stage who will then introduce others. I'm introducing Margaret Baldwin who is a faculty member at Kenesaw State University and she's been a playwright for over 25 years. She teaches theater and performance studies and she produced a play that has won the Gene Gabriel Playwright Award in 2010 and it won my heart a little while ago when on a Saturday night in Richmond, Virginia where I live, my wife and I decided we needed something to do. We wanted to go to a play and we found this play about Selma. We thought well that would be interesting. So we go to this play about Selma and we're sitting, we got very good seats. We were sitting almost in the front row and all of a sudden a Unitarian minister walks out on stage and I thought wow this is a little closer than just Selma. And then a little bit later the Unitarian minister starts talking about their district supervisor being the one that sent them there and at that time I was serving as district executive in the southeast and I thought wow this is even closer to home. So it was one of those theater experiences in which I became very involved. And so I'm really, really pleased to invite Margaret to our stage today and she's going to introduce the people who are with her or who are going to present a portion of that play today and then have a discussion about it and she'll tell you more about the play and its genesis. Margaret please. So this is a play that I wrote and it's a play essentially inspired by a family story. I'm from Atlanta, Georgia, I grew up there. My mother was from Selma, Alabama and I spent much of my childhood there in Selma on all holidays, summers, spring break at my grandmother's house. And I was very influenced by the relationship between my grandmother and the woman that worked for her name is Hilda Warren. She began working with my grandmother when she was 19 and as a housekeeper she ended up becoming a nurse putting all of her kids through school and nursing my grandmother through the end of her life. And so I was very touched by their relationship, by the care that they had for one another and also just by the complexities of that relationship as any, all relationships are complex but when you add the time and place in which they were living their relationship was really complex to me. And I'd always heard growing up the story about the time of the marches so you know going to Selma for Christmas I would cross over the Edmund Pettus Bridge and I just knew that they had the great Christmas decorations. I never really knew what it was about and then I learned that Selma has the place of infamy in history and what, and that the Selma that I knew was very different from that Selma. But I always heard growing up the story that on the day of the big march that Matilda came to work and she said, and my grandmother said do you know what's going on downtown and she said yes. And my grandmother said okay you want to go watch it. And the two of them got into my grandmother's Lincoln Continental with the suicide doors and my grandmother kind of sit in the branches about that tall and Matilda had to sit in the back. And the two of them drove down to Lauderdale Street and parked and watched the march go by. And I thought okay this is a story that needs to be told but I certainly wasn't brave enough to tell it for most of my life. And then I was working in Atlanta with a theater company Horizon Theater and this was about 2006 and Lisa Adler, the producing artistic director there said well what do you want to write next? And I said well I think it's time to write this story. So I wrote about 20 pages and got a group of actors together. We did a short reading and it became very clear okay I need to get Selma's side of that story. I need to hear that side because I never heard it. So I went to Selma and met up with Matilda who was still living at that time. My grandmother had passed away long before. And I sat down at the living room of my uncle and I said okay so this is how I've always heard the story. But I don't understand what was it like for you. And she said well that never happened. And I was like oh. So the story that had been such an important part of my life and my identity growing up that really a story that made me want to become a writer. And a story that said okay well we were yes my family was in Selma but we were the good white people. And it was very much a part of my identity and that is the wonderful thing about playwriting and about theater. Is that it makes you ask questions. And so what became I thought oh I don't have a story anymore. Driving back to Atlanta and I was crushed. My husband said well maybe that's the story. And what I embarked upon then became really a journey of discovery. It took me about four years to write. And I went back to my aunt and uncle and told them I was working on this play. And my aunt said oh well let me give you my file. And she gave me a file about this thick of all of her correspondence during that time. And what began to emerge was the story that I felt like hadn't really been told. Which is the story of people living in Selma during that time who were sort of in the middle. And they were caught in the middle of this time of historic change that was really monumental. And yet they're just trying to live their lives. And so I ended up asking a lot of questions, spending a lot of more time there interviewing many people. Including Matilda, including family members, including my aunt and uncle. My uncle was a pediatrician during that time and was the first doctor in that area to integrate his waiting room. And it became a story of how families and families are complex systems in themselves. But how families began to live through change. And there is this really wonderful element that came about with this. Which is in that correspondence that I found in the file of my aunt shared with me. There was a correspondence with a friend of hers who was a Unitarian minister who had come to March in the March. And he had responded to a letter that she had written and he wrote back and said I was there. And then she wrote back to him and she said how dare you come to Selma and not contact me. And it became this whole conversation about you were putting me on the side of the Jim Clarks and you didn't ask. And so this exchange then led me to create a character who was a brother. A character who had come back to March in the March unbeknownst to the family. And that the only person that knows he's there as part of the family unit is the housekeeper who I've named Geneva.  And so as a playwright your job is to put your characters into a place where you're staging choices. Where they have to make choices in a pressure cooker situation. And so we're going to share a few scenes from this play. The first couple of scenes are toward the end of the first act. So there's another little family story detail that I should share. Which is that the occasion for the play happens to be the night of what? The grandmother, because this is an intergenerational play. It's the night in which her night blooming cirrus is going to bloom. And for those of you that don't know what a night blooming cirrus is, it's this really alien looking plant that blooms one night a year and then it's gone. And my great-grandmother had one of those plans and she would have blooming parties. And people would sit around and get drunk and watch the plant bloom. So to set up this story in Selma I have the sort of coinciding events. The more family internal event which is the blooming party. Lucille wants to go on and make that happen because of how it reminds her of her mother. At the same time we have a dying father and then we have the outside March which then intervenes when Clayton comes home. And so of course because this is the way of the time, the grandmother Lucille asks her housekeeper Geneva to come help with the party to just get it set up but things go awry and they end up getting stuck there. So the whole family is stuck there. She's stuck there while her son is out marching. With her daughter, the daughter and the granddaughter get in trouble and they play upstairs, they dress up together upstairs and that is a no-no. So all of this is happening. We're taking the first couple of scenes right from Clayton's entrance. He enters just after a big ruckus has happened and then he realizes Geneva is here as well and there's an interaction with them. Then we're going to break. I'll give you the set up for the second scene which happens a little bit later in the play. But before I do I want to welcome my two colleagues to the stage, Ardale Shepherd and Matt Lewis both from Atlanta and her friends. Geneva and Matt is playing Clayton. I am playing Ruth and we are brother and sister. It's been about two years since we've seen him set foot in the house or in someone. Good to see you Ruth.  Ruth, listen. Mama has been calling you for a week straight, morning, noon and night. I know she has. And I just show up here out of the blue without so much as a word. I'm here now, okay? What are you telling me to do? Meal down and wash your feet with my tears. No, I don't. I want you to listen. Meal, the fatted calf, the prodigal soap returns. Are you finished? I'm just getting started. I know I should have called first, but I had things going on. We've all had things going on. I've been away. Church business. I know all about little church business. Do you? I can hardly get to choir practice thanks to your unitarian friends out there praying on the sidewalk. I'm sure they don't intend to inconvenience you and your choir. They intend to make us look like redneck fools. They intend to stand up for their fellow man. Ruth, look, I need to tell you something. What do you need to tell me? How back-assward we are down here in Selma? How much we need to change our ways and finally see the light? Frankly, I didn't hear it, brother. I've heard it quite enough.  The plight of the Negroes. What about the plight of our family, Clay? Where's your concern for that? Ruth, look, I know I've been out of touch. Clay, you left me here to deal with this mess. You haven't stepped foot in this house, haven't been to Selma for Christ's sakes in two years. I know.  I know, Ruth. I know. No, you don't. Miss Ruth. Oh, Geneva. He's resting? Do you remember Geneva? Of course I do. Reverend, it's been some time. It has. I'll take the dress to the cleaners in the morning along with Mr. Stafford's robe. No, Geneva. I'll pay the cleaning. You don't have to. They should have it back by mid-week. You insist? Yes, ma'am. If you'll excuse me. What's that all about? Don't get me started. What exactly happened? The girls were playing together and they got in trouble. What kind of trouble? It doesn't matter. Yes, it does matter. It was Lucy's fault she shouldn't have been playing with Ray Nell that way in the first place. What do you mean that way? What is that way? They were playing dress-up together upstairs. So? In this house up, play and come.  I'm not going into this. This is exactly what is wrong with this family. Don't go getting on your high horse with me. This is what's wrong with Selma. You're all living in some lily-pad world. It's underneath. It's a stinking swamp. Is that why you came to waltz down with your high ideals and cast aspersions on us lowly sinners? No, it's not. Then why did you come? Why do you think I came? Ruth, I had to. Are you insane? What are you thinking? Dr. Parrish asked me personally to come represent our parish. Since when have you ever done anything because somebody asked you to? What was I supposed to say? This is the regional head of UUA. It's going to go through. I don't care what daddy does. Hey, mama. This has nothing to do with it. This is about me. It's always about me. This is what I do, Ruth. This is who I am. I've tried to stay out of some. I've tried to keep things separate. But when I got the call to come for the funeral, I knew I had to. You knew? For Jim Reid, the white minister of God. I know who he is. Since Monday and you didn't call? I tried to. What? Was the line busy? You couldn't try again? There aren't so many telephones on that side of town. And where have you been staying? With a family over in Carver Homes. So you prefer the projects now to your own family? I didn't know, Ruth. I didn't know what you were going to say. Because you didn't bother to ask. What was I supposed to say? Hey, daddy. I'm going to go marching with the Negroes. You want to come? I'm not talking about daddy. I'm talking about me.  I know that, Ruth. Then how can you come here and not even call me? I didn't want to embarrass you. Please. I'll cause you any harm.  We were told it's not safe to contact the white community. And you bought that sacralize. Uh, they're not lies. I'm telling you, it's the truth. I didn't come here to hurt you or mama or daddy.  I didn't come here because I was called to help. And how are you helping? By sleeping in their homes, eating in their restaurants, going to their night spots, entwining arms with Negroes of the opposite sex. All you are doing is making a hero out of that no-count sheriff clock in his posse, man. You want to help? Help Lynn with that Head Start program that's been dumped in his lap. Oh, but that's not so glamorous, is it? That's not so dramatic on the television screen. What about Jim Reed? Was he being dramatic? Getting bludgeoned to death? Was that just something he was putting on for the television screen? Of course not. I knew him, Ruth. He was a friend from seminary. I knew him. He was a good man. I'm sure he was. When I heard about his death, all I could think was, I should have been there. Nobody should have been there. I'm sorry for your friend, truly, I am. But what was he thinking? Going to Walker's Cafe at that time of night? Are you saying it was his fault? I'm saying that the leaders of your peaceful movement had no business sending those ministers there to that part of town in the dark of night. No man in his right mind. You be no white man. There are other men, Ruth. I know that, and I agree. They should have the right to vote. But these peaceful demonstrations are simply geared to bring out the most violent men. Starting to sound like a pamphlet from the citizens' council.  You outsiders come in here thinking you can just take it. Let me remind you, I was born here. Then you should know better. Then I can get you. Geneva, please. What are you doing here? I thought you were white on the roll with the others. What about you? You're going to miss your ride to meet Cleo. You don't miss it already. I'm not letting this happen.  I appreciate you trying, Mr. Clayton. Please don't call me that. I will concern you. This is my family. They're doing this to you. Then you let me tend to mine and you tend to them. I can take you to Cleo. We can be there in 20 minutes. And get pulled over on the highway by one of Sheriff Clark's possemen. Don't you want to see Cleo to be there to celebrate the night? What do you think? Is everything all right?  Can I get you anything? It's okay, Geneva. She knows why I'm here. Yes, ma'am. We have to get Geneva out to the highway. To the highway?  Cleo's marching. Oh, do you know? I'm taking them. I'm taking them now. And just how do you propose to get there? I'm going to take Daddy's car. What if he finds out?  This is the highway, Clayton. In case you have forgotten, we're talking Lowndes County. KKK and God knows what's going on. They got the National Guard out there protecting them? The same folks that would be shooting them if they weren't in uniform. Geneva, look. You have to be there. Wait for them. They'll take you all home. We'll wait for Dr. Lindley. You're not going? I'm not with Ray Nell. I'm leaving, and I'm going to meet them on the highway with or without you. Daddy's dying, Clayton. He's dying. You can't do this to him. I can't stay here and not tell them what I'm doing. Just tonight. I have to go. You have to stay here. You can't just turn around and... I can't do this, Ruth. Tomorrow you can walk out that door and never step foot in this household again. But tonight, just be here. Is that so hard? Right. Scene two. Now we're moving. We're going to jump. My granddaughter, my daughter, she convinces the grandmother to include Ray Nell and Geneva and to invite them out to watch the bloom as well. So the whole family's out there except for the grandfather who doesn't know that Clayton is still there. The grandfather comes in, fireworks go off, and Clay in that moment reveals to the family that Cleo, Geneva's son, is marching. And this is a big deal in terms of the danger that it puts Geneva in and her situation with the family. So we're going to pick up just after the big blow-up scene. As Clayton has gone out into the night, Geneva follows him and then we'll skip after their exchange, we'll skip a little bit farther to near the end of the play where Ruth and Clayton have one more short scene together. And in selecting these plays, these parts of the play, because of who you all are, I thought it would be really helpful to get a sense of Clayton's arc as someone who is so convinced that he's doing right and has to come and confront the reality of how difficult that can be in the midst of things.  Reverend, Clayton, please. You don't want to go down that road.  I don't have a choice. You always have a choice. I know. I've been there. How can you stay here? How can you stay here and serve them? You can leave. You can get on that airplane. I have to show up here to work tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. You can do more than this.  You could go to school. You could get a different job. You can do so many things instead of standing by. Standing by? Making cheese straws. There are men, friends of mine, dying in the streets for you. Doesn't that mean something? Let me tell you something. My son will be starting Selma University in the fall. He'll be the first child in our family to go to college. Now, who do you think is putting my son through college? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to suggest... And right now, she wants to be a doctor. And she's going to do it too. And that's why she says if she can stay right with school, she has a good chance of making something of herself. And who do you think is going to put her there? You are. Of course you are. Who do you think's been feeding the marchers? Who's been sleeping on the floor so you and those white ministers could have a bed to sleep on? Who's been washing the sheets, going to the meetings, cooking all night, and standing on their feet all day long? I know what you were doing is harder than I can ever imagine. I'm from here. I know what it's like. The fact that my family can call you to come work some ridiculous party on the most important night of your life? It's wrong! You think I don't know what wrong is? You heard Daddy in there. He's nothing but a tired old bigot.  You want to hear about your father? Let me tell you about your father. What about it? I get a phone call one evening. Three weeks ago Monday, a phone call from the county jail. It was Cleo. Cleo was arrested? Sheriff hauled him off with some of his buddies for disturbing the peace. They were doing nothing. They were standing in line trying to register to vote. Halled him off the county, made them crowd all into one cell like animals, made them stand face on a wall till he filed his gritches. Geneva, I'm sorry. Sorry, don't count. $200. That's what counts. I even had the money in the bank, but they wouldn't take my check. I didn't want my son to have to spend the night in jail. What if it kept him out of college? What if they beat him? Oh, worse. I didn't know what to do, so I called Mr. Stafford. He sent one of the men from the farm over to pay it. Got Cleo out. He said he wouldn't do it twice, so don't bother asking. I tried to pay him back. Take it out of my wages. He wouldn't take one red cent. He just didn't want to have to hire new help. I shouldn't have said that, but it's true. There's white folks in Selma that are just plain mean. I'm not saying otherwise, but your dad is no saint. Lord knows. But he ain't got that kind of meanness. I'd unseen both, and I know the difference. But we can't just sit here. We can't just sit here and let him... Let him what?  Nobody's walking over me. But you were there. You were at those meetings. Every night for ten weeks. You heard Dr. King. Oh, I heard him. He said you have to be strong. I know what he said. It's stand up for what's right. And he also said that you can't do this work with anger in your heart. Ruth, I'm... You need to go play. I'm sorry, Ruth. I really am. I didn't mean for all that to happen. I'd strangle you sometimes. I wish you would sometimes. Don't tempt me. I said, I wasn't going to do this. You what? I could have crushed him, Ruth. I could have crushed him with my bare hands. But you didn't. But I could have. But you didn't.  The kind who does right. And you go along and live in that. Believe in that. So one day you wake up and you... You find you're not who you thought you were.  Human? It's like I'm out in the woods and it's dark and I don't know where to step without falling. What are you used to doing?  Stinking swamp. That's good. Stinking swamp. You can't go over it. You can't go under it. You can't go around it. You've got to go through it. You just got to go through it. It's a real honor. His book, Call to Selma, was really influential. Once I knew that I wanted to have a Unitarian minister as part of the play and I started doing some research online and found out about his book. And his book was absolutely essential in helping me chart the course of Clayton, the character, the brother character. And then I had the fortune of actually meeting Dick through a different connection and we got to spend some time in Atlanta and when he has visits here to see family. And so it's a real honor to share this stage. Thank you. I'm not going to take much of your time because I think you'll have questions maybe to ask Miss Baldwin about her writing of the play. It is true. I read her play about a year ago and I said this play really belongs in New York City and any other place. So anything that we can do I think to move the play in that direction would be a big plus. And some of you may have ideas on that. One of the stories in my book called The Selma involves the fact that about two and a half days out on the March when we're in Lowndes County, which is, there were 300 of us at that point and the trees were draped with Spanish moss and we were afraid of snipers lurking in those trees. It would have been very easy. So we had managed to get the federalized state troopers to turn and face away from us. The first day out they were facing toward us while we marched as though we were the problem and we brought it to their attention that none of us were in fact armed and got them to face the other way. But it was a hairy situation and we were down to walking on a two-lane highway and that meant we were on one lane going toward Montgomery and the cars coming in the other direction had to alternate which direction they went because there was only one lane. It's like coming to a narrow bridge and somebody's got to decide who's going to go across that bridge first. And coming toward us we spotted a brilliant red convertible car. I'm not talking dull red. I'm talking Chinese red convertible four beautiful blonde women in it and the plate on the front of the car was a Mississippi plate and they were singing and what do you suppose they were singing? He shall overcome. What else? That story represents a lot of stories in my book showing that the population in Selma and in the whole South for that matter was being torn by what happened. It's so easy for us to assume that we in the North have the answer and the people in the South didn't have the answer and in fact life is much more complicated than that. I think Mark used that word complexity. My daughter has written a book that got the Lincoln Prize as the best book written about the Civil War period. She wrote, it came out about three years ago and I learned something about the Civil War that never had dawned on me even though I thought I knew something about it and that was that as forces built on North and South, every single family in this country was torn North and South. Her book is about a guy named Joseph Holt and the subtitles of the book is Lincoln's Forgotten Ally. Joseph Holt lived in Kentucky. He owned slaves but as the war approached he decided that he was on the side of the North. He wanted Lincoln to prevail. So almost single-handedly he went around the state of Kentucky speaking and telling people that we've got to stay in the Union. He let his slaves go, did I say that? But he was practically single-handed, kept Kentucky in the Union. Had Kentucky gone to the South Washington would have been untenable as a capital for Lincoln's government. They would have moved to East Lansing or some place where they would have been much less effective. And Joseph Holt's whole family were Confederate supporters. His brother died in a battle as a Confederate. The only person in his family who stood with him was a great aunt who lived out West someplace and they exchanged letters and she said you just be true to your ideals and don't worry about the family. Now I think this play has really caught exactly the tensions that have to have been true North and South at the time of Selma. You have the black servant who has much at stake at keeping things the way they are.  He's got each other to contend with. You know, it's a situation that I think is repeated over and over and over again in our families. Is there anybody here who comes from a family who doesn't have somebody who disagrees with them from time to time? Because I'd love to see your hand and I'd like to talk with you later. They would be very young. Well, that's my take on this play is that it really shows just example after example that come to my mind from the 18 days I was down there but when a group of us ministers black and white show up at an Episcopal church on a Sunday morning to worship some of the people take the point of view this is just a publicity stunt but one woman says, I am so ashamed of my clergy of my whatever it was, their board vestry that I really don't want to be a part of them anymore. Now, I don't know whether she stayed with them or not but again, there were plenty of people in Alabama and Mississippi and elsewhere who I think supported us. I suspect some of those people will be walking across the bridge on Sunday. They came close to doing it but they just couldn't do it 50 years ago. And they actually did it last week in Selma. There was a beautiful march there, a unity march of community members in Selma and I love the symbology of it where they marched from the outside marching back into Selma. And it was really a special event. We went down, we're actually, after working on this play for 10 years we're bringing a reading of it to Selma at the end of the month. And so I was there to check out the space where we were doing it a wonderful organization called Arts Revive is producing it and we get to perform the reading amidst a showing of Spider Martin photographs. So that's going to be really special. And we found out that this march was happening and we're leaving Selma in the morning. I said, well let's just stay and ended up staying and seeing a bunch of people there and looked over and there was James Martin who was the son of Matilda Martin who was one of the main influences of Inspiration for the Play and he was there with his son and his grandkids and my husband and I ended up walking with him and holding hands with my cousin Olivia who's here and we walked back over the bridge together. And I also know the St. Paul's, the church where they were, the Episcopal Church, that they're doing a unity service on the 29th with a black church I think from Montgomery. St. Mark's from Birmingham. St. Mark's from Birmingham, wonderful. So they've come always. Yeah, so they've come always and I think that is, you know, this play to me is a family play and there are politics that are there and there are politics in every family but a change is slow and hard and it's wrought through relationships I think more than ideas and that's something that we try to capture. You have done it. I'd love to hear any comments from out here about the play. Or thoughts that it raised. We have a few mics here. Thank you. I'm George McClain. I'm a Methodist clergyman allowed into this Augusta body. I'm so glad to be in your presence. I love your book because it's helped make sense of my time here in those days. I was in tears during your readings because it brought forward for me a lot of feelings that I kind of buried about the conflicts and the tensions that existed. I was in Birmingham in 63 for the summer working with the Alabama Council on Human Relations and one of the things that they asked me to do was talk to some of the local clergy, white clergy. I was living with the black clergyman and a couple of those were among those to whom Dr. King had written the letter from a Birmingham jail. They were progressives in their own context and they were hurt by that and I could understand that and also being Methodist a quarter of Alabama is Methodist and most of them were arrayed against the movement for a variety of reasons and those who chose to act on other values had to leave. I've heard the number like 40 from Mississippi had to leave their ministry and I don't know how many in Alabama and I think of the daughter of a Methodist clergyman from South Alabama who was at Huntington College in Montgomery during the triumphal entry on the 25th from Selma to Montgomery she was with the movement and the college locked her in a room along with some others to keep from marching. All of this you know has you got me in touch with what's torn me apart in all of this. Thank you, thank you so much. My name is Susan Hill. I grew up in a small town in North Carolina and my family had a black woman who worked for my mother for 57 years so those relationships are long and complicated and I could really resonate with that and my little town didn't integrate schools until after I was gone but they did it peacefully and Odie's grandchildren were part of the first group that integrated the schools and I know that my father was racist and yet he was influenced by those relationships and by my mother to make that happen peacefully and I thank you for your play. It really demonstrates a level of complexity and that isn't always apparent. Chris Hager from River Road Unitarian University of Congregation in Bethesda, Maryland I have one question for you and then I have a comment for you. We hear about the walk across the bridge. We don't hear much about that 50 mile march from Montgomery to Selma and I'd like you to talk a little bit about that and for you, have you considered working with different congregations to bring the play to us? Certainly, thank you. You can think about your answer while I feel the first question. This is one of the shortcomings of the movie and I've written to The New York Times apart from the fact that James Reeve is identified as a priest from Boston. Every Unitarian in the audience should stand up and yell at that point but I've seen the movie four times now because people keep coming that want to see it and I want to see it with them and each time I've seen it I've enjoyed it more but it does have some shortcomings and one is you don't get any sense at all of what the movement felt like to the people who came down there and marched or stood for, think about it 240 consecutive hours nose to nose with the police with deputies behind them threatening pointing their billy club at you and saying when all hell breaks loose I'm coming after you. There was not a moment where there wasn't a lot of fear I suppose until the judgment came down that 300 would be able to go the full distance then people kind of relaxed because obviously this was going to happen but what I remember as somebody who was out there many, many of those hours was the rain it didn't stop raining and Don Harrington said when you go down there when it rains in Alabama it really rains now I'm learning when it snows in Alabama it also snows but I wasn't worried about snow there's not a drop of rain in there and there's also the impression given by the movie that when the corn order gives them the right to march 10,000 people pour out of Selma and marched to Montgomery of course that didn't happen and there was a very interesting process by which the 300 were picked who would march days two, three and four day one everybody could march so yes they all did pour across the bridge as it looks but then a committee decides which 300 are entitled to walk the rest of the distance and the only reason I was one of the 300 was because James Reeve had been killed and I made the point you've got to have somebody representing James Reeve it turned out that a marshal was in fact a unitary and they said well we thought that would sort of suffice and I said well I came down here from New York thinking I'm going to march and I'm intent enough on it that when the 300 of you start off tomorrow I'm going to be just a few yards behind and the committee got their heads together and they said we got a fanatic here and it's better probably to include him in the 300 than let him come behind and get picked off so I sort of forced my way but again I have to recognize that it could have been any of our unitarian ministers in fact I was at an event the other night celebrating Selma and I said that except for the fact that I didn't go to the restaurant that night I could just as easily have been the last person out and the one who was attacked I think we're all sort of interchangeable parts with each other and sometimes the finger points at us and says now it's your turn and this is my message to young people you just don't know what's ahead and someday there's going to be a situation and people are going to say to you what do we do now and it's very good to have an answer okay Selma you over here so I have had I've done some talks with I've got my little fancy thing on I've done some talks with community groups and religious groups we've also through Kennesaw State University where I teach in the department of theater and performance studies we've started some partnerships and I actually got to go with a group last spring and do a reading of it in Germany at a university there and it's something I'd really love to do because I think it does give a window a sort of human side to the story but I'm certainly happy to talk to anybody it's great and I would love to have it go out more I also teach full time and I'm learning I'm much more human than I used to be so I'm very interested in getting the play out thank you excuse me I'm Carol Houston I live in New York City I wish I could say I have wonderful connections to theaters there that could help you I can't say that but what I did want to say is I think there would be interest in this outside of UU circles I don't think you have to really consider it just that I think there is an interest in it Dick knows that there was a play called Selma 65 produced at La Mama last fall not a rousing success and I was only moderately impressed with it but there is interest there's another play that was at the top of Ben Brantley's list of plays for the year called Appropriate by a young black playwright named Brandon Jacobs Jenkins and it is about family dysfunction arising from the family going back to the south and discovering the racism at the heart of the family so these problems these family problems are rising I think there's a public for it so go for it thanks Carol my name is Craig Sear from Edmunds Washington Unitarian Universalist Church there thank you so much for bringing these couple scenes it really has whetted my appetite to see the rest of it you know I think probably the GA 2015 schedule is cooked already but it sure strikes me that we could really benefit from seeing this play at a GA and there's a lot of theaters in Portland, Oregon I'm sure oh yes I love Portland I'll go there we'll go there won't we? my name is Reverend Annie Peer Point Mertz I'm an Episcopal priest from St. Paul's Church in Alexandria, Virginia I wanted to share a line that really struck me that Clayton said which was I tried to keep things separate and that hit me as a young clergywoman but also just as an individual who is working through these issues in herself that we want to keep these things separate we want to separate our feelings of fear and our feelings of courageousness and I just really appreciated the illumination of that thank you I'm Ken Silberman Bunn from the Walsprings Congregation in Exton, Pennsylvania first of all thank you for your reflections and for the performance it was fabulous is your play available to the public that we could read the entire thing if we can't see it? if you email me I'm happy to share it with you it's not published at this point but I'm looking to do that wonderful, thank you good put them in touch with me we'll talk I do want to talk to you about an opportunity we might have in Boston for you my name is Bruce Field I'm from Murray Unitarian Universalist Church in Alboro, Massachusetts south of Boston if you don't mind I'll just give a quick question to each three of you thank you Dick for coming there's more about that as well so Margaret I'm curious about if there's something that you felt you had to take out of the play you know you said it it couldn't fit you know there's too much time or that just didn't fit in with there and I'm wondering for the two of you if there's something about your character either about the person yourself or that person themselves or something that they said or felt that really affected you well there's a lot that I had to leave out of the play and some of it was originally when I had the idea for the play I wanted to have the first act in 1965 and the second act in 1985 or 1990 and I realized very quickly I was not going to get out of 65 for a while so I also feel like there's something about that experience of learning that the story the myth wasn't true and again that it's not a I don't think it was a malicious lie I don't think it was even an intentional lie I think it was the way stories evolve over time but there's something about that experience that I want to capture and so I'd love to write a trilogy of these plays that are tracing the two families through time there's a lot more to say I think writing a family play it's hard to write plays but writing family plays is really hard and I was really fortunate to have my extended family come and Matilda's family come and see the play and respond to the play and give me feedback sometimes more than I wanted but but that you know it's I think ultimately it's been a really positive thing in our family so yes you always leave things out but somehow in the giving myself permission once I found out the real story wasn't true gave me permission I think to ultimately tell a truer story through the fiction well to answer your question I guess the line that Clayton and I have when I say to him you can leave you can get away from all of this I don't have that option it kind of hit home with me I didn't grow up in this era but my mother and my grandmother did and my mother would tell me that she remembers the whites only and the blacks only signs coming down it hit home that one particular line but more importantly I guess it just helped me to understand that although I wasn't there to witness the acts of violence and the racism this play just spoke to me on a level that was just so powerful so it read that line with me more so than any of the others and it's such a pleasure to be here with you I knew that I was going to cry I just knew it alright I'm better but it's such a pleasure to be here and to put a name with the face you read about the things that happened you see it on television Jim Clark the sheriff of Dallas County at the time I saw Eyes on the Prize I saw that and to see George Wallace all of these people that are named in this play you see them and you hear them speaking you get a feel for who they were and how they felt about segregation and it was deeply rooted it was frightening and I'm grateful that I wasn't a part of that era but I'm also grateful that the people who fought for change they did it so that I wouldn't have to experience that and I'm grateful so that's what resonated with me the most that you know he had options that simply were not available to me at that time obviously my experiences have come from a different place but I'd mirror everything that you just had to say about this play that's the lovely thing about theater is to have our lives reflected back to us it helps us learn more about ourselves it helps us learn more about each other and taking that journey through this history was really exciting for me and then on top of that I think there's something really universal about regardless of who you are something really universal about the challenge of finally standing up to your parents it's either your mom or your dad it's one of them amen but and that's the thing I wanted to keep these things separate but I've got a life where I'm myself but then when I come back here I'm a little eight year old boy and I'm manipulated and controlled and there's a moment in everyone's life where you break free from that somehow sometimes it's violent and sometimes it's not luckily for me in my real life I'm just sort of naturally evolved but to connect to that and dig that stuff it's also exciting for me thank you well my name is Mary K. Boyd and I'm with the St. Paul contingency first of all I'd like to say thank you very much I was reminded that I am descendant of parents and grandparents who are part of the great migration and my grandmother told me the story of trying to get out of Mississippi where she did not want her son to live the kind of life that she and my grandfather had lived as sharecroppers she was the nanny for the landowners children my grandfather had to sneak off in a night to Omaha she was to follow the landowner would not let her go because he said she owed money to the company store but she knew how to keep receipts and the numbers and her response was you will let me go or I will kill myself and my son and you won't have a nanny for your children that's the strength that I come from but I also wanted to ask you if you are familiar with mixed blood theater in Minneapolis and Jack Ruler this fits with their mission have you done anything there I admire their work greatly if there's any way I can help with that connection I'd be more than happy to I don't believe I have a question but I want to say thank you for being here and I want to say thank you for sharing your story sharing the play and making it a reality that we can see I stand here with a lot of emotions and having this shared experience with everyone here my name is Pastor Maria Perry I did forget that I am part of a combined relationship that has been built around interfaith with the Unity Universalist of St. Paul and we are above every name ministry the work that we've done together building relationships to break down barriers that have impacted our lives in such a way that is hidden beneath the surface and today we can stand here together and say that we are willing to do the work that we are willing to do the work to bring in the solidarity in the equality that we need to break these things that stop us from building and it has been amazing amazing amazing and I want to thank the UUA for allowing us there's 70 people that came here with us and we've built so many relationships but to give thanks and gratitude for all of this work and knowing that we can build because I had no idea how the Unity Unity Utarians were so involved in the civil rights movement and today I see that there was more than one person that stood up for the rights of our people of everybody and that is amazing amazing and it drives me to want to do more work it drives me to stand here just to say again I thank you I love you I hold your heart I embrace every love and every fear that you have inside of you today we just welcome you so I thank you on behalf of my congregation on behalf of the 70 people that drove here to witness the separation that has taken place that we want to bring together I say thank you No it's not a question I also wanted to thank you I'm not sure I can be as heartfelt but I do want to share my thanks for all of you and for the Margaret and the presenters for not only sharing today but and coming to this conference but also just for sharing the work and I'm sorry I'm Margaret's cousin and I'm Fontaine this is my sister Olivia and the character of Ruth in the play is my mother so that's why I needed to tell Margaret and tell you all that I really wanted to thank Margaret for her bravery in broaching this because it's very complex and in fact just this month discovered another misperceived family story when I accompanied my mother over to the Montgomery archives to listen to a talk about Jonathan Daniels who is an Episcopal martyr of the civil rights movement who died also in relationship to the whole events of this time in Selma and in that lecture I learned that my home church the Episcopal church which I had always thought we've always been integrated and I've always felt very superior about that I discovered that that my home church refused communion to some folks contrary to all the stories I had heard growing up so another perhaps for the second version second second act but just to tell you how complex this family story is and how brave Margaret has been my mom I really do admire her but she's kind of one of those women that can go bear hunting with a switch as my that was a saying of my grandfather that the guy was dying in the play but anyway she's tough and she's sincere you know she goes over to the archives she's a member of one Selma a biracial group that works on things but at the same time in Obama's first election she told me over the phone she said I think your daddy and I are the only people in Selma who voted for Obama I said mama I think about 85% of Dallas County voted for Obama and I just wanted to and I both worked for the Birmingham Public Library which is up the street and they have the best archives of the civil rights movement so if you have a moment and you'd like to see the jail docket that Martin Luther King signed or the fragments from the Bethel Baptist Church or any of the other great things associated with the civil rights march please come and I'm asking the local press to bring you a whole stack of these letters which Margaret used for the play alright can we have another round of applause please


friends welcome to my channel in our last video I have talked about what is literary criticism what is literary theory how literary theory emerged then we had a discussion on four important literary theories namely or new criticism formalism structuralism and post-structuralism and in this video I'm going to continue with the same discussion and we'll be talking about other important literary theories so let's start the first important literary theory that we are going to discuss today is post-modernism now as you guys know post-modernism is concerned with fragmentation and chaos because it is a movement which started after World War and two world wars have devastated the entire economy of the world so post-modernism deals with fragmentation it focuses on how fragmentation is more important in unity is less important it also focuses and shows interest in disorder, chaos, fragmentation, multiplicity rather than focusing on unity, order, organization in this entire process of post-modernism one key figure is Dean Baltimore. Gene Baltimore is a person who gave a very very influential theory in his work Samuel Lacra and Sanulation so he talks about two important things Samuel Lacra and hyper-reality according to him there was a time when only reality existed like we have rat, rat as an animal existed since ages but then Mickey Mouse started to exist in the post-modern society so what is Mickey Mouse? Mickey Mouse is not a real figure Mickey Mouse we actually Mouse is not here but then it is just a copy of something which is not original so it is a false copy of something so now if we look at the image of Mickey Mouse we will see that it is a Samuel Lacra Samuel Lacra is anything which is a false copy which is not original exists all the animated stuff that we see these days it is all a Samuel Lacra okay simulation is the process of replacement of original so we have Samuel Lacra which is a copy of something which is not original then have simulation which is a process of replacing the original and then that leads to hyper-reality hyper-reality something which is more real than reality like the image of beauty presented in media media major commercials are the advertisement are they project such kind of beauty which actually doesn't exist in the real life the commercials of face cream or of deodorant those commercials portray you images of certain people just type of look actually our society may exist may be the beauty and the definition of beauty defined in a fair and lovely art such kind of beautiful people doesn't exist in reality that is more beautiful than beauty they are creating an idealistic image which is outperforming reality that is what hyper-reality is all about so this is what modernism talks about other than Jean Lyotard we have other modernist thinkers like we have Julia Cristiva who talks about Khora then we have Jean Francis Lyotard who talks about the concept of meta narrative so you will be studying all these under the audio course you can get a list of all the important post-colonial feminist writers as well as post-modern writers on my website www.alpillacarga.com under the tab of online course content you'll find a module named literary theory and in that module you'll find a list of all the important writers that you must study if you're preparing for UDC net English now let's move to another important literary criticism and theory which is psychoanalysis psychoanalysis basically deals with the exploration of the subconscious mind the subconscious part of our brain and how the subconscious functions it explores the inner desires of a character and whenever we are looking in a novel and we are looking at the characters we see how the characters in a brain function the internal monologue that is a part which is the adults in the psychoanalysis criticism the major figure the key figure in the psychoanalysis criticism was Sigmund Freud he has written this work interpretation of dreams in which he has talked about how dreams are important and how we can interpret the inner desires and we can find out the repressed emotion through the symbols which are there in our dreams we have so many novels in which the characters dream about fox about wolf about cat and all these figures are symbolic of certain repressed emotions when we analyze those symbols we are able to see the subconscious working of the character so dreams are very important and dreams are tell about the repressed emotion about the subconscious desire dreams need to be decoded in order to understand the character thoroughly in the psychoanalysis criticism we also have the theory of edifice complex and electro complex basically a theory is that when a child is small and a boy especially a boy when he's small he feels so attached to his mother that he doesn't want to share his mother with anybody but then father and mother and he gets so jealous that he wants his father to die and he wants to marry his mother but this desire is so morally wrong that the child suppresses these desires and later in his life sometimes it comes as an edifice complex edifice complex has been talked about in the play of Euripides edifice rex also at the same time we find that in DH Lawrence work Sons and Lovers the same theory has been taken up similarly we have electro complex which deals with the working of female daughter in regard to his father daughter wants to marry her father and wants that her mother should not be there in the father's life so this is a kind of mentality which goes inside a child's brain this was told by Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud also gives emphasis on the theory of the subconscious brain where he talks about three parts of the brain it ego and superego according to him it is the part of the brain which is working on the pleasure principle ok so that part of us is it then we have the moral principle which is superego so we morally do the right things or if we want to do according to society just because we are a part of society and we should follow the norms that is the moral principle which is called superego and between this it and superego is the ego which balances both the things and helps us lead a balanced life so this was also a question of profound concept given by Sigmund Freud concerning with the psychoanalysis school of criticism we have another type of literary theory which is called archetypal criticism archetypal criticism basically talks about the archetypes which are there in the myths and legends archetypes for those of you who don't know I will tell you that archetypes are universal symbol for example the symbol of star-crossed lover is Romeo-Juliet so whenever we see a very lovely couple we would say oh my god they are like Romeo-Juliet so what we are doing actually we have substituted a romantic couple image for us Romeo-Juliet and two people being in love extremely in love are same so universal symbol banya hi Romeo-Juliet similarly we have so many other universal symbols which are so prominent in literature at the same time there is a very influential work written by FS Fraser GS Fraser a named golden bow golden bow this work talks about symbols in archetype and it has been asked several times in nature you must read the summary of this work so this is it about psychoanalysis criticism and archetype criticism now let's move to another important literary criticism now let's talk about another literary movement which is feminism feminism as a literary movement talks about the condition of females portrayed in the literature and it also talks about how a female is being represented in a novel or a play or a poem. Feminism has three waves the first wave was begin by Mary Wollstonecraft she has written this beautiful work called vindication of the rights of women and another important work education for daughters in both these works she focuses on why education is very important for a girl and only through education she can become a companion to her male counterpart okay she would not be a male wife but an equal companion in a marriage the next important figure in the feminist theory is Margaret Fuller Margaret Fuller has given the theory of androgyny according to her no male is having all the masculine quality and no female is actually having all the feminine quality every male has some masculinity and some femininity in him similarly every female has a part of masculinity and a part of femininity in her so how she talks about these two things tells us that every male has some female elements and every female has some male elements then we move to the second wave of feminism in the second wave we have Virginia Woolf Virginia Woolf talks about Judith Shakespeare and says that you know if Shakespeare would have had a sister then would that sister be as famous as Shakespeare is she talks about this in her work a rumor one's own also she has written another work which is called profession of women we have another literary critic concerning with feminism called Simon de Beauvoir Simon de Beauvoir has given a work called second sex where she says that no woman is born as a woman she becomes one those gender roles have been trained and she has been trained with those gender roles and gradually she takes up all the womaness and all the characteristics of female when a child is born that child doesn't know what femaleness or what maleness is all about that has been told to the child gradually and society in society implications give us a that person becomes a male and becomes a suitable female in society okay then we have another important feminist critic named Helen Kierke-Sixow, Helen Sixios has talked about Laugh of Medusa Laugh of Medusa is a very very important work and in which she's talked about how a female is being tortured and how she has those repressed emotions in her in the third wave of feminism we have Kate Millett Kate Millett has written this work sexual politics a very important work from net point of view in this work she talks about that every girl is repressed and have suppressed emotion during her childhood because when she is moving around the house she realizes she will never become an heir of her father's wealth and that feeling of being less makes her a repressed and a suppressed person and she keeps on moving on the same platform we also have cyber feminism and black feminism as a part of the third wave of feminism so you must study those topics in detail as well there are so many important works concerning the feminist theory because feminism is something which has been talked about a lot and it is very important from net point of view as well so it is important that you read all these important literary essays in detail and even though you're not able to read the text of those essays at least read the summary before you go for the UGC net examination now let's look at another important literary theory which is post colonialism post colonialism basically deals with the condition of the colonized country and how the people and the natives living in those countries are affected and how their society changed when they were colonized so in this regard we have so many different literary theorists who have given their own theories on the postcolonial literature some of them we'll be discussing in this video we have one very important postcolonial theorist called Franz Fanon. Franz Fanon has written this work White Skin, White Mask and also has written another important work Wrench of the Earth in both these works he talks about how a native person wants to become Englishman because the image of man is associated with English or man is associated with white so any native person who is black wants to become a man he wants to be a human being but in his mind this thing is a white person who belongs to a colonized country is not a man and in order to become a man he tries to take all those things that are a part of culture of the best countries then we have another important literary theorist here named Edward Said Edward Said has been in the theory of Orientalism Orientalism according to Edward Said it means that all the people who are in the west they have gained the knowledge of the east he understood the east people and understood the culture of the east and because of this he started dominating the east by understanding that see when you want to capture somebody or you want to kill somebody or you want to torture somebody you need to know the weakness of that person once you know that person thoroughly then it becomes very easy for you to blackmail him to influence him the same thing was done by the people from the west he studied the culture of the east and then used that knowledge in order to dominate the east also he says that western people have tried to depict east as primitive savage that they are barbaric this is how they have you know portrayed east the third important literary theorist in the postcolonial theory is Homike Bhava Homike Bhava has given a very important theory about mimicry and about hybridity in his work of mimicry and men he has talked about that how this entire European culture has dominated the entire world by using the concept of hybridity and mimicry see every person who was colonized wanted to be Englishmen or wanted to be white in his nature and his behavior and his etiquettes why did he want to do that? because we have talked about it in the case of France that he thinks that when he deals like an Englishman his society will respect him and then he will be a full-fledged gentleman that image but when he is trying to adopt English culture he sees that he is stuck in the state of hybridity he is neither English neither he is Indian so he neither remains English he neither remains Indian he is stuck in the middle and that is what the out effect of mimicry is all about then we have another important postcolonial theorist named Gayatri Spiva she has written a work called Can the Subaltern Speak Subaltern means people who live in a part of society where there is no say in society for example people living in Dharavi slum in Mumbai they have never written any literature or read they have no say in society they are part of political discussions now there are certain writers who write about the people of Dharavi Gayatri Spiva says that such writers are not doing justice to the people who are living in subaltern areas because when they write about people they are not able to represent them in a full sense in a complete truthful sense they misrepresent them that whenever someone is not living in Dharavi how can he write about the people of Dharavi he doesn't know the challenges the kind of lifestyle they are facing observing from a distance and living there is very different so Gayatri Spiva says that whenever someone represents subaltern in their literary work they misrepresent them and the same case she talks about in the case of females she says that the females the colonised countries females are double the problems because of a patriarchal system they are being repressed and number two because of colonisation they are repressed they are affected twice due to the societal conditions so this is it about post-colonial literature there are so many other post-colonial theorists you can get a list on my website get a list of all the post-colonial theorists make your own notes and study the works in detail there are so many other literary theories like Marxism which talks about the class conflicts and how bourgeoisie are influencing the working class people then we have another literary theory called reader response theory which talks about how the background and experiences of a reader affects when the reader is reading the text then we have cultural studies which talks about how the culture around the author influences author's writing we have pure theory and there are so many other theories which are a part of the literary theory module so let's end this video on this note that all the literary theories are very important because of two-three reasons one of them is that it helps us in understanding and analysing a text in a very different way from a very different lens number two it adds beauty to the text and it adds new meaning to the text some meaning which was not there in the text when the writer wrote it but then that meaning is put in by us so this is how a literary theory helps in analysing and critiquing literature so with that I end the video we will meet next week till that bye bye see you and keep loving literature before you go do subscribe to this channel and follow me on Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram so that you are notified every time I have a new update for UGCnet English you can also give me a call on the number displayed and you can ask questions and doubts about UGCnet if you have any questions, any doubt you can even write that in the comment section below if you like this video then do give it a thumbs up and share it with other net aspirants so till the time we meet next, bye bye happy learning and keep loving literature


Welcome back to part 2 of our What Is Doctrine series. In this part, we are going to talk about some terminology and the difference between doctrine and concepts and how doctrine notes fit into the picture. The first term we need to understand is, policy. Policy is directive guidance stating what is to be accomplished. Senior national and military leadership sets policy. Compliance is mandatory, not optional. Here are a couple of examples of policy. Policy governs the use of nuclear weapons. How they are used is about as directive and mandatory as it gets. Another example would be rules of engagement, established by senior leadership to ensure restrictions and permissions in an operational environment are complied with. Another term to know is strategy. Strategy is about applying available capabilities to gain desired ends, using approved means within an existing environment. It has many considerations that affect decision making, including objectives, the threat, people and organizations that must be worked with, and current capabilities. Here are some examples for strategy. Our first example. Building a campaign strategy that targets an enemy's abilities, by using the minimum necessary forces, and reducing collateral damage may be vital for operational effectiveness. Another example. Attacking an enemy's legitimacy to reduce its effectiveness may be the most useful means to degrade its capabilities. Finally, the last term to know. Doctrine. Doctrine is the agreed upon best practices and principles. It focuses on organization and employment. Remember though, doctrine is not dogma. We can and must be adaptable and change with new lessons learned, so we can continuously improve how we operate. So let's look at a couple of examples of doctrine. Our first example, using mission command to allow subordinate commanders to adapt and deal with a constantly changing operational environment, is how doctrine affects the way we succeed in our duties. Finally, if we apply doctrine to a given operational task, whether it's mobility operations, counter-air, or force protection, we stand the best chance of meeting the needs of the joint force. Okay, let's now take a quick look at doctrine and concepts. A concept is a notion or statement expressing how something might be done. It's designed to propose an alternative to existing doctrine. Because it's unproven, it's not authoritative, and needs to be rigorously tested before being implemented as a best practice. Doctrine is based on extant capabilities for force employment. It's proven and provides the baseline for operating in a joint environment. So what about this new thing called a doctrine note? How do they fit into the overall picture? The LeMais Center produces doctrine notes to start the discussion of emerging concepts in anticipation of them becoming best practices in the near future. Agile combat employment is being rigorously tested worldwide as a means to meet future threats. Since we know it's a worthwhile concept making fast progress, the LeMais Center recently published the doctrine note to capture what's being done in anticipation of the practices becoming validated doctrine very soon. This concludes part two, what is doctrine? Check out all our doctrine publications and doctrine notes on our website. Thank you for taking the time to learn a little about doctrine.


I give you a circuit with a couple of bulbs connected to a battery. And I ask you to measure the potential difference across say this bulb. How will you do it? You might look at me in a funny way and say that's so obvious Mahesh, I'm just going to hook up a voltmeter across it. Okay, that's probably what I would do as well. But here's a problem with the voltmeter. The moment you attach it across, it's going to start drawing some current. And when you do that, the current in the circuit is going to change. We have disturbed the circuit. And so the voltage has also changed a little bit. And therefore the voltage that you're measuring right now is not exactly the voltage that was before you attach the voltmeter. And so our reading is not very accurate. Now of course in most of the circuits, this current drawn is extremely small. And so we can neglect it. However, if you want an extremely accurate measurement of the potential difference, then we cannot neglect it. And so this brings us to the main question of the video. How do you measure voltage between any two points without drawing any current from the circuit? And you may have probably guessed from the title of the video, we're going to do that using a potential meter. Now when I was introduced to potential meters, I always got confused because there are so many circuits, primary, secondary, and so many things were happening. And so what I want to do over here is start logically, not with the circuit. So we'll start with the logic, understand the principle behind the potential meter, and then we'll get to the circuits and all the details. All right. So coming back to our voltmeter, if you wanted to make sure there is no current drawn over here, then the only way to do that is to have incredibly high infinite resistance. Infinite resistance. And that's practically not possible. And so we need to move away from voltmeter. Here's how I like to think about the principle of potential meter. I'm going to first connect a battery across the bulb through a galvanometer.  You may be wondering, why are we attaching a battery? Isn't that going to disturb the circuit as well? And that's not even a measuring device. And how are you going to measure voltage using a galvanometer? So many questions, right? And you're right. It sounds ridiculous, but it makes sense in a second. So notice that this is not any normal battery. It's a battery whose voltage can be changed. So imagine there's a knob over here with which I can increase the voltage from, say, zero to five volts. So the voltage of this battery can change. So what you may be thinking, right? Well, let's dig into this now. So let's think about the potential difference. Here we have some potential difference. And this is the positive potential, higher voltage, because it's connected to the positive of the battery. And here we have some lower voltage. Let's call that lower voltage as zero volt, you know, just to keep things simple. And so all I have to do now to figure out is what is this value? If this value is, say, plus two, then I know the potential difference is two volts and I'm done. OK, now coming back to our battery, right now, this since it's directly connected to the negative terminal of my battery, and we can neglect the resistance of this wire, we can say this is also at zero volt. And let's say my battery voltage currently is also close to zero. That means this is also pretty much zero. Right now we don't have any potential difference over here. So in this situation, there is some voltage here and there is zero voltage over here. And so we would expect some current to flow over here, right? And so in this situation, the galvanometer will show me some deflection. So if I look at the galvanometer, there it is. It is showing some deflection. And of course, right now the circuit is disturbed and this is not the position I'm intending for. However, let's say I turn this knob a little bit and now push this to one volt. So I push this to one volt. What do you think is going to happen? Now, since I've increased this voltage, the potential difference between these two points has reduced, right? Does that make sense? It has reduced. And as a result, the current flowing through the galvanometer also reduces. And I can see that in the deflection of my galvanometer. And so you see where I'm going with this as I turn up this voltage, the galvanometer deflection becomes smaller. And at one point, it becomes zero. So right now, my voltage is at three volts, as you can see in the bar over here. And the galvanometer deflection is zero, which means how much voltage should be over here? Ooh, the voltage over here must also be three volts. Because if it was any other number, they would have been a potential difference across the galvanometer and current would be flowing. So the very fact that there is no deflection means the voltage over here must also be three volts. And notice since there is no current flowing through the galvanometer right now, I am not disturbing the circuit. I have measured the voltage across these two points without drawing any current. Ta-da! That, my dear friend, is the principle of a potential meter. You put a voltage source across with a galvanometer and you keep increasing that voltage source. Eventually, when the galvanometer deflection becomes zero, we know the voltage over here must be exactly equal to the voltage that we are measuring. And that's how you calculate the potential difference. Okay, you now understand the core of the potential meter, the principle of the potential meter. All we need to understand now is how to convert this into something more practical. You see, batteries whose voltage can be changed, these are hard to come by. So the next question we want to have to make it more practical is, how do you achieve this by using a regular battery whose voltage you can't change? How do you calculate the voltage now? Now what we will do is instead of directly connecting it to our circuit, we will connect this battery to a wire. Why are we doing this? To be able to vary the voltage just like before, but now with the wire. Here's how it works. See, if I were to connect these two points, then the voltage that I'm providing now is nine volts. And I can't change that, right? But what if I were to connect between this point and the midpoint of the wire? Then how much voltage would that be? I'll be providing over there. Ooh, that would be just half of nine volt. Because I can now say that this part of the wire and this part of the wire are identical, and they have the same resistance. And so the voltage would get divided equally. And therefore between the midpoint, I would get only 4.5 volt. What if I were to connect this and over here? I would get even smaller voltage. Ooh, so you notice if I connect this over here, but from here, if I were to slide across this wire, I would be, the amount of voltage I provide will keep increasing just like what I did over here. And then I can use a galvanometer, find the balancing point and figure out how much at what voltage I would get zero. So just like before, we're going to connect with a galvanometer. But over here, I'm going to use a slider and say right now, the voltage that I'm providing is pretty small compared to the actual voltage, let's say. And therefore there is some galvanometer deflection, and so there's a current running. But as I move the slider to the right, the voltage that I'm providing increases. And just like before, the galvanometer deflection starts decreasing, decreasing. My voltage is coming closer to the measured voltage, the voltage I'm measuring. It's coming closer, it's coming closer, and right now, here we go. Right now, the galvanometer deflection is zero, meaning the voltage over here is exactly equal to the voltage over here. So all I have to figure out now is what is the voltage across this part of the wire? And there you have it. This is your potentiometer circuit. We usually call this as the primary circuit, this as the secondary circuit. But you get the idea, right? It's very similar to what we did over here. But of course, here, directly, the voltage calculation was available to us. Over here, how do we calculate the voltage? That's the question that we're going to ask now. How do I know how much the voltage across this part is? This is nothing to do with the potentiometer. Now we just have to do some basic electricity calculation. So here's how we do it. I know that this particular length of the wire, let's say this length of the wire was, let's say this wire was, I don't know, maybe three meters long. Okay? And let's say that we found the galvanoid deflection to be zero at two meters. So we'll call this as the balancing length, or the null point, because current is null. And this is at two meters, let's say. The question is, what is the voltage across these two points? Let's call that as point A and point B. I want you to take a shot at this, because there's nothing to do with voltmeter. Think about this. The entire three-meter wire has nine volts across it. So the question is, how much voltage is across the two-meter wire? Can you give this a shot? Pause the video and try. All right. Here's how I would do it. I know that three meters of wire has nine volts. So per meter, how much voltage do I get? So that number, the voltage per meter is often referred, is often denoted by five. And that number for us is going to be nine divided by three. The nine volt divided by three, and that's going to be three volt per meter. So I know every meter of this wire has three volts. And also it's important to understand, it's a linear thing, because see, every meter of wire is identical, right? The whole wire is uniform, and that's important. The area of cross-section is uniform over there. And because of that, the voltage across each meter must be exactly the same. And so it's a linear relationship. And so now I know that every meter has three volts of potential drop across it. So how much does two meters have? I'll just multiply that. So the voltage between A and B, that's what I'm interested in. The voltage that I'm measuring, this is also A and B now, because there is no current flowing. Both are at the same voltage, remember? And so VAB should be equal to three into two. So that is six volt. And so in general, whatever voltage we are measuring is going to be the voltage per meter, which is five times the balancing length. And there you have it. This is how you calculate the voltage through a potentiometer. And I don't want you to remember this formula or anything. This comes if you understand, you know, the logic behind this, then this formula can be understood from first principles. And of course, now in actual practical circuits, things get a little bit more complicated because there are additional resistors involved in our primary circuit. We don't want to directly connect the battery to the wire. And so how does that change things? The only thing it changes is the voltage across this wire, the primary wire. Right now it's nine. But if you put a resistor over there, that voltage will change. And you can calculate that using maybe Kirchhoff's laws or Ohm's law. But once you do that, the main thing we need to calculate is how much potential difference you have per meter, right? And there's a technical term that we usually call this the potential gradient. Gradient means how much things are changing per meter. And so if you know this number for any potentiometer, you can just multiply it by the balancing length and you get the voltage measured. Final couple of things I want to mention before we wrap up is one, is how do you make this potentiometer even more accurate? One way to do that is to make it more sensitive. As I move the slider across, let's say I want to make that galvanometer deflection happen very slowly so that when it comes to exactly zero, I stop it, right? In order to do that, we need to make it more sensitive. And one of the ways of doing that is by increasing the length of the wire. Imagine this wire was not three meters, but say 10 meters long. The voltage across this is still nine volts, meaning the potential gradient would have now reduced, right? This number becomes 10 meters, so potential gradient will be smaller. And so as I move my slider across, my, you know, the galvanometer deflection would slowly change and I would be able to precisely find the balancing point. And it's for that reason, the potentiometers that you find in your labs will have so many windings of the wires. The whole idea is to increase the length of the wire as much as possible. Finally, one last interesting question would be when you're conducting this experiment, let's say you don't find the balancing length at all. It doesn't matter where you go. Your galvanometer doesn't show zero at all until the end. What could that mean? You think about that? There are two possible scenarios in which that can happen. All right, one scenario is if the voltage that you're measuring is larger than the entire voltage across the wire. I mean, think about it. If this voltage was, let's say, 10 volts, then it doesn't matter where I go. I will never be able to balance it out, right? And so it's important that the voltage that you're measuring has to be smaller than the voltage of the wire. Or you can just say to be safe has to be smaller than your battery voltage in your primary circuit. OK, but there's another possibility. Even if the voltage is smaller, let's say you took care of that, there is another possibility in which the galvanometer deflection could never, ever become zero. And I want you to think about under what circumstances that could happen. Stay curious.