Okay, you're welcome back. It's still the run-up, and I still have a standing by here. We're going to talk about a lot of things that made the news and which are connected in some way to the 2023 election, beginning from the bullion vans that went into Baudelogne that said missed the address and went into Baudelogne, Tinnobu's house. The Lagos State Organizing Secretary of the All Progressive Congress, A.P.C. Ayodele Adewali, has claimed that the bullion vans spotted the residents of Achiwajubola, Tinnobu, on the eve of the 2019 presidential election, missed their way. According to him, the bullion van had been put to rest. The bullion van matter had been put to rest long time ago, and it said there was no money in the bullion van. Remember, Bayo, that it was said that Achiwajubola himself said the bullion van, redesigning of the Naira and so many other things happening right now, are targeted at him. Now, we heard that the chief ten of the A.P.C. said that the bullion van missed its way to Baudelogne, and that has been put to rest. I don't know what your take on that is. What would be your response to that? Well, I would have loved to know the context in which the A.P.C. chief ten made that statement. The reason is because if it was a question posed to him, and then he was responding, which I assume, then maybe it's understandable. Understandable in the sense that from a public communication point of view, I don't think the A.P.C. should have gone to revisit the issue of the bullion van because it was something that is rather embarrassing. And also, if what was attributed to Achiwajubola himself after that incident was true, because I think some sections of the media reported that he said he would put his money anywhere he wanted. I don't know if that was true, but if it was, and then now to now say the bullion van missed their way, I think it's just bringing back the matter into public consciousness. And I assume that A.P.C. would rather that this matter never came back into public consciousness, but they have put it right back into public consciousness. And it's going to be an issue of people who start talking about, I mean, right now we're talking about it on the program because people are already talking about it. So it is the first time I'm hearing that the bullion van missed its way. I assume that bullion vans would know specifically where they were headed, given the kind of consignment or the kind of cargo that they normally would carry. So having said that much, bringing back the matter is just reopening, if you like, reopening old wounds. And of course, this is a political season, the adversaries, political adversaries of Achiwajubola would latch onto this and would of course try to make a mountain out of it and keep it in the public eye. So I think it's rather untoward that this matter has come up again for the A.P.C. Yeah. Well, the question was, it stemmed from wood buying and so many other things surrounding that and how money is being spent during elections and all that. But I wasn't even worried because like he said, the bullion van matter has been laid to rest. Not really that it has been laid to rest, but we've heard over and over again and if we have been angry, we've been angry for so long that we have forgotten how to be angry about it anymore. But what worried me that a new perspective I had about it is if a publicity secretary or any kind of secretary for that matter or any kind of spokesman for that matter will come out, even if you need to lie, you know, there are ways to go about it that someone will still be comfortable that I know it is not the truth, but at least you're diplomatic enough. So the question I was asking myself is, is it not high time that people in government, people in power, people that matter, people that have that VIPs in our society start thinking about who represents them, like publicists, professionals who can talk for them, know what to say, choose their words rightly, because it's like that aspect of their lives or the lives of a lot of big men in quote, in Nigeria has been taken for granted that anybody can talk for you and they keep making the blunders that they make all the time or how can you in all honesty trying to defend something and you say a bullion van on the one hand had missed its way, on the other hand, it was empty. How did you know that it was empty? Will a bullion van that just missed its way to your house, for instance, just come and open its, open its bowels and show you that it's not carrying money? How did they even know about it? So what worried me is the fact that people who are public figures allow just anybody to represent them and talk for them and it becomes a worrisome thing because in every climb among all kinds of people there are always maybe some blunders that their principals have made but at least they manage this because poor management of it not only damages the reputation or the picture of his principal but it also affects a lot of other people who either follow or look up to him and so many other things are surrounding that poor representation as it is. So shouldn't they start to look critically at the functions of publicists and people who are professional enough to represent them? Should we continue like this and they'll be taking it for granted all the time? That's what gave me worry by bio. I don't know. No, you're spot on. There are quite a number of issues related to the point you just made. The first is that there are levels of authority when it comes to public communication. I mean for all responsible organizations, you have your designated spokesperson and below or outside of those spokesperson, certain other officials can speak. It's just that they would need to know what they can speak about and what they need to refer to maybe somebody higher or the right person who is designated to handle all public engagement and public interaction. The second thing is that principal figures if you allow me to use that phrase, principal figures now I use it to refer to anyone who is in authority and would be expected to make statements like governors, like presidents, like CEO of companies, local government chapters and so on and so forth. This principal figures often times especially in an environment where public communication is not well structured. They want to speak about it all and everything. They should not actually speak about everything. If I give you an example, the Niger Railway Corporation has been, was in the news some time ago when the attack on the train, the Abu Jaqadina train, when that attack took place and the official who was speaking for the Niger Railway Corporation was the managing director himself and I kept asking myself, don't they have a public relations manager or a public communications person in the Niger Railways because most of the comments that the CEO of the NRC was making were just unbelievable, unbelievable and it linked to what you just said about perhaps a nonchalance of public figures or principal figures as to what they say to people. Even what they say now, forgetting that what you say now may be quoted 5 years from now or it may be quoted 10 years from now, which makes it absolutely necessary for you to have some structure in place. The gentleman who has easily said, I am not competent to speak on that matter or I will refer this issue to the competent person and you will be hearing from us on that. Are you buying time? Are you reflecting? And then you respond. So not just them, it's something which I have seen is endemic around us. That's why I cited the example of the Niger Railways but it's very important that there should be structure for public communication and public interaction. Yeah, very right because sometimes you hear some things that are being said and the first question is that did the handlers, that's the word that they use, did the handlers not think about this? They should have known better so that he wouldn't have to do this or to say this. And so the next president that we're going to have next governors, next houses of representatives and houses of representatives if rather members and senators, whoever is in the public glare that will be saying things. Policy statements and so many other things that affect our lives should not take this department as it were for granted because statements that are made, like you said, they will endure sometimes longer than you have to stay on this earth that some people will still quote today that have gone long before even we were born but those statements have stood the test of time. They better be the right ones and so like we're saying don't take that for granted. So if you're going to be my president tomorrow or my governor tomorrow, let the utterances be well thought out so that when they are delivered it will give me some kind of consolation even if I'm not getting satisfied in whatever I'm asking for, at least let the professionals help. Okay, well let's not talk about that because some people might even misunderstand it and say okay they're asking for people to come to broadcast us and take them. We're not necessarily the publicists but not necessarily the publicists but if you find someone who is intelligent enough who can put the right words in the right context for people to hear it will be good to employ that kind of a person. Like one of my lecturers used to say meanings are in people not in words but since you cannot and yeah yes go ahead and the truth is if you if you are running for public office or even if you are I mean depending on what might have happened in the organization you know you basically have to first of all look at all the potential negative things that have happened list them out reflect on them all develop answers okay we call them reactive lines you develop reactive lines and those reactive lines are distributed to all those who may miss the press and may have to speak so that you are all seeing the same thing. So if somebody asks us a question about the run-up as a program what I am going to say to that person and what you Yambu will say to that person or what Ruchi will say to that person is going to be consistent because we've reflected and we've come up with a reactive line you know so they need to look at all the reactive lines you know when for instance example I cited before the MD of the Niger Railway Corporation when they asked him the intelligence services reportedly told you not to run the train service in the night in the late evening he admitted that the intelligence services told them not to do that but guess what his answer was they said and why did you run the service he said do you want to deprive Nigerians of the opportunity of benefiting from the train service that was preposterous I mean people had been abducted because he ran the train service so I'm sorry to to cite that and without prejudice to the Niger Railway Corporation I'm just using this as an example to illustrate our point that public communication is a very serious thing you know and more so in the political environment so it's always good to do the proper checks and develop the proper reactive lines before people engage with the public okay well there seemed to be a battle against independent monetary policy the CBN and the House of Reps right now I don't know is it a battle well but the House of Reps has threatened that they are going to maybe issue a warrant of arrest for the CBN governor because it appeared to be a raging battle against the independence of the of the central bank of Nigeria now he has been invited several times as we hear and he has not appeared before the the House and they're now threatening that he will be arrested if he fails to do so now the issue is whether he will bend to whatever they are saying they are saying that he should extend the date for the exchange of Naira knows how do I even put it God willing if he is insisting that the January 31 deadline for facing out the old 200 500 and 1000 Naira banknotes would not be the altered and the CBN has operational and monetary policy independence but the speaker of the House of Representatives honorable honorable family by Jabia Mila threatened to invoke relevant sections of the law to issue a warrant of arrest on MFLA and bank chief executive officers should they refuse to appear before it at her committee that was set up to interrogate the central bank and the CEOs on the Naira redesigned project and the January 31 deadline but Jabia Mila insisted that the CBN must heed the call of Nigerians and allow the old banknotes to remain in use alongside the newly redesigned currencies so as not to jeopardize the economy and impoverish the people and I'm just wondering when do we draw the line between independence of an agency and what the House of Reps is trying to make to look like the general good of the people like Nigerians according to them are complaining that they should extend the the deadline to maybe June or so and the CBN governor must appear otherwise he will be arrested now where does the independence of an agency start and stop because I don't know if the central bank of Nigeria is independent to what extent is it independent can it take its own decisions and not have the interference of the House of Reps or the general national assembly where am I getting it wrong here or confused rather no I don't think you're getting it wrong I think this is a matter of public interest especially since the national assembly itself which is in the presidential system that we operate we have three tiers of we have the executive the legislative and the judiciary and they are all autonomous the national assembly even have a national assembly service commission but the few staff who work for the national assembly okay they are not under the federal civil service they are independent even their own staff have their own national assembly service commission that is to underscore the independence of the national assembly having said that the national assembly does have oversize responsibilities but I believe strongly that the oversight responsibility of the national assembly also has some technical limitations if I use defense for example if the defense committee of the national assembly summons the uh say the chief of the aster and the chief of the aster because the chief of the aster for example says the air force has chosen to acquire a particular kind of fighter aircraft and the committee of the national assembly calls the chief of the aster and says you cannot acquire that kind of aircraft you have to acquire another type of aircraft right in the wisdom of the of the of the service a very technical service like the air force they know what they want they know why they are going for that right so they would have they would have to be some sort of respect you know as long as all the the transparency uh you know um and other checks you know in terms of acquisition of of equipment and all that have been followed I think the national assembly would have to respect the technical decision now I'm using that example and I hope it's not complicated because the central bank is autonomous and the central bank has right to monetary policy monetary policy sorry money yeah monetary policy while the federal government and the ministry of finance has control over fiscal policy now I have never heard that the chairman of the federal reserve in the US which is the equivalent of our own central bank when he decides to fix interest rates I've never heard that the US Congress will summon the chairman of the federal reserve and tell him where to fix interest rates or what percentage to fix as interest rates so if you would not challenge that I don't see why you would challenge the policy which is clearly within the poverty of the central bank and the the issue of summoning people to appear before the national assembly is well within the right of parliament because parliament makes those for the good governance of Nigeria you know but I have I know that there was a controversy some years ago when the national assembly summoned the controller general of customs Connell Ali if I'm right I think it's Connell Ali yeah current country retired Connell controller general of customs because there was a bank imposed on the importation of used cars and he was summoned to the nationalism okay he said I think there was there was some disagreement between them as when he was supposed to appear and when he he did appear this they decided he should go back and put on the customs uniform before yeah I remember this appearing before them and he never went back before the national assembly and then there are I remember Professor Ishe Sagi a well-known constitutional expert came up and spoke about analyzed the the the obligation of those who were summoned to appear before the and it's not even summoning I don't think the world is even summoning and from what place of sight you can invite somebody to help you better understand you know the policies that have been made or the policies you want to make so these issues came up and there was a lot of debate so we are seeing something similar now definitely I think the national assembly has a right to invite the central bank governor but I think the word and the spirit and letter of that invitation has to be civil and cannot be threatening because like you rightly said the central bank is autonomous yeah and that autonomy has been in existence up until now this is the first time I'm seeing this autonomy being seriously challenged on that present of us when the autonomy began the governor was soludo was governor I think it was the first civilian governor to be in that autonomy and and we've seen it you know uh go on even a mafia who is there now was appointed by president Jonathan and president why he respected that autonomy he didn't touch a mafia he inherited a mafia so I think we need not undermine the independence of our institutions you know while doing our constitution yeah I was also wondering if they have an ad hoc committee that has to oversee this why invite the well maybe I am wrong but why why not the ad hoc committee as part of its oversight functions or something go to the central bank of Niger governor to seek a more explanation to report back to the house is will it take anything from them will it take the the VIP from them will it take out anything from there being the national assembly because you have a group that should talk about these things and there's something that is not clear to the house if the house goes to the central bank of Nigeria does that mean it is belittling themselves or belittling the house I don't understand why the central bank of Nigeria governor will have to come to the national assembly to face an ad hoc committee in the national assembly it has to be in the national assembly I don't understand that much but like my people say when when a a small boy begins to talk anyhow to an elder watch the corners maybe there's another elder that is pushing him so he's strong because of the strength that he's finding from some way that you may not be able to see but in this case we seem to see that elder that might be pushing a mafia that will be explained in this video that we have of the president himself talking about the changing or the redesigning of these new notes and the deadline for the uh facing out of the other old notes let's just watch a bit for this change of currency I think there will be a lot of money but time has been given from october to december three months is enough whatever money you have to get it changed through a legal system so I don't know why people are complaining about it so despite the complaint there's no going back on the policy no they're not going back they're not going back my aim is to make sure that Nigerians believe that we respect them as an administration so Nigerians should vote for whoever they like from whichever party nobody will be allowed to mobilize resources and thugs to intimidate people in any constituency that's what I want to go down into Nigeria history for as a leader you are the chairman of the presidential campaign council of your party what are the chances of your party winning the elections what are the chances of my party not to win in the election we are going to this election tinibu uh the presidential candidate is a very well known politician in the country he was a two-times governor in in his state leagas resource wise the most uh resourceful state and the most visited state uh so I think the party was uh lucky to to get him except you know to be its candidate so how healthy is my president I'm very healthy okay uh well you saw that uh the president said the time was enough three months was enough from october till now the time was enough and immediately after saying that there wasn't any lapse in the in the video he just said um he doesn't want he he doesn't want anybody to be able to mobilize resources and thugs to do what they are not supposed to do he wants Nigerians to vote so now it gives us a clever picture why they redesign in the first place and the legacy that the president wants to be quit when he leaves office in may 20 uh 29 on may 29 2023 so time is long enough nobody should be able to mobilize resources and thugs to destabilize the election or to to win the election because of the resources and talks and all that so it gives us a picture like I said why all this is really happening so maybe that's why MFLA is strong enough to do what he is doing right now added to the fact that the autonomy of the central bank of Nigeria should be respected so if the president himself respects it then why not the national assembly absolutely and um the the cbn governor is autonomous he heads an autonomous institution but nonetheless he has to keep the president appraised of some of the policies of such an autonomous institution especially where those resources those policies may have an implication uh uh you know especially on national security uh there are two things we should not forget one there has been an ongoing policy if i can correct and i indeed i stand to be corrected uh uh called the cashless policy introduced by the cbn you know which limits the amount of cash people can carry with them and it was that policy that actually saw to the proliferation of the etm's and a high high commission on people who go and withdraw cash so the cashless policy is not new it's been there okay now what has happened now is of course they were designing and then people been told that if you had money outside of the system you need to go and bring it back and when the cbn gave figures as to how much they estimate is actually out there and how what percentage of that money that is out there is actually within the banking system i really didn't see people disagreeing with the cbn i didn't see and there was a huge amount of money outside of the banking system and we could see when the cbn insisted that it was not going to change the date we also various videos some we could not confirm but we saw various videos circulating of huge stacks of cash that people were moving around but even moving into the banks in order for them to change them we even saw some narrows that had been destroyed allegedly destroyed by termites and other things because of where they were scored so this goes to confirm that indeed the policy that the cbn has introduced does have some merit now if i'm if i'm also correct and i again i stand to be corrected it would appear as if when there was a hue and cry as to the deadline for people to sorry the limits that people could withdraw yeah i because there was a corresponding policy that said we draw more than this amount of money an individual of a corporate body and we saw that the cbn modified it stands and increased the amount of money that corporate bodies and individuals could withdraw so what else does the national assembly want the cbn it is if the national assembly would want to the cbn to pander to what it wants simply because it is representing the people the national assembly is not the only one that is representing the people the president and the governors were also elected by the people so and that's why the constitution made it pretty clear that their functions have to be separate so i feel that there could be of course and don't get me wrong there could be good reasons you know for what the national assembly is is asking for but i think the tone and language has to show respect if any agency didn't show respect to the national assembly i can imagine how the national assembly reacts so the tone and language of the national assembly has to be carefully chosen because the national assembly said it's not about the law we're just talking about spokespersons and so on and what they say and how they act the national assembly also has to have to be careful about not only how it acts but the way it is being perceived yeah that is absolutely important okay well um let's move on now what there is left to do is uh for the central bank to just make the money available because a lot of banks their atm's are not working because they say the new uh narrow nodes are not there and i have not seen a an atm that is dispensing 200 narrow nodes someone said uh he has seen and he actually collected but 200 narrow is very critical to the day-to-day transactions of businesses in nigeria so if that cannot be dispensed and not a lot of people of these of this keda that trade on the streets and everywhere will go to the bank uh banking hall to go and withdraw a lot of money that they will be given this uh money 200 narrow nodes so the central bank should look for a way in fact this morning somebody went to withdraw money from p o s and by the way the banks that are still operating their atm's are still paying all nodes and the p o s operators are also paying all nodes now this guy was said was some some some of the banks because he said the bank yes some some of the banks because not all of them thank you very much but i've seen one bank that has an atm that has new nodes and the other one has all nodes so if you had withdrawing from say atm a is all nodes atm b is new nodes but that's matter for another day the thing now is this guy went to collect 5000 naira from the p o s and normally it it attracts a 100 naira for the charges now this p o s operator said and i quote now now 200 naira for 5000 because now around 2 am where i buy money yesterday now that statement for me i don't know how to make of it she had to buy money at 2 am i was asking myself from who and why did it have to be at that late hour because if that was the case then it wasn't from a bank so who are the people who are now trading money for the p o s people to be able to have the money to serve the people and then there was one bag for one side for the new nodes and the other side for the old nodes she will collect the old new nodes and keep and give you all nodes because you are going to spend it i got confused i got i got i don't know the feeling that i had but that's the new reality now from this p o s i don't know everywhere else in Lagos but from this p o s and the area around it is 200 naira for a thousand for the 5000 naira or anything that you're collecting because money is now scarce that's the language so i don't know what the cbn can do about that i don't know whether we have something that we can do about that who do we report to the cbn how do we report that to the cbn and how do they catch the people who are hoarding the money and selling the money and making the other people who are trying to exchange this same money that we're talking about to be more costly because someone was paying in and instead of giving a commission of 100 naira 200 was collected someone was receiving and instead of paying a commission of 100 naira 200 naira was collected so you see how complicated this whole issue is bio it is complicated and i mean we were just also at the top of the program talking about public communication the cbn has to be concerned about not only the reality of what is existing but also the perception you know uh that people have um the the issue of the market women and the market men because we often say market women they're also men market you know but the issue of those who who who operate in markets you know has been brought onto this program you remember we had a guest who highlighted the challenge that people in the markets would have yeah and then people in rural areas because he said the moment the the atm's were being introduced on a large scale a lot of banks started closing down branches in rural areas now and then of course they are having network problems usually uh in most of this rural area so he made a very strong case and this this was an addition of the program that we had maybe six weeks ago or for something like that and i would have expected the cbn to have uh you know taking such comments or feedback very seriously and to have taken most to do something about it and if these were issues for example that the national assembly highlighted i mean in civil language i think it will have a lot of sympathy yeah but when it adopts a language you know which is imperial you know and given the fact that everybody in the national assembly is a politician and this is an election year and we have had notable political figures expressing apprehension about their inability to have access to cash you see it begins to suggest that the concern of the national assembly may not just be for the good of nigerians but only in their interest as politicians and that's why i said that the national assembly has to be careful about perception and they show that where it has very good reasons you know it presents it in a way that is very clear and everybody sees that it's doing that for the people and not because you know they are our representatives who are all standing for elections so but this is a complicated issue like we said and the one would expect that those who manage public information for the central bank should be responding to all this you know they cannot keep quiet you know because you know most of the time people don't test the law we had a student who who sued who sued asu during the strike and that would have been an interesting case i did not think that the strike was called off just a few weeks after that you know once once people have pushed we're going to begin to see citizens rising legally and peacefully challenging what is not in their interest you know so the cbn and all agencies and all kinds of government have to be responsive and responsible you know in how they go about carrying out their lawful duty well put there are so many other things that we are going to talk about security is there and so many others but well let's just take a short break and when we return we'll begin with tension in nasa our state as governor suree holds meeting with security agencies and may stay with us


so to take briefly lessons learned from the seed, whatever may be the environment, you can still grow and succeed so to take briefly lessons learned from the seed, whatever may be the environment, you can still grow and succeed so to take briefly lessons learned from the seed, whatever may be the environment, you can still grow and succeed so to take briefly lessons learned from the seed, whatever may be the environment, you can still grow and succeed so to take briefly lessons learned from the seed, whatever may be the environment, you can still grow and succeed so to take briefly lessons learned from the seed, whatever may be the environment, you can still grow and succeed so to take briefly lessons learned from the seed, whatever may be the environment, you can still grow and succeed


ortunity to can you hear me sorry yes you can okay um a reconsideration request is not an opportunity to take additional testimony it's um it's the applicant states their request and then the board decides whether to accept it um any sort of additional conversation should be just clarifying the request or basically the minimum information for the board to decide whether to accept the request and then the testimony on um what should have been done instead um would be something that would come at the reopened hearing so um the way robin wrote her request letter was exactly right in that it provided the request but didn't provide any sort of supplemental information and i think mark's question is also appropriate which is can you clarify um what what what thing it is that you thought we misunderstood um so what i'm sharing now and i'm going to zoom in a little bit yeah good yeah this is it um this is so zoom in too much let me try again so this is the plan for sd 2102 um where i've drawn an orange box around lot 48x um and then lot 11c which the applicant has asked has said they believe is what the condition is supposed to apply to is where um is up here is this good okay so our condition said that lot 48x which is the orange box um so the area south of us to the fence line is to revegetate naturally which is the wetland area correct that's our t-shaped area right so that condition is modified um so what i've shown in pink here is the fence that the applicant provided there's a previous condition there's another condition that says that the fence should be extended about i can't highlight on the fence should be extended along this portion of this portion of the wetland as well so what this condition that they've requested reconsideration on is referring to is the area of this wetland so don't we usually encourage or want applicants to leave wetlands um it'd be wild probably not the appropriate expression but um why would we have um so i think that you know don's question is starting to get into the area of additional testimony um we're right to say that's normal for the board to require wetlands to be left undisturbed um mark's question is what did we misunderstand here so i don't know if robin wants to speak up and explain what what it is that we misunderstood robin yes oh wait we forgot swearing in oh i'm sorry robin raised your right hand you solemnly swear to tell the truth under penalty of perjury i do thank you so what we thought there was a misunderstanding in that all of the area surrounding this little area inside the red circle is going to be agricultural and it will be mode and cut and used as it is now so all of the wetland is not going to re-vegetate because it's becoming agricultural leasehold so it would just be the corner inside the corner of the orange inside the red that would be so it was just a very small piece as opposed to it just being a recreational area which is what the area the orange area is intended to be okay so again i'm going to jump in and say that a previous condition says that their phoenix needs to be extended along here as well we we thought that the fence only needed to be along where you have it drawn in red there's a condition modifying that requires the fence to be added to right but we thought that we interpreted that to mean where you have the red line now the red line traces what you have shown on this drawing right i'm just tracing something you had already drawn thanks then we did not even read it to interpret that way because the leg that you just drew on already has been developed it was developed back when the water line in the sidewalk was put in i'm at a loss marla i'm gonna need your help with this i think that makes sense um so i think mark does that sort of answer your question he didn't think that they were protecting that southern part of the wetland at all right and sounds like they're not because it's already been developed to put in the sidewalk in the waterline well you can see where the sidewalk and waterline are on this plane and then the rec path is intended to go on the top uh alongside draw wait now try to draw can i draw can i draw i just gave you permission yeah you should see a paintbrush over here so i'm trying sorry yep choose my pen color okay so this is it's not working hmm it might just be a little pokey it's pokey yeah our connections have been slow today yep it says oh i know it's not working no no it was me it's me okay go ahead so this is the no do i need to get my pen again sorry all right yeah i'm not very good at presenting this is lila's job um so this is the there we go this is the path so all the infrastructure for it is under there i should have used a fat pen um does that make any sense because the easement for the path is way out here so we perceived that this was going to stay the way it always has been and that this area inside here was what you wanted to preserve but we thought it wasn't understood that all of this area out here is going to be farmland and cut the way it is now being cut am i making any sense i'm totally lost i'm really sorry what is what is that sort of key shaped whale tail type of shape of wetlands that's just north of the the sidewalk waterline right this is this is not a wetland this disconnects up here and this is an old farm ditch okay so and you can you can see it it's literally a ditch so where does that leave us marla and mark that's um one question and then um did you guys have another question about the was jim able to rejoin us you know he texted me back but i didn't get the chance to see what he said jim's back on jim's back i'm here um did you have a inclusionary versus affordable request we did i was just uh i got interested to hear um about the sort of the the the impact i guess robin's of the changing you know changing uh inclusionary to a to affordable um in the decision what um what impact or what you're just hear a little more about your concerns about that word change the concerns are that the ldr's address inclusionary under one set of rules and they they discuss affordable units under bonus conditions at another set of rules and all the applications fall under one set of rules or the other set of rules and we we belong under the affordable set of rules and not the inclusionary set of rules okay marla your thoughts or other board member of board members thoughts jim yeah i mean i i'd like for us to i mean i i'm leaning toward getting the language right um i don't know um so if we really meant affordable we should say so can i ask all right let me ask a question i guess this is more of marla um is affordable and inclusionary been differentiated recently in the regulations somewhat well more recently than the south village project master plan um relatively recently the i think the important thing here is that the condition that uses the word affordable inclusionary instead of affordable is pertaining to the section of the affordable housing regulations that cross-reference they have to do it says you have to do the reporting that is required for inclusionary um so that condition says references the inclusionary housing so though though i think that robin's correct that it was potentially an error to say the word inclusionary because it's a cross-reference section i'm not sure that it makes any difference we i think it makes a difference because all the ldr's under section 18.02 regarding the affordable density bonus only talk about affordable i do agree with you that when you get down there it does circle back to particular conditions of the inclusionary zoning ordinance of 18.01 but it does not it's very specific about the affordable density bonus and affordable units being different and not all the same things apply so while you're here and while i'm here and we know what you meant um god forbid we should get hit by buses or anything but if somebody else had to interpret this and neither one of us was here to explain it we feel it could be very muddled when the ldr's actually make it very clear so we're i think maybe it's just a typo and we're just asking for it to be corrected marla so um i think that unless the board has other questions on other aspects of it i think that's as deep into the discussion as we should go at this time um so the board would take a vote on whether to accept the reconsideration request um actually why don't we do a sort of a temperature of the board about whether we're inclined to accept the reconsideration request um or maybe it's better to just say let me just ask this question does the board feel that any of the other elements of the reconsideration request have merit if we are to consider or if we are to take a vote the alternative is we take a vote on our consideration of just those two items that we talked about tonight doesn't touch me like there are other issues um so limiting limiting it to two those two issues makes sense to me okay so by doing that the board is effectively sending the message that no we don't think the other changes are warranted yes so there's three items it's two issues the three items right yes right it's condition number six condition 26 and condition 22 that we're talking about reopening for reconsideration there's the issue about um also which i believe was just a typo about the number of you of affordable units in the master plan amendment because the way the notes were written it looks like we're dropped a colossal number of affordable units when the fact we only dropped very few because it's a direct percentage of the total number of units um again i don't think it's a big change it's just a typo but we would like it the record set straight i need some guidance on procedure here um so unless the person would like to take up the comment that robin just made again again keeping in mind um you know we have talked about um we have looked at it and we um you know unless you have additional questions we don't need to we can't take testimony at this time um does anyone want to take up to the potential list for voting the condition that robin just referenced okay so um i think we should have a motion to amend condition number six and 26 no condition to reopen the a motion to reopen sd 2102 for the purposes of reconsidering condition number six and condition number 26 um and we'll do and then we'll do motion to reopen sd 2103 for the purposes of reconsider condition number 22 and we'll do them as two separate motions i just felt like a lot to say all right um i'll make a motion that we reopen sd 2102 for reconsideration for condition number six and condition number 26 and we reopen sd 2103 for reconsideration for condition number 22 bless you mark i will second that can the chair second yes in favor pardon all all in favor of the motion say aye hi hi those the motion is carried thank you very much thank you robin thanks for working so late into the night you guys holy mackerel okay is there any other business i should have asked that before i guess but any other business or can we adjourn make a motion that we adjourn okay do we need to vote on that don't vote on that okay guys good night good night good night good night


Hey, welcome welcome welcome. Hope you're all doing well this evening. Welcome. Hello people. Good to see you. I'm Mina Morita, she, her, hers, and I'm calling in from the unceded land of the Ohlone people here in San Francisco today. Hey people. My name is Sean San Jose. I work with the Group Composanto and very excited to share with you all on how around here can't see everyone but putting out to the universe. If we're talking about pronouns, pronouns, any preferred pronouns for me are any and all that make you all feel comfortable, make me feel comfortable. And I'm technologically impaired from San Francisco, which is Ohlone land, Miwok, Palmo land, all stolen land. And here we are. And I should say I'm the Artistic Director for Crowded Fire Theater. So excited to be here to talk about some amazing things that are in the works and that we've been celebrating over this last hard year. Yeah. What is exciting about what we're going to share with you all today is Crowded Fire Theater in Composanto were the lucky lucky recipients to be able to not only work with the great star Finch, the playwright, the revolutionary mind, the beautiful sister that she is, but we are the first, I believe, collaborative group. Both of our groups got this Mellon residency with HowlRound to work with Star Finch in the three year long playwright residency. And so it's really an honor. It's really exciting. And I think it's also emblematic about what kind of work we all are trying to do together, something a little bit different as we do things a little bit different in the Bay, the leftmost coast and more collaborative, perhaps in some ways, and also more real in some ways. We are both two smaller companies that have been able to sustain for several decades, but also have had small budgets. And the Mellon has been expanding more and more the more they do these rounds and the kind folks at HowlRound sort of let us work a much more collaborative and pieced together application. And lo and behold, we got it. And we're really thrilled about that. And again, thrilled with those possibilities mean of getting to work with a writer of Star Finch's stature vision and future seeking. And so what we want to share with you all the day is the first real shared public event that we did together. Yeah. And I just want to add that it's huge in terms of Mellon's shifting towards thinking about how to support local artists. And so for us, Star is local and visionary in terms of upholding sort of what the Bay has been about historically. And also to have, you know, a three year salary to be on staff with both of our organizations is an incredible life changing event for all of us. And it's changing the genetics, I think, of how we're all thinking because we're thinking together. Yeah. And one of the most exciting things you all are going to know about this, if you aren't hip already to the amazing power, like I say, the future seeking writing of Star Finch. But one of the most exciting things about getting the opportunity to have a residency like this is to not only have time to develop, share, collaborate on the plays, the productions of Star Finch, but really the larger vision. And so what we're going to talk about today is this vision, this curated vision by Star, a feast of resilience. And that's really for us, I think I can say this, Mina, about what our two groups are looking forward to is rooting Star rightfully at the center of not only this residency, but where we're headed in terms of the community work, in terms of creative work, in terms of collaborative work. And it's about rightfully centering the black woman in the storytelling and the curation and then the power seat is as well, she should be here. And so like I say, you will see productions from Star, but what we're going to get to see here is part of a much more expansive vision about gathering people and creating movement. And with that, I guess, Mina, shall we bring on the star of the event? The woman only Star Finch, Star Child, my sister, here she is, playwright in residence with Crowd of Fire and Capo Santo. Hey. Hey, peace, y'all. Thanks so much for joining us today. And Star will take us through from a sort of conception to the event itself, but we are lucky to be joined by some of our close friends and family and also collaborators and collaborators of that day at the Feast of Resilience, the one and only, the sage, Ellen Sebastian Chang, and also one of our great collaborative partners, performer, writer, do-it-all, Troy Rockett. And I think a magical thing is gonna, boom, there's the magic. And I think we're, Troy is coming back and joining us soon. Welcome to the virtual sphere as usual. Yeah, that is it. Troy is not making, that is not a Prince-like statement by Troy. Troy has a beautiful face and a beautiful image that he will proudly present momentarily. Hello, Ellen. Hello. Thank you for inviting me. I'm so excited. Thank you. And from here, we're gonna have Star, I think, talk to us about the Feast of Resilience, which is the event that brought us all together this June and hearing after Star getting to see some video clips. Star, take care. I'll jump in. One of the amazing things about this event was that it took a year of dreaming about it and dreaming about it during the pandemic, you know, a time of no time or a time of everything feeling off of its access. So the first sort of seed for it was when Sean Mina and I met on Zoom in like May of 2020. Compo had shut down rehearsals for my play in March. That was supposed to go up side effects. We all were taking like March and April to kind of figure out what was happening in the world. Everything was very chaotic and scary. So we met by Zoom and, you know, now Zoom is the norm, you know? But then it was still kind of like, oh, I guess this is what we're doing. I guess this is how we're connecting and keeping our humanity. And so we were all kind of processing. It was kind of a therapy session a little bit. And for whatever reason, I had Jonestown and the People's Temple in my mind really strongly, I think, because I felt so locked down in San Francisco. And that event in my mind is something that rocked me as a child. And I don't feel it's ever properly been sort of recognized by the city. So for whatever reason, that was bubbling up in my psyche and just this idea that, you know, 50 odd years later, 40, 50 odd years later, I think most Black people were still having like, I wish I could run away to some other rural place and live off the land and live, you know, with my own community type of thing. And with Trump and all of that, just how unsettling that was, you know, for all that time to have passed and to still feel at this place of being on the run or still dreaming of a world that seems so futuristic, even though it's really simple what people want, you know. And I said to Sean and Mina, I wish we could, I just want to feed my community. Like I wish we could just have a revolutionary feast. And they were like, okay, yeah, let's let's hold that idea. Let's explore that. So that's what we did, you know, over the rest of 2020, whenever we would check in monthly, we would talk about that and say like, okay, what do we, what do we think about that? When do we think we could try to do it? We set a date for June 2021. Totally in the dark, just, you know, a dart of like, that's what we're going to try to hit. And it grew from there. By the end of the year, you know, towards December, I started having these visions about people washing up on shore, like walking down an empty beach and coming across people who had washed up after, you know, a storm kind of thing and wanting to, again, gather people, bring them towards a fire and say, you know, here's a blanket, let me warm you up and let's talk about what we've just been through and what we're currently going through. So I expressed that to them as well. And then we started to get more into like the nitty gritty of like, okay, well, what might the day look like? You know, I really wanted there to be amazing food. And I also wanted to feed people's spirits and their psyche. So then we started talking about what artists, you know, that we could use and invite to be a part of this. And it just continued to blossom slowly from there. The top of 2021 brought, you know, the storming of the capital and the whole whatever that, you know, whatever that was about. And I wrote something that I want to share actually that I shared with the artists who participated in the day. And it was just me really trying to process what the year had been and what where we were going leading into the feast. Like the feast was really something that was sprung out of my heart. And I kept just following my gut and walking on instinct towards this destination that I knew I wanted to reach. So I wrote something called things a playwright kept to herself in 2020, when asked what have you been up to during zoom happy hours. I've been counting the zeros in your gaze, while our minds mirror error codes error codes across these screens turned map, easing my way down a blue light road, following the haunted echo in my chest, where crown chaos collects payment on a corner called breath. I've been tallying historical repetitions, but mostly listening for the rhythmic double Dutch of resurrection, asking myself if I possessed the stamina to build a world made free after I meet you in the pocket and we move from there clean and quiet as a holy blade. I've been thanking madness for holding on to the miracle while watering the swollen promise seated within a system down protocol tangled around my ankles like a sweaty nightgown got me stretched naked in a poppy field of black fury. We're all landscape now you and me. No more presidents needed dead or otherwise. All those underground months spent trust over milky cold and left our hearts spoon tender, even as multiple fires still dare us to finally fall off the bone. So I'd say more than anything I've been awaiting a call to feast. So yeah I mean that was um that's where I was coming from and I and we just we set the table you know and and then you saw a little bit of the that's probably the first 30 seconds of everyone seeing each other and then the whole day as well. Yeah those are just some some candidates of what of what the energy in the day was like and just to set the picture for folks too because we were still I mean what's so deep about it is that what star has explained is that she visioned something in the midst of this madness right that would be a release and before we can even get to that stage we had to we had to prepare it in some ways you know producer wise so as a group collaboratively we set that stage but we're also in the midst of the the health madness of actual fucking pandemic and so we wanted so badly to be together and to realize this vision but we were also being as cautious as we could um and so this moment in time is August right where madness is leaking out again but if you can just imagine a couple months back it was it was the great release the gates got back opened back up and so we was already just like let's rush through the fields together and be with each other but we were also being cautious and so we had planned it prior to June but wanted to do it very limited for health's sake so we were preparing it as Crider Fire and Composanto and that were required you know 10 of us to you know get the food ready get the flowers ready this that and the other and so we really could we wanted to limit it to 40 people so we would be 50 people total and it was in an outdoor setting and at this point there's sensible sane human beings were vaccinated as well but fresh air of Oakland California but it became very more precious in some ways because we needed to to keep it special and limited in that way shall we roll let's go I just wanted to say it was just amazing I think prescient the timing because it was the first time for almost all of us to actually be outside of our germ pods you know outside of our homes with other people and it was such a strange and beautiful sensation to be in our full bodies I think we're all we're gonna do the intro well I mean maybe while we're waiting for the video to roll star do you want to talk about just how you know how the different artists you commissioned and also in terms of the melon playwright residency and the discretionary funds like how that was powerful to be able to support artists during this time for the yeah for sure I had discretionary funds through the melon foundation grant so I was able to add three more artists to participate and that's not something that I was usually used to as a playwright to be like in producer mode of like oh yeah I want more I'm gonna I'm gonna do that I'm gonna press the button on that and make that happen so that was super you know super dope to be able to take control you know as the playwright and and and punching the vision exactly how I saw it we had Troy rocket which we'll see and he did a piece that was super magical and like we'll get to that and the specifics of that and then we also had oyster knife and that performance was one that I feel like it just captured everyone's emotion of the day of just we're still here and we're alive and it's magical and what are we going to to do with that you know I think you know we put we put tissues on all the tables for a reason because it was overwhelming you know and Ryan kind of breaks it down when she frames the day for us but it was a lot to be around people again and remember that zoom isn't it and um connecting with other human beings involves exchanges of energy and just watching that and participating in that um was almost a holy experience for me like at the end of the day my body when I got home it was so fried like I literally felt like I got hit by a trunk a truck but at the same time like my my spirit and my energy was like vibrating out of my body and that stayed with me for days like for days after I literally had almost a high just like a love buzz high and um it was everything you know I think we're ready to roll the video okay cool ceremony and everything that you do from this moment forward will be ceremony we want to make sure and I want to compel all of us to make sure that we don't jump back into the world as it was or jump back into the world without communicating first to ourselves what we intend for it to be and communicate to the world what it has to be for us so we're here right yeah yeah yeah I share I share every word is an incantation every hug is a prayer right like for real we we didn't get to do this and I think that that pause was quite intentional from the universe um and so we have to acknowledge it as we reemerge and so I'm going to start by introducing the first performer of the afternoon and then things will just roll and um I invite us all to really just really be open and present to this I maybe I'm saying this more for myself right but just to um absorb every word I'm going to read every word of every bio I am going to taste every flavor of every food right I'm going to savor every drop of every beverage I'm going to do my best to look into everybody's eyes I don't do human contact very well as it is awkward is like what I do but uh but I'm going to do my damnedest to just really connect with each one of you even for a second and just know that I'm I'm I'm really trying I'm really rocket Troy rocket uses art to return to self and to explore new possibilities of connection go on and receive yourself right now Troy Troy is interested in the healing components of art and technologies Troy's peace is called administration administration is an interactive writing exercise of self-indulgence and the reimagination of touch during a global pandemic mm-hmm two black queer bodies one fem and the other trans mass engage in a in virtual musings after surviving a year of single them horrendous leadership anti-blackness and betrayal just as the vaccine became available to the public Troy rocket met Olivia Hunt in Zoom space their introductory conversations naturally led to stories of survival as abundantly black beings hello abundantly black yeah Troy came up with a prompt quote this year my skin was mine in quote this year my skin was mine and invited Olivia Hunt to partake the two pieces of writing will be joined for the first time on Saturday June 12th we're lucky Olivia and Troy have yet to meet in person administration invites you to witness an introduction and a return to one's own touch so like real this is facts like I wrote a piece Olivia did not know that piece Olivia wrote a separate piece to the prompt the year my skin was mine and we were like we're gonna put it together right now for you and this is like what's happening so all right so we'll just get started and just like our outfits we didn't coordinate this okay the year my skin was mine touch was discouraged but my pap smear is still scheduled I did not want grief making a home a permanent home of my body and typically they aren't so bad but a year without touch and this was one of the only options as trauma has already permeated the top layers of my delicate skin and is doing the its best to reside within my marrow at my appointment my doctor tells me about a new bill that was passed and gave me suggestions about freezing my eggs the speculums still inside this body my skin always a target within the constricting borders of our predatory society but this year my skin is mine and I'm no longer taking suggestions about what to do in or with this body but I don't reside there I go home and fill in the space differently on my terms my dark also smooth and also vibrant melanated skin little magic that tells the my resilience go out let the sun greet me go on hikes and take my shoes off to be touched to touch soil with the bottoms of my flat feet so in a year without penetrating foreign gazes I turn inward intentionally care of yourself the year my skin was mine I didn't only forget touch I forgot my shoes I forgot my underwear I forgot work I forgot words I'm guarded and vulnerable a break open lean in and journey through the multi-dimensional portals present within me and now even after I emerge from an odd sort of hibernation I have to remind myself of the days self-pleasure as the roadmap with which I remedied woundedness their names like food term plaque in the mouth what's the flavor of a sundae indulgence my vice a reflection of my defiance became a necessary act for survival and resistance but boy you ain't worn your church shoes in years during a year when the world was in disarray and as we shift our gears once more I notice I'm looking at the time more and paying less attention to my natural tics but in my skin I witnessed myself and held close into the things that brought comfort the year my skin was mine I was less robotic nothing energizing about this rapid an immersive process in which I surrendered to put pure mischief of insatiable desire to the pure mischief of insatiable desires wish my student loan debt was a naps because I paid those off daily I devoured self to be abundant abundant in all things especially rest receive the touches I heatedly long for let the grief settle in submitted fully to my own skillful pleasuring the grief been here savored the taste of my own juices and here abundance never lacked so I get comfortable with discomfort the scent lingers understand touch is a vibration that can be called upon pleasure looked like many things last year and the absence of that familiar friction the want grows on me like fungi gave my body the rest it desperately demanded ecosystems of memory breed sought refuge and in turn found solace in this isolation well didn't you know to be black is to have been touched different as I hear furiously explored the depths of my being well didn't you know to be black girl is to have been touched different in process stripped stripped away tired old narratives we died and we survived remembering as an abundantly dynamic being there are no prerequisites to honouring self I say I made it I worship I return to softness I say I made it this far made an altar of this tender body but the more I'm here I start to look around dear self I forgive you for my harshness I'm missing some things and not everybody I love is here 2020 ceremoniously engaged in the reclamation of my being we died and survived so here I am presently mirroring goodness I say I made it carved out the space I never had and gave self permission I did not know was needed to cultivate this level of self intimacy I say I made it this far I am more than a vessel and labor did not need not be my baseline the year my skin was mine and grossed in self immersed in my softness look at you reimagining touch to behold I say a prayer to my body thank you for existing and gratitude I'm so grateful that when the pandemic hit I had so much memory of touch tucked into all my creases I have you haven't been transformed by your own touch what does it mean for a black man to ask for touch this is ceremony we are here for ritual whether you knew it or not this is a feast of resilience uh the altar inside I don't know if you saw it I don't know if you participated or or you know working with it put something in it on it so on and so forth but an altar is a table I can't do it I can't do it for it I want to sound I'm gonna just practice more at home in the mirror practice for my ghrelian I should have been doing zones with my ghrelian this whole time an altar is a table used as the focus for ritual especially for making sacrifices or an offering to a deity this whole thing I'm gonna say it three thousand times today is ceremony you are at church this is religious and a spiritual experience we are about to break bread at an altar a table we will enjoy the sacrifices of somebody's labor some beings body while you are doing that as I opened this before I want you to savor the labor right enjoy every moment acknowledge the work that was put in to preparing the meals and this entire experience for us for you to share with one another so in that vein please check out the images that are in there my brits since please visit the altar please leave something at the altar um and if you didn't yet be an altar unto yourselves so the music will turn on go grab some food enjoy the feast of resilience all right this is ceremony beautiful beautiful to see Troy and everybody I just want to sort of say in a framing uh to elaborate on what star was saying so that that was video from the day captured by David Mai who shot and edited everything and star had commissioned five amazing artists and five amazing groups Troy rocket oyster knife brits sense Britney sense of all photographer uh San Francisco poet laureate the great tango icin martin and the one only rashad pigeon ritual masquerade performer out of body experiencer for us all and what you got to see folks through the technological stuff was just a taste which was really the opening for it all so you want to take it meaner shall we yeah I mean I think it will be great to hear from Troy and Ellen I think what we've spent a lot of time reflecting on after the event was just how it was ritual how it was intentionally stepping back into space with each other and how you know it would have felt so strange and empty not to have that to just go in back into business as usual because it's no longer business as usual and Ellen I think as you said you know like there was never any norm like that's all just cover up that's not real and what is real is the moment that we're in so we'd love to hear from you Ellen about what that day meant to you and to all of us together collectively can you hear me okay yes okay um when star first asked me to attend the event and she said I'd like you to speak at that moment in time I was very hesitant not to come to the event but hesitant to speak because I felt that after a year words were starting to and I think they're continuing to kind of fail me in the understanding of the incredible epic change that we're going through as a species that's called human and so I I star and I text back and forth a lot before that event and it was really for myself I just kept saying star all my instinct tells me is that I'm trusting you and I'm following you even when I'm feeling profoundly lost and showing up at the end in fact I actually went to a different location and was profoundly lost and trying to find my way there and when I got there I just felt you know I'll say I felt really splintered and shattered and like what's going on but as soon as I came out of that elevator and onto the rooftop and saw all the bodies of people that I had not seen in so long all of a sudden it was like that in profound exhale and I was like oh I understand on a deep cellular level what well why this was needed and viewing Troy's piece again what what really has leapt out for me in this moment is that as an artist as a collaborative artist I just felt like what a profound risk what a profound risk that Troy and their collaborator took profound to just say I'm going to put out a statement where we don't know each other but we're going to take a risk with each other and so what it brought up for me is that so much the way theater and art has been under the guise of professionalism has been hobbled and corralled and that we really don't take risk anymore we pretend and we we we act like we're taking risk but that day was about the beauty of creative risk taking and Troy's work of all the works there they were all brilliant but Troy's work for me was like well this is the kind of tension that I miss in theater and the arts that kind of tension that's living rather than rehearsed there's something magical about it and electric about it because of the fact I said oh this is this sexy you know this this this is what sexy feels like when you're that old cliche that's the creativity of life you know so it's it was beautiful to me I really loved it and I that could only happen because star took in Mina and Shawn the three of you met and decided we're going to take an incredible creative risk to say how are we in proximity together the risk of proximity after so long of being apart and how close do we need to be to to touch each other is it six feet is it across the room and I realized yeah you can be way across the room or across the country and start to vibrationally connect so I'll just I'll just stop there and I will add it's so strange to to get ready to hug people and everyone say I've been vaccinated and then my response me too and so it's like I don't know what's happening and I still don't know but yeah it was beautiful it was really beautiful I want to briefly just add um context for Troy's piece like you want we reached out to all the artists maybe two days before and Troy we thought Troy was just gonna do a monologue and Troy was like actually I want to do something with this collaborative thing and my first response was like oh like I don't know about zoom like I don't think zoom is sort of the the vibe of this event and Troy was totally like cool about it and he was like all right you know I'll just read mine and then I'll give a link to the other piece and it could be like this cool like treasure map kind of thing through like cool so then I walk in Saturday morning and Troy comes in with Olivia and he's just like oh yes you know she got on plane and she came out here we're gonna do it together and I was like oh okay that's the type of magic we on today like that's right it's go time clearly uh that's great was that experience like for you uh I mean yeah just thank you son you know um I think I discussed with Olivia after the event we were talking like so much of being a black person is about the pandemic and what that space offered me was that I forgot about surviving for a moment and that was like oh snap is this what it feels like so it just it was just a testament to how we need more which you know and how yeah the arts that's what it is for me for all ceremonies all Richmond to go that much time without it yeah that was that was uh it was just I needed that and just the um just what you said Ellen I really relate to that you know because like when I got the call from star and Sean I was like okay hmm I was getting into that mode again when you said like not to pretend but just to like having to be polished and all all the time you know I was like all right I got a couple pieces you know uh all right and then I was like no that's not where we're at that's not where I'm at and so um it was just really great to show up where I was at you know I'm not polished I don't have any problems with like that's just where I wasn't at oh yeah I just have to say it was polished and actually viewing it again made it just shine even brighter for me to witness it a second time was that there's things that I missed the first time so actually having it captured um to view again really made me say oh this is this is where we all want to be everyone wants to say hey man you know I was at the first Jimi Hendrix concert you know because this is why this work is live because anything can happen it is not zoom it is not television it is not film it is alive it is it is hopefully smelling the sweat and breathing it all in so actually seeing it again I said oh yeah I'm having a memory of how it felt in that moment to witness these two people have just met they are in physical space together and that added a kind of tension to the whole thing but what I call good tension you need tension to hold the table up you need tension gravity is tension you know it's and so to me uh uh no I I have to say oh you it was polished in a way that we don't witness enough because you're already polishing your craft every day inside yourself so when you show up you're you're gonna shine because you're already doing that you know so I thought you took a beautiful risk and I I personally I just I loved it I loved it thank you it was also nice to get dressed yes that part I know it's great everybody dressed up hey Ellen can you there's something about you know the energy of necessity that was happening that day and we needed to touch we needed to express we needed to release and you had said something during the share about capturing kind of that energy but how we how we move forward from here with true intention with bold intention and we're just like about it intention and real black intention community intention in can you speak on that a little bit it was just it was just so profound and it's been it's been something I've locked inside my being to sort of you know it's my it's my little compass you know so that we don't get back into the thing go like I'm gonna do a cute little show or whatever whatever but there's something about that necessity part that we can hold on to and it kind of focus refocus me a little bit I think if we're really present every day we're not going back to business as usual we're not it's over South Lake Tahoe you know everything you know we don't know what's going to happen with Hurricane Ida it's over it's over the way that we that this nation will call it America built empire and and try to spread and did spread its mentality and its global laws and global control you know it's it's done you know and there comes a point I think even stars vision of like okay I'm just gonna pick a date and I love that image of stars saying like I'm just shooting a dart into the unknown that's that's how we that is our intention those of us I mean we have to take it I mean if people are talking about spiritual wisdom all this stuff and I go then people take your spiritual machete and just start hacking the path and stop pretending like you know what the landscape is you not going to know what the landscape is until until you have the courage to take that that spiritual machete and like oh and and not everybody's going to be able to do that and that's okay don't I don't think we should put our pressure on us and you need to no no no because we I think what's really valuable right now is to undo the language like undo the language of leadership because that to me is done leadership is over we don't know where the guidance will come from so I'm I'm changing my language and I'm nobody's leader but at the right moment with the right time I might be able to guide something because if we're all cutting through these paths I might get to one point in my path and go oh fuck I don't know should I go this way should I go that way and then star steps on out of the jungle out of the weeds and star says and I look in star's eyes and star says you know I got something over this way and then my decision am I going to keep going into them okay no I'm going to follow star I'm going to be guided by star and then along the path Nina steps in and Sean and Troy and Joan and all this and then we like to say okay this is this is looking good right here let's let's let's lay out the table right here for a minute and because now we're all we're you know America what we're doing right now and everybody's scrambling and except those who have wealth in real estate and have created the loss keep trying to get us to to buy into what was and so I'm not buying I'm gonna and that's fear based because yes what will we do as a nation if hundreds of thousand of people are evicted based upon the new supreme court ruling what will we do who is our audience who are we creating with who are we creating for who are we feasting with so I think this is a fabulous opportunity to ask ourselves really exciting questions because we forget we've always been pioneers and I think that the thing about a lot of black bodies and brown bodies and including First Nations bodies you know white supremacy has been making us roam and and plant and figure out desert environments and for centuries now so we're ready for this we're ready for this let's just admit it we ready and make the effort and the work I'm here for this I think this and I think um visionaries like star and compo and you know crowd of fire and troids yeah we're here to play what is play play is I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm gonna be a bitch here but play is not copyrighted watch anyone that has children go watch children play and then you come in as the big big parent and say wait are you singing the spongebob song and playing with your little toys there well that's copyrighted and watch your kids look at you like you know so let's not kill ourselves with these laws that we didn't make because these laws that came in and stole everything and then made a law and so I'm not here to play with that kind of law because as I said if I had followed the law if Rosa Parks had followed the law we'd all still be sitting at the back of the bus so let's not talk about the law but I love y'all so I'm done thank you and Ellen thanks no offense to anybody that getting a paycheck from the law I guess all right because we still gotta pay too okay you heard it here I marked the day how around everybody get your spiritual machetes on are you gonna be lost in the jungle people lost in the jungle I'm not going to be lost I'm going to be with star yeah I just wanted to quickly say that building on what Ellen said that it's really all about dreaming while awake like clearly we wake up and the nightmare is here and we have to start dreaming while we're awake that day felt like a dream to me it felt like a creative portal and what came through to me is just that like we have all the tools you know it's not some future thing it's within us we're already there and we're already here and we have to reclaim our time literally and dream with our eyes open because the nightmare is always going to be there so it's like we gotta create our own spiritual path with that yeah it's wild too just in terms of the the work mode it's like you know we call star compost onto the third eye you know helps us see see beyond the bush it keeps us rooted in the daily but see beyond the bush and we're in the middle of rehearsing this play that we've been working on forever for some beautiful play side effects and then we all went into the you know the chaos of shelter in place and and then you stayed dreaming while awake you know starting it just in that energy it even through the zoom zoom rooms and all that other nonsense we're it's still penetrated and we're still creating and gathering because of it we're going to do more of it I mean uh stars piece side effects we we decided to film in in the midst of the the madness and that'll come out sometime in this year or something like that and and then star still has the two uh plays that are going to happen yeah shipping and handling so handling will drop with crowded fire and um and then um another play currently titled Josephine that was is directed by Ellen Sebastian Chang and Troy you better be in it um and it will be a beautiful thing and um we're actually going to do both of those pieces at magic theater in San Francisco here so we're going to have to change the name of the theater pretty pretty soon so just be the star child theater and come one come all coming soon to our theater where you all um but um I think that um does I want to say thank you to the people that also thank you obviously how around for making this happen this event obviously happened but the whole of the thing we're meeting and I started off with like to have support and visionary support that looks outside of box two is just it's so so necessary it's so so necessary like we're strivers and we would still we're never going to stop telling the story so we'll do it but to have support and the amplification that you get from some just and with bread because we do need bread um that we get from the melon and how round is this amazing and to think that too little joints that believe in people of color rightfully centered with crowded fire and composanto are the group that said hey can we do something together to support this beautiful amazing playwright and and you all made that happen so thank you all for making that happen and the event really wouldn't have happened without crowd of fire with bethany heron and santo the the woman that makes the world spin on its axis my theater wife john asato the producing director of problem and britney white both making this event happen and that event happened so that's that's all love and you all are theater geeks that are listening to it so you know that us five represent 500 people that make every event that we do possible so thank you to all the famigians of crowd of fire and composanto thank you and i also want to put out a shout out to um california arts council because during the pandemic you know a lot of foundations and this is for all the foundations who are listening there was a lot more flexibility and it came down to just trusting us with this vision and so we were able to move a grant that we weren't you know we were not able to produce and so that's where we were like listening and in a position to like let's use this resource and then not only will this be a moment of ritual this will be a way to support um with the bread the artists that we were connected to so thank you for that and i hope from that continues you know like talking about a new world like how do we step into this together and trust the artists to move forward with a vision yeah yeah absolutely beautiful and some of the images david mine did the video like i said in our own great genius jonas i captured some of those portraits and i'm told we're just some of the other photographs that you saw i just want to put their names in the air again because they made so much magic happen and continue to is ryan nicole peters austin who was our emcee for the day and ryan is just like the illest multi-talent um poet performer artist producer making up new words for the nomenclature because she does it all and then oyster knife an amazing profound performance dance theatrical duo and they're about to drop a new piece if you're in the bay coming up in right at the top of september the great photographer brit sense you should get online and look for brit sense she captures our neighborhoods beautifully um britney sense of odds her her full name but brint sense is the photographer's name and then the great san francisco poet laureate tango isan martin and actually we're gonna have a live concert with tango isan martin if anyone's in the bay at magic theater october 15 you've heard it here people tango isan martin so in about 15 years everyone's going to go up in that classic album drop that day that will be october 15 2021 and then the great profound vava rishad pridgen this amazing masquerading outer inner spiritual body performer who does things that are too supernatural to have words for so look for all of those names those are amazing beautiful profound black capital b black performers in the bay here and so whatever the numbers tell you with this bullshit census the bay is going to stay black and san francisco been trying to destroy it's never going to happen so come out here if you want to see some of this beautiful art with us and thank you all for joining us star a lot of words wait wait wait shon i want to plug too wait because troye troye is going to be with it's in the displace written by isaac gomez and we are actually heading into tech next week so it was wild today even to move from the rehearsal hall where we were in our full bodies to being on this you know zoomie zoom or i was like oh wait i don't want to go back i'm not ready like it's um it's been amazing and such tremendous tremendous tremendous talent and artistry and it's uh we're doing a piece on displacement it's going to be wild it's a horror play so it's going to be visceral and you will be in your body shaking in your boots so come on and see it we open september 17 yeah and that's going to be live and that should have been in the link to how we're on link for for tickets and more information on crowded fire theater there come on we're going to do a toast darling come on let's put it in the air yeah i just want to say uh thanks shon and nina and of course compo and crowded fire um um it was just like literally the feeling of a dream come true and um let's all continue the dream out loud and thanks for joining today thank you thank you blessings to everyone thank you