Daily Archives: July 27, 2022

Monday, July 25, 2022 by Willow Higgins

For the past several years, a moratorium has prevented the installment of any new public artworks in the vicinity of Austins hike-and-bike trail and Lady Bird Lake. With the expiration of that moratorium, the Trail Foundation, which has taken over management of the area, is making plans to incorporate more public art into the citys crown jewel.

The Trail Foundation has launched a formal arts and cultural programming project, and hopes to have a robust plan for the initiative by the end of this year. The basis for that plan and any future projects will stem from its first initiative, which was in the works for over a year and was completed this spring. The project, calledCommon Waters, was a total hit.Representatives from the Trail Foundation and the artist who led the project spoke to the Arts Commission this week about their early success and what is yet to come.

Local artists Rejina Thomas, Ruben Esquivel and Taylor Davis were tasked with creating a floating wetland to glide along the surface of Lady Bird Lake. The floating wetland is topped with a sculptural piece resembling a nest. The nest is home to a small ecosystem of plants, which grow down into the water, out of view.

Those roots create surfaces for microbes and fish, and thats all going to clean contaminants and excess nutrients out of the lake, said Charlotte Tonsor, the project manager. She explained that the installation explores the intersection of art, activism, environment and community while highlighting the beauty and demonstrating the importance of Lady Bird Lake, our citys lifeline.

Common Waters is rich with symbolism. The sculpture uses dried, invasive bamboo, a rapidly growing plant, which was intended to emulate Austins rapid growth as a city, alongside seven native species. Nests are symbols of safety, home and protection, the project description reads. This nest serves as the ephemeral shelter for a floating wetland of native plants that are designed to filter and clean toxins from the lake. Similarly, when we protect the native Brown and Black communities of Austin, who have been the backbone of cultural creation for generations, we can also begin to clean the toxins of our citys ancestral trauma.

The project was launched in the form of a celebration in May of this year, with the planting and installation completed via a community effort. To be installed, the wetland was pulled on a barge by a team from the Watershed Protection Department, who were all smiles through the whole thing, Tonsor recalled.Musician Ephraim Owens played on the boat while the project team kayaked alongside it. There was a blessing of the sculpture before it was eventually pulled off the barge and set free in the water.

Davis, one of the project artists who spoke at the Arts Commission meeting, said, I think this whole program was very enriching and I look forward to an iteration that is even longer and more intentional. It could easily be six months to a year of us really diving into the fabric of the community that were working in and having really intentional conversations about what these artistic metaphors are meaning.

Common Waters is just one piece of what the Trail Foundation has in mind for the hike-and-bike trail. The project functioned as a catalyst to find out what Austinites are interested in seeing and making. The project team is currently analyzing data from surveys before they begin creating their arts and culture programming this August and plan to host another community engagement event this fall.

We do have a belief that through arts and culture programming and public art, we can encourage new faces to come to visit the hike-and-bike trail and expose people (to art),Heidi Anderson, Trail Foundation CEO, said.

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More public art is headed to the hike-and-bike trail - Austin Monitor

Last Tuesdays Corvallis Advocate CitySpeak took a deeper look at Indigenous land acknowledgments, with a particular emphasis on discussing what meaningful actions people in Corvallis can take individually and collectively to go beyond acknowledgment and actively support local Tribes and Indigenous communities.

For one of the questions, panelists Luhui Whitebear, Lara Jacobs, Chanti Manon-Ferguson, and Rachel Black Elk were asked for their thoughts on activist groups/circles in Corvallis that have been sharing land acknowledgements within their organizing work.

Some of these groups acknowledgments identify the violent acts and ideologies of settler-colonialism as both ongoing and at the root of systemic issues like the climate crisis; houselessness; rape culture; and attacks on queer, trans, and gender-diverse identities. What has sometimes been neglected from these statements, however, are recognitions of the continued existence and unique struggles of local Tribes and Indigenous peoples, and/or commitments to supporting them. Panelists explained the harms this can cause, and why its imperative to center Indigenous people in activist work.

One remedy that Ive been working on with people is that you build trust and you get feedback from people that are going to be fiercely honest and fiercely loving of their communities to share with you, and to really receive the feedback, said Black Elk. Im all for people naming outright settler-colonialism; its important because theres so much erasure, and thats part of what settler-colonialism banked on the erasure and eradication of our people And so calling those things out are really important, but to really remain diligent of how you center a community that is very personal work for each activist that I hope continues to happen for them as they navigate what they share and what relational accountability means to them.

I think asking the question of whether or not theyre doing anything to engage or help Indigenous people who are impacted by those frameworks that they have within their statement [is important], and also looking into what efforts the organization is making to be really intentional either for learning or teaching or holding space for Indigenous people and for local Native communities, said Manon-Ferguson. I think [theres] also looking really critically internally to see what frameworks or systems are within their organization that are upholding settler-colonialism, and looking to see how historically or currently their organization might be intentionally or not still upholding colonial systems, and then trying really to dismantle and address those to not create further harm within their own organizations.

One thing Ive noticed more recently within activist circles and community organizing is that sometimes people think Indigenous people only belong in certain contexts, and so we get boxed into, Is this about [insert Native issue]? said Whitebear. And thats when Indigenous people arent invited to even speak or be involved with organizing or planning or coming up with goals for the work, when in fact were involved in many things, and if people are truly committed to that understanding that settler-colonialism and imperialism which are hand in hand are the root cause of all of our issues, then they would understand that Indigenous people have a place among everything Like what Chanti was bringing up, are you replicating settler ideologies and systems by boxing us into these little categories and [by] using us as an accessory [to sound more inclusive]?

I work in conservation recreation ecology is my field and a lot of the activism Im involved with is geared more towards climate change, and I think that why its important to center Indigenous knowledge in certain contexts is because our voices have been missing from the science, been missing from the field, been missing from the activism ever since Europeans came to these lands, said Jacobs. Its only very recently in history that our voices are being included, and our different types of knowledges which are very distinct from Judeo-Christian European-based knowledges are even being accepted as a different form of science, even though our sciences like our traditional ecological knowledges can be 10,000 years old or even more depending on how old our communities are. And when were looking at ecosystemcrises and global crises, if were not looking at relying on the knowledges of the people who have been here the longest, the people who have sustained these lands since time immemorial before colonization without all of the harms that we seetoday, then what are we doing? Why wouldnt we want those voices in the mix?

To listen to the full CitySpeak recording, click here.

Help Unhoused Neighbors Beat the Heat: Its a hot week in Corvallis the hottest its been so far this summer and for many in the area who dont have quick or easy access to drinking water, shade, indoor spaces, and/or supplies to help stay protected from the heat, conditions can be dangerous, and even deadly.

Two local mutual aid groups, the Corvallis Really Really Free Market (RRFM) and Stop the Sweeps Corvallis, are working together to gather and distribute hot weather resources to unhoused folks throughout the city, and are looking for more donations and organizers to assist with these efforts.

Items that are currently being sought include water bottles, sunscreen, Gatorade and other electrolyte drinks, battery-powered handheld misters or fans, cool rags, ice, ice packs, snacks, and coolers. They can be dropped off at the RRFMs Free Store, located in room M252 of the Benton Hall Plaza on 408 SW Monroe Ave, on Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday between 12:00 and 6:00 p.m. Alternatively, those who would like to supply any of these items but are unable to bring them to the store can either send a DM [direct message] to the Corvallis RRFM Instagram or the Stop the Sweeps Corvallis Instagram, or send an email to stopthesweepscorvallis@protonmail.com and ask for items to be picked up.

At the store, these items will be picked up for distribution by organizers with Stop the Sweeps, who have dropped off water and supply stations at Pioneer Park, the Eric Scott McKinley Skate Park, and the BMX Track thus far, which are locations where groups of unhoused folks are currently staying. Supply stations currently include cold water, electrolyte drink powders, ice, baby wipes, simple first aid kits, and sunscreen. Organizers will be checking on and restocking these supply stations three times a day morning, afternoon, and evening each day this week.

If you would like to get involved or help pay for gas, coolers, etc., send a DM to either groups Instagram account.

Hiring to Displace: The City of Corvallis Parks and Recreation Department is currently accepting applications for a temporary/seasonal position that specifically entails carrying out sweeps of houseless encampments throughout the city.

The job title is Parks Worker II Camp Cleanup. According to the position summary, the two primary tasks include cleaning litter in city parks and natural areas, and cleaning up abandoned camp sites or camp sites that have been posted a process which often involves taking the resources and possessions of unhoused folks who are being displaced, and taking little care to ensure that theyre still in a usable state after camps have been cleared.

The job description doesnt mention anything about de-escalation training, pointing unhoused people towards helpful resources, or providing other means of direct assistance or care. According to local advocates like Maddie Bean, the Street Outreach and Response Team (SORT) Coordinator for the Corvallis Daytime Drop-In Center (CDDC), this is frequently evident in the departments overall approach to camps.

I communicate with a couple of people on Parks and Rec, and for the most part they dont do outreach work, and theyve even told me that theyre not really trained in de-escalation or trauma-informed care, said Bean So theyre coming into this situation, in my opinion, underprepared and undertrained. Its less the fault of an individual and more the fault of the city and these organizations that are sending their employees to these traumatic events that they dont really know how to deal with.

Its absolutely not a trauma-informed process at all, said Bonnie Whindam, a local activist who has given public testimony at past city council meetings in opposition to the sweeps. People forget that just being homeless is chronically traumatizing, and then they come in with loaders and tractors and just scoop everything that people cannot carry on their backs up tents, belongings, photographs, medications.

bodyland: Koa A. Tom, a local photographer, artist, activist, and owner of Light Rider Studios, has a new interactive exhibit up at the Joan Truckenbrod Gallery in downtown Corvallis that explores the connections between human bodies and land in particular, how both are subject to the violence of ownership, control, and conquest.

Titled bodyland, the exhibit consists of giclee prints on wood panels depicting melded images of people and places. The panels can be touched and moved around, evoking one of the pieces main themes: consent.

The purpose [is] to connect with ones own hand to issues of consent when it comes to lands and bodies, mediated safely through art objects, said Tom.

Through this mediation, viewers are given explicit consent are invited to engage with the piece through touch, and to reflect on how, like lands and bodies, the images will change as a result of these tactile interactions.

My intention in connecting land and bodies is to reveal the similarities in how they are treated, contrasting that with how art objects are typically revered, said Tom. When invited, however, touch can become play; you are invited to play with bodyland.

Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration: Next Thursday, Aug. 4, at 6:30 p.m., the Veterans for Peace (VFP) Linus Pauling Chapter will be hosting the 2022 Corvallis Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration at the Riverfront Park on 1st and Madison.

The annual event invites community members to come together in honor of the victims and survivors of the cataclysmic atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, as well as nuclear frontline communities whose bodies, lands, waters, and lifeways have been harmed by radiation exposure through nuclear tests, waste disposals, and uranium mining carried out by the U.S.

Community members are encouraged to attend not solely for commemoration, but to become motivated and empowered to join a growing united front to abolish nuclear weapons and to divest from war and U.S. militarism. More information and resources on actions to take are available on the VFPs website.

The 2021 Corvallis Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration was covered by The Advocate and can be read about here.

By Emilie Ratcliff

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Corvallis Social Justice: Land Acknowledgements in Activist Circles, Helping Unhoused Neighbors Beat the Heat, Bodyland - The Corvallis Advocate

The Musiic Matters Summer Day of Service The Musiic Matters Summer Day of Service, July 25, 2022 | LA Mission

Maverick City Music joined The Musiic Matters Summer Day of Service for an outdoor fellowship hosted by the Los Angeles Mission to help uplift people facing homelessness, and the group reportedly ushered the presence of God into the Skid Row community.

Musiic is an acronym for "Maintaining Universal Strategic Investments In Community" and was founded by LA Mission as a way to provide food and essential supplies to Skid Row residents. The mission recruited Grammy Award-winning gospel group Maverick City Music to offer up a free performance.

On Sunday, the gospel group performed to a sold-out audience at the Crypto.com Arena with Kirk Franklin. Franklin, a gospel music legend, also attended the special event with the group on Monday.

Following the outreach, Maverick City Music, which was officially launched in 2018 and consists of a number of members, including Chandler Moore, Brandon Lake, Dante Bowe and Naomi Raine, posted a video clip of their time on the streets of LA.

So honored to have partnered with @thelamission for the Music Matters event alongside our brother @kirkfranklin, they captioned the video. We had an incredible time serving and worshiping with so many yesterday on Skid Row.

Forever grateful to be able to bring the Kingdom and be a reflection of Gods love on this side of heaven, the group added.

LA Mission said in response to the Instagram video, This was the biggest event in the over 100-year history of Skid Row!

This was an unprecedented moment where walls were broken down in ways that are historic to this neighborhood!! the group added. When you think that we are less than 1 mile from the site of the Azusa Street Revival - Maverick City Music - you sparked a spirit led moment in the tradition of our community that helped people come home and know they are part of the Kingdom, seen, and most importantly loved!

LA Mission ended by saying the ministry was so filled and inspired by what went down yesterday - there is a [fire] in our soul!

The Musiic Matters Summer Day of Service'' provided 3,500 meals between seven food vendors. They offered free prayer, free on-site showers, essential supplies, giveaways, raffles and more services.

The following is an edited transcript of The Christian Post interview with the CEO of LA Mission, Rev. Troy Vaughn, who shared his heart behind launching the historic outreach.

The Christian Post: Can you share the vision behind Musiic Matters Summer Day of Service?

Vaughn: It is about using music as a backdrop to maintain universal strategic investments and community. In fact, that's what Musiic Matters stands for, and really its to get us to focus that we can launch something, but the most important thing is for us to maintain the thing that we've put in place and to be strategic about it.

Universally, we need to be engaged, meaning that all members of the community need to have a role in the transformative work that we do. No one should be left out of that the business community, the people that are impacted, the advocates, the government partners, the police department, fire department, community-based organizations, our healthcare partners and all of us that are members of the community need to be a part of the solution. When we do that, I think that we can get to the end result, which is bringing about the change that we can see.

CP: How effective are events like this for the community?

Vaughn: I think that by being visible and unapologetic about our faith in the space, but understanding that the warfare that we have now is really warfare that is happening behind the scenes for those that arent believers. We understand that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities; powers that rule this present age are part of the darkness.

So our job is to be agents of light and to move forward in that light of love and to allow that transformative power of the Spirit to take place. We've got to be very intentional about doing that and partnering with other members of our community that align with that, to see that the greater humanity in all of us come to the surface and be either trained change agents that I believe our Creator meant us to be, to take over our areas of responsibility to be responsible for each other, to be our brother's keeper.

I'm grateful the opportunity started here on Skid Row.

CP: Can you share about wanting to have Maverick City Music join this event?

Vaughn: That partnership started through vision. We envisioned ourselves doing an outreach benefit concert, and it was from there that it evolved to what we see today, which is not just a concert, but more of a festival that is happening in Skid Row to allow us to really begin to bring about real, meaningful change to the members of our community.

I'm excited that we were able to reach out. Funny story is that I went to a concert of theirs two years ago and asked them to come down to Skid Row.

CP: Can you share a testimony about how you've seen God's hand in this event?

Vaughn: We came up with this idea to have this event, and two years later, here we are. I think it was by God's providence that it happened this way because I don't think none of us knew that it was being connected in that way. I released it in faith in God, took that seed of faith and grew it into what we have today.

CP: How important is it for people to unite and help each other with so much division there is in the world?

Vaughn: I mean, it's the paramount thing to do, right? The importance of it is unparalleled. I think that we don't realize how interdependent we are as human beings and that if there's something happening down the street to neighbors, eventually, it can impact us. We should have learned a lesson with COVID because homelessness, poverty, food insecurity and the healthcare reform, all these different things that are happening in our community are eventually impacting all of us.

So even though we may feel as though we're estranged from the process because it's not in our backyard, when it begins to emerge doesn't mean that it won't eventually get to us. For me, COVID has taught us the lesson that something can start in a different remote, obscure place but if we don't address it when it starts there, as being a part of the human race, it's only a matter of time before we're dealing with it in our own backyards.

CP: What was your hope going into this event?

Vaughn: My hope is that we plan to see the possibility of transformation and that it would ignite a flame in the hearts of every person that comes in contact with this event that they will know that there is an opportunity to be a part of that they can lend their gifts, their talents, their resources to be a part of meaningful change that we can control in our communities. My hope and desire is that it ignites a flame of hope in the heart of every person that participates.

For further information about LA Mission, visit the website.

Jeannie Ortega Law is a reporter for The Christian Post. Reach her at: jeannie.law@christianpost.com She's also the author of the book, What Is Happening to Me? How to Defeat Your Unseen EnemyFollow her on Twitter: @jlawcpFacebook: JeannieOMusic

Originally posted here:

Maverick City Music performs the largest event in Skid Rows 100 year history: 'Spirit led' - The Christian Post

Skepticism remains nationally over diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education.

The recent report Racial and Ethnic Equity in U.S. Higher Education indicates that since 2020 more than 130 research institutions have publicly shared plans or aspirations to diversify their student bodies and workforces, and build equitable and inclusive communities where people of color have access to the same resources as white students and feel like they belong.

But despite these good intentions, it has been difficult to move the needle as it relates to representation, and inequalities persist for underrepresented groups.

Although DEI work is difficult and progress can feel slow, leaders across the University of Michigan say they are steadfastly committed to DEI for the long term, and they point to academic excellence as the through-line for why it is so important.

We simply cannot fulfill the mission of the university without a commitment to DEI, said Sheri Notaro, DEI director for the Institute for Social Research. The promise for higher education really is access and opportunity for all.

In her work, Notaro oversees the implementation of the ISR DEI Strategic Plan, as well as the activities of four working groups that focus on specific components of the plan.

In 2016, U-M launched its first diversity, equity and inclusion five-year strategic plan and named Robert Sellers the universitys first chief diversity officer.

The plan represented the shared and overarching themes and strategies represented in 50 individual DEI plans created by the universitys 19 schools and colleges, Student Life, Athletics, Michigan Medicine and other administrative units across campus.

Since then, U-M has seen institutional success in the areas of DEI skill building, new policies and processes, new and expanded DEI community support, accessibility and affordability.

Before blindly committing to a new plan however, Sellers who will soon turn the CDO title over to Tabbye M. Chavous and Katrina Wade-Golden, deputy chief diversity officer and director of implementation for the campuswide DEI Strategic Plan, have been intentional about ensuring the universitys next plan is meaningful and its outcomes can be measured.

The past five years have yielded experience and data that allows us to sharpen our approach and act with increased precision and skill, Wade-Golden said. As we evaluate our initial plan, we are seeing positive results in a number of student, faculty and staff focused initiatives.

Following a year of evaluation and another year of community engagement, the university is set to launch DEI 2.0 in October 2023. An evaluation report, highlighting DEI successes and areas of opportunity, will be shared during this years Annual DEI Summit in October.

This summer, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion brought together university leadership teams including deans, executive officers and unit directors and DEI implementation leads representing the 50 planning units for a series of full-day retreats in which participants reflected on the outcomes of the previous plan and strategized for DEI 2.0.

The groups took inventory of existing initiatives and activities, assessed resources, identified areas for partnership and collaboration, and began to develop measurable strategic goals and priorities for the future.

The retreats also provided a space for colleagues to reconnect after nearly two years of working virtually, and to re-energize. Many of U-Ms DEI leaders are the first to respond when the campus community is grappling with societal racial tensions and the residual impacts of a global pandemic.

I heard from others that this work can be hard and lonely, said Tiffany Marra, the director of the Center for the Education of Women+ and who has worked at the university for 21 years. The retreat gave us a chance to discuss some of the challenges we were facing individually, but hearing others talk about their challenges gave me reassurance that I wasnt alone.

CEW+ provides immediate and ongoing services and the financial support needed to ensure educational success and degree completion. Women and underserved students are CEW+s primary constituency, but all students are welcome.

The universitys DEI journey has revealed that the pursuit of a diverse academic environment is challenging. And that within any diverse organization, there will be competing priorities and not everyone will agree.

But, while coming to a consensus about how this work should be carried might be difficult, committing to the work is without question.

It can feel like investing time, energy and resources into diversity, equity and inclusion takes those things away from other institutional priorities, said Jessica Garcia, DEI manager for LSA. But (DEI) is all of our responsibilities because it helps us achieve our mission of academic excellence.

We must demonstrate our commitment to learn, commitment to listen, commitment to resources, commitment in the face of resistance and competing priorities, and commitment to keep working at it because this work takes time. It is not a quick fix, and its never done.

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U-M remains committed to DEI through transition period | The University Record - The University Record

EASTHAMPTON When students head back to school this fall, part of the curriculum will shift outdoors for some middle-schoolers.

With a $25,000 grant from the Easthampton Learning Foundation, educators from the Massachusetts Audubon Societys Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary and the new Mountain View School have partnered to provide outdoorgreen space education to sixth, seventh and eighth grade students.

The foundation is eager to support curricular programming that enriches our school community, said Gen Brough, president of the Easthampton Learning Foundation. This type of curriculum isnt necessarily available through a school budget, so were grateful to our partners in Arcadia as this programming will benefit the curriculum at the school.

After board members from the foundation reached out to Arcadia, Brittany Gutermuth, a climate change education program manager for Mass Audubon, and Laura Beltran, a naturalist and teacher from Arcadia, put together a proposal that includes in-service training for teachers, and classroom and outdoor lessons for students that culminatein student-led projects.

The designers of the new school created many exciting outdoor learning spaces, and we look forward to working with students to plan how they want to use those spaces, Beltran said in a statement.

Starting this summer, teachers will attend professional development sessions to learn about outdoor education best practices and topics such as field journaling, community science, local climate change, and site-specific climate solutions.

The lessons, which address science standards required by the state, help familiarize students with their new surroundings, Gutermuth said.

Lessons for sixth grade students include a seven-lesson unit that provides an introduction to climate change and the roles trees have in mitigating the effects of climate change.

Seventh grade students will spend a yearlong exploration of the outdoor spaces at the new school journaling their observations and touching on topics including birds and their changing populations, water quality and management, and gardening.

Eighth graders will be invited to bring a team of six students and up to two adult mentors to the fall 2022 Western Massachusetts Youth Climate Summit, which is hosted by Arcadia as well as the Hitchcock Center for the Environment. The summit provides a way to get upper middle and high school students involved with taking climate change action in their communities by connecting with climate change leaders, and developing a climate action project over the course of the year. A date for the summit is forthcoming.

When we bring students outside for learning, it increases their learning, engagement and understanding, and also their ability to be an environmentally and climate literate citizen, Gutermuth said. This means that they can be in their communities helping to make decisions and working with their community to implement solutions, and to just have conversations around science and climate change.

Julie Anne Levin, director of curriculum for the school district, also noted that between the new schools proximity to the Manhan Rail Trail, the new outdoor classrooms, and other natural elements on the building site, working with Arcadia educators will also provide an opportunity to offer outdoorgreen space education to elementary students as well.

It feels like such a good moment with the new building. The intentional design that went into developing the outdoor spaces will allow us to develop a site-specific curriculum and help connect students to the outdoor environment, Levin said. Its 2022 its time we put climate science in the curriculum.

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Easthampton foundation, Mass Audubon team up to provide students with outdoor education - GazetteNET

Margaret Quamme| Special to The Columbus Dispatch

If you've listened to classic rock radio stations any time in the past 40 years, you probably know Foreigner: I Want to Know What Love Is, Double Vision, Hot Blooded, Cold As Ice and many more songs likely come to mind.

The band, which is back up to performing a hundred shows a year after a break during COVID, will appear at the Ohio State Fair for a Greatest Hits show on Friday.

The band currently includes lead guitarist Mick Jones, who has been with the group since its formation in 1976, and six other members, who joined the group at various points in time from 2004 up until last year.

Ohio State Fair: Going to the Ohio State Fair? Schedule info, parking, what's new, food and more

Among them is keyboardist and backing vocalist Michael Bluestein, who spoke by phone from his home in Los Angeles prior to the start of the current tour.

Bluestein has been with the band since 2008.

I was recommended for the gig by a colleague who was playing keyboards for Foreigner at the time but was going to have to leave, so he wanted to help them out and get a replacement for himself, he said. Through serendipity, I ran into him at a music conference and he remembered me because we had worked together before. So he recommended me for the audition.

Bluestein has stayed intrigued with the music over multiple performances.

I have my hands full on a lot of the songs. They're all pretty rich with keyboards, he said.

And the Foreigner songs stand up to time.

They're well-crafted songs, with some incredible vocals. Combine that with guitar rock, great keyboards, great backing vocals in the tradition of the Beatles and bands like that, and the ingredients just come together, he said.

While the songs are sometimes tweaked with new arrangements, what really keeps the music fresh for Bluestein is the experience of touring.

Concerts at the fair: The Ohio State Fair 2022 summer concert schedule and what to know if you go

The big part of it is the audience, the reactions we get, getting to play different venues. Every concert is different, there's a different chemistry every night, depending on what part of the world you're in, what the audience is like, he said.

I like getting them fired up, seeing their faces, getting them to sing along. That keeps it fresh. Sometimes you'll have a much younger audience, and sometimes you'll have an older, more mellow, chill audience. There are always challenges, new energies coming at you.

Foreigner is known for collaborating with local youth choirs on tour, and the Columbus appearance is no exception.

The band will be donating $500 to the All-Ohio State Fair Youth Choir, a sub-set of which will be opening for the show with a short set.

The group that's going to be performing is an auditioned small group out of the larger All-Ohio State Youth Choir, said Jon Peterson, the director of the choir. The group that will be performing is the Scarlet Singers.

The group, made up of 16 to 25 high school students, commits to extra rehearsal time and learning extra music.

Ohio State Fair: Free concerts at the 2022 Ohio State Fair: Here's the lineup

The larger All-Ohio State Fair Youth Choir consists of about 75 high school students from 68 schools and 48 counties around Ohio. They arrive at the fair five days before it opens to rehearse, and live on the fairgrounds through the fair, performing at the opening ceremony and then at six to eight concerts a day.

At the Foreigner concert, the Scarlet Singers are going to be singing a combination of art music and popular music, all a cappella. That was actually a request by Foreigner. They didn't want to have instruments. They will hopefully inspire the audience and get them ready for an amazing show by Foreigner, Peterson said.

I really applaud Foreigner for being intentional about engaging the youth of the communities where they perform, and thus supporting music education, in this case in Ohio. Not many rock groups do that. The fact that they're highlighting local youth and musicians and emphasizing the importance of music education, it's a true privilege to be a part of that.

margaretquamme@hotmail.com

Foreigner will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Celeste Center, Interstate 71 and East 17th Avenue. Tickets (which include admission to the fair) start at $40. (www.ohiostatefair.com)

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Rock band Foreigner to perform Friday at the Ohio State Fair - The Columbus Dispatch

In an effort to break the cycle of incarceration for at-risk youth,Sams Club has revealed its participation in Unlock Potential, an intentional hiring program designed to provide real career opportunities for young people at the greatest risk of imprisonment.

In March 2022, the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice unveiled the groundbreaking programmade possible byWalmart(through the Walmart.org Center for Racial Equity). Unlock Potentialaims to confront economic immobility at the source by providingmeaningful, long-term career opportunitiesforyoung peopleathigh risk of criminal justice involvement. The program enables companies to use employment to promote racial equity and disrupt the prison pipeline while inclusively creating the next generation of business leaders.

Unlock Potential will focus on the individuals age 16-24 who are most likely to end up in the prison system: those who have been in the juvenile justice system, experienced sex or human trafficking, had a parent incarcerated before the age of 18, or grown out of foster care.

Through Unlock Potential, companies can help advance racial equity while preventing the lifelong economic consequences of a criminal record. A first-time sentence can decrease lifetime earnings by more than 30%. A criminal record reduces the likelihood of a callback or job offer by nearly 50%, and the magnitude of the criminal record penalty is twice as large for Black applicants as for white applicants. Black Americans are currently incarcerated at five times the rate of whites, and Black youth are up to six times as likely as whites to be opportunity youth a term which refers to individuals age 16-24 who are not in education or employment. By creating career pathways to prevent incarceration, businesses joining Unlock Potential can disrupt intergenerational cycles of poverty.

We know that at-risk youth have limited opportunities and often find themselves unemployed or out of school, and as a society, we have to intervene before it reaches that point, said Sams Club CEO Kathryn McLay. Programs like this help. We can put young people on a positive path as they begin adult life. And even if they move on after their time with us, weve provided them with real-world job and life skills they can take anywhere.

Programs like Unlock Potential not only benefit at-risk youth, but are also a valuable solution for companies during the ongoing hiring shortage.

In addition to its new partnership with Unlock Potential, Sams Clubs already has an internship program for high school students in underserved communities that provides on-the-job training and basic life skills, as well as access to free college education through the Live Better U program. To date, Sam's Club says that it has seen an almost 70% conversion rate for interns moving into full-time roles, and the company has added more than 300 high school interns to the program this summer.

Sams Club joins American Family Insurance, Ben & Jerrys, and Delta Air Lines in Unlock Potentials design phase providing feedback about the structure of the program, with input from experts and community-based organizations. Unlock Potential is scheduled to launch a 12-month pilot program in October.

Sams Club, a division of Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart Inc., operates nearly 600 clubs in the United States and Puerto Rico. Each week, approximately 230 million customers and members visit Walmarts more than 10,500 stores and numerous e-commerce websites under 46 banners in 24 countries, with approximately 2.3 million associates worldwide. Bentonville, Ark.-basedWalmart U.S.is No. 1 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocers 2022 list of thetop food and consumables retailers in North America, while Sams Club ranks eighth.

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Sam's Club Participates in Youth Hiring Program to Prevent Cycle of Incarceration - Progressive Grocer

Perilous Course: Decades of decisions are impacting East Coast cities as temperatures rise and heat islands become more dangerous.

What makes a heat island

A look at some of the factors that contribute to heat islands.

Danielle Parhizkaran and Ricardo Kaulessar, NorthJersey.com

Thelma Mays couldnt breathe.

On a blazing summer day, she began gasping for air inside her Petersburg, Virginia, apartment, and was forced to call 911. If shed been able to look out her window to see the ambulance pull up at Carriage House, an income-based complex for the elderly, she wouldnt have been able to see a single tree. Just the other side of the sprawling brick building.

She lives on the edge of a type of "heat island," with wide stretches of concrete that bake in the sun and retain heat. She turns on the air conditioner when her room gets unbearably stuffy,which may have been the cause of her sudden coughing spasm.

When it is too hot to go outside on city streets, the indoors can be just as dangerous for her lung condition, if she gulps refrigerated air for a precious few minutes in front of the AC vent. Mays, 78, has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and a quick shift in humidity or temperature can trigger a respiratory emergency.

These days in central Virginia, trapped on the edge of a hotter-than-normal part of an often-overlooked majority Black city, escalating heat and weather patterns are putting Mays and others under health and financial stress. It's pressure not yet being felt equally in wealthier, majority white suburban areas of the state with landscaped gardens and plentiful indoor cool spaces.

Graphics:Record-high temperatures from heat dome affect millions

Mays was transported to the emergency room that day.

Doctors worked for hours to stabilize her breathing, giving her IV steroids to help her lungs function.

The Carriage House apartment complex has a few small trees by the sidewalk, none big enough to provide cover for a single person.

By contrast, Walnut Hill one of the wealthiest and most tree-lined parts of the city was more than 13 degrees cooler in the shade. Large trees create an arching canopy over the streets. Nearly every house has wide lawns skirted by mature shade-providing trees. Even in the sun, it was 6 degrees cooler than in Old Towne.

Old Towne is the hottest area in Petersburg based on 2021 heat-mapping.

Even on hot days, Mays uses her walker to reach the other side of the street where she can sit under the shade of a couple of small trees by a parking lot. She hates being cooped up in her apartment.

Blocks of shops and long treeless stretches of asphalt and concretetrap theheat in Old Towne. On a sweltering July afternoon, we recorded field temperatures at a scorching 101 degrees. Unlike in the West, this level of heat on the East Coast is often accompanied by moisture in the air.

What to know about the impactUrban heat islands are why it can feel 20 degrees hotter in different parts of the same city

When you have very high humidity, your body cant evaporate your sweat off of your skin, said Jeremy Hoffman, the David and Jane Cohn Scientist at the Science Museum of Virginia. It's very difficult tocool off naturally. You really need additional help.

Everything you need to know about heat:From the heat index to a heat dome to an excessive heat warning

A difference of a few degrees in extreme heat can affect the bodys ability to regulate its temperature. Some emergency rooms will put out extra gurneys in anticipation ofmore patients wholl come in with syncope, respiratory illnesses or heart failure.

Thelma Mays recovered and her granddaughter drove her home. Othersin her situation are not so lucky.

We looked at heat islands during an extensive USA TODAY Network reporting project called "Perilous Course," a collaborative examination of how people up and down the East Coast are grappling with the climate crisis. Journalists from more than 30 newsrooms from New Hampshire to Florida are speaking with regular people about real-life impacts, digging into the science and investigating government response, or lack of it.

Death on a heat island is not as visible or cinematic as the dramatic images of homes crushed by a hurricane, belongings washed away and trees bent by the wind. The elderly and young children fall victim to excessive heat in their homes or inside of cars, away from the public eye and the flashy news headlines.

Hurricanes are short-lived phenomena which areoften predicted weeks in advance. Heat's different. It can come as a heat wave, which can last for days and have no set, predictable spatial boundaries.It enhances conditions on the ground which absorb the heat.

About that dire climate report:We have the tools we need to fix things

A heat wave is very hard to define in space and time, said Hoffman. It's not something that you can see on the map; it is something that you feel in the outdoors. So, we have a crisis of communication around heat.

Climate change has exacerbated the intensity of heat waves, the number of excessive heat days per year and the length of these heat waves. The average length of a heat wave season in 50 big cities studied is now around 70 days, compared to 20 days back in the 1960s. In less than one lifetime, the heat wave season has tripled.

In some places, summer can feel like one long heat wave.

The warming climate has been tied to increased mortality around the world. In a large-scale study that examined heat in 43 countries, including the U.S., researchers found that 37 percent of heat-related deaths could be attributed to the climate crisis.

Extreme heat can be more dangerousfor those in the Northeastern United States.

What becomes really dangerous in these more northern cities is that they haven't yet adopted air conditioning very widely yet, Hoffman said. And especially in lower income and communities of color or immigrant communities,prevalence of air conditioning utilization is very low.

Three of the country's nine least-air-conditioned cities are in the Northeastern states Providence, Rhode Island; Hartford, Connecticut; and Buffalo, New York, according to U.S. Census bureau data and a USA TODAY report.

'Code Red' Heat:The climate emergency is sending more kids of color to the emergency room

In Florida, researchers have been measuring the impact of heat islands.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has conducted studies in West Palm Beach and Jacksonville, sometimes using volunteers to capture data. Its studies have indicated that low-income neighborhoods in Florida have less ability to cope with the damaging results of manmade heat islands.

A nonprofit research group called Climate Central found that Jacksonvilles heat island was potentially raising the overall average temperature of the entire city by as much as 6 degrees.

The feels like temperature or heat index can make a major difference for people living in humid places like Florida.

On 58th Street in West Palm Beach on a block barren of shade trees it reached 93.9 degrees near noon on July 22 with a relative humidity of 58%. That means it felt like 106 degrees.

My electric bill was almost two-fold in June from what it was in March, said 27-year-old Varun Parshad. I try to be more disciplined with the temperature settings.

Six miles to the southwest, the National Weather Services official gauge at Palm Beach International Airport registered 88 degrees with a lower feels-like temperature of 100 degrees.

The difference between 58th Street and the airport is significant enough when meteorologists and emergency officials have to make heat-related decisions, and its something some cities are recognizing as they plan for a warmer future.

No matter what part of the East Coast you're in, things are getting hotter and more dangerous.

Extreme heat affects low-income communities and people of color on a greater scale due to structural inequities. From 2005 to 2015, the number of emergency room visits increased by 67% for Black people, 63% for Hispanic people and 53% for Asian Americans, compared to 27% for whites.

The conditions for heat to become deadly in certain places were set into motion decades ago by people who were very aware of race. As Hoffman himself would discover, those intentional decisions led to unintentional consequences in the present.

In Petersburg, to the west of Thelma Mays' apartment, there is an empty lot that dates back to colonial America and has housed a trading post, tobacco stemmery and Civil War prison in a town that had the highest percentage of African Americans of any in the Confederacy.

The block that remains has grass and some shady trees, and money has been spent on history signage and the stabilization of a crumbling wall. But there are not municipal improvements that give anyone who lives nearby many options to sit and use the shady space during the suffocating summer.

Hundreds of miles north from Thelma Mays apartment, theres another woman who cant stay indoors when the sun comes up in summer.

Several streets in Brianna Rodriguezs Nodine Hill neighborhood in Yonkers, New York, are named for trees. But few trees actually line the sidewalks, and there arent many parks.

I couldnt just stay in my room, she said about the July 4 holiday weekend. Unable to afford AC units, Rodriguezs family goes outside instead, to try to find a park to cool off.

When they have to be inside, three industrial fans normally used to quickly dry paint circulate air toward the center of Rodriguezs living room in Yonkers. But even on full blast, they cant cool the 18-year-old, her mom, stepdad and their dog inside their third-floor apartment.

There isn't much shade throughout the working-class Black and Latino neighborhood. Rodriguez avoids certain streets she knows would be too hot between rows of taller apartment buildings and scalding pavement and asphalt.

The new normal:People haven't just made the planet hotter. We've changed the way it rains.

The characteristics of the neighborhood Rodriguez lives in residential areas with little or no parks or tree-shade, often borderedby industrial areas, warehouses or bisected by highways and overpasses are the material remnants of an economic rating system nearly a hundred years old that disincentivized mortgage loans and devalued property.

The creation of "undesirable" economic districts by the government and banks isolated parts of the city populated by non-white people. Those "redlined districts" and the neglect of those areas that followed created the conditions which studies are now provingto bedangerous for human health amid the climate crisis that has already arrived.

In July 2017,Jeremy Hoffman set out to map Richmond, Virginia, using a new heat-tracking methodology developed by his colleague Vivek Shandas.

Someone told Hoffman that his heat map looked a lot likea map of Richmonds redlined districts, which Hoffman didnt know much about at that time. When he compared them, they looked almost identical.

He went to Baltimore, Boston and Washington, D.C., to gather temperatures. The results of the heat maps again matched up with the redlined maps of each city.

Redlining of neighborhoods explained

Redlining is the process of denying mortgage loans based on the racial makeup of a neighborhood.

Michael Nyerges, Cincinnati Enquirer

That next summer, Hoffman gathered surface temperatures through satellite imaging in each of the 250 redlined cities to see if the heat islands correlated with previously redlined areas, available through historical maps.

The pattern repeated itself in virtually every redlined city across America. Hoffman found redlined areas were on average 4.7 degrees hotter than greenlined areas of the same city.

His team was the first to compare heat and redline maps on a nationwide scale.

When Hoffman started the research, some scientists in his circle were skeptical. Was he looking at heat-mapping through a racial lens?

What he saw was the consequence of historical human decisions which themselves were racial in nature. Which areas should get investment? Or parks? And which areas could be sacrificed to have freeways built through existing neighborhoods?

Cities dont happen by accident, Hoffman said. Our neighborhoods dont happen by accident. Everything is a decision thats been made. Every single second of your daily life in a city is the integrated outcome of all the historical planning policies and decisions that were made before that.

A harsh but telling example: Maps made by the Home Owners Loan Corporation described Nodine Hill, then heavily Italian, as hazardous, a September 1937 form said. Its detrimental influences, the form said, were aging buildings and the character of occupants.

On average, a person of color lives in a census tract with higher surface urban heat island intensity than non-Hispanic white people in all but six of the 175 largest urbanized areas in the U.S., according to a 2021 study published in the science journal Nature Communications.

'By design or neglect'Flood, climate hazards threaten Massachusett's redlined neighborhoods

Black residents had the most exposure to heat islands, researchers said, followed by Hispanic people.

The underlying conditions for heat islands were set decades ago by the economic isolation of redlining. Climate change just catalyzed these places to make them even more dangerous to human life.

As a young child, Rodriguez didnt play on the swings at her Nodine Hill elementary school on the hottest days, though they were her favorite part of the playground.

At recess, she skirted School 23s playground,built on a black rubber mat over concrete, and joined hundreds of students huddled under a few trees. The sun glared directly down on the swings metal links, making them too hot to hold onto.

I had always felt that it was hotter, Rodriguez said on a recent Friday afternoon in the shadow of her old school, a large brick building for pre-K-8 students built in 1918. It was just evident to me.

Temperatures were in the 90s on July 1, 2022. But Rodriguez felt it was even hotter in Nodine Hill. The neighborhood is just a mile uphill from the Hudson River, which provides daily breeze for those along the water.

School 23s playground was nearly empty a week after classes ended. A few teens sat by one of the basketball hoops in the shade. Rodriguezs gold necklace with her middle name, Brooklyn, glinted in the sun.

On hot days, without shade or greenspace that can cool neighborhoods, fewer people are outside in Southwest Yonkers. Instead, many cluster indoors to keep cool.

The Civil Rights Acts eighth provision, the Fair Housing Act, ended redlining in 1968. But previously redlined areas remain low-income and overwhelmingly non-white.

Upscale neighborhoods are edged with trees and parks with shaded pathways. In Southwest Yonkers, where Nodine Hill is located, residential areas are edged with unwanted facilities, congested roadways, sewage and wastewater treatment plants, according to Brigitte Griswold, executive director of Groundwork Hudson Valley, an environmental justice nonprofit thats studied the local effects of redlining.

Resulting air pollution contributes tohigher rates of asthma andheart disease in these communities, she added.

Griswold said the self-imposed isolation impedes people from checking on each other during a heat wave.

Its kind of a double-edged sword, she said. The heat itself prevents that social cohesion from happening. And then that breaks down community resilience to respond to the very thing that is driving people apart.

The little growth that has come from the end of redlining is not always welcome or healthy. In these spaces, where land is cheaper and zoning fluid, manufacturing sites, energy plants and big box stores have sprung up.

New Jersey resident Tanisha Garner knows more buildings in her neighborhood mean more heat.

Garner, a Newark native who has lived in an area called the Ironbound for the past four years, said at least 10 projects are being planned for the area and that they will be built with materials that absorb and radiate heat.

The Ironbound area got its name from the metalworking factories and railroad tracks in the area. For over a hundred years, this eastern section of Newark was home to all kinds of industrial activity. It was also an area redlined back in the late 1930s, classified as dangerous and marked by the federal government to be excluded from mortgage eligibility.

Many of those industries are long gone. Others have taken their place. A waste-to-energy incinerator, a sewage treatment plant, a metal plating shop and numerous warehouses. The area has been subject to some of the worst pollution in the state.

Garner thinks these development projects take out greenery and open space and fill them with buildings that help amplify the heat in her neighborhood.

What creates that heat island? Is it the structure of the building, is it a lack of trees, is it the lack of balance between nature and construction? Garner said. When you look at the Ironbound, you can see there is an imbalance.

During a tour of her neighborhood in July, Garner pointed out some of the areas designated for development.

One of those areas encompasses Freeman and Ferry streets, the future site of a six-story, 280-unit complex to be built at the site of the historic Ballantine Brewery, starting this summer. The current area has no trees lining the sidewalk. A rendering of the proposed project shows numerous trees surrounding the building. Will it be enough to offset the potential heat effect of such a huge structure?

A temperature check of that block at 11:20 a.m. registered 95.7 degrees, six degrees more than the citys temperature of 89 degrees at that time, according to the website Weather Underground.

In July 2020, Brianna Rodriguez took her handheld FLIR thermal camera and pointed the bullseye at School 23s black rubber mat where she once played. It was 88 degrees in Yonkers that day, she noted. Down on the mat, it was 127 degrees.

The infrared camera captured yellow and orange colors around the mat, signaling more surface heat, as opposed to blue and purple meaning cool.

She jotted the reading down in her journal, as part of Groundwork Hudson Valleys green team, composed of Yonkers teens interested in sustainability and climate change. They were completing an exercise developed by Shandas, where they pretended the heat was a zombie apocalypse affecting her neighborhood. Where it was yellow and orange on the camera, there were more zombies.

The image of her playground looked like the surface of the sun.

Ultimately, potential solutions for minimizing the deaths from heat islands should be a lot easier than protecting a city from zombies. Shandas, a chronicler of the "heat dome" phenomenon that settled over Portland, Oregon, with deadly results in its hottest neighborhoods last summer, said immediate action can be taken with lifesaving results.

Such changes, Shandas said, can be implemented ahead of more complex structural changes to amend building codes for cooler buildings with walls or roof construction materials that deflect heat.

Tree planting programs have been implemented in many states. But where the trees are planted matters. While thousands of trees have been planted in Newark in the last several years, the agency in charge would not say how many were planted in the Ironbound. Walking through the Ironbound's streets, it's hard to think that this area has been targeted for a tree-based solution.

Original post:

City heat islands force vulnerable residents to weather summer's worst - The News Leader

Consider the former distribution of imperiled carnivores of the American West: A grizzly bear still graces the California state flag despite being hunted to its extinction in the Golden State nearly a century ago. More than 20 subspecies of canis lupus the gray wolf once roamed a vast swath of North America, from northern Canada into central Mexico. Wolverines, solitary hunters and scavengers partial to mountainous environments with reliable springtime snow cover, occupied parts of California and Colorado in the early 1900s. Their range in the Lower 48 is now confined to remote outposts of the Northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest.

The primary tool the United States has for keeping those reduced ranges from contracting to nothing is the Endangered Species Act. When President Richard Nixon, a Republican, signed the act into law in 1973, he celebrated the countrys rich array of animal life, saying nothing is more priceless and more worthy of preservation. But with human activity driving a mass extinction event the likes of which Earth hasnt seen since a meteor crashed into the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services nearly 50-year-old directive is becoming increasingly complicated. The agency wants to respond with more aggressive measures to ward off extinction.

On June 6, the agency unveiled a proposal that would give it more latitude to establish experimental populations of endangered or threatened species outside their current or probable historic range. The agency billed the measure as an update to proven conservation tools that could prevent more species from becoming stranded in habitats rendered unsustainable by climate change and invasive species.

The time to act and use every tool at our disposal is now, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in the release.

The agency said in emails to Montana Free Press that the proposal was not developed with particular species in mind, but public comments submitted to the agency thus far (its accepting comments on the proposed rule change through Aug. 8) offers clues to potential target species. Champions of Key deer, which are unique to the lower Florida Keys, describe reintroduction outside the species historic range as absolutely crucial to preventing extinction as sea levels rise. And in the West, environmentalists have long argued that the endangered Mexican wolf, currently found in southern Arizona and New Mexico as well as northern Mexico, could be introduced as far north as Colorado. But some Arizona ranchers, whove described the introduction of Mexican wolves as having a devastating impact on agricultural communities, arent keen on future introduction programs and their potential to introduce economic and environmental harms.

Though still in its earliest stages, USFWSs proposal, sometimes called assisted migration, evokes sticky questions about how and where the federal government should focus its efforts and about the ultimate goals of ecological restoration. Some environmentalists have praised the agencys proposal, calling it a conservation game-changer thats long overdue. Others describe themselves as leery of wildlife managers ability to get assisted migration right, given ample evidence of past natural resource management missteps.

Mike Phillips, director of the Bozeman-based Turner Endangered Species Fund, says restore to what? is one of the cardinal questions restoration ecologists tangle with. Most folks would say and Ive said this, too restore to historic conditions. It had to be really good in the past, right? he said. Increasingly, I think thats an inadequate answer, in part because climate change is reshuffling the ecological deck and, in some cases, rendering historic ranges insignificant or not significant enough. He said such profound changes merit a corresponding change in wildlife managers approach to conservation.

Ranges for many North American plants and animals are moving up either north in latitude, or higher in elevation according to David Parsons, a longtime USFWS biologist-turned- conservation nonprofit staffer. In some cases, he said, species are getting pushed off the top of mountains, meaning a species that has historically lived on one mountain or range can no longer find what it needs to survive there and has to seek refuge at even higher-elevations.

Parsons said USFWS assisted migration strategy would support efforts to stem the planets rising biological diversity loss crisis, which international leaders cited as the No. 3 risk facing the globe during the 2022 World Economic Forum. (Climate action failure topped the list, followed by extreme weather.)

With species extinction rates a thousand times or higher than they should be, there are going to be plenty more animals in need of rescue, Parsons said.

Both Parsons, a resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Phillips, a Bozemanite, have masters degrees in wildlife ecology and have been involved in efforts to recover the Mexican wolf, which was listed as endangered in 1976. Parsons directed the USFWS Mexican wolf recovery program from 1990 to 1999 and remains involved in his current post as the nonprofit Rewilding Institutes carnivore conservation biologist. Phillips joined a Mexican wolf recovery advisory committee in 1995 and continued working on that effort until 2017.

Most folks would say and Ive said this, too restore to historic conditions. It had to be really good in the past, right? Increasingly, I think thats an inadequate answer, in part because climate change is reshuffling the ecological deck and in some cases, rendering historic ranges insignificant or not significant enough.

The two share a belief that any unintended consequences arising from the introduction of imperiled species into novel habitats for example, a surge or decline in other plant and animal populations can be minimized. Phillips said due diligence and an intentional, science-based plan paired with monitoring and tweaking as needed can go a long way toward preventing undesirable distortions to the complex web of interactions that underpin ecological systems.

Phillips acknowledged that mistakes will be made along the way, but said he believes in doing everything possible to address the extinction crisis. Deciding not to take action is still a decision with attendant consequences, he said. If you want an at-bat, you have to accept the fact that you might strike out. You have to accept the fact that you may create a problem, a double play for example. But my gosh, how unexciting would life be if you dont want an at-bat?

Others, like Clint Nagel, a retired U.S. Geological Survey hydrologic technician who remains active in natural resource issues through his work with groups including the Gallatin Wildlife Association, cast a wary eye on the proposal. Nagel says theres no shortage of presumably well-intentioned wildlife management efforts that have unfavorably misshapen ecological systems, including within the National Park system.

Yellowstone National Park, for example, is engaged in a decades-long, multimillion-dollar effort to rid Yellowstone Lake of lake trout, which are believed to have migrated from Lewis Lake, where they were stocked in 1890. Lake trout have wreaked havoc on the native cutthroat trout population in Yellowstone Lake, Nagel says.

About 50 miles south, the National Park Service is neck-deep in a protracted effort to get mountain goats out of Grand Teton National Park due to concerns that theyre introducing bacterial diseases to bighorn sheep and outcompeting them for forage. In February, the park used helicopters and sharpshooters to kill 58 mountain goats in Grand Teton as part of that effort.

With species extinction rates a thousand times or higher than they should be, there are going to be plenty more animals in need of rescue.

Such sagas dont bode well for heavy-handed approaches to wildlife management, Nagel argues.

Personally, I dont trust mankind to play God, he said. You know that old saying, We dont know what we dont know? I just see humans as being extremely arrogant where we think we know and understand the complexities of Mother Nature, and we dont.

Nagel acknowledged a measure of cynicism in that view, but said he worries that the federal wildlife agency has resigned itself to an extreme approach when a stronger commitment to existing conservation tools might be a better tack.

Id rather see the agency try to preserve the habitat that we have, rather than giving up on that and trying to put species where they may not belong, he said.

Char Miller, a professor of environmental analysis and history at Pomona College in California said he isnt entirely opposed to the use of assisted migration, but calls for a vigorous vetting process first. Miller argues that natural resource managers should take a hard look at the data and focus on supporting species that have a decent shot at surviving a warmer and potentially drier climate, rather than reflexively trying to conserve existing populations of favored species.

In a recent L.A. Times op-ed, he argued that installing sprinklers at the base of giant sequoia trees in Yosemite National Park to increase their odds of surviving the nearby Washburn Fire represents a denial of current and future conditions. A more proactive approach to meaningful climate adaptation would be better, he said.

As much as the Washburn Fire tactics caused a sigh of relief among Yosemite lovers, the Park Service needs to acknowledge that it makes no sense to install sprinklers to protect giant sequoias from conversions that a warming planet is unleashing in the Mariposa Grove and elsewhere, he wrote. We cannot irrigate our way out of climate change.

Miller said humans tend not to be adept at taking a 30,000-foot view of such complicated questions, but argues that the landscape-scale changes caused by a changing climate merit a similarly expansive perspective, in both geographic and temporal terms.

Is it really appropriate, Miller asked, to attempt to save the dry conifer forests of the southwest if the temperature and precipitation necessary to keep them viable wont materialize? And if conifer forests cede ground to a northward-expanding Sonoran desert, should people resist that ecological shift?

The human tendency is to fix things with tools and technologies that we havent really interrogated, he said, pointing to the historical use of the pesticide DDT, which forced birds of prey like bald eagles and osprey into decline, as an example. Its not that I want hands off, he said. I want minds on.

Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project, a conservation organization that focuses on protecting watersheds and wildlife habitat on western public lands, said she appreciates both the enthusiasm and skepticism USFWSs proposal elicits.

These are the things that I think about all of the time, she said. There is a truth to biogeography species move around to suitable niches on their own, or go extinct on their own, based on fluxes in their environment. That is absolutely true. But we have unnaturally accelerated the opportunity for species to adapt and weve unnaturally limited their mobility within their adaptive geographic space. Weve bounded them.

Personally, I dont trust mankind to play God. You know that old saying, We dont know what we dont know?

Anderson said the Endangered Species Act is sometimes likened to a safety net for imperiled plants and animals. She said she sees the rule change proposal as a way of perhaps repairing some of the loopholes in that net. As such, she supports it.

She also said her primary hope is that humans do more to support ecological resilience at a landscape scale to give plants and animals more room to survive on their own terms. Shes supportive of the America the Beautiful initiative President Joe Biden unveiled last year, a proposal to conserve 30% of the countrys land and water by 2030.

I think doing land conservation and protection in the broadest way possible is what we have to do in the near-term, so that whatever we end up [pursuing] in the long-term is still possible, she said. If we continue to slice away the pie, those opportunities are going to be gone.

The controversies that wildlife management can engender are no secret, particularly in Montana, which has managed to hold on to the vast majority of its native mammals. The management of animals currently or formerly on the endangered species list is arguably the most controversial of all, with advocates for or against federal protections often engaging in a decades-long tug-of-war. Sociologists sometimes use the phrase high conflict to describe such stubborn stalemates. Theyve found plenty of it in the management of carnivores.

As with wildlife introduction efforts, policymakers have a pretty rocky history of involving the public well in all sorts of natural resource decisions, said Alex Metcalf, a University of Montana professor who teaches courses on the human dimension of resource management to forestry and wildlife biology students. He underscores the importance of engaging stakeholders and really listening to their feedback the earlier, the better, he said.

On paper at least, USFWS plans to develop any assisted migration programs with input from diverse state, local and Tribal partners. USFWS Director Martha Williams, who formerly led Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, expresses a commitment to locally-driven, partnership based solutions in agency writings about the proposal.

Metcalf anticipates that some introduction programs of, say, trumpeter swans could go uneventfully well. Others will be more fraught, he said, offering as a cautionary tale the history of gray wolf management, which reliably draws impassioned testimony in the Montana Legislature and before the states Fish and Wildlife Commission some 27 years after wolves from Canada were released in Yellowstone National Park. Metcalf also said there is no one-size-fits-all approach that will work everywhere. USFWS wont necessarily be able to replicate one successfully executed introduction program in another region with a different species, he said.

One of my mentors used to say to me, Once youve studied one rural community, youve studied one rural community, he said. The social piece of this is really complicated.

Asked if he has one piece of advice to offer USFWS as the agency moves into assisted migration territory, Metcalf urged patience and good-faith interactions with stakeholders, while also acknowledging the mismatched timelines of environmental need and the pace of social change.

Its pretty clear you cannot rush the social process. If you do, you end up with entrenched opposition among the very people you need for success. So, as uncomfortable as it may be, you have to take the time to do it right, he said. Thats not a comfortable answer. Thats not a happy feeling. But I think it is the reality.

View post:

Where will all the wildlife go? - Montana Free Press

I was one of more than 700 people who traveled or telecommuted to Pittsburgh for Theatre Communications Groups 32nd National Conference in June. After three years held at a distanceTCGs last in-person convening was in Miami in June 2019, with virtual conferences taking place in the summers of 2020 and 2021this year marked our organizations first hybrid conference, offering in-person events June 16-18 and virtual programming June 15-17. It was an ambitious four-day undertaking that involved some behind-the-scenes pinch-hitting by volunteers and members of staff. As an attendee and sometime conference worker, both in person and online, I appreciated the patience and fortitude of everyone involved.

It was also my first TCG conference. While I cannot speak to the experience of past conferences, several people told me that the city always sets the tone. Im not sure if that same sentiment applied to those who tuned in virtually, but I have the City of Bridges to thank for a new perspective on the industry I cover.

To me, this years conference was about healing, about finding new ways to take care and show up for ourselves, for our work, and for each other. While I would doubt that any shared life-altering epiphany has ever been reached while sitting in upholstered banquet chairs, I mean it when I say that it was genuinely nice to meet everyone and share rooms together, whether behind masks or on Zoom. For an industry still grieving the immeasurable losses of the COVID-19 pandemic while attempting to address the systemic inequities embedded in our practices, I think that the conference provided some much-needed time to consider a way forward together.

Conference programming centered around three arcs: Redefining Our Art, Transforming Our Practices, and Tending to Our People. With sessions focused on subjects such as Trauma-Informed Theatre: Lessons from Care Work, Rethinking the Canon, Harm Reduction & Transformative Justice, Native Futures Are Our Future: Indigenous Multimedia and VR Artistry, Together We Rise: Dream Session for a Queer American Theatre, and a series of forward-thinking sessions held by TCGs 2022 Inheritors Curation Team, there were ample opportunities to envision the future of theatre. Following is my day-by-day report of events and conversations, compiled from firsthand experience, videos, and transcripts.

I arrived in Pittsburgh on the morning of the 15th. My fabulous Uber driver, Garcia, showed me around the area en route to the Westin, recommending local restaurants and wishing me well. This set me up for a productive week. The virtual programming kicked off with a plenary keynote conversation between Pittsburgh icons and Carnegie Mellon alums Tamara Tunie and Billy Porter. Both vouched for the importance of free after-school arts programs as vital to their development.

Im the last of a generation of people who had access to things that our government set up to help, Porter said. I was grandfathered into benefiting from a government that actually cared about its people. He marveled at the arts education that we were exposed to in a public school situation for free, vividly recalling a three-ring binder bursting with double-sided pages listing after-school activities. These programs gave Porter the opportunity to perform in his first musical alongside 150 classmates; his was the only role not double-cast. For her part, Tunie remembered choosing an instrument and joining the choir in the fourth grade. Both credited high school performing arts teachers with steering them toward the BFA programs at Carnegie Mellon. Tunie also recounted her alienating college audition experience as the only Black person out of 100 applicants trying out for the program.

This is what were talking about when were talking about access and opportunity, Porter said. I didnt even know it was there. I didnt even know Carnegie Mellon had a program like that. I had no idea. He added, I wouldnt be sitting here if somebody hadnt given me an opportunity.

Porter struggled throughout his 20s to fit into the limited roles offered to queer actors, often being dismissed as too flamboyant, until he realized his originality was in fact his strength.

Everybody told me that my queerness would be my liability, and everybody was right for decades, he said. But in the middle of that journey I chose myself, because I knew that however the chips may fall, wherever this may lead, its going to be rooted and based in my authenticity. So let me let all the other stuff go and just simply be in this moment with myself. He continued, I was waiting for Clive Davis to discover me. I was waiting for Stephen Sondheim to write something for me. No: Write it for yourself. Do it yourself. Creativity comes from inside you.

Placing value in his authentic self prepared Porter for the opportunities that would follow, including the roles of Lola in Kinky Boots and Pray Tell in Pose.

With the wisdom of Billy Porter and Tamara Tunie still resonating in the back of my mind, I put on my blazer and went to moderate a discussion on virtual theatre. My session, Making Virtual Theatre Work: How to Reach Audiences at Home, featured BroadwayHD founder Bonnie Comley, Geffen Playhouse associate artistic director Amy Levinson, Audible Theater artistic director Kate Navin, Arlekin Players Theatre managing producer Sara Stackhouse, and Ricky & Dana Young-Howze of the Young-Howze Theatre Journal. Panelists shared their pandemic-born innovations and explored the ongoing potential of virtual theatre.

For us its actually about creating a new genre, and I think theres something interesting there to talk about, said Stackhouse, whose company in June produced The Orchard, a Chekhov-inspired production incorporating robots, holograms, film production, streaming software, and gaming technology to create an interactive viewer experience. The key, Stackhouse said, is to learn what tools, ideas, ways of interacting and having meaningful experiences are being used by other industries and other sectors, and see what talented theatremakers can do at the cross section of those things.

Along with this genre-carving practice, though, come the responsibilities of building infrastructure and reaching new audiences.

The book manuals have not been written yet, said Ricky Young-Howze of the lack of training for virtual theatre. There arent as many teaching artists [for the virtual medium] as there need to be. Theatres, he said, also need to think about who could never come into the theatre because they couldnt physically access it, economically access it, or socially access it, where they would feel excluded. The next step, said his partner Dana Young-Howze, after finding the people who need this, is not just creating content for them, but listening to what they want.

The first day of virtual TCG programming was rounded out by a keynote conversation between activist/policy expert Julian Brave Noisecat and theatre producer/climate justice leader Ronee Penoi. A member of the Canim Lake Band Tsqescen and a descendant of the LilWat Nation of Mount Currie, Noisecat recognized Native-led movements like Idle No More, the fight against the Keystone XL Pipeline, and the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock Sioux Reservation for solidifying the connection between Indigenous rights and environmental activism.

Noisecats activism begins at the intersection of climate change, environmental advocacy, land occupation, broken treaties, and the marginalization of Indigenous history. He explained that political advocacy depends on the power of a compelling narrative, and movements often fail because of faulty storytelling techniques. In this time of division, he emphasized, it is more important than ever that all communities are fairly represented in media and that their lived experiences are reflected in public policy.

As an insider in Indigenous storytelling, said Noisecat, what I really appreciate is the stuff that gives us visibility on this broader stage, where other people can also read, watch, or listen to our stories, but where I as an insider can also see stories, people, places, and cultural things that I know, that feel intimate to me. As a Native person, thats a very novel experience in America.

He highlighted FXs series Reservation Dogs (created by the Native sketch comedy troupe the 1491s) and the book There, There by Cheyenne and Arapaho author Tommy Orange as impactful examples of Indigenous representation.

I walked away that first day with a lot on my mind. Knowing that it took decades for the industry to shine its light on a star like Billy Porter left me wondering just how much talent weve unknowingly relegated to the wings. Theres something to be said about being ahead of ones time and reclaiming creative control, but theres still the problem of flawed storytelling. Maybe the lack isnt in the talent of the actor but in the depth of the character; maybe youre missing the technology to best equip your artists or the outreach to connect you with an unfamiliar audience. Access happens where theres an abundance, not a scarcity, of opportunity. It stands to reason that as theatremakers, we are only bound by the environments we create.

For the conferences first in-person day, you might say I woke up on Pittsburghs Northside, as I hopped on a morning trolley and followed a City of Asylum walking tour down Sampsonia Way. This nonprofit hosts the largest sanctuary residency program in the world for writers living in exile under threat of death, imprisonment, or persecution in their native countries, providing them with three years of free housing, healthcare, and access to social services and resettlement.

Our helpful guide, City of Asylums manager of special projects, Erin Roussel, told us all about the programs history. A member of the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN), City of Asylum welcomed its first writer-in-residence, Huang Xiang, and his wife, Zhang Ling, in 2004. A poet, calligrapher, and advocate for constitutional freedoms during the post-Cultural Revolution period in China, Huang Xiang spent a total of 12 years in prison and labor camps for his work, which was later banned from publication.

Part refuge, part relief, each of the residency homes along Sampsonia Way feature unique, artist-created house publications, i.e., literary texts incorporated into their facades as public art. Huang Xiangs House Poem was the first in the series. The buildings currently house five resident writers and one artist. The tour culminated at Alphabet City, Asylums bookstore/cultural center/restaurant/performance venue, which has offered free online and in person public programming since 2016.

Back at the Westin, conference programming continued with a hybrid opening plenary featuring the launch of the 2022 State of the Artist study facilitated by Khanisha Foster and Susan V. Booth; the presentation of the Alan Schneider Director Award to Seema Sueko; and a grounding moment led by healing artist Rebecca Kelly G. Positing a series of powerful prompts, such as, What might theatremaking look like in 2027, and what needs to happen now to get us there? and What does your ideal day in the life of an artist look like, and how is that different from your daily life now?, Foster and Booth garnered a variety of responses from theatremakers from diverse disciplines and communities. Sueko highlighted the potential for playwrights to submit scripts as audio files, reasoning that giving literal voice to a playwrights language can help us experience their rhythms and intentions.

How many people sat in their living rooms and decided how to make theatre from here on out? asked facilitator Khanisha Foster, looking back at the past two years of pandemic and protest. How many of us have decided we are not going back into a rehearsal room with panic in our bones? That we want the space, and time, and energy, and honoring to do what our body, minds, and spirits are capable of. If we dont ask now, then when?

The point seemed clear: that by visualizing the industry we hope to create, we are able to more clearly define the work ahead.

Following the plenary, I made my way to the Making Home: Contemporary & Devised Performance in Pittsburgh session with trans director, performance-maker, and community organizer Lyam B. Gabel and theatre director and educator Adil Mansoor, moderated by Chanel Blanchet, programming manager at Pittsburghs Kelly Strayhorn Theater. Taking inspiration from the tradition of Black homemaking, the Strayhorn hopes to engage artists in deconstructing the complicated concepts of home and belonging, striving to be a home for creative experimentation, community dialogue, and collective action rooted in intersectional anti-oppression and the liberation of Black and queer people.

This practice of cultivating belonging is important for Gabel, who lived in New Orleans for eight years before coming to Pittsburgh for graduate school.

I make a lot of work about archives, explained Gabel. I do long processes where I do oral histories and then create performance from those oral histories. Although its not strict documentary performance, its kind of docu-fiction or docu-fabulation. Its a hybrid between narrative and documentary work. Their recent project, the dance floor, the hospital room, and the kitchen table, interweaves 32 oral histories and countless hours of research into an immersive media archive of queer care, stitching together stories from COVID-19 and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Thinking about home and community and all those things, how those networks of care can get built inside of a rehearsal room, have been really important to my practice and also my livelihood as an artist, Gabel continued. Theatre has this really incredible ability to create networks of care that can help to sustain us. I think it has to, unfortunately, because it does not sustain us in other ways sometimes, financially, which is something that I know a lot of people are working to remedy. But there is something that I have relied on theatre to do since a very early age, which is to make home and literally sustain me through those networks. Thats now a part of the active process Im engaged in when Im making work. Its not just about what were making, but also about the connections that were making with one another as were making it, and being really intentional about how those things can help to sustain the process.

For Adil Mansoor, who was raised outside of Chicago and moved to Pittsburgh 12 years ago, his journey involved not only carving a path into the theatre industry, but also finding a sense of home within it.

When I moved to Pittsburgh, if Im totally honest, the barrier to access when it came to entering the theatre community here was high, Mansoor said. I didnt know how to enter a theatre. I didnt study it in undergrad, I wasnt an actor, I couldnt afford a free internship, I couldnt apply for the jobs. I just was like, How do I do this? The people who welcomed him, he recalled, were dancers and silk screen printers and museum workers. So my practice was developed in other disciplines. I knew theatre was where I felt the most alive, that kept being true, but I grew up in other disciplines in Pittsburgh. At that point in his life, he felt hurt that the one place I wanted to be, all of the doors were closed, but now he counts himself grateful for what hes learned outside the theatre industry. To have DJs as your sound designers and architects as your set designers teaches you a lot about really figuring out what youre trying to do, he said.

Mansoor, whose current play Amm(i)gone is an adaptation of Sophocless Antigone that doubles as an apology to and from his mother, credits Karla Boos, artistic director of Pittsburghs Quantum Theatre, for giving him his start. Both Mansoor and Gabel agree that Pittsburgh has a unique infrastructure in place to support new work.

Something thats really incredible to me about the Pittsburgh arts community, said Gabel, is that there are resources here for artists making work, which is not true everywhere. Getting to experience that has been really transformative for my practice. Not that I did not have any access to resources, but in New Orleans a lot of the access to resources come from national funding organizations, and in Pittsburgh theres a robust local funding and foundation network. That is something that feels really unique to the ecosystem here.

Mansoor concurred, pointing to the support the Strayhorn and the New Hazlett have given to emerging Pittsburgh creators in various disciplines, in particular Strayhorns Freshworks residency program and the New Hazletts Community Supported Art (CSA) performance series as lifelines to the field, and lauding innovative Strayhorn programming director Ben Pryor.

There is certainly no shortage of new ideas brewing in Pittsburgh, and both Mansoor and Gabel want the field to recognize that theatre can thrive outside of New York.

It feels like a lot of times in order to get credibility you have to leave, said Gabel, that your work has to be seen somewhere else and then its credible. Its really transformative when our leaders start looking in their own backyards and being like, Whos here? Whos doing something interesting? Maybe they havent shown something in New York, but that doesnt actually mean, especially with the right support, that they couldnt be making really amazing things.

But all work and no play makes for dull theatre, and Mansoor rightly said that after a difficult few years, it is time to start the healing process. Speaking of the fatigue and despair of many of his friends and colleagues in the field, Mansoor said he felt the urgent need to figure out what we can do to instigate joy, even if its just tomorrow or next week or next year. It feels like a really big puzzle. I want to keep making this work. I want to keep making it with you all. I would really like to have joy while we do this very, very hard job. So what are the ways to center joy and care without shifting away from rigor? I dont think those words are the opposite of rigor at all. I actually think theyre intrinsically the same or connected.

As a field, how do we find joyful rigor?

In the spirit of instigating joy, I grabbed dinner from Condado Tacos and headed over to the opening night party at the Mattress Factory, thrown by the Pittsburgh host committee.

Thursday was certainly a busy day, but when things finally slowed down, I found myself reflecting on concepts like home, sanctuary, and joyful rigor. For the residents of City of Asylum, the program provides very real artistic refuge and personal safety. At the same time, I considered whether theatre could be a place of sanctuary for us. For members of a weary and weathered field, whose spaces often no longer look like home, how might we visualize our sanctuary? I could definitely use more joyful rigor in my day, and if theres one thing Ive taken from my time in Pittsburgh, its the idea that a better way is possible.

At the session Race and Intimacy for Artists, Management, and Administrators: What to Know, educator, activist, actor, director, and intimacy coordinator Kaja Dunn explained that shes not just on hand for combat choreography or steamy scenes; in fact the true role of the intimacy coordinator is to prevent harm, both physical and emotional. No cast member, she said, should be asked to comply with unwanted physical contact or violate their bodily autonomy for a performance. In particular to safeguard cast members of color, LGBTQ+ performers, young performers, disabled performers, and other underrepresented theatremakers on sets or stages, Dunn emphasized that rehearsals should have an intimacy coordinator. If a script deals with harmful cultural stereotypes or requires young actors to kiss, an intimacy coordinator can step in, ask questions, and establish boundaries.

You cannot colorblind choreograph, said Dunn. Nor should theatres skimp on other culturally specific services: If they are going to cast more diverse performers, they need to make space. This means providing a hairstylist who regularly works with different hair textures, makeup that matches cast members skin tones, and a wig budget, if required. If performers are expected to supply their own foundation or braid their own hair, theatres should compensate them for those costs.

Harm can be done in more subtle but insidious ways in the rehearsal room; Dunn advised theatremakers to ask, Are you using peoples cultural knowledge and capital without compensation?

The conference coincided with Juneteenth or African American Emancipation Day, the U.S. federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery under General Order No. 3 on June 19, 1865. A special session, The Meaning of Juneteenth and August Wilsons 100-year Journey to Freedom, was held at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center across the street from the Westin, featuring E.G. Baily, Justin Emeka, Sha Cage, Wali Jamal, and Caroline B. Jackson Smith. At the time of the conference, a production of Two Trains Running was playing at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, directed by Emeka, who also played the role of Holloway alongside Jamal, who played the shows punctilious undertaker, West.

Jamal has the unique credit of being the only actor in the world to have appeared in all 11 of August Wilsons plays, including not only 10-play American Century Cycle but also the autobiographical solo show How I Learned What I Learned.

What immediately affects me about August Wilson, what the legacy of August Wilson means to me primarily, is opportunity, said Jamal. I didnt get into theatre until I was in my late 30s. I always wanted to be in it. I always did. When I was going to Carrick High School, I wanted to take theatre. They told me I couldnt take drama because there wouldnt be any parts for me. It was pretty much right, but that was before August. Now almost any high school kid can have an opportunity to experience theatre and portray characters that represent them clearly, respectfully, and truthfully.

While Wilson created an indelible collection of roles for Black actors, and helped employ a generation or two of great Black actors, including Samuel L. Jackson, Denzel Washington, and Viola Davis, Emeka noted, perhaps paradoxically, that a lot of Black people dont feel like they have a right to August Wilson because they cant speak that way, or they dont have that authentic of a Black experience. Im interested in empowering the next generation of Black actors to find themselves through the work without trying to be Anthony Chisholm or Stephen McKinley Henderson. Theyre beautiful, but you dont have to be them in order to do August Wilson.

At the same time, Emeka clarified, it is not enough for theatres to just stage August Wilsons plays and repeatedly use the N-word, as his plays do, without context. There needs to be an acknowledgment of the history and legacy involved. It is important to set the work up right, he said, as a holistic experience for the audience.

Even Wilson himself expressed the need for his plays to be staged with a certain cultural reverence. There were theatres he would return to and places he would never work again. Advocating for artistic control was a central part of Wilsons playwriting journey.

As Oberlin College theatre department chair Caroline B. Jackson Smith explained, After the first couple of plays suffered with white producers, they went to a different model of producing, and it had to do with partnering with other regional theatres so that they built their way to Broadway as their own producers. They had to select which regional theatres would be able to do the work in the responsible way that it was being crafted.

No one would deny how hard Wilson worked to tell stories and bring his characters to life. The freedom to express oneself can also feel like a burden, though, as the ambition to influence and advocate requires a tremendous amount of effort.

I think thats what the tie-in between August and Juneteenth means for us now, Jamal explained. In his plays its always, always stressed that youve got to work, that freedom comes with work. All freedom means is that now were going to work. Weve been working for 300 years, but now we can work for ourselves. Thats what its all about.

He quoted Two Trains Running: Freedom is heavy. You got to put your shoulder to freedom. Put your shoulder to it and hope your back hold up.

Across the street in the Westins Allegheny ballroom, a hybrid plenary with remarks from elected officials, followed by a legacy conversation with the members of SITI Company, was already underway.

As the first Black mayor in Pittsburghs history, Ed Gainey offered his thoughts on how to bring communities together.

Arts and culture changes lives, Gainey said. Thats the power of art. Thats the power of theatre. That you can express how we should be living, what life should be. Through arts and culture we begin to know one another, we begin to respect one another, and when that happens we eliminate racism.

He spoke about the importance of arts education and his desire for arts funding to serve as an investment in Pittsburghs future.

When I took office, because this city has often been siloed and segregated, I wanted to change how people see this city, Gainey said. He and his wife Michelle created the Pittsburgh Paints initiative, which celebrates local artists from different cultures with a monthly rotating art exhibit in the mayors executive conference room. I turned my conference room into a canvas room for the whole city to be educated, Gainey said.

For their part, SITI Company, now in the midst of their final season, were led in a virtual colloquy from their frequent base in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., by frequent collaborator Jessica Hanna, looking back on decades of not only making essential, ensemble-created theatre works but forging an influential training aesthetic inspired in part by their work with Japanese theatremaker Tadashi Suzuki. As founding member Ellen Lauren put it, Plays are what a company does, but theyre not what make a company. And her colleague Steven Webber chimed in, in bittersweet past tense: We were not employees of an institution. The company was our bodies; it was us.

The long day of reflection concluded with the Vibes NAt Pittsburgh BIPOC Artist Celebration hosted by TCG and the Kelly Strayhorn Theater at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center. The lineup included performances by Gea y Pea, Mai Khoi, #notwhitecollective, Alumni Theatre Company, Mita Ghosal, Jacquea Mae, and DJ Samira Mendoza.

Friday proved to be a great day for listening and expressing gratitude. Pittsburgh provided an excellent backdrop to examine history, from honoring the legacy of August Wilson to recognizing the citys first Black mayor. Theres a lot of conversation happening right now around EDI initiatives and addressing systemic injustices in theatre, but its not often that we get to hear from the people on the front lines of that advocacy. Wilson paved one road to change, and that was only the beginning. Its also important that creative teams consider the expertise of intimacy coordinators and sensitivity readers to avoid harm. And when harm occurs, procedures need to be in place to address it. Every theatre should strive to be a place playwrights want to revisit, not regret.

I started my last day co-hosting a live version of ATs Offscript podcast, featuring longtime arts journalist Sharon Eberson, City Theatre co-artistic director Monteze Freeland, and Quantum Theatre artistic director Karla Boos.

As for what sets Pittsburgh apart from the art scenes in other cities, both directors agreed that there is a strong network of support for artists.

The theatre community here is loyal, said Freeland, who came to the city from Baltimore. Its rich, its full of life and support. It opens and holds the door open for new people. You hear a lot of times in other cities that people have a hard time breaking in. I think we actually embrace new artists here in Pittsburgh. When they get here, were excited about their talent, were excited about what they can bring to our community, and we hold those doors open. Of course, theres more work to do, but we have a breadth of theatre that allows for that to happen on many different levels.

Boos echoed the sentiment, saying that this openness is especially true of mid-size performance companies. She described from personal experience how August Wilson, a Pittsburgh native who mostly didnt live or work in his hometown in his adulthood, nevertheless fostered a legacy of good will there.

We are all, in the present theatre, the spiritual brothers and sisters of August Wilson, said Boos. In 1990, when I was incredibly young and wanted to start a theatre in Pittsburgh, I sought out August Wilson, found him in the Crawford Grill, and talked to him about my idea to start a theatre. I was no one from nowhere, and that man extended his generous spirit. It was instrumental. Monteze is not kidding when he says we have had a tradition of embracing people for, in my experience, 30 years. And we love our differences. We love a kind of collegiality that makes all boats rise.

Though Pittsburghs arts community is strong, there is still work to be done toward making theatres accessible, inclusive, and anti-racist. Freeland emphasized the key difference between words and actions when it comes to organizational change. While many theatres shared messages of support in response to Black Lives Matter and We See You, White American Theatre, he advised us all to pay attention to which theatres are driving change from within.

Sometimes you have to clean up inside of your house before you can open the door and invite people in, said Freeland. At least thats how I was raised. So I think theres value in that and theres a purpose in that. We should be looking at those companies who are inside actually doing that work from the ground up, and making sure that those who are coming into your own spaces know that work is happening.

He pointed to Pittsburgh Playwrights Ground Up Theatre training program, which provides free theatre training for people of color in Pittsburgh to address disparities in industry education and hiring practices, while ensuring that diverse candidates are set up for success. He stressed that making sustainable theatre in Pittsburgh requires engaging with all the layers of a community. This means partnering with local restaurants, organizations, and community kitchens, uplifting residents of color through opportunity, and creating safe environments where people are valued.

My conference experience ended with a canceled flight, which gave me a few more hours in the Steel City. I was fortunate enough to spend that time at the Forbes Tavern toasting the legacy of Terry Nemeth, who will retire this fall after nearly 40 years as the publisher of TCG Books and American Theatre, and who was the subject of a heartfelt farewell tribute at the conferences closing plenary.

As a long champion of Wilsons work (TCG Books helped realize the playwrights dream of publishing the entire Century Cycle), the tribute to Nemeth provided a fitting capstone for a conference which both honored and contextualized the good work of the past, as well as learned from those improving the field.

Can theatre heal itself, and might it heal us? Gathering together last month in Pittsburgh felt like a pretty good start.

Alexandra Pierson (she/her) is associate editor of American Theatre. apierson@tcg.org

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So Good to See You: Highlights From Pittsburgh's 2022 TCG National Conference - American Theatre