Sharia Benn: The way you deal with communities of colour that come to your present, the way you greet us within the foyer areas, you have to be in contact with your personal biases and simply opening your doorways and saying, “We’ll low cost tickets as a result of we would like all communities to return.” Issues like that, I am like, “What makes you suppose we will not afford the tickets? Why do you suppose it is the ticket value that stops Black of us from coming from in our neighborhood?”
Yura Sapi: You’re listening to Constructing Our Personal Tables, a podcast produced for HowlRound Theatre Commons, a free and open platform for theatremakers worldwide. I am your host, Yura Sapi, and I am the founder of assorted organizations and initiatives, together with a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, a six-hectare farm and meals sovereignty mission, an LGBTQ+ therapeutic and artwork house. And I’ve helped quite a few creatives, leaders, and different founders unleash their excellence into the world by means of my applications, workshops, and training providers.
On this podcast, I am showcasing the excessive vibration options for you as a visionary chief to implement into your personal observe and thrive. Keep tuned this season to listen to from different founders who’ve constructed their very own tables for his or her communities and for the world on this evolutionary time on earth. You’re right here for a motive and I’m so honored and grateful to assist you in your journey, so keep tuned and luxuriate in.
“Why do you all want your personal theatre firm?” Think about being stated that. Or perhaps it sounds acquainted to you. That is what Sharia Benn and I get into in at present’s episode, diving into the historical past, current second, and future manifesting of Sankofa African American Theatre Firm. Think about somebody questioning the significance of theatre corporations which might be based, created, owned by Black, indigenous, and folks of colour. That is precisely why the Constructing Our Personal Tables podcast exists as a result of we’re showcasing the impacts, the advantages, that so many have skilled from having the ability to create our personal areas, not solely due to the enterprise context. While you take a look at what it means to have a Black-owned enterprise, a Latina-owned enterprise, an Indigenous-owned enterprise, Center Jap-owned corporations. Once we actually take a look at past the enterprise case, which it’s—we all know we see minority women-owned enterprise certifications that a whole lot of the for-profit trade works off of and actually is ready to uplift by way of what it means to be supporting these corporations and the influence that it may well make on our communities.
Past the enterprise facet of all of it, a whole lot of us, if not all of us, actually, who do such a work of making our personal organizations are additionally pushed by a bigger imaginative and prescient and calling to essentially have an effect on change by means of the work of our illustration, not solely on stage, however within the completely different facets of manufacturing, in the best way that audiences are affected, altering the funding fashions, donors, designers, and administrators, and all the individuals which might be part of making an arts occasion occur. That is why this podcast is so essential as a result of we’re actually gathering this coalition of people who’re making a collective influence by means of our particular person native work.
In at present’s episode, we dive into this with Sharia. We focus on a few of these irritating, difficult facets of doing one thing that nobody has achieved earlier than. We focus on the challenges of stereotypes of limiting beliefs, of conditioning of society, and a few ways in which you may overcome them in the event you begin to really feel them creep in and develop into part of who you’re. And it was simply such an inspiring, uplifting dialog that actually helps us carry forth the facility of what it’s we’re doing on this act of constructing our personal tables of making our personal areas and having company in a neighborhood, nationwide, and even worldwide dialog round what it means to be an individual of colour producing, creating, main in communities and areas in nations the place the dominant isn’t that, the place the facility has been held in several areas for therefore lengthy.
It is such an honor to introduce you or additional provide a platform so that you can get to know Sharia Benn, founding father of Sankofa African American Theatre Firm, which exists to interact and enrich the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area round African American views on these related problems with the human expertise by means of thought-provoking theatre that displays the identical creative excellence. Sharia has been engaged on one thing huge on this very particular neighborhood of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It is simply so thrilling to get to highlight and perceive extra about her journey, form of pulling again the curtain a bit on among the very actual life truths of what it means to construct a majority of these actions of change.
I do know you are going to be impressed. I do know you may get gems of knowledge and I am so excited to listen to what you suppose. So positively test in within the feedback, submit a ranking, write opinions, and let’s preserve this dialogue open as a result of that is actually the work. We’re all right here collectively making this actual. Most of all, take pleasure in this episode.
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Welcome to the podcast, Sharia. Thanks a lot for being right here.
Sharia: Thanks a lot for having me. I’m honored to return to the desk and discuss to you, so thanks.
Yura: Yeah, such a wonderful desk at present to characteristic Sankofa African American Theatre Firm. I’m beginning off this season checking in with of us to listen to about your origin story. So inform us about what’s that pivotal second that actually led you to go forward and forge your personal path and construct your personal desk?
Sharia: So my origin story is absolutely based mostly within the lack of illustration that I encountered once I moved to Harrisburg from Baltimore. So I got here to Harrisburg somewhat over twenty-five years in the past, and I got here for a job. In Baltimore, I labored within the insurance coverage trade. Once I would get off from work, I would be capable to go and expertise theatre as an viewers member and likewise take part in it as an actor, so whether or not it was neighborhood theatre or the numerous different skilled theatres and cultural retailers, and I used to be included, and I noticed me.
Once I moved to Harrisburg for a promotion, I got here into this place the place it is the capital of Pennsylvania. And once I would get off from work, there wasn’t something that linked with me to do culturally or within the theatre house. After years and years, I discovered one alternative and it took me to this theatre firm that was doing a February piece. I auditioned, I received in. And after that, each February they’d do a bit, an August Wilson piece. In order that they wished to do the August Wilson cycle. This was a white theatre firm. Yearly the Black solid would come collectively and within the inexperienced room discuss, “We should always have extra of this.” And after seven years of speaking about it, “Let’s cease speaking and let’s do it as a result of we’re worthy of theatre and illustration exterior of February.”
That actually was the pivotal second once I simply stated, “Let’s do it.” And I did not even know what it was. I simply knew that it was time to maneuver and cease speaking. I actually would say the spirit of Sankofa swooped down and turned on its wings, that legendary chicken, and stated, “You realize what? I’ve received you. You simply maintain on and we’ll fly to collectively.” That was the pivotal second for me.
Yura: Wow, that’s lovely. In order that was seven years with an concept of one thing form of brewing. How lengthy has it been since that second now?
Sharia: Seven years.
Yura: Oh wow.
Sharia: There may be significance in numbers. Seven is the variety of completion. Eight for me is the quantity related to new start. So we have been a theatre firm, Sankofa African American Theatre Firm, going into our seventh 12 months. It is taken seven years for us to achieve credibility, belief in the neighborhood. It was all of the issues that I’ve discovered on the enterprise facet in insurance coverage, in my positions and profession span. I used to be in a position to carry into the creation and the birthing of Sankofa.
So beginning with intent and mission and imaginative and prescient all the way down to our identify, Sankofa. Coming from Baltimore, I believed everybody knew what Sankofa was. Once we first began, others in our founding committee are like, “What’s Sankofa?” They have been leaning in the direction of naming the corporate issues like Voices of Colour and I step again and say, “No, I need to be very intentional about who we’re.” And so thus it isn’t solely simply Sankofa, but it surely’s Sankofa African American Theatre firm. We may have been Sankofa Theatre or simply Sankofa. I knew that it was a threat as a result of each time I write Sankofa African American Theatre Firm on a grant software or request for sponsorship, there isn’t a doubt of our identification. And forming the corporate previous to Floyd and We See You, White Theatre and people actions, it was a calculated threat, but it surely was additionally about belief and being true to our mission and imaginative and prescient of illustration and highlighting and specializing in African American tradition, expertise, historical past. It was actually essential for us seven years in the past to begin that journey and be the one African American devoted theatre firm on this house.
Yura: Yeah. Are you able to share extra about among the greatest challenges you have confronted and the way you have been in a position to overcome them or perhaps reframe their understanding as one thing else past a problem?
Sharia: Yeah. Once we first… The thought was getting out as a result of by this time I had began to work as an actor in a whole lot of the theatre areas right here. So once I say loads, there are actually three main ones in Harrisburg. So the query got here up with, “Why do you all want your personal theatre firm?”
Yura: You all?
I would like you to see my colour and my tradition and I need to be in cost. Our neighborhood must be answerable for dealing with our tales in order that we will inform them nicely and that we will carry the wonder and the enjoyment of our tradition to the stage and to the neighborhood.
Sharia: I stated, “Since you requested that query.” That is the reply. The theatre’s areas right here aren’t doing our tales and, “We’ll simply do extra Black theatre. We’ll do some colorblind casting and that provides you with illustration.” I stated, “No, I would like you to see my colour and my tradition and I need to be in cost. Our neighborhood must be answerable for dealing with our tales in order that we will inform them nicely and that we will carry the wonder and the enjoyment of our tradition to the stage and to the neighborhood.” That was the primary problem, actually questioning, “Why do you all… You actually do not want your personal company. You needn’t personal this. We are able to proceed to inform your tales and personal them. We’ll simply do extra of them. And that equates to illustration.” No. Sankofa’s mannequin. We do not have a bodily house, and that was by design, one, for sustainability.
Getting funding for any nonprofit, any new group is tough. Being a BIPOC group is close to inconceivable. I additionally acknowledge that the work right here is in present areas. And once I discuss that work, the theatre viewers on this neighborhood was 98 % white. The work was actually going into these areas, to these audiences and utilizing theatre as a car to interact round African American tradition and historical past. They’re in neighborhood after we do theatre like they’d not have been if we weren’t in these areas. So it is not even simply going into these areas bodily and doing exhibits, however really going into areas and dealing with the administrators and executives, the directors in these theatre areas and saying, “Hey, look, that is what it actually means to be inclusive, to foster belonging. It isn’t nearly colorblind casting.”
Doing the work with these creatives in order that they make their areas inclusive, protected, and respectful for BIPOC creatives. We have been profitable in doing that by collaborating, significant collaborations the place Sankofa and the theatre that we’re collaborating with, we collectively personal every little thing, all of the manufacturing prices, the income from the field, the work that is achieved, however in addition they enable me to return in and deal with very fastidiously, lovingly, honestly, the story. It has been a novel and gratifying, however actually powerful journey as a result of there are individuals on this house, white individuals who imagine they already know that they are open and that they’re inclusive, however we aren’t coming.
“BIPOC individuals simply do not come to our exhibits. They are not auditioning. “ So it is altering mindsets and reworking and opening eyes and spirits and hearts and saying, “We’d come in the event you invited us and invited us nicely, that it wasn’t empty and open and it feels unsafe.” In order that’s the place the work for the final seven years actually has been in serving to this neighborhood of primarily white theatre areas perceive Blackness and what must occur to carry us into their areas and to inform our tales nicely.
When Sankofa does productions, our audiences are actually virtually 50/50, white, individuals of colour, multi-generational, and that’s the magnificence while you see the work that we’re doing is taking maintain in the neighborhood. We’re in areas and touching lives, remodeling lives that might not have occurred had Sankofa not been right here and working the mannequin that we’ve.
Yura: That is an unimaginable story. It is simply so inspiring and it actually brings alongside the chances as a result of we’re speaking about theatre, however you are utilizing it as one instance of so many facets of our world, of our considerations and each on the stage after we’re speaking about seeing our tales and seeing the human expertise, but in addition while you take a look at this enterprise facet, a theatre firm of getting a enterprise as individuals of colour, as Black indigenous individuals of colour. Yeah, while you stated that remark about this resistance to, “Why do it’s essential to begin a enterprise? Why do it’s essential to begin an organization? Why do you must personal it? Why do you must be separate?,” simply that preliminary query appears to return from a spot of worry as a result of it is not this query of “What can we do to assist?” or “That is nice. Yeah, come be part of. Do you want any assist?” There is a completely different response there that might have been.
And so I feel, yeah, simply uplifting what you are saying about noticing clear challenges, shifting these views and shifting these understandings of what’s doable. And it is concerning the artists on stage, the actors, but it surely does not cease there in any respect. It is concerning the audiences, it is concerning the donors, it is concerning the people who find themselves working the group and all the different individuals that might ultimately be part of it. There’s this massive scale transformation that is happening that you just’re attending to do in a particular neighborhood that is also this portal, this providing, this chance to then share what you are doing for a lot of different teams that may be doing this of their native house. After which finally we’re all coming collectively and sharing this in a bigger form of motion of change. Yeah, I simply need to affirm that you just’re doing wonderful work.
Sharia: Yeah, I really like that. While you stated portal, that actually spoke to me. And in addition that this can be a enterprise enterprise. So for me, a part of my origin story is—I didn’t go to high school for theatre. Theatre is my outlet. It was like individuals go to the gymnasium. If I may go into that theatre house and see a play or be solid in one thing, that was the best way for me to course of and get by means of life.
So a part of the origin story for me is I did not have an MFA. I haven’t got an MFA. I haven’t got a level in theatre. I carry what I’ve discovered on the stage, what I’ve discovered dwelling in life, what I’ve discovered in company America. I simply carry it. I’ve discovered that if I haven’t got it, it is in me although. I used to be feeling afraid. I used to be feeling fearful. I used to be feeling “this can be a territorial waters that I shouldn’t go in and navigate as a result of I’m not outfitted as a result of I haven’t got what they’ve, I haven’t got the credentials that they’ve and the norms say I ought to have as a way to do that work.” And what divine and innately after which ancestrally was positioned in me was: you bought to transcend that as a result of what you will do, what you could have been created to do, it hasn’t been achieved.
So you possibly can’t credential one thing that hasn’t existed. And that is how innovators, inventors, and foragers work. Do not depend on what an establishment says you must have to offer credibility to the work that you’re doing or going to do. That is been one thing that I’ve shared with individuals, particularly Black indigenous individuals of colour who haven’t had entry to high school or funding.
Once I grew up, going to high school for theatre was a luxurious, and my mother and father have been like, “Oh, no. Sure, we all know that you just’re gifted, however it’s essential to go to high school and get one thing that is going to earn you a dwelling as a result of that theatre and humanities, it is only for enjoyable.” I’ve taken that and used that as a studying alternative and likewise as what I share with different people who, “You realize what…” And what we should always do is that theatre might be, must be, and it’s important. The entire creatives which might be on the market, particularly, not particularly however creatives, human beings, however actually I deal with the BIPOC actors, ought to make a dwelling wage. Your work must be valued, you have to be paid. And a part of our guiding ideas is that Sankofa pays you greater than the opposite theatres. We received loads neighborhood theatres or theatres that do not pay the actors. The creatives do it as a result of they love the artwork, however for even after we do one thing and our actors count on, they’re like, “Oh, what? You are going to pay me to do that?” Completely.
With regards to elevating funds and writing grants and doing appeals, I do not do as a lot work as I’d like to do due to that tenet. So if it means we will solely do two works or three works, and I do not also have a season, I am like, “I am not going to be locked right into a season,” I’m going to maneuver ahead as a result of that is life-changing work. Emergency rooms and hospitals and different locations haven’t got a season of after they deal with individuals, after they make them higher. They’re there so when individuals present up, wounded, harm and have to be resuscitated, they will reply. So that is what we’re doing. It could actually differ non-traditional, however sustaining, giving life-sustaining work to the human beings which might be doing it, but in addition our tradition and our historical past.
Yura: Yeah. Yeah, a lot highly effective choices. I really do need to return to that observe of having the ability to discover when there is a limiting perception coming into our thoughts. So for instance, one thing that perhaps we have heard from, such as you stated, an establishment or our mother and father or our conditioning of how we ended up the place we’re. I really like having the ability to go determine that when that is developing after which go forward and see how can I reply to that with self-compassion? How can I really change the narrative? And once I say I really like to do that, I find it irresistible when it is achieved. It does not all the time imply that it is one thing pleasant within the second as a result of it does not essentially really feel doable, but perhaps.
However yeah, I have been studying extra about the best way stereotypes work and that really while you’re in a spot the place lots of people are holding a particular perception, a stereotype for instance round you, that there is really this impact of taking it on simply from what everybody else is considering. And so you possibly can internalize it. And one of many high issues that you might do in these moments is to note that it is occurring. Discover that you’ve got really began to imagine and discover the methods to essentially separate your self from the truth that different individuals’s ideas are coming into yours and actually discover that grounding in your affirmations, in your understanding of a distinct story.
So whether or not that is having a extremely sturdy, for instance, meditation observe, having methods wherein you are placing up an brisk boundary when needing to be round these areas or discovering out what’s it that you just need to change with these poisonous ideas which might be coming by means of and perhaps poisonous individuals for particularly what you are attempting to do. What are the facility ideas that you just need to change that with? What are the facility individuals that you just need to be surrounding your self with?
So it may be tough particularly when you have not seen different issues. So I do know for me, an enormous essential a part of my journey was really going to Ecuador in Colombia the place I additionally maintain citizenship and simply experiencing the world from a distinct nation, from a distinct expertise, completely different language that I used to be talking. And so that actually allowed me to open my thoughts and physique as much as a distinct approach of being and understanding that there’s really loads that we’d suppose that’s set in stone that’s utterly open and that actually every little thing is feasible.
Sharia: Sure, I so determine with that. One of many experiences and issues that I got here to appreciate is that as a result of I have been so conditioned and likewise my persona is one which I would like peace, I conform, that is a part of who I’m and that is what makes me nice. It makes me an excellent facilitator and collaborator once I’m working in these issues in a power mode coming from a spot of power and consciousness.
In order I used to be going alongside on this path, I wasn’t even conscious of once I was permitting and being a portal for all of these unfavorable ideas and all of these stereotypes. All of these biases have been coming in and I did not understand how I used to be processing it. So a technique that I’ve is to align myself with and encompass myself, virtually create this barrier and defend with individuals who I belief, who I have been in a position to share and develop into very susceptible about my strengths and my weaknesses and my persona’s strengths and issues that might not assist me be my fullest as a result of it is who I’m and it is part of my psyche and likewise my experiences and what I used to be instructed, and so they know all of these items.
So it is virtually like they act as interpreters and I’ve them with me in these areas. They’ve license. I’ve given them license as a result of we’ve a relationship within the belief to say, “Oh, you are working in, you let that in. I noticed how one thing that was stated or achieved triggered you and also you are actually working on this path that isn’t your strongest. Oh, did you hear when that was stated or do you know that you just obtained that into your psyche?” So it is actually essential to encompass your self with individuals who may help since you do not all the time hear it. You do not all the time understand it. And that helps. It is simply working in neighborhood, and that is what I really like.
One of many issues I really like about doing this work, you develop this neighborhood. After which in flip, I’m that for others. It is this continuum of shifting, affirming, defending and simply serving to one another on this circle, start our greatness, start the chances. I really like from For Coloured Ladies, there is a coronary heart in there in one of many monologues. “Let her be born. Let her be born and dealt with warmly.”
Yura: Yeah.
Sharia: We’re doulas. Let me be born after which deal with me as a human being. As a result of human beings, we’re heat blooded. Yeah.
Yura: That is lovely. I preserve seeing this picture of seedlings as a result of I additionally am a farmer, a gardener, and—
Sharia: Like it.
Yura: Yeah, I am simply interested by these seeds, particularly now not less than right here within the northeast the place I am at present calling, there’s this time of sowing the seed and planting the seeds and letting them develop. There’s a lot that we will do to essentially set these seeds up for fulfillment for progress. Whether or not it is the soil, it is the daylight, it is the potting, it is the time with the moon after we plant it, all these items that may go into play that we will actually be intentional about. And so I positively suppose after we are contemplating our management, it is about change. It is about we’re attempting to essentially make a change. And alter might be very tough to do. And so we need to be actually intentional about that and know what’s it we’re saying to completely different individuals at completely different moments? Who’re we letting in?
And so it is this vitality of what are we feeding this dream with. We do not need to simply put the seedling out to anyplace on the street and folks will step on it. So there’s that intentional providing of claiming, “I will be selective about who I am sharing this seed with to assist develop.” And for me, not too long ago, it is actually been a lovely awakening to me of this world of teaching, which I feel it is one thing that has all the time occurred and now it is turning into extra of an trade due to the time of transformation. Once we’re remodeling, it is actually useful to have coaches. It is actually useful to have people who find themselves carrying of our seeds on this approach. I have been skilled and licensed as a coach now.
As a consumer, as somebody receiving teaching, you get to obtain this supportive vitality of somebody who’s one hundred pc believing in your desires as a result of they’ve additionally skilled them and have seen the facility of creating targets occur. That may be such a sport changer. Perhaps you have been surrounding your self by individuals who do not imagine that your particular dream or aim is feasible simply due to their very own conditioning and their very own understanding, and that is really actually what may be holding you again from making it actual since you’re not round anyone who believes that it is actual, who can let you know, “That is the best way that it may well occur,” or “Listed here are some examples,” or “Listed here are some issues you are able to do to maneuver ahead within the route of your aim.”
Sharia: That was among the finest issues I’ve achieved to spend money on my self-care is get a wellness coach. And on this course of, studying the distinction between a counselor and a coach. My coach is my cheerleader saying, “Okay, you personal this. And I am coming and strolling beside you that will help you get to your targets after which additionally course of issues like what may be holding you again or what are you able to do.” It is simply this fixed problem. We simply want that problem of rethink that or think about the presumably. Who’re you and the way do you develop into your fullest self and the way do you deal with your self? How do you breathe? How are you consuming? How are you present in all of this versus dwelling with roles that weren’t shaped for me to be my fullest?
I used to be hesitant at first. I need to do that. It is one other factor I’ve so as to add into my schedule and my finances, but it surely has been among the finest investments and it uplifts me and my enterprise. In order that’s a extremely great point. Thanks for being an authorized coach and serving to individuals develop into their finest, but in addition conscious of the place you’re within the areas that you’re, as a result of once more, we’re multifaceted, we’re intersectional. All of these issues. So many layers of youth.
For me with Sankofa, I am continually processing a necessity to pay attention to who I’m as a person in relation to the establishment of theatre, of arts and all the different establishments on this creative house, my dedication as a person, as Sankofa, as an establishment to my neighborhood. And who’s my neighborhood? My neighborhood is layered. And who do I owe and what do I owe? So it is these fixed conversations that my coach and people which might be in my internal circle are continually having. It is intentional.
Every thing that I do, it is with thought and intention and it helps me alongside this path. All the way down to seeing myself because the guardian of a legacy, I’m creating this. I did not select this path. The trail selected me. I’m very conscious that I’m creating this firm. I am beginning this at hand it off. I’m the primary leg within the relay race and I’ve received the baton. I ran monitor once I was in highschool and I am simply…
Yura: Me too.
Sharia: … digging in. Yeah, I’m the primary leg and I’m digging in. And I’m ensuring that I do the quickest time in order that once I hand that baton off, there’s a lead, and that is what I am doing. I am creating this.
One of many issues in our neighborhood that is occurring, we’ve a whole lot of expertise, but it surely’s not mined. So individuals do not even know they’ve expertise as a result of they do not have alternatives. However after they do, they go away and so they by no means come again. We mine the expertise. So we meet individuals the place they’re. Actually, come as you’re after which we’ll discover a place for you as a result of there’s a place for everyone in Sankofa. We take into consideration this as work on stage otherwise you’re an actor. Or at most we’d say, you are in tech, you do the sunshine. No, I would like everybody who is aware of numbers. Should you like numbers, there’s a spot for you right here. There’s our treasurer, there’s our again workplace, there’s our field. No matter you could have been created to do no matter items and skills you could have, I would like you to return. So that is what we’re doing.
After which I would say, I would like you to go. Wherever it’s, go and get it. Go and be taught it. After which I would like you to return again. That is the facility and the precept of Sankofa. Return and declare and get every little thing that’s a part of you, your story, your historical past. Get it, declare it. Convey it into your current as a way to personal it, you possibly can reckon with it as a way to be taught from it. After which you possibly can transfer ahead with energy and objective.
That is what I am doing on this theatre firm. It isn’t solely the tales that we inform. We discovered a distinct segment the place we’re telling very important and impactful tales in our neighborhood together with we’ve an excellent cannon of labor to drag from, which was one other problem. Individuals say, “There’s not going to be sufficient work. How a lot work is on the market that is going to maintain seasons of this?” Once more, it is coming as you’re, discovering and nurturing who you have been created to be after which leaving and coming again higher than while you ever first encountered me or Sankofa. Declare it.
Yura: Are you able to step into who you have been born to be? As an authorized soul objective or dharma and religious life coach, I’m so able to information you on this highly effective transformation of your life. As a profitable social entrepreneur, social innovator, I’m so excited to assist others alongside this journey, as a result of finally, after we all thrive in our respective communities, our influence actually multiplies exponentially. And it brings me a lot pleasure to assist creators and leaders such as you unleash your unimaginable abilities, abilities, and future of who you are meant to be for our planet on this time.
I get to carry collectively all of my coaching in enterprise and humanities administration, the local weather justice sector, and therapeutic and shamanic vitality work to essentially carry you into alignment.
In my three-month teaching program, as a substitute of considering solely of the worst case situation, we carry within the vitality of the very best case situation. We handle what’s holding you again. What are these poisonous habits, individuals, and ideas which might be actually stopping you from making this future model of your self and of the world that you just’re calling in inconceivable? We’ll handle them, heal them, and alchemize this vitality into one thing that’s helpful for you.
We’ll dive into your soul objective, and that is such an essential and sacred facet of the method to know who you’re, to know extra about your ardour, to know what’s it that you’re meant to be doing proper now. Then we transfer into integration serving to you create a strategic plan and understanding of how this imaginative and prescient will develop into actual within the subsequent weeks to month to years.
I am prepared that will help you unlock these codes and manifest your plentiful success the place you attain all your desires and past. I am so excited for you and the wonderful optimistic influence you are going to be making on this world. You’re such a robust chief and I am so excited to assist you. So go forward and take a look at my teaching providers at liberarteinc.org and you will discover the hyperlink within the present notes as nicely. Discuss to you quickly.
So we talked concerning the pre-seven years, the seven years simply handed. What concerning the seven years coming forth? What are you engaged on in these subsequent seven years? What actually pursuits me is, what are the challenges of the trade which might be irritating you essentially the most after which the work that you just’re doing to beat them?
If we get one particular person in that viewers to see us in a distinct method and perspective…in the event that they rent somebody due to one thing they’ve seen on a Sankofa stage or a part of a Sankofa engagement, we have remodeled an entire life, an entire household.
Sharia: Nice query, as a result of there’s a lot that frustrates me. And if I needed to group it in a class, it is inequity, injustice, a disregard for the sanctity of BIPOC tradition and expertise, the shortage of dedication to and recognition of how important race and tradition contributes to in growing, setting up the issues that we do within the theatre house. The exhibits that we carry out, it simply irritating this notion that theatre corporations, primarily white theatre corporations, cannot get round by way of illustration, considering that colorblind casting is appropriate. That is the work that they must do. No, there may be trauma there. If you will carry individuals of colour into your areas, you simply cannot insert a human being who doesn’t have the identical expertise and has come from such a traumatic and violent and inequitable historical past background.
It is in our DNA. And it is not for that human being to alter. It is for you and your establishments to alter even the way you direct and the way you method the work that you just do, the way you market your work, the way you deal with communities of colour that come to your present, the way you greet us within the foyer areas, what you suppose. You have to be in contact with your personal biases and simply opening your doorways and saying, “We’ll low cost tickets as a result of we would like all communities to return.” Issues like that, I am like, “What makes you suppose we will not afford the tickets? Why do you suppose it is the ticket value that stops Black of us from coming from in our neighborhood?” Simply continually having to problem the present established order within the theatres. It is irritating. However it’s additionally, I perceive it is the work that I’ve taken on and it is what I’ve created to do.
We simply preserve having the conversations and name it out. And in addition do it in a approach the place I’ve discovered and I do know the individuals I am working with as a result of I need to get outcomes. It is much less about how combative or confrontational I used to be and extra about “I have to get the outcomes.” I have to get the outcomes. Not my persona to be combative. It is extra, once more, collaborative, additionally being truthful in that and understanding when it is not going to work and when to stop. That is one other a part of this.
So some issues I simply must say, “I am not going to proceed doing this work with this entity as a result of there was no change and no want to alter.” That is soul work that we’re doing. We’re saving lives. As a result of if we get one particular person in that viewers to see us in a distinct method and perspective, that one particular person, in the event that they rent somebody due to one thing they’ve seen on a Sankofa stage or a part of a Sankofa engagement, we have remodeled an entire life, an entire household. If they’re within the room with decision-makers and funders and all of these individuals there, if I’ve one one who’s in authority that does not pull over somebody as a result of they have been profiling them, however now they perceive the story and the reality, we have saved the life. That is soul work. That is what we’re doing.
Yura: Yeah, I am very concerned with that work with my group, LiberArte, as a result of we discuss doing racial, social, and local weather justice by means of the humanities. And our imaginative and prescient is that this thriving planet the place all beings expertise pleasure and concord with one another and Mom Earth. And for me, actually, the core drawback that I am experiencing for the world is that this disconnection. So we have skilled a disconnection to ourselves, to one another, and to the earth. We take a look at all the world’s issues. If we have been really genuinely linked in proper relation on this feeling of concord with one another and pleasure, we would not have a majority of these clashes and misunderstandings and violence, all these items which might be occurring each with people and with the earth and to ourselves too, as a result of finally while you take a look at what it means to hate another person, it is actually a mirrored image of what one hates inside themselves.
So for me, that is actually the place the humanities can unlock a key. And I feel it is one thing that we as people knew, however now in these later 1000’s of years, it appears that evidently we have misplaced that connection to the facility of what it means to be in neighborhood and gathering in areas the place we will actually see one another and be with the earth.
And so I am positively very interested by what you are speaking about by way of the methods wherein we will actually measure our influence and our outcomes, as a result of there are methods that individuals have created to measure sustainability requirements in having the ability to say, “These sure practices will ultimately assist you to cease issues like flooding or oil spills.” And so there is a approach that then it additionally interprets to this understanding of it will have an effect on your corporation, the cash that is made. One of these saying, these are the ways in which the humanities is affecting actual time change by way of how persons are in a position to, after an expertise of seeing one another, connecting with one another, connecting with themselves, connecting with the earth, which is why I like to do out of doors occasions as nicely, that we really see shifts occurring for our neighborhood on the earth by way of shifts of views, shifts of monitoring, of various cases of clashes, of violence, of encounters with the police and such a disharmonious conditions.
I feel the opposite factor that we’re overlooking is the facility of pleasure, the facility of awe, the facility of gratitude and laughter. I feel individuals find out about it in several methods. There are perhaps disparate research on the market round how humor breaks rigidity. And while you begin off a gathering with gratitude, it simply brings in an entire different vitality. And so there’s positively ways in which we will begin to actually make this bigger case for assist round how the humanities, the gateway that we’ve not tried, that the politicians aren’t actually specializing in in terms of issues like local weather change or racial justice.
It is virtually like typically I really feel it is a form of add-on. Or we’ve an occasion the place we’re speaking about local weather justice or we’re speaking about racial justice, after which there’s additionally a efficiency occurring, or there’s additionally an occasion that everybody goes to and it is an add-on, however we’re not really seeing how… And you may even expertise it although, perhaps you are at this occasion and so they have conversations after which a efficiency occurs. After which there’s conversations once more. The second time the conversations are literally extra dynamic and persons are extra open and persons are actually connecting. And I feel there’s a chance there to essentially say, “Why did that occur?” This is the reason it occurred. What if we preserve investing on this? What if we preserve uplifting the significance of the humanities and everybody that is part of it, that are the artists and the artwork producers and the creators and everybody that is part of making that occur. Yeah, that is one thing that I am positively very enthusiastic about, and what I am wanting in the direction of is an enormous answer for it.
Sharia: Yeah. I feel you’re proper on. Final 12 months, Sankofa, myself, we have been a part of a collaborative with journalists who have been doing analysis and research round local weather justice, local weather options. And so we had this cohort of journalists. It was actually a journalistic mission. However our cohort, they purchased in me. And okay, and I’m considering, I really like the conversations. I do know there’s work for us to do across the local weather, and we have been all attempting to determine what was Sankofa’s on this, and I stated, “I’m right here to be taught. I’m additionally right here that will help you as journalists attain a neighborhood that you just in any other case wouldn’t be capable to attain and usually are not concerned with. However on this neighborhood, brown and Black of us are extremely impacted by this.” What ended up occurring, it was a two-year mission, however I took the tales that they researched and so they wrote and so they printed and created theatrical piece, bringing all these tales collectively, but in addition our neighborhood. Giving {that a} life and an viewers who wouldn’t learn these items or felt that this impacted them.
We placed on this manufacturing for a weekend. It was very nicely obtained. However what was actually essential about that’s persevering with the dialog. So Sankofa, we’ve a talkback or a post-show dialogue with each efficiency. Once I take a look at the matrix, so I’m all the time interested by what are the efficiency or the important thing indicators of success that we’re making inroads, that we’re making a distinction? And I haven’t provide you with something besides speaking to individuals, but in addition having the ability to discuss to the identical individuals.
So over seven years, I’ve been in a position to interact with many individuals, the identical individuals over and discuss to them time and again. So mainly you find yourself having kind of a listening session And people individuals, they’re telling you, they’re displaying you the change, the outcomes. They preserve coming again, and now they’ve extra questions. They usually’re linking the primary time they got here into the house and engaged with Sankofa to now they’re right here and so they’re sharing, “Oh, that is the way it’s impacted me. A 12 months in the past, two years in the past, 5 years in the past, that is the place I used to be, and that is what I noticed on stage. That is what I skilled coming into the house that Sankofa was inhabiting, and that is the place I’m now.”
These are human story, metrics. And in addition if we need to do an evaluation and a few analytics on it, I’m wanting on the people who preserve coming again and so they’re leaving with actionable gadgets. So I’m like, “That is my name to motion for this manufacturing. Now you come again and also you inform me what you’ve achieved.” That’s how I’ve been in a position to gauge the metrics that I’m utilizing, as a result of numbers don’t inform the complete story. Individuals inform the complete story.
Yura: Wow. Yeah. I’ve this imaginative and prescient of the assist that we may obtain. The entire Constructing Our Personal Tables podcast visitors, all these unimaginable theatre leaders who’ve began these wonderful organizations which might be centering completely different individuals of colour throughout the US, the world over typically, and I simply see that this can be a coalition that’s being constructed by means of this podcast house as a result of I feel there’s one thing there round actually all of our collective knowledge, qualitative and quantitative, and simply actually having the ability to say, “That is the influence that we have been in a position to have and that we’re persevering with to have.” I see the chance of having the ability to come collectively in that kind of approach and go forward and current one thing collectively and saying, “That is what we have achieved and that is what we will do in the event you preserve funding, in the event you preserve supporting what we’re doing.”
Sharia: It is an funding. It truly is. Going again to frustrations, “Why does our work, why is it not seen as an funding with a excessive return on that funding?” And different work, different corporations are funded and it is okay if they do not break even. It is okay. However our work isn’t funded. We clearly are having influence, optimistic influence on our neighborhood and on the human psyche and the human being facets of it, how we qualify and quantitate that. It is simply, I would love the thought of all of us coming collectively and right here is the compelling story and the statistics. Our work issues, and we’re doing it towards unimaginable odds. What we’ve to work with, I take a look at even the price of our productions and the way we do issues. After which I see different budgets and what they mission to do the identical factor, and I am like, “Man, we’re resourceful and resilient individuals,” however that isn’t sufficient and it is not equitable to count on us to proceed to function with this.
However the greatness is we do, additionally, our fashions and our work are being copied. Those who copy, and okay, sure, that is an excellent praise, however they don’t seem to be in a position to obtain the identical outcomes. So they arrive again and so they’re like, “Hey, what makes this completely different?” I am like, “What we do, it is for us to do. Now you’ll have extra influence in the event you be part of with me to do that and never create or take. Have not you discovered that we’re good and that we’re sturdy and also you’re already dwelling off of our work?” In order that’s an entire different path to go down, however these are the issues which might be irritating. And the reply, the response to that’s, “Present me. Present me the numbers. Present me your outcomes.” Once we attempt to get funding, these are the challenges. So carry us all collectively as a collective. Hold shifting forward and lifting one another up on this work that we’re doing. We’re guardians of the legacy.
Yura: On that observe, wow, what an unimaginable dialog. This was such an honor. Time flew by.
Sharia: Sure.
Yura: So how can we get in contact with Sankofa African American Theatre Firm? What do you could have on subsequent?
Sharia: I’d love for individuals to go to sankofatheatrehbg.com, and join our e-newsletter and take a look at the work we have achieved. You’ll be able to comply with us at Sankofa Theatre on Fb, on the Gram. Should you’re listening and you’re within the Harrisburg or Maryland, New Jersey, New York, DC space, we’ve our subsequent manufacturing, Intimate Attire by Lynn Nottage. It is a new partnership that I’ve with one of many main theatres. We’ll be collaborating to do that work. I’m so excited. It opens June the 14th. It’ll run by means of the tip of the month. We’re forging new paths, actually doing issues in our theatre neighborhood round respecting the person, utilizing assets like licensed intimacy administrators, bringing in and respecting traditions, meditation, and bringing all of these issues into the house and making our our bodies, our souls, and the work that we do as an providing to our neighborhood. So I am enthusiastic about that.
Yura: Superb, wonderful work. Thanks a lot, Sharia.
Sharia: Thanks.
Yura: Thanks for being on this podcast. It has been such a pleasure.
Sharia: Oh, thanks a lot for all of the work that you just’re doing. It issues and it is reaching. I’ve discovered a lot from all the creators who’ve come to the desk, so thanks in your work.
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