TRANSCRIPT
So did anybody see that La Guardia Cross video this week? It…ahm…has toddler in it. This man having a conversation with his toddler. I’m gonna put a link in the description box. It’s freaking amazing and so first of all his graphic skills are incredible. His editing skills are incredible. So I’m gonna use him as a model – use his videos as a model. Also just
his baby is so amazing.
So I started looking at some earlier videos he did and he started off on Youtube – one of his first videos was saying, “I’ve always wanted to be a musician and I promise you that in a year from now I will have had success. It’s really really cool. So I got inspired by that and actually at the end of this video today I’m gonna tell you my goals for next week. So I’m not exactly going with the year approach – although in my head I have what I want to do in a year – but with these videos I’ll try to end with my goals for the upcoming week and then we can see if I actually did them or not.
Okay see? My camera’s trying to make this hard for me today and told you I have these goals; one of them is to do these videos once a week and it’s already proving to be a little bit hard, but I’m going to do it anyway! So I just recorded the whole video and then I went back and only half of it was recorded because I didn’t have enough space. So now there is a whole different lighting and all of that.
Anyway, ANYWAY it’s not about the lighting is it? It’s about this week as an ARTIVIST. Alright so I’m gonna get back into it.
Sunday evening I got called – I think I told you last week – I got called to replace an actor for a reading and the reading is at a local theater and it was in consideration of doing this play there. And I loved the piece. So it’s called “The Luck of the Irish” by Kirsten I think it’s (Kuhr-stin) might be (Keehr-stin) Greenidge Kirsten Greenidge and takes place in the 1950s and today. Back in the 1950s this Black couple, wealthy Black couple, gets this poor Irish couple to buy their house for them because they were going to be discriminated against – they we’re going to be able to get it so the Black couple pays the Irish couple some money and then the Irish couple goes, gets the deed. Once the deed is done, it’s their house and you know their neighbors have to deal with that then, but at least they own the house. Well in present-day, the grand daughter of – one of the granddaughters – of that Black couple is living in the house, raising her family there and the old woman now of that Irish couple shows up and says, “We never signed the deed over to you. The house actually still belongs to us. Now that your grandmother died, grandparents died, we want my house back. It’s a really powerful peace and I was happy to be a part of it. Of course it’s the work that I do. I love doing work that really makes us think and talk about and hopefully take action around race and racism and discrimination. So this was really, really cool and I was very proud to be part of that. OK.
Golden Globes and Academy Awards. The Golden Globes took place this week and the Academy Award nominations came out this weekend. I mean I have very little to say other than I am so tired of a system that does not value and support and even acknowledge the stories of anybody who is not White – and also the people who are making those stories are anyone but White men and I’m tired of it. And I’m working on some solutions because I think that’s important. I also think it’s important to complain. I have a lot of friends – because I’m vocal about it on social and I have a lot of
friends who are like, “You just always talk about it.” And I’m like, “No. I also do things, but
talking about it is important as well. See they say that to you so you won’t talk about it; you won’t complain about it. And they get to just hang out and be like, “Everything’s cool. I don’t hear any complaints about it.” Oh no. We need to get loud about it and we need to take action. So I can talk about some of the action I’m taking. I can’t talk about all of it, but when I can, believe me I will. Certainly like one of the things I do is directly call out the folks that I know that are in positions of power that can do something about this I call them
out and I also speak to them personally and say, “What are you going to do about
this?” and “Here are some suggestions” So this whole award thing is frustrating because I have chosen profession that in some ways needs some kind of validation from that in order to move forward, in order to make a living at this. At the same time I am, you know, more and more getting to the point where I’m like, “Let me find ways to work outside the system because the system is not meant for folks like me.”
Monday I applied to a screening series that will take place in Brooklyn. Applied with the One Drop of Love live theater show that we filmed and I’m really proud of it. And we had ninety percent women working on the set. And our Editors and pretty much everyone who worked on it is a woman and it looks good. It looks good. My friend Carol was the director and I’m just really proud of it. So wish us luck and I’ll keep you posted on that.
Tuesday night I watched “The Danish Girl” and let me tell you one thing that I can watch is marginalized White people. Because even though on one hand here’s this White man who identifies as a woman – and what she did was amazing in terms of being like, “This is who I am,” – but at the same time, it’s not lost on me that when you look like that, you are able to… it’s easier for you than it is for other folks who don’t look White and don’t present to the world as White – it is easier for you to say, “Hey, I was born a man – what the world calls a man – but that’s not who I am. And it’s amazing, so I am down with watching movies about marginalized White people. That’s why I liked “Room” too. If you saw “Room” – same thing. Like, “Ok, I can watch this.”
OK so I got some good news and some bad news.
One of the shows in Mesa got canceled due to low sales and I told you already the last time there was practically no one in the audience – and this time they are keeping two of the shows: a morning and night show on Friday, but they did cancel the Saturday show and the good news is: this time I’m not blaming myself. I’m not blaming the show. I know I have a good show I’m confident about the show.
And also I am ending the relationship with my agents. I’ve been represented by one of the top agencies in LA – well, not ‘I’ – the SHOW – has been represented by one of the top agencies in LA for about two and a half years and I am so grateful to them. It’s
been great, but I am hopeful and feel really good and confident about working without them, too. So, we’ll see. It was definitely an ego blow. Like you feel rejected, you feel like, obviously there’s something about this and maybe about me that is not working out with you, but at the same time I feel like this is an opportunity to show me and my team what we can accomplish together without this powerful agency behind us and I feel like we are gonna be able to do it.
OK here’s the not-fun part about being an artivist is you do have to market yourself and your projects because nobody else is gonna do it for you, and there’s no budget for it to be done. So I released a One Drop video – Team One Drop – with Dr. Chandra Crudup – released that on Wednesday and then and I scheduled it to go out many, many times on Twitter, on Facebook, on Pinterest, on Tumblr. I’m learning through watching YouTube videos watching other you to people – that’s what you have to do to get people to watch the videos and if people watch the videos you go higher up on the rank on Youtube so then if somebody types in racism or gender questions, they’ll say, Hey you should watch this video.” So it’s all…not my favorite part of being an artivist but, it is an important part and I’m ok with doing it.
Inspired by La Guardia Cross and his incredible toddler, I am going to make goals – not for the whole year like La Guardia Cross did – but for the next week. So next week when I check in I’ll let you know how I did in terms of meeting these goals. So I am going to get
nice and organized now that I am my own agent, and now that I have Lilah
working as a Booking Consultant, we’re gonna get organized and make a calendar for
2016 that will include places that have already requested the show and some date
potentials for those as well as: what are our dream places? where do we want
to see the show go? We’re going to get those ideas down so I’m gonna have a list
by next week of like my BIG dream places to take the show and then the following
weeks…well I’m not going to say the following weeks because I want to make this goal realistic and doable so we’re gonna do that. And for the Social Justice Theater and Media channel, I’m going to finish my script for Occidental College which I’ll explain when you see the video, but Oxy College, so ask me next week, “Did you do your script for Oxy College?” because I’ve got to make that happen.
OK. What are your goals this week? Do you have goals as an Artivist? What are the ways that you’re going to advance social justice out there in the world and also nurture yourself as a creative person, as an artist. What are you doing this week? Tell me in the comments. Ask a question.
Make a video – and tell me and I’ll put it in the playlist and have a great, great, great week.
Strength. Courage. Justice. We GOT this you all. We GOT this. Alright. Talk to you next week. Bye bye.