward to continuing this journey with all of you and with that I will hand it to the most wonderful Linda Paris Bailey to take us home. Thank you Andrea and I did not know you're going to call me to do this but I will say that this song has been just kind of going through my head and it's rooted in a traditional song and we worked on a show with Rising Appalachia and we together created verses for this song so I'm going to sing this song. Trying to get home. Honoring the elders. Trying to get home. Honoring the elders. Honored. Trying to get home. I'm taking back my language. Trying to get home. Taking back my language. Trying to get home. Taking back my language, taking back my language, taking back my language, trying to get home. Trying to get home, trying to get home, trying to get home, trying to get home. who I offer this as a zipper song and we created I think probably 11 verses about what we're trying to do and I offer it for you to fill in lyrics about what you're trying to do to get home and to create a home for all of us. Thank you so, so very much. This is a great birthday present.