Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage Commissioner in the Department of Planning and Development for the City of Chicago, David Reethman. Well, good evening everybody. Thank you for having me this evening. As I was just introduced, I am the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Planning and Development. And it's my pleasure, on behalf of Mayor Manuel, to welcome everyone to Chicago for the Past Forward Conference and tonight's opening plenary here at the Historic Auditorium Theater, one of our best-known landmarks from Adler and Sullivan. We're thrilled you're here to discuss the important preservation issues that shape our collective legacy as a country and as a people. And I want to wish you well on a very productive three days. You're in Chicago at a great time. We're on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the city's landmarks ordinance, which has helped preserve approximately 5,000 buildings since its inception as the city's primary preservation tool. It's also been 25 years since my department started serving as staff to the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, which is responsible for making landmark recommendations to our City Council, for monitoring changes to buildings that are protected under the ordinance, for enabling incentives for eligible preservation projects, and for reviewing national register nominations within the city limits. As a member of the Landmarks Commission and as the Planning Commissioner, I know that preservation is as much about the future as it is about the past. And Chicago is an ideal location to see how we embrace the past forward concept where people live, work, and raise families. Every landmark designation we do has a planning component, and virtually every planning project we do has a preservation component regardless of the location or the neighborhood. The key for us has been balance, not only in terms of costs and benefits, but also our neighborhoods.  From our new citywide Adopt-a-Landmark incentives to the financial tools we're using to revitalize our historic retail corridors in the south and west sides. One of the poster children for our preservation initiatives is the Fulton Randolph Market District just west of downtown. The area's landmark designation two years ago was a critical, if not controversial component of its successful transition from industrial to mixed use. And despite the concerns we heard about property value, we've seen record sales prices on precedented rehabilitation projects and enthusiastic compliance with our designation guidelines that preserve and balance growth. Another area is our Michigan Boulevard Historic District, which includes the landmark theater we sit in tonight, as well as the 1971 Johnson Publishing Building that we were proposed for landmark status this year. Our updated design guidelines for the district preserve the historic street along Grand Park, while also balancing the impact of high-rise construction that is moving forward along its lanes. There is also the North Branch Industrial Corridor, where we just completed a year-long planning process that will transition the area from manufacturing to mixed use over the next 20 years. Our plan specifically identifies 40 character buildings that we believe are essential to the growth of this area as a vibrant urban waterfront. We're also working in the Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods where new preservation strategies will protect the area's unique layering of European and Mexican design and art, while also preserving affordability for the people that have lived there for generations. Many of you will see these areas firsthand during the conference, as well as others, like the newly designated Pullman National Monument, which is revitalizing one of America's most intact historic planned neighborhoods in America, and the historic Lathrop Homes on the northwest side, where preservation is a key component of our public housing strategy. Then there's the individual preservation projects that are serving as community anchors for generations of Chicagoans to come, such as the Southside Community Arts Center in Bronzeville, which the trust recognized as a national treasure earlier this month, our Quincy Street Elevated Station, which we just landmarked as the oldest rapid transit station in the loop, and the recently landmarked and reopened Rosenwald Apartments, where thousands of southern blacks found safe and affordable homes during the Great Migration. We are thrilled to support these projects and to help Chicago maintain a historic role as an epicenter for design, social progress, and neighborhood character. And I encourage you all to explore the city with whatever time you may have available during your stay. Before I close, I'd be remiss not to mention the recent House bill that would eliminate the historic tax credit incentive for eligible restoration projects. I cannot emphasize enough how important this incentive is to our historic buildings and to our ability to leverage preservation as a community improvement tool. Historic tax credits have helped approximately 90 projects with more than $2.4 billion on qualified rehabilitation expenditures in Chicago in the last 10 years. They were directly responsible for nearly 40,000 temporary jobs and an estimated $75 million in local taxes every year. Nearly 40 projects currently are underway in Chicago, many of which were included in the loop for this conference, your tour for this conference. We're working on restorations of the city's old main post office, which is a key to our ongoing West Loop growth, the Congress Theater, which is the largest auditorium on Milwaukee Avenue, multiple adaptive reuse projects involving older office and industrial buildings, and several housing projects that are keeping our neighborhoods affordable. We are working and will continue to work with our DC office to express our vehement opposition to the bill and to underscore the important role these credits play for Chicago and other cities and towns across the state. We're looking forward to working with other municipalities on these and other issues that impact our ability to foster preservation projects and that create the foundations for future growth. Again, I'm sorry the mayor could not be here tonight, but on the mayor's behalf, again, I want to welcome you. Wish you a very productive, fast-forward conference. It's an exciting agenda tonight with very insightful speakers. And I'd like to now introduce Bonnie McDonald, the president and CEO of Landmarks Illinois. Thank you for your time. Thank you, commissioner. Good afternoon. And on behalf of our preservation community, welcome to Chicago and to the state of Illinois. My name is Bonnie McDonald, and I am the president of the statewide nonprofit organization Landmarks Illinois. We have been helping people save places that matter to them since 1971. Actress Sarah Bernhardt said of Chicago that it is the pulse of America. Our places are your places. Behind our impressive skyline, we wrestle with gentrification, economic inequality, structural racism, depopulation, and Chicago's infamous politics. But there are many places that demonstrate hope for our city with equitable development, urban activations, dreamers remaking abandoned places, and people out to prove that our very health and well-being is tied to place. We may be people saving places, but as one new preservationist on Chicago's south side said to me recently, places are saving people in our city. Landmarks Illinois is proud to be the presenting partner of Pass Forward and to join with the National Trust. Our sponsorship is possible thanks to Chicago's dedicated group of foundation, individual, and corporate donors that supports our robust preservation community year round. We express our gratitude to the many representatives of these partners that are in the room with us now. Now chief amongst these supporters is the Elfwood Foundation, which has provided funding to provoke conversations about our responsibility toward projects that promote inclusion, equity, and social and economic justice. Together, we can explore how our people and place-based actions improve public health and reduce the violence that is the focus of national media attention about this city in particular. Convening these courageous conversations and thousands of preservationists is a monumental effort. Dozens of trust staff members, its board of directors, advisors, and partners come together to generate dynamic content and platforms for dialogue at this conference. Would you join me in thanking Stephanie Meeks and her entire team for their effort? Now equal gratitude is given to the Landmarks Illinois Board of Directors for their support of this partnership as well. Here tonight are Chairman Mark Heading, Vice Chairman Sandra Rand, the Chair of the National Trust Advisors and the Landmarks Illinois Board Member Jean Follett, our Chairman Emeritus Will Tippens, and several other board members with us tonight. Let me also recognize my team of smart, engaged, and amazing professionals for their efforts to help us implement our role in past forward. Maria Rich, Suzanne German, Lisa DeKira, Frank Butterfield, Tiffany Williams, Amy Eggy, Caitlin McEvoy, and Emily Stennett. Thank you very much. Now I'll conclude tonight with a short tribute to our city's most notable preservationist, Richard Nicolle, who lost his life in 1972 while salvaging another building built by this theater's architects, Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler. In truly memorable fashion, Nicolle summed up our ongoing challenges.  End quote. None of you are in the room, of course. So let's work together now to innovate our strategies and ensure our cause is relevant in the America to come. Now it is my privilege to also introduce tonight the First Lady of Illinois, Diana Rauner, who has been an advocate for investing in our state's heritage since she took office in January of 2015. The First Lady brings her experience in business and nonprofit management to her role as a champion for our state's 56 historic sites as well as other state-owned historic resources. Her lead project is the revitalization of the executive mansion in Springfield, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The First Lady has led planning, fundraising and implementation of a $15 million campaign for the 160-tier year-old mansion, which last received capital repairs in the 1970s. Thanks to the First Lady's strong vision and advocacy for this investment, funded entirely through private donations, the executive mansion project is moving forward despite our state's budget challenges. The unveiling will come just in time to be a showcase for our state's 2018 bicentennial celebration. Now please join me in welcoming to the stage First Lady Diana Rauner. Thank you, Bonnie. Good evening. I'm very excited to have the opportunity to share a restoration project here, and I love the story about water and stupid men because there's a lot of that in the story of the Illinois Executive Mansion. So, as Bonnie mentioned, this is one of the oldest and largest executive mansions or governor's mansions in the country. It was built in 1855, and it has been in continuous use since its opening, and it has been, again, a living and breathing place, which, as you can see over the years, has been a victim of both fashion and time, and we are very excited to have the opportunity now to bring it back to a version of glory, not its original shape, but something that approximates what it can be for us now and for the future. I want to put this all in context for those of you who are not from Illinois. Our state capital, Springfield, Illinois, is well known, particularly as the most important home of our most important president, Abraham Lincoln. And in Springfield, we have a number of very important historic sites that celebrate the life of Abraham Lincoln, particularly his home and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. And then, of course, the old state capital, which was in operation when he gave his great speech, the House Divided Speech, and where he actually worked as a state senator. Lincoln, of course, never lived in the Illinois Executive Mansion, but he probably dined and danced there. And we have a number of his artifacts, and we celebrate his time in Springfield as part of our heritage. Also in Springfield is the beautiful Dana Thomas House, one of Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpieces. So there's quite a lot to see in Springfield, and I encourage you all to take a trip there sometime after July of 2018 when you can see our new mansion. So the Illinois Executive Mansion, as Bonnie mentioned, has not had any real repairs since 1972. And like many executive buildings, like the White House, it has been lived in up until the point of being practically dangerous, at which point families move out, and then as much restoration as can be afforded is undertaken. The last time this happened was 1972, and I'm sorry to say that it probably wasn't the best time for anyone to be thinking about historic preservation. It was also the time in Springfield when seven beautiful movie theaters were torn down, and there is some unfortunate architecture in Springfield, along with some beautiful architecture. But as you can see from these photographs, by the time we moved into the Executive Mansion in 2015, things are looking pretty grim. Run wood, leaking roofs, and stairs that couldn't be stepped on because you would fall through them. It's actually true that when we moved in, of course my husband said, well, it's better than my fraternity, which that's not much, saying much, but we literally had buckets underneath some of the holes in the ceiling. We had crumbling walls and some really unpleasant mold and a non-functioning elevator that had been out of service for at least five or six years. And the entire place had never been ADA compliant, astonishingly, a public building that was not ADA compliant. So we took upon ourselves the goal of restoring this mansion to pride. And for those of you who have read about the travails of Illinois, they mostly are true, but Illinois is an extraordinary state with extraordinary people and extraordinary history and a promising future. And what we wanted to do was show in a very concrete way what we, where we came from and where we were going. And so this became really an opportunity for us to speak about restoring the pride in the state of Illinois, restoring our vision and restoring our future. And of course the timing couldn't be better because 2018 next year is our bicentennial year. So we have the opportunity to restore this mansion to something approximating its previous condition just in time to celebrate our third century. And as you all know, this preservation takes on many forms. What you can see from this slide and from one of the first slides is that in 1972, again, maybe not the best time to have taken on this project, it was decided to double the size of the building. The first part of the building that you can see on the left with the widow's walk is essentially the original building. And then another 25,000 square feet was appended to it in 1972. We have focused our restoration on the original part of the building with some health and safety and life safety and structural issues in the back of the building. But this is really the front of the building and the original, close to the original design of the building from 1855. It was, again, restored in 18, it was restored in the 1880s. And again in the 1890s, there was cosmetic work done in the 50s and then a huge restoration in the 70s. So a lot of work's been done to this building over the years and what we're trying to do is reclaim and restore as much as we can to its original shape. So we thought about particularly the facade and how, and this really is the view and the vision that we wanted people to see. So this is our most important elevation. It is also the chance for us to restore the general proportions and some of the details and features of the original 1855. So a big part of that really is how this is, this building is seen from the street. One of the things that you learn when you go into public office is everything's about leadership and in the absence of leadership, people do what they did yesterday and the day before and the day before and little by little plants grow up and things overgrow and nobody says the vision is this. So what we found when we came to Springfield was not only a building that was a metaphor for the state. If you don't fix your roof, you will eventually have water leaking into your walls and you'll start to rot out your foundations. That's one metaphor. Another metaphor is if you don't have a vision of what you want to see, you'll eventually volunteer trees and all sorts of things will accumulate and you won't be able to see your building from the street. So we've been engaged in a fair amount of pruning and focusing and visioning over the last few months and we're hard at work at the restoration. One of the things that we wanted to do was make this a space that was welcoming to all and a real site for education. We receive thousands of visitors every year who come to see this building along with the other historic sites in Springfield but we didn't really have an adequate way of moving visitors through the building, providing an orientation and educational space and being able to use the space in a wise way. So we created here a new way of entering the building and restored the original pork courchere and the original stairs up to the entrance. We're very excited to be able to have a better way for students and other visitors to orient themselves to the experience and also to have this beautiful restored entry which was the original entry. It still has its original doors and it will now have stairs that approximate its original entrance. So this will be our entrance for events and for all sorts of historic activities. The building is used both as the residence of the governor and as in many public buildings. It's used for all sorts of official events. It's used by legislative and agency functions and of course for a legislative meeting. So now it will have an elegant entry. It used to be that these stairs that the porch that is described here was literally, if you stood on it, you would fall through. So it's very exciting to be able to have this new entry. The other thing we're very excited about is the opportunity to use the interior space, the parlors and the ceremonial spaces as an art museum, as a gallery for Illinois art, fine and decorative arts and we will have 90 pieces, we'll open with 90 pieces of fine and decorative art that are on loan from museums and private collections and frankly schools across the state. So we're very excited to have the beginnings of what we hope will be an ongoing art collection and art exhibition space that we'll be able to use going forward. This really is the first time that we've ever had an art in Illinois curated exhibit. And so we're very excited about that. What you see here is one of our signature paintings from Roger Brown called Lost America. We've also been able to take some of the upstairs spaces and create period rooms that will be again, experiential learning for students and those who come through. This is what the suite that represents the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition will look like. The other suite will focus on the lives of the Illinois Civil War governors, Yates and Oglesby. And again, we're able to collect artifacts and historical documents from those periods and put them in situ and examine them. As I mentioned, this site was overgrown. You couldn't see the governor's mansion from the street and you couldn't access it if you came by wheelchair, which was really stunning and horrifying. We have re-envisioned the landscape so that, first of all, we'll have an ADA accessible site, a walkway and site, and we'll have an opening out that looks out over the city and across to the state capital so that the building will be visible and it will be beautifully sited. So we're excited about that. And also very excited that across and around the mansion, there's restoration going on around Springfield that's really been initiated by this project and will create a much more revitalized city and visitors experience. The final thing I'll say is that for, as I said, this building was a metaphor for the state in so many ways. Not the least was that it was never actually professionally managed. It was treated as a sort of strange outpost of our historic preservation agency. And we're very excited now that the mansion and its grounds will be managed by a team of qualified museum and preservation professionals from our Illinois Department of Natural Resources and our historic preservation agency. We'll be able to now to have volunteer tour guides, but tour guides who were trained. We've been able to engage many historians across the state to help us create a visitor experience and an orientation center that is truly professional and highlights the best parts of our state. So we're thrilled to be able to show and showcase a beautiful and important part of our history to bring it back to some level of glory and to restore the pride that all of us in Illinois feel for our history and for our future. And I do encourage you to make a trip to Springfield at some time after July 2018. We will welcome you at the governor's mansion and across our city of Springfield. Thanks very much. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage National Trust for Historic Preservation Board of Trustees Chairman, Timothy P. Whalen. Hello everyone. Good evening and welcome to the opening plenary session of Past Forward, the 2017 Preservation Conference. It's my great pleasure to welcome you all, this remarkable, creative and committed community of preservationists to Chicago in this spectacular room. Welcome to Chicago, everyone. It's such a pleasure to be here in Chicago. The loop here just yards away from some of the most groundbreaking and inspiring architecture in the United States. So I encourage all of you to get out there and see it, please. I'm delighted to be here at my first pass forward as chair of the National Trust Board of Trustees. It's a great honor and I'll work hard on behalf of each of you and what you accomplish across the United States. Last year in Houston, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the National Preservation Act and the trust laid a strong foundation for momentum and positive change. This week in Chicago, over the course of power sessions, learning labs, field studies and trust lives, we plan to keep building momentum and further strengthen that foundation. We plan to expand and capitalize on the many opportunities out there to use preservation as a vehicle for economic growth and a means to enhance the quality of life for all Americans. Over the next few days, we will delve into all the ways preservation can help address the challenges and controversies that communities are facing in the 21st century. We are going to share technological tools and innovative research that makes it easier to save places that matter and tell the full American story. We will discuss and demonstrate preservation's potential to bring communities together and to live healthier, more enriching lives. And of course, we'll be catching up with old friends and sharing wisdom, possibly a drink and trading stories. And I look forward to it all. Organizing a conference of this scale is not done alone. It's always done together with great partners and collaborators. On behalf of all of us at the National Trust, let me offer our profound thanks to our presenting partner, Landmarks Illinois, as well as the Alphawood Foundation. This week will be a great success because of their engagement and support. So thank you very much. Before we roll up our sleeves and get to work, it falls on me to lead us in a fast forward plenary tradition. So you can kind of think of it as a preservation wave. So let me take a minute to get reacquainted. I would first like to ask this year's diversity scholars to stand and then you keep all standing. So please stand diversity scholars. And can we please get our Treehouse scholars to stand? The Treehouse scholars are sponsored by the Richard H. Treehouse Foundation and I'm so pleased that Richard is here with us this evening. Now I invite all of our young leaders, everyone under 35 to stand please. Are there any first time attendees to pass forward? Please stand. And what about people joining us from outside the United States? Please stand. And warm welcome to you. And what about our conference veterans, those of you who have been to more than 10 preservation conferences, please stand up. If you can. All of us at the trust are pleased that all of you are here and we look forward to being together with you all this week. It's time for business. I will now call the annual meeting of the National Trust for Historic Preservation to order. As many of you know, this opening plenary also serves as our annual meeting of members with the sole order of business being the election of trustees to the board of the National Trust. The National Trust Board is made up of talented and dedicated individuals who serve not only this organization, but like you, the preservation movement broadly. The National Trust trustees serve in their capacity as volunteers, a status that will be familiar to many of you in this room. The state, the slate of trustees presented by the trustee and governance committee includes current trustees proposed for reelection after completing their first and second terms. For a second three year term, they are Kevin Gover of Washington DC and G. Jack Tankersley of Denver, Colorado. For a third year, for a third three year term, they are Susan Chapman Hughes of New York City, Fernando Loveres, San Miguel of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Charles Royce of New York City, and lastly, First Lady Laura Bush of Dallas, Texas, and nominated to serve their first term are Christina Lee Brown of Louisville, Kentucky, Linda Bruckheimer of Los Angeles, California, and Samuel B. Dixon of Edenton, North Carolina. Detailed biographical sketches on each of these individuals has been shared online at savingplaces.org, and I hope you'll take a moment to read it. At this time, it creates me great pleasure to present this slate of nominees for election as trustees of the National Trust, and I ask for your approval of the slate by acclamation as indicated by your enthusiastic response. Thank you all. Now before we get on with the show, there are a few other points of important business. As you all know, one of our nation's most significant federal investments in preservation, the federal historic tax credit is currently under threat. Since 1981, when it was expanded by President Ronald Reagan, the federal historic tax credit has created millions of jobs, created more than 100 billion in private investment and transformed tens of thousands of underused commercial buildings for new and productive uses. Even better, the Treasury makes $1.20 on every dollar invested and 75% of the economic benefits stay in state and local communities, which is why, naturally, 34 states have created their own state historic tax credits. Unfortunately, and despite these clear benefits, the federal credit is in grave danger of being lost amid the current tax reform debate. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I want to urge everyone here today to tell your representatives in Congress to fight for the federal historic tax credit. Every call, letter, or personal plea you make gets us closer to the goal of saving the HTC. To help make the case, let's journey back for a few moments to September 18th, 1984. Adjust your shoulder pads, everyone. This is when President Reagan himself made the case for the historic tax credit and here he is. I'd like to draw your attention to a major innovation that our administration put into effect less than three years ago. Increased tax credits for the renovation of older buildings. With that one initiative, we help to send your tax dollars back into your communities. Across America, people are getting the message. Our tax credits have made the preservation of our older buildings not only a matter of respect for beauty and history, but of economic good sense. I know your efforts will help to give our towns more restored buildings, more jobs, and a renewed sense of pride. And that will be good for our entire nation. For while our country's muscle may lie in our great industrial cities, America's heart is in our small towns. Since President Reagan delivered these remarks more than 30 years ago, the historic tax credit he put in place has played a critical role in our country. Revitalizing small towns, creating jobs, and increasing economic activity, all while preserving our nation's historic buildings. The statistics are impressive. More than 42,000 buildings have been restored. Over 130 billion dollars in private capital has been reinvested in our communities. Nearly 2.5 million jobs have been created. And an average of $1.20 has been returned to the Treasury for every dollar invested. As tax reform legislation takes shape in Washington, let's not lose sight of the reasons President Reagan chose to make the historic tax credit a permanent part of the tax code. The historic tax credit is a pro-growth investment that works. Your support of the historic tax credit is urgent. If we are to continue the important legacy started by President Reagan. No matter what our political persuasion is, we can all agree that the past 33 years have proven that the federal HTC is good economic sense. So let's make that an action item while we're here in Chicago this week. Let's ask our members of Congress to put the HTC in the reform tax code undiminished. To send that message directly to tax staff in your members' offices, please stop by the table operated by the National Trust's Government Affairs team in the registration area at the Palmer House. So we made it easy for you. Please do that. I want to say a brief word tonight about some of the terrible tragedies we have experienced as a nation since we last convened. A year ago this week, many of us were together in Houston. As you all know, that community and much of coastal Texas was devastated by Hurricane Harvey this past August. Florida, the Caribbean and the Southeast were then confronted with another powerful super storm in Hurricane Irma. And of course, Americans in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands had been facing an existential crisis in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Nearly two months later, a majority of citizens are without power. It will be months before the basic necessities of life are available to all once again. Then there are the wildfires that have devastated the West Coast, especially in Central and Northern California and Oregon. Over the next few days, we'll be discussing the impact of these events on historic resources and assessing how communities can best prepare for future disasters. But right now, let us take a moment to recognize the profound human cost of these catastrophes. If you do all join me in a moment of silence for all of those who lost their lives or lost loved ones and for all those whose lives have been inalterably affected by these events. Thank you to the people of Texas and Florida and California and the Caribbean, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, we stand with you. We have not forgotten you and we pledge to support you in our efforts and yours in rebuilding your homes and your resources. Let me now turn things over to our next speaker, Lee Bay, who will welcome us to America's second city, Chicago. A former Chicago Sun Times architecture critic and an active writer, lecturer and photographer of the built environment, Lee is currently vice president of the DuSable Museum of African American History. He has also been a Chicago mainstay for more than two decades in the fields of urban planning, architecture, arts and culture. And his writings and photos have appeared in the Chicago Reader, Cranes, Chicago Business, Site Magazine, The Guardian and a number of other outlets. It is my pleasure to welcome to the stage Lee Bay. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you and good evening. And welcome to this beautiful city of Chicago and welcome to this beautiful space, which I am flabbergasted to actually be staying on a stage of this beautiful space and talking to you because this is one of the finest places in the city. So welcome and thank you. Just wanna tell a little story if I can, which is every year, usually in the spring, I get the same call. A preservationist or a preservation organization, no need to name names here because there's enough guilt to go around.  Then something else hits them. They don't know any community-based black and brown people. So you remember how Mitt Romney had binders of women, supposedly? Well, surely Lee Bay has binders of black folk and brown folk, so my phone begins to ring. And to be honest, for years, I'd help them out. You know, I'd open the binders if you will. The preservation game should be more diverse, especially in a city like Chicago. So I was doing my bit to help out, to bring black and brown folks into the fold. But three years ago, I stopped. Calls like that joined the Do Not Return list, right next to the Comcast Marketing Department calls, and calls from my ex-wife. And that's because in a city of 2.7 million people, that's a third black and a third Latino, 66% minority. A city that's had black residents since this gentleman behind me, became Jean-Baptiste Point DeSable, became the town's first non-native settler 230 years ago. A call like that is not a sign of a well-meaning person or organization, at least not by my eye, looking to make their latest campaign more diverse. No, it's a sign, a big sign, that that organization has made no place for black and brown people, not in their outreach, not in their leadership, and improves the worst of what people say about this industry, about the preservation movement, that it is overwhelmingly white, it is overwhelmingly elitist, and it is exclusionary. So let me make this plain. Given the times in which we find ourselves and which people are struggling, as we've talked before in the stage, to fight against the racial and societal, to fight racial and societal battles, that we thought were long one, in which racism and xenophobia have tightened their grip over almost every aspect of America, if you or your organization are not diverse in your membership, not diverse in your partnerships, not diverse in your approach, not diverse in your leadership, you are as much an obstacle to creating a fairer and more just America, as are many of the people, thank you, as are many of the people we shake our fists at when we watch Fox News. If the south and west sides of Chicago or their counterparts across urban America are a mystery to you as preservationists, no more than the subject of a field study and no more. If that's the case, you are a barrier to any effort designed to create a proper, true, and equitable preservation mechanism no matter where you are. Let me be very clear about this, too. This isn't about making black and brown people feel good about being included. Believe me, we got our own clubs, our own things, we gonna be all right, right? It's done about making yours, and it's done about making yourself feel good about finally letting people of color into the game. It's about creating a stronger hand for us all to save buildings and to build and maintain the communities across the nation. Let me show you a thing if I may. This is, of course, leave it to me, not to go the right way. This is Chicago's Malcolm X College, located a few minutes west of downtown Chicago. Built in 1971, this building, by my view, should have been a contender for six years, city landmark status, and a national register listing. The building was designed by Gene Summers, who was the architect who executed Mies van der Roos designs for the new gallery in Berlin in 1968, which is now undergoing a redo by Mies's grandson, Dirk Lohan. And Gene also designed the modernist masterpiece, McCormick Place, on the lake, also in 1971. In addition, the school was the first public building in America named for Malcolm X. In its early days, there was a robust Afrocentric curriculum reinforced by murals and artwork created by leaders of the nationally recognized black arts movement here in Chicago. This was a modern architecture, meeting modern thought about black people. And it happened right on Chicago's west side, while literally the embers of the King Riots are still burning. But this is what happened to Malcolm X College. It was demolished in 2016, and a new college was built across the street. Dare I say, it was a needed new college, but we're talking about the preservation of this building. And when it was demolished, the architecture, the murals, the place, the stories, the narrative are gone. Now, those doors I showed you were saved. They were displayed, thankfully, by the city's cultural affairs department earlier this year, and they'll be on display once more next year in a different fashion at the Disciple Museum, which I humbly am vice president of. In Chicago, we can tear down, and Chicagoans know this, in Chicago, we can tear down the building or even an airport in the middle of the night. But in this case, it took four years for the city to phase out and close Malcolm X College. That's enough time for the preservation mechanism in Chicago to sound the alarm, and enough time to build the real coalitions to push for its reuse, using that unique intersection of modernist architecture and modern black Chicago history and Latino history, because many of the murals inside the building celebrated Mexican and Puerto Rican culture as well. Put that together to make a compelling reason for this building to be saved. Would it have helped? Sometimes in this town, we don't know. I would say yes, but at the very least, this effort would have laid the cornerstone, laid the groundwork for a stronger, more diverse preservation community that could rally around the next endangered building or endangered historic tax credit that we all know about now under attack in Washington. This credit, as you know, has been a useful tool for rebuilding thousands of communities across America, including black and brown communities. One more of Malcolm X. Here in Chicago is one project which has been referred to to date, I understand many of you have seen it, the Rosenwald departments at 47th and Michigan in the Bronzeville neighborhood. It took $132 million to restore and renovate this building. 18 million came from historic tax credits, but 41 million came from federal low-income housing tax credits, which are also under fire. You want to save this tax credit and save more buildings like the Rosenwald? When you go home, be intentional about working with these communities that I'm talking about, and with their lawmakers and with their leaders, make the connections, have them advocate with you as partners, not to help, summon for a single issue, not to help, summon for a single issue, then keep and strengthen those connections after the battle is over. This is about survival, not just for buildings and neighborhoods, but organizations and groups and governmental units like the ones represented here that are in a position to speak up for the preservation of our built environment and the stories those places yield. Those of us here know, we know better, perhaps better than anyone, that things that seem permanent, things that seem erected in stone and commissioned for the ages are not always that way. When a building owner fails to adapt with the times, doesn't properly anticipate the future, that is when a building can often become most vulnerable and in danger of being wiped away. And we also know and should remember the institutions and organizations and movements that don't adapt, don't change, don't open doors, don't bother to read the present or see the future, can easily suffer the same fate. Thank you. Lee, thank you for delivering important words with both gravity and humor, so thank you very much. I now have the honor of introducing a born and raised Chicago native, a true and lifelong friend of the preservation movement and a strong benefactor of the National Trust, of landmarks Illinois, and of many, many other preservation organizations across the country. That is Richard H. Drehouse. Richard grew up here in Chicago and has joined enormous business success over the course of his life. Success which he has parlayed into rich dividends for his hometown, the state of Illinois, and the nation as a whole. Richard is a renowned figure in America's investment management industry and the founder and captain of Drehouse Capital Management, LLC, a financial powerhouse here in Chicago. He's also known as one of the city's foremost art collectors with a taste for art nouveau, including Alphonse Mucha, Art Deco, French Posters, the glass and design work of Lewis, Comfort, Tiffany, and Automobiles. You can see some of his impressive collection at the Drehouse Museum, which houses one of the largest collections of Tiffany glass anywhere. Above all else, Richard is a remarkable philanthropist. Through his Richard H. Drehouse Foundation, he has used his resources to strengthen our democracy, advance economic opportunity for all, support arts and culture, and combat persistent urban problems such as poverty. And he has worked to enrich all of our lives through preservation, urban planning, and better design. Over the years, Richard and his foundation have helped to preserve historic residences across Chicago, including countless examples of Chicago's unique architectural styles, including its bungalows and gravestone houses. He owns many restored landmark buildings as well. He has supported the preservation and upkeep of Chicago's parks and greenery, such as Millennium Park, the Caldwell Lily Pool in Lincoln Park, and the Garfield Park Conservatory. He has invested in any number of preservation organizations over the years and promoted excellence and innovation in our field by supporting a program of awards, including the Richard H. Drehouse National Preservation Awards, which celebrates our nation's most cutting edge preservation projects and achievements. His decades of support for the National Trust included early multi-year support to increase the number and effectiveness of statewide and local preservation organizations. He continues that support with annual contributions to the Richard and Julia Moe Family Fund for partner innovation and capacity building. With his support of the conference's Technology Trust Live and Education Track, all of us will be able to explore how preservation organizations can apply 21st century tools to our work. This week you'll learn how new technologies such as GIS, 3D modeling, and laser scanning can be used to preserve the built environment. Such forward thinking about new ways to advocate for and save old places can also be seen in the foundation's commitment to research and convenings that explore the connection between architecture, design, place, and human flourishing. Finally, he has helped bring preservation to new audiences. To take just one example, he is supporting 50 Drehouse scholars to attend our conference this week, and you saw some of them this evening. I can think of no one better to welcome the National Preservation Community to Chicago than this native son, one who has done so much to grow our movement and save cherished places here and all over the United States. Ladies and gentlemen, Richard H. Drehouse. Thank you, Tim. It's a great introduction, thanks. First lady, Rauner. Commissioner Reifman. National Trusts, trustees, and ladies and gentlemen. It is enormously rewarding to know that for the next few days, Chicago is the nexus of historic preservation. I hope all who are visiting can see and experience our successes and understand our lessons learned. I hope all that live here take a moment to see Chicago through the eyes of our visitors. Tonight, we honor preservation excellence. This year's Drehouse National Preservation Awards recipients have undertaken projects with broad and long lasting implications. They impact countless people across many disciplines. You will see examples of a community-wide effort to provide affordable housing in Pittsburgh, a comprehensive survey of the preservation assets in Los Angeles, and a multi-purpose performance space in Seattle. The multiplier effect of these hard-won victories has no limits. These are priceless investments in places and people. I am passionate about great old buildings. I appreciate seeing all types of capital leveraged, older buildings in particular that can be adaptively reused and reintegrated. They have untapped precious capital. They are also often critical anchors for psychological well-being. I submit to you that old buildings are like grandparents and great grandparents. They are our ancestors speaking to us about who we are and what we've been. Winston Churchill once said that the United States usually does the right thing after exhausting all the other possible options. Unfortunately, this has been the case with historic preservation. We took too long to act. But I sense this fairly young movement has the wind at its back, among others, positive indicators, cognitive neuroscience, science and technology are constantly informing us. The point to the importance of old buildings and how the human mind perceives and responds to them this is a new and exciting frontier. One I believe will help you in the highly complex work. You do. You have my heartfelt admiration. And now I would like to turn your attention to the screen as we honor this year's three Richard H. Streehouse Foundation National Preservation Award winners video. And now let's watch the videos of the winners work. Survey LA, the result of a 10 year partnership between the city of Los Angeles and the Getty documents more than 30,000 historic resources, including residential and commercial districts, industrial complexes, bridges, street lights and public art. The project resulted in several technological innovations, including a custom GIS based mobile survey application that allows surveyors to quickly record sites of interest, a citywide historic context statement and historic places LA, a publicly available online inventory of historic resources. Survey LA also took a unique approach to public engagement, producing materials in multiple languages and enlisting hundreds of volunteers to engage an inclusive set of LA's residents in identifying places of social and cultural importance. Most significantly, Survey LA is a proactive tool for incorporating historic fabric into city planning. It broadens the meaning and influence of preservation and serves as a model for preservation nationwide. Nine miles east of downtown Pittsburgh sits the Hamnet Place neighborhood, a community of 20th century homes and businesses that was once so consumed by blight, its real estate market had virtually collapsed. Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation took action, coordinating a property tax study and proposing a 10 year tax abatement program to encourage investment in the area. But the organization didn't wait for the market to stabilize. They began restoring the neighborhood one building at a time. Today, an astounding 67 units of housing and historic buildings have been restored, almost all reserved for low to moderate income tenants. Two vacant lots have become community gardens and a former auto repair shop now hosts community workshops. With a revived real estate market and a focus on providing the community with affordable housing, Hamnet Place neighborhood looks to a bright future. Washington Hall in Seattle has served as a Danish community center, performance venue for Jimi Hendrix, meeting space for union workers, place of worship, hub for LGBTQ artists of color, dinner theater and youth club dance hall. It has welcomed waves of Jewish, Filipino, Korean and Eritrean immigrants and comfortably made space for all. After more than 100 years of continual use, Washington Hall came under threat of demolition in 2007. Historic Seattle stepped in to purchase the building, launching four phases of reconstruction, including stabilization, seismic retrofitting and elevator installation. Today, Historic Seattle is watching not the revival but the continued vibrant use of a space that has frequently been called a hall for all. Three anchor partner organizations manage the hall, keeping a hard-earned sense of pride within the community that it continues to nurture. I'm the former chair of the National Trust Advisors Program, Bance Kelly, and I'd like to invite back to the stage Richard H. Dreehouse and welcome Stephanie Meeks, president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation to present our Richard H. Dreehouse Foundation Preservation Awards. I'm happy to begin with SurveyLA, a project of unparalleled proportions, a true trailblazer in the industry and here to accept the award are Ken Bernstein, manager and principal city planner, office of historic resources, city of Los Angeles, Janet Hansen, deputy manager, office of historic resources, city of Los Angeles, Allison DeGetty, manager, web and digital initiatives of the Getty Conservation Institute and Annabelle Enriquez, digital project specialist, the Getty Conservation Institute. Good evening. I'm Jean Follett, the new chair of the National Trust Advisors Program and I'm thrilled to be here tonight to present a Dreehouse Preservation Award to Hamnet Place Neighborhood, an outstanding case of both real estate and preservation work. Here to accept the award is Michael Cepersert, president of Landmarks Development Corporation and Landmarks Community Capital Corporation. Good evening, everyone. I am Horace Foxall, one of the National Trust Washington State Advisors from Seattle. I'm happy to present a Seattle project, Washington Hall, with a Dreehouse Preservation Award. Thank you for your leadership and meaningful community engagement and preservation. Here to accept the award is Kai Kelly, executive director, Historic Seattle, Kate Kraft, chair of Historic Seattle Council and Ron Wright, architect of Ron Wright and associates.


What is going on guys? Today I am back with another Destiny video and today I am going to bring you guys something I haven't done in absolute ages. I am going to bring you guys a live gameplay of me attempting to solo this week's weekly night full which is I think it's Nexus. I can't actually remember. I've done it once a day before yesterday. I think it is actually Nexus and we've got Ironclad, we have Juggler, we have Specialist, we have Arcburn and we have Epic. Now hopefully this goes smoothly because you guys have probably seen some of my soloed night full attempts before and I haven't gotten that great to be honest. I do fail quite badly sometimes. I'm glad now that they have probably added check points to the night full which I did do ages ago but I haven't soloed once it's before that. So it should make things a little easier. Now I'll show you guys what I'm using right here right now. Okay so I'm obviously going to be using the Defender subclass just because there are weapons at the end to take out the boss. I mean I could use my Striker because it's Arc and fucks you up but now I think I'll use my Defender. Weapons, Fang of the Year used Arcburn, Absolute Beast. I mean I could use my Fatebringer but I think this would probably work better when I'm doing a solo. 1000 yards there only because it's Arc and my Unending Deluge 3 on because that's Arc 2. And here we go.  Now if you guys do like these live gameplays I want to see more. Whether they be PvP, PvE, whatever let me know down below in that comment section. Also drop a like on the videos where it really does help out. Now remember you guys used to absolutely well more or less beg me to do these when I actually stop them and I don't even actually know why I stopped them.   This is some primary ammo. Please drop some primary ammo.  I've got some special ammo. No primary.  It really seems like I was going to be gone up for 13 minutes. Damn! It's quite quick to be honest.   Thank you. Ah, I'm so fucked. I'm so fucked.  I need to get into a corner and use a sniper or something. Come on, bitches. There's one guy. Hopefully I'll get some air in. So, um, for me, I'm offing these fuckers. I'm offing them.    What the heck?  Damn!  That ain't fair. That isn't fair. That is not fair at all. Come on, bitches. Come on, bitches. Die, die, motherfuckers. I want something good for this. I want something good for this. There we go. Now, um, where can we go and sit? There's a nice platform around there. Shall I get to that fucker? See up there. Probably use my heavy on them because it's more heavy there. Come on, bitches. Come on, motherfuckers.   Come on. Is that all you got? Who else want to go? I know there's some big cut down here.  Okay, there you are. There you are.  There we go. Now, where'd that other one go?  I saw just two of you. I don't run away. I don't run away. I ain't coming down there. I ain't coming down there. I saw you there, but... Oh, the bus is back. The bus is here. The bus is here.   Oh, dear. I ain't taking that much off of him. That's the foot. I've got a bit of half left on him.     Am I still in my bubble? Yes, I am. Come on. We've got this. We've got this. We've got this. Let's shoot. Shoot.  I was staying up there. Should we open this to see what we get? Oh, I ain't got a skin to get on me, so we're opening. Shit. That was close.  What am I gonna get from this knife? I'm gonna get three of coins.  That's all I get.  Let's see. I need to drink my mouth's dry after that. Damn. Damn. I actually can't believe it. Ten three of coins for someone to win the nightfall.  Game. Nightfalls are bad, but guys, if you enjoyed the video and want to see more, do you want to see a live nightfall every single week, let me know down below in that comment section. If you want other live gameplays from PvP, whatever, let me know. But as always, guys, thanks for stopping by, obviously. Do drop a like. I do appreciate the support. Subscribe if you're new around here. Hit that bell button. That's the subscribe button to turn on them email notifications so you never miss a video. And I will catch you as always on that next one.


This paper explored the use of Sentinel-2, S-2, temporal mosaics of bare soil, S-tube soil, over six years combined with soil moisture products, SMPs, derived from Sentinel-1 and 2 images, soil organic carbon, SOC measurement data and other environmental covariates derived from digital elevation models, lithology maps, and airborne gamma-ray data. The authors found that the best performing models included airborne gamma-ray thorium, slope and S-2 bands, bands 6, 7, 8, 8A, and indices, calcareous sedimentary rocks, Calcol. Additionally, the authors noted that these data contributed not only to optimizing SOC mapping performance but also provided information related to long-range gradients of SOC spatial variability, which makes sense from a pedagogical point of view. This article was authored by Diego Urbina Salazar, Emanuel Vador, and C. Richard Aforges, and others.


Welcome everybody back to Siegel Talks here at the Martin East Siegel Theatre Center at the Graduate Center CUNY in Midtown, Manhattan. It's a slightly overcast day after some sunshine. It got cold again. But also the world has gotten colder. It has gotten darker. And in that old idea, in the old question, what bastun, what shall we do as theater artists, also as intellectuals in the world we live in. We are having this conversation today on HowlRound with one of the leading, I think, theater artists in the world and the global world on the planetary sense. We have, the billar was a free theater with us today. So thank you both for coming. Svetlana, Svetlana, Zugako and of course Nikolaj Kalizin, both of you, welcome to Siegel Talk. Thank you. Where are you now and what time is it? I'm now in Warsaw and it's 5pm. 5pm, yeah. And Nikolaj? Yeah, I'm in Washington DC at 11, 12. 12 known. So you are in Washington, not in your kind of home where you have been forced into exile into London. Let me tell you all a little bit about them. Svetlana studied graphic design, music, choreography at the Belarusian National University and she was involved with the BFT, the Belarus Free Theater in Minsk. A theater I might add, which is at least in our theaters are legendary, important, admired, and also on everybody's mind when it comes to free expression, human rights and the work what theater can do and should be doing. She has been running the operation of the Belarus Free Theater since it was forced into exile in 2011 and she formally is the production manager and also created a campaign of BFT on LGBTQI rights. It's a very important work. We think at the seagull organizing, activism, political engagement and artwork and theater work is connected. It can and should not be looked at as different works. So it is really fantastic. What you're doing, she's featured also in the book Two Women in Their Time by photographer Misha Friedman, a New York staff writer, Marsha Gessen, portraying her and Nadja Brotskaya as the power couple that is spearheading the operation and the work of that company that has done over 50 productions, if I'm right, and shown it in over 40 countries around the world. And this is quite remarkable since 2005. Awards for them include the Human Rights Prize of the French Republic, the Atlantic Council Award, but Slav Havel Prize. We have good friends with the Batslav Havel Center here in New York, the Magnitsky Prize for Courage Under Fire, the stage international awards and I'm sure many, many more. Nikolai Kalizin is the co-founding artistic director of the Belarus Free Theater and they have won many, many awards. He's a playwright, designer, educator, political campaigner and journalist. And if I understand right, he worked as a journalist, a very important paper in Belarus that got shut down to other papers he worked with shut down. And then he said, I want to continue to write one on the right for theater. And one of the quotes I read was, he said, you know, an article in New Sattel has a life of a week or two. If you're lucky, you write something for this theater, it stays, there's something different. He also owned a contemporary art gallery in Minsk, maybe the only one and was part of major exhibitions around the world. So this idea would art, visual art, contemporary arts theater that we have to redo it. They also connected, he connected with journalists in a way like Remini Protocol that often says we are, you know, citizens, citizen journalists, we are architects, urban planners and we also do theater and performances. He served time in prison for his involvement in political campaigns and was recognized as a prisoner of consciousness by Amnesty International. The most celebrated, most well known, shown of BFT, most of you know what generation genes was created by him and with DJs and others has been shown 100, more than 100 times around the world. The Freedom Theater of Belarus was forced to leave with the entire company, if I understand right, all 20 members. Last December, they fled in the middle of the night in New York City, hiding under blankets, under false names. Their life was in danger and friends have been killed and went to prison. Nikolai is already, I think, since 2011, I think, in London. So please excuse my very long introduction. This is a place for listening. We feel like radical listening. So even so, it doesn't sound like in the beginning, now we come over to it. And I would like to start perhaps with you, Mr. Atlanta. What is going through your mind at the moment? So my, of everything. Well, we just finished our Doctor of Europe in London, which was very, just fantastically, I think, so we did it in Barbican, the biggest stage in London. And now I am in Warsaw, grabbing some of the props and moving back to London to play our different show. Daniela maybe can help me with translation. What is the name in English? So the title of the show is How Man Had a Speaking Sparrow. Thank you. Yeah, so, yeah, we, and what else we will do in a few next weeks, creating a new show, working on a new show. Yeah, and thinking how can we, shall we based on how all this now can work with us, because we unfortunately couldn't go back to Belarus. And now we couldn't stay in Warsaw because of the refugee crisis crisis here. So it's a big question now, but a lot of work and that's everything in my mind right now. Yeah, it is quite something. We hear a little bit of a feedback or a radio or television program. I don't know, Daniela maybe it's on your part. Nikolai, thank you for joining.  Nikolai, thank you for joining.  What do you think about the world, what is happening and what is happening to you? Amir, I think that we, those who understood what was going to happen, we didn't reach the world, we all, we all couldn't explain what was going to happen. We tried, but our strength was not enough, and now it's happening. All of us, the thinking people, the people who understood what will happen, we try to scream and shout and let the world know of the dangers awaiting, but unfortunately we ultimately failed in our mission. I think that we should somehow collectively separate this fault, because now the conversation is not about the fault of Putin, but about the fault of us, that we didn't stop this Putin. But I think at this point we should all share the collective blame, because you can't just see that it's all Putin's fault, it is also our fault for letting Putin exist and letting Putin do what he is doing. On the other hand, now it's time for creators, for those who are engaged in art, soil for reflexes, for thinking, for new productions, a huge number. But I'm very much afraid that the world will once again not use this in the right way. I was shocked when, after years of lockdown, when the theatres once again opened in the UK, we all of a sudden saw the same shows that were there before. There was not a single new show that reflected on the years that we've spent more or less inside. We all of a sudden just returned to the same jolly musicals that we are so used to seeing on the West End. Yeah, I think this is also true for New York where you have been at the great public theatre and where you will go back. By the way, I think when you were forced out of your home in Belarus, it was perhaps noticed even more than the occupation, you know, and illegal declaration of war of Russia, people came out for you and they were here. So you are in the minds of everybody.  You have experienced what free speech means, what free artistic expression really means. All, if I understood, all theatres in Belarus are state owned. All directors, creative directors are appointed by the Ministry of Culture. Everything is censored. We can imagine what you see there. And I saw your theatre, that beautiful, small kind of old fashioned home in the middle of your concrete buildings. You say your work is not put a little, performances are not put a little, there's no politics in play. Explain us a little bit what that means. From Svetlana Nikolay? Nikolay. Nikolay, when all this started to happen because of how many of you people know in New York, how you used to perform in public and come back again, people have always come out for you and will come out. And you yourself have the experience of how much free speech is worth. Both of you were in prison, your friends have been killed, you have been committed to suicide. And I saw your beautiful, small building in Minsk, in the middle of all these concrete buildings, where there was your theatre, which, unlike all other theatres, was not appointed by the Ministry of Culture, the director, he was not legal. Can you talk a little bit about this existence and how much of your experience in this film? Well, I will start with the paradox of the fact that we have not experienced discomfort, working in a small, not suitable room. Because unlike the state theatres, we were able to decide what we want to talk about ourselves, and we talked about the topics that mattered to us, for us, essentially. And this gives a lot of strength. And while you may not be at all recognized in your own home country, it's very endearing when a lot of great stages and companies and festivals all around the world invite you to perform the work that you've been creating essentially for yourself. In the country that doesn't allow it. Well, we always knew the main thing, that we should talk about what worries us, and then the viewer, which doesn't matter in any country, he will be exactly the same with us, thinking about what worries him. Where the show is being performed will simultaneously think about what bothers them. It's a rather difficult path, because, as a rule, the foundations, the growth, the organizations that want to finance, they want to finance a completely safe industry. And you are actually being told quite openly that I'm sorry, but you do politics, so it's a no from us. But now we've come to this moment in time when politics is absolutely everywhere. In this contemporary world, I cannot tell you what is not politics anymore. Because the war makes us position ourselves on one side of the barricades one way or another, making us and forcing us to choose. It's an interesting time, very artistically interesting time, but it is just as dangerous for literally everyone. And now it doesn't matter whether or not you work in a grand building, or a tiny garage. Because if you're talking about something important, your voice is straight away magnified up to a hundredfold. When we released Dogs of Europe in London, we first noticed that it was fully sold out. And how all the reviewers gave exactly the same rating of four stars. And I completely understand why. Only financial times gave five stars, but apart from that everyone else gave four. And I realized that four, because until now it's not clear how to express, through what system of criteria and ratings, you need to express your opinion. And I understood why four, because it's not yet understandable how and through which criteria do you show your personal opinion on the greater subject. It's an incredible time, a time of transition and change, existential threat of dying, of the time of Thanatos, what we are experiencing. You have to reorganize in a higher company, 20 people left to continue to create, what does it mean for you to create the space for art, for theater, why do you do it? Why is theater work a reaction instead of saying I'm doing journalism, I joined the army, I become a nurse. What is your motivation, what motivates you, what do you believe in? Well, yeah, I'm kind of working with this company for 17 years, but it's not work because it's the whole my life and the people who are in the theater. We're just a family, we do a lot together. We create together, we smile together, laughing, crying together. We go through very difficult situations a lot of time. So it's our family, it's not kind of just work where you came and do something and then you have a different life. No, it's not how it works for me. So of course it was absolutely important to be together and continue to work. It doesn't matter. Well, all the time we talk that Belarus free theater is more than theater because we do not only theater, we do a lot of campaigns and activities. And yeah, Belarus free theater, it's not the space, not the venue, not like building, you know, it's people who do it. And no matter where we are as soon we together and we have, well, we alive. So let's continue to be alive and moving forward and try to change somehow situation, even if it's hard, but well, it doesn't matter. Well, you still have to continue to do what you want to do, you know. And that's of course, so it was not a choice. We move everyone, we'll continue to work on it. It was not kind of choice because of course we, if we have a chance to continue to do, we will do it no matter where. Yeah, so yeah, yeah, it was not easy, but we did it. Everyone in safe now, not in Belarus, not in Ukraine because part of us was going from Belarus to Ukraine to Kiev with families and then because of war, the families have to run away. And but now finally everyone in safe. And I would just for all our listeners to remind you those moments in life which you both went through where you have to make up your mind in a very short time. What is the future going to be do I say goodbye to my country I pack a backpack. Goodbye to my parents and but I work for my company we do the theater we committed to keep in a way Belarus is critical spirit alive and you made such a great contribution towards that wave of protest that went around the world. This is what theater people do is our community and proud to be a part of it in some way and we really look up to to both of you in your work and what you did. I want to say but I also read you built a wooden raft and sailed down one of the rivers of Belarus to talk to people in small villages, but there are no Internet son of thing. When did you do that. Well, just what was the year of elections 2020. Yeah, and until some of us was sitting in the jail, some of us was creating a new show on this raft. So, yeah, it was just after our release. It was premiere on this show release from the jail. So, how did that go. How was the experience. Did people listen. Yeah, it's, you know, people who don't have chance don't have even money to go to city for to theater. They don't have time because they work a lot just to survive. And then theater games to them. Like if you have no choice to go to theater, so theater will go to you, you know, and of course they was very glad to see it and they was asking when the next time you will come like when there is a opportunity again to see you and to talk with somebody from our village and not talk about some something important what we actually don't talk about here. So yeah, it was very important work. I wish I wish we will continue and I have no doubt as soon we will have chance to go back home. Definitely. That's what we will do. Okay, you as you all pointed out the time of Lukashenko will come to an end.  The show Docs of Europe is about a man traveling through a future Europe or Russia where we're almost all memories of Belarus have disappeared. Tell us a bit about the work. Why do you felt feel that this was a novel you wanted to base your work on. The work of the dog of Europe is about a man who is in a different time space and it exists in a space where Belarus, like Belarus, doesn't remember anything and don't know. Can you tell us why you chose this work? Why did you want to see it and in general why the dog of Europe? Probably for the first time in history, maybe even theater, we got the rights to the staging of this novel, not yet read one of its lines, it was still in the editorial. We actually got the rights to stage the novel before it was published and before the work was completed and before we've actually even read it. And we were sure that it would be an outstanding novel, as it turned out. In my opinion, this is the best novel for the last 30 years created in Belarus. And we thought it will work out, we hoped it will work out and I believe it did when I read the piece I realized is probably one of the best pieces of literature written in Belarus in the last 30 years. It's a dystopia and a dystopia that is being realized as we speak. The worst thing that is happening is that Alger wrote this novel in 2017, now it's the 22nd and these 5 years we are going straight to the novel. Everything is going as it is described in the novel, it's actually terrible because if it comes to what it came to in the novel, our normal life in the usual form will end. It's very scary because Alger, the author of the novel he wrote it back in 2018-2019 and the years since the production of this piece, we've been following the exact narrative that he has laid out. And it's really scary if we will continue the trend that is currently ongoing, there is no way of saying that this wouldn't be true. But now it looks as if it's a documentary. What are you afraid of? Where does this novel lead to? It leads to the polarization of the world and instead of Russia, part of Asia, part of Europe, including Belarus, there is a new Reich on this territory. Europe stops reading books and gradually degrading. There is a new Reich overtaking part of Ukraine, Belarus, Mongolia, China, so it goes eastwards and southwards mostly, creating a very bipolar world in which there is a huge degradation of the West. In fact, because first the European Union dissolves and then the League of Nations as an entity is degraded, part of the world that is no longer interested in literature, which poses us over the risk of what will happen to us all when there is authoritarianism and indifference. It is quite dystopian in the sense of the word. Nikolai, so your work is in that sense political and not, it is cerebral, intellectual and it is not, because also the body, the work of the body of the actor is in the center also of your company as less projection and more movement. Tell us a bit about the philosophy. What is the Belarus Free Theater's idea of theater? Tell us a little bit about the philosophy of theater. What is the philosophy of the Belarus Free Theater? The Belarus Free Theater, if we take it as a content element, is based on a football principle. If we kind of take it to the core of what the theater is, it's based on an actual football principle. American football? You mean soccer? No, soccer. Soccer, okay. And this question as well is still football. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. In the 1970s, the head of the Netherlands national football team was Renus Michels. And they developed an idea which they titled the idea of total football. We took these principles and based on them we created a principle of our theater which is based on the idea of total immersion. And we took those principles and we redeveloped them to work with our theater and now it's based on the idea of total immersion. The total football had three main principles. The first one was ensemble game and playing in pass. The second principle, quick transition from defense to offense. And the third principle is force spread throughout the field. We also added the sincerity and actuality. And now we have the principle upon which Belarus Free Theater was based. But the problem was that we couldn't find in the government system any actors that would co-exist with that principle. So we created a principle of our theater. So we created our own theater school that would prepare things, actors for our theater. And it's called Fortin Brass. And for the last 12 years we've been working to prepare. So it's based on different types of work, the to-do work, the immersion theater. The principles of the physical theater is also very important to us. And the theater that is based on how the actors perceive the work personally as human beings. Yeah, it's incredible. I think it was Pasolini who said that artists have to throw their bodies into life and connect to it and be there. Also, Svetlana, you were co-founder of Fortin Brass. The educational side of it. I understand an actress from Belarus who once was in your company will never be employed again at a state theater. Is that correct? Correct, yes. So I just want to let everybody know, you know, there are distinctions between off and off of Broadway and Broadway in New York, but this is much more serious, much more radical. So once you even participated in the workshop or that was it, you will never ever for your life work and what you're trained for perhaps at the state academies that you created a new school. As Milo Rau often says, we have to create new institutions of learning, of transferring knowledge. How much of the work of Belarus Free Theater is work for stage, for performance? How much is activism, taking action, education like this school? How percentage-wise? Well, we definitely do more stage work. We did a lot of activism before 2020 when it was possible to do any kind of activism. And then because of pressure and everyone, all of the civil society is gross, you know, during the last president elections. So people start to do activism without us. Like a lot of people was doing different type of actions on streets, but government police, KGB was very aggressive. And of course, a lot of people was ready to sit in jail, but not a lot of people was ready to die there. And yeah, the situation was very horrible. Yeah, and that's the point where people start to left country, like it just was scared to die there. Even there is no war, you kind of in the center of Europe, you do nothing wrong, you do not any kind of criminal on streets, but there is chance for you to die. So completely not safe. Yeah, in terms of theater, all of our work, all of our show have some kind of actions, campaigns, they are connected, as Daniel compared. Correlated. Correlated, thank you, with performances. So yeah, we did our best to be active and to be visible and to put questions on top in society. Yeah, it is incredible what you did. You're an example of what the leader can do, you are signaling through the flames and the idea that you can discuss something, you know, on a stage, different opinions, a dialogue, which is not allowed. I know you did a play against a death penalty is I think Belarus the only European country where a Western kind of whatever middle European death penalty exists. I think bodies are not even given back in Belarus after executions and you just even the discussing it is a radical act of resistance and shows. And is it true I understand even performing speaking in Belarusian language can put you in jail. Yeah, tell us about that. About what the language performing in or speaking in Belarusian language. Yeah, being in jail just because you speak your national language. I couldn't believe it when I read that.  Yeah, even when you have national flag on your, I don't know, somewhere on your t-shirts or somewhere, or even some mastic with national flag in on your car. You can be arrested because of it. Yeah, or if you talk Belarusian that definitely you kind of person who are not government couldn't trust you, you know. It is incredible to even think that the government of Belarus will not trust you if you speak the language of your very own country. It's hard to put your mind around it. I, you said it earlier you said you go to London and you see old place place that happened in production nothing has changed. What goes through your mind about the idea of free expression, free speech and how Western states but also artists how they are working how they are using it what what do you think about it. You said at the very beginning that after the lockdown you go and see the same musicals, the same pieces. What happens in your head, what do you think about the freedom of expression, how Western artists may not use it and what happens in the Western world with the freedom of expression? So the sad thing is that what is happening is dogs of Europe. The artists who even want to talk about the topics that matter the poignant topics, they do not get enough response from the people who allocate the funding, their ideas are not supported. And it creates an impression that in reality all artists really want to talk about as my fair lady or book of moments. Yeah, book of moments, openly racist show in a way, you know. But I really do think it's a lie because I do believe that a lot of artists do consider what really is going on in real life and they do want to talk about it. But very often the institutions marginalize them. But if you look at the people, for example in Dobs of Europe, we just lost Daniela to what is going on in the world now and it was a complete sold out. Which means people do want to talk about it, they do want to think about it, the audience needs that. But if you look at the people, for example in Dobs of Europe, we just lost Daniela to what is going on in the world now and it was a complete sold out, which means people do want to talk about it, they do want to think about it, the audience needs that. I really do think that at the moment it is up to institutions to provide the artists and provoke the artists to allow them to express their real thoughts and feelings. And then through a discussion we can finally come to a world where things we see on stage are relevant. So you feel leadership of institutions have to face and realize what is going on in real life. So you feel leadership of institutions have to face and realize what is going on in real life. So you feel leadership of institutions have to face and realize what is going on in real life. So you feel that leadership of institutions have to change their hierarchy and they have to realize that we need to discuss to get the right answer. Yes, yes, they have to face the problem. Yes, they need to face the problem. But it is not a task to look for answers. Our goal is to ask questions. Question for both of you. What would you like to see? What should artists do? What do you feel strongly about? What kind of methods work, play, should we see? What would you like to see? What should artists do? What do you feel strongly about? What kind of methods work, play, should we see? What kind of work should we see? What should artists do? What would you like to see? It seems that nothing is matter. None of your movements, none of your art now can change the situation. But it doesn't mean it is how it looks like. It doesn't mean you have to do nothing.  No songs, no theater performances, no art at all because nothing matter, nothing could change the situation. But you have to continue to do, like express and show and shout, and you have to do it, you are artists. And that's how Natalia Kalida, every time she repeats, like this is only one of our weapon, the art, everything what we have. So we have to use it. Nikolai? I want people of art to be talking about me. I want people of art to be talking about me. I'm not Hamilton. I'm Nikolai Khalezin, I'm a Belarusian, I'm an emigrate, my country is involved in a war. I'm a European. My friends are currently dying. And I want to hear a story about me, not me as in me, but me as in every single one of us. And talk about what I want to do. If you ask me what I want to do, I want to stage an opera. We have a Belarusian opera called The Wild Hunt of the Kingstah. About a group of wealthy people who dressed up and pretended to be ghosts. Yeah, it looks like we lost Danila. So go back to the group of people who pretended to be ghosts. The group of wealthy people who pretended to be ghosts and went on this Wild Hunt and went around me ordering while in the disguise of ghosts. I want to do this with the opera singers who lost their job, whether it's because they were fired in Belarus or the theaters were bombed out in Ukraine. With the singers of the Harkov Opera Theater. The singers from the Belarusian Opera Theater who were fired for political motifs and also forced to leave. With the actors of the Belarus Free Theater who were also forced to leave and now are literally homeless. And involve a big European theater that is capable of putting on a show like this. I think it's this sort of work that has to be done now because we as artists and as people need to understand how close we all are to each other and how we will eventually all suffer together. Have you have an offer for that? Have some people offered you space for that opera? Have you already talked to someone on this topic? Have you already offered space for this opera? No, this is an idea that we came to just now and discussed for a long time and realized that it can be very significant and very uniting. And something that can really reiterate what we've been trying to say for a while. But we are willing to talk to anyone who wants to listen. Yeah, so this is anyone who is listening to us now and in theater in opera is wondering what can we do when we could do our part to invite the Belarus Freedom Theater. Who act for freedom? Acting for freedom is their motto and produce that opera with people who lost their job because perhaps of an interview because of something they said or because they participated once in a workshop with the Belarus Free Theater. It's just shocking the moment where we are and artists like Nikolai, like Natalia, Alexa, they ever needed our help. It was already horrible and catastrophic enough before. It is now, so this is a way of help to express in the mankind's contribution to the civilized world. It is hard, as someone said, the opposition of war is not freedom, it's creativity, discourse, antagonistic exchange of ideas in a civil area, on a stage in a soccer field of theater, as Nikolai said. A question for Svetlana. We also wanted to have Natalia Kaljada with us. Natalia is in Washington together now with Nikolai and she is talking to policymakers. So tell us a little bit about that part of your company, of your work. What is she doing? What is she talking about? What is that all about? I think Nikolai actually will answer better than me on this question because they are together doing one thing. Nikolai, could you tell us about what Natalia is doing and what she is doing in New York? We have our own political and social background, so we spend time to engage in public activity. So we separately from the theater have a very political background and we do a lot of political high-level advocacy, so we dedicate a good proportion of our time to that. So in the last week we saw representatives of the Congress, Senate, the White House, Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Defense. So at the moment as I'm speaking to you, Natalia is actually talking to people from Pentagon. So if people know us, if people are ready to listen to us, we ought to use our names and this power we have to help both Ukraine and our country. There is this really old Nikolai thinks possibly Latin saying that roughly translates to something like, when the guns are singing, Musa Malcha, when the guns are singing, the muses are silent. But actually what few people know is that in the original it sounded more close to when the guns are singing, the laws are silent. So we are those muses who hope to not stay silent when the guns are singing. We don't have the right to stay silent. We have a lot of friends in Ukraine, musicians, artists, poets, FCs, a lot of friends in Ukraine. We have a lot of friends in Ukraine, musicians, poets, writers. They are all fighting. And they do everything they can and we have to be the backup who will look after their backs. Because there is no one else to help them. In fighting you mean actually on the streets with guns or you mean? Yes. Yes. I know that actors from rehearsing on the stage they left and put on the uniform to defend their country in Ukraine. But that's important. We should not be silent. And it's stunning to know, I did not realize that you have a high level of consultancy, advocacy, arm, like an octopus of the Belarus Free Theatre. Maybe also a great idea to do one day a documentary play. What are you talking about in these, you know, in these sessions. And it's wonderful to know that theatre is being taken serious, that voices are listened to. And but it also I think because the Belarus Free Theatre created work, you know, people were interested in collated to it, it changed their thinking. So it does show the place of theatre in our societies, in our civic engagement. A question for both of you. Who influenced you? Who are your stars if the heaven of theatre is made up of actors, stars, directors, playwrights? Who are your guiding lights? Who do you learn from? Who do you learn from? Who is your light that inspires you? A question for both of you. The light will start. And you guys knew him. He was a supporter of your company, right? Yeah. Yeah, so if I need to choose one person, I will choose him. And who else? I don't know, for me, hard to answer. Just my friends to inspire me, my family inspire me. Belarusians who together on protests very inspire me. And people who now in Ukraine fighting, they are very inspiring, you know, like everyone who even they have chance to die, they will continue to tell the truth. These people are very inspiring. And it can be very like everyone, everyone can be, but not everyone do it, like, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Nikolai. Nikolai? We were lucky enough to be friends and know a lot of truly inspiring people. Tom Stoppard, Vatslav Havel, Harald Pinter, Mick Jagger, Steven Spill, Berkett and other. And it has taught us a lot. And each individual has taught us a lot. And first of all, not kind of the theater arts, not the arts in general, but a way of conducting yourself, a way of looking at the world. All these people, they don't talk a lot, but they ask a lot of questions. And all these people, they talk to people of all ages and very often people who are considerably younger than them. And they're all socially and politically incredibly engaged. And if to talk about art, I would say I'm in a phase when I'm learning, but learning in dialogue. For example, the show Burning Doors, we created when I wanted to get into creative discussion with Jan Faber. For example, Burning Doors, a show we did and performed in New York, actually, was created in a phase when I wanted to enter a discussion with Jan Faber. And for example, the show Dog of Europe, there are elements of discussion for me, for example, for me, there are elements in it when I'm in discussion with them. These discussions, they teach much more than just any master class. These discussions that you can conduct, they teach much more than any master class you can attend. But the biggest inspiration and lessons I'm getting at the moment are from people in my own country and from Ukrainians who are currently fighting for their freedom. Within all of it there is a good level of betrayal and cowardness, but a huge level of bravery and love. Some say war brings out the very worst of mankind, also the very best of mankind and people are fighting. Also, that a company like Bilaro's Free Theatre can do their work, show their work, that their artists are respected, that they can discuss and help our society to look at problems that exist and work through them on a stage. It's personal ones and relationships and families or political ones over centuries and millennia's theatre has done that and it is now no longer possible in countries like Bilaro's and also in many parts of Russia. And we will also see how that big support that the Russian government gave to the Russian directors and their big festivals and Golden Mask, how that will turn out and what of this is also a real resistance. It's incredible to hear you, to have both of you with us. I feel very honored to share time with you, maybe as one of the last questions we're coming to. And what did you learn? What is the most important lessons you learned in these 15 years of engaged work, of work there? You were threatened by your lives where you fought for freedom of speech and artistic expression. What is the most important that you learned? The last question for you is what is the most important thing that you learned during these last years of your work, during all this time when you fought for freedom? And all of us, you don't need a lot, you need people around you, you need family, you need people who you can hug and who you can be together with. That's the main now thing for me.  This is the most important, like everything, what I am, what I have, it's people. And again, doesn't matter where I am now, how many staff I have with me, if there is a people, all good, we can hug each other. Taking care of each other is a priority. Nikolai? Well, the main thing I probably learned is that you don't have the right to turn, that is, you have to go even despite the fact that you have your own way, despite the fact that you really want to face it. The main thing I probably learned is the importance of continuing on your path, no matter how many people want to turn you away from it. And I'm not talking just about violence, I'm also talking about other influences, about just some other things you want to trade in perhaps. And when you realize that you're continuing on your path, that you're resilient in it, you start really enjoying it. And for that you also need to learn how to be patient, because very often you want to give up and take the path of least resistance. But I doubt that will manage to sustain you as a persona, as an individual. Even though it sounds incredibly, it's full of pathos. There you go. There you go. Yeah, so this is the truth.  And these are important lessons and I hope that everybody listening, you know, also younger artists, we have many young artists from around the world listen to this, you know, this is a very serious twice. And what you guys do is a model we look up to if theater is of interest. Also it is because it is a model for something for a different society a different place it's by people demonstrate because they envision something different they have hope and that's why they go on the street and theater is is part of that. And, and we spoke today to to, you know, of great workers in the field of theater and we miss Natalia but the Belarus freedoms that I will have, and already has its place in the history of theater of global centuries and you are a shining light, a brilliant in that sense of that, you know, more light comes out of you than perhaps even you put in that you have a real symbolic imaginary but real influence and and we really would like to thank you for all you have done for Belarus, I think for Ukraine for your friends but also for theater in general. It's a great role model it's one of the many ways to do theater theater is a someone said it's like a museum that has many many rooms with many different forms. But what the free Belarus free theater created what they are doing what they're continuing to do what they will do is a brilliant example and a great example of what theater is about. And anybody asks, does theater have any influence at all is it of important and he asked people, like a looker shanker who forbid them who don't allow them in their tiny little place they can even tolerate that. So, because it is dangerous it's subversive, and it's actually not trying to feed the big hungry machine of entertainment. It is actually also working against that machine. And it's something that's very radically different than a lot of theater what we see is thank you both. And thanks for how round for hosting us the IVJ Andy and Tanvi at the seagulls and then for you listeners I know how much is out there there's this big, big fatigue a battle fatigue of Corona now wars. And, but it is important that we use because I also feel this is inspiring and what they do what they say, if you take it too hard, it's also meaningful for your very own life they're not just talking about art and are they are talking about us in our lives and that we have to participate and we have to be open and we have to believe in what we are, but on the side of truth. So thank you all. And I hope to see you both in New York if you come next January. Hopefully we can do a single program maybe even life in person or space is still closed we have no life events. And we hope that the corona situation will get better a terrifying statistic came from Germany yesterday 59% of all tests were positive. And nobody knows what that means it's a staggering number. And we have to monitor the situation where we are going and I always wonder those Russian soldiers who are not vaccinated or very bad one. Whereas a mask in their tanks together when they shoot a people you know it's apocalyptic in the sense of the word and and but I think we have to continue what we are doing and it was truly inspiring important. And we are better because of what you said today we learned a lot. Thank you. Bye bye. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye bye. Thank you.