This Week as an Artivist 4/2/16: Frida Kahlo, SLC Utah, 50 Push-Up Challenge


Frida Kahlo is my muse (0:00-1:26) (2:31-3:00)
NY Times review of 1992 Frida Kahlo documentary: http://nyti.ms/1SJonfY
University of Utah College of Social Work, Rose Wagner Center for the Performing Arts in Salt Lake City, Utah (1:24-3:15)
Museum of Tolerance 3/31/16 (3:17-4:48)
Venmo App = racist? (4:48-5:54)
50 Push-up challenge (5:55-6:17) http://bit.ly/20234gp
What are YOUR goals? (6:20-7:09)

Twitter: @fanshen @onedropoflove
Instagram: @onedropoflove

TRANSCRIPT:
So, do you know who Frida Kahlo is? I saw a documentary of Frida Kahlo when I was teaching Spanish to students in the 90s. I was teaching in a high school and my Supervising Teacher recommended that I show my students a documentary about Frida Kahlo, and I had known about her a little bit, I had probably seen her art but I didn’t know a whole lot about her life and I watched this documentary – I mean talking about the original Artivist – I mean not THE original because there have been other Artivists in the world and before her, but in so many ways her work and who she was as a person represents so much of what I want to be. Her work is both deeply personal, but also it talks about the power that women have when we share all of who we are, even when that feels very personal and you start to realize that you have connections to other people by sharing it and I love her. And this summer I was in Mexico and I found this bag, and I was like, “Yes. This is my bag.” And she just inspires me so whenever I travel to do the show I take this bag with me.

So I took this bag with me to our show at the University of Utah, which we did on Tuesday. And we had an incredible time. So the show was the closing act of the 10th anniversary of the University of Utah’s College of Social Work Social Justice series. This is put on by this incredible woman teacher, Educator, powerful woman there named Irene Ota. She invited Chandra and me to see her class and she’s doing a class social justice advocacy for social workers, and they’re creating toolkits for social justice advocacy and all of their projects were incredible. One woman is doing a support group for Transracially Adopted kids in Salt Lake City. Another woman is creating a website for parents to know their rights, the educational rights for themselves and for their children. They were just so great and amazing and inspiring! It was wonderful.

And then the best part is that then Irene took us out to dinner – we had dinner with some of the students and faculty before the show – the night before the show. And we’re walking up to dinner and Chandra goes, “Oh! Fanshen! Look at the name of this restaurant we’re going to!” and the name of the restaurant is ‘Frida Bistro’ and I got this gorgeous t-shirt from Irene – thank you Irene! That is at Frida Bistro in Salt Lake City, Utah, which was just a wonderful restaurant, the food was great and we were sitting there blessed by Frida herself.

I got to speak with quite a few people after the show and they were really moved and had lots of follow up questions, and I’m so proud that we were able to do the show there. So if any of you are watching from the University of Utah – thank you for having us – it was really inspiring.

OK this morning I did the show at the Museum of Tolerance here in Los Angeles. And it was so nice to go from – you know that I had big audiences, 1500 students a week ago and then Utah a really big stage, and then here it seats about 115 people or so, but generally these are smaller groups so probably about 35 or 40 people and I’m really up close to them and it makes a difference – it’s a very different feeling of the staging, but it’s really nice because it’s intimate and I can literally look right into people’s faces and interact with them directly. So it’s always nice to be back at the Museum, and also one woman who came today has seen the show there before, and she said, “You know I saw some new things here today,” so that was great – so she’s noticing that I’m making changes.

Now also by the way we have two new slides. So I talked a little bit about pacing last week, and how I’m looking at places to pick up the pacing, but I also realized that there’s a slide that can help situate the audience a little bit more when my father and I are both traveling I’m paralleling our trips to Africa together, so I’ve included a slide of when my father went to the Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Now interestingly, I’m using Venmo – Venmo is an app that you can use to pay people quickly. I asked my graphic designer Heather Fipps (who’s amazing – thank you Heather!) – I asked her to create a new slide and when I paid her on Venmo you write a little note like a memo on a check and I wrote “ODOL (One Drop of Love) Slide Sudan Ethiopia.” Well they put a flag on the payment and I just got an email from Venmo telling me they had to investigate my payment and they needed to know exactly what this payment was for, since I had used the words ‘Sudan’ and ‘Ethiopia.’ Interesting. Racist? I don’t what to say. All I can think of is, “My God, if you are Sudanese or Ethiopian, what life must be like for you now. And I am sorry for people who prejudge you – not that I have to apologize for what they do, but I’m sorry for what you have to go through.

OK this week I’m going to do a physical goal. A friend of mine posted on Facebook a 50 Push-up Challenge and so it takes you through – you start out with 5 push-ups then you move on to 10 and you get rest breaks and then you move on to 12, and then you keep moving on and you do 50 push-ups eventually! So that’s my goal.

How about you? What are your goals? Are you writing? Are you performing? Are you workshopping your work? Are you sharing your work with other people? Are you sharing your story? Someone said today, after the Museum show, “Y’know, your story is incredible,” and I said I didn’t know that until I started sharing it with people. YOUR story is incredible too. You just gotta get it out there – and find out about your parents’ stories, and their parents’ stories and it’s so important to hear someone else’s narrative, so that we are not stuck in what we believe they are just based on what we see on the outside. OK. Thank you for watching #ThisWeekasanArtivist. I hope you have a wonderful week, and I’ll talk to you next week. Bye bye!

This Week as an Artivist 3/26/16: 1500 Students, Zootopia, Suzan-Lori Parks


TRANSCRIPT:

Artivists! What’s up you all? How you doing? OK. So much to tell you.

(0:05-2:04) First of all One Drop of Love – so many great things. First of all Chandra booked us in Tempe, Arizona at Marcos de Niza High School. We did two shows back-to-back with high school students. 1500 students. So about 750-800 each. Juniors and Seniors first, and then Freshman and Sophomores. It was just fantastic. I got a t-shirt! Oh my goodness my t-shirt collection is growing. And I got a coffee mug!

I’m leaving for Utah Monday morning because we are doing the show for the University of Utah School of Social Work and this is their Voices of Diversity Social Justice Series and it’s their 10th anniversary and One Drop of Love is the closing act for that. So I’m very excited. That’ll be this Tuesday night 6PM in Utah. And then the first week of April I’m doing the Museum of Tolerance and then Philly. Philadelphia. Abington Friends School and that’s going to be for their ‘Many Voices’ diversity series and that’s going to be for parents at the school. And then at the end of April, I am the Keynote for the Mixed Heritage Conference at UCLA! So my goodness SO much going on for One Drop and it’s all incredible and exciting. Chandra noticed that the show is running a little bit over. Usually it’s an hour and it’s been running about an hour and 7, an hour and 8 minutes. So I want to look at what’s happening. Is it pacing? Does it have to do with the number…of course when there are more people it takes longer because I’m going out and I’m interacting with the audience. That’s something that we’re looking at – whether the pacing needs to change, or whether it’s ok – because when we perform for a school we have to keep that in mind because students have to go to another class or at least they have to know how long it’s going to take ahead of time.

(2:04-3:29) OK I have some recommendations for you. First of all have you seen Zootopia? I want to know what you think of it. I mean, I…the first time I saw it I read a friend’s Facebook post who I really respect and admire, and she was like, “Zootopia is all about racial profiling.” And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa – WHAT, WHAT? Really? For real?” So I went and saw it by myself and I cried because I loved it so much. I thought it did a really great job of bringing up questions around gender and race, class in ways that young people can understand and adults…they were very, very clear and accessible, but also using some challenging themes to get their point across and I just thought it was really well done. But then I texted with my brother and he was like, “Well I don’t know – were the predators only supposed to be the Black people?” and I don’t think so because, remember in the beginning there’s that fox who was the bully and he was…he had a southern accent that sounded White southern and again – here I go with my stereotypes – but anyway I’m really curious what you thought. Especially if you have children – how did you feel about this movie? Tish Arana – what did you think? I’m dying to know. Is Zoey Fanshen – would this be a good movie for her to go see? I’m really curious.

(3:29-3:48) Another recommendation is Mashable did an article: 9 Youtube channels that will make you smarter about social justice. So first of all you KNOW – first of all I was following – I was already subscribed to ¾ of them, but there were some that I didn’t know about, so I went ahead and subscribed, so I’m putting a link. Check those out.

(3:48-4:26) OK another thing: check out Suzan-Lori Parks. She’s a great playwright and she’s doing this series called ‘Watch me work’ which is that she goes into a space and works – writes a play – and you have the opportunity to watch her work and write a play and watch her process and interact with her and ask her questions…and it’s just…SO great to allow people to be there and watch and learn from what she’s doing. It’s so encouraging. So I’m putting a link to the videos of her doing ‘Watch me work.’

(4:26-5:54) Alright I want to shout out some folks that are watching the videos, so Carol Banker – what’s up girl!? Alex Regalado – she’s our Editor for One Drop of Love, I think I’ve told you about her before. She’s got this great video, there’s a link for that. Also she did it with her team from the website called TWIGG How-To, which you should also check out, and there’s a link to that. Go, go, GO Alex – I’m so proud of you! DO it and I’m voting everyday and getting other people to vote, so let’s get you to win this and just keep making more amazing content, like you are.

OK last thing – I freaked out this morning because…one of my first…like and early This Week as an Artivist video I talk about LaGuardia Cross, who is a famous Youtuber and does these great videos with his toddler. And he started off with this great statement about success and a specific goal that he had – that was how he started vlogging – this goal that he had and he was going to reach the goal and he was saying it out to the world – so that he could be held accountable and I talked about him in that video – in the #OscarsSoWhite video and he left me a comment today! So – oh my goodness – thank you so much for walking it, and thank you for your work – you are inspiring. Thank you for the comment.

Alright everybody, that’s another This Week as an Artivist. I hope YOU have a great week. Thank you for watching and tuning in. Thumbs up if you like it. Subscribe if you like the videos and also tell me what I should watching and tell me what you’re up to. I would love to help support everybody as well.

Alright everybody have a great week. Bye bye.

This Week As an Artivist 3/19/16: #blackradicalimagination, dark eye circles, Hollywood fear


TRANSCRIPT:

0:00:00.000,0:00:09.950
Hey what’s up Artivists! How are you all doing? So I’m curious
what happens to you…so you know Youtube

0:00:09.950,0:00:18.609
makes suggested videos and I love how Youtube keeps suggesting this effing video on “How

0:00:18.609,0:00:24.939
to correct dark circles under your eyes”
and this is crazy because it’s not like

0:00:24.939,0:00:31.670
I have keywords of dark circles there
anything else. It’s literally like the

0:00:31.670,0:00:38.570
videos reading that I have dark circles
and look I am SO not about shaming

0:00:38.570,0:00:46.120
folks for appearance. And I’m cool. My dark circles – first of all are genetic – so I

0:00:46.120,0:00:50.550
wouldn’t take them away. They come from
my family and I love my family. And

0:00:50.550,0:00:53.420
second of all a lot of times they have
to do with the fact that I’m utterly

0:00:53.420,0:01:03.309
exhausted – and I’m cool with that because
I work really hard and that’s a sign of my hard

0:01:03.309,0:01:08.570
work. So anyway: just don’t let those
freaking recommended videos shame you in

0:01:08.570,0:01:13.790
any way. I guess I wanna say that. Yeah
they have NOTHING to do with

0:01:13.790,0:01:18.450
you. They have to do with an aesthetic
that people have come to believe is

0:01:18.450,0:01:24.240
beautiful, and it’s bullshit. Utter bullshit. OK so this week so I went and met

0:01:24.240,0:01:29.909
with the president of Pearl Street Films
who I’ll be working closely with, as we

0:01:29.909,0:01:33.540
work out what my job entails, and that was really good…

0:01:34.110,0:01:41.710
however, things are moving slowly with
the job and…they’re moving slowly

0:01:41.710,0:01:45.810
because there’s a lot of fear about what
I’m doing and

0:01:45.810,0:01:50.640
and I think also about how to present it
to the public. And it’s so ironic. The

0:01:50.640,0:01:57.509
fear of announcing and sharing
with the public that we are taking

0:01:57.509,0:02:05.220
measures to try to make more equity in
the entertainment industry – that that’s a

0:02:05.220,0:02:11.860
scary thing to talk about. And I
understand there’s fear about miss-

0:02:11.860,0:02:19.380
reading the intentions, and it’s just…
look if you’re doing something good and

0:02:19.380,0:02:24.190
people question your intentions, then
just keep doing the good. That’s all

0:02:24.190,0:02:28.769
you can do is keep doing the good – and certainly reflect and make sure that

0:02:28.769,0:02:33.459
you are actually doing the things that
you want to do, making the positive

0:02:33.459,0:02:37.459
improvements you want to make. And if you are, keep doing it and don’t worry about

0:02:37.459,0:02:41.810
people questioning your intentions. But anyway that’s been really interesting

0:02:41.810,0:02:46.590
and…no…no…it hasn’t been interesting.
That’s been really frustrating and

0:02:46.590,0:02:52.190
I’ll continue to share updates about it
and hopefully it’ll get better. So I

0:02:52.190,0:02:56.840
talked about the Nina Simone film
starring Zoe Saldana couple weeks

0:02:56.840,0:03:00.000
ago and I just wanna tell you about – if
you haven’t read it –

0:03:00.000,0:03:05.049
Ta-nahisi Coates wrote a beautiful piece
about it and I really like that he

0:03:05.049,0:03:10.459
talks about growing up as a
young kid and the perceptions that

0:03:10.459,0:03:16.389
we have around dark skin, around
particular features – those features that

0:03:16.389,0:03:24.799
Nina Simone herself had – and how she
amazingly overcame that to be this

0:03:24.799,0:03:30.680
powerful woman who believes in herself.
And that WE are to blame for holding – it’s

0:03:30.680,0:03:35.730
similar to what I was talking about with the dark circles – we are to blame for

0:03:35.730,0:03:42.389
holding onto this perspective of what
beauty is and we don’t need to be

0:03:42.389,0:03:46.609
perpetuating that. So anyway I’m putting a
link to his article about it. It was

0:03:46.609,0:03:51.530
beautiful. I posted a new one-drop rule
video, “How I learned about the one-drop

0:03:51.530,0:03:56.460
rule” by my good friend Rudy Guevarra.
I’m so proud to have him

0:03:56.460,0:04:01.470
him as part of the series and I love his
response. He identifies as Mexipino

0:04:01.470,0:04:04.960
which…I don’t have a lot of
knowledge of that culture, although I

0:04:04.960,0:04:09.040
read his great book “Becoming Mexipino
also there’s a link to his book here,

0:04:09.040,0:04:14.050
check it out. And please watch his video.
So: United Solo Theatre Festival! I told

0:04:14.050,0:04:20.060
you last week that we got in, and our date
is October 13 in New York City. If we do

0:04:20.060,0:04:25.770
well with that show, they’ll add other
shows. So I had to this week do a lot

0:04:25.770,0:04:29.850
of work to confirm that we’ll be doing
the show. That actually took a couple

0:04:29.850,0:04:34.120
hours to put that all together,
but it is DONE and we’re doing that show!

0:04:34.120,0:04:40.790
I went to MOCA – the Museum of
Contemporary Art – here in Los Angeles to

0:04:40.790,0:04:48.050
see #BlackRadicalImagination and this
is a curated – right now they’re a set of

0:04:48.050,0:04:51.650
seven films – and I think they’re
traveling across the country and the

0:04:51.650,0:04:59.900
films change, but it was so powerful. So
these are filmmakers who are doing what

0:04:59.900,0:05:07.530
we might label “experimental,” Afrofuturism. And these films were great. There was

0:05:07.530,0:05:10.870
this huge audience. The good news is
MOCA is now making the films available

0:05:10.870,0:05:16.340
online, so I’m putting a link to that.Watch
the films – they’re fantastic and

0:05:16.340,0:05:24.870
inspiring. Black stories, Mixed roots
stories, Latinos stories, Native stories

0:05:24.870,0:05:30.160
do not have to be in a bubble. We
are not ONE thing. We ARE something. We

0:05:30.160,0:05:35.060
are, we have a culture and we have
traditions, but we are not just one thing.

0:05:35.060,0:05:43.070
And so it’s…I just love this representation of Blackness in a way

0:05:43.070,0:05:49.020
that we don’t see in movies for certain, in
movies that are distributed widely.

0:05:49.020,0:05:54.030
Please watch these films. OK that is it. Have a great week.

0:05:54.030,0:06:00.230
Tell me what you’re up to. Mama Trudy: I know you’re watching these. Can you…can you interact? Just, y’know,

0:06:00.230,0:06:06.640
tell me if you like these videos. Please
give a thumbs up. Pease subscribe,

0:06:06.640,0:06:07.950
share the video,

0:06:07.950,0:06:11.350
especially the one drop – “How I learned
about the one-drop rule” video and if

0:06:11.350,0:06:14.460
you’re interested in sharing your story,
How I learned about the one-drop rule,”

0:06:14.460,0:06:19.630
even if your response is, “I’ve never
heard about the one-drop rule” or your

0:06:19.630,0:06:26.000
response, “I was born into the one-drop rule,” whatever it is, share it because we would love

0:06:26.000,0:06:31.140
to share it with lots of people. Alright have a great, great, great week and I’ll talk to

0:06:31.140,0:06:32.340
you next week. Bye Artivists!