Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Colin Lover. And I'm Liz Wade. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live. How much money would you pay for a pair of shoes? Christopher Michael Shellis is a jewellery designer. He designs beautiful jewellery that people can wear around their fingers, necks or wrists. In 2011 he designed a very interesting pair of shoes. The shoes were made of solid gold. They were covered with over 2,000 shiny diamonds. Shellis called the shoes jewellery you can wear on your feet. These shoes cost more money than any other shoes in the world. There are 140,000 great British pounds. Most people cannot buy expensive shoes like these. And many people do not even want them. But people everywhere do wear shoes. Today's spotlight is on shoes. A shoe seems like a simple thing. It just needs to protect a foot from the ground. But there are many different kinds of shoes from all around the world. And the history and culture of each place has influenced the design of its shoes. Today we travel around the world looking at shoes. In the Middle East religion has influenced shoe design. One popular kind of shoe here is the babush. This design of shoe is a traditional shoe from Morocco. Traditional babushes are made from soft leather. They have a pointed toe. Some have bead decorations or a design made from thin coloured thread. So how has religion influenced this shoe design? People worshipping at a mosque must remove their shoes. They may not wear shoes when they enter. So they want a shoe they can remove easily. Babushes cover most of the foot. But they do not cover the heel or back of the foot. This makes the shoe easy to put on and to remove. People also like babushes because they do not make a person's foot too hot. And they are very comfortable. Religion and culture have also influenced the design of shoes in India. The Paduka is a very old shoe design there. Experts believe this design is over 4,000 years old. It is a sandal. It does not cover the whole foot. But it goes on the foot easily and keeps it cool. Padukas have a simple design. A Paduka maker cuts a piece of wood into the rough shape of the bottom of a foot. Then he adds a small knob on the top.  It sits between a person's first two toes. Under the base of the shoe there are thin rounded pieces of wood in the back and front. These pieces of wood raise the shoe off the ground. The Hindu religion is common in India. Hindus believe they should not harm any living thing. The design of Padukas follows this idea. The area of the shoe that touches the ground is very small. It is less likely to harm the ground under it or any insect around it. Also Padukas are never made from leather, animal skin. Instead they are always made from wood, ivory or metal. Today very religious people usually wear Padukas. Or people may wear them to a special ceremony or event. Travel with us now to a much colder climate, the country of Finland in northern Europe. The people here would not wear sandals at all. Instead the Sami people of Finland wear very warm boots. The Sami people keep and raise reindeer. Reindeer are very large animals. They have antlers, long hard bones that grow from their heads. The Sami people keep the reindeer for food. But the reindeer also provide the Sami with the material for their boots. Traditional Sami reindeer boots cover a person's whole foot. And they may cover some of the leg too. The Sami make these traditional boots from reindeer skin leather. The hair on the skin helps make the boots very warm. Reindeer hair is shaped like a tube. It has air inside. This helps keep the reindeer warm. It also means that reindeer boots are very warm. Traditional reindeer boots have a point or a kind of hook at the end. The end of the boot points up. Many cultures have influenced the design of shoes. But shoes also become an important part of a culture. This is the case with clomping from the Netherlands. Each clomping shoe is made from a solid piece of wood. The inside of the shoe is cut out so a foot can go in it. Many people think of clomping when they think of the Netherlands. The design of clomping shoes is over 800 years old. They were originally the shoe of factory workers. That is because clomping are excellent at protecting feet. They protect feet from sharp objects and harmful liquid acids. Today few people wear clomping as a common shoe. But people may wear them for working outside. And they are a very popular thing people bring home when they visit the Netherlands. Finally we travel to the island of Japan. Here we see gaita. Gaita are a traditional shoe in Japan. A gaita sandal is usually made from wood and cloth. When wearing a gaita, a person's foot sits on a long square of wood. In the middle of the gaita there is a cloth that forms a shape like a letter V. This cloth comes up in the center of the sandal. It goes between a person's first and second toes and then to the middle of the sandal. When a person's foot is in gaita, it is not in the center of the gaita. But this also means each gaita, the one for the right foot and the one for the left foot, looks the same. Under the base of the shoe there are two straight wooden ha. This word means teeth in the Japanese language. There are ha in the front and in the back. Usually gaita are about three to five centimeters tall. They are a popular shoe for men and women in Japan. It is easy to see how each place and each culture needs their own kind of shoe. Is there a special kind of shoe in your culture? Did we leave out a kind of shoe you want to hear about? Tell us what you think. You can email us at contact at spotlightenglish.com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The writer of this program was Liz Wade. The producer was Michio Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States. You can listen to this program again and read it on the internet at www.spotlightenglish.com. This program is called Shoes of the World. Visit our website to download our free official app for Android and Apple devices. We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight Program. Goodbye.


So one December day, in the middle of a global pandemic, the world learned about a fairly sophisticated intrusion into an enterprise management software system known as SolarWinds. And when we discovered that, the media environment and the cybersecurity community, national security community went into overdrive talking about this intrusion. One senator called this equivalent to an armed attack. One commenter summarizing all of this said that this incident hit every single one of our nightmare scenarios. That commenter was me, commenting from my lockdown living room in the middle of the pandemic. I'm Mika Oh-Yang. I used to be a think tanker where I did a lot of work writing about cybercrime and cybersecurity. And after this, with all of this hype, a few weeks later, I came into government as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy. I am the senior civilian policy official in the Department of Defense. You might have heard of us. And I had to deal with this incident, how the government was going to respond to it, and then subsequent attacks like the hafnium, intrusion, and Microsoft systems, and colonial pipeline. And one of the things that I had to wrestle with was the consequences of that rhetoric that we had talked about in the national security community to describe cyber incidents. And one of the challenges that I discovered is that a lot of the mental models that we use to describe cyber incidents don't actually map to our lived experience in the cyber domain. And so, you know, we really start wondering, like, why are we so off? Why are the ways in which we talk about these things so different from the reality that we experience? And frankly, that rhetorical difference inhibits a useful policy conversation about how we respond, how serious and big these things are. And one of the things I realized is that national security people tend to talk about these things in the frames that they understand. And so, you know, I did that too. I had been a professional staff member on the House Intelligence Committee. I had responded to the Buckshot Yankee, Operation Buckshot Yankee, which some of you may remember from 2008. I thought I understood cyber and the ways in which we as a national security community talked about it. But as I said, the ways in which we've talked about it have not actually been that helpful. And there's a huge difference between cyber war and then cyber in-war. So I want to talk to you guys today a little bit about where those mental models came from, how that differs from our experience and how we see that, and then what that means for us going forward. So let me start at the beginning. Some of you may be familiar with this screen grab. For those of you who are not, ask your parents about the movie War Games. War Games was a movie where a young and chapped hacker, for those of you who were too young to remember this, breaks into the Department of Defense's nuclear command and control systems and demonstrates that the world could be destroyed through mutually assured destruction. This movie is really sort of the start of not only cybersecurity, but a number of other things for the Department of Defense, including when President Reagan saw a recognition that we had to engage in arms control negotiations with the then Soviet Union, but also his recognition that, hey, some of our sensitive DOD systems might be vulnerable to hacking. And so when the Department of Defense stood up its first cyber command, we stood it up as subordinate to U.S. strategic command. And that subordination meant that the ways in which strategic command thought about the management of nuclear weapons, which was their main mission, infected a lot of the ways in which we thought about the cyber domain. So concepts like mutually assured destruction, some of these concepts about mutual hold at risk, the idea that you could do something to the adversary the same way that he would do it to you, really guided a lot of the thinking around how the Department approached cyber. And I know that term is like fraud. But it really shaped a lot of the ways in which we thought about it. And so as time went on, we still tended to view the cyber impacts at the high end of the national security threats that we experienced. You heard language and DOD officials talking about a cyber 9-11 or a cyber Pearl Harbor thinking that it was going to be this kind of big attack that would change society and leave everybody in darkness. And so we thought about it in those terms. But we thought it was going to be like the end of Mr. Robot season one, like everything goes dark and there's chaos. And then also for the Department of Defense, as we thought about that activity, we thought about it in terms of war, which meant that we were thinking about it just in terms of like what crossed the threshold for the Department of Defense as an armed attack? What would be the trigger in cyber that would bring the rest of our capabilities to bear? And in doing that, we didn't really think as carefully about a whole range of activity that was happening every day in the internet domain, espionage, criminal activity, hacktivism. There were all kinds of things happening that were not rising to the level of the Department of Defense. And everyone was like, when is the Department of Defense getting in the game? But our experience in cyber war and the people who were working on thinking these things through sort of a hypothetical. The hypothetical didn't match the reality of what we have subsequently learned. So if you think about 2017 and the cyber attacks against Ukraine by Russia that were significant disruptions to their electric grid, there were significant disruptions to their critical infrastructure, and people said, this is cyber war. This is the kind of attack that we are expecting in the cyber domain. What we learned in 2022 is that cyber attacks are actually not the same, like cyber war is not the same as cyber in war. And the cyber attacks against Ukraine's critical infrastructure were not nearly as devastating or impactful as the kinetic attacks that Russia launched against Ukraine in their attempt to take the entire country. Kinetic war and cyber use in kinetic war is very different than the ways in which we were talking about cyber war. And I don't know if you remember at the beginning of the conflict, everyone was like, where is the cyber war that we were promised? Is cyber the dog that didn't bark? And part of the challenge of that is the national security rhetoric around this meant that we had been conditioned to expect that when that dog barked, it would blow out our eardrums. But actually, when the dog barked, it barked at the volume of a normal dog. Cyber did the things that cyber could do. It just didn't cause the Ukrainians to roll over and say, okay, fine, take our country. It was not going to do that. There are many other things that affect people's calculus in the context of an armed conflict. And indeed, we saw, right, the cyber attacks that the Russians launched against Ukraine at the outside of the conflict, even some of the most sophisticated, like the disruption against the ViASAT satellite communications network that had spillover effects into NATO countries, was not sufficient to overcome Ukraine's will to defend its own territory and the resilient mindset that they displayed and their ability to look to commercial solutions to continue fighting their fight. So what that tells us is that it's not about cyber deterrence.  It's now for us about integrated deterrence. We think about these things in the context of how can cyber, as one of the tools of national power, support all of the other things that we do in the cyber domain. So how do we ensure that we can use cyber to defend our cyber terrain in air, land, maritime, space, and then what are the options that we have to use cyber in those other places? And it may be that we respond to cyber things with other tools, with sanctions, with law enforcement actions, with diplomatic demarges, and very, very angry letters. But it may be that we also respond with kinetic attacks, depending on the range of things that we have and what is needed at the time. So as we think about some of the challenges and what we've experienced, we've learned some things based on our experience of how cyber is different. And one of those things is about moving at the speed of cyber. We have always assumed that cyber domain moves quickly because technology moves quickly, the attacks come quickly.   It takes time and preparation, it takes understanding, it takes engineering, it takes coding to be able to be able to accomplish things. And so it's not what I think a lot of people expect about how quickly we can move in the cyber domain. And in fact, I really appreciate the academic work of a guy, Lenart Mashmire, who did an analysis of Russian cyber attacks against Ukraine in the run-up to this conflict. And he talked about the cyber trilemma and these concept of speed, intensity, and control, and how these factors play off against each other. You can't optimize for all three, right? It's like, good, fast, cheap, pick two. It's speed, intensity, control, pick two.  And so for us in the Department of Defense, we're going to optimize for control. There are elements of control about making sure that you don't get caught, about doing exactly what you intend to do and no more, to not spill over. That's one of the things that we optimize for. We spent a lot of time investing in precision, precision weapons and all those other things. It's not different in the cyber domain. And so not only are we optimizing for control, there are rules that we, the Department of Defense, have to follow. There is no cyber asterisk on the rules under the laws of armed conflict. There are certain things that we would not do via any means, poison civilians, things like that, intentionally trying to inflict harm on civilians. If we're not going to do them via kinetic means, we're not going to do them via cyber means. Unfortunately, I don't know how well understood that is globally around the world. Frankly, there are some countries that maybe aren't even living up to those obligations in the physical space. But for us, there are rules that we are going to have to live by as we think about armed conflict. And so, right, we are reflecting all this in our 2023 cyber strategy, which we hope to roll out publicly soon. We've released a classified version of Congress, so they're going through it. But we hope to be able to talk to you more about it shortly. But another one of the things that's changed for us that we reflect here is how we think about cyber offense and defense. Historically, the department had thought about cyber defense and really prioritized it as, like, how do we defend the networks that we own and operate? And we would think about, how do you defend all the things all the time? But the challenges, of course, the number of attacks we experience are so numerous, so pervasive by so many different actors, like, you can only hold the door for so long before the attackers make it through. And so you have to adapt a more resilient approach. And because we can't be everywhere all the time, we have to think about new ways to defend the nation. We are not going to seek to be on all of the private sector networks all the time. Frankly, we can't afford the personnel costs of that. But also, like, who wants, like, an E4 showing up at your network, being like, hi, I'm here from the Department of Defense. I'm here to help. So, like, we have to think about different ways of doing that. And so one of the things that we can do is take the insights that we have as the Department of Defense about the adversaries' TTPs and share them out with the world through partners. And so we work with other countries around the world, with our civilian agency partners, the FBI, DHS, and others, to identify this type of TTPs and then push them out to the private sector so that they can defend their own networks. And that's actually a really big change for us. When I started in this business, people kept asking us for actionable intelligence, and we're like, no, it's too secret. We can't tell you. We have now figured out how to be able to share that information. And you saw that in something else that occurred at the beginning of the conflict, credit to Jen Easterly, who was wandering around here somewhere, the shields up activities that we engaged in to encourage critical infrastructure to raise their level of defense. And the information that the Department of Defense shared out through that so that the private sector could defend themselves, and then the technical assistance that we are able to provide through the NSA's Cyber Security Collaboration Center. We think that this model represents a better way for us as the Department of Defense to engage in the defend the homeland mission that doesn't ask us to get on everybody else's networks. But I think one of the challenges is that we need help.  And I know a lot of you do cyber, but when it comes to offensive cyber, we're one of the only organizations that has the legal authority to be able to go out and disrupt adversary, malicious cyber activities without our colleagues at the FBI knocking on people's doors. And the challenge for us is that it's a really big threat space. We have a lot that we have to take on. Russia is not our only cyber-capable adversary. Frankly, the PRC is also highly capable and has demonstrated, for those of you who saw the Microsoft Volt Typhoon announcement, seeking to disrupt critical infrastructure on which we, the Department of Defense, would rely for our mobilization, putting at risk the lives of our service members and the lives of people in Guam, the lives of people in the Indo-Pacific region that we might be protecting. But it's a really big challenge for us. And we need help. We need the help of people who have the skill set to the people in this room to be able to help identify the adversary, malicious activity to help us develop the kinds of things that we can use to prevent that malicious activity from causing harm to Americans. And we need your help to be able to disrupt that activity before it causes harm to people in the United States. And we hope that you'd be willing to come help us with that. It's a big mission space. We are thinking about it differently. We are thinking about it in the context of our rules, and we're thinking about it in the ways in which the cyber domain actually works. So with that, ladies and gentlemen, thank you.


Hi. I hope you are tuning in. My name is Sam Morielli. I use the name pronouns. I am currently sitting on the land of the Lenape people in what is now Brooklyn, New York. And I'm so excited to welcome you all to this space today. For the first panel of the Prelude Festival, I am still slightly reeling from the wonderful and amazing Google Doc performance by Nyle Harris and Trevor Bazile. Truly amazing. I also got to take part in May and TO's meditation space this morning. And I'm looking forward to closing out this first day of our festival, I guess second day of our festival with May's meditation space later tonight. But for now, super excited for this first panel called Revolutionary Partnerships. This panel will be about this conversation about how theater and performance institutions are forging partnerships beyond their own institutions with local and grassroots organizations in an effort to help build more equitable, just, and beautiful communities. The participants will discuss their ongoing collaborations, share what they have learned, and dream about what's coming next. I'm really looking forward to this. I can't wait to learn from them. And I'm going to invite them actually on camera to introduce themselves. So first, we have a group from New York Theatre Workshop. So if you all want to come on, I'll dip out, but enjoy the conversation. Hi, everyone. Thank you for tuning in. My name is Alex and I'm the director of education at New York Theatre Workshop currently coming to you from the land of Lenape and Madison, New Jersey, actually. And here with my colleague. Yeah, go ahead, guys. Hi, everyone. I'm so excited to be here. My name is Zafi Dimutropoulou Del Angel. I use she, her, hers as my pronouns. I'm the artistic director of People's Theatre Project, and I'm currently tuning in from the land of Lenape and Wabinger. My name is Gavin Trinidad. Gavin rhymes with Raven. He, him, his, and I'm the Community Engagement Associate at New York Theatre Workshop, and I'm currently Zooming from the East Village, Lower East Side, also home of the Monsignor Lenape. Right. Are we inviting the folks from Jack now to introduce themselves as well? I think so. Awesome. So like, I guess, our friends, we'll get started then they'll come when they talk about themselves. Yeah. Great. So I'll get started just to frame a little. Oh, here we are. Yeah. Yeah. Hi, Sam. Okay. Hi. My name is Sam Johnson. I am currently on the Indigenous land of Lenape people. I am from New York. I am with We Keep Us Safe, and I have a great partnership with Jack Theatre. And Jordana is around here somewhere. But yeah, so that's our partnership with Jack Theatre and We Keep Us Safe. And hi, I'm Jordana De La Cruz. I am on Lenape and Canarsie land here in Brooklyn, New York. And I am the co-director of Jack in Brooklyn. And I am very happy to be here. Hey, I think we're starting with you, Jack, right folks? And we see you talking about your partnership. Yeah. Wonderful. So I'll kick it off with, so Jack for anyone who doesn't know is a performance space meets civic space in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn on the border of Bed-Stuy. And Jack has been around since 2012. And Jack is all about experimental arts and about connecting with the community. And so with connection with the community, that is really an equal leg for us to all the performing arts we do in music, dance, theater and such. And so then when the pandemic hit, and we all went to quarantine about March 11th, we had to cancel the rest of our season, as all of you did as well. And so here we are with our space because Jack, we have an actual space, 18 Putnam Avenue. And we have the space that we can't be in, and that we can't have all these amazing artists that we had programmed in as well. And we can't have discussions in person that we want to have about what we're going through and what our industry is going through and what we personally as artists are going through. And just as humans, that's like an experience, despite if you're an art business or otherwise. And we just really wanted to be of service to the community, because that's such a big part of our organization. And so with that in mind, we started brainstorming thinking, could we be a testing site, could we be a storage site for food? And trying to figure out the ins and outs of permits. And then finally, we actually just made up, we put a call out asking, you know, what, what do people need? What can we do with this space that is safe, and will benefit everyone and connect everyone? And our board member, Brittany Williams, actually said, Hey, I'm with this incredible organization, We Keep Us Safe. And I'm going to let Sam talk a bit about We Keep Us Safe. So yeah, so We Keep Us Safe started around I think 2016-17 around Hurricane Irma. Actually, Brittany Williams was down in Florida orchestrating trying to get the shelters open because they had shelter in South Florida. They had closed all of these forms of housing. And so individuals were stranded and they didn't have resources. And so at that time, she mobilized us, a group of friends, we've organized in many different facets together, but we organized to get food and supplies to family members in Florida and Miami and actually Brittany actually orchestrated for 13 shelters to be reopened by the state to ensure that people had actual shelter and safety. From that point on, we started doing a lot more work around NBC, which is the Brooklyn detention center, the federal detention center that's in transit park. And around that time, there was freezing temperatures and individuals were housed behind the wall, were actually given no heat, they were given no type of food for the quality food for what that may be for the state to provide. But their quality of life was being diminished. And so we mobilized again, and actually stayed at that site for about a month on the site where NBC was to ensure that the lights, the heat, and actually the quality of life was improved. I'm ensuring that also we were mandating that the Warren quay was actually being dismissed. We wanted them to be removed because of the conditions. And if we know about mass incarceration and how that actually doesn't do anything for our communities, we made sure that that was a vocal statement that individuals who have had that much power actually don't do anything for our people and that people who are on the ground continuously do keep us safe. And so we continue to do that type of work and then obviously a COVID hit. And when I was already doing work in Fort Green, I live in NYCHA, Fort Green housing developments in Ingersoll. And so from proceeding there, I saw that my community needed something. It wasn't anything to me to go and knock on my neighbor's door and ask if they needed resources. From that point on, Brittany reached out to me and said, hey, Jack, which I'm very familiar with through other work that we've done in the past, to community service work and also community center work. They reached out, they said we have a space available. We would love to continue to do this type of work that you already started if we keep us safe. And from that point on, we started in Fort Green and then we expanded all the way to Staten Island. So we would end up doing all the boroughs, providing food, obviously PPE, any type of resources that our people needed. We went out there and got it. We were funded by the people. And so we keep us safe. Origin is people focused grassroots and also making sure that any resources that we can do, we hold our principles very true, that we don't involve this state in any way. We don't want to harm our folk in any extension of how operating could be. So we've actually discontinued some relationships because we realized that the whole point of our agendas is that if we are not doing the practices of keeping folks safe, we don't want to put them in the hands of harm. And so that is where we're continuously looking and remodeling and structuring how safety looks like. What does safety mean? And what does that mean to love political education and also resources that are necessary for our people from the land and giving it to the people? So we keep us safe as origin is love, right? But we also want the people to take it over. And so we don't own this. We know that it is something that our people tell us what we need. We mobilize, we educate, and we let them rock out with the love and care that they need. So yeah, that's where we are. And so yeah, then we keep us safe was in at Jack and there was just dozens of volunteers in hundreds of families were receiving mutual aid and food and Sam was directing the entire production of it all. And so Jack had people there multiple times a week and the space was used and we I'm proud to say we put it all together with Sam in two weeks. So it was the type of thing that we talked about it. And then two weeks later, everyone was in the space. So it wasn't something that took forever or that we were missing opportunities to serve the community. And we learned a lot from We Keep Us Safe and we're still partnered. And in the future, I hope that we can still do things like this when we have productions in the evening when we are back with artists in the space. Yeah, let me kick it over to our next speakers and then you'll hear more from us in the conversation at the end. Thank you so much for that. That was very inspiring. Thank you for sharing this journey. Well, I can I can start and speak a little about People's Theater Project and what we do and how we started this partnership with New York Theater Workshop that we're really excited about. So People's Theater Project is an immigrant led anti racist organization that does ensemble based theater work with immigrant and BIPOC communities to to really strengthen the movement of social justice. So we are rooted in Upper Manhattan. Our home is Washington Heights and Inwood. We believe that all people are artists in everyone in their own different ways. And we believe a lot in the power that young people hold. So one of the many programs that we have, it's the PTP Academy for Leadership Theater and Activism. So this is a rigorous multi year program that is devoted to the holistic development of immigrant youth. Where kids come there, they audition to the participating group auditions, they joined the PTP program. And what it really is is a brave space for young people to be their truest selves and to grow into the leaders that they are. So they come once a week when that was safe. We have our studio located in Inwood. They would come once a week during after school hours and really participate in fun creative activities that would ignite those conversations around the community, around all of the topics that young people are ready to talk about and want to talk about and want to put out into the world in very creative ways.  And the first thing that we did before moving straight into a panic mode, which of course it happened, it's very natural, it was very human, but we decided to take a pause for a second and a breath and kind of like find some stillness to first make some phone calls and like call our families of our participants and ask what is it that you need right now? Like where are you at before moving into the virtual space? That took us around like two weeks maybe. We were able to connect with founders of ours and the community, people from the community that help us a lot. So we were able to set up the academy virtually again app after two weeks. And then we realized that a lot of young people were bored staying in. A lot of young people were needing more. They were really yearning that like human connection. So we started a very, like it just happened one Friday where we said, let's have a fancy Friday. We called it a fancy Friday and let's log in at 5 p.m. on a zoom link and we're not going to have class. We're just going to hang out. What do you all want to do? And this became a thing. The fancy Fridays became a thing where like all of the kids wanted to really participate in because it was out of curriculum and structured class. And it was we were cooking all together. Like we would rotate and say, okay, I know how to make his aliyas. Like let's all be on camera and make his aliyah like together. I know let's watch a movie together like with share screen. Let's have a party like you know all of the fun things. And we decided that now that we're still in the virtual world after some classes that we had at the park when the weather was still permitting it, now we want to keep those fancy Fridays because these are really important for our community. And beyond the work, the structural work, we want to actually have a true honest human relationship with our students. And this is where I'm passing it on to my colleagues here at your theater workshop so we can then connect the dots. Thank you, staff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So very quickly. So so so in essence, at a New York Theater workshop, we are interested in our educational and community engagement programming to interested in centering the voices and leadership of BIPOC youth and immigrant youth. And we had known about people's theater project and the amazing work that they're doing uptown and been following their work for a number of years and entering in conversation this past year before the pandemic started about ways in which we could work together to serve the community that they're serving in meaningful and impactful ways through, you know, the creation of arts programming, arts education programming for the youth in the area. Because this is sort of a central part of our goal. And like in every partnership, we we've met over coffee and tried to figure out and dream what it could be. But one of the things that we do at the workshop that is central to our education programming is is the notion of career exploration and career development is supporting and cultivating theater artists at every step of their careers, right? Whether they want to be professional or not, right? It's also the same belief that PTP has that we're all artists. We all have a right to access theater as a human right and as a form of expression and as a form of activating oneself and the community and using theater as not only as a form of telling stories, but also for social justice, right, as a tool for learning, activating planning and strategizing as well. So we shared that sort of common philosophy. And we have access in our community to many, many, many artists. And one of the things that we do at the workshop, as I was saying, is a series of career workshops for young people so that they begin to have access and an understanding of potential careers in the theater. And what makes it very special for us is that we involve the entire institution, right? So it's not just the education department and or teaching artists or artists that are that are providing services through our education programming, but the entire institution. We actually call upon everybody in the institution from our marketing folks to our production management folks, costumes, producing, casting our artistic folk. And we work with every member of our staff that sort of volunteers to do this workshops to prepare, to engage and meet the young people. And so, Gabyn can talk a little bit more about these workshops that we are doing and this partnership that is actually a nascent partnership. We've been scheming for a year and now we're putting it together online. And so we're really excited about that. As Alex and Zahe were saying, the way that we approach our activism and our engagement is through the importance of education. And I can speak for myself as a family who lived under dictatorships. It was very important for me that education is such a key in a moment for a young person to realize the potential of who they can become and what does it mean to be civically engaged and socially conscious at their age in their community. And we knew what we had was the arts and how personally for me as a young ground immigrant, from a young ground immigrant family to find myself and find the language or languages to describe where I am now. And so what I love about the work that we're doing, it goes hand in hand with both our missions. And as Alex was saying, it's an investment from the entire institution. It's not siloed in one department working with only a few people. It's truly a buy-in from every single person in both institutions and knowing that we're here for these young people who have trusted and given up so much of themselves to learn and to cultivate and is truly trying to create a community and space for them to flourish. And so yeah. One last thing that I wanted to say because I think I forgot to do that. So this year, Fancy Fridays will be those workshops led by New York Interruption. So each Friday of the month, the students of PTP Academy will be taking a different masterclass and a different topic. So we're starting this November with costume design, right? Yeah. Costume design. And then after the completion of it, they'll get a certificate that they also have attended a master class on costume design and development and production and all of the aspects of the theatrical journey. That's a little bit about us. We open it up for conversation and thoughts about partnerships and how we put them together. Yeah. One of the things that I sort of wanted to convey in terms of our partnership is that one of the things that that was really important to us is that, as I was saying before, that our sort of mission and our goals aligned, right? And that there was a clear philosophy that we sort of both had in terms of the kinds of work that we that we wanted to do in the ways in which we wanted to serve young people, right? From our perspective at New York Interruption workshop, we didn't want to be an imposition. We wanted to be of service to the community and how can we share our community? How can we share our resources? How can we share our connections in the theater world for folks to have access, for folks to have information and resources and, you know, meet artists that are doing the work? You know, I think one of the things that was really, really important that we sort of learned is really important for PTP is the opportunity to create opportunity for the young people uptown and kids to have access and sort of envision a possibility, you know, the possibility of a career in the theater, the career in the arts and some of it is lack of access to professional, you know, producing companies. And, you know, at the workshop, the emphasis has always been on cultivating a community, first and foremost, entering into conversation and then providing access for folks to develop, learn and hone their craft, right? And so, you know, we were interested in a partnership but we didn't want to impose. We didn't want to impose that that would be sort of the goal on the other end but it's so wonderful that aligns so much with what People's Theater Project wants to do, which is provide access to youth that otherwise without the program wouldn't have access to some spaces around the city. What are some of the things you have learned in your partnership, folks at Jack and we see? I'd say that I think just something that I feel like I already know but it just constant communication is very important but that's something I feel like we knew beforehand but this was just a different way of communicating and just in terms of Sam I know could talk about how many people that she was coordinating through all of this and Sam was our point person so we were talking to Sam but Sam I feel like was talking to dozens and dozens of people and so how to figure out how to connect and support her when she had all of that weight and so something that we tried to do was to take over the buildings around us so anyone in the buildings around us who wanted or needed support or anything tackling that and figuring out who could support that process so that Sam had less to focus on across the street and could keep going in words outwards. That was something that I felt like was successful and it was just an exciting part of the growth because that didn't come to later having the our actual neighbors across the street from us that we see all the time at Jack receiving and meeting for each other late. I would say for me the one thing that I've always wanted was to really hone in healing and love and also the practice of art and what that means in my perspective is just that one thing we can do is just like Jordan I was saying reach across the street and like show that sometimes institutions may be very isolated but Jack has done a great amazing job in making sure that everybody in the neighborhood knew about us that it was really transparent it was an open door policy and it was really just community building more so than I've seen before and the thing that I've also learned was that having true partnerships that truly believe in the community and want to really do right by the community consistently was also a driving factor and yeah I was talking to many many people but I never felt alone and I never felt as if it was an isolated project that I was in a silo by myself and it was something that I just had to meet my deadlines or make the appearance of the space better it was all it was already a warm space and I think that goes to the intentionality of an artist space to create that before you get into it and you just kind of blossom and so that was one thing that I learned that is I would hope that other art institutions would be able to mimic creating a safe space creating a warm space but also an intentional space that even when you don't have a show or premiere that people can still come in and either give ideas and be inspired by that and or just wanting to figure out where their place is and be able to lean in support so that was one a great thing that I I learned but I also am consistently inspired by our partnership Sam something that I really that like that hooked on to me that what you just said that resonates with me is you know to you have to create a such a beautiful partnership an intricate partnership of understanding and trust to provide consistently to the and that's I think that's the difficulty that I the challenges I've learned within this position what is it what is it what is the relationship of a the of a theater institution to its community and to our local organized and local activist organizations and how can we create a relationship in which it's reciprocal but is sustainable consistent can be sustainable and actively support um yeah I think especially at this time what does it mean especially at COVID just specifically for a New York theater workshop and ptp though we've been in conversation you know we we wanted to start doing something at the time COVID hit like we we had to call is like oh we have to change plans we're not going to do that workshop and and and and I'm bringing it up because we are at the moment because we are in the you know the infancy of our collaboration we are actively building that relationship that you're done and you have and your institutions have and it's so beautiful to see where you know how it's grown and we hope we we get you know we're building that like I aspire to be in that collaboration yeah yeah and I was going to say even at this early stage of our partnership we've already been inspired by by um how ptp has responded to the moment you know when when the COVID crisis um with with their academy for for for these young folk you know they were they were really um uh committed to put in it you know taking the academy online right and committing to these young people um and you know they have a a staff person that is a youth advocate right who who works with the youth reminding them engage in them making sure that their families are okay making sure that that they're accessing their resources and and sort of engaging them in that consistency that was inspiring right um and it's inspiring and it and it to me was inspiring that they were trying to figure out how we take this intricate curriculum online that it inspired us at the workshop to you know uh uh to create a program that was online um and so um we are doing um a program at the workshop called the youth artistic instigators that is inspired by the way we are um sort of doing our season this year which is online virtually um and perhaps at some point socially distanced but we sort of um went to a community of artists um and in essence um asked them send them a provocation and and asked them to dream um work for the moment right um and that we would you know listen to their ideas and and produce their ideas of theatrical work that um that was begin to the moment both in terms of the pandemic and the moment around sort of racial justice right and so that was inspiring for us right could we provoke students young people to create work about the moment yes could we do it online wonderful um and uh and then now that we're in the virtual space uh could we open it not just to New York City youth but youth across the country um and so our program has you know young people from all around the country that are creating together around notions of transformation social change and social justice and in a way you know we're inspired by so many things but inspired by ptp's decision to say well we're going to take we're going to move on with our academy we're going to provide the service and we're going to do theater we're going to do theater without our ensemble of young people online right it's going to be challenging and difficult but we're going to we're going to do it um so we're also in the midst of exploring that and and doing it yeah so many things resonate with like with that we're saying I wanted to kind of like go back to what Jordana you were saying about intentionality that that's that's like the um one of the key things that makes a partnership be strong and therefore sustainable and um I I've also been very inspired and I know that that was part of why ptp was also very interested um collaborate in collaborating with new theory work should be on the fact that we know our missions are very aligned and our core values as well but it's amazing to me how like we are all of us respectively rooted in our communities and community is very important and at the same time these partnership partnerships now are kind of like crossing borders if that makes sense like geographically we're partnering with people from different communities that have those similar you know missions and similar kind of scope of work so we we sometimes make fun with our students we say when we were having the conversations about actually being in new york theater spaces uh in new york theater works of space we would be like uptown travels downtown and we're gonna get to see you know how theater happens downtown we do it like this and then we would invite them maybe to lead a workshop a workshop in our studio if that's possible so downtown folks can see how we do it uptown so I I'm very interested in that and how we can you know stay true to our community but intentionally also sometimes like collaborate with people from other communities across for us is now in york city but as you were saying alex you are now doing it across the country so that's something that it's very inspiring for me yeah that's definitely something that has happened that I've you know also witnessed through this pandemic is that so many uh arts leaders and organizations are all connecting that I hadn't been connected with before and so people I've known about um like you all have been excited about but it's different than you know talking to you multiple times a week on zoom because we can do that now and bouncing ideas off each other and really creating this larger web and community with all our many communities that are serving specific neighborhoods and it definitely feels maybe it's just because we're all going through the same thing together but I feel far more connected to different theater organizations and different activist organizations than I did a year ago yeah I hope that you know I hope that we you know I know we're all zoomed out you know in a way that you know we spend our days on zoom and and then do multiple programming and and and and sometimes it's really really difficult and challenging and physically demanding and intense um but one of the the the wonderful things as yours are you're mentioning is this this connection um with folks right and I think um you know I'm already sort of seeing a future you know hopefully without COVID um but we're connecting like this across borders and barriers and regions it's gonna hopefully going to stay so it's no longer um that it would no longer be okay to say well you know you cannot participate in our programming because you are miles away that there is a way in which we can collaborate in many different ways and many different mediums um uh uh yeah so that's exciting and I think there's a challenge you know moving forward for organizations theater organizations person organizations to to maintain some of those connections that they have created virtually um and how do you how do then you transition those to in-person programming as well but also maintain you know um some of the accessibility um qualities of online program and virtual programming Sam there was something sorry I just really love what you said earlier there was also another thing that I wanted to bring which is connection to what has been what has been said about I mean specifically in this time the way that we've all come together and we're together during the pandemic and during the uprisings and um creating discourse and safety you spoke specifically about the possibility of space for community when you go into an art-centric slash socially conscious space when they come together and I think we've all worked in person during during this pandemic as well physically and I also wonder how everyone feels about creating that community and continuing this partnership and creating that space of safety and expression online like how do we continue to serve these communities online it's just it's just a it's something that just popped but it's a challenge that I've been facing how can I I know what I could do in person and that there's a certain feeling there's a certain type of energy I get and then how do I bring and ensure that safety and sense of community online to those who can access it and need to access it via that way yeah well for me I I'm now just getting comfortable with people being in my home literally you know they are literally on my sofa and seeing my cats run around so it has a sense of breaking the fourth wall right and understanding that in order for me to keep any any phrase if I say safety I really mean what is the level of comfortability that you and I can exchange right what is the level that we can have a conversation that we can easily turn off our camera we can shut down at any particular time we have that still the same autonomy if we're in person but definitely what does that look like as far as what you're mentioning gaben when you're just kind of doing 17 different things and you want to maintain that sense of sincerity to the exchange and so I think for the zoomed out folk which all of us are we still have that comfortability of knowing that we are in a space that you have to invite me to right and there's there's always that invitation and the discourse of knowing that invitation is always open whether we choose to or not choose to and there's also patience I think we've gained a lot of patience through COVID with ourselves first and then with others and so the thing that I'm learning when it comes down to maintaining a form of safety is really what does my own comfortability I'm more aware of myself I'm more aware of the space in which I occupy um a lot of zoom calls are now being more recognizing in the land in which we're in and we're being more conscious about how we occupy space within the space that we thought was our own and when we're always inviting folk in we have that moment of saying okay well I have nine people right now in my living room and they're in the space and I'm able to take time and patience with myself about exchanging what is comfortable for me and it's not that I'm I'm going to be frozen but it's just I have I have more patience and I think for the exchange with young people um that's what we've always wanted from them and we've always wanted the exchange of just being relaxed and just doing a breathing exercise and then you know maybe doing some fun you know warm-up games and so this is kind of the opportunity where family can be engaged and that the moms and the dads and the partners of their lives and the people and engage with them can see the the vibrance they can see the energy they can because they have never seen it before they've never been able to go into that classroom and see them do a zoom game or see them talk about colors or some like local exercises and see the joy that it brings um and so I think that there's really very many ways in which we maybe impacting young people or people in our community but we're also impacting those who view them as well um and so that's the way that I take this away because I know when I was when we're doing mutual aid I was only kind of thinking about meeting the need right meeting the the the where we're not at but then I realized that people were watching me consistently when I'm in my house when I'm not in my house and going to the corner store and that's the way that I built a lot more community relationships because people are like you're just hustling what are you doing how are you doing this you know and obviously Jordana I have 17 pallets of potatoes I don't know how I'm gonna do it but you know and then I'll get um you know community members from across the street saying I see you do this where where can I fit in and so and they're also opening their homes to me I've been in 17 million homes and I'm like I'm just I love it um where we didn't have that before so COVID has taught us how to be patient with ourselves and I think with the youth they're also being patient with you as you work through this with them and you're not judging where they are in their home and the fourth wall is being broken consistently so that's my perspective to it yeah that has been so important for us to to not judge right uh you know uh the young people in their homes and how their access and their space you know they're so conditioned in our educational system right and told to behave in particular ways but what of course what happens when you are when your home is your school when your home is your theater space your creative space all of those sort of things combined and then you're inviting folks into your home um uh we have to undo those expectations um you know not that we always had them but but it's hard for them to undo those expectations as well and so we have to create a space where they feel safe being themselves right um with others um yeah that resonates absolutely yeah what are you looking forward to in your own partnerships oh Safi you had something to say yeah I jumped the gun no no no that's I just wanted to add to share the moment because at PTP when we start the classes we always start with the devising of the brave space agreements how do we move from like safe also to brave space also because because it's theater and and for all of the other reasons um and I now that we're having this conversation I did notice that a big part of what goes under our contract of brave space agreements when it's being devised online you can see the difference you can see how the young people are putting different um sentences they're forming different sentences when we're doing this activity of the brave space agreement in comparison with the one we're doing it in person in our studio so now what you're describing so nicely Sam is brave right now means also literally I want to be brave enough to nothing that people will judge me you know you see my kitchen behind and we just had like lunch all together and you see our family mess and we are like yeah that's how all of our kitchens look right now so don't worry we're not looking at this we're you know here focusing on this vocal activity so it's what you what you said so nicely like the young people know that and I just see it's beautiful to also see that in action in the activities how now even bravery is being redefined as a concept in their minds when we're talking about it Alex you had a question sorry to you're a mute we haven't learned yeah that's just you know um uh uh yeah so the question was you know we have 50 more minutes or so time together and and and you know it's just the question is like what are you looking forward to in your partnership folks moving forward in terms of the the work that you're dreaming to do together that's easy for us or at the very beginning so everything is a dream um but uh yeah I mean I'll say because yeah we're very much not at the beginning um but I would say that when so I'm looking farther down the line but when we are back in the space with artists I'm really looking forward to figuring out how we keep up partnerships and how we keep up this partnership with Sam and how we um bring in someone that Sam's really excited about working with because at the end of the day we do have this space and we do have our performances in the evening so if people aren't in tech we have the space and we'd rather be using it with the community and serving those around us than renting it and so I'm really excited for kind of like tackling that challenge um I think it'll be a really I think it's going to bring about some really beautiful things and partnerships um and it's going to be it's going to be new I'm excited about that as well I mean I come from a background of working in community centers um and being able to have um some access to space and so I no longer work in that space anymore and so being able to be with Jordana and Jack and having like great innovative ideas to start bringing out to you know community and also thinking about how do we really maximize the conversations of just sitting and being in community with each other um is really great I would love um I think you know if we once we get there I'm always future projecting right once we get to a point of COVID being manageable that we're talking about what health really looks like and what our wellness looks like um mental health looks like um people um talking about their feelings and emotions and being able to have like not necessarily a lounge but just an open dialogue of saying this is where I'm now able to transition into as we're going through multiple different phases of our personal life as well as a professional um and when community members are having um maybe a moment where they just like I'm confused that they find another space that they can go to um and just breathe um and being able to go into um whenever their day is required of them but definitely an open chill space that they can do um like Jordana's mentioning so that's something I'm looking for to potentially just to add as a curator and the co-director that also gets me really excited about what artists are having this conversation what artists have been and are focusing on health and what that means and what that installation looks like or what that play looks like or what that collaboration with We Keep Us Safe or the volunteers is so that's that's a whole another thing that's lit up that I'm now really excited about in 2021 to really start diving into because there are artists have been working on this but they haven't been the ones that we've been focused on putting in the forefront you know and so now we're very much on focused on health and so I'm really excited to to find those people and to collaborate with them so hit me up great yeah yeah yes yeah I mean I think you know one of the things that I've been reflecting on is that I think this moment has taught us on a number of fronts that um theaters and cultural organizations um should you know should really very specifically you know um you know say what their values are and sort of be accountable to those values and live to those values and if those values include serving their community right um it means that there's a civic responsibility and if you want to be a civic institution a public institution at the service of community then um then then you have to to be intentional and and constant um and make space literal make space in your space physically um to welcome community without any sort of uh preconditions and engage with them in a conversation about what their needs are and then of course in the virtual space create space as well there and make sure that folks have access to it if you want to engage them just don't put out an invitation and expect that folks will come make sure that that that you're engaging and partner with communities that can also help and have the philosophy of meeting folks where they're at in person and online so I'm looking forward to you know in a non-covid space also making space within our space intentionally uh for community to use that space for their expression and their growth and their learning yeah I yes I'm looking forward to all of the things mentioned already I think specifically for the partnership that we're about to start I'm very excited um about the potential of keep fostering that sense of belonging for our students which is so important for you know our immigrant community um that's that's I guess what I meant also before when I was saying about that uh joke that we made now with the students like we're gonna like uptown travels downtown it's just um that sense that you know Yurka Theta Workshop represents it's very known it's very well known in the theater community here and that sense of belonging like our kids knowing that you know I belong there too it's not that distant place that I never go to because it's not for me and I don't see plays that sound and look like me I think I'm very interested in like keep redefining what access means what equity means and what um that sense of belonging can mean for our young artists a lot of them come to the academy because they truly want to do that as their career and I know just for myself like from my background being an immigrant in this country I know that I you know I can't I can't go into equity because I they don't allow if you don't have a green card for example it's not for if you're not a citizen so that's something already that we discuss this kind of things with our students we're having these conversations from now even though they're still in middle school and high school we know that the way systems have been functioning they're not actually welcoming for a lot of folks so for me this is a beginning this is like a start of that keep the work of keep deepening that sense of belonging that I belong here of course with the respect of knowing how much space we occupy and how much space we share and how much space we you know take take more space when we have to and like take a step back when we also have to but um yeah belonging is what I'm really excited about I guess this might be jumping the gun but what excites me about is thinking about in the next several years especially the academy for those who don't know what drew me personally to ptp is that in the academy it's it's social justice oriented and it creates a space in which students are wrestling with complicated nuance issues of of immigration sex and gender racism anti-blackness and and it's such something that sam had said earlier was like the creating space for healing for cooperation to then push on to do work and i'm looking forward to these young people and participating and the staff participating in that cultivation of these young people realizing there are you know the the beauty and the necessary how necessary it is for artists to be civically engaged in their communities especially ptp is very much about you know serving the wash like the neighborhood washington heights and inwood for us in the east villa you know for new york the workshop lower east side the village you know alphabet city where i was born and raised and so it i'm looking for for these young people to you know like learn from us and we learn from them and collaborate and see what they do i think i might be but that's the dream like that you know when you yeah when you give the tools to young people and you create a space of nurture and giving them the possibilities to dream beyond what was like what they believe was afforded to them and they could just dream the impossible it's i'm looking forward to that beauty that that beautiful moment yeah yeah i just want to pick you back yeah go ahead and i gave in um when you're talking about like the spaces for healing i'm looking at all forms of resistance right what does that really look like when we're talking about healing because that within itself is a is is a revolutionary break great um and thinking about how are our partnerships really pushing that needle to ensure that we are consistently innovative about resisting what the social norms are resisting the conversations that everyone wants us to really have but we're not really talking about um and thinking about how to expand the way that we are right now because if if we know history it repeats itself and if we know how we always are thinking about social constructs they're always meant to be broken and so are we really giving our communities the tools is that are essential for when the next COVID breaks right are we really doing political education that's really giving our communities and ourselves a well-versed and well-rounded opportunity to continuously push that that that obvious um conversation but to push it even harder and as artists and as social um justice organizers agitators what are we really doing to make ourselves uncomfortable um so that the state or other forms of oppression are no longer able to continuously to put us in these spaces again and that you're in an artist space the uh constructs of what funding looks like what is that how are we resisting those those things right how are we breaking those chains so that when we're talking about community engagement that we're really giving it to the people to orchestrate that and to create the buildings in the spaces that are safe truly intentionally without you know an art fund saying oh you can only do three shows uh you know or you know some type of funder and saying hey you can only have four artists and I need to know who what when where and why that artist is what it is right so I think that where my hope is is that we are breaking a lot of these change and having the dialogue and conversation where our communities are also being very influential and how we do it because they're at the front line with us they're on the ground with us and they're helping us do what I know as Sankofa going back to where we were realizing what was valuable and bringing it back to our people so that we don't repeat the the the faults of our history so that's one thing as well. I love that Sam because our community members are the stakeholders they like our future is truly based on what they want and what they need and so yeah just second anything. Yeah the people should have the means of production right you know Augusto Boal my mentor would say would say theater is a weapon and is the people who should wield it for their own liberation so I mean it's a it's a long task but it should be an intentional task. I think we're two minutes. Well thank you all for being here today that was very inspiring. Thank you for the conversation thank you for the conversation and we wish you luck with everything be safe and healthy. Sam. Hi I'm here I was like I was like oh you still use those two minutes please I'm waiting for this conversation. Thank you all truly truly truly thank you all so much for just I'm I'm so grateful to have witnessed this. You mentioned Midway through the conversation you were talking about Zoom fatigue and I think it's I hope you all feel really energized by this conversation I think it's conversations like these and days like today and this festival that really energized me I truly I'm so grateful and I know I think the thing that I missed the most about live like the liveness of theater and being in space and just like being able to gather is that mutual energy share and me being able to like like for you to even though I was off screen let me tell you I am living okay I've been snapping screaming texting the producers we're all having our own conversation about your conversation learning from each other it's truly truly so wonderful and I know everybody at home is celebrating you so I hope that you leave this space feeling energized feeling celebrated and with lots more questions I'm just so excited to leave this space thinking more deeply about what it means to be in partnership. I appreciate calling Sankofa into the space Sam that's something that deeply resonates with me too so yes thank you all truly for joining us today and I think that's that on that so we'll close out this space I hope you all will join us for the rest of the festival for everybody watching out there I hope you'll join us for the rest of the festival we have two more performances tonight one at 8 p.m. so you have a half an hour break it's Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge in partnership with the elevator repair service and then May and Theo is having a meditation space at 10 p.m. with I hear a guest so I hope you'll join us I hope everybody at home will join us I'm excited for it and we have so many more days I'm so excited thank you thank you


Hello, and welcome to the session in which we will discuss the rental of vacation homes. When you have a second home either on a beach in the mountains or in your favorite city and sometime what you do you might rent that home as a source of income when you are not there. So what is the treatment of that rental income if you do have that second home? Well we have to understand a vacation home may have three different classification which are primarily personal use residence, primarily rental use residence and personal slash rental use residence which is a hybrid category. So the first thing before you determine how to treat the income and the expenses from your vacation home you have to understand what does it qualify under is it's a primary use personal primarily rental or is it a hybrid personal slash rental use residence. Starting with primary personal use residence which is the easiest category and let's go ahead and discuss this when is the vacation home considered a primarily personal use residence is a residence that's rented for less than 15 days during the tax year then it's a primarily personal use residence. So you do have that second vacation home however you rented it for less than 15 days if you rented it less than 15 days guess what it's water under the bridge the taxpayer is not required to report any income from the rent of personal use residence also you have to understand you also cannot deduct any expenses associated with the residence of course except for qualified mortgage interest and real estate taxes but those they go on your itemize deduction on schedule A that's different so you have to understand if it's a primarily personal use nothing to worry about let's 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. Garcia owns a beach house during the current tax year she rented it to an unrelated party for 10 days for $2300 the house was vacant for the remainder of the year. Garcia incurred the following expenses in relation to the house utilities maintenance depreciation property taxes mortgage interest of 300 for income tax purposes determine the appropriate treatment of the income and the expenses well given that Garcia rented the house for 10 days only well it's less than 15 days we consider this as a personal use property therefore Garcia is not required to report the income regarding the expenses she's allowed to deduct the property taxes and mortgage interest which is total of 1500 on her schedule A let's take a look when the property is a primarily rental use property when is it a primarily rental use well when it's rented for more than 15 days also not used for personal purpose for more than the greater of so it has to be more than 15 days and when it comes to personal use you did not use it more than 14 the greater of 14 days or 10% of the total rental days when it's treated as a rental use property so for example a few rented it 200 days times 10% that's 20 days so now you did not use it the greater of 14 or 20 days you would look at 20 days so you cannot use it more than 20 days for personal use now a taxpayer is required to report any income earned from the rent of the rent of this rental property in addition he or she made about the expenses associated with the rental use of the property well what we have here is a rental property technically for rental use property a taxpayer is allowed to report a net loss from the rental activity so if you do have a loss you can report that net loss now it's worth noting or mentioning following the tax cuts and jobs act of 2017 the mortgage interest on this type of property is no longer deductible as itemized deduction because the property does not qualify as a personal residence told the straight let's take a look at this example going back to Garcia Garcia rented her beach house for unreal for an unrelated party for 40 days for 5200 and personally used it for 10 days now on the first example I told you Garcia has a beach house and she rented it for 10 days you could also rent your own home for 10 days it doesn't have to be a second house and it will be also a personal residence now we rented it more than 15 days so notice it's no longer considered personal residence and Garcia incurred the following expenses utilities of 1200 maintenance of 700 depreciation of a thousand property taxes of 1700 and mortgage interest of 2560 let's determine the appropriate treatment for the income and the expenses under the scenario well the first thing is it's no longer a primarily residence home here why because we rented it more than 15 days also it was used for personal purpose for 10 days now which is less than the greater of 14 days or 10% of rental days the rental days were 40 days times 10% that's equal to 4 days well so 10 days the personal use 10 days is less than the greater of 14 and for the greater is 14 it's less than 14 therefore this property is classified as rental use property rental use property means just simply put we have a schedule E and we fill out our income and expenses there let's take a look at what we do for this example the numbers that we need to compute as expense related to the rental property if you want to copy the numbers down the expenses we're gonna go to the second slide well income is the same personal rental or personal it doesn't matter the income is reported for 5200 now what do we have to deal with you with utilities remember we have utilities of let's see utilities were total of 1200 the total was 1200 now we are going to prorate the utilities we're gonna give 10% 20% how did we come up with 20% 10 days divided by 50 where's the 50 coming from 10 personal 40 rental we have 50 days and the rental portion 40 divided by 50 which is 80% so we're gonna prorate the utilities 20% personal 80% business same thing with maintenance which is $700 in total 20% depreciation was a thousand property taxes let's see 1360 plus 340 that's 1700 and mortgage interest the same thing we're gonna prorate them prorate them 20 and a 20 and 80% now the income is 5200 the total deductible expenses for this business adding up all the expenses is 5728 all in all we have a loss of 528 and this loss is deductible for a GI assuming the at risk and passive activity or loss are satisfied so you can deduct this income against other income assuming we satisfy this at risk rule which we'll talk we'll talk about in a separate recording in addition what's gonna happen with Garcia the $340 of property taxes that was considered personal this will go on her schedule a and she'll be able to deduct this the mortgage interest as well as other expenses associated with the personal use which are let me just show you what's gonna happen to these expenses this this this this too bad those you cannot use basically she lost them it's personal use and it's not deductible now let's take a look at personal slash rental use property so this one is not primary residence it's not primary rental we have a rental place and it's hybrid when do we consider a place as a hybrid well first the place has to be rented more than 15 days and used and used notice here not used and used for personal purposes for the greater of again 14 days or 10% of the total rental days as it's treated as per as as personal slash rental use property so rather than not used now it's used for the for the greater of these though so let's take a look at we'll look we'll look at an example in this case of a personal slash rental use property the taxpayer is required to report the income from the rental property so the income that's not an issue we have to report the income however the expenses must be allocated between the personal and rental use on a pro rata basis the expenses related to the rental use property are allowed as a deduction to the extent of rental income so the expenses we can deduct them they have to be first prorated then we can deduct them but here's the thing we can deduct them to the extent of rental income what does that mean it means the expenses cannot be more than income so in other words no loss is allowed the rental activity may not result in a loss so the best case scenario is for tax purposes we would have we break even zero so we have 10 thousand of income we can only deduct 10 000 of expenses although we have more than 10 000 prorated to that business to that rental we can't it's up to zero it's like a hobby loss a hobby activity you cannot create a net loss additionally the expenses deducted they have to follow in order first we deduct the real estate taxes then end the mortgage interest which are deductible in all cases here all cases means on schedule a then we would look at operating expenses such as utility maintenance insurance and depreciation now for personal slash rental use property which is the hybrid the mortgage interest and the real estate associated with that are can be allowed as itemized deductions so that's why we start with them we start deducting them first that's why we deduct them first because if they are not if they are not deducted for rental they are deducted on schedule a let's take a look at an example to illustrate this concept again going back to Garcia now she rented her house to an unrelated party for 45 days so it's more than 15 it's it's not it's no longer primary residence and personally used it for 15 days well let's look at the expenses that she incurred utilities of 1700 maintenance 900 depreciation 1200 property taxes 1200 and mortgage interest of 2760 how do we treat those incomes and expenses well let's take a look at it first Garcia's home was rented for 45 days which is more than 15 means no longer a primary residence additionally it was used for personal purpose for 15 days which is what the greater greater than 14 days or 10 percent of rental period 45 days times 10 percent 4.5 well 15 days is greater than 14 days so now what we have is we have a hybrid therefore the beach house in this situation classify as a hybrid personal slash rental use property now how do we allocate the expenses because the income has to be reported fully well we are gonna have the denominator for the ratio is 60 days which is 45 rental plus 15 personal 60 days so personal is 15 over 60 which is 25 percent the rental is 45 over 60 which is 75 percent the income is all goes toward the rental then the mortgage is allocated 75 to 25 property taxes same concept utilities maintenance and depreciation now if we add up all the expenses and let's go ahead and add up all the expenses that we computed here so if we take 20 70 plus 14 25 plus 20 75 plus 6 75 plus 900 if we add up all the expenses all the expenses will add up to be if my math is right 6345 well if that's the case if this is our expenses and we generated income of 6200 we should have a loss well we cannot we are limited in terms of in terms of let me go ahead and add up all the expenses first that we prorated so 2000 and 70 plus 14 25 plus 12 75 plus 6 75 plus 900 if we add up all the expenses it's going to be 6345 the expenses that we are prorated to the rental property based on a 75 percent ratio well guess what we cannot take all the deductions why not because we are limited to 6200 in deduction so what's going to happen is this we can only take from depreciation we're going to go to the depreciation and we are only deduction is limited to 755 why 755 because if we take 755 plus the all the other expenses will give us exactly 6200 remember this is a hybrid situation therefore we cannot report a loss it has to be zero now what's going to happen the depreciation it will be carried over for the personal personal portion well we have the mortgage and the property taxes those will be reported on schedule a utilities maintenance and depreciation well depreciation the personal portion is not allowed basically they're going to be not simply put not used simply put not used so let's review as a result this is a hybrid no gain and no loss for Garcia although she has 6345 she can only deduct 6200 in fact the deduction of depreciation is limited to 755 and remaining depreciation carried forward to future years it's also important that the basis of the depreciation is reduced by 755 the basis of the property because it's depreciated so when you sell it later it's a reduction because remember when you take depreciation it reduces your basis well which we'll talk about that later in a separate session when we talk about depreciation and cost recovery in addition Garcia has allowed to deduct 1165 which are the the sum of the taxes on the property and the mortgage interest associated now let's discuss a topic about the allocation of expenses because the IRS will have a different role than the courts this is beyond the scope of a CPA exam I'm not sure if it's going to be covered for the CPA exam in the future but nevertheless I think for a student or for an enrolled agent this is relevant the allocation of real estate taxes and mortgage interest those two between rental and personal use property differ from the court and the IRS so how you'd be able to how much to deduct depending because it's a hybrid in other words what's the denominator that we're going to be using is it going to be the amount the days rented or is it going to be the the total days in a year the court as per court real estate taxes and mortgage which the crew relatively over the tax year should be allocated between the personal and rental basis on 365 or 366 if we have a leap year so based on the number of days in a year the IRS allocation which what I basically what I used the real estate taxes and the mortgage interest should be allocated between the personal and rental based on the total number of days in which the property was used the other type of expenses such as utilities maintenance and depreciation are allocated based on the total number of days in which the property was used so when it comes to the other expenses it's how much the property are used either court or IRS however when it comes to mortgage and interest this is where they differ so let's take a look at an example to see how this what what difference does it make okay John owns a house in the Poconos during the current year he rented it for 45 days 8200 an income the home is qualified as a hybrid personal slash rental John also used it for personal use for 30 days the real estate taxes and the mortgage interest associated with the house were 6200 and 3400 respectively in addition John incurred maintenance of 1200 utilities of 2500 and depreciation expense of 3500 now what we're gonna do we're gonna determine the total deductible expenses associated with the rental use under the IRA and under the court approach so we're gonna look at both side by side and look at the numbers now if you don't have the power point slides if you're not far hat member just copy or take a picture of the slides so you can see where the numbers are coming from now whether we used the IRS or the court approach the income will always be the same under both so we it doesn't have to worry about income when it comes to the IRS approach how do we prorate we prorate based on the number of rental days well what does that mean it's the denominator is 75 days why 75 days it's the rental which is 45 plus the personal 30 we would use 75 days therefore if we use 75 days 45 divided by 75 the rental days divided by 75 the rental is 60 percent so for the mortgage we're gonna take 60 percent of the mortgage interest deducted we're gonna take 60 percent of the property taxes and for the other expenses it's gonna be 60 always 60 percent now when it comes to the IRA the court approach under the court approach here's what's gonna happen for the mortgage interest we are gonna take 3400 we're gonna take 45 days and we're gonna be using a different denominator and the denominator is 365 for mortgage interest also for property taxes we're only gonna be taken 764 for mortgage interest then when it comes to utilities it doesn't really make a difference it's gonna be based on 75 so notice the only difference it makes it when it comes to mortgage and taxes and the answer is why well we're gonna see why in a moment what what difference does it make to the taxpayer whether they use the court approach or they use the IRS approach now here's what's gonna happen since since this is a hybrid we can only have we can only have maximum we can have zero income maximum means you cannot have a loss you can have a zero income so your expenses cannot exceed your expenses cannot exceed 8200 so when we add up all our expenses we are still short of 2200 from the balance so what you do is you use the depreciation last and you would say okay my depreciation in total is 1920 I'm limited to 220 therefore if I take only 220 of depreciation 220 of depreciation and add up all the expenses based on the IRS approach I have 8200 of income 8200 of income will give me a loss of zero that's fine let's take a look at the court approach under the court approach my mortgage interest is 419 my properties 764 my utilities 1500 my maintenance is 720 therefore I can still deduct 4796 therefore I'm gonna take my full depreciation which is 1920 and after all said and done I have expenses of 5,324 well which gonna give me a net income a net income of 2876 you're gonna say I don't like the net income because I have to pay taxes on this net income well yes you would prefer to have a loss rather than a net income unless unless what's gonna happen is this unless you can take you can benefit from the amount of interest and taxes that you're gonna be able to take on schedule a so you have to determine can I benefit from my interest and taxes I take on schedule a versus paying my taxes so you have to make that decision so that's why it's different so if simply put let's let me simplify it for you if you don't itemize if you don't itemize you want the IRS approach because you want to take as much as possible in your deduction and have a zero go go ahead and break even now if you itemize you have to determine what's the effect of my itemized deduction versus the additional taxes I have to pay on this income so for each individual it will be different and if I have to guess most likely the future CPA exam they will have they might have a problems like this as part of the tax planning my guess just the speculation from my end under the IRS IRS approach the mortgage interest and the real state are allocated based on the days of use which is 75 days 45 plus 30 the court allocate based on the number of years the remaining real estate taxes and the mortgage which are not deducted and arriving at agi are allowed as itemized deduction on schedule a so you have to know if it's worth it for you those itemize deductions for example under the IRS not IRA you have 3840 under the court approach you have 8 416 you have to determine the effect of the taxes on taking these into account because the amount of taxes could be different could be way larger under certain circumstances so that's the key what should you do now go to forehead lectures look at additional mcqs through false exercises additional lectures that's going to help you understand this topic better rental income rental income taxes of rental income vacation of vacation rental income is important is an important topic on the CPA exam good luck study hard I'm always here for you and stay safe


I'm gonna show you how I made this lobster risotto for two, perfect for Valentine's Day, using the new LaCrusse Heart Collection. Now I love all of my LaCrusse products because they are made using the highest quality materials that will last you decades, which I can confirm because my mom still uses her LaCrusse Dutch Oven from the 80s. But who says something functional can't also be cute. I'm obsessed with everything from this Valentine's Day collection. They make for great gifts for chefs at any skill level. I went with the heart-shaped Dutch Oven and pan in shell pink, and then the minis in the color shallot. I highly recommend investing in quality cookware like LaCrusse and create delicious dishes in your home kitchen for years to come.


Let's take a look at the manager the current manager of the Yankees Aaron Boone Taking some swings and Jack you had a chance to talk to him. What do you say about possibly playing? He said even though if you look at the lineups, which we haven't shown yet Mickey Rivers and Johnny Damon other respective leadoff hitters for this game Aaron Boone said there was some talk about him sneaking in there for one at bat leading off the old-timers game I don't know when I see a guy in the cage like this taking some serious swings I think this is a guy who's prepared to maybe get some swings during the game But you could also just sense Aaron Boone This is year two as the manager obviously but just the excitement for him as well Exchanging hugs and handshakes around the batting cage and to flash his point earlier I guarantee you that he's getting a lot of props from these old-timers who are saying wow You've won eight in a row. Wow. Where is this team going? Should I make plans for October? So great day for Aaron Boone. All right guys Meredith Brock. It's had a chance to catch up with the manager Let's listen to that All right, Aaron. It looks like you haven't lost it. You went deep. How are you feeling in the box right over the Budweiser sign? That felt good Danilo gave me some flips yesterday, so It's fun to get out here and see these guys and Hurt myself swinging the bat. I was gonna ask you when's the last time you really swung like that Yeah, that doesn't really happen so But Danilo gave me about 10 15 flips yesterday in the cage, so I'm good to go now I imagine we have that on video So is that gonna be on a loop in the clubhouse now? It may have to be yeah, you know You got to show the guys you still got something in there I know you have a lot of preparation for today's game, but are you gonna play at all in the old-timer set game? I don't know it just kind of depends what what? What I have to do pre-game and I might come out and sneak in a bat or something What kind of guys I asked Marcus this question is that what can your current guys on the roster learn from some of these guys out here? well, you're talking to someone that Grew up as the ultimate fan of this game So for me getting to see these guys You know these are a lot of these guys that if I didn't play with them I watched them in my childhood and was such a fan of the game So it's like pinch me moments for me But I think it's great when you can kind of connect with the players that paved the way and kind of went before you I think it's a lot of fun for not only these guys, but I think a lot of our guys as well Aaron. Thanks for the time


Look at the two main paradigms that I want to talk about. The first one is living a life of reaction and the second one is living a life of action. These two paradigms reside on different levels of awareness or consciousness, living in reaction being of the lower vibration. So let's talk about reaction first. Now living reaction is akin to putting a letter into a bottle and throwing the letter into the Pacific Ocean from Sydney, Australia and hoping that it gets to Manhattan, New York. Living a reaction is waking up in the morning to the sound of your alarm and hitting snooze and going back to sleep and only getting up when you have to to rush traffic to get to the job that you hate, the job that you happen to get because your parents advised you on it or maybe your friend told you to get it. Living in reaction is being in debt and not knowing how you got in debt, is purchasing lavish things that you can't afford to impress your neighbors and then suffering afterwards and not understanding how you got in that situation. Living a reaction is having a family situation that you don't like, perhaps you married the wrong woman and now she wants to divorce you, you got kids, the family orders dysfunctional, no one loves each other, there's just co-dependence, everyone's just there because you need each other for money or for support for your insecurities. Living in reaction is looking back at your life and seeing how quickly time has flown by you, how quickly time has bamboozled you and how much you didn't do, didn't achieve any of the things you thought you were going to achieve. And the person who lives in reaction, this person then blames their mom, this person blames their wife, their friends, their dad, their daughter, they blame everyone, they blame God, they blame everyone besides themselves and so living in reaction is of the lower vibration, it's of the lower energy level and it's the easier option.