Welcome everybody back to the Segal talks here at the Graduate Center CUNY, the City University of New York in Manhattan. It's a start of another week of uncertainty and big discussions of opening and closing of rising unemployment numbers. We haven't seen since the Great Depression over 30 or 33 million countries in Europe. They are carefully opening schools and businesses and we see cases coming back. So we look out of our windows for weeks now whereas the reality outside and inside we have the uncertainty of our own existence and all these weeks, if you have been listening before, we have been talking to theater artists from all around the globe, now over 30 artists from India, Pakistan, Egypt, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, everywhere. And today we are back to one of the significant countries in Africa, South Africa, that has been so much of the mind of everybody who was on the side of social justice of progressive justice and the site of life. And we feel that theater artists always have been on that right side. And especially if you look at South Africa, we had the Great Basil Jones with us from the handspring. They were on the right side and if people would have listened to them earlier, the country would have saved a lot of trouble. And in South Africa is a theater that's also as significant and well known as the Bouff d'Inaud or the Chaubeuner Berlin. They got an ensemble of the public theater, Lincoln Center, Namib Piccolo, Milano and so many others. There is the Great Market Theater. And with us is Ismail Mohammed, who is running it, who is a director of it, who has done many, many festivals. He is a part of the landscape of theater in Africa, especially of course in South Africa. And it's a time where we feel very strongly that we should listen to what theater artists have to say, what they are thinking about and to take it really serious. As theater artists, if you're listening in as student or practitioners or your right or your teacher, this is of significance, but also for us, all of us will go to theater who interested in the arts who look to theater to create meaning for life where we come from, where we are, where we are going to. And of course this is a moment of a global crisis, of a real, real crisis, unprecedented.  We don't know what will happen and how long this will be going on, will be on top of the mountain or just starting or we are going down already, nobody knows. So Ismail, thank you for joining us. Thank you very much Frank and thank you to everyone who's watching and thank you mostly for the world that stood with South Africa when we needed the world to stand with us during our fight for social justice and fight against apartheid and fight for a new democracy. So thank you very much. A lot of it was done through the arts, through the artistic community. Thank you. Where are you right now and what time is it? It's now just past six in the evening. I'm in my home in Johannesburg. We're all under lockdown conditions. South Africa has five levels in terms of the lockdown. So we've just come out of level five, which has been the most stringent lockdown. And we're now at level four, which means that there are certain rigid conditions still attached to the lockdown. All our theaters still remain closed. But we also in the next hour we're going to go into a curfew time, where there may be no movement out of doors between eight o'clock to five in the six o'clock the next morning. So everything comes to a complete standstill, despite the fact that we may have some movement and limited number of companies operating during the daytime businesses, but theaters all remain closed. For how long have you been in lockdown in Johannesburg? We've, the country has been in lockdowns from the end of March. So around the 26th of March we went into lockdown. We've been at that level for at least initially it was supposed to be for three weeks and then extended for two further weeks. And as from the beginning of May, we've been at level four, which means that some corporate companies can open under very rigid conditions. There's limited number of people at work. Everyone has to wear a face mask. Once they leave their home, they have to be gazetted by government as essential workers in order to be able to work. So yeah, we think we probably would be in the state for quite some time. The numbers in South Africa only began to be much later than it did in Europe and other parts of the world. And I think the initial response from our government to close down and shut down immediately so that hospitals could prepare the medical facilities and so forth so that we would be able to flatten the curve much faster than most other countries across the globe. You know the initial responses over the first few weeks was met with, I think a great deal of support throughout the country. The last two weeks has been a little strenuous with some people resisting it, but also there are other social problems attached to it in that we, we still a country with so many divides social divides that we've inherited from apartheid So the fact that over the last 10 years in particular we've had were political leadership and you know high levels of corruption in government which meant that we still live with communities that are socially disnerved communities that have communities that don't. So while it's easy in suburbs that such the one that I live in to be able to lock down and to stay in your home. It's incredibly difficult in in the informal settlements and in townships where people live 12 people to a one room shack. How do you socially distance in that place. If people have such poor conditions and high levels of unemployment. You know they dependent on food parcels and if those food parcels from state and not delivered efficiently or adequately you're bound to have people protesting you're bound to have people wanting to go out break the rules to go and look for food for their families and those are issues that the last two weeks of the lockdown has brought to the fall. And I think the very first two days of the lockdown has reawakened a consciousness in our country of just how much we still need to do in order to bring about quality and social justice in our country. How does it materialize how do you how does the country know we have to do a lot so we are not there yet. Is it discussions between people on television or in family how I think at the present moment it's social media that has raised the consciousness of people to a large extent. So we got down to lockdown, people began to depend on WhatsApp groups on Facebook to a large extent on Twitter for information. You know print media has suffered to a large extent and we've also just seen in the last week where at least one major publishing house as shut down a number of its publications. To a large extent people are depending on online information and there is a risk to that as well because you also get lots of fake news does take some level of discerning as to how you draw the information you want. But I think what is really exciting is that at this particular point. The country is really engaged, not just with the scare about the pandemic, but the reality of the country that we live in the failures of our government in some extent successes that we have achieved as a country, and how we all need to do to work together that looking after wearing a mask is not just looking after yourself. It's also looking after the other person that you interact and engage with.  Well, I've been out of my house about a week ago but that was largely to go out for shopping for essentials that I needed it was about an hour out of the house. And it really was quite strange because the, the area which I live in, in, which is Rose Bank in my rose in Johannesburg is quite a busy area. I've got to traverse or cross over a very busy street. The, the, the fast rail track is about five minutes walk from my house that's all deserted, the streets are deserted. We're out in the mornings between six and 69 o'clock for recreational walks of a jogging but anything after that, everything becomes very very quiet. The shopping malls are quiet, the streets are deserted. You can you can hear an eerie silence wherever you go. That's such a, such a big, big, big change of what we perceive as a reality and what we thought is our way of life isn't and it's changed so fast. How do you feel? How do you feel as an, as a, as a person, as Ismael, how, what, how, what are you thinking about? Well, I think, you know, working in a social in a theater space means that you're constantly in the presence of people. We work in a space where we touch people where we connect with people, both physically and emotionally and intellectually, and not being able to be in the space with anyone else. You can find in your room and though you're able to engage with people electronically, telephonically by WhatsApp, by Zoom meetings through other forms of technology, what we really do is the human touch, the human context. And I think, you know, in South Africa, particularly where the philosophy of Ubuntu, the caring for the other. Ubuntu, say again? Ubuntu. Ubuntu. Ubuntu, which is about the basic humanity that we all have of being able to share, not just our ideas, but also our space with other people is somewhat compromised by this lockdown.  It does drain you in, you know, just knowing that you don't have the real physical context that defines you as a human being. Yeah. So how do you spend your day? Well, I am working from home. The management team of the Market Theatres, all working from home, you know, by emails, by telephone calls and so forth. So a significant part of my day, at least the morning part is about doing work for the Market Theatre Foundation. We have time in the afternoons in dialogue with artists and, you know, cultural workers from other parts of the globe, engaging in a similar dialogue as the one that you and I are having today. And I think for me that is particularly important because as a country that came out of international isolation in 1992, just before we got into a new democracy. We were actually working against South Africa, so we had really, while we had allies that fought against apartheid, culturally we were isolated. And in post-94, we established a large number of international contexts, collaborations, partnerships, exchanges. And I'm particularly interested in the power of the arts to unite us as a world community. So for me, at this particular time where physical exchanges between artists and arts administrators is not possible to take place. I think it's crucially important that as an artistic community across the globe that we still engage with each other because we don't know for how long we are going to be separated physically. The engagement that we have with each other in this way means that we can still share ideas, we can still continue to address the issues of the globe through the arts in different dynamic ways. And that we support each other through this pandemic, and that when we are out of this pandemic, we're not starting the process of discovery, we are at least holding hands, if not physically, metaphorically we are. You say you're in contact with artists and cultural workers in South Africa, how is the mood? What's on people's mind? Well I think, you know, the first part of the lockdown left people despondent in the arts sector, it was a loss of jobs, it was a loss of the sacred space in which you work in, in which you assemble the theaters. And that it's not just about losing contact with each other as artists, it's losing contact with audiences and the inability to be able to dialogue with our audiences in the way that we do through storytelling, through the creation of our work, through absorbing the atmosphere and the emotions of our audiences in our theaters. But I think, you know, as we moved into the second week, and particularly in South Africa where economics plays a very important part in the lives of artists, because whilst theaters may be supported by the state, that support is largely for infrastructure and for operations. It does not support artistic content and it does not support artists. So you mean you have to raise money for artists through ticket sales or? Yes, through ticket sales, through sponsorship, through foundations, through public philanthropy, we raise money for programs. So, you know, given the fact that artists don't have secure jobs, means that that the levels of despondency intensified, but there's also a desperation with some artists to want to do some things online. So, hoping that in some way or the other they will be able to monetize what they're doing, knowing full well that what they're doing is not theater. It's online work, it's partly film, it may be a hybrid genre of work that we're beginning to invent at this particular time as a mode for survival, so that we're able to at least earn some kind of money as artists. So through the theater foundation, we did commission artists in the initial phases to be able to do some kind of work, you know, whether that was putting on pieces of monologues on television, on online platforms. But that was in the first 10 days of the lockdown where, you know, everyone needed to reconfigure what we were doing, but we full well knew that that will never ever take the place of live theater. And what we've encouraged over the last four to five weeks is funding artists to take part in these kind of discussions with fellow artists from across the country, and also the globe. So wonderful collaboration with with artists in Sweden, facilitated through ourselves and the embassy of Sweden and a community based organization called here my voice in South Africa, where we've had a weekly series of dialogues between artists with some performances and artists in there. And that that's created a great sense of unity amongst the community, but also one of support for them to be able to feed each of each other, both in terms of inspiration, but just emotionally. And now in South Africa where we also grappling with the fact that although the government has announced relief efforts for sectors that are affected by the lockdown economic sectors. The arts community has been waiting for almost six to seven weeks for some sort of relief from government. And that's taken a long, long while it's still in process it's not forthcoming as fast as artists thought it would be forthcoming. We have to create levels of dissolution and with the state, and particularly with, to some extent, the, the ministry of arts and culture. You know, I think if, if one talks of the concept of relief, then one has to work with a sense of emergency. If it takes six to seven weeks to begin to respond to relief calls, then I think one doesn't understand the, the concept of emergency, but now that this one understand the concept of it. I think also in New York and up to eight, nine, 10 months, everything has been canceled, artists are out of work. And musicians also, but so many people who are used to work on, on, on freelance on so many productions also enjoyed that kind of life that kind of is all the complications, but it's something very vibrant about it. And this has come to a full stop and of course there's no health insurance. I don't know is there health insurance for artists in South Africa. No, unfortunately not. You know, the arts is not very, very regulated in South Africa so there's very little legislation to support artistic communities. There are hardly strong unions in the greater sector. So these are all problems that add to the challenges. You know, we also deal with the fact that we, when we came out of apartheid, we didn't have a very structured and effective ministry of arts and culture that service the entire country and all its populations one needed to be structured. We also had fundamental flaws with the way that government has deployed ministers to that particular department. We know for a fact that in the six administration that we have had so far that very often ministers that have been deployed to the Department of Arts and Culture. We had no passion, no understanding real understanding of the creative sector. And hence we've had lots and lots of problems with being able to devise policies that aid and support the creative economy and the artists in particular. There was a devastating effect that apartheid had during apartheid but also of course in the long term what we still suffer from most probably also for four decades. Laurent Clavel from the French Cultural Service in New York also said you have to talk to Ismael Muhammad and then of course you are on our list. Also, but he said, you know, about your work tell us why is the market theater special in Johannesburg. What, what makes it different and is something changing at the moment is thinking what you do something is the needle moving. Yeah, before the market theater foundation was was started as an independent theater in 1976, just two days after the historic suitor uprising that took place in June 16 1976 when the government the national government open gunfire on students in the townships that were protesting against the African's medium language, African's language being the medium of education in the country but since it was a greater resistance against apartheid driven by young people. And two days after that historic event, the market theater opened as a non racial theater in what was formerly an Indian fruit and vegetable market. The heart of Johannesburg. Now, at multiple levels that is very significant for me, particularly because my grandfather was a fruit and vegetable trader. My father was a regular traveler from forces which is miles and miles and miles away from Johannesburg to come to Johannesburg to to to transport fruit and vegetable take it back into the old town of forces which is miles and miles away. When I come back, you know, so many decades later in that very same building, not as the fruit and vegetable trader that my grandfather my father, but as the CEO of this particular institution where we no longer trade in fruit and vegetables but we trade in creativity we trade in ideas, we trade in language, we trade in debate, we trade in expression. But, but given that the market here when it opened at the time in 1976, the, there were four state institutions in South Africa one in the city of Cape Town, one in not just in Pretoria, which the diplomatic city, one in Durban and one in the free state which is largely Africans, and those theaters were only open to white people. So black people had no access to formal theaters that was supported by the state in any particular way, despite that there was a culture of theater that prevailed in in in black communities. In person, I was in a much more complex situation, even though I'm a fifth generation, South African, you know, my forefathers were from India, I'm fifth generation. And in the segregated communities that we lived in in South Africa, as an Indian person, I had no arts education in school which was what happened with the majority of black people in South Africa. I just suffered a further disadvantage in the sense that I grew up in what was a traditional Indian and a traditional Muslim community, where theater music dance was not encouraged culturally. And so I became exposed to the arts quite later in my life and I think it was in my final year of schooling of high schooling when Sueto had literally gone up in flames and that was in 1976, during the Sueto uprising, and we lived on the opposite of the railway track to Sueto, and we could see the flames going up, we could see the police going up there, that that in some way awakened a consciousness. But in the 80s, when when the country went through an enormous amount of repression and censorship. It was through the arts, through our theater, through our music, through our dance, that we informed our communities about what was happening in our country. Tell us a bit about it, what did you see, what did you do, what did you see first was inspired you and what did you feel, and what work that helped to change it. Looking to America where we also feel things have to change they cannot stay the way they are and they will not, but they should be because of what world can our play in theater, what did what worked. Well, I think for us as a community that was on the outside of the apartheid things. We found community through expression that what our artists were presenting on stage was our fears was our hopes. They were telling our stories. They were telling the dreams of what a free South Africa could be. And I think with that, that resonated so very, very strongly amongst us. And it's in that time that some of the most wonderful plays, such as Wasa Albert, some of Ethel Fugard's work, which, which speaks to that particular period of pain of dehumanization really connected South Africa with the world, and our stories beyond the world, but in some ways also allowing people to come into our theaters to be able to find information to find healing and post 1994. You know, whilst our theater itself the market theater attained a reputation as the home of protest theater South African protest theater because of the work that we did from 1976 right up to 1994. So suddenly Nelson Mandela arrived and gave us this whole new country. The, the, the word reconciliation was on every single person's lips in South Africa. It was about reaching out it was about forgiveness. How do you suddenly come out of your space where of protest to suddenly move into a theater space, and talk reconciliation, talk healing talk unity talk into in some way, but we managed to be able to do this as theater as theater workers. We found purpose in being able to tell new stories. We discovered we created those stories. Suddenly the world opened to us. The international cultural boy could fell the way we were able to engage with artists from across the globe that were connecting with South Africa and South Africa connecting with them. But, but you know we didn't get stuck in that romanticization of reconciliation we dealt with some of the difficult questions of, you know, just what do you need as a society to reconcile with what is it that you're going to reconcile with the truth and Reconciliation Commission that was a political platform really was theater in itself as well. And a lot of what was presented in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission also found its way into our theaters with with artists telling those same stories. I think we found a great deal of healing through that. Then we got into the, the period of HIV and AIDS. And we, we found that we feel it to a large extent played a vital role in addressing the issues of HIV AIDS and in terms of creating awareness in terms of creating support and healing, but also in terms of creating protest, because we do know that our president that time table and Becky wasn't very much an AIDS denialist in United. Yes, United. Yes. So, you know, theater with, I think in that particular period theater once again found its political voice of protest. And that was a wonderful shift to come suddenly from Mandela's posted, you know, a period of, of reconciliation healing loving reaching out unity to suddenly find we protesting. And this time we were not protesting against each other we're not protesting about a race we were protesting around a state around a president that was not sensitive to the HIV AIDS issues. We've since then dealt with issues of climate. We've dealt with issues of class, we've dealt with issues of identity in different ways. And I think particularly over the last double fears. We've seen young people in particular dealing with issues of decolonization of ideas decolonization of identity and so forth. So, we've, we've, we've, we've also come to this particular period of the particularly over the last 10 years during President zoom as rain where we knew, given his own reputation as a lander, the gender violence and gender insensitivity. And so, became so high and rife in our country that once again artists needed to make their voices heard, whether that was the song through music, the poetry to dance to speak out against gender violence to speak about, you know, equality amongst gender to address the body politics and surface sexuality gender, all the related political issues associated with that. And I think we've suddenly when when the, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit us, you know, what do we do, we don't go into silence as artists. We're seeing artists writing poetry. If a novel of short story, I mean, an anthology of short stories was compiled within the first two weeks and published in the third week. We're seeing artists constantly configuring this reconfiguring the space and asking, how are we going to talk about the issues related with this particular pandemic, not just, you know, what it means for our economy and so forth. But what does it mean for us personally. And I think that in the time that when we have to get back into our theaters, we are going to have lots and lots of stories to tell stories about isolation. We've told stories of isolation in the past, we told stories of Ruth first, we've told stories of Jeremy Cronin of Nelson Mandela of all the people that were in detention under apartheid. This time round, it's not just the leaders that are in detention or in isolation, but it's every single one of us. How do we use this opportunity for that kind of reflection for that kind of deeper delving into our inner humanity. How do we cope with isolation. And I think in the time that we're going to come back into theaters. For me it's not going to be just about the pandemic is open as as ended. It's not just the instruction to reopen and bring back your audiences. I think the first, at least the month, immediately after the lockdown period is going to be a time for us as theater workers to deal with ourselves to engage with each other. How do we deal with a colleague who may have lost a family member. How do you deal with an actor who's lost a lover in this pandemic. We can have to support each other we can have to deal with our emotions, because in the in the telling of our stories to our audiences, we need to be comfortable carriers of our own emotions. How do you deal with isolation. How do you do that. You said you haven't been out for a week and maybe goes once a week so how do you do it yourself. Well, you know, as I mentioned earlier, I live in a very networked community that even though I'm not seeing people physically, I'm engaging with people telephonically through Facebook through other forms of communication. And we is a way of remaining connected with people, but I also have made sure that in this particular period of the lockdown that I do find myself a therapist. Somebody that I at least once a week can talk to, because it's an I don't just carry my own emotions. I carry the emotions and the fears and the, and the concerns of anti institution, the people in it. But also, their families because they are realities of families wondering if this is to be extended are people going to lose their jobs. You know, we're talking about coming back into our theaters, where government last week issued a gazette to legislate state funded theaters to open their stages for artists who want to come and do recordings for online work. There are still questions to be asked about that. You know, if you're going to bring artists in that space to do online work. One is we asked the constant questions of, you know, how are we faking theater, and knowing that that is really not what we really are now theater spaces, but we're making it happen how we coming to terms with what is our deeper understanding of the arts and what we're doing as just to survive. But there are real issues of constant fear people walking in, who's been tested who's not been tested. What happens if somebody arrives at a rehearsal, and they suddenly don't have the temperature, the right temperatures to be allowed into the space. You know, to disrupt your space. You know, I think for me it's it's it's grappling with all of those logistical questions as the CEO of our institution. Bottom line is that the welfare of every single member of our team or just about 60 staff members risk on my shoulders, and I can simply open the doors tomorrow because government says, we need to open. You know, if you say stop government, you're not using your senses in this particular case. We need to provide support for artists in other ways at this particular time. You know, I can only imagine how that must be feeling to go personally through but also as artists but also responsible for the theater like the market because whatever you do as a symbolic value is a significant one. So it's so important it represents a model for something and we have to be honest we have to look for the truth and presented all its varieties the imagination, or truce of imagination and Oscar Eustis who we also had on who runs the public theater in New York he was for four or five days in the hospital he said one night he spent in the hallways in a Brooklyn hospital looking at the ceiling and saying what's going to happen to him what's going to happen to his theater to his family. 170 people. Yep. And institutions such as ours which is so deeply connected to the issues of social justice. You know, we cannot just not take a position on the current crisis. We cannot just respond as business people in theater. I think, as anyone who is the CEO of the market theater would fail. If they did not balance the business interests with the deeper social interests of our society. And for me, that is crucial to celebrating the legacy of our institution, but it also keeps us anchored to our present time. I think we constantly have to re envision what we can do in our theaters how are we going to survive. You know this could continue for at least the next seven or eight months indications in South Africa that we will only reopen our theater spaces when the country gets to level one, and that could be at least another seven or eight months. But you deal with a creative economy where artists depend extensively on freelance work and all that work is canceled, and artists have absolutely no income. We're dealing with a massive crisis of artists who are going to be struck by poverty whose lives is never ever going to be the same. One, it's going to affect them financially. There may be losses of homes and losses of cars. You know, they may have to take their kids out of private schools and put them into interstate schools. There's, you know, so many other things that you deal with and what do we do to support artists at this particular time. I think there is a need for arts managers, not just in South Africa. There's a need for arts managers in particular to speak about the crisis of poverty that we're going to have in the arts sector, and that how that crisis of poverty is going to affect the artistic community emotionally, and how that will need to be addressed post the pandemic, but how we need to create a space for the dealing of that trauma in our theater spaces. But what we need to do as managers is proactively think about how we're going to re engineer our theaters so that they become financially sustainable for the artists post this particular period. But in this particular period, we need to be active as the voices need to be heard that the state has to do more than what it's doing at the present moment to support a sector that is so vulnerable and fragile. But it's different to any other sector in that we are a sector that is closely rooted to the identity of our nation to the pulse of our nation. It's our poetry, it's our music, it's our voice that shapes the currency of our nation. Yeah, we agree at the Segal Center we often say that access to healthcare access to education and access to the arts are basic human rights. This is why we pay taxes this is why we live in communities together and it has to be organized in a way that's sustainable, but that also supports everybody the healthcare workers, the educators, but also the artists and this is what makes as we now see what life-life is exactly that what we don't have at the moment and so we need to find ways to do it sustainably. Oh, exactly. Exactly. I agree with you on that. Did you find when you moved from apartheid to reconciliation, from reconciliation to the AIDS crisis and then, you know, going on, did you invent new forms of theater? Our motto is a little bit, you know, taken from Brighton said new times need new forms of theater. Did you make inventions? Did something change in those periods? And do you think there will be again something really change? Oh, I think I think the landscape of theater in South Africa has changed significantly from where we were in 1976 to where we are now in 2020. Our theater still remains incredibly vibrant. It does also mean that more people have access to theater, both as artists and as audiences. There are more festivals in our country, you know, where artists can take their work and present their work and so forth. And has changed significantly from what it was, but also the global interaction that we've had with, you know, after the lifting of the book, the international cultural boycott has impacted on our theater. I think there was there was a real curve that we saw in what I would call the kind of business of theater that, you know, in the 80s where theater was incredibly dynamic and powerful. The best South African theater works were created in that particular period of the 80s during the state of emergency, the repressive years of censorship where artists were defined and stood up and we, whether that was in music poetry or whatever, which was original South African work that had a great deal of power. But much of that power speaks to our time now as well. And just the, the, the, the, the first democratic election in 1994, theaters did suffer with box office income, particularly the smaller theaters, because suddenly the cultural boycott ended, and where people had not seen the big big name in Broadway musicals but heard about it through people that had traveled and we've read about the newspapers and so forth. Suddenly, we had an influx of major musical theater in South Africa, all the big name Broadway productions and the big name, and where people previously spend less than, you know, seven to eight dollars or on a theater production, you know we're paying so much more five or six times more to go to the theater to see a big musical production which meant that you could go to the theater for a month because you needed to save all your money to go and see those big musical theater productions. And I think that lasted for a few years, and then people realize that you know those musicals are fun. They're great, they allow escapism, but they really don't connect with us deeply in terms of offering us the kind of inspiration and the challenge that we want. I think something is very significant about South African audiences to the large extent is that they don't want to go to the theater, just to watch a show to be quiet, and to applause at the end, and then to walk out and have dinner. Our audiences want to engage in dialogue. And there's something very unique about audiences in South African theater and particularly where there are significant black audiences, but the audiences are not passive. You can sit through a performance and you could hear a murmur. You could see somebody in the audience respond, whether they would go taking their fingers whether they agree like that, or whether they would say aha, or no, you know, you would hear that in our audiences in theater, which is, which is very, very, very different to the Western experience of theater where everyone sits silent pin drop silence, and you know, you only respond when you prompted by an actor on the stage to respond. It's very different in our theaters. And I think, you know, all of that has in some way shaped the way we make theater. We take our audiences very seriously. We know our audiences want to be challenged we know audiences want to go out of the theater, and they want to engage in a dialogue. And very often that dialogue has happened in the four years of theaters that happened at dinner conversations, but now it also happens on social media. And I think the, the, the experimentation that we're doing in this particular time with of COVID-19, where there's so much online work and particularly even in a dialogue like this here means that when we go back into our theater spaces. It doesn't have to be a case of this or that. We can have a theater production, and we can continue to have the dialogue online for as long as that dialogue can continue and be sustained by, by the needs of community that wants to talk. Next to Richard Shackner who was on our program next to this things that he said every event should be online every theater, even if people pay for it. But he also said at every event, perhaps there should be discussions afterwards every evening, you know, people should sit someone should talk so it's all about community. So, so at the moment you're so you say it's interesting as a reaction you say we bring our artists in dialogue with international artists as in conversations is that that's what you are doing it and you pay the artists for this or Yes, we pay someone in South Africa to pay some to talk to someone in Sweden and artists. Yes, we've paid every artist that is participated in our online programs today. It's not a large fee in South African terms it's 1000 rounds to 2000 rounds that we've paid them, you know, our currency rate exchange rate at the present moment. I don't think about 15 rounds to a dollar or something to that extent. But, but you know, for for artists at this particular time, we find we try to find creative ways of engaging and supporting them. But but more than that, of keeping our audiences connected with us. I'm a firm believer that, you know, if we don't remain connected with our audiences for the next seven months. In the same way as artists who are going to be changed and affected by this crisis, our audiences are also going to be changing affected. You know, if they're finding new hobbies now, they're finding new ways for recreation, they're finding new ways to find information and be stimulated. They may retain those ways, seven months down the line. They may be part of their lives now in the seven month period, we might lose them forever, or we may struggle to bring them back. So for us, it's about, it's about yes, we're paying our artists because we want to support our artists, we're having the dialogue because we believe the dialogue is necessary. But we also believe that it's a powerful way to remain connected with our audiences, who really are the people for whom we make theater. When it talks, we have this artist, whether it's a Miller Rao or the Ostermayer or many other things, it's also perhaps the time to go outside the space for the theater, you know, the breakbox. So to really do the performances, not just on the streets, but also go to whatever factories, halls to have people's homes. Have you done that before? Are you planning this also to say perhaps, as we now talk to each other, we don't need a space, you know, if your government says record the performance, it doesn't even have to be this theater. So theater is about the community. But are you, are you having thoughts of, in case you reopen of say we're going to do this or that, will it be just plays or not, will it be its place? Or will there be forms on, you know, on site specific or off site work as Bertie Fertman says? Yeah, well, one of the most dynamic units within the Market Theater Foundation is the Market Theater Laboratory, which started off 30 years ago as a school, particularly for young black people who could not have access to formal theater education. A vision of the, you know, by the vision of a founding director, Barney Simon and lead actor John Carney, who is now presenting the ambassadors, you know, especially in the Market Theater, who founded the school. But with, you know, over the last 30 years, the school has also evolved, particularly in the last four years with a new director that we've pointed to the school where we've played more the word laboratory. Yes, we, education is core to our business, but laboratory is also core, the process of experimentation, the process of taking risks, the process of going out of the box and doing. So what do you do? How do those productions look? What are the experiments? Well, some of the experiments, at least one, one critically important experiment was for us that took place last year, long before COVID-19 became part of our lexicon. We did a production that was in that took place simultaneously in Sao Paulo, New York, London, and Janisberg with performances interspersed with, you know, online work, digital work, live streamed work. It was a unique production in some ways because, you know, South Africans created, worked with people from Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo worked with people from London and New York and four writers were able to work together to come up with script together, four directors in each city, and then one director mixing and merging live performance with online performance simultaneously and so forth. And so we did a production outside spaces around our theory in the streets at the taxi ranks to be able to do some work. At the taxi ranks? What's that? Oh, yes. Where the taxis are waiting? No. Yes, yes, yes. To be able to create some work for them. We've, we've taken well work into shopping malls and we've presented work in the shopping malls. We've taken work to schools to libraries. And then before COVID-19 and the lockdown, we're in the process of doing a production that was going to tour into various communities and play, take place, not only informal settings and in school halls and theaters, but in quite informal settings as well. And I think there is the need in our institution, although we were founded in what is a historic building at a very historic time and one that we're incredibly proud of. We firmly believe that we don't have to be locked on the three or four stages that make up our theater. The world is our stage. Wherever there's an audience, we have a story to tell, wherever they space, we can perform. But we also work very closely across different mediums. We also run a photography school. So there's been a great deal of storytelling collaboration between our photos workshop students and students in the theater laboratory. They create. And we, you know, we have a center that's right in the heart of Janisberg in what is considered to be one of the most dangerous parts of Janisberg Hillbrough. And yet we have a vibrant art center there that attracts people to engage in dialogue around issues of African identity and Africanism to do drumming to have African cuisine together with performance, you know, to just play around. So for us, theater is not a box. Theater is not a format that's prescribed. Theater is not about prescribed people. It's an open platform with no rules. And it's a place of real experimentation. It's a place where we allow everything about us as human beings to explode beyond the convention. You know, as a young man, when you said you came, you know, from the families of merchants in a way and what did you see and what made you become a work on the field of the arts and theater. What was that exactly what inspired you. Although I began to see some theory in my late teens just close to when I was reaching about 20 as exposed to theater. For the very first time, you know, I began that was political theory because the, the, the black theater workers first of all that to place in Indonesia, which is the Indian suburb in terms of the group areas act where we will relocate to but it was really in my late in four years later when I was a teacher at a school I was a mathematics teacher. And during my, my, my, my tenure as a teacher, I ended up taking students, almost every fortnight to the market theater in Johannesburg. And I loved engaging with my students. One of our leading directors with one state was also the artistic director of the market theater, Malcolm perky produced a place of fire town, which dealt with the destruction of a non racial suburb, the onset of the group areas act in the, the, the part in South Africa, and that human story connected with so many of us, it took place in the fire town, which is the place where I was born. You know, so of course there was a definite connection with that with the story, but that resonated with so many of the young people that I took to the theater because their parents were able to then tell them that story. And that's exactly where I began to get so much more drawn into theater that in my fifth year of teaching at as a mathematics teacher. I took students to the National Arts Festival in grandstand South Africa, which is our leading major festival in South Africa at the time. And on the 10th day of that festival, which last day, one of the students said to me, you know, I may forget everything I've learned in mathematics, science, and geography. But I will not forget what I've seen on stages, what I've learned from audiences, what I've learned at this arts festival. And that for me was deeply profound. And that's the one factor that made me walk back to the school at the beginning of the new term tender my resignation as a mathematics teacher and go full time into theater, because I understood just what the power of theater was for young people and how much young people in our country needed theater to be able to transform our country to be able to transform our lives and to be able to transform everything around us. And I think there are some great threats about that particular decision I've made from leaving mathematics as a school teacher, which I love I enjoy being in a classroom space and I'm grateful that I still have the opportunity from time to time to go into a classroom space to engage with students, but the power of theater is far greater than the power of a formal school classroom. The power of theater and performance demands of us now of artists or so you but in general what, what is different now what, what do you think is now of real importance. Well, I think as artists, you know, our audiences are exposed to so much more they're exposed to so much more technology they're exposed to so much more opportunities. So as artists, we need to be constantly evolving as well. We learned, we need to be learning new technical skills. We need to be finding new ways of telling stories and creating those stories. We need to be reservoirs of information, but we also need to find ways of how we process that particular information so that we're able to communicate that information. As artists, we, we're more than just bearers of information. We are canaries in the mind. We predict what change is going to be we predict what the danger is ahead of us. And we imagine that we allow others to imagine that as well, so that they in the present time, they're able to shape their future. Yeah, so what so do you also teach artists we have the young directors playwrights writer at the market theater you have a theater school. Yes we have a theater school the market theater laboratory it's a three year old school. We run to a two year full time program for people and a lot of the students that come to us, I still drawn from historically marginalized communities so it whether they can afford the fees or not we do take them and we do take them on a very strict very strict Richard audition, because we do know how complex and how difficult this industry is and how competitive it is so that we want to make sure that the 20 students we graduate per year are students that can be absorbed into the the the the economy and they are. But with that we also run a residency company for young actors, where we engage seven six to seven actors on a year long contract, and they could come out from any of the last five years of our school. So we do reserve at least two slots on that company for any graduates or young person that may come from any other institution or any other country, so that we know that the company is not just regurgitating the methodology and the techniques and the process that but that they constantly are being fed with new techniques and been challenged by people who come from the outside as well. That that particular company was launched two years ago as a residency company fully funded privately by our own efforts through fundraising from philanthropists and we're incredibly grateful to the French Institute of South Africa. For those of you who has supported the company over the last two years. You know, artistically the company is done incredibly well in terms of winning local South African awards. The company was scheduled to travel to Germany this year, and to Japan, and unfortunately both those international tours have been canceled, or rather been postponed to next year. You know, those cancellations or postponements have been quite traumatic for the young artists because these are artists who come from really deprived communities started to marginalize communities, find opportunity training and suddenly get invitations to see the world.  You know, we've been able to engage with those artists in that company keep the spirits high. And hopefully we that once we pass this phase and I'm quite sure that this phase will pass to that the company will be able to tour internationally and be working very hard and I think that this is one of the reasons why I believe it's important for me as a as a theater manager to remain engaged with our partners across the border, across the globe as well so that we, we don't lose contact with each other, because this change is dynamic. It's far more effective than the political diplomacy that ambassadors and politicians can do at around table. As arts people when we travel the globe, we don't only connect with artists on the other side, we connect with their audiences. We stimulate audiences to get into a dialogue around internationalization. And I think particularly at this time, we've seen just before COVID-19 with significant parts of the world was becoming so nationalistic and so insular and closed that we need the power of theater to break into those spaces and to talk around why internationalization and international exchange and national collaboration and international dialogue is so important for us because more than just nations, we are a global community. That is important and you are part of that and also help to form it. We are coming to the end of our hour. Is there something you could say to our listeners, you know, what, how to use that time now? The times when we are in our homes, the listeners, what is of significance? I think the most significant thing for me at the moment is that we must not be stuck in our despondency. COVID-19 will come, it will pass. We've seen, not we've lived through, but we know historically that there have been several pandemics around on this planet. We've seen communities close. We've seen theater survive even through those pandemics. Theater will survive. It will rise. It will reopen. But for now, our crucial thing is support those that work in it and support the artists the most because if they're hampered by poverty, it's going to hamper their lives. It's going to hamper their emotions. It's going to hamper them intellectually. It's going to hamper call to what makes good theater, inspiration. A man cannot live without food. Artists need love. They need inspiration, but most of all, they need food. And at this particular time, we need to make sure that the global community, that foundations around the globe, that us as management, find ways of supporting artists so that they're able to pay their bills and not fear of what the darkness that lies ahead. And that the artists who support us in our lives and give meaning and anticipate the future and that now it's time to support them. That's a very important message. Thank you. Thank you so much for taking a time with us as it was important to hear from Johannes Gorkin from the Market Theater, what's on your mind, how you see all of this. This was beautiful statements and significant ones and also looking from the perspective of a country that went through so many changes, had so many challenges. And in a way, as was Basel, Baseltron said, somehow the government is doing okay. We don't hear that often from our artists around. It's actually quite unlike, it's only South Korea or Taiwan where we heard similar stories as in South Africa, it's surprising, especially given the big, big catastrophe we are experiencing here in the United States. It's shocking that it has not been handled in a way that it has been handled perhaps better in others. So if you have time for tomorrow and the days after to tune in, we have Natalia Forosbit from the Ukraine, also a country that is going through an incredible, difficult, difficult time. We will hear from Palestine. These are Zouabi and Fida Zaidan, director, writer and actress. They will tell us about the situation in Palestine, Roberta Destela-Dalva and Dion Carlos will talk from Brazil to us and tell us about these situations. And that must be so very, very difficult from what we hear, what is happening with also a president that doesn't seem to listen, that doesn't seem to care, and doesn't seem to have the well-being of his people at his mind. And again, we will hear from Africa. Edouard Elvis, Vuma and Hermine Jolo from Cameroon will tell us what is happening there and how they experience this moment. It's different for everybody. And this also gives us a little view inside the different ways that reality is playing out. It helps us, it consoles us and hearing from you. It also feels as connected, we are not alone, and we do care for each other. And I think this is also the message that we hear from you, what you do for your community there. It is inspiring, it is significant and of real importance. So thank you and a reminder to everybody that yes, it's the theater and performance communities that are at the center of what a community like is and what a functioning society is. They go well, the society goes well, and now everything is closed down, perhaps even understand it better and along for it much more. Thomas Ostermaier said he misses so much the opening nights, the shadow, the energy, the people, the communities. But as Ismael said, it will come back, nothing lasts forever. So let's prepare and use the time to live perhaps even better lives and make right what has been wrong before. I hope for listening, I know how much you all have on your mind how many chats, how many family, how many calls, how many zooms and Skypes and but it means a lot that you all come and listen. We need great audiences, great listeners and and of course the work of our great artists. So stay safe and stay tuned and I hope to see you tomorrow or hear you tomorrow. And thanks to the great HowlRound for supporting us, Vijay and Sia and to the Segal team. So thank you and Ismael, I hope you will have a good dinner in Johannes Gork and really thank you for sharing. Thank you.


Welcome to the session in which you would look at the distribution from the corporation's perspective. Simply put, when the S corporation have a distribution, how does the S corporation treat that distribution? In an S corporation, we have two types of distribution, liquidating and non-liquidating. So in a non-liquidating distribution, a non-liquidating distribution means the company is not going out of business. They're gonna distribute some cash property, but they're gonna be remaining in business. An S corporation recognizes a gain, but not a loss for the difference between the distributed property, fair value, and its adjusted basis. Well, if we have a gain, the gain increases the AAA, as well as the shareholder basis. Just basically, we have a gain, and the gain espaces to the shareholders. Now, think of it this way. The distribution, it's as if the S corporation sold the asset, and if the asset is sold for more than the adjusted basis, the asset will have a gain. So simply put, we're gonna compare the fair market value minus the adjusted basis. And if you did sell it, you're gonna have a gain. Guess what? Go ahead, recognize the gain, and the gain will increase the basis for the shareholder, as well as the AAA account. In a non-liquidating distribution, the S corporation recognize gains and losses, and those will be passed to the shareholder. Increasing or decreasing their basis, but this is liquidating. For now, we're gonna be dealing with non-liquidating. The best way to illustrate this concept is to take a look at an example. Before we proceed any further, I have a public announcement about my company, farhatlectures.com. Farhat Accounting Lectures is a supplemental educational tool that's gonna help you with your CPA exam preparation, as well as your accounting courses. My CPA material is aligned with your CPA review course, such as Becker, Roger, Wiley, Gleam, Miles. My accounting courses are aligned with your accounting courses, broken down by chapter and topics. My resources consist of lectures, multiple choice questions, true-false questions, as well as exercises. Go ahead, start your free trial today, no obligation, no credit card required. Sophia and Anna are equal shareholders in SA Inc., which has been operating in an S corporation since its formation. During 20x3, the S corporation made the following non-liquidating distribution. A land with an adjusted basis of 50 and a fair market value of 80 to Sophia. The land was subject to a $15,000 liability that was transferred to Sophia. For Anna, we gave Anna cash of 20,000, and a machinery with an adjusted basis of 50 and a fair market value of 45. Well, now we need to determine the amount of the gain or the loss that SA Inc., which is an S corporation, would recognize on this distribution. Well, let's start with Sophia first. Well, we distributed a piece of land with a fair market value equal to 80,000 minus the adjusted basis of 50. Do not worry, when you're computing the gain or the loss for the corporation, the liability has nothing to do with the gain or the loss. Therefore, we have a gain of 30,000. So Sophia will have a gain of 30,000, the difference between 80,000 and 50,000. Anna, she received cash. Well, easy. Cash, the fair market value of the cash is 20, it's adjusted basis is 20, there is no gain, no loss. Now we look at the machinery that Anna received. The machinery has a basis of 50 and a fair market value of 45. What does that mean? It means if they sell this machine today, they would incur a loss. Well, there is a loss. Do we recognize the loss? We don't recognize the loss. The loss is not reported. So make sure you are aware of this. Now what's the value of the distribution to the shareholders? Well, let's take a look. The distribution of the shareholder equal to the amount of the cash distributed. Of course, if you gave someone $10,000 in cash, the value to them is $10,000 plus the fair market value of the property minus any assumed liability.  It has a fair market value of $100,000. You'll be, OK, great. You gave me $100,000 of value. Now with that piece of land, I attached. In other words, that piece of land has a liability. In other words, there's a lien from the bank. So there is a debt on that land, a debt equal to $20,000.  Basically, what I gave you $80,000 of value because to own this land, you don't really own the land until you pay off the bank. So if you sell it today, you sell it for $100,000. You would have $100,000 in your hand. You're going to go to the bank, pay the bank $20,000, and you're left with $80,000. Therefore, we'll take the fair market value of the property distributed and we deduct with it any assumed liability. That's the amount realized to you. Now, how are you taxable? Well, you'll take the cash received. So let's assume I gave you $10,000 in cash, $100,000 in fair market value of property, and there's a liability of $10,000 attached to that property. Well, the amount realized in total is $100,000. Then you compare that to your basis, whatever basis you have for that property or whatever basis you have equal to your taxable gain or taxable loss. Let's take a look at an example. Let's continue with the prior example. Okay, basically what we did, determine the value of the distribution received by each shareholder. Well, let's look at Sophia. She received $80,000 land. There's a liability of $15,000. As far as Sophia is concerned, she received $65,000 in amount realized. Well, for Anna, the $20,000 again equal to $20,000 plus a fair market value of the machinery of $45,000, a distribution of $65,000 as well. Notice the distribution are the same for both. We gave them both $65,000. They're equal shareholders. They're equal shareholders. This is important. You wanna treat them equally. That's the S corporation perspective. What should you do now? Well, go to Farhat Lectures and look at additional MCQs through false exercises, resources that's gonna help you understand this concept better. This is an important concept. Don't underestimate the distribution from the corporate perspective. How is that distribution treated? Well, if you have a gain, the corporation would recognize a gain. And if there's a loss, they will not recognize the loss. From the shareholders perspective, they receive something that's the fair market value. If there's a liability against that something, we will deduct the liability. Good luck, study hard, and of course, stay safe.


Welcome to Serving Locally with Me, your host, Michelle Dynas, the podcast where we spotlight service in the Longmont and surrounding communities. Alright, let's connect. I'm host Michelle. Today we are here with Molly and Heather of the City Longmont Recreation Department and I'm just going to start off with introducing Molly and just let us know who you are and introduce yourself. Hi, I'm Molly Morris. I am an Aquatics Program Coordinator for the City of Longmont. So my area of expertise is kind of at the pool working with lifeguards, swim teams, a lot of programming, different events. I have been in Aquatics for a little over 11 years now. Wow. So a lot of experience that's stayed with me my whole life and it's something very passionate and excited to be in. Awesome. And then also welcome Heather. Hi, my name is Heather. I am currently the swim lesson specialist at the City of Longmont. I absolutely love it. I've kind of gone through a lot of different careers, not a lot, some different careers. And I started teaching some lessons when I was 15 and I just gravitated my way back there and I just absolutely love it and would highly recommend it to anyone. And I am Michelle and I am a supervisor at the ice rink this year and that's been awesome. So we're all on the same team. That's great. It's a lot of fun. If you could just give us a quick overview of what the City of Longmont Recreation is all about. So the City of Longmont Recreation is all about providing a safe, friendly, fun family atmosphere for the youth and families of Longmont and even senior citizens all use our Recreation Center. It's a way to get active, healthy and enjoy your community. That's awesome. Is there anything you'd like to add to that? We've got lots of different options. We've got our indoor recreation pool, which is great for families. We've got two big slides.  There's six lap lanes. We have Centennial Pool, which is a little bit on the older side, but it's really great for those morning lap swimmers where you can get some morning workouts in.  We also have Sunset Pool, which is really fun. Our outdoor pool also has two big water slides, a high dive, low dive, six lap lanes, lots of room for activities. And then our ice rink and Union Reservoir. We have lots of opportunities for people to have fun in the water. That's great. We've gone to a couple of things. Union, my husband likes to go fishing at Union. We've gone swimming there. That's been fun. The kids took swim lessons at Centennial and we live right just up the street from Centennial Pool. So that's great. We have gone to the Longmont Rec Center. My daughter's like, we need to go swimming. Yeah, maybe next time. So we need to do those things. But yeah, that's awesome. What is your focus at the City of Longmont Recreation? So yeah, we're mainly focused on teaching people how to be safe near and around the water. We have our lifeguards that are ready to act at any moment. And they're preventing any traumatizing experiences that may happen. We're the memory makers of the pool. And we really want to keep those memories positive and fun. We want to give people the opportunity to go to the birthday parties with their friends and go swimming and be able to go off the diving board and not be stuck in a lifejacket or stuck in the shallow end. You can go have fun. And there's lots of other cool water activities that go on beyond the pool, right?  You can go scuba diving, kayaking, paddle boarding, just safe on a boat. You can go fishing, lots of other things. It's a super important life skill. And we just want to make it positive and a fun experience for everybody. I love that. It's a focus on safety for everybody that, yeah, I love that. That's my focus at the ice rink too, just to make sure everybody's safe. And call an ambulance if I need to. And having fun as well. Absolutely. Right? The ice rink is, yeah, a great place to have fun. Absolutely. And it's such a, as Sarah said, it's a novelty. So it's, you know, it's short lived, but man, you can make some great memories. I know my daughter had been able to skate there this year. She's just absolutely loved it. And that's going to stick with her. And that means a lot to me as a mom. Right. And in a good, safe environment where I know that it's going to be okay. Yeah. Awesome. Who are you trying to reach at your organization? I think we're trying to outreach to all of the city of Longmont community as well as areas beyond. We have quite a few people who come in from other areas because they know that we provide that really safety forward and very fun environment. And we also have some of the best women structures that can provide this amazing programming that people do come for. And as well as the outreach, we also have a lot of internal reach. So think the youth of Longmont, we hire all kinds of teenagers. The amount, I think I did over 40 interviews for 15 year olds getting their first job last year. So we're providing these life experiences, that opportunity to grow, that opportunity to learn things in a very safe, like it's okay to be wrong sometimes. And this is the time to do it when you're that young. And so we get that outreach and building these experiences for people in the community. I really like working with the kids of youth.  I like that they get a good experience and a good foundation. Because at some jobs it's lackluster.  And that's not okay. Right. It's not okay to start out these good habits and that you guys hire so many, so young is a great, is a great thing just for, not just for those kids, but for the community to start them out on a good foundation of what it's like to be in the real world and having a job, a real life job. I think one thing we are really proud of at the city of Longmont is we retain our staff really well too. We've had some staff that have been there that it was their first job and they're still with us five years later. Yeah, that's great. So we pride ourselves on making that really amazing environment that people want to come back to, not just our staff, but the patrons as well. Yeah, that's fantastic. I think that's huge. It's a really rewarding experience to get to see somebody terrified of the water, not wanting to get in at all to wanting to jump in the 12 feet and able to do that, right? It's about confidence. It's huge. And from the parent side too, right? You see all their anxiety just wash away. It's really a fun, rewarding job and it's super flexible. You can make it work around your school schedule. You can just do a couple hours a week. You can combine it with life-guarding and you can work daytime hours if that's your availability. There's lots of different options and you get to go home and feel good about what you did with your day. Absolutely. That one as an employee. I feel that. It's fantastic. What makes the work of Longmont Recreation different than other similar serving organizations? Yeah, so the city of Longmont really strives to reach everyone. We have a lot of different opportunities for people to get in, whether, you know, of their financial status. We have a 200 free swim lesson program that we did last year and we're doing again this year. And we're basically giving 200 people between six to eight lessons totally free. Getting them in the door, start to learn to love the water. And then we have scholarship opportunities and lots of lots of other channels that they can take some lessons and learn to love the water. It's really great. You know, and teaching that life skill is just so essential to everybody. So one thing that's really cool is we are part of the Colorado Parks and Rec Association. So places like the YMCA or other organizations that aren't part of this, they don't get the opportunity the same that we do as we have subsidized free swim meets for our swim team because we are part of the state and part of the municipality organization. So we cover our swim team dues for the most part. You have to pay for your practice, but we pay for the swim meets. They have the opportunity to go compete with other kids all across the front range for free. Another thing is a lot of organizations require you if you're going to work there to get your certification and pay for that whole certification. We offer a hugely discounted certification program. So if you're going to come work for us like your CPR in your first aid, if you need that to work for us, we will take care of that. We'll get you in our class. We'll run you through our program and you'll get that certification. So for our lifeguards, the cost of a class in Denver right now is almost $350. And for a city of Longmont employee, we will provide that at the cost of the class, which is about $50. Wow. And it's here. It would be local then. And it would be local. And it's a straight avenue into a job. Right. With a really fun community. It's also a nationally recognized certification that you could take anywhere, right? Take to other pools. Yeah. A lot of, most pools do recognize American Red Cross. So it's a great thing to, we have kids who work for us during the summer. And then they go work at their pools at college. And so they have that continuous opportunity to take the skills that we're teaching them and keep using them. It's really cool. Fantastic. I didn't know that either. That's, that's really good. I want to take a safety class. It's a great building block for anybody that wants to go into nursing or doctors or paramedics or anything where you need that CPR certification. You already have it. I honestly think everybody should take it to be a good active, you know, part of your community to be able to help people in that way. Why not take it? Cause that could be anywhere. You can be at the grocery store. I need CPR. Even like life, lifeguard classes like that would be, I would love to take those just so I have that knowledge. Not just for my kids, but anywhere I'm at it could, you know, you can take that anywhere. So that's, that's not just just for personal or just for family, but just for community. Fantastic. And to go along with that, we also have our swim instructor courses. So we have one American Red Cross water safety instructor. And then we also have our in-house long month swim instructor programs. And anyone who's interested in working with youth, we've had people who hardly knew how to swim. We'll teach them how to swim. And then we teach them like if you have passion about working with kids and you're passionate about teaching, it's a great opportunity to get into those lower levels of like, Hey, this is what it could be like. If you want to grow your career in this way, it's an awesome way. You learn more by teaching at any rate. So I've learned that with the kids with homeschooling is the more they can help each other with their schoolwork, the more they're learning themselves. So to be able to teach, you know, if you're not really good at it to learn and then teach it, you are just using those skills and learning it more yourself. You're building your confidence, you're figuring out how to talk to people, how to talk to parents, how to act professionally in a workplace. There's a lot of really great benefits about working with the City of Lawnmine. All of this is just wonderful. What are your greatest needs? Our greatest needs right now is we have a lot of really great programs and we would love to have more people to come help run them and teach and provide staffing so that we can continue to give back even more to the community right now. We have so many programs that our pool is out programmed on Sunday mornings. There is almost no room to add another class. And so getting more time that we can give to the community in our pool spaces and having more people who are excited to come in and teach those things I think is one of our biggest needs right now. And lifeguards too, right? People to watch those classes and pool managers to make sure that everything's running. And as we said before, there's lots of room for opportunities, right? If you want those early morning, those opening shifts right before you go to work. If you need those shifts while your kids are in school and you just want to work those daytime hours or if you're in high school and you want to come after school, that's a good time. The flexibility with the schedule has been enormous for us. Maybe going to school mom and then all the other things that I do, it's been amazing. The support that I've gotten from our team of the flexibility of I need to do this. The kids have a dentist. It's all good, we got you. That's incredible. I have not found that anywhere else. We really are a strong team and everybody kind of looks out for each other and takes care of each other when we need to. It's a really great environment. Any other needs? I think we want a new pool. Yeah, I think we want a bigger pool, a new rec center. We would love to have that in our community. Do you have any events coming up or volunteer opportunities? I know some events that I've been able to be a part of that I don't know if you guys, I know that the ice rink and stuff has been involved with the parade and stuff, but that city is at recreation. But the turkey trot was recreation. The turkey trot was Longmont Light is put on by the recreation department. So yeah, I've been able to be a part of those for the last couple of years, turkey trot and the Longmont Lights. So that's been awesome. What other types of things do you guys have coming up or just throughout the year and then volunteer opportunities? I think we're really excited about our underwater Easter egg hunt coming up. So it's, we put a bunch of little eggs in the pool and kids get the opportunity to go swimming, diving for them. We still have the pools open to kind of just have fun. Last year we had some golden eggs where we had prize baskets available and it was just a really fun family event. Get people in and a different way to celebrate the holiday. Any other events coming up? We have a couple of certification courses for incoming staff over the course of spring break. So I know our lifeguard class is 16th through 19th. We have... Yes, we also have lots of swim instructor options. So our in-house Longmont swim instructor program we have one on March 9th and March 10th that will be Saturday and a Sunday class. We tried to make that on spring break or right before spring break make it easier for everybody and then if you can't make that one we have another one March 20th and 21st. So Wednesday and a Thursday I believe that would just be kind of an all-day on those two days and we would teach you how to hold kids how to talk to parents all the little pieces of the swim lessons and then once we hire you on we would have you shadow with some other instructors for a session so you're not thrown to the wolves already and then once you're ready we'll let you fly and it's a really fun experience. We also have a water safety instructor class and that would be where you can read cross certification that you can take anywhere. That one is May 28th to May 31st so that's a really good opportunity as well. And then we have our swim aid program which is a really fun program for those kids under 15 that have a little bit of interest in getting into this or just testing it out and seeing what it's like so you would come for a four hour class and that would be on June and you would just come to that class get a little bit of shadowing experience we teach you the basics and then you can volunteer at any of our lessons and we'll have you in with other instructors, highly experienced instructors they'll be leading the class but you get to just be in the class working with the kids kind of figuring out is this something that you really want to do and then we'll keep you go in throughout the whole year if you want or just in the summer we'll hire you on it's a really great opportunity that's fantastic because I know my kids always looking to do something yeah we we would love to have any and all help that's fantastic I like that there's even for not just hiring but that you can come and help for younger kids that's fantastic and they get so much out of it too they get to watch those kids that are terrified go all the way to jumping in the deep end too and they get to see that and then they're hooked that's fantastic cool so how can people contact and find out more about Longmont Recreation I know I'm pretty sure it's already on my link tree because of being involved with the Turkey Trot and Parade and Longmont Lights and stuff but they're already on the link tree I'll have all this stuff in those show notes how they can get in contact yeah perfect so you can reach out to any of us you can reach out to me or Molly or any of the team we have kind of a group email if you just email swim at LongmontColorado.gov we'll take care of you and we'll send you to the right person there answer any and all questions you're welcome to just come in and see what it's like see how lifeguards run their operations see how some swim instructor classes look see if this is something you even want to do and then we go from there we're excited to see if this is something that you want to do I think we do a lot of giving a lot of opportunities to try it out check it out and then it may not be for everyone but it is a really fun opportunity for quite a few people there's different opportunities within it so we just finding that one thing is there anything else you would like to add maybe that you guys are passionate about or you just feel like oh I really want to talk more about this and I'll just give you guys the floor for a couple minutes of just whatever you feel like you would like to share what do you have Molly I don't know join our swim team so our swim team has been a feeder swim team to several of the high schools so most recently I had kids who have been swimming with me for the past year just joined the girls high school team I can't remember which high school but when I went and talked to their high school swim team about recruiting we now have six kids who I coach how to swim and we got them all the way and now they're going into our lifeguarding class on spring break so that's one thing that's really cool about our opportunities at the rec center is that we have lifeguards who took swim lessons with us when they were little babies and now to see them like they had such a great experience that they're now being fed into our programs and they keep going so it's a really cool thing to see just the growth that we're getting and then that our kids on the swim team and I'm sure in swim lessons as well they're having so much fun that they want to stay and then they want to come back and work for us so yeah join the swim team and there's lots of room for opportunities after that too right you can go into management you can teach new instructors how to teach get lots of certifications the city pays for a majority of your certifications there's a million different things that you can do within the recreation department and they can support you it's a really good it's a great environment I agree I like it awesome I just want to say thank you guys for coming on the show and that uh for all that you do in the community I think that's fantastic these life skills and memories are something that is just rooted in a good community and that helps strengthen a community for sure so I just want to say thanks again thanks thank you so much for having us Michelle thank you thank you to my guests my listeners and my supporters for being together we can strengthen our community please like and subscribe do all those other things you know you gotta do them because that's the easiest way that you can serve right now alright now go connect with others and be a blessing


You have to make it. You've got to make the pencil hit the paper and And the farm economy is hard It's it's a hard life to make make ends meet and the diversity Helps keep things even, you know as far as income and expenses. Well, you plant wheat you've got income in August you know depending on the year the end of July He spreads out your workload a little bit if you can increase your cattle production.  You're gonna see that benefit When you plant another row crop in there It makes you think back then okay We're doing something right and it's that whole system of you know the diversity in the no-till and Having the cattle, you know grazing different areas that we had not in the past and You're allowed to withstand those ups and downs in the economy and the weather you will survive and Live to farm another day You never know the result unless you try something you've got to be open to giving something a try Changing your approach on something a little bit and testing it You can't just sit and maintain and expect to Last in this industry


Hello everyone I'm going to talk to you today using a question from the 2020 South Australian Certificate of Education end of year exam. It's going to be different for different students in different states but at the end of the day this gives you an idea of the kind of questions that get asked at the end of year 12. The diagram below shows an x-ray tube. Electrons are accelerated towards the target by applying a potential difference of 1.25 by 10 to the 4 volts across the x-ray tube. The key piece of that question being the 1.25 by 10 to the 4 volts. So describe the purpose of the target in the x-ray tube. And I've gone ahead and here's an answer I've provided before. The target provides the means by which the x-rays are generated by the tube. Made from a dense metal the target has a large amount of metal nuclei which acts to slow down or stop the electrons. They provide a breaking force. It is this force which causes the kinetic energy of the electrons to be converted into x-rays as the electrons slow down. Show that the electrons gain 2 by 10 to the negative 15 joules of energy from the potential difference across the x-ray tube. Now knowing that we've got 1.25 by 10 to the 4 volts you're going to use again W work is equal to Q delta V, Q being the charge on an electron. So 1.6 by 10 to the negative 19 coulombs by 1.25 by 10 to the 4 volts gives you 2 by 10 to the negative 15 joules. Calculate the speed of the electrons as they strike the target in this x-ray tube. Now this is a good example of where the question has gone outside of the maximum frequency formula for an x-ray and actually go on to the use of some information from the earlier motion in two dimensions and energy and momentum topic. So we're talking the kinetic energy formula here. That's how you get the velocity of something which is moving. So you're going to have to rearrange the formula itself knowing the kinetic energy is half MV squared. If you follow through the derivation to make velocity the subject of the equation you'll end up getting velocity is equal to the square root of 2 times the kinetic energy divide the mass of an electron. The mass of an electron being 9.11 by 10 to the negative 31 kilos. You'd note there that there's a step where it says EK on a half is equal to MV squared. Divide anything by a half is the same as timesing it by 2. That's why EK on a half becomes 2 EK on the next line. When we run the calculation we get 2 by 10 to the negative 15 joules and that's the kinetic energy that it's going to have and where did that come from? The previous question w is equal to q delta v. So 2 by 10 to the negative 15 joules we migrate that into the equation itself and you'll end up getting 6.63 by 10 to the 7 meters per second. Quite fast. Now one of the key things to notice about this question here is that even if you couldn't answer B you could still use the information from B to go forward and answer C. The idea when you write a good exam question is that if you can't do the previous calculation you can still go ahead and do the next part of the question so that then you're not penalized. Calculate the maximum frequency of the x-rays produced well that's just the fmax formula again except you're going to need to involve Planck's constant 6.63 by 10 to the negative 34 joules seconds. I'd just like to cover off on the units that we're looking at here. If you look at the maximum frequency formula you'll see e charge on an electron times the change in voltage across the x-ray tube divide Planck's constant. Now these all have units. The charge on an electron is measured in coulombs. The change in voltage, the potential difference is measured in joules per coulomb understanding that one volt is one joule given off by one coulomb of electrons which is a set amount of electrons and Planck's constant is joules seconds. So if we put that all together you've got a coulombs on the top from the charge on an electron and on the bottom from the delta V so they cancel out. You've also got a joules on the top from the delta V but again another joules on the bottom because that Planck's constant is on the bottom of the equation and they cancel out and you're left with one on seconds. Now you might be aware that one on seconds can kind of be included in frequencies equal to one on period. Period being the time it takes for the wave to go through one complete oscillation and that's where we get that hurts from. So you can see that the units themselves cancel out. Certainly not part of the South Australian curriculum. I'm not sure about other states but it's definitely done when you get to university. They'll make you to all carry the units all the way through to the end. It's really fun.


Place values, fractions and percents. Place value. The value of a digit depends on its place in a number. In this number, the place value of the digit 4 is 400. The place value of 9 is 90. The place value of 5 is 5. Whole. Whole means all of something or 100%. A whole pie is one complete pie. It is not divided or cut into pieces. More. More means to be bigger than something else. There are seven rocks in the right pile and six rocks in the left pile. Seven is more than six. Seven is the bigger number. Less. Less means to be smaller than something else. There are six rocks in the left pile and seven rocks in the right pile. Six is less than seven. Six is the smaller number. Fraction. A fraction is something that is not whole. It is less than one. This pie can be cut into six slices, but one slice has been eaten. That means one-sixth of the pie has been eaten. Denominator. The denominator is the bottom number of a fraction. This pizza can be cut into eight slices. The denominator is eight. It tells you how many equal pieces there are total. Numerator. The numerator is the top number of a fraction. This pizza can be cut into eight slices. The numerator is one. It tells you how many pieces have been taken away from the total. Percent. Percent means a fraction with a denominator of a hundred. If a test has a hundred questions and you answered 94 questions correctly, it means you got a 94% on the test. Sale. Sale is an opportunity to buy things at a much cheaper price. Usually there are good sales after Thanksgiving or at the end of summer and winter. Afford. A car is very expensive. Many people cannot afford to buy a car. They do not have enough money. They take the bus or walk instead. Recipe. A recipe is a set of instructions for cooking or baking something. Cookbooks have recipes. You can also find good recipes on the internet. The end.


maintaining friendship. It was really hard for you, so we would have to do a lot of kind of supporting when friends came around with structured activities and things like that. You struggled to just free play because you were quite possessive over your toys as well. Yeah, I remember that, especially with my brother. Really hard to share because of course it's a social skill and we had to do quite a lot of work on that. I think the key thing for me was when you went up to be a five-year student, you had a teacher who was quite sarcastic and a lot of teachers, you know, do you sarcastic? We all use sarcastic through you. And it's a good thing to learn, but actually because you were quite literal in your thinking and in your language, you really struggled with that. And it kind of made you remember your teacher describing you as the class clown.