Hi, my name is Leon Roeb currency trader and trading coach at trading 180 comm and welcome to this week's Forex and gold supply and demand Fundamental and technical analysis We'll welcome to you if you are watching this for the first time and an equally one welcome to you if you are Returning and don't forget to press the like and subscribe button As it helps support the channel and gets the quality content to the traders that like to trade Technicals as well as fundamental analysis. So looking at the week ahead We have in the US this week will be dominated by earnings report speeches by several federal officials and housing data Investors will be monitoring financial markets in the UK following the government you turn on Tax cuts so in China the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party will take place in the third court GDP growth Alongside industrial production and retail sales will be released also inflation rate data will is due for the UK, Japan, Canada and New Zealand and that actually is important because That will set the tone inflation data will set the tone as to What central banks are looking to do with their with their interest rates, right? So we'll get into what's happened in the past and also as well the impacts of You know the potential for You know certain inflation data may have on some of these currencies. So looking At the oh and by the way, just in case you want to know, you know how to access this It's on trading economics comm one of my go-to sites and if you go to the week ahead Should be somewhere here by the time you look at it click on that and then you can look at the synopsis and then go into You know the details if you wish so starting off on the Dora index Dora index is just a measure of dollar strength and you can see that pretty much the dollar has been appreciating in a dominant currency Over the past how long probably over a year now. Yes, it's been it's been a while That I've been you know buying dollars on my bias has been to buy dollars pretty much week in week out hasn't really changed so anyways looking at the my bias obviously Is is to the is to the long side obviously you want to I want to look for you know bargains and just looking at the dollar index Gives me an idea as to if I'm buying the dollar in an expensive area or if I'm looking for bargains and many of you may know this as the Moving average I term it the moving fair value because an average if you're speaking in terms of understanding value Then in fact an average a mean is actually fair value between an expensive area right and a bargain or cheap prices So in between that right would be the average and is actually known as fair value and so Personally, I don't look to trade Currencies or to buy or sell currencies That are at least not at some sort of fair value because anything above fair value and you know fair value over the month monthly prices You know, I'm not looking to buy expensive area So for the dollar anything, you know at fair value and below would be considered, you know bargain prices So for me looking for a pullback before potentially long Why is that and the Fundamentally we've got, you know, the feds bullard leaves open the possibility of larger December hikes so the St. Louis Chief suggests the Fed could discuss 75 basis point move says it's too early to alter policy of shrinking balance sheet and so What happened earlier this week was that the inflation came out and The term stickier was was used basically, you know that inflation may persist for a bit high inflation may persist for a bit longer and obviously it's getting a bit difficult for the Fed to try to Bring it down. So they have to hike rates now With with hikes not all hikes are good hikes not opposite or appreciate a currency because the Economy has to be able to support those rate hikes if the economy is seen as you know contracting or potentially going into a potential recession Then the hikes aren't necessarily the Appreciate a currency, but then you can't look at also the dollar in isolation So you might be thinking to yourself. Well, the headlines are suggesting that the dollar is going into The US economy is going into a recession But I think that the dollar and the market think this as well is that the dollar has been best placed to to survive I guess a Recession or necessarily survive a recession if they go into a recession It could be a shallow recession Whereas the likes of Europe and the UK are likely to go into a deeper recession, right? So there's differences there and it's the differences If you understand those differences will then guide you as to which currencies you should be buying and selling So there are nuances, you know We're all going into a recession, but who's the dog with the least fleas as many of you may have heard me say, you know You know many times over the years who is the best of the worst and the dollar is seen as being the best of the worst At least out of the major currencies. So a Fed hike in in this scenario should Appreciate the the dollar simply because not only are they hiking quite aggressively But those hikes should be at least supported by the economy and you know low unemployment higher employment numbers that came out recently also so the dollar for me any pullbacks any pullbacks I Think of buying opportunities and you wouldn't necessarily buy the dollar index But you would for example look for dollar crosses and look to buy those again This isn't financial advice. This is telling you what I'm doing. So any pullbacks this week buying opportunities, especially ending below fair value That's my bias on the dollar dollar yen very interesting very very interesting on the dollar yen because the Bank of Japan ended up intervening when prices went to the one four sixes and so They intervened here basically central bank intervention is Just a way for them to kind of support the currency or to try to devalue or appreciate the currency they wanted to actually appreciate the currency by stepping in and So they but for the dollar index and because the dollar is so strong. It didn't really have the effect I mean it went down, you know 600 pips, you know and pretty much in a day But since then we've seen this, you know strong moves. So in fact, maybe the 150s Actually, I think anywhere from now is looked at as they could step in at any time to try to stop the devaluation and depreciation of The yen so but technically there's no setup there, right? You look into the left and to me There's nothing there. I mean you can look back at, you know Fire I should look back at all what data does this provide doesn't even go back that far unfortunately on on Oanda But we are reaching I think probably somewhere like all-time highs or definitely You know multi-decade highs. So I do think that this is putting pressure on the Bank of Japan to intervene even more start to step up the pace of Their intervention so this could be a sell but there's no technical setup unfortunately in the meantime If you are looking to continue to buy the dollar I do think now that anywhere I think around these lows is going to be really nice and It's quite a wide area of demand. It's not, you know, the prettiest people say. Oh, well, where do I buy in that demand zone for me? For me, I think the best there is is going to be down right at these lows right here It's going to be really nice if prices can come down to that one four one six and I You know I'm a buyer of of the of the dollar yen, which at the moment. I'm actually not a Buyer of the well my bias would be to the upside on the dollar yen on a pullback But I think with all these interventions is very tricky at the moment to to go against the yen from a risk-off and Central Bank intervention perspective, so I Do think that the upside is definitely going to be capped But if you do want to get long any pullbacks at least down into the one four fours If you want to go against actual bank intervention of where you want to start to look for buying of the dollars But I think I think the one four ones might actually be a really nice level technically And even better would be the one three sixes and just zooming out that just looks like a you know A decent pullback. It looks like a bath, you know over a thousand pit pullback But when you consider, you know, what's happened You know over the past year or so. It's just a decent pullback. I think anyways So my bias on this one if I had to go either way, it's a bit of a tricky one I think with intervention then I want to go short without intervention if this if this pulls back just naturally and normally without the The Bank of Japan intervening then I would be long Dollar Swiss again, not really a pair. I'm looking to trade but at the two you would expect the dollar US dollar to to be the stronger of the two and So I mean, we are actually I won't delete that we are up into this supply zone Which hasn't broken yet, but we also are and do have areas of daily supply Within these zones. So I think any pullbacks into probably the 99 cent area It's decent to look for any kind of long trades and we've got areas of Support in there and say maybe somewhere around there might be used and also probably down at these potential lows Zoom out a bit more Not necessarily the greatest, but I think you know because the move started really around here. I Think any pullbacks to 97 50 is actually a decent for a for a long trade That'd be my bias, but again, not really looking to take this Trade this pair simply because the Swiss Frank also are hiking on their hiking cycle and they're also a risk of currency So I'm looking for for better divergences and better pairs of better divergences the dollar CAD is actually pretty seen as a as having slightly slightly better divergence if you want to call it a divergence simply because of the CAD being a commodity currency and in times of risk off The the dollar should be the one that Strengthens over commodity currencies and you'll see that definitely on the Australian dollar or New Zealand dollar But where we are now if you are looking to buy this currency pair The any pullbacks I think into probably the deeper pullback into that demand zone the 136 Ones to 135 I think is a decent area to look for or the better pullback to cheaper pullback Yes, the Canadian Bank of Canada are also hiking rates, but there's been reading some reports recently that in fact they may start to Tail off and actually reduce rates reduce their hiking like what Australia did and start to hike a bit less And so, you know with one currency looking to obviously hike a bit more aggressively and the Bank of Canada looking to hike a bit less then you're seeing This you know start to happen in terms of the dollar appreciating against the Canadian dollar using Sorry one second Yeah, I think that's pretty much it any pullbacks if that's the direction we're trading if you want to get short on the Canadian I wouldn't use any levels from like 2020 in order to try to look for a time any shorts or anything like that You'd have to really look for prices to to prove that that this is a bargain for the Canadian dollar By pulling back and then a pullback up into that zone before looking again short But my bias would be you know to the long side Again another commodity currency been saying this for a while that New Zealand dollar again not really a pair that I'm trading But from a commodity currency perspective The dollar has been You know the the dominant currency so any pullbacks into a demand zone. Sorry supply zone Is really where you want to get short as long as risk remains off? And so yeah, I think that's pretty much it. There is I think there's anything really I mean, there's a there's definitely a historical low from back in 2020 which is definitely being looked at but ultimately The question is is why do you want to buy the New Zealand dollar? Against the US dollar because if you were just buying it because it's a technical low Then you know, you're not understanding value and that's how traders typically end up getting caught on the wrong side and being stopped out unnecessarily if You know, there's there You know, you have to understand really value and why there's likely You know why the New Zealand dollar is an absolute bargain here And it would be for me if you know risks starts to come back on or if the US economy, you know disappoints and the Fed don't necessarily You know hike as much as expected then the then the dollar has to be revalued But until you know that actually comes about For me any pullbacks, you know is a shorting opportunities Looking at the pound and the pound I actually got in involved on this trade Here is pulled back on me a little bit But I'm I've taken profits on this. So this is a profitable trade. I've just got one position open Small position open. So we're looking hopefully, you know, if this is the move then excellent I'm looking to trade it down back down to the to the one of fives. So hopefully that is going to Go into happen. And if that's the case, then that would be a nice I've got in it. Yeah, actually on the clothes of this daily candle and so yeah looking at Maybe about a thousand pips just under a thousand pit move on this trade. So why am I short on this and it's because For various reasons, but the end up in short really for for months since probably around about april and the pound dollar in terms of my bias, but um dominant hunt so quasi-quarteng was sacked and Jeremy Hunt is the new chancellor And Jeremy Jeremy Hunt refuses to rule out new U-turn on trust taxes So trust hunt meets sunday at prime ministers country residents UK will account for every penny to reassure markets hunt says and so chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy hunt said nothing is off the table when asked If he will abandon More or more of prime minister Liz trust his tax cuts plans confirming that he is now the leading government voice of the UK fiscal policies So, you know the market the bond market didn't like quasi-quarteng and this trust is Tax policies and so the market, you know, pretty much dictated and said, you know That you're gonna have to do something a bit better, right potentially U-turn and Goldman Sachs has As you know, it's downgraded UK growth outlook after you government tax U-turn so analysts at US bank Lower their forecast for the Bank of England rate hikes a more significant recession now expected analysts say so again, it's not looking great for the For for the UK and as much as you know, there's there's a main there's a there's a tends to be a dominant focus on the dollar And what the dollar is doing again, you have to consider who is worse than the Then then the US right who is in a worse situation than for me Um, it's proven I've been saying it's weakened week out that the pounds in the UK and Europe are in a worse situation than the US And if you've been following me for any length of time and you can see and look at my past You know Sunday videos go back all the way to the beginning of the year and see that I've been saying, you know, basically Buy dollars and I really I mean the pound was actually decent until maybe around about April and in April I definitely changed my mind on the um I'm buying the uh on the pound and started shorting my bias was to short the pound from here And so it was just, you know, looking at, you know, pullbacks. That was pretty much, you know And you can see what's happened. So the dog with the least fleas is actually the at the moment currently is the Is the Fed um and the and the US economy regardless of what the headlines say and so, um Hopefully, you know, this really does follow through so um deeper recession predicted by uh, Goldman Sachs. So If you are looking at any pullbacks, so if prices do come up, I'm not saying that prices are going to, you know, go You know fall to the floor because that's not how prices, you know, typically work but if there are any pullbacks then, um That that should be looked at as buying opportunities. I'm looking at that as another buying opportunity for the dollar And to get short and the re-entry if I get stopped out of my final position Um, and I'll look for another entry for for for short trades But if you are looking at long trades, then you're looking at the earliest is going to be the 107s to look for a um a buy trade there and again, um Some maybe some positive sentiment out of the um out of the uk or you know, a policy change that the market really likes Would maybe be a short term buy for for the uk, but then I'd have to reassess that um as it comes out um Euro dollar so the euro dollar pretty much same situation as the uk uh euro the euro is and ecb interest rate hikes must persist into next year Kazakhs says so 125 to 150 basis points of rate uh increases needed by the end of the year balance sheet reduction should also pay Play a role in 2023 So governing council member, uh martins, uh, kazak said interest rates should be raised Beyond the year and the time when economists increasingly expect the euro to be in the midst of a recession So again, you know, that's that's telling you that you know towards the end of the year you know and If you're hiking in the recession you only make the recession worse So the europe again europe are in in the euro zone are in a really tough spot at the moment a really bad situation in my Opinion and so for me, it's really just pull backs into Uh pull backs into um Areas like the 95 i'm sorry 99 1 cent area even above for me is going to be decent for Any short trades uh to kind of get in I wanted to get in Here but it didn't actually hit that supply zone if it had come into that supply zone Uh would have got short here Would have looked definitely for an entry here, but unfortunately just didn't do that But if it does come back up here, I'm looking for uh some shorts Of course again anything can happen if there's some positive news that comes out of and lots of positive news starts coming out of Europe then maybe you want to look for you know buy trade and the cheapest and the bargain price would be somewhere down at these lows uh right here But uh for now part of these resistance Is to the downside Moving on to the to the ozzy dollar and ozzy dollar again since the um Well since risk off really I mean this year the dollar being the u.s. Dollar being the dominant currency, but then um last week We did have a um a surprise hype in terms of the amount of um I think it was a 25 basis point hike rather than 50 basis point hike as the market was expecting from the rba Has just contributed to you know the australian dollar getting weaker So for me any pullbacks into A supply zone are uh really just the the buying opportunity that you need for the u.s. Dollar So continued shorts all the way and you know and again more risk off In a risk off environment the u.s. Dollar will just you know Is will appreciate as money flows into you know the uh the u.s. Dollar in times of uncertainty ozzy um ozzy yen again risk off situation Also as well you had um central bank intervention. So um the bank of japan intervening causing you know this to happen And so you know there wasn't a buying opportunity here But for me it wasn't really a buying opportunity could you know you can look at that technically as a buy But for me the path of these resistance is to the downside So I think any pullbacks into the 94 area I think is a very nice area to look for any kind of short trades And even better if it comes up to the 90s 60s because I do think with the dollar going higher Um and the bank of japan more likely to step in and if they do that's going to push you know, especially commodity currencies um Against the yen down even further So you could see actually a nice little pullback swing trade all the way down to the 87s If prices can come up to you know a decent supply zone and uh at least uh at least look for some sort of short trade There if you're trading any kind of uh risk off and gold finally gold so with the dollar being so dominant um the um You know gold you would think that gold is traditionally a headache against inflation Um an inflation being high so you think gold would be higher, but unfortunately The market is is more focused on um getting a yield from the dollar rather than um Uh putting their money into into gold and gold uh pairs drop off the us inflation set stage for big fed hike So if I if you know if you're holding dollars, then you're getting a yield, right? Whoever's gold doesn't pay a yield. I do think though that this is just a massive massive um And if you want to use the word accumulation, but this is definitely uh a lot of buying going on uh for from the banks I think because they see the recession coming right they see next year You've got the uk you've got the eurozone. You've got the um the us They're all going in you know the world is going into you know a recession right a potential recession You've got you know guardians of the world economy told to buckle up as outlook dims. So as um uh the federal reserves start to come to their interest rate hiking uh cycle right to the end of it Right probably towards you know the end of the year into next year um Then to fight inflation, but once that is over then um, it's my belief That gold um, this is going to be an absolute bargain for gold because the narrative is going to shift in terms of um In terms of uh risk sentiment recession that's going to be the theme and then gold would be in the spotlight once again, so It's just a buying opportunity for me, but from a trading opportunity um I mean, this is a really nice zone. Um, hopefully, you know, you can get something like that But I think that level may not hold if the fed is still just really kind of um, you know forcing through um rate hikes in terms of um a bigger than expected hikes. Um, and uh, yeah, I think that's pretty much it So, um, it's it's I do like um buying precious metals But at the moment trading precious metals is a bit of a headache For anyone who is looking, you know, any any of the gold bugs silver bugs Um, not a great scenario to be in from a trading perspective But if you're not if you just buy in the physical then this is just you know, absolute bargain prices to look for Just buying right so um So yeah, if you're looking to buy it, that's a really nice demand zone technically But if the fed are, you know, still aggressively hiking and I don't think that level's going to hold So any pullbacks into um, you know, pretty a supply zone right there Uh, and then another one, you know, even better would be at the highs This was you know, the best area to look for short trades if you were looking to you know Go short on the gold and buy the u.s. Dollar. That was fantastic picture. Perfect trade And then looking for any kind of pullbacks into 16 71s or even better 17 But again, that just depends on Feds hawkishness really anyways guys, that's it for this week Hope you're all doing well and have a great trading week. Uh, take care and speak to you all soon


is that take a look at each other and challenge each other about what's authentic and what's not authentic. And so we're just so so honored that we have this partnership with the LARC for a second year because we have so many variables that we share and they just are really great for us and great to us. Thanks John Eisner, Michael Robertson. Everyone here at the LARC has just been wonderful and so we're so happy that we are in love now. And so but I also just want to mention funders and a couple other things before I have the panel. Yes, special shout out to the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Yes, the four foundation, thank you so much. And on that note, one thing that you can do, everything that we do here at the LARC is completely free of admission. All the money that we raise has contributed income from individuals and institutions. So if you're in a position to make any kind of donation, whether it's five cents or five million dollars, there's a little pink birdhouse up at the table where you enter. You can put any donation in a tiered position to do that and we're going to share that. We're going to share the birdhouse. We got to join this thing. So for those of you who are actually watching, because actually we're being live streamed, so you can be active audience participants and all that, we're being live streamed. So you can follow us on Twitter at the New Black Fest and also at LARC Talks. And during the panel conversation and post conversation, you can tweet live, you can also provide questions for the panel. So do that at home, you can also do that here in the audience. Is there anything else we need to? Turn off your cell phones, please. And if you stick around afterwards, we're going to open up a couple of bottles of wine and have some snacks in the lobby so you can hang out and we go with the panelists and each other. And I'm going to leave now. Before the panel begins, for those of you who are not aware of the whole week, the week is starting tonight, it's the K-Ball panel. Tomorrow night is Lisa Strungs. Let me read this correctly because I got it wrong in the past. Lisa Strungs, she gon' learn. She gon' learn. She gon' learn. Directed by Ngozi Anyawu. On March 16th at 7 p.m., it's Married by Lynelle Moyes. Directed by Nicole A. Watson. On March 17th at 7 p.m., porn play or Bless Me the Meek by Eric Michael Holmes. Directed by Carl Colfield. And on March 18th at 7 p.m., schoolgirls are the African Mean Girls Play by Jocelyn Biel. Directed by J. King Carroll. And March 19th at 7 p.m., when we left by Sangu. Directed by Stephen Broadnacks. All right? For tonight, the White Gaze, the Truth Gaze, and a New Revolution. Moderator tonight is Nicole Salter. We say a few things about her. Arrived on the scene with her co-authorship and co-performance with Denai Gurira the Pulitzer Prize nominated in the continuum. Yes, she received independent reviewers from New England. Reviewers, New England Award nomination for Best Actress for Stick Fly co-produced by Irida Stage and Huntington Theatre and was recently seen in the West Coast premiere of McCranie's Head of Passes at Berkeley Rep Theater. Salter has written six plays, been commissioned by six institutions. She's been produced from three continents in five countries and published in 12 international publications. The National Black Theater's production of her play, Carnival, was nominated for seven Adult Award Awards. Yes. Salter's deep sense of social responsibility led her to co-found with Sangu the continuum project incorporated a nonprofit organization that creates innovative artistic programming for community empowerment. So that is Nicole Salter, our moderator. The panelist is Dorian Misick. Actor paid this wail to the scene when he starred opposite Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant in Two Weeks Notice. Most recently seen on the big screen in the Jerry Brokheimer produced Deliver Us from Evil and Christmas's season hit, Annie. Currently, Misick stars opposite R&B superstar Brandy in the new BET series, Zoe Ever After and as the lead and executive producer of the film, Nine Rides which just premiered at South by Southwest. Yes. Right? Just head back today. Yes. Recurring roles on AMC series Better Called South and the HBO comedy series The Brink. Misick also starred off-Broadway in the post-surprise winning drama A Soldier's Play opposite Anthony Mackie and Tate Dadex at Second Stage. Next for our panel is Michael Denzel Smith. He's a nobler. Am I saying that right? A nobler fellow at the Nation Institute and a contributing writer for The Nation magazine. He is written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, on feministine.com, The Guardian, The Root, The Griot, Think Progress, Think Progress, and The Huntington, Huntington Post. He has the featured commentator on NPR, BBC Radio, CNN, MSNBC, Huffington Post Live, and another of other amazing television radio programs. His new memoir, Invisible Man Got the Whole World Watching, published by Nation Books, is out June 14th. Right? June 14th. June 14th. Yes. Kea Corcoran, finally. Playwright and novelist, and good friend. First novel, The Castle Cross, The Magnet Carter, was released by Seven Stories Press in January. Her awards for her body of work and playwright include the White Hymn Campbell Prize for Drama, the U.S. Artist Jane Adams Fellowship, the Simon Grape Plains Playwriting Award, the Lee Reynolds Award, and in May she will be honored with the Otto Award. Productions have premiered in New York by BAM, Playwrights Horizons, Unsung Will Studio Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Atlantic Theater Company, Manhattan Theater Club, London. She was at Darmar Warehouse, the Royal Court. She's been produced everywhere. Amazing playwright. So, that is all I'm going to say. Thank you for being here. Take it away, Nicole. Take it away. It's a new revolution. We're just going to jump right into that conversation. Is that cool with you guys? So, I'm also supposed to say that we're live streaming on HowlRound, and if you guys want to tweet at the New Black Fest and at LarkTalks, use hashtags TNVF16 and hashtag New Play. Okay. My one right there. Yeah. I'll be saying that periodically. I've been told to say that periodically. Say that periodically. So, the novel laureate, Tony Morrison, has said, quote, our lives have no meaning, no depth without the white gaze. And she went on to say that she had spent her entire life writing to make sure that the white gaze had not become the dominant one in any of her books. And that term, the white gaze, in my research, seems to have been coined by that conversation that she was having. So, I wanted to know what the white gaze means to you all. Go for it. Yeah. Let me call her name. Doreen. Okay. Let's mark you the topic. No. You know what? It's funny.  And the only thing I could think about was it's almost like something, it's like that feeling that you have to kind of live up to a standard that is defined by somebody who doesn't really understand you. And so in a way, it's reflected on our community that we feel as if we are doing things or we should behave in a certain manner because there's that feeling that the man, the white man is always watching and always kind of monitoring our behavior. So then we self-police as a result of that. And I think it stifles us creatively. And just on an everyday living, on an everyday basis, I think it kind of stifles us. In a kind of devoid sense, but kind of double-consciousness sense. Correct. What about you again? Did I quote again? Yes.  And I spent my entire life trying to make sure that the white gaze was not the dominant one in any of my books. You know, it's funny because growing up, I definitely felt that because I grew up in a small town in a valley of the Appalachians in Western Maryland, we grew up to West Virginia. And so I was always the only black kid in my class. And so, here's an example, which will totally date me. I remember Fridays, all the white kids, oh no, Mondays, all the white kids would come and talk about what happened on the Brady Bunch. And I never knew because my family watched San Bernardino. So yeah, looking back, I'm really proud of that. But at the time, it was like I had nothing to say in the conversation. Which is kind of that side. Of course, a minor kind of funny thing. I can remember other things like the time in gym class when I, a whole bunch of girls before gym class started. And one of them told this buddy Joe, and there was like 14 girls, maybe. And I was the only black one. And she whispered it to her friend. And he was like, crack that. And then other people said, what's the joke? And they said, oh we can't tell that joke. And before gym class started, they had whispered to every single girl, but not me. This is whatever this joke was. Even though that no one ever looked at me, but I was the only one who did get to hear this joke. In my writing, I, of course, a lot of time has gone by since then, but I, I'm so into my characters that I feel like I don't feel that. Because I'm so into who they are that I'm not, that I really am not thinking about the outside. I'm thinking about this month with them. Do you think Michael LeWittges has an impact on your work? Consciously or subconsciously? I don't know if I can all about work, but I think to sort of piggyback on what you're saying, white gaze is essentially another way for white supremacy to shackle our imaginations and define the existence of people who are not white. The first introduction to the world from the society that we live in is through the white gaze, I think, for the most part you are. You've been born into a definition that you either have to accept or reject at some point. And unless you are actively unlearning, looking at yourself and looking at the world through that white gaze, it's going to have an impact on things, through belief in the things that you say in the art produced. But even if you don't, we all just don't consume it because it's so down and in such a big force, it is essential to so much of American cultural output to break yourself away from that, to pull away and ask yourself different questions based on your own perception of the world, the absent of what the white gaze has taught you about yourself and your surroundings is a process. It's not something that you can achieve overnight. So we're all affected by it. It's a matter of you want to distract yourself from that. And I think that's one of the bigger problems for a lot of cultural workers is not wanting to distract themselves from that by either accepting the white gaze, accepting those definitions, or becoming so obsessed with correcting what they believe the white gaze has imposed upon them, that they become obsessive. But all the work is derivative of the same thought anyway. All the work is derivative of the gaze. What did you guys realize that there was a white gaze? What did you realize? Like if it's something that is a kind of dominant way of looking at things, the idea that you should watch the Brady Bunch or that there was a sense of normalcy that was established, when did you realize that you didn't sit permanently inside that? You sort of answered that with your anecdote about the Brady Bunch. I'll say to you, my parents sent me to private school very early age, so I was often found, you know, the only black face in a very white place. And that's when I started, because you learned from an earlier, you know, kindergarten, first grade on, you kind of learned you become socialized. And so my social circle, mostly white kids in school, but at home and in my family, I was around people who looked like me, and we had a different set of activities. And I remember going to school and my principal's husband, who just used to sit outside and kind of just dictate things. He was kind of an overseer in that way. I actually don't need to use that term, because that's what I think he thought he was. And he would constantly wait to see what I was wearing in school. Turn your hat around for it. But everybody on my block would have had backwards. And my friends in school celebrated it, but this guy was like, you cannot step foot into this area until you turn your hat around. And then I started to realize that a lot of the things that I did seemed to get on his nerves, and they were just me existing. And I realized he's trying to make me fit in more with what he's comfortable with, has nothing to do with what I'm comfortable with, has everything to do with what he's comfortable with. And I think that was the very beginnings of me kind of starting to get to a place of not really giving shit, you know, about what that, because I realized it was way more about him than it was about my, and this is like first grade, first grade when I really started to feel it, because I had so much pride in my family, my family West Indian, and we had a lot of pride. And so I grew up feeling happy with who I was. I had many problems with you, and I didn't think it never occurred to me that other people had a problem with who I was, because my white friends, some of whom, they came from different places, and they all had pride in who they were, and we had not yet all been conditioned to be racist toward each other. So it was cool. I was the coolest kid, because I could run the fastest. I don't know if it was being black, white, whatever, you know, although he probably would have told me it had something to do with me being black, because I could run the fastest.  I don't want to live my life according to your standards.   And I found out very quickly when the next black kid came to school that he wasn't about that living outside the box life. That was not for him. Yeah, he was like, listen, if you want to get along here, you're going to get, as a matter of fact, take that hat off and talk like these guys. And that's when I started to realize there's something very different about how people respond to the gaze, so to speak. Michael.  And it was curious, like I thought about that a lot since then because I think that the idea of black people telling one another that they don't act black sometimes gets overblown. What I realized is that it's a lot of the definitions of blackness consumed and appealed to are definitions given to us on the basis of the white gaze, on the basis of what whites are trying to see would like to see. The idea of building one's culture in the face of oppression as a means of survival and then having that culture used against you to justify your oppression. But to also never have, never be able to achieve any other definition that would alleviate that oppression, that all comes from whiteness. We cannot impose that upon ourselves. We, those definitions, cannot come from us because if it were the case we would not define ourselves into oppression as I hopefully would. So I think that's the first time in thinking through that idea. I thought about that and I thought about in the sixth grade when the white would call me a nigger. I think in those two instances are the sort of understanding of what it means to be other and then understanding that no matter what definition I could want for myself in the context of whiteness, in the context of white supremacy, the white gaze, whatever micro we want to throw on top of it, it can be and will be used to denigrate my humanity. Yeah, I think the first time that I realized, it wasn't the first time I realized that there was a white gaze. I knew that I was black and the other kids were white. The first time I realized that there was a power dynamic within that difference. It was unlike the brownies and we went on trips around the world but not around the world like to different museums. And we were going to Australia to see the kangaroos and one of the brownie sisters told me that I couldn't go because there are no black people in Australia. And at the time, it didn't impact me partially at all. I was like, oh, yeah. She's like, yeah, you can't go.  There are no black people there. She's like, no. And I was like, oh, okay, well, I'll catch y'all when we all go to South America. You know, like... But to realize that I couldn't do something now was an interesting change. So speaking of not being able to do or being able to do something, what impact does the white gaze, wouldn't you realize that there was white gaze in your work and your professional life and how has that impacted you as you develop your career? Thank you, Michael. Do you want to pass the mic? Okay, I'm sorry. I mean, that's an honest question. When did you know that the white gaze mattered or that you just became conscious that you were enraptured in a state of double consciousness? Not everyone awakens to that idea or not. I mean, that's when it's decision time. It's okay. I'm my livelihood depends on collecting and checking from white people. How much of myself am I willing to compromise here? Am I going to be silent in the face of their racism just because I collect and check from them? Now, a lot of us make the decision to survive and just go along and get along and they are bringing to that. And that's fine. It's not at all... I would never at all knock that choice for anybody because survival is real, capitalism is real. We all got to do what we got to do. But you do have to ask yourself that question. Is my sanity worth it? Is my livelihood effective? Am I going to allow that, again, the system, which is very cleverly people with genius design system to dictate my voice? You know, as a military, it's very fun. Let's give a little bit of a deeper into each of our differences for all kind of storytelling artists. As a novelist, when you're embarking on trying to get your work published, when you're coming up with ideas for your work, how has this dynamic had an impact on you? Or not? Not consciously.  We're kind of supporters now, because it's very working class and primarily my graduate class was like 300 people in 10 black and nothing else. Everything else was white. So it was like, yeah, yeah, maybe 3% white in this non-working class because they didn't know all the jobs, they lost all the jobs and things like that. So nobody's working. And this continued, you know, somewhat into college. But when I became, you know, as a young woman, of course, is that this happened, in fact, and the racism there, but in terms of my work, I really, I just so am into that character. I mean, in the book, there's two white brothers and two black brothers, and whatever character I'm completely into it, and I don't think about that. In the course of my life, sometimes that's for whatever reason, you know, my career is like this, you know, sometimes I'm working really well, sometimes I'm not, but for whatever reason that it is, but I don't consciously compromise, is what I'll say, or consciously not compromise. I'm just like so into the characters, I'm not thinking about it. What about the audition room? The audition room? I mean, I think there's been a lot of discussion about, you know, the opportunities for black performers and actors in the industry. But I think that where it affected, it affects me the most, is initially the whole thing about we police ourselves, you know. So you think that the answer is, well, let me work with some black folks, you know, so then we can tell some stories that showcase us in a full, in a full light, you know, living a complete life, but a lot of times the decision makers aren't going on and get along. So they've already, they've already policed themselves and decided, well, I'm going to tell the story that I know will be accepted, as opposed to telling the truth. So then in a way, you still kind of just sign up for a co-show, you know, and it's just your, the director might be like, or the writer might be like, whatever, you know, you might, they do think for you that, to make you feel more comfortable in it.  And then they could figure out the trick. You can start getting roles that are written for, that are not necessarily written by, but they'll be like the least developed guy in the script that would generally go to like the fat white guy, they'll give it to the cool acting.  I remember there was a huge, huge, huge, highly film that I ended up getting fired from as a result in the rehearsal process because it was the moment when I realized, these people are, this industry is not going to, if I play the game by their rules, I'm never going to be able to live a full life. That's not dictated by all white versus definition of who I'm supposed to be. So it was the moment of making, I mean, a huge hit movie and I was supposed to play this rapper and it was sitting in a room with all the dudes who were listening, looked like they'd never listened to rap music before and they were telling me how to go about playing a rapper. And I was like, you know, listen, I don't know how it is. Now the other guys in the cast, my wife has some members, they have opinions about how their roles are supposed to be played in this thing. The character is very open, right? It was very clear and open and loved all of their input. And I'm talking about guys who are playing like, you know, characters that are so far from who they are but yet he's so open to what they have to say. And I'm playing a character that's sort of close to the bone.  I'm not a lot of rappers. You know what I'm talking about? So I was like, listen, I think that I'd like to contribute to that will make this character a little more realistic because we have some problematic moments here. So not being looked at as a collaborator if you're in the white gaze. Yeah, exactly. Listen, this is what we wrote, man. Be comfortable. Just be happy you're here. And then that's when I realized, oh, it's not because they haven't met someone who's willing to speak out. It's because they don't want to meet someone who's willing to speak out. And then that is, it was, I went out on my way to eat fire from that situation. Was it your dream for our moment? Is it really? It really was.  And as a result, I walked away feeling way more empowered. I was a lot poorer as a result. But no one was hit. Most of my friends were like, and all I could think of was that would have been the last we ever made in my whole career. I might have jumped off the building somewhere, or you might have just, you know, like, never seen me, you know, this is the capital of the world I've never seen again. You know, the kind of guy who went along and go along. He didn't do it. They fired, I'm gonna just say, they fired a real rapper after me. They hired a real rapper. He hired a real rapper after me. Man, I wanted to do this real rapper because I'm black and young. So I ran to the room, and they hired you after they fired me. They fired me today. Authentic for the Estelle from the Truth Gaze, Donna Hossie Coates wrote a piece for The Atlantic in June of 2012 titled You Didn't Build That Criticizing Tony Morrison the woman whose quote we used to start this discussion. Criticizing her remarks about the white gaze in her work, and he points out in that article that all of her novels, Michael was saying, and all of her novels are kind of a world of themes that are derivatives of the white gaze. So when you look at The Blue Is Die or Tar Baby or Paradise, they're all responsive in that way. They're not in his opinion authentic or of original thought they're responsive. They're not offensive, they're defensive. And he said quote, I think part of the problem is that being a black writer is like being drafted and sent to war. You want to quote just right. But you have this idea of what just right is. It's not apolitical or disconnected, but it isn't connected to an ultimate thing of total communities. So when you're thinking about that authentic voice outside of the white gaze, but is it possible to surmount the influence of that gaze in your work and perhaps in your personal life? Typically I would say it is, but you have to you are definitely making a sacrifice in some way whether it be a social sacrifice except in the fact that you are not going to be socially accepted as those who decide to play by the rules or a financial sacrifice. And it's about your threshold for pain. It's a shame that in order to be yourself in this society, you have to be willing to succumb to some sort of pain just to be allowed to tell your own story or to live your life in the way that you're comfortable with. But once you make that adjustment mentally for me at least I was you find that you decide where you're comfortable with or is it doing what I'm most comfortable with because no matter what we're going to make some I mean that's what the world is about you know figuring out how to get along with everyone to a certain degree. So you're going to make some sacrifices and it's just it depends on how serious sacrifice you want to make. I guess it depends on where and how you're seeing the impact of the white gaze. So if the idea is one where you are sacrificing and it's coming to white gaze in terms of definitions of black life that white supremacy has set out and only writing to those definitions then yes you certainly are going to have space to just say I'm not going to accept those and I'm going to broaden my understanding of what my own humanity was like, what my community was like and speak to different ideas. I do think though that the idea of completely throwing off the shackles of white gaze is to then say that you're not going to one of the things that binds us in blackness because of the experience of racism and that by definition is going to engage to the white gaze on some level whiteness is the sort of operational definition of the standard and the oppressor the oppressor. So yes from that position yes you're going to I think the issue is less are you going to are you going to engage it or not it's about which of its definitions which of its lies do you still hold dear and believe that value why why do you continue to traffic in your lies and to why the obsession to the point that you can't see the rest of blackness and humanity within blackness I think that for me it's valuable thinking through this and you know it's not really a still matte color really a still matte and why is he matte it's because Alice Walker decided not to engage the white gaze as much what did she do she decided to look at the perspective of black women of black women that situation and what that did was then implicate black men and once you throw off the white once you step outside of the white gaze just a bit and you start delving into the factors that impact us within our community you start dealing with the messiness of all of that implicating people and seeing where you are complicit in your own privilege and power and oppression and where you derive your identity and that starts to piss people off because whiteness is such a common enemy for us that we can all rally behind that particularly within the confines of a hetero patriarchal understanding of what liberation looks like if we can all rally behind the idea that the white man is the evil one and we can all just have to set aside all of the other differences and do that but it does not take me to account everything else that's happening within the community and all of the power play within there and the replication and reproduction of power structures within our community on the basis of gender and sexual identity and class differences and so on and what have you so the idea is not even then that you can't throw off the white gaze and the problem is once you do you start opening up this can of worms that ask different questions of people that they don't want to have to deal with I did a writing residency at Hedrick a while ago there was one there named Holly Neer who was a writer and one of the things that struck me about our fireside conversations was how much she felt as though or seemed to in that moment to speak for her life but in that moment to feel as though the sacrifices that she made to create freedom songs actually didn't bring about it and how if she had integrated herself more into the quote-unquote mainstream which is really just a huge thing this white gaze she could have done more what's to be said about both changing systems from the inside out and what do you think about all of the initiatives particularly in the theater world because I like to say at PCG doing a lot with equity diversity and inclusion but even what's going on Hollywood all these demands for policy to make sure that everyone is able to participate differently I guess they don't agree with what you said about the white gaze because on some level I guess students say he wore black these people are the power of this country and this sort of applies to what they're saying so I wrote a novel and I did self-publish it and take it into a black community and hopefully sell it to black people so is that part of the white gaze is it because once it had the power that they could publish novels first is that that it's always an invitation I'm honestly not sure I'm not like asking that if it's not sarcasm actually I guess it depends on how you define it I mean I guess you could say anything we do in this country white people probably did it first because they had the power to because we were picking cotton so yeah is it all an invitation I don't know girl God bless the people that want to work within institutions and change them because they have patients that I just do not because institutions are built to protect themselves and to perpetuate themselves and so they are resistant to change just by nature they are inherently conservative in a sort of small sea-sense that you do not whatever institution that you're entering into just simply it's not going to revolutionize overnight just because you asked it to and it doesn't matter how many faces like brown faces that you put within positions of power what the underlying idea is is to keep this particular institution going so that cuts across the board whatever we're going to talk about writing, we're going to talk about politics and the government we're going to talk about education all of it is built to change very slowly so the idea that we just get a whole bunch of us into the system when we get to people in positions of power and it changes and it's just a job but that's a change but that's not it's not going to produce the type of results that we're looking for immediately we do have to have the sort of insight out in where it's like the people with the patience to do that can work themselves into institutions and work their way up the corporate ladder and do all that while having people agitate from the outside that's just one way of thinking about it I think and you know all of it's tough there's no easy answer build our own institution we've got the money to do it it's all tough there's no one answer I think the thing you should have to do is find out where you fit in what is it that you do well what is your temperament suited for and then you do that thing and if it's working with the system then by all means if it's shouting from outside of it to burn it all down like me that's what we've got to do if it's you have that sort of institutional knowledge to be able to build something we need that too I'm not suggesting if we all focus all of our energy on one or the other because we've tried all of that throughout our history here and what we have to keep in mind is that when the white supremacy decides that that's enough it shuts it down power will protect it so we're looking for answers throwing ideas on the wall hoping something sticks I keep doing that I'm very hopeful I know sorry I kind of forgot the question it was about looking into thinking about the truth gaze and trying to develop a sense of authenticity or a space where you can be whoever it is that you are outside of the white gaze or how to approach that within institutions there's the outside work down and there's the will I get more done if I operate within the institution the top thing about that is it was Paul Payton who said it's one of the most revolutionary things you can do not power is to be yourself and I think that the truth of existing particularly here in America is that the white gaze does exist so to try to encourage is to create you know the Disney so it doesn't exist so I think that that anything that speaks to our experience here is not in some kind of way affected affected by the white gaze I think it is a little I don't think you can do that you don't think it can be changed do you think it can be changed with all of our diversity initiatives what do you think of the progress I think some progress I think it can be changed completely I'm not very confident that it's simply because similar to what was said earlier about once you take away the the enemy of racism or any of the oppressor then you have to deal with all the different nuances of our community of black community and that then that end of self will deter in other shops but what about things like when you look at industries developing like why don't we say oh we want to get out of this white gaze let's go to Africa, let's go to Nollywood and make our films there why don't we do that what do you think that one is doing well you know there's the people who are making their money strictly I guess what you would consider independent you know friends and family and that can definitely be done but then once again it just because a black person is creating it or a non-white person is creating it doesn't mean that every non-white person is going to divorce it doesn't mean that this speaks to every non-white person's experience so at some point there's going to be a structure of power there's going to be white gaze there's going to be black gaze there's going to be black silky hair gaze there's going to be something you know and so I think the best thing is I still feel gay there too you know we know that about that we'll get a hand for this back yes lord we are live streaming on HowlRound and live streaming on Twitter TNVF I'm going to open it up to some questions in the audience and I think we also have questions on Twitter and here she goes we don't have answers to the how do we break the binary of black, white oppressor, oppressed, power and power and the after answer is we all are going to go skipping down the streets happily alright we have a supremacy and how do you end it what's it for acting Michael I think that people are looking for some practical answer to say today what can I do at home right now that will get us out of this binary thinking about what blackness and whiteness and it's like white supremacy has a 400 plus year head start on you and it has found multiple ways to to re-graciate itself within our political and social and cultural lives that you are not going to find a solution to it right now our best minds have been at work for quite some time I had someone I was at a different panel and we were talking about the concept of liberation and he came to ask the question and he was like we had liberation and at one point I was like who are you talking about and it's also black wall street and he was like you know they did black wall street it burned everybody down and it only existed because they were sedated to it do you understand what happens is white supremacy protects itself one the best thing we can do is survive and hope that we outlast it but you know clocking chains won't kill us all before we end white supremacy honestly that's don't worry about it um in the audience there's a question oh now you break them you won't break you won't break something it's all up to you it's all up to you no harm no harm yeah alright thank you I'll repeat I'll repeat it so that they'll hear it um this is in reference to we were saying I'm talking about I was wondering where all of you guys think that we need more negative portrayals of blackness and being black along the entertainment do you find them more helpful or harmful yes she was asking a question about whether or not negative portrayals of African Americans were helpful or harmful in our world of storytelling exactly that's the context that comes up a lot and I think that being honest is the best thing and when you are honest sometimes the movies will look like precious or if you're honest sometimes the movies will look like I don't know being brave enough to tell an honest story and not being concerned with how it's going to be received I think is that an audience that we as people are very into honesty so you know when you're being pandered to and you know when someone is trying to reach a broad audience and you know when something is very specific Justin Lane has a film called Better Love Tomorrow and this is his first film and it's just about the lives of Asian kids in high school when they go home the lives they live and I was in class with a lot of Asian kids but I never went home with them and so watching this movie and seeing just how specific that life was it made me turn the mirror back on myself and examine how I view people because I was like man I'm thinking these kids just go home and do their homework all the time to the store or whatever and then come back to school and these kids were getting into drugs and partying and yet still coming back and kicking asses in class you know and that let me know that well that was a very honest portrayal like it might have been an aspect of this community that I was like listen I don't want to show my children snoring cocaine I prefer if you didn't but for me a young black male who I thought were your four Asian friends and I realized that just they were more acquaintances because I had no idea that they could possibly go home and be doing this possibly going home and living a full life because my idea of what their life was was based on my experience and my opinion about who they are and so if we as artists are brave enough to show all aspects of our lives it kind of will loosen up to a certain degree but what I did is like listen anything negative that you think can come up about us we've already put out the honest portrayal of it so if you want to talk about baby daddy trauma that is you know that might be part of our community but there are a million different ways that baby daddy trauma starts it's not just I don't want to be in the house I don't want to get a job I can't get a job she don't want me in the house she's never had a man in the house this man in her house is bothering her too much to stay in the house she doesn't know how to operate deal with this person so we should tell those stories as well I just wanted to ask a question about specifically you guys touched a little bit about the possibility of using alternative media now to kind of build like a talk about Naughty Wood or a kind of pan-African media type of thing going on and it was kind of I heard it dismissed a little bit and I just want to talk about the white gaze and its effect on the potential of non-white or black institution by kind of claiming this like universality we talked about the fact that just because it is like black people in it doesn't mean other black people would be watching it but it's interesting that's never a question asked when we talk about anything why? you know what I mean because the idea of the neutral universal is white and I just wonder sometimes because we are in this kind of media landscape when you have this new black people pan-African audience emerging and this seems to be a hesitancy like well that can't exist I just wonder I feel like oftentimes our institutions for I'm speaking in terms of theater specifically but I don't think it's a dynamic exclusive to theater sometimes our participation in is like a means to an end like the real end is to be Denzel so I'm doing this play because I'm not Denzel yet but I'm on my way and when I get there I don't come back and do the play I don't have a subscription to an institution I don't go see anything there because I'm Denzel now so there's actually to me there's a sense of using our institutions as stepping stones but not really investing in wanting to build them ultimately because one of my questions or one of my points was you know we're in this incredible digital age where the threshold of entry has so lowered itself where anybody who wants to tell a story write an article publish a memoir whatever you expression that you want to have in terms of a story teller you can do there's no one to stop you at all but yet the barometer of success is whether or not you got the Pulitzer and you're not going to get the Pulitzer if you publish your book on www.BooBoo.com here just not I try which brings me to one of my final questions for you all really our definition of success how do you view success within the white gaze, within your truth gaze, within the new revolution where Elaine Locke in 1925 said in his book The Turbine Negro their book The Negro today wishes to be known for what he is this is 1925 y'all even in his faults and shortcomings and scorns and craven and precarious survival at the price of seeming to be what he is not he now becomes a conscious contributor and lays aside the status of beneficiary and ward for that of collaborator and participant in American civilization where do you see, how do you divine that success I want to hear from everybody too so don't well it's it's funny you bring up the Pulitzer because you know when I'm talking about that I'm focused on my character I don't think about that white gaze but that is the place where it's sort of like the recognition which comes from that it's been given to a few people of color makes it suddenly feel like it's for everybody and obviously it's not who are the people making those decisions and so I I may not be thinking about that white gaze when I'm writing but later I'm waiting to see like it's true yeah I mean it's not conscious thinking about that but it is certainly that where are all those accolades coming from really and again as they say that I it's almost if it were only given to white people you could sort of say well that's you know and you could just be more dismissive of it because there's enough little carrot sticks out there because of it happening then suddenly you do sort of buy into that it's you know that it's there for everyone the truth is I think that I it's not that it isn't given to people of color but then it becomes who's turn and whose turn is it you know history of seven killings they never give a booker to a Caribbean writer before and so it's you know who's which person of color's turn it is I was trying to say which community which community and so because it's the person of color's turn and then which community gets it exactly so good question as we pass it I just want to interject here this concept of like who is lauded and what for and why how all of those things kind of play into the white games as well just wanted to go back oh yeah yeah this is some shit I'm really trying to work through right now because three whole months before the book actually comes out I can get to think about all of this and think about how I wanted to be received and all of that and I'm like they're not gonna give me a national book award they gave Tana Hassi one they ain't gonna do two brothers in a row what happened how do you say the plan on Broadway now and I do it as a clips a clips is on Broadway now but a clips has been a play for quite some time for years and it got no love because they're like we can't have two African stories at the same time but because of ruin because of ruin yeah and I'm thinking through it I really want a New York Times bestseller that's the goal of mine if everyone in here goes and pre-orders it right now I have a chance you'll be well on your way but ultimately you know I'm good with it I gave it to the people that I most respect and they said all the things about it that I needed them to say and I'm good now I still want a New York Times bestseller but like why do you want a New York Times bestseller what does that kind of do for you then we get in all the types of practical considerations in terms of but the New York Times bestseller that means my speaking fee goes up sorry Keith you got him Keith yeah and then I don't have to write another book for a long time because I can't just go out and speak forever but also there's prestige to it it's like so ultimately we're suddenly back around to that do you want to be respected absolutely and yes the sort of barometer of what respect looks like is based on things that are dependent upon the white gaze because we're not, we haven't escaped that but I mean that again depends on where you're drawing those lines like in a professional context I understand those accolades that are bestowed upon institutions that are largely white have a certain meaning but you know if I get an NAACP image or I'm a celebrity the shit out of that too it's an achievement for me is an achievement but certain ones do practically just carry more weight outside of my own sort of personal joy that they will bring so I mean it's essentially what we're saying is you still have no we've not escaped the white gaze we are still beholden to it no matter the level that you reach you are beholden to the idea of acceptance on the basis of the standard that the white gaze is set so yeah we like pine after those things but ultimately you do have to find that center of yourself that says what is the actual meaning there it's not actually meaningful to me if I get a national book award or become a filing so I don't actually care what I do care about is that when this book comes out you're able to hand it to a 17 year old black boy who's you know could be a Trayvon Martin and is able to find a sense of self and value himself in this world that will try to kill him and be able to walk through with a new understanding of who he is, what history is steeped in and where we need to go like that's ultimately what's most meaningful question here I want to say what about mine real quickly success is peace and however you find that you know whatever wherever you find your peaceful place as artists you put art out into the world and people have opinions about it one way or the other whether you value that person's opinion or not they exist and that's the point that's part of how what happens when you put art out so once it is released into the world I'm okay with it what other people think about it who I don't know or anything like that it doesn't affect me as much and as far as the accolades are concerned we all know what they do for us on a very practical level you win an Oscar well for black actors you win an Oscar that's it for you go bye bye but you know certain things do do up your ante and for me it will give me more creative leverage to you know more leverage to I know for a fact that I tell my agents all the time one for you two for me so you do the one that you may have to sacrifice to get a little money for and then you do two indies where you get to live a real life and ultimately those are the ones that feed you creatively and those are the ones that help a young filmmaker coming up because who might have had to use his home boy now he's got a dude who's on television in his movie who attracts other actors like that and now you're nation building but at the same time you're taking care of home and so you have to figure out where you find that piece and to me that is successful because you're able to make an impact to a certain degree as a university professor I have the privilege of teaching your work in the literature and your text your plays and I want to have a sense of how you see your work with your two leftists and academics who are in any way making sure that we'll get to that young person by completing our syllabus and there's so many more of us now who are going to do that kind of work so I want to have a sense because it's laying a lot of blood and critic we can't leave that role to both others who get the work published and to talk about the more we put it on the syllabus brings out the UT answer the more we get a chance to play a role too so I want to have a sense of how black people lose their sleep like academics and critics critics can break you down and stop you literally I got a play going on in Chicago now I got a review of a woman who said who said it was a bad play do not go see it was it a black woman? actually I don't know I don't know her race it was a blog it was like a radio blog in Chicago and she said it was bad and because theaters are in the business of theater they see the dip in the box office directly at the same time having my work read in university settings is actually quite validating because there is value there beyond whether or not you like it what I think is that you didn't like it and that's fine but that doesn't mean it's a bad play it means that you don't like it which leads me to the question why don't you like it am I saying something that you don't like is it a worldview, is it a gaze that you're not familiar with etc my novel that just came out I when the book launched happened Robin Kelly we had a one on one because he read the book and wrote a really nice blurb on it so that was fantastic because he so understood the book and of course which is it's not about the white gaze but it's about race it's really about race and so that was fantastic because he asked great questions he came from, he teaches at USCLA and he came over to do that you know it's interesting because it's a funny thing it's going to hell around live but it had a review by somebody who a big review as somebody who is apparently a black raider we sort of found that out by looking him up and most of it and most of it was very positive interestingly there was one of the things that he had a problem with was he said some of the language was a little he didn't say incomprehensible but he talked about more it was a puzzle to figure out it was the black characters that he had trouble on and nobody else had and it was actually now to be fair it was a child a very hyper child and so it was also kind of a stream of consciousness in 1942 but it was interesting because nobody white or black seemed to have that same comment when they read it so truthfully they just don't know where people were coming from and who on his staff does he have to impress because he's part of a community of other critics which are probably not mostly white because this paper is the New York Times so I I'm not complying it was mostly a really good review but it was really interesting because I was also thinking about you know I appreciate most of it was very good but it was also kind of aware of where he may have been coming from as a black critic and a newish black critic because they didn't know his name before and my publisher in such an mainstream institution so yeah just to say no actually no it was actually really mostly positive but it was just interesting the so we were like saying this because it's going to be like it's probably you know but the questions he had seemed to be at least some of the black things very personal I wonder is interesting but I appreciate it when it comes to like black critics I I'm on a big point of just art being in the world of people having opinions about it hating, loving it's there you know but I'm really interested in black critic's opinion of my work for each other's time and one of the things I find out now being on BET show is that that audience is not the black audience that I had when I was the black guy I'm on Southland it's stuff that people at BET the critics or the people who are themselves Twitter based the stuff that they value is much different it's much different than the things that I value on this end and that's the beautiful thing that I like about criticism and opinions is that everyone speaks from their own personal experience and the beauty of black people being on two opposite ends of the spectrum it speaks to the the kind of experiences that we had and I think that we're often allowed to explore the minutia of white life in the world so we're used to well this guy's an independent critic this guy's this, this guy's that but they want a black critic it's supposed to like your black ass you know and sometimes he just does it your reference point is Ralph Ellison their reference point might be Donald Goines they have very different opinions but they're both extremely black and they're both extremely relevant but they're just different so I love that aspect and I love the fact that we're able to kind of interact in that way but what's sad though is that sometimes larger institutions do have an impact an adverse impact on something that could easily have a life with its audience that won't get that life because the New York Times said or the Wall Street Journal said I have one more question two more questions two more questions one, okay one more question I wanted to ask you in regard to you were talking about with your novel that you were so involved with the characters that you weren't thinking about or weren't aware of the white days when you mentioned it to black characters I mean all they say is that it's just aware of the characters they don't really go outside but I was just wondering how you sit because apparently it's black and white in your novel but does it come out any way even if you're not consciously aware of the white days which is dealing with black and white in your novel I mean again it's sort of like since I'm not quite sure like how we're defining white days my novel is about bitterly rabid violent racism so does that mean it's all about the white days I don't know I mean it's definitely about racism I guess it depends on how you define that I all I'll say is that when I was writing each character all I was thinking of is what was going through his head one of the characters as a matter of fact is grows up and there's you know like me and the Brody much assimilationists and I was that's part of it but I mean yeah I mean I guess we could say I guess that 24-7 we are completely under a white gaze all the time and in that case it is but I guess all I'm saying is that I was not in any way self-conscious when I wrote thinking oh wait a minute I better not write that because of what somebody will think I just wrote with the character I guess it depends on how you define white gaze I guess I mean let me say the characters were certainly under the white gaze in many ways because it was Jim Crow South a lot of it so I would certainly say that whether I was I don't we weren't self-centric actually last question go for it I just want to say in you whatever that white gaze is whatever you really think about it's in your subconscious it doesn't even need to be conscious my view of the white gaze is very different because I'm English but there isn't you and when I write it comes out even when the consciousness is thinking about when you're on stage thinking it's in her it just comes out so I think that the sort of think it's this conscious thing like you know like there's other white people going into the racism racism is very it's not just the man with the white mask it's very it's very what's the word it's very new art so I feel like if you're an artist your view of it's coming out it's just filling out even if you're not it's literally conscious I mean I know artists who are like I've got to get some white people to come see my show what can I do to get some white people to come see my show well I think we will know it we will know that you're pandering like please come see my show it's so obvious when pandering happens the audience is smart they know when people are trying to play it before cool I like to make that that movie sucks because it doesn't work because they didn't take into account the specificity they just replaced the color faces alright we're live tweeting you should tweet you should stream on HellRound and we're going to wrap up our time here I'd like to thank our panel in


Good morning. My name is Debbie Adams, and I'd like to welcome you to the T. H. I perfusion conference 2020 Unfortunately, we can all meet together in person, but I trust that you will find the next few days enjoyable Some moments for education and learning others for fellowship Celebration and reflection. I thank you all for taking time to attend the conference And I hope that you all continue to stay safe a few weeks ago I was in Dr. Frasier's office discussing the history of the Texas Heart Institute they pulled a paper out from his pile of papers that he has on his desk and Handed it to me and said you need to read this dad It was a historical article from the 1950s that dr. Cooley had written in collaboration with dr. DeBakey and others that practiced at the Methodist Hospital St. Luke's and Baylor College of Medicine About the mechanical heart-lung machine for temporary cardiopulmonary bypass in the paper Dr. Cooley wrote about the research of Gibbon and the development of the pump oxygenator from the 1930s to the 50s The paper also discussed Lily High and the use of cross circulation for profusion and 32 patients But it wasn't really that successful Of course then in the 50s Kirkland develops the mechanical support and Wrote about the support for 30 patients, but dr. Frazier pointed out that without the the talent of a surgeon like dr. Cooley our profession might have not come to fruition Because dr. Cooley was fast and He could get patients on and off the heart-lung machine very quickly And so the combination of the development of the bubble oxygenator in Combination with the gifted surgeon like dr. Cooley Pump texts or profusion technologies came to being the paper talked about 95 patients that dr. Cooley and his associates had used cardiopulmonary bypass or pump cases in The slide you'll see the simple oxygenator the bubble oxygenator that was used showing the column of blood that bubbles through oxygen being bubbled in filtered out and then returned to the patient a simple circuit of cannulation in the right atrium with a cannula going back into the femoral artery and Cardioplasia being injected into the ascending aorta a few years later in 1962 dr. Denton Cooley founded the Texas Heart Institute a nonprofit organization dedicated to the Reducing the devastating toll of cardiovascular disease through innovative progressive programs in research education and improving patient care Some 10 years later dr. Cooley who was an advocate for profusion and knew that there needed to be a development of a profession recruited Charlie Reed from the Ohio State and Established the Texas Heart School of profusion The mission of the school at the Texas Heart Institute is in line with the mission of thi and Our mission is to promote excellence and profusion education by training knowledgeable skilled and professional clinical profusionist In 1977 dr. Cooley his surgical associates of Texas and the CV or team and the pump team performed 4,000 pump cases That is just mind-boggling to me that from the time 20 years prior they talked about 95 cases that now 4,000 pump cases have been performed at thi in 1990 75,000 cases and this is a picture of dr. Cooley with the profusionist that pumped the 75,000 case Salgretto and in or one with the team Amazing in 2001 thi had performed 100,000 pump cases today the number of pump cases Performed at ch i st. Luke's and the Texas Heart Institute is over 120,000 procedures as well over 1200 heart transplants and over a thousand elvads Most of which implanted by dr. Bud Frazier who's implanted more left ventricular assist devices than anyone else in the world and helped Develop and research all of them. We are all so fortunate that dr. Frazier is an advocate for our profusion education program and he also continues to inspire innovate and Research for the next first in transplantation and mechanical assist You don't want to miss his presentation, which is later today So the evolution of our profusion technology is a profession from pump tech to profusion technology We've come a long way. We have challenges for the journey ahead cardiac disease remains the number one cause of death globally and why the Texas Heart Institute continues the mission of its founder dr. Cooley to reduce the development and the toll of cardiovascular diseases on people everywhere So it's very fascinating that we've come from that bubble oxygenator that Traveling all bag and where they pump 4,000 cases to the technology that we have available today membrane oxygenators coated circuits filtration inline monitoring chartless monitors All of which to help improve patient care and patient safety As we continue our journey as profusion Technologists to be to strive to be the best that we can be we face challenges and the effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on profusion education is another challenge. We face The impact for the May and June graduates requires clinical case requirements to sit for their boards and to graduate impacted those students Given the suspension of clinical rotations in March and April of this year University's closed programs all across the country and that included profusion education programs as well There was a mandatory social distancing which meant that profusions classes couldn't happen We couldn't have students all together in the classroom So this gave us some challenges that we had to face as program directors to continue profusion education in spite of COVID So the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on profusion education. I See it as a challenge created an opportunity for for us as educators I call it a CCP moment and as dr. Cooley taught us to modify simplify and apply So the C for our COVID-19 moment Is creating creative teaching methods Other programs already had distance learning tools available And thi had to quickly modify our program to incorporate online zoom classes and online testing into our teaching model We didn't have this prior to the COVID-19 pandemic And we had to quickly develop this As well We had to modify how we scheduled students instead of to respect the social distancing So we had to make sure that students flexed in on a and b days So they would alternate which days they would come to clinic We're very fortunate that our clinical affiliate Continue to allow our students to come to school and participate in their clinical Site rotations other programs didn't have that luxury And so those programs had to develop online simulation tools You can't simulate from home on a high fidelity simulator So other programs got very creative and are utilizing online models as well Unable to complete pediatric observations other programs had to use video sources in order to complete those requirements The other C in our COVID challenge that became opportunity was the collaboration and cooperation of the perfusion community The program directors share ideas for all Alternative teaching methods and those program directors that had those methods shared those with those that did not They other program directors offered assistance in how we can expand clinical affiliations how we can develop teaching models I I give it to the leadership of the ppdc For bringing the group together so that we were all collectively working towards one goal And that's to teach perfusion students to be knowledgeable skilled clinicians to take care of patients The other collaboration and cooperation from COVID Was the joint perfusion task force that was organized by our professional organizations profusion service groups professional organizations the academy the Amsec the american board european societies All came together to collaborate on developing best practices for perfusion to serve COVID-19 patients Those organizations Offered support for this thi conference with wide participation from everyone and for that i'm very grateful Our thi partners here at st. Luke's thi also have supported and have volunteered to participate In the conference This conference wouldn't have happened with our thi partners who support perfusion education I do want to thank my good friend and colleague and grucho because without her throwing that pebble in in the water to reach out to the President of the academy bill riley who then contacted the president elect of amsec cammy rosenthal About helping with this conference. I don't think we would have been able to bring the agenda and the program together so I thank you all for participating and supporting perfusion education and supporting this conference So I just want to say thank you to our profusion community partners All of you and thank you all for so quickly saying yes, i'm in Also, want to thank all of our sponsors who have added value to our program with giving teaching material about their Their innovative products as well as offering sponsorship to the program And of course, I need to acknowledge and thank the thi partners most especially kary sprung and her team David samora and grucho kathy kibler who have helped plan this this conference And I couldn't have done it without all of you the last part of our covet 19 Learning experience is the p and the p is for patients our own personal patients And our peace the covet 19 pandemic has has reinforced that we are stewards and we're servants to our patients When I talk to all the students about do you want to come back to the clinic that covet's not going away? Every single student said yes, miss dev. We want to be in the clinic We want to be perfusionist. We are committed to our profession We're willingly and selflessly wanting to serve our patients and we want to be there with our clinical instructors As well, some of them said, you know, miss deb I understand why you tell us to wash our hands We understand why proper PPE is protecting our patients and protecting yourself the other part of the p is patients for self It's a very stressful Time and it's not going away anytime soon So be patient be patient with yourself and be kind and be kind to each other A challenge I find for myself is finding moments of peace and all of this and in this storm Finding a moment where I can be peaceful and mindful And so I want to begin the conference with a mindful meditation so that we can all have a moment of peace And then we can have a moment for fun And for fellowship and for learning Thank you all for attending And I look forward to the next couple of days peace


On this channel we've extensively talked about that because of algorithms of streaming services like Spotify and YouTube, along with the way people's attention spans work, you need to release as many singles as possible while telling stories around them and creating content around them to get eyes on your music that builds bonds with fans. But we want to package these singles as an album since we want fans to build these deep bonds with the music we release and the album experience is what keeps listeners locked in and developing a deeper relationship with your music. So in this video I'm going to talk about how you use the waterfall method to take advantage of the benefits of both singles and albums. Hi I'm Jesse Cannon, a music marketing nerd who's on YouTube teaching musicians how to go from zero to 10,000 fans and this is Museformation. Now some of you may be thinking right now did this dude really just drop the term waterfall method without explaining it?  The term comes from the startup world like so many things I seem to have to discuss here as it means that you are constantly stacking new features on top of old ones for your app. Okay and for those of you who don't spend your life reading artist management message boards all day, the waterfall method is the busiest release strategy of the past few years.  So the first single you release becomes track two and your newest singles track one on the album and you continue pushing the older tracks down like a waterfall going down your Spotify page. You see that? At some point you call this release done and you can either add a bunch of tracks that didn't make sense as singles to it and put it in an order you want people to consume it until the aliens come down and take us away. This method is particularly important as it makes it easy to get to know your music and build a deeper bond with it so that when a fan comes upon your music since as I always tell you you should be sharing a playlist or an album on social media because you don't want Spotify or YouTube to play a fan another artist song after yours. This approach allows you to strategically release singles you can build momentum to get on more playlists and have algorithms do you the favors. If you want to learn more about that watch the video that's linked in the corner or in the description I made on how you build momentum with each single but I know you probably have a lot of questions. The first one I usually get is what should I do with the songs that aren't worthy of being singles but you want to put them on your album. Very big shock to watchers of this channel but I'm going to use the 1975 as an example as they have numerous tracks that aren't fit for single consumption since they are ambient or experimental artist expressions that go alongside their pop songs. You can easily discern which of these to do this with and you all you have to do is add them to the album when you decide to call it done and quote unquote release it. After all if this has worked out for you you now have tons of new fans who are going to be happy to get a big dose of music from you to add to this record and be happy to go deeper on your musical output. But yes some of these songs may not be the best to promote for eight weeks and pitch for playlist opportunities as singles. Another thing people ask me is what's the difference between the thing you always talk about Jesse where you just put all the songs together on an album at the end. This is building that album as you go instead you're stacking each single on but when the album is done you may reorder all the songs. So the next question inevitably is how in the hell do I do this? So we need to use your aggregator dash distributor to do this. Most of them allow you to edit your release and add to it while others will make you delete the release for a day or two and the release may not exist on streaming platforms. But don't worry the songs still just exist just not in the order they are in on an album. Some people get around this by having two releases up for a day and adding a period to the end of the name or another small distinction. Every distributor has fielded a question of how to do this by now so you can consult their FAQ or write to customer support if you can't figure it out. In the streaming world we really need to think of albums as just artist preferred playlist experiences of the album as you the artist envision it. But but why lose my streams counts? As long as you don't delete your songs your plays will be intact as long as you don't put up the song with a new ISRC or change the length of it and just delete the album not the song itself. Also make sure the album UPC stays the same. But but but why lose my album done? Do I just do this forever? Well if you want to sure I've seen some artists do this for 20 songs and some for an entire year and others for six songs. This is a common technique artists are doing now until they really break then once they feel they have solidified themselves in their genre then they move on to releasing singles or more traditional releases or you could keep doing this for as long as it makes algorithmic sense. The fact is this method is going to keep getting more popular since it really helps artists with marketing. I think it makes a lot of sense and can pay off for artists in a big way so make sure to keep it in mind for your next release plan. Thanks for watching. Am I missing anything? Is there any other way you would have done this? I need to know your questions and what no one else is telling you since I want to answer them so leave them in the comments since I answer every comment in every post. I hope you liked this video and if you did please like subscribe and get notified and I'm going to be breaking down the concepts in this video along with how to promote your music and how to make songs you're happy with in the future. I have a Facebook group linked below that is only helpful information no playlist or con artists only artists having helpful discussions allowed. If you want to learn more about me work on a record with me or check out any of my books podcasts or anything else I do go to jessecanon.com or at jessecanon on all the socials. One last thing there's two playlists here one is on how to grow your fan base from zero to ten thousand fans and the other is on how you promote your music with Spotify or you can hit the subscribe button below and stay tuned as I have tons of tips for musicians