This Week as an Artivist 2/27/16: New Job, Self Care, Mixedness, The Mountaintop, Black Girl Movement Conference


TRANSCRIPT:

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Good morning Artivists! What’s up you all? It’s a little bit late because my birthday

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was on Friday and so I didn’t make a
video on Friday or – usually I make them

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on Friday nights and then I upload them
on Saturday, but I was relaxing with my

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husband, so I am uploading this one today on Sunday. But it’s still “This Week as an

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Artivist” I’m still gonna go through
everything I did this week. So first of

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all: I started my job on Monday – my brand
new job – and I am Head of Equity and

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Inclusion for Pearl Street Productions.
Pearl Street is the production company

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owned by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. It’s
going to be an interesting ride y’all. The good

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news is I’ve known Matt and Ben since we
were – let’s see…I met Matt when I was

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about nine years old, so the good news is
they know me, they know my politics, they know my

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passions, they know what I stand for and
they’ve agreed to bring me on in this

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position to help make change in the
entertainment industry. I’m glad you’re

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coming along for this ride with us and
I’ll keep these videos going and let you

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know how it goes. Speaking of which,
literally the day that I signed my

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contract this came out. If you haven’t
read this study it’s incredibly

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important if you’re in the
entertainment industry or interested in

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being in the entertainment industry. It is breaking down – with clear data –

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the numbers of women, women over 40, LGBTQ
representations, representations by race

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/ ethnicity and it’s really well done,
very clear. What I really appreciate

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is that at the end they provide a bullet
list for solutions.

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That’s really going to be helpful to
me – here we go – “Solutions for Change” and

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that’s awesome because it’s important to
talk about the disparities and the

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problems, but it’s also important to talk
about what we’re gonna do to change that.

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So I’ll be using this quite a bit in my
new job.

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Also this week I had a meeting for Mixed
Roots Stories – the LA site committee for

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the Critical Mixed Race Studies
conference. So Critical Mixed Race

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Studies is a nonprofit that really
encourages the academic study and a

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critical lens on mixedness. If
you don’t know me well, this is really

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important to me that we absolutely
acknowledge who we are as mixed folks. So

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my mom is White. She identifies as
Cherokee, Danish and Blackfoot Indian. My

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dad is Jamaican – he’s Black, and I’m mixed
and I’m Black and I’ve got White in me

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and I think that’s an
important experience to talk about, but

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with a critical, ’cause I think
sometimes when we talk about it we don’t

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see how we see ourselves only in our own
personal bubble – and it’s important to

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understand the context of race and
culture and the things that have

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happened in this country (if that’s where
you’re living) and across the world that

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affect the choices we make around
identity. So anyway: the Critical

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Mixed Race Studies conference is going
to be in in LA in 2017, and the

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nonprofit that I co-direct called
Mixed Roots Stories is doing the arts

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and cultural programming for the
Critical Mixed Race Studies conference.

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2017 in February. I’ll talk about it
a lot as it comes up – so we had an LA

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site committee meeting on Monday at USC,
and it was great. We’re starting to talk

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about who should be invited, Keynote
speakers, how can we really spread the

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word and get the word out more about the
conference. So if you…check it out, there

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are links there if you’re interested, if you want
to hear more about it, let me know and we

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will bring you on board – we’re looking for
volunteers, we’re looking for people who

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are excited about it and I’ll tell you
more later. OK I want to talk a little

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bit about self-care, because I’m not
great at it, but I intend to be, and

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I think it’s important. For me

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self-care is nutrition, exercise and
spiritual health, and so I started at a gym

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Last Monday. Well, I definitely hurt myself

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after the first couple of days, and then
had to take a few days off, but it’s great

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and it’s a women’s gym and I really
appreciate that everyone really

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kind of pushes each other. It’s called
Pink Iron here, if you’re in LA check it out and then

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also I’ve got this thing where ok during
the week I am eating healthy meals which

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for me a good balance for me are: a good
amount of protein, lots of vegetables,

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and a tiny bit of grains – a tiny bit of
carbs, so that’s gonna be during

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the week. And then on the weekend I let
myself enjoy myself so I’ll get a mocha,

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which I try not to drink a lot of
caffeine, will get a mocha, have a glass

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of wine, some sweets and enjoy myself.
Chocolate. Chocolate is always a good

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thing. So anyways SELF CARE. What do you
do for self care? I’d love to hear. OK you

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know I like to go see theater as much as
possible,

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and I saw The Mountaintop. It’s playing
at the Matrix theater until April 10 here

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in LA. So if you’re in LA please go see
it. It’s by Katori Hall. It takes place

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the last evening before Martin Luther
King Junior is assassinated, and he gets

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a visit from a woman – I can’t tell you
much more about it to not spoil it, but

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the woman – the character is incredible. I
think she’s one of the strongest, most

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complex and beautifully developed Black
women in theater – who’s specifically

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written as a Black woman – and this woman:
Danielle Truitt plays Ca’Mae and she’s just

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incredible and Larry Bates is also great. He
plays Martin Luther King Jr. Without

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question, though, Daniel Truitt steals
the show. This production is also

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directed by Roger Guenvere Smith. There were not enough people in the

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theater when we went, so PLEASE go see
this. Support them. Spread the word. If

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you’re not in LA, see if anybody’s doing
this show. They’re doing it at the

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Matrix for Black History Month – you don’t
need to only see it on Black History Month,

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you should see it anytime. It’s so good. Oh
my gosh! April 7 through 9, 2016 I’m

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looking at my phone ’cause I want to
read this to you. There is the Black GirlĀ Movement Conference in New York. It’s
being held at Columbia University – which

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is my school!!! I went to Teachers College – yayyy! So, “Black Girl Movement – a national

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conference is a three-day gathering at
Columbia University in New York City to

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focus on Black girls, cis, queer and
trans girls in the United States.

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Bringing together, artists, activists – ARTIVISTS! –
educators, policymakers and Black girl

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leaders themselves. This first national
conference on Black girls seeks to

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address the disadvantages that Black
girls in the United States face while

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creating the political will to publicly
acknowledge their achievements,

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contributions and leadership.” Alright I
know you can read yourselves, but I just…

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I read that and I get excited every time I
read that. So links for everything down

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below. What are your goals? What’s going
on? What have you achieved as Artivists?

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Keep up this great, great, incredible, important
work we do – and wish me luck on this new job.

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and on staying in shape – staying FIT and I’ll talk
to you next week. Bye bye.