TRANSCRIPT:
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Happy Women’s History Month! Yay! DO it
women. Let’s DO it! All right.
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Oh my goodness did you see this? Check it
out. Yeah I got a hair cut. Yeah. My friend Erin Athey
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does my hair and she’s so great at it
and she loves CURLS, which is more and
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more common, but it’s been a
really hard time finding somebody who
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actually enjoys doing my hair and she does
and I love her, so links to her, of course
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below (http://erinatheyhair.com/). So first of all I saw a play – you know I like to go see my shows the
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first one was “Colony Collapse” at the
Boston Court Theatre. The other play
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I saw is “They Don’t Talk Back” and this
is part of Native Voices at the Autry
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it’s just…I just sit and watch and think –
it is so sad to me that I only get to
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see something like this once or twice a
year. This was beautiful and unique and
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they incorporated movement, incorporated
masks. So if you’re in Los Angeles I
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think it’s a short run, it’s just
playing through the end of March but
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then it’s going to the La Jolla Playhouse and it’s
also going to be in Anchorage, Alaska
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which is where the writer is from. So
check it out, Native Voices that the
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Autry. Alright tonight I’m going to my
school. Cal State LA. I don’t think I’ve
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talked to you about where I got my MFA,
so I got my MFA at California State
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University Los Angeles. It is the
cheapest MFA in the entire country, so
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that makes it unique in and of itself;
the other great thing is that Cal State
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LA is very, very diverse and an inclusive
environment socioeconomically, racially
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and culturally, age-wise it’s a
wonderful campus and tonight they’re
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doing their MFA alumni awards and
so I’m going to that and I’m always down
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for supporting my school, so I’m excited
to go to that. I just…I’m…so many
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people have talked about this already,
and I just want to kind of like, leave
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it here for posterity, and also to see if
I change my mind
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on this later on because I think it’s a
good healthy thing to grow and
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evolve – but it makes me really sad that
Zoe Saldana was cast as Nina Simone.
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Now I know how this business works. I
know it so well and I know that this is
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not entirely of Zoe Saldana’s doing,
and that there was lots of pressure to
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do the role and also that she felt like
she could do that role. And I never
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want to take away from another actor –
because I know what it feels like to
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have somebody not believe in you to be
able to deliver on a performance – but
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unfortunately they made the really bad
decision to put black face on her. I mean I’m
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like, look – if you’re confident that you
can play this role? Don’t put blackface,
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don’t put on prosthetics, like, let
Nina Simone’s essence come out of you.
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But more importantly, Nina Simone fought
against racism and colorism and shadeism
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and that was an important part of who she was as a
person and her activism, so to cast
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somebody who is representative of the
system that the lighter you are, the
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closer you are to white, the more
attractive you are, the more acceptable
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you are, the more you can sell tickets – it
just is wrong. Obviously I don’t know
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Nina Simone personally, but her family
has spoken out against it and it’s just
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a really unfortunate situation, and it
just felt like an insensitive response.
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I think for me, one of the most
heartbreaking things about racism is a
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lack of sensitivity, and Nina Simone
herself couldn’t have wouldn’t have been
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cast or paid the amount of money
that Zoe Saldana got paid, like not even
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today. It was just really unfortunate and
I support Zoe Saldana in other roles, and
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the work she does, she’s a great actor –
but this was a bad choice and a painful
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one
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and insensitive. Let’s all be more
sensitive to each other. I published a
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Q&A session with my very good friend
Tanya McRae this week on “Presidential
Mixedness” check that out, it’s under the
One Drop of Love playlist here on the
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channel. I backed a Kickstarter project.
Check it out in the links. So this young
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woman Nijla Mu’min – I hope I’m saying
her last name correctly – Nijla Mu’min – and
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homegirl works, like she’s making her own
opportunities and she’s already raised
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lots of funds for the movie, but YOU can
help out too. We talk about the
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problems, here is a solution. When a
filmmaker is sharing their own story,
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most importantly she’s telling her truth,
telling her story – and not letting
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somebody else tell it for her. So please
back her project called Jinn and there
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are links to that below, or if you don’t
have the funds, then please share it and
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encourage your friends and family to
support it.
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OK this was week two of my new job Head of
Equity and Inclusion of Pearl Street
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Productions, and this was a good week.
So I had a good phone call with Matt an
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Ben and got approval on the things that
I laid out, that I want to get done in this
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first year. And I’ll talk about that a
little bit more because one of the
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things that I want to do is make our
commitment to equity and inclusion
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transparent to everybody, so one of the
things I’m working on is giving us an
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online presence that is specifically
about this commitment we’re making and
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so we’ll have a place where people can go – it
is not about being congratulated or
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rewarded for the work, but, I
want there to be a place where people
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can go and look at our numbers and look
at our data and say,
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“You’re not doing very well in this area,”
or “Hey this is great!” I had a couple of
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good phone calls with friends to
initiate some other things that I want to
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get done and also I made a list of
festivals and conferences that I want to
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attend, so of course I’ll vlog a
little bit from those conferences and
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events. And I’m so excited about the job. I feel really good about it and I feel like I’m
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gonna get some good things done.
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Alright you all, this was another This
Week as an Artist – thanks for watching.
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Share it if you like it, subscribe to the
channel or give a thumbs up if you like
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it,
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add comments if you want to, and you…YOU…
you keep doing your good work.
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Tell us if you need support, tell us what
you’re up to. Yeah. Kick BUTT. GO Women’s
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History Month! If you’re a woman,
celebrate yourself, Sister! If you’re a
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man, celebrate a woman BIG time. Let her
know how important she is. Let her know
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that you support her, and don’t just say
it DO it. All right you all, have a
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wonderful, wonderful week and I’ll talk
to you next week. Bye!