What a way to welcome you and say good morning. Thank you, Linda and Olivia. Good morning and welcome to the First Unitarian Society of Madison. My name is Kelly Crocker and I'm one of the ministers here. Today I'm joined by the worship team of Drew Collins, Linda Warren, Daniel Karns and a very special thank you and welcome to our guest musician, Olivia Montgomery. At First Unitarian Society we question boldly, listen humbly, grow spiritually, act courageously and love unapologetically. If you're visiting us today, welcome. We're so very glad that you are with us. If you would like more information about our activities and programs, please stop by the welcome table located in the commons. We also hope that you'll be able to join us for coffee hour immediately following the service, also located right out here in the commons. And for those of you connecting with us virtually today, we're glad that you are with us as well. We hope you'll be able to take a moment and watch the announcement slide shown briefly after today's service to learn more about our upcoming programs and activities. Our seventh grade compass points youth will be surveying our community on your beliefs about what happens after we die. They will have a table set up in the commons following today's service. They may be milling about, they may be handing you a survey. Please take one and share your thoughts with them. Next week we will observe our annual All Souls service in which we remember our honor dead in part by reading aloud the names of our own members who have died in the past year. If there is someone that you would like included in that listing of names, you can send me an email through our website. You can also just come up and let me know after service. We would love to include your loved ones as well. And one special note about today's service, we are trying a few modest changes. I know Kelly introduced these last week. And we do welcome your feedback. We got some feedback last week that was very helpful. And so if you have thoughts on our changes to our order of worship, please let me know after service. And now I invite you to join me in a moment of silence as we center ourselves, bring ourselves fully into this time as we join together once again in community. Come whoever you are.  That voice which calls us together here today in this room made holy by our presence and by the sacred breath we share in our singing and speaking and silence. That voice which calls us to remember that we are not alone and that we are inextricably linked to all other life, woven into a vast tapestry of existence of which we are a powerful and holy part. And just as we have been called together here today, we act as the voice, the heart, the hands of another call, the call to walk with the wanderers, to sing and dance with the worshipers, to proclaim the memory of those who have taken their leave, to wrap the despairing and the broken in the arms of love and community, and hold the hands of all of us who have broken our vows and call us back again and again to the covenant and work of justice, humility and steadfast faithfulness. For all this we are here together today.  And I invite you now to rise in all the ways we do and join in the words on the screen if you can see them on this extremely sunny day as we light our chalice. With this familiar simple act, we welcome the light of the flame, we welcome the heat from its glow, we welcome each other into this sacred hour together. And now we come to the first of those changes we mentioned a moment ago. Last week we brought back our exchange of friendly greetings. So before we do that, I just want another reminder about be attentive to the needs of those around you and your own needs. Some of us welcome hugs with open arms, some of us do not. Some of us love to shake hands, others are not there yet. Some of us want to just wave, maybe meet eyes. However you want to share a greeting, love and peace and welcome, I invite you into the sharing of friendly greetings. Let's sing our opening hymn together. Come, come whoever you are. Come, come whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. Ours is no care of and of despair. Come yet again, worshiper, lover, it is no care of and of despair. Invite anyone who'd like to come up closer for our story to come on up to the carpet. Good morning. Hey, Genevieve. How are you? I like your stripy dress. You got a new video game? What's it called? Pokemon game. How many of you like Pokemon? Pokemon's a thing in my house. Yeah, exactly. We should have. Hey, Jay, you've got Pokemon cards right there. Well, good morning. It's so good to see you all. I've got a story for you today that involves a whole bunch of mice calling a meeting.  Yeah, well, OK, so before we tell, before we get to the ending of this story, what do we know about cats and mice? Cats, wow, did you? We did not even practice, but you were a beautiful chorus together of saying cats eat mice, right? So how do you think mice feel about the cat? Scared, bad, traumatized, terrified? So let's set the scene. We are calling together a whole group of scared, traumatized, terrified. What else did we have? Very terrified. Very terrified. Extremely terrified mice all got together and said, what are we going to do about the cat? And they came up with all kinds of ideas. So if you were these poor, traumatized mice, what ideas would you come up with? I heard run away. Max, eat the cat. If we want to talk later, you know where to find me? I adore you. OK, one at a time. Mashed potatoes, turn the cat into mashed potatoes. Didn't we have a story about mashed potatoes like two years ago, and you remember? Ride on the cat. So turn the cat into a horse, put a saddle on it, and ride the cat. OK, see ya. Turn it into mashed potatoes. So we need a magical element into this story. OK, AJ, what you got? Oh my goodness. OK, well here, let me tell you what they came up with. The oldest mouse stood up and said, I have an idea. What we need to do is to, do you remember? What was the ending? What did they decide to do? Put a bell on the cat. Then we will hear the cat coming, and it will give us time to run away. So they thought about this with all the other ideas that they came up with, and they said, wait a minute. This is a good idea. We need to put the bell on the cat. So then the old mouse said, I'm really glad we all agree. We have a bell. We have all of us. Now here's the bigger question. Who is going to bell the cat? OK, so I think the whole point of this story, which this story is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years old. And I think we retell this story because it's really, really important to come up with ideas, to be as creative as we can be.  But here's the thing we need to remember. Somebody has to actually do it. So today, what I want you to remember is that together, all of us, because there isn't an ending to this story when you hang on one second. When you find this story online, and believe me, I looked and looked and looked this week, when you find this, it always just ends with the wise old mouse saying, who will bell the cat? And I like to think that they did it together. It was going to take all of them. So what I want you to take away from the story about the cat and the bell and the traumatized, extremely terrified mice, is that we can be very brave, and we can do really hard things if we're doing it together. OK, I'm going to turn off my mic. Drew is going to start to sing. And if you've got things you want to tell me, come up and tell me. I am all yours. Let's sing the children to their classes, number 1018 in the Teal Hymn. They'll come and go with me to that land. A lot of good ideas I hear. Come and go with me to that land. Come and go with me to that land. Come and go with me to that land, where I'm barred. Come and go with me to that land. There'll be freedom in that land. There'll be freedom in that land. There'll be justice in that land. There'll be justice in that, justice in that, justice in that land. They'll be singing in that land. They'll be singing. Come and go with me to that land. He is from childhood. It has become this bit of a running joke in our family. My mother will say, you know who I ran into? Barbie Regan's mother. You remember Barbie Regan. You went to elementary school with Barbie Regan. And as I'm shaking my head, either my father or my sister will say, she doesn't remember Barbie Regan. They're right. I never remember anyone that my mother mentions. I trust her that these are real people that I had experiences with, but I got nothing. There is one thing I remember though. So vividly, I could paint you a picture. The home of my maternal grandmother. I can still feel the soft linen tablecloth that must have been washed a thousand times. I can smell the soup bubbling away on the stove. I can still taste her capilletes even though I haven't eaten them in more than 10 years. I can hear her voice asking for a kiss before I left. And I can hear the squeak of the magical kitchen drawer where she kept the secret supply of snacks just for her grandchildren. My grandmother's home was a place I belonged without question for the entirety of my childhood. Then the day came when I had to tell her that I had left the Catholic church and was heading off to a Presbyterian seminary. I will never forget the look on her face as she said, then you are no longer my granddaughter. The tears began to flow. I gathered my coat and my bag and I left. My belonging was gone and my heart was broken. I drove the 20 minutes back to my parents' house where I found a very confused father standing at the door with a phone in his hand and saying, I have no idea what is happening with the two of you. I cannot understand a word that she is saying but it is your grandmother. I said hello and my grandmother immediately said, I am so sorry, honey, pay no attention to a foolish old woman. You are mine and I am yours and my love is stronger than anything else. We all need those places where we belong, where our love is stronger than anything else. If the statistics are to be believed, many of us don't. The Surgeon General has declared loneliness and epidemic in America, citing some of the following facts. 50% of Americans experience measurable loneliness at any given time. Over 20% of American adults say they often or always feel lonely or socially isolated. This isn't surprising when we've been living through a pandemic which for so long drove us away from each other and our routine connections. Loneliness, the feeling of isolation or disconnection which can occur when we are objectively socially isolated but can also happen when we are in a crowd but feel alone. That loneliness creates a sense of danger and uncertainty. It wakes up our animal brain. Animals like to be together for safety, for protection, for the sharing of resources. We are no different. We are animals who prefer to be together. And so we find communities to belong to, places that feel like home where we are welcome in the fullness of ourselves, places where we can bring in all of who we are. We have examples of welcome throughout time. The activist Rosemary Harding remembers her growing up days in the South. She especially remembers the hospitality of her mother, Ella Lee and her great-grandmother, Mariah or Mama Rye. Mama Rye was born in Africa, was a slave in Virginia and died in 1930 at the age of 107. Both these women cultivated a deep welcome as well as a profound mystic spirituality. In the years that Harding was growing up her house was a regular stop for neighbors, relatives and friends. Her parents made that house welcoming. Sometimes too much so it seemed for all kinds of people came through, not just neighbors and friends, but peddlers, professional gamblers, petty thieves, a regular itinerant bookseller who appeared often in ragged clothes and so many who were without homes. Her mother would set out beautiful china dishes and slices of her homemade pound cake for all of them, especially the ones just passing through. It was as if she knew that they needed special attention and besides she genuinely enjoyed hearing their stories and learning from them. She knew that wisdom came from many sources. The efforts my parents made to be neighborly Harding writes and to reserve judgment against those who society viewed as outcasts served as important examples for their children and grandchildren as we grew into adulthood. That welcome was the foundation of my family spirituality. This idea of a deep revolutionary welcome such as the one in her family goes even further back in time into Judaic history. Karen Haring author and UU minister reminds us that it was Abraham who long ago set the bar for welcome so high. His storied welcome of three total strangers tells us what true hospitality looks like. Abraham did not wait for the unannounced visitors to arrive at his tent. He ran out in the heat of the day to greet them, inviting them under the shade of his oaks. He didn't ask for names, country of origin or photo ID. Instead he bowed, requesting the privilege of washing their feet, offering them a little bread. He did not serve whatever he had on hand. He ordered fresh cakes made from choice flour and a tender calf from his herds slaughtered and prepared especially for these three strangers whose names he didn't know. Wayfarers who turned out to be angels in disguise. That welcome was often regarded as the basis of one's relationship with the holy. In folklore from around the world, the holy of holies shows up in disguises. As a foreigner, as an undesirable neighbor, a pesky creature even. And the one who opens the door to that stranger and welcomes them to the table is the one who entertains angels unaware. Not only does this earn favor in the eyes of the divine, it also not coincidentally creates a harmonic social order in which food and shelter are shared and the possibility of friendship is invited. Welcome then is a spiritual, moral and practical virtue. We find this in our own history with William Ellery Channing, the 19th century Unitarian, sometimes called the father of Unitarianism in the US who said in a sermon about slavery, I am a living member of the great family of all souls. And sometimes I think congregations have no greater purpose than to convince us all of that and to proclaim it to anyone who needs to hear it, which is everyone.  And you belong here in that family. You have a place at the table. As the Reverend Victoria Safford put it, no matter what the world has told you, the universe is glad to see you and we are too. In this place, we mean to be for each other as wide as we can get each other to extend. The ears and eyes, the welcoming voice, the incarnate embodied real, live embrace of the universe, the holy, whatever you call it. I'm not sure that God has any other way of showing up except through us. We all have stories of places where we belonged and then for some reason we didn't. Maybe it was because of what we believe. Maybe it was because of who we love. Maybe it was a disagreement with a decision being made. Whatever it was, those moments of break are painful ones and most often, unlike my grandmother, those moments last a lifetime, not just 20 minutes. Now a few years ago, during our first interim period, Doug Watkins and I were asked to meet with a woman who had visited our congregation. She said she wanted to give us feedback on that experience. She bravely came in to tell us that she was a queer black woman who was looking for a religious home after coming out to her home congregation, the community in which she was raised and loved into being and told she was wrong. She could not live this way. She would burn for all eternity. I need a new place to call home, she told us and I was hoping this was it. But she continued, I felt welcomed here in my queerness but not in the skin I'm in. It was a painful moment for all of us, a moment of courage and vulnerability. It was a stark reminder that we need to do the work to be the people we want to be, the people we claim to be, the people who know how to welcome the fullness of people, not just pieces and parts. Community is hard. Wendell Berry wrote, community I'm beginning to understand is made through a skill I have never learned or valued. The ability to pass time with people you do not and will not know well, talking about nothing in particular with no end in mind. Kinda sounds like he's been to our coffee hour. Just to build trust, just to be sure of each other, just to be neighborly. A community is not something that you have like a camcorder or a breakfast nook. No, it is something you do and you have to do it all the time. Our vision statement says that we are a spiritual community of belonging. We will transform ourselves and society through the practices of radical welcome, deep listening and compassionate, authentic connection. We envision a world fueled by love and justice. This vision is born out of a recognition that our world is a difficult place. Filled with horrors and atrocities, we have no idea how to hold and know there's no way to make sense of. We mourn, we grieve, we shake our heads in confusion and our fists in rage. There isn't much we know for certain, but we do know this. People need to belong. People need to have places that feel like home where they are welcomed in the fullness of their being. Our theme this month has been welcome because we know that there is a world out there that needs our welcome, that needs community, that needs people who will make mistakes, but is willing to try and try again. When we talk about welcome here, a welcome that goes to the very heart of who we are and why we exist, we mean that we will welcome each other in our fullness, in our wholeness, our holiness. A holiness which may be at any moment full of holes and contradictions, full of fear and brokenness and doubt.  Come in not only with your achievements, but with your vulnerabilities. Come in and glimpsed the flawed humanity that we share. This home will hold it all as it holds us all. So how do we do this hard thing? I'm gonna bring us back to my grandmother for a moment. Along with the smells and the sounds of her house, I also remember this needle point that her sister had created that hung in the dining room. It was that passage from the book of Galatians about the fruits of the spirit, you might know this one, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I had to look it up, I did not remember all of that. As I was thinking about that needle point, I thought, I'd like to make us one of those for here, not that I have the skill to do such a thing. But if I did, I would make us one that to be the community of welcome that we hope to become, I would say we need courage, wonder, permission, persistence, trust and wisdom. Courage found in the willingness to begin knowing it will be hard. Wonder, becoming enchanted with each other, truly honoring and loving the diversity of human experience. Permission to do the work, to fail, to mess it up, to make amends and to try again. Persistence to not give up when it's hard, when it is nothing but struggle. Trust, ourselves, each other, the work we're trying to do, the vision we are trying to create. And wisdom, to remember that we are all living members of this great stream of life, that we belong here together at this table in this home we share. Think back to what you found when you arrived here. Did it feel like home? Can you commit to offering that to others? To doing the difficult and vital work that is ours alone to do, so that no one here feels like they are welcome only in pieces. In the coming months, you will be hearing about new initiatives from our welcoming congregation renewal team. These are the folks looking at how we welcome one another here, what we do well, what we can improve, coming up with new ideas for us to try. I ask you to be open to the ideas, to feel the discomfort, and before saying, no, I don't wanna do that, to try, just try. Examine that discomfort, sit in it for a bit and ask yourself, what did I find in this place? How can I offer that to others? Can we do this work with courage, wonder, permission, persistence, trust, and wisdom? So I'll leave you today with words from Lisa Cron as she accepted a Tony Award for the Broadway musical Fun Home. She said, for many, many years I have had a recurring dream. I don't mean a metaphorical dream, a Dr. King dream, I mean an actual while I'm a sleeping dream, that I suddenly discover the apartment I live in has a whole bunch of rooms that I didn't know were there. And I'm like, how did I not know about all these rooms? And I've been thinking about that dream because we all live in this big house. And we've all been sitting in these one or two main rooms and thinking it was the whole house. And lately, lights are coming on in other rooms and we're all like, I didn't know we had a garden. We have a ballroom, the pantry is full of food, and I had no idea. The thing is, all those other rooms have always been there and there are really interesting people in there doing rafishing things. And wouldn't it be great if we got to know them more? You guys, our house is so big. Let's not just go back into the living room. My friends, our house is so very big. Let's not just stay together in one comfortable room. Let's explore, let's expand, let's challenge ourselves and each other, let's dance in the ballroom and let us always, always fling the doors of this house we share open wide in welcome and in joy. And I now invite you into the time of giving and receiving where we give freely and generously to an offering which sustains and strengthens our community here as well as the work of our outreach offering recipient who this week is Freedom Inc, a black and Southeast Asian led nonprofit organization that works with low to no income communities of color. Their mission is to achieve social justice through coupling direct services with leadership development and community organizing that will bring about social, political, cultural and economic change resulting in the end of violence against women, gender non-conforming and transgender folks and children within communities of color. So there's multiple ways to share your gifts. Baskets are being passed here in the auditorium. You'll see on the screen, you can donate directly from our website, fussmedicine.org. You'll see the text to give information there as well. We thank you for your generosity and for your faith in this life we create together. We gather each week bringing with us the joys and the losses of our lives and the lives of those we love. We share them here knowing they are held in this community of love and support. We light a candle for Andy Combs, brother-in-law of Mary Kessler who passed away on Monday. We send our love to Mary, her sister Cindy Sidorf and their family as they grieve Andy and journey these days without him. And we light a candle of sorrow with the ongoing violence in Palestine and Israel. In the face of so many narratives of dehumanization, so much pain and suffering, the loss of so many lives. We remain adamant that empathy for human suffering diminishes no one and together we yearn for the outbreak of peace. And we light a candle for all those hopes and fears, joys and sorrows that remain in the sanctuaries of our hearts. If you'll join me in a moment of meditation with these words from Maureen Killaren. Blessed is this holy ground that holds us. Holy are the places of memory, the places which have formed us, where we store the icons of success and shattered dreams and gather threads and pieces of what we would become. Holy are the places of memory. Holy are the places of the dream, the places over the rainbow, where all children are wanted and all people are fed, where colors are the source of celebration and youth and age come to the table as one. Holy are the places of the dream. Holy are the places of change and pain, the places of our struggle, where the rivers of our lives run fast and we hold on, hold on and grow. Holy are the places of change and pain. Holy are the places of connection, the places where we risk ourselves, where hands touch hands, touch souls, touch minds and in awareness still, we change our lives. Holy are the places of connection. Holy are the places of becoming, the places of clear vision, where life and world are intertwined and we can see forever in this moment and we give thanks. Holy are the places of becoming. Blessed is the ground which holds us. Holy and hole making is this place. And our in spirit to sing together our closing hymn, number 1028, The Fire of Commitment. Together we will create brave space because there is no such thing as a safe space. We exist in the real world. We all carry scars and we have all caused wounds. In this space, we seek to turn down the volume of the outside world. We amplify voices that fight to be heard elsewhere. We call each other to more truth and love. We have the right to start somewhere and continue to grow. We have the responsibility to examine what we think we know. We will not be perfect. This space will not be perfect. It will not always be what we wish it to be, but it will be our brave space together and we will work on it side by side. Blessed be, go in peace and please be seated for the postlude.


We're the Falcon fans so today we'll be spending a day in my life my shoes And yes, that's a unicorn. I got four kids and they always get in bed with me So I usually end up in the twin size bed in the morning. I go sleep in my daughter's bed. Let's go spend the day Y'all ready for school? so as may as May five bone on 15 pick out our outfit and You want to wear this outfit? Why? You want to wear this one? Why? You wouldn't wear your tutu. So this is the outfit. We're going with tutu unicorn, of course Must have in the morning time Little coffee Sure, you can do it. No steam milk By everyone. Hope you have a good day at school. I love you So before I start my day in this building right here, you know, I always use usually remind devotional And give praise and worship because without him. I wouldn't be in this situation This is y'all really wanna see Hey, where the barbers at? Oh, man, don't get on me What's going on? What time are you lifting? We're just at walkthrough to eat Russell gauge Whatever games in here just want to let y'all know rust calls at all Chicken breasts just for a male days killer brand with some lettuce I don't say what up Of course I see one today We're clocking out the building about to go over here get some dinner and they got some steak filet mignons for us tonight grateful thankful, but My real my real job start when I get home. I know my wife. I'll throw me a daddy By the walk in this door y'all wish me luck look Let's do a little recap What do we do? We we had dinner tonight. We had some meatballs for dinner tonight a little bit of steak filet mignon We practice our spelling words shout out to my wife. She got on that with the kids They got a spelling test tomorrow. You got to remember a Bible verse for school tomorrow Galatians 6 9 we wrestle we played Django tonight as a family That ended pretty fast for kids things get knocked over pretty fast Other than that, that's a good night. That's a good night Few tears just a few But he hairs


From Soldiers Radio and Television, this is the Army Now. Now that the 10-day course is officially set to take place every month, it has never been easier for a Fort Hood soldier to become aerosol qualified. What we want the soldiers to understand is that it's here for them, that they can get with their unit chain of command and express a desire to go and then the only thing stopping them is the unit giving them the time to do it because it's right down the street, every course. 200-plus soldiers fighting and chowing at each other for those seats. Perspective trainees shouldn't expect to do much sitting, however, as the intense classroom courses were often overshadowed by grueling physical tests and complex practical exercises. Aerosol hopefuls endured such trials as the obstacle course, a 50-foot tower and 80-foot aircraft repel, the new Aerosol School at Fort Hood books to be the premier challenge for any soldier. That's the Army Now.


People have always moved due to the environment, and they will continue to do so in the future. Environmental migration is a present reality. Disaster displays millions every year, and climate change already affects migration patterns around the world. Even when societies are slowed down by COVID-19, nothing stops cyclones and floods. The climate continues to change, the environment keeps degrading, and many people are still forced out of their homes. Others, on the contrary, are trapped in environmentally fragile regions or cannot resort to usual seasonal agricultural activities. On World Environment Day, I join the voices of the UN leaders calling to protect our biodiversity and to take climate action. Even while we battle this global pandemic, we must not forget the critical impacts of environmental change and make sure our recovery keeps focus on climate change and biodiversity. Let's take action now, for people and for nature.


My name is Michael Dyke. I'm an assistant librarian with the Public Services Department of Hodges Library. After I got my master's degree, I got hired on full time and started the position I'm in now in November 2016. I was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. First in my family, actually. The rest of my family comes from Virginia, so a bit of an oddball in that regard. I'd say I like two things a lot about the UT libraries. I like the fact that being in public services, I get to work up front with a lot of people, and along with that comes variability. I get a lot of interesting questions people ask me on a daily basis, and I really enjoy that none of my days end up turning out kind of the same. Okay, so this is weird, but as a librarian, I'm not a big fan of books so much. I'm a very big fan of independent rap music. I really like to hear unique sounds, things I haven't heard before. So yeah, favorite rappers, Idea, POS, Shad K, also known as Shad, Christoph Crane.


And just like the House of Representatives, the Senate is seeking leniency for Ike Ikure Madu, a former Deputy Senate President and Beatrice, his wife, ahead of the Earth's sentencing in the United Kingdom. The decision of the Opal Legislative Chamber, full of the motion sponsored by Chukuka Utasi, Senate Minority Whip, the lawmakers are asking the United Kingdom Court to temper justice with mercy in the sentencing of Laumika, which is scheduled for Friday, May 5, 2023. The senator, representing Inugu West, was convicted for attempting to harvest an organ of a 21-year-old for the treatment of Sonia, his daughter. An account of the good standing of Senator Ike Ikure Madu as his former Deputy Senate President, for 12 years running, and as the former Speaker of Ekowa's Parliament, and considering the enormous contributions he did make in the development of democracy in Nigeria, West Africa and beyond, whereas these countries were first offenders and do not have any previous criminal records, and considering that Ike Ikure Madu was ignorant, that seeking out kidney donors was a crime in the United Kingdom, even applied to the British Heart Commission in Abuja, for a grant of travel visa to their large donor, clearly stating and writing the purpose for the travel visa. The Senate President, Ike Madu Lawan, on his part, has also pledged, pleaded with the judicial authorities of the United Kingdom to tender and temper justice with mercy, considering Nigeria's relationship with the British Government and the impugt of former Deputy Senate President in the development of parliamentary issues in the Ekowa's. To be concluded by seeking tempering justice with mercy by the British judicial authorities, that when it comes to the sentencing, it should be considered that this is the first time ever that Ike Ikure Madu will be facing this kind of situation, and this also should be seen in the light of the relationship between our parliaments, our governments and our nations. We promise that we'll always make ourselves law abiding whether outside, inside our country or outside our country, but this particular issue, to us, is a major diplomatic issue as well. So the authorities should look at the sentencing, that they don't give sentence that will be unnecessarily harsh. I'm not saying somebody should not do his work, but it's in order to seek for tempering justice with mercy. Thank you very much. Leader of the Senate.


This is a really, I know it looks very formal, but it's not. Feel free to get up and get more toast. Leave, do whatever you need to do. Laugh, cry, wail. My name is Madeline Oldham. I am the director of the Ground Floor here at Berkeley Rep, which is our center for the creation and development of new work. Thank you for being with us on this afternoon. I would like to say a huge thank you to people that I would like to actually read their names. The Ground Floor is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Artworks Time Warner Foundation, the Tarnassal Project, Bank of America, and individual supporters of Berkeley Rep's Create campaign. We want to say a huge thank you to them for making this all possible. And thank you to literary managers and dramaturgs of the Americas for being here in this audience today. We are broadcasting live on HowlRound right now, so you are all being watched by Who Knows Who. Hello, HowlRound. And okay, so I'm gonna sit down, and I also will say to our lovely group of artists up here, we don't have enough microphones individually for everybody, so we're gonna do a little passing thing, but if you could, whoever's near one could grab one and then share amongst the people next to you, that would be great. So we are here at the Ground Floor Summer Residency Lab, and this is a month-long program that happens every summer, usually in June, and we bring in artists from all over the country. We have a very robust application process, and these lovely people are the people who we have invited to come this summer and make work for us under this roof. There'll be a new crop of artists in two weeks, so these most people here are for two weeks. Jonathan, I think you're the only one-weeker up here. I think that's true. And then, so we kind of stagger and people come for varying lengths of time. So that gives you a little bit about who we are, why we're here, and I would love for everyone to just tell us who you are, perhaps a bit about where you come from and what project you are working on while you're here with us. Okay. When you say where we come from, do you mean like artistically? However you'd like to answer that question. Logistically. Hi, my name is Sylvan Oswald. Can you hear me okay? Okay, and I am here today from Los Angeles where I now live, but I more identify as an East Coast person. I grew up in Philadelphia and I lived for many, many years in New York. So the kind of world of theater in New York, mostly downtown theater is sort of where I feel like my community is. Although there's a lot of exciting things happening in LA now and I'm excited to be sort of, I wanted to stay on the ground floor of that, but I just, just too. I'm a bit cringy, sorry, but yeah. But yeah, so I feel like there's something starting up there that's really exciting. And I'm working here right now on a piece called Trainers, which is a theatrical essay about falling off a horse. And it's also sort of an adaptation of a Montaigne essay combined with some elements of his biography. In particular, his loss of his intellectual partner and how that spurred him to write like over 100 essays. And what else is it combined? Also weightlifting. Also pamphlets and calisthenics. So there's a lot of things in the mix. I'm working on it right now. I came with eight pages and today I have 12. So thank you, ground floor. Anyway, that's enough. Hi, hello everyone. My name is Christina Anderson. I'm here, oh, thank you. I got a whoo, nice, thank you, hi. I'm working on a commission with Berkeley Rep. It's a, I don't know what it is right now. I'm interested in water politics and conflicts over water. I've written a play about environmental racism. So I'm also looking at like environmental injustice and oppression. So the past couple of days I got here Tuesday, I've just been consuming a lot of research and material. Just like reading about different international conflicts over water, the scarcity of it. Also being fully aware of what's happening here in California. I was just down in LA for a week and I realized that I did not see a single cloud while I was there last week.  And then it's all about water. So I've also been looking at Rene Magritte artwork because he does a lot of clouds in his artwork. So that's how I spent today. And I listened to an hour long, very lovely lecture. I think it was based in London. I can't think of a woman's name, but if she's watching, hello. I don't know if she's watching. What she talks about why Magritte matters in his artwork. So that's what I spent my morning doing. And I don't know what the subsequent days are gonna be, but I'm planning on starting pages on Monday. Good evening, everyone. I'm Jerome. I live in New York, but I'm originally from Virginia Beach and I'm working with James and Sean on a project called Museum, which has two main parts, one of which is right now just called tour, which is a musically scored guide to tour that you would take in an art museum. And that would be the idea is that we would tailor it to a certain gallery and a certain art museum. And then the second half is lecture, which is what we're mainly working on here, which is a musically scored art lecture and personal essay and musical composition on one. And I'm very happy to be here. I'm James Monaco, one half of James and Jerome. And I'm here working with Jerome on the same project with Sean. I'm from New York, I have nothing else to say. Oh, also from Virginia Beach, Virginia, Jerome and I grew up down the road from each other. Aw. Hi, I'm Sean. I'm working on Museum with James and Jerome. I'm working on the projections and media elements of it and kind of figuring out with them how to integrate that into the show and how it kind of affects pacing and how I think all three elements, music, text and the video go together in a cohesive and organic way. I think that's it. Oh, I'm from New York. Hi, I'm Jonathan Spector. I'm from the DC area originally, but now based here in the Bay Area. And I'm working on a play about decision-making heuristics and about sort of all of these concepts that I feel like you hear talked a lot, talked about more especially in context of the election, like motivated reasoning and loss aversion and implicit bias. And they all sort of come out of the research of a couple of psychologists. And a lot of this stuff sort of comes down to sort of what we tend to make cognitive errors about things based on kind of the thing that makes the easier story to tell, even though that story is often not true. And so that leads us to make a lot of mistakes about a lot of things. And then the other thing I'm thinking about right now is that we, as part of this is also that we're very bad at judging our own ability to predict things. And we live, we're kind of in this moment that's kind of like epistemic black hole right now. Where I feel like we, like our village didn't know what's going to happen next in the world is far worse than it normally is. And then I feel like that, I don't know, that is paralyzing in a way. So trying to, I had no pages when I show up and now I have 10, maybe of which five are, you know, I will show to anyone. What do I do? Sorry, Kate. Hi, I'm Lila Neugebauer. I'm a director, I'm from and live in New York. I'm here working with Sarah DeLapp and Max Posner on separate plays that each of them are writing, which I'll let them tell you about. They're both in very early stages of that writing if that feels accurate. So I'm here mostly in a dramaturgical capacity and in a sounding board capacity and a talking and listening and hanging out capacity. Hi, I'm Kate. I'm Kate Ryan. I live in the Bay Area. I've been here for about six years and before that I lived in New York for a long time, doing a lot of new play work and mainly in the downtown kind of sphere. And I'm here working on a play that takes place in the Bay Area and is kind of about the political bubble that we live in here and what it would be like if we, particularly around focusing on a group of women in the Bay Area who might identify as progressive, what might happen if somebody comes into that group who has really different core beliefs about gender and politics, how that encounter might go and what's kind of possible in terms of political discussions today. And I'm working with Lisa Steinler and C-Space on this project as well. My name's Lisa Steinler, I'm working with Kate. A couple of things just kind of to tell a little bit about the process is that we've been meeting for the past couple of years with women, an eclectic group of women that we bring together for a couple of hours and have prompts and questions that we ask them and from that kind of culling out certain information that will probably frame Kate's process and we had an incredibly wonderful meeting today with a group of women who are here as fellows and who work at Berkeley Rep, so it was a really inspiring conversation that we had. And that's kind of that and we'll hand it over. I'm Sarah DeLapp and I'm from New York but I'm originally from Reno, Nevada and I came here to work on a play that I've since abandoned on day three. And I'm now working on a new project that's a little too early in its stage of development to talk about publicly at such a forum as this one that I've found myself in. So I'll just leave it at that. I'm Max Posner and I'm working towards a play. It feels like working on a play, it's too slippery at this point to maybe know exactly what the play itself is but it's about having a chronic illness and the process of diagnosis and also the sort of nonsensical symptoms that can come with that and also the nonsensical healthcare system that we find ourselves in. And I think it's sort of trying to look at that system in our sort of Western medicine but also reaching out into more Eastern medicine and the different ways that disease is really thought about just in that the Western medicine approach is to find the roots of the thing it's all about causation and the Eastern approach is much more about sort of understanding a system and not worrying about what started it. So I guess I'm sort of dealing with those concepts and in some ways trying to deal with those concepts formally in addition to the play literally being about that. So yeah, but truly to be determined. I'm Martina Mayok, I am born in Poland I grew up in Jersey and Chicago and I'm coming from New York. I'm working on a play called Queens that I came with 150 pages and learned that that's half the play. So in like a week and a half I'll have the other 150, I hope. And it's a play about seven immigrant women in Queens from different places from and it follows them from the year 2001 to present day. I think it is about the relationship that you have with your family back home and what surrogate families you tend to make here when you have to go through the process of immigration, a personal play and they're all low income working class women. So and it's funny, I swear. Bye. My name's Ken Powers. I live in Los Angeles, I'm originally from New York but I've been in LA 15 years now so that makes me an Angelina and I'm here working on a play called The Two Reds. It's, I guess it's, I keep on trying to avoid history plays but I'm so drawn into history and it's kind of a prequel to another play that I wrote. I had a draft when I came in here that was about 90 pages. I think the first couple of days here I got rid of about 30 pages of that draft because there were things that weren't working in it. The play is set in 1943 in Harlem and it's about the friendship between Detroit and Chicago Red who would become Malcolm X and Red Fox. They were dishwashers together in Cotton Club Harlem but it's kind of like seeing the prism of segregation, segregated clubs coming down pre-civil rights so it's not as much about them as it is about this environment. History plays, there's something about the 1940s that the more I read about it I always kind of viewed it as almost like science fiction. This idea that you could work in an establishment that you couldn't visit because of your race and there were all these rules that people never really thought about because that's just the way it was and the civil rights era wasn't gonna be happening for a few decades so I kind of wanted to explore what it was like for these guys to live in this environment and it's been, like I said, I had a draft that really, really wasn't working and I couldn't figure out why and I've only been here a couple of days but on day two I kind of cracked it open and figured out what was wrong with the piece so at this point I'm just trying to type as fast as I can so that I can get to the end of the draft while I'm still here. I'm pretty slow, I'm like 38 words a minute and I kind of cramp up every 45 minutes or so so I'm pretty much just sitting in an office with the door closed, writing as much as I can. Awesome, this moment in our summer lab always makes me very happy listening to all of these brains next to each other it is so delightful and I wanna, oh I wanna just take a moment and say hi to Mayen back there. Mayen Wong is Sylvan's director and co-collaborator in this adventure and was going to sit here but now I'm going to move back over so there's not an awkward empty chair. So I wanna ask everybody, some of you have sort of touched on this already but is what you, so everybody's been here they arrived Monday, started working on Tuesday and it is now Friday. Is what you have been doing what you thought you would be doing? I say yes. Is it important that I elaborate on that? It is desired. Great, I can fulfill your desire. Yeah, so basically this project was mainly came from the lecture portion came from these videos that Jerome made while he was on a Fulbright scholarship in Brazil though they have no direct connection to Brazil but there are these series of art lectures that Jerome made in video form kind of through a PowerPoint presentation Jerome's a remarkable electronic and acoustic music composer so with lots of layers of music and himself kind of making these art lectures that he sent to me and this residency has kind of been about us pulling them apart with a media designer and with the musical equipment and Jerome performing just to figure out how all of these pieces that were originally made to be on a computer screen that I watched by myself and he watched by himself how those exist in a room and that's what we've been doing is I think just the three of us going through it real slowly tweaking knobs and adjusting timing and Jerome tackling language and so yes, it is what I thought we would be doing and I'm so pleased that we are. It's not as much for me because I knew when I applied I'm not used to residencies that are structured quite this way. You guys said that there's no real obligation for us to present anything coming in but I didn't really believe that. So I kind of had put this pressure on myself that like, all right, no matter what I'm doing I'm gonna have to stop and prepare to do a reading to share what I'm working on with people but I think it was after kind of finding out that Christina was sitting in the office doing research and reading books I was like, oh, I really don't have to do it. So because the time, I don't know, you are working. I am working. No, I know. I'm working. But as everyone already knows to prepare for a reading is can take days, a few days to a week. And so I realized that again, I just needed to get this writing done. So I could spend that time. I could either spend like stop and my play has a cast of six people and try to figure out where we could find actors and then have the actors read it and go like, oh, this is wrong and go through all the stress of preparing a reading or I could just spend all that time working on the script and share it with the staff members here and just try to get some notes before the end. And that ended up being, I think so far, it's proving to be a much better use of my time because that pressure just like suddenly came off of me because I wasn't sleeping all the first couple of nights because I was thinking, when am I gonna do the reading? When am I gonna, when do I need to start the process? What pages? Is it gonna be a scene? Am I gonna let him do the whole play? Oh my God, how long is it play? Is there an intermission? Like you just go through, you know? So I was kind of working myself into a little bit of a panic. So last night, I spoke to Madeline yesterday and last night I didn't take a Xanax. So obviously I'm a lot calmer. My work here is done. I'm just gonna echo that, same exact thing. Also inspired by Christina when she came in. No, it was a good thing. It's a good thing. No, it was good because I also did not believe you when you said we wouldn't because we were like, yeah, but then some donors are gonna come and like you want us to do something, right? But yeah, it's so much of a better use of time to just actually work on the thing than have to worry about the presentation. And Christina, it's good, you're a good inspiration. I'm gonna be getting so much more work. So thank you so much. Everything the same except no Xanax. Why? Yeah, why exactly? I'm just gonna say right here that thank you for such lovely illustrations of why we do this this way. And I think there are a lot of programs who require some sort of sharing at the end for good reasons. And it was important to us that people didn't have to have that kind of pressure if their play wasn't ready for that kind of pressure. And plays at some point in their process have to become ready for that kind of pressure. And when it is, it's good pressure, audience comes, things are learned and it's awesome. And some of that will happen during this month, but not for everybody. And we wanted to make sure we were just meeting people where they are. So thank you for illustrating that so beautifully. Other people just, you know, is what you've ended up doing, what you expected to be doing. Well, actually, did you say the thing about how you don't need scripts for applications? Did you already say that? I feel like that's important, right? Because I mean, in some ways, I mean, Madeline was sort of one of your things about introducing the ground floor is that the ground floor accepts projects in an idea stage. And they don't require there to be a script. So that's why you also get some of us being like five pages. You know, because we were able, we had the freedom. I think that's one of the beautiful things about this lab is that it's probably the only one I even know of where you can show up and be like, I have a seed. You know, and this question of the kind of the sausage machine that the play goes through over time in the whole business of this industry. You know, it's like strange island outside of that. So in fact, we are living on a peninsula over at the Marina, which is really cool, actually really love staying there because I feel distant, but like from city life. But yeah, I came here expecting, I actually did have a task of made myself the task of doing a presentation, partly because I did want to light that fire under myself, although I am permitted by myself to cancel it at any time. But I wanted to do it partly because actually I was originally going to be working with a performer. So there was a shift in that. And when my performer schedule became complicated and made the money available, I decided that I would read it because I'm writing about Montaigne, I'm writing about this writer, and said that it might be perhaps interesting, and I'm working with the essay form, that it might be interesting to make myself vulnerable in that way. So there's also a lot of physical culture aspects in my piece. So I actually thought I'd be, Mayen would be making me do push-ups all the time. Okay, when the designer comes. So I'm splitting it up, I have like this week of sort of like conversations and generating, and then my designer is coming next week to join the conversation and we're gonna make a little something. So in some ways it's what I expect to be doing and in other ways it's a little bit of an adaptation from the original idea. I was gonna say to segue that as a designer we rarely get to come to these residencies and even be involved this early in the creative process. So for me this was when Jerome and James approached me initially about this show. I was very excited and we met and we chatted and I think we were all kind of on the same wavelength about what we wanted to explore and how we wanted to approach this collaboration. So I would say that this has been a very rewarding experience so far and I feel like if given the opportunity it would be I think really beneficial to have more designers involved. I don't think in every project, but definitely having I think people that think about the show the same way you do but just a different facet of it can bring about interesting surprises and discoveries and I think would really help kind of give it more breadth. Yeah and on that same note I think I was here a couple of years ago working on a project and in the room we had a sound designer actually. So what I think is amazing about this program is that they ask what are your needs and we're gonna do everything we can to fulfill them and having the ability to ask for those things when I think many of us are used to working in a room of scarcity and to have that kind of abundant platter brought to us is just an incredible gift and also to be surrounded by other people who are so ignited in the moment of creation is kind of it just gets into your kind of skin cells and it's an incredible opportunity and it's an incredible program that you've created. Thanks Lisa. And I'll just say too that for me I kind of didn't have clear expectations because I felt like I wanted to look at something that I didn't have time or space to really even kind of approach in my day to day life and so I just kind of knew that there was this pocket of time that I would and I just sort of kept throwing different thoughts in this sort of future thing and in a way I feel like I'm just kind of opening that up here because it seems like something that I couldn't quite have the just time and kind of clarity to do that prior to this. So yes and no. And I feel very similarly where I had this like notes document for a really long time where I just throw tons of stuff for this project in there and I'm opening it up now and I'm like what do we have here and when do I have to start actually writing it? But it's been really great to know that was coming. I feel like it's mostly like what I expect that I went into was just saying to Sarah like I'm aware enough of my process that I know I need to kind of stew in a cocktail of boredom and shame long enough to start writing but you all sort of like repress the actual memory of how painful it is and when you remember working on a first draft it feels much more straightforward. But I feel like I'm kind of like in a college dorm here like I'm writing a term paper like I go off into my room in the corner and then wanna you know wander out into the hall and get coffee and have snacks and chat with people and then you sort of go back in for more. For me I think like Max I didn't have a lot of expectations before I came. I was not expecting to be surrounded by so much love and time and food and like intelligence and openness and that has really been very it set me at such ease and I feel just like I'm in like a bubble floating around thinking and like I can actually think and I haven't been on a subway in six days which also helps a lot. So I was simply not expecting there it just to be such a nurturing environment. Once again you have all sort of touched on something that is so gratifying to hear because when we started the program we asked people okay what do you want? What do you need? And the answer resoundingly was time and space and I'm seeing lots of nodding here and that is something that is not actually that hard to provide for people and so we really just took that and ran with it and really wanted to make a space where people had time to let their imagination run in ways that when you're living your everyday life you don't so thank you again. You all are wonderful spokespeople. So I'm curious to know just a show of hands it does anybody up here has anyone had a moment so far this week where you've been stuck or felt stuck? All right. And can you talk to us a little bit about that moment and what you have done to unstick yourself or if you still feel stuck? I think I always feel stuck but I think for me it's about it feels very violent to make decisions and I feel like there's something about I mean obviously we all have to make decisions to write a play but I've made decisions too early before and so there's something about trying to really pay attention to when the decision sort of presents itself and is there and trying to do work that is somehow bringing you closer to that space but it's very frustrating I think and until you make a decision you are stuck and then once you make one you usually have to make another and so for me at this point in a process it's not unusual to feel kind of lost but so yes I feel that. But it's really nice to have time to actually feel that because I feel like it's a really ugly bad feeling and when you're walking around in your life you can kind of replace it with just like other things you have to do or seeing a friend or whatever and you actually don't have to kind of marinate in it for the amount of time that it takes to get to the other side. Martina I saw you nodding. Thank you. Actually violence is the same word that I think about with making a decision especially like halfway through the play because until a half of a play when you give it to somebody to look at they have already written the most perfect, beautiful, fantastic play in their brain and it sucks to change that when you actually write the rest of it so there is a pressure and an anxiety about the violence of making a decision that it's about this when we're going in this direction and oh no what if along the way halfway through that we realize it's the wrong one and we're gonna have to start all over again and will there be enough time because it's always time is always limited it's very aware of that. I think in New York there's something about the pace of life and or just your everyday life that sometimes when I'm writing a play I'm like okay eight is the fastest route to just get to the end which it's not always the most poetic and truthful you're just trying to get to the end of it and so this is what that sort of is something that happened with the play it's I thought it was two thirds done I realized it's halfway done more needs to be written and then because it's going from it's going through 17 years of history and it's nonlinear like yesterday I think I realized that I'm doing it backwards and I flipped the time times around and that for some reason flipping the time around cracked open more possibility for me for what the rest of the play could be and so I've been inside someone's office because this is my rehearsal room this giant amazing one is where I saw a solitary writer sits in this huge room that is asking me to make something great to fill it and have been moving forward so it's been great. It is very interesting that people have resistance to talking about their stuckness because there were more hands than people have spoken. I've already talked about the boredom and shame but I also a big proponent of the program freedom that turns off the internet on your computer and so I will play with different increments of time that I will sort of one day set it for four hours trying to have a sort of whole morning or then today I was just setting it for increments of like 20 minutes and just saying so you can sort of like hold your breath for that long and just like try and write before you can catch up with yourself for that amount of time and I feel like I keep changing it up I can kind of throw myself off balance enough to get past something. Well I came here thinking I would write one thing and have quickly realized that I wanted to write something else all together so I have been feeling very stuck but I think there's also something about being here in the ground floor and the sort of radical degree of agency I feel as an artist inside of this program that is encouraging me to feel like that being stuck is necessary and a really important part of the process and something that I have this time to work through for the next two weeks until I find whatever it is or find the reason that I am stuck and perhaps I'm supposed to be stuck right now and hopefully we'll move past that. I'm a little stuck because my play has taken me to a place that I know nothing about so I'm a little like uh-oh like I'm now I'm writing about all these like political resistance groups and I'm just like now you really have to get into it you know and it's like you know you can walk around avoiding that so you know certain areas you're like oh I'll research that when it's time to research that and now it's sort of knocking on the door and I'm like shit I guess I gotta go to the library there's something like that yeah so I'm just hitting some places where I'm having a hard time proceeding like I can write the love story on and on and on but I can't root it in the world without more knowledge of these dynamics of these kinds of groups or I mean I'm making a sort of fictional civil war futuristic civil second civil war thing so I'm like what is that I don't have the background for that so I'm having to kind of like hustle to like scavenge right now so I'm curious about for those of you who are working with collaborators it's really early in most of your processes if not all of them and how did you know you wanted to work with somebody instead of alone and conversely for those of you who are writing alone in an office how did you know you needed just time by yourself and you know is this sort of the natural rhythm of how you work or is it project to project so the play that Kate and I are working on together is a commission from C-Space which is where I work I don't know if this is on but and the way we framed it here when we said this is what we want is we're here this week and Kate's primarily writing and we just had our women's group conversation today and then we get two weeks off and then we get to come back for a week and so during that two weeks Kate's gonna go right we've got a lot of material we've gathered over the last couple of years and she's continuing to do research so we're taking that time and then we'll come back here with actors on the fourth week or our second week and start reading some of the work at that point just to be transparent you're very lovely and generous to say that but in my initial conversation with Kate that came out of a space issue so I wanna be totally upfront so that was... So it worked. Thank you. See what comes from mistakes. Well and what's great about it is you know we as a program try and be as flexible and nimble and responsive as we can possibly be but that works both ways and everybody up here has been really awesome and flexible about working with us in return and so when I talked with Kate we were talking about a sort of schedule that would work and I couldn't find two weeks together and then Kate said well yeah a week and then a break and then a week sounds great and I was like great that worked out well so... I actually I have to say I like constraints and I think that having this kind of so we have a huge space this week like almost as big as this that's really beautiful and I am spending a couple of days just writing in there and that's kind of amazing and bringing you know framing the piece from in a different way than I would be if I were in a small office which we'll be in in week four yeah I can like imagine and then we're having yeah and then we're having some people come in for part of it too but I just I want to say I really do like that I was you know we have a huge space the first week I have two weeks off we have actors a couple of days a second week and that's a lot of constraints and I have to really work within that and it's super exciting to me and then if I had two weeks just to kind of work on this I would have a lot maybe more anxiety in some ways so thank you what I think is interesting is I'm assuming this is the case for everyone who's a playwright but the first time the first time you have a produced play it's usually something that no one asked you for it's just an idea that you had that you were passionate about and if that play does well I didn't realize how long it could take before you actually have time to just work on an idea you have and that's something that is a commitment that someone has either commissioned you for or I mean in my case I live in Los Angeles and there might be some exceptions but pretty much every playwright I know is either teaching or writing for Hollywood and I don't know a single exception so it's a very your responsibilities I'm shocked by how much I just needed quiet and I mean like real quiet like no meetings, no generals no agents calling I'm a single dad my 13 year old son is like gone and he became like a teenager like that you know what I mean and it's just the constant distractions and I realized a couple of days into it that the first two days I was in the office I left the door open because I never closed doors and it took like day three when I said oh I can actually close this door no one's gonna get pissed so I like closed the door and for the first time just like turned on my music and opened the window and it's a quiet moment that I had to work on my own thing that I haven't had for about four years so again, if you're a playwright it's such a strange thing it's this thing where it starts off with you just having passion about an idea and if anyone sees any promise in you the next thing you know you've got commitment after commitment after commitment and people tell you you have a year you have two years to write this but it's amazing how much that piles up and how quickly you can find yourself unable to make any time just like oh I found out this interesting fact what I'd love to write a play about that and it's just never gonna happen and then with the Hollywood element of it depending on how much you decide to work in that business that can make it so that you can never write another play again I mean I'm personally committed like I love theater so much that I'm in a situation where I won't work on I have to spend six months of the year just working on my theater stuff which means I have to do some pretty fantastic budgeting to make my year work since I'm only working on a show for six months at a time but there's constant responsibility and it's just been less than a week and I found myself just kind of starting my morning going I don't have to call anyone back I don't have to respond to anyone's emails and I'm not stuck because within 48 hours this thing that had been maddening and frustrating me for the past year just kind of broke right open Yeah So the thing I want to say is you know at the ground floor I think it was the first year yeah for the food project and how many writers was it? It was like 17, 18 or something It was 17 other playwrights and that whole week was a really brilliantly curated research event where we talked to all these different food people and went to an organic strawberry farm and went to an organic farm we had awesome food that was heavily curated for research so it was like a great experience so that being said you know we had a lot of like awesome things happening and we come back to this very room and sit in a huge circle and talk about it so the thing that's tricky with this time is that I'm reading a lot of heavy stuff that's making me very terrified and scared and angry and I have no one to talk to about it other than the poor soul to sit across from me at dinner every evening so you know even in these few days I'm just you know on the phone with my partner like screaming about some documentary I saw and how scared and terrified I am so that's the difference between yeah I guess like being alone in this process and also like if I were to have a collaborator here sort of having conversations about all that research on my end James and I have been working together as long as we've been friends since 2007 so in some ways it's like an obvious choice that I would work with him on this project and the project was conceived together our friend and our friend friend and one of the two one of the two co-directors on the project our friend Rachel in back in New York she she came with us to an exhibit at the MoMA about Matisse and we were just like wandering it through her and just hanging out and she said like we have she was like this is a show right here just you two are so fun to walk through an art exhibit with and so when Rachel says something we just follow but then like two months later I left for Brazil and I was there for nine months alone and so lecture was it was born in Solitude as James said that I would make these videos in Brazil and send them to him and so it was made in like intense solitude and the lecture is largely it's largely about it's it's largely largely about my stutter and the fact that in foreign languages it's more intense so Brazil is like really intense and so lectures like a lot about that but I knew that James and I had this seed planted that's still been said that we had this art museum product so I was like making kind of a personal essay about stuttering and speech in general and simultaneously from the other end playing with art museum images and the Met in New York the art museum is a key site and James and my friendship were there all the time and so and but there's no Met in Brazil and so I was on the website a lot just like walking down like the same hallway as we would go down so sorry sorry but not like that not in like a sad way in a happy way in a happy way but so then I would start making images and like start to make these slideshows but all I have to say is that the piece was born in solitude and the stutter is like is the most internal aspect of myself but it's also the most external because I have to speak in order to move through the world so the dialogue from the beginning between James and I across many miles was important from the start so and there's a tension at all times in there's a tension in the fact that for me it was made in a very in one place and being alone and now and now we are together and work on it and then Sean we early on on the piece we realized that the music and the writing was so specific but as James said I was just using PowerPoint to make the the visual side of it and so we felt that Sean and Rachel once again said that we needed to get someone who could make the that side of the project as specific and fluent as a word you said the other day as the music and the text and Sean has done that in a astounding way so I want to just respect everyone's time and know that we're approaching the time we said we would end we did start a little bit late and normally we open it up for questions so I think if you have to leave please feel free to do that but does anyone have a burning question that they would like to ask this beautiful group of people partially process based sounds like when you apply it's a good question for the how-round people I will do my best to paraphrase but the question was about finding your collaborators and do you apply with your collaborators already in mind and name them or does Ground Floor as a program help you find your collaborators and if so how does that work I think that me and I are working together for the first time I think when I had the thing where my actor couldn't make it Madeline was like I know this person I was like yay but I think I actually don't want to have a translation moment with a new person totally like more than one new person and so I felt like one new person was about all I could handle and I think that if we had asked for some support around the building of the relationship they would have provided it but I think we're doing good we like each other but also we had known each other for many many years so it's been sort of like I've been curious about knowing you better working with you for many years so it sort of feels like it's sort of clicking in and I will say interestingly I think most of the people here either applied with their collaborator but next session in the second two weeks of the program we had a bunch of people who said I'd like a director I don't know who that person is and so we would do a little conversation matchmaking about what that person was looking for and reach out and make some phone calls and it usually ends up being a sort of nice mind meld of who we know and like and who that person knows it I mean it always starts with the artist so if they have somebody in mind if they don't then we help Other questions? Anyone? Yes That's a great question so the question is and please tell me if I'm not getting this right are there things you know everybody has sort of their habits that they fall into and are there things that you have picked up here or learned during your time here that you will take back with you that are a little bit different than the way you normally do things but I don't think I'd be able to we're here from ten to six and dinner is made which is a big help and the travel time not being on the train is really helpful but I'm not answering my emails at all so when I'm done it's going to be rough I'm just going to have to sit for three days and answer the emails and have a relationship with my husband things like that I'm realizing it could be easier to kind of set up a nine to five or things like that where you went to a space if you rented a space or if a theater would give you a space to do the same kind of work but I think all these other things going to the general meetings doing all that sort of stuff perhaps you have another project that's in a different state of development like in production or whatever that it's hard to juggle and so this is especially sacred opportunity to get to just be away I wish I could change to bring that but I don't know if it's possible I have something that I think I hope to bring back which is simply I think when I make work in my day to day life in New York part of what here being able to trust that I don't have to finish the project and make it perfect but also having an enormous amount of time which I feel it's usually either or either I have tons of time on working on it because I'm racing to the finish or I have little bits of time because it's early a little bit different than what a lot of people have said about having so much time to kind of be free and explore many things it's given me time or us time I think to really just zoom in on like three minutes of the show and just make it precise as hell and not worry about the rest of the show but do this like incredible detail work on certain moments that I normally would never do and I'm realizing it's so much better and I learned things about the whole so what I hope to take back is a trust that it is often worth it to spend a week on three minutes or two weeks on a page sometimes and that sometimes you can solve the whole play from that okay we have time for one last question and we will go right here so yeah that's a great question so the question is is there a way to follow people after they leave here how do we know what happens to things beyond life at the ground floor that is a thing that I to be perfectly honest wish we were better at it's been I feel like the ground floor is so just the spirit of openness and hello wonderful that like process is not a thing that like I mean you know we're great with like shuttles and dinner like that process is good but once you sort of expand beyond that it's a little sort of and you know it's but it's it's very much you know I will tell you all again because I'm telling you now but when you leave here the hope is that this is not the end of the relationship you know the hope is that we keep in communication that we keep in contact that we can be a resource for you in the future of your work and whether it's this particular project or something else and so it's pretty porous in terms of what that looks like we don't have any sort of official tracking of it or you know we've actually thought about you know can we do this on a website can we do this it is something that people can access and see and we've had people ask about it before and it's sort of on the wish list for the future we would love to do something like that and we just haven't quite developed the capacity to do that yet so that's a vague answer for you but it is a real one so I want to say hold your applause till the end please but I want to say a huge thank you to these wonderful artists for giving your time and talking with us a big thank you to everybody who's here today and for LMDA people if you are interested in a tour of kind of where we are and what we're doing let's meet over when you came in there was sort of a couchy area over there and let's meet let's gather there in about five minutes and we can wander around the building for a little bit now we can applaud thank you everyone so much


Elon Musk is in Israel. He is touring around, meeting, he met Netanyahu earlier today, he's meeting the president of Israel Herzog tomorrow. He got a tour of the area where some of the massacre happened. He's been near the border with the Gaza Strip. He is meeting with families of the hostages. He's doing a PR rehabilitation campaign in Israel. I mean, he took a real beating after positively commenting on a anti-Semitic tweet by an anti-Semite, which Elon Musk approvingly commented on, then explained the context that he only meant the ADL or whatever, but the reality is, and he took the PR blow for approvingly tweeting a tweet that was written by a known anti-Semite with the intention of being anti-Semitic. Elon Musk might have criticism of particular Jewish groups that is not necessarily anti-Semitic, but a white retweet or white comment positively on a tweet for whom five minutes of research would have discovered that the guy's an anti-Semite, a known active anti-Semite. Anyway, he got clobbered. A lot of advertisers left X. Elon Musk is in Israel to try to smooth everything over to show he really loves Israel. He's friends with Israel. He's done an interview with Bebe Netanyahu that is available. I haven't listened to it yet. I did read a section of it when Netanyahu says, you know, once we finish off Hamas, we're going to have to figure out how to rebuild, ultimately, how to rebuild Gaza. Israel is going to rebuild Gaza. Elon Musk says, I want to help. I want to help you build Gaza. All right. So Musk is now committing billions to the rebuilding of Gaza. Again, good PR for him. And it'll be interesting how it plays out. It'll be interesting if there are any changes in terms of the attitude of some people on his platform towards Israel and towards Hamas. It'll be interesting to see what Musk writes about in the future. And, you know, he is, yeah, he is trying to improve his image. And I don't know if this will work. I hope so. But I don't know if it'll work. You know, I still want Elon Musk to be successful.  I mean, including running Twitter, just be in the background and run Twitter. You don't have to retweet. You don't have to create all these problems for yourself. You don't have to globetrotter around the world becoming a pseudo-diplomat and pretending you care. You don't have to do all this stuff. Just run the frigging company properly. Just stay in the background and run it the way it's supposed to be run. Yeah, there's an X space, I guess, between Netanyahu, Luca says, and Musk, he says, 20 minutes long and worth listening to. Yeah, I mean, I don't like Netanyahu at all, particularly like Musk in this context. I don't like Musk. I like Musk as a businessman. I wish he'd just stick to that.  I don't think he actually knows what he's talking about. He is too much of a flake when it comes to these things.


Hey, GovCon Giants family, Eric Coffey here. Today's week of Bit Opportunities. It's been a few weeks since we've discussed this. But before we get started, I just want to let everyone know for all of you who've asked, we have created a Black Friday special that runs through December 1st. So we are releasing the GovCon Giants 1.0 course and we are putting it at a heavily heavily discounted rate for those of you who are interested, visit our website GovCon Giants.edu or GovConGiants.com, our pricing page to find out more information. It will be limited enrollment, so definitely take a look. I know everyone likes to wait till the last minute to make that purchase, but again, we're encouraging you. If you have any questions, always give us a call,<PHONE_NUMBER>. Now on with today's programming, I'm over here on beta.sam. And what I like to look at is the contract opportunities. So I'm going to go ahead and reset that. We're logged into beta.sam.gov. Make sure it's very important for all of you newbies that are just getting started, make sure you log in in order to be able to download the spreadsheet that I'm going to show you. You have to be logged in. So now what we're doing is we are, and I am looking at this past week's opportunities, I click Filter, and then we want to pull down the sources saw notices. And sources saw RFIs, the reason why we do this is a couple things. One is we want to get ahead of the opportunities. This is a way to get ahead of the opportunities before they're released in a formal RFP or IFB. And then what we do is we respond to these particular sources saws with a letter of interest that we could provide you with a template. It's on our website, gulfconjines.com, but we respond to this in hopes that for any particular upcoming jobs or bids or anything that that particular agency has, they will consider us in the future. So this is a way to have the agency know about your business, learn about your business, learn about your organization without actually having to put in a formal bid, so to speak. So again, we call this bid opportunities because there are times occasionally where the government will only send out the formal quote, the RFP, to those persons who respond it to the sources saw notice. I know this is a lot to take in for those of you who are new to my channel, but trust me, this works. So again, go back and watch some of our older content on responding on how to put together a letter of interest, why we do this and what's it about. But today, for those who are seasoned who want to just hear about the opportunities, we're going to jump right in. So in doing so, we found 397 results and I have already taken the liberty to pull it up and put it in Excel. So we're not going to show you that today. We're going to skip that process and we're going to look at what opportunities exist out here in the world today. First and foremost, look, they're looking for some advisory and assistant services. I'm not sure what that is. So let's take a look, grab it. I'm going to copy and paste. And then we're going to go back over here to the site, beta dot Sam. And under keywords, just make sure you can see it on the screen.  So advisory, assistant services. Let's take a look. This is with the Air Force. You're going to have facility clearance for hypersonic engineering support. OK, this is something that's really specialty. So I don't think it applies to most of us. So we'll go ahead and skip that one. Keep going. A&E, IDIQ, we have companies that are engineering companies that are architectural firms. This would be a great opportunity for those firms out there. I'm going to go ahead and highlight this. And we'll put it in the show notes page. Philippines, operation support contract. Wow, this seems really neat. Let me let's take a look at this one here. Let's go back up and take a look. This seems really neat. Let's see what we're talking about here. All right. NavFact, software operation center in the Philippines. This is for NavFact. Let's see what they're doing. Looks like facility management based support. This is cool. I'm actually going to pull this one up and take a look at it. What's interesting is that the point of contact is out of Hawaii. So that's pretty interesting. Well, I'm assuming that's Hawaii. Maybe I'm wrong. HI, let's see. Is that Hawaii? Am I wrong? Joint based, Pearl Hickman. Yeah, Hawaii. OK, I was right. Just want to make sure double check. I don't want anybody to have wrong information. All right, we're going to keep moving on. But I'm going to save that one for our group because that might be really interesting. So let's keep moving on. I'm going to save this and I'll take a look at it later. Ammunition sources software, those want to provide ammunition like war dogs, BPA for plumbing repair services, large procurement sources, employment assistant programs, preventive maintenance services, include software and firmware. Let's RFI for tax calculators for IRS examination audit based processes. Again, there are people out here that do this kind of work for a living. There are auditors out here. They are looking for you, sludge management and tank cleaning, calibration meteorology, on-call smoke jumper pilot. I don't know what that is, but it sounds pretty cool. Hospitalists, I'm not sure. Yearly service contract for water manufacturer equipment. What else do we have? VA Composition and Pension Clinic. Non-rechargeable batteries. John Bowen, that's you, brother. For batteries, I'm highlighting this for my man, John. He likes battery contracts. Erosion repair. Rebuilt chillers. Let's see where this is. I'm just curious where this one is on the chillers. I'm going to reopen this Philippine one so I don't lose it. Let's look at this chiller one. I just really want to know where it's at so I can tell people. Sources sought, it's based out of New York. Place performance, okay, South Carolina. All right, cool. South Carolina, they're looking for chiller repair. Let's go back. Construction services for Clover Island. Laundry services. Curator follow-on. IDIQ for electrical testing repairs. Replace roofs on mission-critical buildings. Let's take a look at this. I've got some people recently that's doing a lot of roofing stuff. So let's take a look and see if this fits any of my particular folks out here. Department of Veterans Affairs. Magnitude construction is five to 10 million. Service disabled veteran.  You've got to have two past projects of similar experience. I'm trying to find out where it's located. Contact office in Albany, New York. Place of performance. Give me a second. We're just trying to find a place of performance. Okay, here we go. Location, Montrose, New York. All right, if we have any roofers out of Montrose, New York, definitely something to consider. And it says here in this RFI, right? You could be VA, I'm sorry, 8A, VOSB, SDVOSB, large. So again, this is a nice project right there in Montrose, New York. I'm probably likely, it's highly likely that the people that are in that area don't know about this kind of project. So it might make sense for someone like you to take it to a company and explain what an RFI is and help them put that together. Source of electrical construction, IDIQ. That's nice. I'm saving that. Dry cargo voyage charter. Retrofit of flight motion simulators. A say talk. Okay, I like say talks. Let's see where the say talk is. All right, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Commerce, Place of Performance. It's in Maryland. All right, nice say talk over in Maryland. So IDIQ just came out. I love my IDIQs and say talks. Definitely, I'm always grabbing those when I give a chance. Anything IDV for me is definitely something that we're going to stop and fool. All right, IDIQ General Construction Services for Northern Virginia Federal and Lease Buildings. All right, my Virginia head construction people. Let me see how big it is. GSA, Region 3. Ah, okay, so this is actually not bad because the task orders range from 40,000 to 60,000. So this is great for someone that's a smaller organization out there, getting started, it's a small, it's $2 million. So this to me is a great IDIQ for someone who's just getting started in the area. This would be perfect, man. I mean, this is sweet. 39 to 40 to $60,000, $2 million IDIQ. Great start for someone just kind of like getting off on the ground floor and getting their business running. So I think this is a good one. Gives you federal pass performance and at the same time allows you to start finding out about working with the government on a smaller scale where it's less risk. But at the same time, you have an IDIQ under your belt. Love it, love it, love it, everything about that. Security assistant mentors and advisors. I mean, again, there are people here who are security professionals who own security companies. I don't see why the security assistant's mentors and advisors wouldn't be something that you would look into. Payroll outsourcing services. Ray, Ray, Ray, where my man Ray? Ray, this is for you. I'm sending this to my man Ray. He does payroll consulting. So definitely I'm gonna grab this one and set it aside for my man Ray and the Gupcon EDU group. Lease of office space. Okay, and Oklahoma. So if you are a commercial military out of Oklahoma, this is Fairview, Oklahoma. For those of you who are watching, please send this to a friend, share it. Sharing is caring. Definitely pass this information around. If you're watching this and you see where it makes sense or you know someone or maybe you don't know someone but you're from that area, send it to someone else that maybe can refer you. Environmental information services may talk unrestricted. So again, that one, I know some environmental folks out here that might make a lot of sense for them. What else? Market research for small business architectural services for electrical projects at various NAFAC Hawaii areas. My man, I know my man. Who was that? Recently we had someone. Oh, Lou, my man Lou. He's an electrical engineer. He does this kind of stuff. I don't know what's involved going to Hawaii. Let's see. Replacing a housing unit roof and FCC Oakdale, RFI, onsite COVID testing. That's interesting. Seems like it'll apply to someone who had nurses. Leasing office space and Charlotte, North Carolina. Again, government's looking to lease office space. And when they lease space, I mean, I've looked at some of these leasing spaces. You know, it's a 10, 15 year lease. So it's a great, it's not like a regular lease contract. This is a 10 year, 15 year lease. So it's a monster. Audio IQ contract for multi-standard vehicle testing. What else? Roof replacement. See if I can find where this is at. All right. And again, because I'm a construction guy, I'm always, I like roofs and stuff. I just kind of wanna see where this is, where the place of performance is. All right, Madison, Wisconsin. Okay. Custodial services in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Whereas all my folks want to do janitorial. Boom, Custodial services in Pittsburgh. Lead abatement services in Alaska. Temporary housing assistance services, direct leasing. This is for people who, again, this is for people in real estate, arena. I'm telling you, someone in real estate is not looking at this. Definitely, let's see where it's at. Definitely something that you folks can really get an edge on. Okay, this is in California. Again, professional services, real estate brokerage. Look at that. Department of, look, Department of Homeland Security. They're looking for temporary housing, leasing spaces for folks affected by the wildfire disaster survivors. They're looking for housing for them up to 18 months. This is, I mean, look. The contracts should provide an inventory. Single-family homes, multi-family homes, apartments, cooperative condos, or other readily, look, fabricated dwellings. Actually, this makes a lot of sense. I'm gonna send this to one of my guys. But look at this. This is incredible. This is FEMA. Okay, COVID tracing, novel software subscription, install a central energy plant. Hey, look at that. Men's swimming trunks. That's pretty neat. Anybody wanna provide men's swimming trunks to the government? Property asset housing choice voucher management. This is cool. Let me take a look at this. Sorry. All right, this is with HUD. Can you help them implement remedy security efficiencies at public housing assistance on a scenario addressing remedy security efficiencies on the Code of Federal Regulation is 4.07. Okay, this is really, I like this. This is really cool. I think this is neat. Someone can actually take and look at how do you remedy emergency conditions and areas being affected by HUD. This is really neat. I like this. We're not gonna get into it and pull it up, but for those of you who may have that type of skill set, that makes a lot of sense to me. All right, hazardous waste contracts, elevated maintenance repair, small business event. All right, look, here's a small business event, virtual information sessions with Cisco WebEx, Armed Forces Career Center, door replacements, maintenance and winter block arriving items, overhaul repair services, long and short sleeve, I don't know what women this over blouses, but it sounds like close to me. Ultrasonic side scan testing, court reporting services, primer cups and primer anvils, advanced technology and medical review, they're looking for nitrile examination gloves, destruction vehicle maintenance facility at Whiteman Air Force Base, leadership training. I know there are folk out there, look, man to women's athletic court shoes. Let me see if they, let's just kind of let's go over these. I wanna see if there's anything specific that they're asking for. All right, looking to buy athletic court shoe sizes four through 17, a small business set aside, provided two more qualified small businesses respond, that will be considered the rule of two. So here's the requirements, athletic court shoes, predominantly white, trim colors, white leather, laces, similar to A6. I think it's pretty neat. I think it's pretty neat, I like it. Leadership training, got about a hundred left to review, courthouse construction services, Clarksburg Federal Building. And again, just because I'm not reading it, I mean, if something on here matches what you do, definitely, you know, I mean, that's why I'm leaving on the screen the notice ID in this particular column, because that way if something matches the description of what you do, then I want you to be able to offer that service. So cow feet, more feet, six degree freedom, motion platforms, ball bearings, tube cutters, research magnet, packing and creating an egg line. I know people that do packing and creating. Pharmacy casework, that's where my man, Evans, pharmacy casework. I'm sending this to Evans, my man, Evans could do this. Evans, let me pull this up. It's so funny because people want to get away from what they actually do. Oh, it looks like I didn't grab it. Hold on, go back over here, McDill Air Force Base, pharmacy casework. All right, I'm saving this one for my man, Evans. We won't go into it. Oops, sorry guys. Manhole repairs, accreditation of Mexico, federal and state prison facilities, RFI home intrusion detection systems. Oh, I need a lot of this stuff. All right, look at that. RFI for home intrusion detection systems. That's pretty cool. Wow, they're making a big push on these home intrusion detection systems. If someone's in that arena where they offer those types of security services, definitely I'd look into that. Look at that, home oxygen services, vet center maintenance, landing aircraft cushions and corrosion cleaning, some more parts, installing dish table, leather jackets, general x-ray equipment, remote advice assist, virtual good company kit, information sharing environment, IC services, web EOC, I've got some, what else? Some more office-based, they're looking for rescue watercraft services, again, more home oxygen services. Seems like it's like telehealth, but for oxygen. Solid state frequency converters. I know Guy did solid state. Lab supplies, generator maintenance reports, more training services, IT support services, 28 quantity purchase cables and reels, and renovate squadrons in Indiana, scrubber burner, post groom repair, paint blue filters, structural roof repair, Salisbury, aircraft door. All right, and we're gonna finish off with, oh, look, USA seeks services of a South African-based contract that provides support, sponsored event planning and management. So let's finish off with that. We're gonna finish off with that and we're gonna look at these training services. So again, let's take a look real quick and we'll finish off. All right, am I gonna pull up that document? That's the training one and let's look at this one over at Africa. I think this is pretty neat. Let's go back and let's look at this one at Africa. By the way, just so we'll go ahead and wrap up for those folks out there. Thank you for watching today, this video. We do have a Black Friday special that ends on December the 1st. So make sure you catch that special on December the 1st or beforehand, otherwise you're gonna miss out and you will be calling the office and complaining. So definitely wanna say that and go ahead and wrap up today. Thanks so much for joining us. We look forward to talking to you in the near future about all the opportunities that exist for your company and or for your clients. Thank you as always, enjoy your week. So let's go ahead and wrap up. Let's look at this one over Africa. This was pretty neat. Okay, to look at logistics in order to plan this event. So we'll go ahead and post this online and see if we can find a local company to help do this. Thanks guys, as always, been a pleasure.