Greetings to all of the followers of this YouTube channel, a space organized by Truuna Popula, the organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Venezuela. If this is your first time joining us on this channel, you can subscribe to the channel, clicking just below here, okay? We can also invite you to subscribe to the information and the publication from Truuna Popula through our Twitter account, PCV underscore Venezuela, and on Instagram, PCV underscore BE. If this is your first time joining us, this is a space where you'll be able to hear about and understand some of the class struggles in Venezuela and across the world, and the role of the respective Communist parties in these struggles. Hear your hear reports, news, and interviews from across the globe. One of these such interviews is the interview we're going to be carrying out today. By hot piece of news, many of you probably have heard about already coming out of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the protests, the repression, and the wave of calls for reforms in Iran over the last four months. We are honored to be joined today by a representative of the Tudor Party of Iran, the Tudor Party, which translates to the People's Party of Iran. So it is my great honor and pleasure to welcome here, Comrade Mohammed Omed Vah. Comrade Mohammed Omed Vah is an official spokesperson of the Central Committee of the Tudor Party of Iran. He's also a member of the Politburo, and he's the editor of the party's central organ, which is called Namek Mardom. So Comrade Mohammed Omed Vah will be joining us today with a phone call. We won't have any video from Comrade Mohammed due to security reasons, unfortunately. But greetings, Comrade Mohammed. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you, Comrade Dobson. And good to be here. Thank you for inviting me. Great. Well, let's get down to business, Comrade Mohammed. Hot news, Israel. There's been a wave of protests since September 2022. A young girl were killed by the repressive apparatus called the Morality Police in Iran, and hundreds of people took to the streets. This was a detonation of massive protests to demand structural changes in Iran. The Tudor Party published a communique recently on SolidNet, in which it affirms that more than 500 people have been killed, and over 18,000 people have been arrested due to these protests. What are the structural causes of the political and social crisis in Iran? Thank you, Comrade. So let me start by thanking you and all our comrades in the Venezuelan Communist Party for giving me this opportunity to talk to you about their current situation in Iran. And in response to your first question, let me start by giving you a brief analysis of our party's view about the system of government we have in Iran and its class nature and the policies that have led to the largest scale suffering by tens of millions of Iranians. And hence the current uprising, which today actually has entered this 120 days. So we believe that the current regime in Iran is a capitalist-based dictatorship, and from class point of view is a representative of big mercantile and bureaucratic bourgeoisies in Iran. The political structure of this capitalist system in Iran is based on political Islam, where the regime's Waliye Faghi, which translate into supreme religious leader, Ali Khamenei, is the representative of God on earth and therefore his orders are above all laws and legal or governing structures in the country. So the leading cause of all these growing protests was the worsening economic situation due to the regime's one could say new liberal policies backed and praised by the World Bank and the IMF and also the criminal US sanctions, economic sanctions on our country. According to the government's statistics, we now have over 40% of the population living below governments defined poverty lines and take into account that Iran's population at the moment is about 88 million. And the poverty, as well as unemployment, especially amongst the youth and in some of the provinces is as high as 70%. So these combined with unprecedented corruption and growing and widespread suppression of people's rights and freedoms, especially after the sham presidential elections of 2021 and the installment of Ibrahim Raisi as the president. Ibrahim Raisi was one of the, what we call the hanging judges, which in 1988 was responsible or massacre of thousands of political people in Iran, including hundreds of our comrades. So it's also worth mentioning a comrade that while the current people's protest against the regime is the longest that we have seen over the past decades, but over the past two years, we have been witnessing increasing social unrest and protests from growing number of workers' strikes across various industries. The most prominent one being the long strike of the cane sugar agri-industrial company in the south. And also growing strikes by teachers, by in almost every cities in Iran and by tens of thousands of pensioners who their income has effectively halved or in some cases even draw due to the worsening economic situation has even been effectively nominal to what they can support their day-to-day lives. So that's the basis of the current situation. Mohamed, in the moment of heightened conflict and mobilization of the Iranian people, what are the tactics of the Tudor party of Iran? Right, yeah. So we had a meeting of our Central Committee in October to look and discuss the people's uprising in Iran. And in our analysis, we identified the cause of the people's mass scale struggle, as I mentioned above. And we particularly noted the heroic role the Iranian women and youth are playing in these protests. And also, of course, the brutal and bloody nature of the regime response, killing hundreds of innocent people, including children and arrest and torture of thousands of protesters. So in our analysis, we recognize that a lack of extensive engagement of the working class in the current protest is one of the key weaknesses that our party and all the other progressive left forces should do their utmost to address. We also noted that we believe that the lack of united action by opposition forces and a lack of united anti-dictatorial front, and effectively a lack of progressive and a unified alternative that we can put in front of the people is amongst the key challenges that our party believe we should be directing all our efforts to resolve. Our party's key slogans and efforts and work at the moment are around preparing the groundwork or increasing worker strikes and a nationalist strike to bring effective daily regimes to his knees. Based on our analysis, while clearly the objective conditions in the country for developing a revolutionary situation exist, nevertheless significant work is required to develop the subjective conditions and the readiness and the resilience of the movement. And I want to add that while the current protest movement might go through its ups and downs, what is clear that the regime will not be able to resolve is deepening socio-economic crisis and it's effectively lack of legitimacy and sooner or later the time will come for them to fall and open the path for Iranian people to establish a national democratic government. Very interesting, Mohamed. Now the Iranian government has accused the US of promoting the protests. Is there really US and Zionist intervention in the protests? How does imperialism act in Iran? Yeah, interesting question, Comrade. So firstly, the regime's claims that the mass protests across over 150 cities and towns by thousands of people is the work of US imperialism and its allies are totally false. Even according to the regime's own internal analysis, over 80% of the population is against the current way Iran is governed and wants change. Now, we are also very much minded that imperialist backed media, such as the voice of America, BBC Persian Service, Iran International, which is backed and financed by Saudi Arabia and other media outlets backed by US and Israeli governments want to use the current upheaval to promote their own alternative. These media outlets obviously are trying to portray that there is a movement in Iran for the return of the monarchy. You know, 44 years after the revolution and the way that millions of people took to the street to bring down the monarchy. They are now trying to say, oh, there's a movement for return the monarchy. And this isn't the light of, you know, some of the key slogans we hear in these protests in these different towns and cities which translate as down with oppressors, be it a king or the leader. And the leader reference to Ali Khamenei was the supreme religious leader. Of course, in the absence of free and easy access to the internet, which the regime has blocked and also social media and especially, you know, heavy filtering of all the progressive, you know, media website or social media. The imperialist backed media as mentioned, the stations I've mentioned, reach a large proportion of the population and they are playing a significant role in trying to influence the protest movement and influence their line that, you know, the alternative to this regime is a monarchist regime and of course, you know, the progressive forces have a big task in hand in combating that. And I think all the indications from the protest movement in Iran is that the women and the youth are very much aware of this. And therefore, you know, the struggle in this arena is also as critical, making sure that, you know, the interference does not derail the progressive protest movement in Iran. Very good. Now, following on from that, Mohammed, how does the Tudor party overran characterize the current government in the country? Is it really an anti-imperialist government as some organizations and even governments claim? Yeah. Okay. Again, another very good question, Comrade. So as I mentioned before, we believe that the current regime in Iran is a capitalist, you know, representing the big bourgeoisie interest in the country. It's worth mentioning that the regime over the past 40 years, you know, and as you mentioned, has been using this so-called anti-imperialist rhetoric to advance its regional and international goals. And prior to the widespread sanctions, most of Iran's trade was with the rest. You know, even during the imperialist war against Iraq, Iran backed, you know, when the imperialists attacked Iraq, Iran backed the invasion and allowed both U.S. and NATO fighters to use our airspace to attack Iraq and the Iraqi government. And even at the height of the revolution, Comrade, Iranian rulers secretly met with Colonel Oliver North. You know, the Iran-Contra scandal. Well, he came to Tehran secretly and met with the Iranian government and reached agreement that Iran will, you know, help U.S. against, is fight against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. You know, it's also mentioned that the regime's leader do not deny their reside, you know, establishing an Islamic empire in the region. And, you know, some of the policies in the region, regime's policies in the region, include supporting the most reactionary forces, you know, in the form of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Daesh and others, you know, and also interference in some of the old Soviet republics. Now, so in short, Comrade, the Iranian regime is a reactionary capitalist regime with only one interest at heart and that's staying in power. Besides the fact that the Iranian leaders do not believe or accept the concept of imperialism, you know, and have shown in the past four decades to be a strong anti-communist ally of the rest when required, you know, the attack on our party in 1983 was carried out with the help of the CIA, MI6, and the Turkish MIT. You know, in the mid-1982, two senior officials of the regime were invited to Pakistan, where they met the British MI6 officials who handed them so-called suitcases containing falsified information about the organization and activities of our party. And this information was used by the regime's security forces as a pretext of, of course, to attack the party in February 1983, 6th of February 1983. And it's, you know, the London Times editorial next day praised the Iranian regime and expressed a satisfaction with the regime's attack on our party. So this is, you know, the so-called anti-imperialist nature of this regime. That's very revealing, Mohammed. Just to finalize here, let's talk a little bit about the Tudor party. You've already touched on some important elements there. We understand here that the majority of the Tudor party leadership is in exile and the party is in fact illegal in Iran. What is the current legal status of the party? And what risks are there for you as communists in a country like Iran? Yeah, so as I mentioned, following the 1983 attack on our party where the regime's media stated that around 10,000 members and supporters of the party were arrested, this was followed by these sham trials of our, firstly, our party army officers, which included, you know, senior leaders of the army who had played a significant role in the war against Iraq and the subsequent executions. You know, and following that in 1998, they carried out mass execution of political prisoners, which included almost the entire party leadership as well as hundreds of our party cadres and members. The party has been, you know, called illegal and any association with party carries heavy sentences. But I have to say, and this is important for us to note that despite this savage attack and constant, constant attack by the regime's propaganda machine against the party, we have been able to rebuild the party. And as you know, we held our 7th Congress successfully in June, and our party continues to work and influence the Iranian working class and people's movement in our country. Very good, Comrade Mohamed. Omid Rah, anything else you'd like to add before we finish up, Comrade Mohamed? Yes, please, Comrade Damson.  I believe it was in November. I wish you all the best in taking your struggle forward. And also let me use this opportunity to express our heartfelt international solidarity and support with the Communist Party of Venezuelanists and the Venezuelan people in these challenging times and against the continuing US imperialist intervention in your country. Our struggle is the same, and we are with you in this struggle, Comrade. And thank you again for your time. Thank you very much, Comrade Mohamed. It has been an absolute pleasure to have you with us today. And of course, on behalf of the Communist Party of Venezuela, please receive all of our internationalist proletarians' solidarity as well to the people of Iran and of course, to our sister party, the Tudor party of Iran in these very difficult moments for your country, for your people, and of course, for your party. It's very important to keep informing the people of the world, especially our membership here in Venezuela, but the real dynamics of Iran, breaking down some of these myth truths and fake news, which is being spread about the nature of the Iranian government and about the limited nature of their oppression. So it's very important that we get the news hot from the streets of Iran through yourselves. So thank you very much for being with us here again today. Now, to our audience, if you've enjoyed this interview, we would invite you to subscribe to our YouTube channel here at Tribuna Popular by clicking the button on this link. You can also follow us through the Twitter account of the Congress Party of Venezuela, which is PCV underscore Venezuela, or on Instagram, PCV underscore VE. Very important to try and break down all of the media blockade about the class struggles going on across the world. So from now until the next time, take care and thank you very much once again, Mohammed. Bye-bye.


What's up everyone takedown here welcome back to another video and today I'm gonna be sharing with you a new journey that I'm gonna be getting into and that is Amazon FBA. Let's get right into this So I've recently been looking into Amazon FBA and basically what that is is I will become an Amazon seller And all my items are gonna be fulfilled by Amazon So if I was just a normal seller I would post my stuff on Amazon and it would charge a small fee and then whenever it gets sold if a customer comes and Purchased them off the Amazon websites, then I would be the one that would ship my product straight to the customer With Amazon FBA, which is Amazon fulfilled by Amazon Basically, I take all my products and I will ship them straight to Amazon And then whenever a product gets sold on Amazon's websites, then Amazon will send that product and Fulfill it they will pick and pack and ship it straight to the customer So it's less hassle for me, but with that they charge a little bit more of a fee But with that there's still profit to be made with Amazon FBA as long as you purchase the right products And you have the patience and you try to find what works So since I'm just starting out it is gonna be harder for me to try to find what products will work for me What products will sell better what products will have more of a profit? And there is certain products as of right now that I've been scanning that are restricted for me Maybe because I'm a new user and some products are like name brand like Marvel Disney nerf products like that are Needing to be approved before I can sell them so by doing that I either have to get a letter from the company or I have to go and purchase an invoice of Over 10 units of that but by buying them off name brands instead of the clearance shelf It's gonna cost me a little bit more money, but at that point I'd be able to sell them. So with this Fortunately, I'm not going in it alone. I am going to be doing it with two co-workers at my job We discussed it and we're deciding to split the costs three ways and Then with whatever profit there is we're gonna be splitting that three ways that is as well So it's less risk for each of us all three of us wanted to do it solo Anyways, but by us combining it and combining our business as one We're gonna be able to outsource more products because I live farther away So I'll be able to scout products in my area They're gonna be able to scout products in their area and we're gonna be able to combine them Take all the products ship them all to Amazon We're gonna be splitting all of the costs and then one of those products sell on Amazon We're gonna be splitting all of the profits. So we have kind of a business profile of how we want things to be and How much money we're spending a month. We're basically gonna be as of right now Doing $50 each and that's gonna be a total of hundred and fifty dollars every two weeks or every month depending on how it works Since we were just starting out. We kind of want to taste it and see what works what doesn't work what products sell what products don't sell and Try to go from there. So how we get our products is Simple, but it is still a hustle. It's still a grind. We have to try to find those products So number one one thing that we do is retail arbitrage. That's one thing. We've been starting That's you physically going to stores stores like Walmart Target buying clearance items items that are reduced price or sale items and With Amazon FBA there is the Amazon seller app So you basically become a seller you're paying $30 a month to have access to the app and to be able to post stuff on Amazon With that $30 a month you have access to their app where you can scan barcodes and It will tell you what your profit will be all you have to input is how much it costs you and it will tell you if There's good profit or not now online arbitrage is something else. We're looking into an Online arbitrage is basically you're going on websites and going on their clearance tabs or sale tabs and scanning items You can scan them online. You don't just have to scan the barcodes. You can scan the image Hopefully it will show you the right product and it will tell you if there is room for Profits so what we like to do and what we're focusing on is smaller items the smaller the item the more we can buy and send in in a box and Lighter items so the smaller and lighter it is That's what we're focusing on because the lighter it is the less Shipping cost it will be and the smaller it is less of a shipping cost there will be we're going to be shipping all of our items together All in the same box instead of having a few things and shipping them We're going to be trying to ship everything at once all together And that's going to make things a little bit easier like it said for us our business model right now is going to be We're splitting the cost three ways that's shipping That's the cost of the products and then whenever they sell we're going to be splitting the profit three ways as well So that is just a little bit easier for us That's a little bit more of a weight off our shoulders by splitting it three ways and Splitting the profit and splitting the cost three ways It's less risk for us each Individually then if we were to go in and do it on our own and have to pay the full amount for the costs We would have the full amount for the profit But it's less of a risk for us if products that we purchase don't sell It's less of a blow for me individually splitting it three ways with my two friends then to do it on my own So that's why we're doing it this way We've been finding a couple products and we haven't shipped anything yet So the first item that we bought is this dash cam this dash cam was on clearance for $50 and it should give us a profit of $100 every item that you sell Amazon FBA. It's going to charge you a fee So whenever this sells Amazon is going to be taking a small fee for fulfilling this and More expensive products. It could be more money So this is about $10 that Amazon is making off of us, but we're making about $100 profit for this unit It's not that's big anyways. It's not going to take much to ship So we're going to toss that in the box as well The next thing that we purchase This is the next thing that I sourced out is this Bluetooth speaker now These were on clearance for $20 and it should give us about $20 profit each So I bought three so that's what it's $60 profit for these So that's not too bad for having a couple products that we purchased right off the bat We're going to be shipping these all together. I bought these two things These three bluetooth speakers and this dash cam about a month ago And the next product that we sourced out in retail arbitrage Is this mastercraft knife now this here is it was on sale for black friday for four dollars And we're going to have each units. We're going to have about $8 and 70 cents profits With these here we bought 20 of them So each person should be getting around $60 profit on these knives alone Not including the dash cam or the bluetooth speakers So these items that we got It took us a long time this just these items here the 20 knives the three bluetooth speakers and the one dash cam Just to find that stuff was about a month of searching going to retail stores Scanning hundreds of items and finding what we decided to go for So there is a couple other things that we're going to be looking at in the future But this is going to be our first shipment 20 knives three bluetooth speakers one dash cam The next step for us is to ship all this stuff to amazon post it on amazon and wait to see What sells so this is going to be the first video that i'm sharing with you guys talking about amazon fba talking about retail arbitrage online arbitrage There's a couple things we're looking on online right now liquidation centers and other reduced Items that are basically reduced price that are going to give us a little bit more of a profits And we're going to have to see what we want to Narrow down on and purchase because we want to try to get as much profit as we can Especially as we're just now getting into the holiday season In my opinion, we're kind of starting late, but at least right now since it's holiday season These knives here alone were on black friday We're going to be able to find more deals like this in stores and then flip it and sell it on amazon for profit so One good thing about amazon fba or amazon selling on amazon to begin with Is people don't necessarily look to see what things are At different locations near them and what's on sale on stores Some people just go on amazon purchase items because it gets shipped right to them and they want that ease So but another thing we're going to be getting into one of our niches that we want to try to dive into That might be easier cells are going to be toys kids toys So i'm going to be sharing that with you guys in the future Of what else we're going to be doing with amazon fba How we're doing once we ship this stuff off to amazon I'm going to be sharing with you guys what sells what doesn't sell i'm going to be sharing with you guys How to ship uh your items to amazon how to post it on amazon and anything else along the way So we are just starting out too. I know a lot of people are starting out and most people that are going to be watching this video Are people that are starting out amazon fba have a lot of questions and want to know What to do where to outsource? products what Products to look into and we're going to be trying at least me I'm going to be trying to help you guys along the way with the help of my channel and share This journey with you so you're not alone. We're just starting out too So we can bounce ideas off and try to help each other with amazon fba Amazon fba is something that in my opinion anybody can do Uh, you just have to have the hustle you have to have the grind you have to want to do it You have to put in the efforts to make profits You can't just do the minimal work And expect amazon to give you profit you have to outsource you have to find your products that you want to sell on amazon and products that are going to give you the most profits and Work hard find those products post them ship them sell them So it is a hustle. It is something I've had the mindset a business mindset for a while now You guys know that because I've talked about it with my online store with my t-shirt store With other things like that before I sell on ebay right now So this is going to be another outlook for me So I hope you guys are interested in seeing what happens in the future I'm going to update you guys in the future And if you guys have any questions on amazon fba comment them down below And I'll try to see what I can do to help answer any questions you guys have Or if there's anything that I find out along the way if you have questions for and if I have the answer for it I will share that in a future video So I'm going to leave this video here I just wanted to explain that we're getting into amazon share a couple of the products that we're purchasing What our profit margin is for these products so you guys know kind of what to look for What to do with amazon with the app anything you scan it will tell you the profit profit It'll tell you what it sells on amazon. It'll tell you what amazon's fees are It won't tell you the shipping but if you ship everything together That's going to be a lower cost for your shipping anyways, and that's what I suggest to do Hope you guys did enjoy this first look into amazon fba I'm going to be continuing this series in the future and try to help you guys out as much as I can With amazon fba while we are doing this journey ourselves. So hope you guys enjoy. Please take care. Peace


The world has largely galvanized around the concept of mitigation, which is reducing carbon emissions, but we must deal with the reality that climate change is here to stay. And with all the best will in the world, we're going to have to deal with this and therefore we need finance to flow toward that reality that is here. Those who have contributed the least to climate emissions are the ones that are disproportionately affected. So there's a societal obligation. The dollar invested in climate adaptation effectively generates five to seven times that investment in risk avoided or GDP degradation avoided. So there's a real economic case here for those investments.


Set up straight and look at me right now. Aye, sir! Fourth Phase is the final two weeks of recruit training after the crucible. It's designed to give the drill instructors more time to demonstrate marine to marine mentorship and provide the recruits the opportunity to transition to their new roles as marines. The new marines during Fourth Phase will learn how to act like marines and take charge, take responsibility and treat others as marines. In this phase, they're given more responsibility, less supervision and that gives them the time to adapt to that situation and start to act like marines instead of marines. Recruit training will remain 13 weeks long. However, some of the events have been reorganized to better suit the Fourth Phase model. It's important to remember that none of the graduation requirements have been changed, lowered or diminished and will still be producing high quality, basically trained marines in the Fourth Phase model. The 6S are the six functional areas of leadership development. They stand for Fidelity, Fighter, Fitness, Family, Finance and the Future. They make up the framework of marine leadership development. By addressing each of these individual areas in Fourth Phase, marine leadership development seeks to ensure development of marines and thus a core that is cohesive, tactically and technically proficient and guided by moral purpose and able to execute the toughest challenges.


Hello viewers, it's K.E. Felix here and I welcome you to my YouTube channel K.E. Felix Inspire. I'd like to say a very big thank you to all of you for the support and the contribution you are giving to this channel. If you are new to this channel, please do not forget to subscribe and hit the bell icon so that you get notified whenever I post new videos. Stay tuned for more details in this report. So, I just want to clarify something. I've seen some cheap lies that are being propagated on social media just now. I was in church, I've just come back and I'm sure by now you are all familiar of my house. I'm at home and this is live. Right now I'm speaking live. I've decided to do a live broadcast so that I live no doubt in the mind of some of the naif people. So, I am prompted to do this video because some people have spreading lies on social media that I am in Nyimba, eastern province. I don't know if it is, yeah, Nyimba, eastern province with president Ed Galungu. Now, I don't even remember the last time I met president Ed Galungu. I don't even remember. And today I woke up, I went to church, I've just come back from church. I've even passed by bought some bread and here I am, I'm at home. I'm sure you know my place. This is a place now that is familiar to all of you. There is the gate where those Yui boys were trying to break. I don't understand why people are so evil bent. They are so malicious. They just want to create things which are not there. You are trying to implicate me into things that I don't even know. My life is very simple and what I talk about is also very simple. Me, I talk about what I see, what I hear with evidence. So don't implicate me, don't start coming up with some propaganda to implicate me. If you want to implicate president Ed Galungu, go ahead, we know the plan. You want to implicate Ed Galungu, but you must know that myself and president Ed Galungu, there is no connection. What I do, I do it independently, away from president Ed Galungu. I don't do anything to impress anyone. I don't do anything to impress anyone. I don't speak out to impress president Ed Galungu or impress whoever you may think. President Ed Galungu is not my boss. You keep talking, Ed Galungu is just giving me money. You took money to South Africa to go and deposit money for Ed Galungu. I don't understand you. I am a man of my own. I am a man of my own. Stop speculating, stop trying to link me to president Ed Galungu. I realize you don't have answers like I said the other time. I told you that when I come up with something, what I expect is people to respond on the issues that have raised. Respond on the issues that have raised. Don't start coming up with funny theories. Funny theories of Ed Galungu has given him money. Oh, he is now with Ed Galungu. Oh, he has gone to Nhimba with Ed Galungu. Come on. I know you want to implicate Ed Galungu. That is what you want. You want to implicate Ed Galungu. But go ahead, do that. I was not even in government myself. I was not even in government. So the plans that you have, go ahead and let's see where that will take you. That is my point. Let's see where that will take you. I know you want to implicate Ed Galungu. But I'm trying to tell you that you go ahead with that. And let's see where that will come, will take you through. Let's see where that will take you through. I'm in my house. I'm in my house. Here I am with my Kia. Kia say hi. You see? I did. These guys, they say that I'm in Nhimba. Can you imagine? I'm not at home. I'm not with you. Can you believe them, baby? They are crazy. They are really crazy. Even Kia is shocked. Hi, babe. Look at her. Hi, babe. They are crazy. Yes, babe. So please stop the lies. I've done this video. I just wanted to clarify because some people are naive. Some people, when they just read, it is true. Most of the things that they talk about me is not true. Most of the things is not true. It's not true at all. But what I talk about them is the truth. For them, they lie against me. Me, what I talk about them is actually the truth. The things that I tell you here, they never responded to them. You see? Here now, I told you that look, these people, they have gathered and they are trying to get information. They are trying to build a case against Ed Galungu so that they can arrest Ed Galungu. And I told you that there are people who are doing audit in the defense force. I told you about that. And have they refused it? Hasn't it come out true? Hasn't it come out true what I told you? Hasn't it come out true? They are now running up and down like headless chickens trying to defend an illegality. They are trying to defend an illegality. Because of their head for Ed Galungu, they are even committing crimes. They are even committing treason. What you have done is treason. Exposing that secret is treasonous. Exposing the secrets of a country is treason. You have committed treason or in the efforts or with the desire or in attempt to implicate Ed Galungu. You have even lost focus just because of the head that you have for Ed Galungu. You are even committing treason. You can't explain it and this man at director at information, a minister of information, Tawokawan, he was also, I think it is the other day, trying to explain what cannot be explained. He was saying, no, these people, they are not looking at our guns, they are not looking at whatever we have, military, they are sitting in a room and then people are bringing them files and they are not doing audit because they have seen that according to the audit act what they are doing is a crime. So now they are running away from the word audit. Now they are going to, they are doing verification. Whatever the case, whatever the case, the military is not supposed to be for foreigners. Whatever the case is not supposed to be for foreigners, what you have done is illegal, it is an illegality, it is treason and you should pray that the government that will come in will not, some of you, you will not be jailed. Otherwise you are going to be in big, big trouble. You are going to be in big, big trouble for what you are doing and instead of you coming up with lies, maligning me, trying to create up some case between me and Ed Galungu you should be ready to handle this and the best that you could do is just to cancel that thing. Just cancel it then to keep on defending it because I'm telling you you will be in trouble over this. You will be in trouble and sometimes you may not see the other point in this, you may not see these guys they are saying we have got debt, we have got so much debt and then they go and hire their friends to do what they are calling verification at within the law, I don't know which law because Tawakawana kept saying within the law, within the law but he couldn't quote which law Tawakawana or this government used to engage those people to go into the military but over and above that they are spending money they are spending money they are stealing money basically they are stealing that they are paying these companies it is stealing imagine and you want to pay before I start paying I want to verify then you go and start hiring your friends and start paying them you have got debt you are saying you want to pay our debt but you are actually hiring your friends and then paying them what solution is in there so far these guys have not paid any debt they have not paid any debt up over Aishinam government and yet Waaka in debt he kept on saying we will pay debt we will create a moritorium a moritorium on debt since they came in these guys have been borrowing money they have been borrowing and they have been giving business to their friends and they are paying them Zambians are not being paid in the guise of now we are verifying you see a lot of contractors they are not being paid contractors are not being paid and they are not paying them in the guise of now we are verifying we are doing audit meanwhile they are contracting their friends and they are paying them honestly and when I talk at now how can I turn down before such nonsense how can I turn down before such criminality how can I turn down because such corruption this is the government of makruksi corrupt people and they are busy pointing fingers at others and they are busy pointing fingers at others and they are busy pointing fingers at others but these guys are stealing they are stealing big time they are stealing big time don't be cheated by all these drama that they are putting up following this one nula wakini wakini wakini wakini wakini wakini b responsive They shift your attention from what they are doing so that they can steal. They are shifting your attention to Chilifatari, to Edgalungu. That's what they are doing. That's what they are doing. They are stealing right now as we are talking. They are stealing. We have put crooks, criminals in government. They wear a stop up privatization. During the time of privatization, they stole big time. Now you have given them power. Now they are stealing even bigger. They are stealing the same way they stop up privatization. That's what they are doing. Before you know it, you Zambians, you remain with nothing. Everything will be owned by them. They will own Zambia. You have brought criminals in this government. We will not let them cheat you. I am not anywhere in Yimba. I am at home. Thank you very much. Enjoy your Sunday.


Hello everybody. I am Sheree Adams and I am in the Steering Committee at Directors Lab West. I am going to describe myself for you.  My background describes the speakers of this conversation and has the hashtag Directors Lab West connects. What is Directors Lab West connects? I'm glad you asked. Directors Lab West is a 20-year-old, all-volunteer-run organization that produces an annual eight-day intensive lab. It's full of workshops, panels, masterclasses and more. It's for mid-career directors and choreographers and they come from all over the world. Well, the pandemic put a wrench in that. However, refusing to be thwarted, we chose to mark the lab this year with Directors Lab West connects. Online version of the lab. Needless to say, we've been overwhelmed by your responses. So here we are. Welcome to eight days of conversations crafted for and by theater directors and choreographers, live streamed by our partners at HowlRound to their website and to our Directors Lab West Facebook page. There you can join the chat. Tell us who you are and where you're tuning in from and ask questions for the Q&A following our speakers' conversation. Very special thanks to Alan Witteborg for providing ASL interpretation. He is wearing a gray shirt. He has a beard and he has a pale face. You can also head over to our Facebook page for audio captioning, if you like. I'm very excited to welcome our speakers today, Luis Alfaro and Laurie Woolery. We asked them to talk together today about their work with their communities and how it's changed post-COVID. We are also curious about how teaching has changed during COVID and what changes they have made to the process because of it. Luis Alfaro is an award-winning playwright who divides his life between working in regional theater and community-based art throughout the United States. He recently finished his sixth season tenure as the playwright in residence at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He teaches at University of Southern California and before all this went down he had a pretty good run at the Magic Theater St. Louis Repertory Theater and two seasons in a row at the Public Theater in New York. Speaking of the Public Theater, Laurie Woolery is the Director of Public Works there. If you're not familiar, it is a wonderful program that seeks to engage the people of New York by making them creators and not just spectators. She is also a director playwright, citizen artist. She's the former Associate Artistic Director of Cornerstone Theater Company and the Conservatory Director at South Coast Repertory. Might not know this, but she develops new work with diverse communities ranging from incarcerated women to residents in a Kansas town who were devastated by a tornado. Luis and Laurie, welcome. They will be in conversation for the next 30 minutes and then return with some questions hot off the Facebook chat. I'll see you all soon. Thank you so much, Shirei. My name is Luis Alfato and I am middle-aged queer Latino man who was recently shaven this morning and I gave myself a COVID haircut. So I'm feeling a little messy but a little cleaned up as well. Hi, Laurie. Hi, Luis. I'm ageless. I'm Laurie Woolery. I'm ageless. I am wearing a top, a moth-colored top and I am letting my COVID route show. So I wear glasses and I am happy to be here talking to my friend. I'm so happy to be here with you, Laurie. I thought maybe before we even started I should say that I clocked for myself and for everybody that you and I have known each other for 28 years formally. I was a child.  You were my very first professional play. I think you taught me. No. Every day, Luis. You were my very first professional play at South Coast Repertory and you were an actor and this was the first professional play I had written 28 years ago. I don't know if people realize it when they ask us to talk together. They realize how close and intimate we are as actual friends for the last two, three decades. So I'm excited about this conversation. Yeah, because they're going to be expecting pros and they're just going to get cheese may right? That's all. These are our late night calls you're all invited into so it's just happening big morning. Oh gossip all the time. I was thinking this morning as we started I've been meditating a lot about this past week watching the presentations and one of the presentations that really took me was the Jessica Hannah and Bogart conversation. Partly I really loved and Bogart's definition of what we needed right now. The three things we needed. The triptych we needed in order to get through this moment which was passion point of view and craft. And even more interesting to me was Jessica Hannah talking about I don't know starting from a place that I don't know. And today we're having a conversation about community you and I. And I don't know is usually the place I start from. Do you relate to that in any way? 10,000 percent always. I think it's the reason why I don't think I know it's the reason why I stay doing this work is to truly step into a space of not knowing and to step into a space of what are we going to create together. And to find out something else about the world and others and myself that I don't know which is pretty thrilling and pretty kind of counterintuitive also to our field. Yeah, I agree. I was thinking about when I was getting ready to do this. I was thinking that one of the things that I've always done when I've gone into new communities is that vulnerable act of saying I am the most ignorant person in this room. Please tell me. Tell me what I should know. And it is the first portal right into not just a community bit to friendships into being vulnerable as artists need to be. And I was thinking about how 30 years later it translates into my teaching that one of the first things I do with students is I don't teach. I don't give information. I don't pass on anything first. The first thing I always say is who are you? Who are your people? And if we can be so bold, what are your dreams? Which is a lot to ask of somebody, right? A stranger especially. But I love the results of what that does to us. And in some ways it is for me not the beginning of a teacher-student relationship but the beginning of an art-making relationship. Yeah, I also love the question in those introductory moments of tell us something we don't know about you by looking at you. And I always tease it out a little bit more saying and even if you have friends in this room they can't know it either. So I'm really just trying to up it so that there's this thing that we used to talk about at Cornerstone and I know that I hold on to it all the time is the insider-outsider perspective. And so I think that's what you're talking about when you're saying like the most ignorant person in the room is like walking and going you are the experts of your community like you know what's happening here I might think I know but I don't know. And so how often do we get to be in a beginner's mind? I had and she continues to be just somebody I think about all the time one of my teachers Denise Taylor who really taught me the phrase beginner's mind. And I didn't quite understand it when I was you know a young artist trying to find out figure out my way through it. But it is something that I hold into not just every community I go to but every class I step into every room I step into I try to do with humility and try to be egoless in that but also in the rehearsal room is going you know how can I you know I've done all the prep that I can do on my own or with my designers but now the actors are going to step in and the and the dramaturge are going to be in conversation and all of us together are going to bring our life experience into the room and how the work resonates for us and that is always such a rich and delicious place to be. So I think what's so great about the classroom was it just you get to practice it all the time and in rehearsal you're lucky to you get to practice it when you get a gig you know and so and then I think in our everyday jobs it's you know regardless of whether it's theater or not is how can we continue to practice those skills you know especially now in COVID it's like all I got is me and that is like me and Zoom but you know it's hard when you're like spending so much of your time in relationship to other people and really wanting to and depending upon that conversation. I love what you're saying because I one of the things I adore about you in the room is that those first moments are really the moments to open up the possibility of a room right the possibility of how much excellence is going to happen in a rehearsal room is really built in pulling back rather than jumping in and taking over you know and I love for me as a play right I'm going to just I think I want to affirm something you said is that I listen very closely in those first few moments because I love writing for actors I think that's one of my gifts and I love adapting my text to the actor's strength right and also the actor's challenges sometimes you hear an actor talking you think I better not use this word or I better like pull back on the essays or whatever it is right sometimes it's technical but sometimes it's also really philosophical right and so I think about how I enter the room and what I'm going to learn in the silence of my empathy right in the in the meditation that I'm doing well I'm also actively listening and I think it's not a surprise to me that you and I both do theater work we are in the academy because we're also mentors and mentees but we also are community builders right so all of those are this I think I'm using a lot of the same skill sets to do the work I think of the classroom as the rehearsal space I always say to the students at the top I'm not going to treat you like a student I'm going to treat you like a colleague in a in a production so let us figure out what that relationship is right yeah absolutely and how we talk to each other because you know you can be passionate about something and you want to be able to express that fully and completely but also being able to understand and read the room about how your passion is received so and I think because so much of my life has been about trying to like let's keep that contained that I want to be able to like let that live in a space that we have collectively set up that is safe so one of the you know one of the big ones for me is just like assuming good will you know when we're in the space is like hearing I mean I just think it's a good life one overall is assume good will you know I just think it's helpful because you can you can load in all your other stuff that you're bringing into your life into it and make assumptions about people which is why this work is humbling to the ego because you have to check yourself and going don't think that you know like you might know but you might know what you might learn something else and you know I teach because I I teach because it's also kind of a selfish act because they teach me so much my students my community have taught me how to be an artist because you know for those some of the people who know me really well know that you know I will say my dirty hidden secret is I don't have pedigree in terms of I did not go to the top institutions I've never taken a directing class in my life you know but I didn't even think I wanted to be a director but community shaped me and I just found myself in rooms and saying yes to the experience of like oh yeah sure we'll say cruise I'll help you do the neighborhood conservatory at south coast wrap you know I'll I'll assist you and then it evolved into all these kids showing up and me being thrust into being a teacher and I remember him saying to me you know I'm like I you know he was he was a great lesson and I will share this story just because we thought 20 kids were gonna show up it was a community center in Santa Ana and we were just hoping 20 kids would show up and 120 kids showed up and I turned to him and I'm like oh my god we're gonna have to turn away a hundred kids and he's like no hold on give me a second and he's like okay this is what we're gonna do we're gonna divide up the room and he started to sing like you take half of them I'll take half of them we'll divide them up I'll have these kids for this hour we'll do have multiple classes going and I'm like I'm not a teacher and he's you know more than they do and then he just started counting off the room and it was the greatest lesson in one pushing me off the high dive but he trusted that I could do it and that I wasn't I wanted to be prepared and sometimes you just have to do it and learn in the moment but he also showed me how not to be so rigid with your rules or your expectations like whoever shows up is who shows up and you know it's loaves and fish you know to get biblical here it's like we can feed everybody and so how do we do that with what we have? Well you teach what you need to learn right in some way you know every year I say to myself okay now I'm going to go back into the field and concentrate a hundred percent of my time as a working artist but in truth I am doing that because teaching is part of learning right teaching that every student brings something to the experience that is a surprise. I have an exercise I just don't want to run away too far away from it because I believe very strongly and Joe Chakins the presence of the actor I think every director every writer every playwright every actor should read this book it's small and short but he has a series of questions of character he calls them when he builds a character and the first question is what is the one thing the people cannot see when they look at you and I do that at the start of every semester right and sometimes it's very something very surface but there's always one student who will turn out to be that shining student who will say something that's very true and very deep and very real about the world that we live in right that helps me shift the classroom from art to a citizen work which is I think one of the things that you and I do a lot of right we are artist citizens and we are engaging in a kind of social discussion in the academy in the theater and in our lives so I'm really moved by this idea that what we're really doing is building up community outside of the space the building right outside of the theater we are really building community of artists who are also citizens and at the same time are trying to figure out how to use that work their gift to build something bigger in our in our culture so I have never felt that they could even if they had a tiny glimmer of a like like oh wouldn't that be cool oh but no is to open up a space you know to create a true invitation for people to step up and step into you know and I can't say that I intuitively knew that going in that these tools that have revealed themselves to me have been revealed to me through being present with community in a shared space as to what do you want what do you need what do you desire what are you looking for you know what do you want from me you know that that for me always shapes a classroom but it also shapes a rehearsal room and a process yeah I agree I agree I'm thinking a little bit about about um you know we we talked previously just uh I was going to surprise you by saying when where's the god in all of this right but in some way you've already kind of mentioned it and I think one of the things that I'm very excited about right now especially in this pandemic time is where is the spirit in all of this right um in some ways I'm being guided by spirituality what does that mean right I'm being guided by something bigger than me in this moment that's allowing me to be a bigger artist than I've ever been bigger artist in the sense that I have to be really really creative about how I do the work and not lose sight of the work that I do right yeah and I wonder if you have thoughts about just because you work with hundreds of community members who are who you bring into a space but also you go visit their spaces a lot is what are you thinking about the the notion of what's happening right now with the loss the sense of displacement there's so much going on and you know it's just especially today with a violent day in our country right purposely so but I'm wondering how we move through these moments and not forget that we are artists right and how do we use the art to um share um like I you know I just shared with my staff this morning is uh for the last several weeks I have felt this always feels like something is standing on my chest you know this pressure and you know I've gone like is it gas is it acid reflux is it loneliness it's despair is it anxiety you know and I think it is um you know it's being in a city that is the epicenter of the virus um the 100 000 souls uh being in a neighborhood uh that is primarily black and walking the streets and seeing how this my neighborhood is affected by what is happening I mean the last couple days there has been such shouting outside my my windows people yelling at each other and um and you know we're all in our little boxes in these little containers and it is going to be a hot summer and you know here in New York just talking to our community partner leaders it's like the funding for all the after school or I mean the summer programming has dried up and so our community partners are trying to find ways of like you know we are going to do programming for our teens and our youth because we've got to make sure that they are not on the street we're like the funding for arts has gone down but the funding for police have gone up like this we see this as potentially being a a powder kick you know and so in this moment like you know I was raised of service like what are you doing for your community you know what are you doing for your family what are you doing for your friends what are you doing for your community so it's so interesting the art never felt like it was um a party I was invited to or a place that I should be spending my time which literally like my family would be like why why are you doing that like that's you know be of service and so I feel like uh community and teaching has and also being a director has you know I do feel like it that's why I call it a citizen artist I do feel like it is of service you know we are we we we can tell the stories of our community and invite our community into being a part of not only telling those stories and witnessing those stories but some some level of participation around it you know and our community partner organizations are struggling and so in this moment of wanting to produce and do things make art um I have found that I've just and the team we've just gone okay we gotta listen to what community needs like what do they need right now how can we serve them and meet them where they need in this moment so that also when we come back that we showed up for them we were truly truly good neighbors and good partners so but again you know what does that look like can only be revealed in conversation you know and by turning to them and saying what is it that you need what can we do to highlight what it is that you need what can we do to provide and the things that have come up have been food hygiene technology and what they're saying creativity but for me I interpret that as spirit because that is where the sacred lives is in the creative and so people are needing to find a way to tap into their spirit in this moment and I just think theater is story is the perfect way to do that but it can't be as we think because we're leaving a lot of people out if we just rely upon technology because for us our elders aren't zooming you know and for a lot of people they don't actually have access they've relied upon the libraries or the cafes or I mean honestly up until the pandemic I didn't have internet in my house you know not for lack of not being able to afford it but it's just like you can get away with not having it but that was a whole lot of whole lot of but when you're talking about where's the god where's the spirit in the work is I think it also goes back to what you're talking about is how do we show up and listen and see what is this opportunity presenting us with you know clearly things have not been working I think I shared with you my big joke is like mother nature is like going okay you all are getting a big time out go to your rooms think about what you've done I'm gonna do a little clean up and then we're gonna let you back out when this is over but it's like how to be awake during this time and you know I can't say that I have the answers I'm forming questions and I'm trying to listen and I'm trying to show up and be present but I do often feel the pressure of what it is to be an artist in the American theater and it's like oh I should be writing that thing that I was going to be writing or I should be creating that thing that I kept saying or I should be reading all those books that I said I was going to wanted to get to what about you yeah I feel like I'm going backwards not backwards in that I'm not accumulating I'm actually going back because back is the really wonderful place to go to your roots your base as an artist right so for me you know I started in poetry for 10 years and then I was in the performance art world and in performance art training we had a really wonderful living theater exercise we used to do called um deliberation in the act of doing nothing you're always doing something what a great thing to sort of like hit on now right in the act of doing nothing you're always doing something and my teacher Scott Gellman used to say to us a move towards the thing that needs you the most move towards the thing that needs you the most so I am in a very I'm in the densest neighborhood of all of Los Angeles County I live in Koreatown of Los Angeles is 66 neighborhoods this is the one that's most crowded 50 percent of the people in my neighborhood are Latino 25 percent are Korean and then a mix but 94 percent of the people in my neighborhood are renters so when I get up at five o'clock in the morning thinking I'm going to do my walk and avoid anybody who might infect me anyway I actually I'm walking straight out into a ton of people in uniforms and working class outfits who are essential workers so in the beginning I thought hmm wow this is really pushing me somewhere I don't want to go or this is pushing me somewhere that I don't understand but I started to understand that during the until very very recently I was an essential worker too I'm cradling 75 students who are all over the world I have a student who's getting up at two o'clock in the morning for her regular class right because she's now in another part of the world and mostly my specialty is uh international students right and so I am realizing that there is a lot of trauma so not all my students as you were saying I have access the way I have access so I don't always see my students because they're sharing space a single room with an entire family yeah so they opt to you know mute out or video out and I'm okay with that right so there you have to be present you have to be here I need you to be here and I need to know that you're here and I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you a lot of questions about being here but it's very very important to recognize that as I'm in the place that I'm living the reality of where I live informs how I need to move through the world as an artist right I'm in a really crowded neighborhood so my first you know a few weeks of of the pandemic was trying to figure out how to just do very basic things without sort of being um without sort of interrupting the neighborhood life that I had right um and I'm so proud of us because as as Sheree comes back on I was thinking that uh we didn't go into multiple languages like well we could so bless bless that poor sign language guy thank god we didn't do that hi I'm back I wanted to let you know fast that wasn't it it seems very fast I could listen to you for hours honestly um so we're getting amazing questions on the live feed and we also had some amazing questions when people signed up originally um with the event right so is it okay if we ask some questions absolutely okay great thank you all right so this one's for Laurie I think it's a fascinating question um what skill other than directing of course helps you be a better director well um I was say I was born into an ensemble because I come from a family of five siblings and I was the fourth of that so you had to learn to play and negotiate you know we were all like this like my poor mom we were all together um but I so I always say that that was like my first place was being just a part of a family ensemble and then I started off as an actor and so and an actor who um had no other desire I wanted to write an app that was like what I was hoping to do but I will say that um as you know being um Latinx and with the last name Woolery and people like not quite sure who I was and was I Latin enough or what was what was I um you know as a a young woman coming up as an actor it was very confusing because I already didn't feel I was invited to the party and then to be affirmed that I was there really wasn't a place for me and if you think you're Latin you're not really Latin but that had never been an issue before I started being an artist like I never questioned whether I was you know Latina enough like I just was I was just who I am and that's my mother's family that's who we spent all our time with Spanish was spoken in my you know with my mother and my theas all the time so I would have to say that it's like that being an actor and not feeling safe in rooms not feeling seen in rooms made me want to I brought that then to my teaching you know where it's like I want to create a space where people can um feel safe and can then take risk which then bled into when you're teaching it's like oh gosh now you have to direct them in something and then oftentimes it was like I was working with you know young people of color it was like okay I'm not going to do the Disney fair so let's create something so I mean I'm totally dating myself but this was at the time before I knew the word devised you know I didn't there was not community engage community based theater it was just like these were my people these were the I was looking in the faces of kids that looked like me or who um you know were kids of color that were just like why should I care why should I want to engage you know what is this about and me trying to say no come on in come into it and that all of all of it is what I bring into a rehearsal room and hopefully what I bring into a leadership space um you know which is where for me the term citizen artist comes in because it brings it all in I you know in the facilitated conversations I have or in the um when you're in a room and you discover you're the only person of color like there's a responsibility to speak up because you know all the other people that are um depending upon you to do it so I would say all of those skills have uh helped me in everything that I've done I could I'm not smart enough to have plotted out a career path you know Bill Roush used to always say what is your one three five year journey I'm like I don't even know what I'm having for lunch like I I'm not plotting it out like I wish I was smarter than that but what I was smart is saying yes and being curious and following that curiosity very interesting question you're both online teaching now correct and is it I mean it must be really hard I've heard it's very very hard is there anything that you do in particular and I know you spoke about this in the beginning but what can teachers out there do that teach theater to engage the online students and to reach communities that don't have the technology is there anything that can be done to help that I'm gonna first talk to you Louise because you've been doing it more and I can explain it from a different end from how we've been doing it I think when it started I one of the first things I was inspired by was the the fact that I was not going to be able to teach let's say acting online I just don't believe that you can do that but I can teach you everything leading up to it we can we can read all the great texts we can do all the character work we can do all the great research and the research includes the exercises of acting right but we can do all of that stuff so something very unique happened to me I was teaching a MFA one actors text analysis and we were reading these in person reading these extraordinary very complicated plays I found that were avant garde plays so we were talking about language and cut up text and the whole thing but when we took it online it was way too hard so you know I'm a playwright and I wrote every student in my class a four to five page long monologue that looked it took a challenge that took a strength and it took some of their biography and put it in the monologue and that is what we did for culminations together we edited that from five pages long to one page but we did that as a dramaturgical analysis exercise right we worked together as colleagues as collaborators in taking that text and doing something with it and I'm super super proud about that because I knew I could not do the thing that I was doing but I could still do theater I could still do the thing leading up to it so that when we come back into the room we didn't lose a year right we actually did something even deeper which is I never get to do those great exercises like I have a just the simplest exercise which is take your character's age and half figure out what the event was in their life that causes them to live their life the way they're living now we rarely get to do that right and in rehearsal you're already at like you know doing blocking showing the blocking for the stumble through for the designers right but here's something that's really meditative that's really important about motivation and about what what a character does in a play that makes logical sense that informs an emotional life I know it sounds a little but what I love about it but what I love about it is for for the class we're getting really deep deep and emotional and intellectual thoughts I'm finding able to marry these in a way that I have enough time to marry them right you turn it into an opportunity oh yeah I mean I didn't I looked at zoom and I was sort of terrified for one day and then you know I I was telling somebody the other day I said you know the whole pandemic has completely switched for me I was thinking what am I most afraid of food insecurity I grew up with that I grew up in the ghetto I grew up in Pico Union I'm I am I worried about like you know isolation I grew up in a gang-infested neighborhood that where we just constantly had to go in when there was violence in my neighborhood so I was thinking I know all of this I know all of this and what do you make with it what do you make with it and what we make is art yeah oh my god it's so beautiful that's the that's the spirit yes that's the guy I mean and can you imagine like friends like Luis Alvaro wrote you a monologue like it's like they don't even know do they they don't even know but you know it was really good about that exercise that I will say that was the most amazing thing I have a student who's from Puerto Rico and he's been really struggling in the U.S. he loves Shakespeare and you know I think he came late to Raul Julia and that documentary right and so it was really interesting but he was struggling he was crying nothing and one day we had a I wrote him this monologue and in the monologue he says I realized something about myself I forgot to bring me off the island I forgot to bring me to the to the states I forgot to bring me into this place Shakespeare is not a language in any of us you know it's not an accent that any of us have so why am I ignoring the thing that I have my own love of poetry and I'm ignoring that and I put all of that into the monologue that was completely instinctual but you know that is his monologue I mean he he fed that he gay he made that right I just put the words in but he was the one who created the spirit in the environment to make that piece of art happen and he was so happy at the end I was so happy because I thought this is what collaboration is yes a gift of beautiful beautiful marriage between actor and writer and director if you could we could all even be in the zoom room around that it is not about the moment to moment of like the scene because that's really hard to recreate but I think it is about everything that leads up to that and great directors I think Laurie one of the great things about Laurie is that you know she she's building into that there's those questions are really important questions that build into how do we make this and I think that's what community work is the possibility of what we're able to make right um so that's that's where I'm working from this is all about the possible so if you can be in the possible and you know really I'm talking kids off ledges right now right because they're like oh just and you're like you know what this is just another space and this is a room in which you and I get to really be with one another in a very very deep way so how do we use this room beautiful yeah I mean one of the things that we're doing is an even kind of more grassroots approach because we were all coming to the culmination of the community classes that we were having but they were not built up for a virtual landscape and not everybody um had the capacity to engage with each other some people are still rehearsing their scenes because we're going to pick up when we come back we're going to pick up and do a big public works palooza and everyone's going to come back and we're going to rehearse and bring all that works that works not going anywhere so people are continuing to cook on that knowing that we will come back and do it but we pick up the phone and we call people and um our um our showing up is in conversation is in that one to one you know as I call it the hand stitching of like how are you how are you doing what do you need what's going on you know and finding out what they need and trying to then direct them and connect them to to that so to me it is the the art of community the art of um truly walking the values that we say that we hold in this time because um you know that that is the bedrock of this work you know and I just think of our larger institutions it's like how do we show up now in this time is going to directly affect what happens when we come out of it because we're not going to be the same god god hoping we are not going to be the same because I think it's an opportunity for us to be deeper yeah very good point um well but we're all very lucky to have you both in our communities uh in closing can I ask you both to share something you've learned or discovered during the quarantine period that you plan on incorporating into your practice as an artist moving forward at post-covid can we use okay I was looking at Laurie oh I can go first I guess I mean please we'll say something brilliant no I won't I won't I'm begging for time freaking crap like I'll just say something like um uh I for me it's it's it's really simple it's like I've I didn't feed myself and I take that word feed in a lot of ways is I think this being Latina being female being a Gemini coming from a large family being first generation the the list piles up service is paramount and service to the point of sacrifice and the more you sacrifice the more you are doing the work so that's the Catholic too that I forgot to leave out so um so I it's like given till you got nothing left and I think something as simple as learning to feed myself every day several times a day not just in food but like I've been cooking and I you know I've been shopping and I've been mindful about that and also trying to what else am I feeding like my head and my heart um because you know I'm not gonna lie it's been it can get really dark and I think the last several weeks I've shared this with Luis have been um very hard I think the first it was like momentum that was moving me through the first seven or eight weeks of this and now what are we the 11th week in I don't even I mean that you know so you know I do daily writing just even it doesn't have to it's the rule is it's doesn't have to be brilliant and it's not supposed to be brilliant it's like clock the day clock who you spoke to you know so I think it's it's about how I I hope that I will continue to feed myself which sometimes will also mean not working 80 hours a week but walking away from your desk and going home at a decent time and calling your friends on the west coast that you haven't spoken to in a very long time because at the end of the day this work takes a lot out of you and I find that I work and then I crash and then I start over again and we have to build up our stamina we have to be warriors in this time and so that's my that's my takeaway it's wonderful okay brilliant man I just I want to maybe jump on that because I want to say that one of the things I believe about art is that it is a three-part process conceptualization production and presentation right and conceptualization seems like the most indulgent part of it so we don't practice it very often right I live in an apartment that has no television I haven't had tv for years I never that's not like some badge of honor it was just that I was always at theater or making theater I was always out every single night I just always was in the theater and then and then this moment happens and you realize it's not it's not I didn't I got Netflix for like one week just to try it because I thought this could be deadly and then I saw Tiger King like one episode and then I was like this this is probably not the right thing for me right now right but what was the right thing was to go back and start a play from a place that it should be started from so it's not a surprise to me I'm doing a piece for the Geffen about a stuttering puppet who lives in a kind of silence of language that totally makes sense that I'm working on that and then I'm doing a piece about you know silent meditation at a at a seminary yeah that's not a surprise either and both of those really required a lot of really deliberate meditative thinking which is not something I could ever bring because like Laurie I agree I was the crash and you know the I go go go go and then I burn and then I start again and I do I do not want to go back to the world that that existed for me which is busy is not better busy is productive but it's not deep and one of the things I've learned in this in these last few months is that um getting deep it requires real thinking and requires real time and requires this thing called prayer which we you know and I'm not speaking about this religiously in organized religious but I need to have the prayerful meditation I need to be really really inside of a character I need to be really thinking about what the manifestation of an action is you know event all of those things that are in playwriting that you kind of just quickly go through right and um but this has really changed it's changed I can see myself being a better artist I'm a better teacher for sure right I'm shocked that I was able to take this many students do such a deep deep powerful exercise I didn't just cradle them and babysat them we might playwriting one students wrote full-length over a hundred pages plays that are the most amazing plays ever they're none of them take place in a porch or in a kitchen or in a living room they're all going to extraordinary places because the moment demanded that and if the moment demands for you to stop please stop because I'm stopping yeah right yeah I just want to say one more thing the Denver Center yesterday just announced you know they weren't doing my play and I thought I was gonna like break down and instead I went thank you thank you wow thank you both so much everything was so inspiring and illuminating and we're so lucky to have you and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts thank you for the opportunity and this invitation and for everyone who showed up totally appreciated thank you I also I want to thank Alan Witteborg who is our ASL interpreter he's amazing doing an amazing job we'd also like to acknowledge our long-standing partners so stage directors and choreographer society Pasadena Playhouse and Boston Court Pasadena have been supporting us for years and years and we look forward to reuniting with them next year we miss them and we look forward to seeing them next year by the way this conversation will be archived and available with closed captions at both howlround.com and directors less directors lab west.com so please tell your friends we hope you'll join us again tomorrow for a conversation between Sabra Williams and Laura Carlin they will be discussing the power of the arts theater and dance in systems impacted communities so that should be very good we hope to see you for that thank you so much for being with us today we hope this conversation sparks more thanks friends bye


What is going on everybody this is 1920 hip-rate basketball sapphire edition Series 9 3 box half case break number 3 ran up teams sold out in Jaspies case breaks calm Appreciate everybody getting in we're gonna roll the dice. See how many times you're going on both lists list of NBA teams and the list of Customer names after five times There's one two three four and fifth and final time five Summon down to Zach T and five times on the NBA teams one two three four and five Brooklyn down to Milwaukee. So there is the list Summon Nets and Cavs Chad Blazers Matthew Knicks Daniel Spurs Douglas Pacers Dwayne Magic Josh Heat Jeremy T Wolves Brian Sons Jeff Jazz Ray Pistons Michael Celtics Matthew Kings Edward wizards Summon Pelicans Michael Hawkes Brian last-bought mojo gets the Grizzlies Summon with the bowls drew with the nuggets ray with the rocket sumo with the Lakers Michael with the warrior sumo with the Clippers Anthony V with the Raptors Douglas the Sixers Jeff the Thunder sumo with the Mavericks Also with the Hornets and Zach with the Bucks So we're going to open the case see which three boxes we're doing and I'll have the next three boxes posted Tonight so you can start buying in soon for that And there's a case five of five my lucky number Five So maybe some magic in this case right side sapphire Left side of sapphire, so we'll go one two three left side four five six right once again One two three left four five six right, and if no trades probably close the trade window here in a minute One two three left four five six right Right side six so left side will be for mañana break Four let's go ahead and print the list doesn't look like anybody's trading Good luck like I said haven't ripped any of this Seen some nice stuff though box first box is 31 of 50 back in the seal here You can see on the top cam where I'm pulling from We've graded card up first Nothing else in the box First card wow, it's a nice one This is a nice one It is from 13 14 spectra basketball It's a RPA of Victor Oladipo Orlando magic That's a goal. That's gonna be number to ten six of ten with a Beckett ten auto on there very nice card. This is if you look back on our old videos from 2013 2014 You can watch us break this 13 14 spectra Pulled so much nice cards from that including a lot of yonises It's nice Oladipo there Orlando magic that's going out to uh Dwayne B. Nice one Dwayne nice first card card number two It is 95 of 99 Charles Barkley Houston Rockets Uh spotlight signatures from noir basketball Houston Rockets edition of uh chuck For Ray Ray Hughes nice Charles Barkley 95 of 99 And last one sorry, I didn't show the number on the last one, but this one is uh three of 50 Three of 50 on a card. It was like stuck to the fabric there Final card is wow From 13 14 filir ultra basketball The greek freak yonis on titicompo rookie autograph Zach T with the Milwaukee Bucks Nice half case there Very nice two 13 14 rookies in there Oladipo and uh yonis So there you go Congrats to the winners sorry to everybody else, but I appreciate you giving the shot Uh next half will be in the store jaspyscasebreaks.com. Thanks again. See y'all next time for the next break


Item number SCP-853 Object Class Safe Special Containment Procedures In order to prevent breaking SCP-853, individual instances are to be separately packed in padded boxes, measuring no smaller than 25 cm by 25 cm by 40 cm. Except when being studied, all instances are stored in Secure Containment Locker 37 at Meteorological Research Station 21. If access is required, consult Dr. B. for the combination. Caution is advised when testing SCP-853 due to the lack of specificity of the labeling. See After Action Report 853, IOTA. Description SCP-853 consists of red-sealed canning jars of various sizes and makes. Each instance contains a differently colored substance with a visually determined viscosity similar to that of firm gelatin. The lid of each jar is labeled with masking tape, upon which is written the name of a weather pattern and a year. Examples include SCP-853-12, Gentle Summer Rain, 1979, SCP-853-145, Furious Tornado, 1952, and SCP-853-359, Blinding Dust Storm, 1982. At least three different styles of handwriting are present. Instances of SCP-853 are no more durable than commercially available canning jars of the same size. When an instance of SCP-853 is opened, the contents immediately begin to violently sublimate and vanish completely within 12 seconds. Between 7 minutes and 22 hours later, a weather system matching that described on the label will manifest at the site the instance was opened, regardless of the original or normal weather systems for that area. Anomalous weather patterns will persist for a minimum of 30 minutes and dissipate thereafter. The exact rate of dissipation appears to be related to how different the anomalous weather pattern is from the normal regional climate. Use of SCP-853 instances to assist in the containment of additional anomalous weather patterns, including instances of SCP-1746, is pending review. On 03-19, SCP-853-112, Light Drizzle, 1932, and SCP-853-193, Pleasant Breeze, 1944, were opened simultaneously at Meteorological Research Station 20. The resultant thunderstorm produced over one meter of rain and wind speeds up to 88 kilometers per hour and persisted for 18 hours before dissipating. Any further proposals to test more than one instance of SCP-853 at a time must be approved by both Dr. B. and Dr. J., at least one of whom must be off-site at the time of testing. Addendum On 12-25, the Foundation detected a snowstorm over the town of ... Australia. Investigation resulted in the acquisition of an additional ... instances of SCP-853 from the basement of an elderly woman by the name of A.M. The handwriting on the lids of the new instances was different from those already contained, but matched that of Mrs. M. Mrs. M died of a myocardial infarction upon her detainment before an interview could be conducted. Lesson complete. If you missed the previous orientation, go watch SCP-852, Lunar Anomaly, right now. Or for the complete course, watch this playlist.


And in addition to getting vaccines from developed countries, Nigeria is also working hard to ensure it produces its own vaccines, not just for COVID-19, but also for future pandemics. To make this possible, President Buare disclosed that a national sovereign investment authority has been directed to come up with a $200 million fund for research. As we wish to source vaccine for our immediate needs, we shall invest more to support our pharmaceutical and research agencies to come up with ideas for locally developed vaccines. Should another pandemic arise in the future, our question is simple. Will Nigeria be ready? Accordingly, I have directed the ministries of finance, budget and national planning, health, education, science and technology to accuse Nigerian and international pharmaceutical companies and research organizations to enhance Nigeria's domestic pharmaceutical capacity. Already, the Nigerian sovereign investment authority is raising a $200 million United States dollar fund for this initiative.