Fire That Canon II! (w/Rebecca Blackwell)

[Music] [Music] hello scorekeepers it's time for another episode of the score number 11 welcome welcome welcome this is Minnesota Opera's podcast about classical music Opera pop culture all of the wonderful things in the zeit that are affecting people of color queer f folks disabled folks and this is a very special episode a very exciting episode why because for the first time we are in the same room we're sitting around the same table we're all together it's so exciting it's so crazy this is also my first day in the office oh my gosh yeah 10 months into the job this is my first day in the office so how's it going so far so good the team has been in rare form today and it has been a very very good thing so I'm super happy to be here to be wearing shoes while I talk to people I don't know I mean I guess I'm not like super excited not to being wearing sweatpants or gym shorts but you know I actually think about my outfits now and it's so weird not just my top like there's so much more laundry in my house like after last week just in the past week yeah yeah and I was like oh I actually have to wear this again like soon so I should wash it oh like like it's a whole thing to the whole thing yeah and I have a very angry cat yeah that's going to be a thing right oh my God she's so mad like last last night I got home and so she likes to sit on our little screen in porch and when I used to come home from work in the before times like Dennis would have to be in the kitchen around the time I would come home because like she would see me and she would immediately try to run outside and invariably like I would have something in my hands like you know groceries or something and like I'd have to drop the groceries all over the place and like go run after her and so he like he knows like around the time that I come home he's in the kitchen so he can catch her yeah and so yesterday we I I get home she's in the window like usual and he's not paying attention because he's not used to like no we have to go back to 2019 like 2019 rules are back in our fact and so I there been in like an Amazon package and so I'm trying to like keep her inside with the Amazon package while open opening the door and then he like finally noticed that like I'm like struggling struggling like engaged in Mortal Kombat with the cat and he comes over and just like quickly grabs her and puts her inside oh no oh no she she did not like that de at all and she went downstairs into the basement and started screaming and screaming lit screaming to the point that I was like went downstairs and was like honey are you okay and then she peed on a chair that's how just like startled and upset she was and it's just like I know I know I felt I feel like the worst dad in the world but poor went out for your pets y'all it's okay my my dog did a similar thing I got home from work and I wasn't paying attention to her soon enough I guess so so she walked away like fine and peed on my b on my bedroom floor oh wow this yeah in my room I was like oh this was personal yeah what is this urinary Warfare like what is this from now I'm nervous to go home but you know you're so close I I am we did the this morning it took a whole I think two minutes yeah so I could s by although last week we were in Virginia my sister got married and for those of you paying attention on the podcast this is a different sister who got married the last time I said this and if you're still paying attention in November it'll be an even different sister who gets married then that will be my sister-in-law this just been a a year a year of weddings very expensive but when we get back um Professor mogal our cat was livid like she we hadn't gone anywhere year especially not both of us and we were gone for 5 days and when we came back she was not talking to us you know and she actually had her back to us she was like standing in front of the window like back turned I was like oh this this is new I guess I'd be mad if everybody in my house went on vacation and left me there I mean I guess but like she's like since clearly we not family I'm just going to ignore you like we just live together we don't associate we're not friends we're not friendly yeah the last time we went on a a trip we had one of our neighbors come in and like just you know feed her and look after her pet her play with her whatever and like the first two days she was just like um yeah she just seems really depressed and like sent us a picture and she's just like on her pillow by the window just like played out like like some Shakespearean like hair like ailia just like dropped into the river just like girl get yourself together you are a cat it's fine oh animals I think it's only until they realize now that we're really back at work they have the houses to themselves again you know I'm sure my cat is going to be on the counters and doing all the other things she's not allowed to do when people are home so that's it and you would think that they'd be excited about that they probably are and are just playing us right they they know how our emotions work they're like oh let me get something extra out of this by being melodramatic yes cats are like husbands so it's not un I pull that one myself a couple of times well so we are back back from our vacation did either of you do anything exciting with your lovely week off um other than the wedding which was super exciting um it was great to see people uh my sisters are identical twins which is part of why they got married so close together the other part of the reason is of course Co the threw off the wedding schedule but it was good to see family you know and is actually good to like leave get on a plane pretend like we were going somewhere exciting it was just in re County Virginia not exciting but it was good to be in a place but the thing that was so nice is when my other sister got married in March it was masks no Huggies you know kind of bumping elbows with like your great aunt like stuff that doesn't even feel natural and this time everybody was vaccinated so and they got married at a winery which is completely my Ministry so like it was fastic and you know cuz my sisters are twins it was the same guest list more or us right the same you know sority sisters AKA skiwi who were in both weddings so like it was it was just nice almost like a doover so to speak in terms of being able to interact with people so yeah it was that was my um my week and also I want to say really quickly last week when we were on vacation sorry last week I was on vacation two weeks ago when we all were on vacation I discovered legendary on HBO oh yeah not seen it I haven't seen it everybody's got to watch it it's it's like my new favorite thing I'm so obsessed I've been duck walking around the house for those of you who don't know what it is it is a ball competition show it is fantastic it's so affirming it feels so good you see so many beautiful talented people and I want everybody to watch it yeah my friend Molina my dear dear friend shout out Molina um she has been saying for months because it's on season two and she's like yeah since episode one season one she's like y'all need to watch this show but I don't know I'm just like another streaming service that seems like a lot but yeah that's the thing yeah it is that's how they get you right have one show on it you really want to see and next thing you know is $8 out of your check hello Paramount plus yes all because of all Star All Stars I'm just like wait so what's the difference between this and cable again I thought I was trying to reduce my cost so instead of one cable package I have seven subscriptions okay exactly right and right back up to paying 60 bucks a month or something so and we have a cable package and all of these streaming services so it it doubly doesn't make sense it super doesn't make sense especially now with like so many of these channels like they're putting all of their content on this training service so like now it's just like guy fierti and Chip and Joanna 247 on the actual like cable that you pay for y guy is literally on every show like every every single show I mean shout out to him I mean he's got his kids on there too I mean they figured something out they figured it out in the bag well then there's also like the aspect of like more Arts organ a or like art specific streaming services too or the more like Niche like film like independent or like vintage films and so between all of that I just I just don't know what to do because now I'm like okay wait I'm a theater person I'm a music person I like all of those I feel like I feel obligated to subscribe to something like that like I should right so I mean it's great that everything's available online and like including Performing Arts now but it' be nice if there was some sort of bundle option or something cuz it would be now because these people are taking all my little money I mean not even just like financially just like my time for a [Laughter] simplification like come on now well there's so many things going on in the world um it seems as though I I know that I am taking my ashwagandha twice a day to keep my anxiety at Bay um cuz everything's on fire and or flooded and or flooded Delta variant is flaring up all over the place and did y'all hear about the new one is out Lambda yes [Music] yes the fraternity theity going to come get us yeah it's just yeah Alpha Delta Lambda they're coming to collect our souls um which is just too much too much yeah and of course you know all of this critical race Theory business good yeah it it's so depressing how how easy it is to weaponize things in this country right there like whole Concepts like you know I I feel like I was just starting to make my pieace with how people were using climate change like as a political wedge and then like this critical race Theory came up and having been a FM major twice in two different points in my education like it's really alarming that people are literally using a theoretical framework as being like this this point point to to talk about you know a victimization of of whiteness that's actually not happening and it's just very very curious because you watch people I started watching speaking of streaming services the black News Channel just because mainly because I like the name and Mark Lamont Hill has a a show on it and I sort of miss hearing academics argue with each other about nonsense and he's been doing like a thing sort of every night where he's arguing with you know people about critical race Theory and the kinds of things that people are ascribing to critical race theory that have nothing to do with it it's it's kind of astounding and uncomfortable that people who don't know and don't care aren't willing are are actually willing to like go on television and talk about something they know that they don't know what they're talking about he had this young brother on a young black man I think 18 who was like a died in the wool Republican um major Trump supporter and I I wish that y'all had been in my living room about two weeks ago when I was watching it because I needed somebody to help me get back together because he was just going in about it and there was one point where Dr Hill said can you name one critical race Theory text just one since you're so against it and he you know would pivot every time and and you know Mark was like hey you're young it's okay to say I I don't know any and I just don't like this thing he was like I'm not going to say say that but he was still willing to argue against it and I was like where you need to be is in somebody's class somewhere learning something and not arguing against things that you haven't read yet like the the whole thing it's just it's profoundly upsetting and it's one of the few times I actually have missed being on a college campus Because this would be a great semester to be teaching African-American history again and disabusing people of all of the confusion about what is really a very important tool for understanding American history and one day when I want to bore you like really intensely I will go into a lot of detail about why I think it's important that we make more space for these theories for intersectionality for any number of other things that are really designed to help us understand our own positions in society better like that's really all it is so I mean you wouldn't be boring me not at all not me because I mean I just find it fascinating like you know as we mentioned with the wildfires raging all over the place with Europe under 10t of water with oh my goodness you know vaccinate or unvaccinated folks like flooding icus and hospitals and numbers we haven't seen in months that we all thought we had gotten past just imagine being an elected official and thinking that like Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech being taught at to element students is like the biggest existential threat that we as a as a society face like what like I just don't even understand like what were you even doing yeah no I think that's a I think that's a very good question what are we doing right now right like like how is this risen to be all the problems we have like how is this the hill on which to die like that's the piece that I'm really lost I I really am lost on it I don't know if it's that we get distracted by the little things that do not matter and and maybe that's intentional that we get distracted and also because these little things feel like a little bit maybe easier to grasp than something like climate change or world hunger or mother nature trying to expel Us by warming or any yeah yeah no that's a great Point yeah or just the idea that like you know I just you know that white supremacy will kill us all to Su I mean I don't know how else to really put it or just that like instead of just being asked to just like recognize that there is a through line between the atrocities that were committed upon black and brown bodies you know hundreds of years ago and there's a a direct through line to the injustices that are being um you know put upon us today um could can you just like recognize that and maybe like do something about it no I'm GNA put on this American flag shirt and go down to the school board meeting and scream about something I don't understand for an hour like it just it I it boggles my mind but and meanwhile who's just launching himself into space girl and that penis shaped rocket on top of it I cannot when they were saying that it looked phic I was like oh so it's kind of no he went up to space in a Hitachi Magic W like what no and then turn around gave van Jones $100 million to distract us from that fact I'm going to keep my most recent opinions about van Jones to myself because I'm still trying to get Chris Cuomo to invite me on his show but I will say this I am not pleased there are lots of things to do with the hundred million what we could do with them at Minnesota Opera's impact Department do you know what we could do with $100 million it would be the best kids operas anybody's ever seen anywhere ever but it it kind of goes to me to like the broader point about distractions right and how people just sort of bring up things to sort of distract from any number of other things that they're doing right and all of a sudden one person's Good Deeds are supposed to erase any number of other things that are happening in a given moment and I think that's a a thing that I'm glad people are pushing back on well enough enough Amazon C things that are making my head explode because we have some good news in in the Opera classical music world concerning folks of color very very excited you know first and foremost um you know here at Minnesota Opera um our chief artistic officer pry Gandhi who we love um was just recently announced as the new artistic director at Portland Opera and yay amazing woman of color artistic director at a major opera house here in the US OFA and we could not be more proud of her and so excited for her for her new Endeavor absolutely yeah and she's just been such a just a delight to work with you so I'm so I think we'll all miss her terribly very much but this is so happy absolutely this the point of the exercise of of positions like ours right to sort of create space for things like this to happen more frequently hopefully regularly I'm super excited I love Portland Opera have had a chance to see a few things there and it's a fantastic company and she will be a huge asset to them and I think this will be a wonderful experience for her as well we're so excited for yes I'm so excited to see a woman of color at the at the helm of a company someone who is just compassionate and has done so much already I mean here I can I mean across her career in general but I can speak for here and the changes that we've seen with with casting with just the intentional like inclusive ity of uh the artistic department and that just radiating and people noticing it in our community and we're we're to miss you pre we're so excited so excited and I just I hope she's really proud of of what she's accomplished here because she you know we we would not have been able to come as far in our work um without her at the Helm of the artistic department so for sure shouts shouts out to to pretty a toast a toast I don't have anything to toast with ooh with my can of spark next time we should bring like champagne or something we should have brought champagne we should have can we add a sound effect here popping bottles bottles and then there's also Corey dust am I saying that right I think so dust door maybe dust yeah um who recently uh been appointed the new general director and CEO I believe at Houston grand opera which is grand opera Houston Grand another favorite company of mine and I recently met beautiful and she's absolutely lovely there's a mentoring program through Opera America um actually prey is also participating in it and I had a really lovely conversation with Corey the the day the news came out and she was so excitement so excited and that excitement was absolutely contagious and I am so excited that there is yet another woman of color leading a company in Texas which is kind of amazing that now there are at least two of them and also adding prey news that this is a feels like a bit of a watershed moment for the field so absolutely yeah that's that's huge like a across Performing Arts in in in general like we were having similar conversations with just like theater and when I was working at Regional Theaters about you know diversifying and staff but just how much progress still needed to be made in leadership and so to see it happening in like both spheres or all spheres I feel like all over you know the art World it happening so yeah I mean in in such what feels like I mean it feels like you know in my body like a very long time but I I recognize that it's like a a relatively very short period of time Absol for all of this progress to be made I mean I remember when I first started here at Minnesota Opera I was one of three full-time people of color and the only black person um on stuff and just you know now we've got both of you we've got leeu on leadership with prey we've got like so many people of color now so many more people of color and staff positions on our stages like going out there into the community like and the work that we are actually putting on our stages is actually reflective of that and it's just like it's just so exciting and speaking of work that is being put on stage over in the UK um FEI I don't know if I'm going to get this right I'm so sorry if I butcher this FEI elu fuu Jr did that sound right the Jinger definitely did sorry El fuou Fe uju Jr is set to make his debut as the first black Opera director at a major UK house isn't I mean first of all that this is the first and it's 2020 is a little surprising however yay so he will be uh directing uh Rigoletto at Opera North uh so exciting so I mean we're just we're just doing it yeah given how many black people I know to be in the UK like yeah yeah yeah well congrats to you yes breaking those barriers absolutely yes and hopefully not at all the last one oh yeah absolutely many many more and there soon there will be many many more because like as we continue to push forward as we continue to you know do more Productions like Anonymous lover that's coming up here at Minnesota Opera wait black directed Carmen which is super exciting and as all of these you know incredible things are coming to fruition then like more people are going to see them and then like more you know young people are going to be like oh wow that's a thing that I can do cool exactly exactly and then they're going to go do it cuz now that door is open yeah yeah that's what happened for me so I hope to see it happen for many many many more black and brown children absolutely in my life absolutely however long any of us has given what Mother Nature is doing oh Lord no any more [Music] all right well let's all take a breather and we will be back with our very special guest our friend and colleague the amazing Rebecca Blackwell yay we'll be right back [Music] and we're back I've always wanted to say that you said it many times it's an ongoing desire for me okay um so today we have as a guest our colleague Rebecca Blackwell yay welcome welcome Rebecca thank you all for being here all of you this is awesome it's like a really really fun staff meeting so Rebecca is going to share with us quite a bit about the programs that she's running on behalf of the company and I will say just a couple of things about how we arrived at this point when the impact Department was created it was with the idea that the education programs that we have should really be conversent with the basic values of inclusion diversity equity and access and then charging us to think about what that looks like in a classical music context and Rebecca has been an invaluable thought partner in terms of reframing what these programs are and how they could be and bringing to them a real facility with social emotional learning and just the experiences of being a a young person with the desire to learn and perform music and we are really really grateful for Rebecca's partnership on these things so I would love to turn it over to her and have her share some of the things she's been working on and why they are important to the field sure yeah thank you and if uh while I'm describing these programs if you have any questions or comments to add in please feel free um no you don't have to tell us amazing um it's it's been an honor to join the three of you um and some of our other education folks to create this larger impact department and uh for me personally and professionally but personally having my values my philosophies my pedagogy feel more in alignment uh with my work is it's really rewarding uh and I think sometimes in in certain situations you can find yourself working in a way that doesn't align with you your personal values and that's a day-to-day struggle so it's so lovely to come to work and feel so energized and rewarded um in the direction we're going uh so I had previously been in charge of running a lot of the youth programs so whether that's our library programs for kind of two to seven years old or our after school music program music out loud which is geared more toward middle school and I've helped out with some of the high school and college programs as well um and through this redesign of the department uh I and because of Co you know things like yeah things were naturally on pause a lot of our programming is really Hands-On it happens in large spaces with lots of people so there were things that we could put in the virtual realm and there were a lot of things we could could not so things were on pause Co some restructuring within the company uh it was a great time to go back to the drawing board with some of our programming and say what are we really trying to accomplish here and I think for Education departments at Arts organizations maybe some people would say oh this is this is a department that's serving the company by going out going out into the community and introducing people to Opera and think that that's an important thing so I think you can look at it there and say how are we introducing Opera to people in the community but then more importantly how are people receiving our programming and and that's where I would like to spend more of my time I have been spending more of my time what is this programming for you not for us so one of our programs that we're in the midst of kind of rethinking right now is is our library program stories sing and in the past what that has looked like is a teaching artist usually a singer but they you know have experience with teaching um as well would go into a library with a children's book usually the children's book was actually about Opera uh they would read and and insert singing into the story for young children and their caregivers uh and then there would be some kind of crafter activity so that's kind of a general structure uh there's nothing inherently wrong with that I think it's great to be in library setting it sounds fun to me yeah it's really fun um so I think you know that's it's a great structure of a program and we wanted to keep that and being in libraries is really exciting because you're not necessarily getting people who are looking for a musical experience so you're catching people who are looking for programming for their young children and we have the opportunity to say here's here's what we do what do you think about that you want to be involved in that uh but the problem for me was in some of the stories we were looking at for the programming and as you might imagine some of the children's books about Opera are somewhat problematic and they imagine yeah yeah right uh and and actually convey stereotypes I don't think any of us in the field want to to perpetuate like the the woman in horns that's such a specific kind of Opera that people already have in their heads and that's a that's a stereotype that keeps people saying I don't know if that's for me that's this weird thing over here yeah I don't know if I'll be seeking that out so what is this white white nonsense yeah right like Vikings I don't know about this yeah so uh I think uh the stories themselves are important like what what are we sharing with with the the participants and their caregivers to have them say yeah that's for me that's something that I see myself in that's something that feels special to me it speaks to me uh and I think a lot of those books weren't doing that uh and there were also some racial and some gender problems and some of those books I know I know so you're in America in 2021 yes oh my God yeah and and not written that that long ago either so we were we were kind of thinking how do we how do we put forth content in this program structure that's great but that the content itself is working better for us for them so I talked with Lee I talked with the team uh what if we commission a piece so we are actually from the creation of the content saying here are values um here's what we want the story to be about let's create it ourselves we're not um reliant on what's already published out there what's problematic we're just creating it because we know what our values are and that's what we want to put out there and then more spe yeah I'm really excited about it yeah and and more specifically what does a child in a Min Minneapolis St Paul Library what's going to grab their attention what's going to feel special what's going to feel representative so we uh have a wonderful creative team working on this project it's going to be an 8 to 10 minute musical story very similar to the Miniatures initiatives um I know that have been discussed and hopefully all all of you listening have checked out you can continue to watch those uh so a musical story that's filmed reflective of the different communities here in the Twin Cities the Wonder wonderfully diverse culture and music and art that we see right in the story itself uh so it will be a song Story uh instruments as well and then we're incorporating Shadow puppetry as well my gosh yes I know Lee is a fan of puppetry I am a human Muppet in yeah so all of these ideas coming together creating a piece uh and we were able to hire uh four of the artists who worked in the first round of our Miniatures project last year um Andrew Young Juan Vu uh asako kibayashi and Rebecca Nicholson so we were thrilled to be able to uh reconnect with these artists and have them work with our education team and in the process of uh reaching out to them and learning more we found out all of them have some kind of educational background uh so whether it was uh teaching Artistry or um Rebecca Nicholson had had worked with Sesame Street so there there were all of these connections okay you have a connect I told you I was a mother you can live out your dream yes go live go live in Big Bird n yes so lots of lots of exciting experience and perspective there on that team uh very they were all four very interested and kind of diving in and Lee and I had hoped proposed to them that the story could be including themes about diversity in action uh cultures racial diversity within the Twin Cities um sharing identity in community without kind of losing yourself like how does that work like here's here is my identity and yet we're all together I don't need to um I don't know I don't need to lose myself in the process of connecting to the people around me and I would think especially like in the last year you know what the kids in this community have seen and heard absolutely you know to be able to just feel seen and heard um it's just so important listen to be so important and so no it is but it is but it is you know yeah and and this kind of racial conversation has to start much earlier the the kids themselves are already experiencing and that's what people don't get they're already feeling this and seeing it and hearing it and learning these lessons exactly so for them even at such a young age to experience art that is diving into that conversation that probably actually makes them feel much more settled you know because they're experiencing all of the tension that adult are but adults aren't letting them discuss because the adults the adults are insecure they're uncomfortable um and projecting that on the kids like oh you know but we need to allow kids to talk about this um and understand this and grapple with this and it is it is developmentally appropriate for them to be thinking and talking about these things absolutely so this reminds me of when I was um at Children's Theater and at the time I was a teaching artist in actually a dual language Spanish class and we had like a similar kind of in school like thing using a story and then we all acted out or they put their own spin on it um but we did a story about that was based on Somali kids living in the Twin Cities and these students were so curious and just so Enga probably the most engaged I had seen them with any story because they had seen and experienced it like obviously living with the Somali like Community all around them their classmates their friends and islamophobia too so like the issues the the hate side of it so I'm so excited to hear about this because like it's better when we treat them like the little humans they are and they need explanations they want to know why so yeah absolutely and uh just a little a little bit about the lbr uh this is still in is still in the creation cretive project yes yes Rebecca Nicholson is the lus for this project and and she's wonderful to work with and just beautifully creative I love the way she thinks and approaches her art making um so there there is a community garden and there are uh kids of different ethnic backgrounds who are coming together I think at this point a Somali uh kid a m kid and maybe I think she afro Latina okay yeah afro Latina yes yes so uh they're bringing their their different flowers representative of their homelands to this garden and and sharing them and talking about them uh so it is such a beautiful representation of the different uh very large ethnic communities within the Twin Cities I love that um and then how we all come together again not losing yourself and your story and your family and your culture story but bringing that together to understand one another better um and and what comes out of that I love the imagery of a garden of a growing flower um that that our differing identities don't separate and divide us but when really when we really open to one another and we share that something beautiful is Created from that how we approach it it it's not necessarily division you know it can be something beautiful but only if we sort of indoctrinate young people to that belief early absolutely yeah MH so let me ask you when can we expect to see all of this beautiful puppet yes so as of now the release date for that video is February 2022 MH although I think we're hoping to capture some of the behind the scenes of The Creation to release a little bit earlier sounds like a wonderful birthday present for me yes happy birthday we'll give you a little uh a birthday puppet to go so yeah it will it will be posted on our website for everyone to see just like the Miniatures videos and then it will also be taken out into the community into libraries where the participants will get to engage in the music making in the puppetry um to touch and explore the performance with a te with a teaching artist actually uh performing with the video as a compliment so there will be the kind of version that's online that's a full performance and one where the teaching artist sings live with the students and to kind of yeah it's really exciting and and that that particular component having been a teacher who live through Co I will I will never approach program planning curriculum planning without thinking of this hybrid what happens if we need to go back online what happens how do you design your program from from the onset to be uh versatile in both the inperson and virtual space so it's exciting to think about it really is yeah yeah I wonder if you could talk a little bit about like your background and like and what let you he and especially being interested in in arts education music education and and the equity side of it what you're doing now yeah uh so I grew up in Kentucky uh I'm I'm a long way from home I know I will right next door to the Two of Us Virginia I know our our trajectory parallel yeah um I did grow up in Louisville so a fairly large city but I think moving from Kentucky to New York I found out quickly that accents Southern Accents uh it's like two two groups either the people who uh are somewhat condescending patronizing think it's Charming yeah or there are the other people who just dismiss you perceive you as undereducated so I quickly could have worked that out I don't think it was super it wasn't super conscious at first but I was sensing people's reaction um and I do think now it's fairly gone I'm starting to get some Minnesota O's though when my Kentucky family hears me speak they're like what I I do I do it too sometimes not not the not the O but the but the the a like bag bag yeah you get way am I listening to my future abely it sneak it yeah so yes I um yep grew up in Kentucky I went to a performing arts high school which was a very formative experience wonderful um spent one summer interlockin which was another okay yeah wonderful experience that opened me up to to the Arts the industry and then a lot of people um peers and teachers across the United States who are doing this and I decided this is what I want to do so uh I pursued a an undergraduate degree in I it ended up being vocal performance but I at various points I was music education doubled with vocal performance then I went just music education then I back to doubling then to vocal performance so I always had this education component um but I was pretty sure I didn't want to teach in a classroom and most music education programs or to teach you how to teach in a classroom so I uh backed out of that uh to to focus on vocal performance because I wanted to dive into the art I I was very interested in the art making process and didn't want to be in a classroom but along the way uh I did have some great experiences working in the education and music education field I started as a tutor at a tutoring center in New York for a uh Tutoring company private Tutoring company won't name the name because but you know this kind of thing very very like corporate franchised but it was a job I was a tutor and I loved working with the students and I was working I was working English math science so not necessarily music but I'm I'm passionate about all forms of learning and I loved it uh and my boss was opening a franchise location in the East Village and he asked me to manage the center so at a very young age I went from tutor part-time tutor to almost full-time manager while I was in undergrad and I think that's where I really started to explore curriculum and program development I started getting very interested in pedagogy um and at the same time at NYU I was taking a a course in the sociology Department about the history of education in the United States so there was a lot and tutoring managing this private franchise Tut you so for a bunch of East Village kits so that's there was a lot that I was seeing that maybe I didn't see in Kentucky I can around yeah a lot of learning a lot of shaking up of my EXP experience and my perspective that was much needed um and even though I was teaching in this kind of corporate franchise you know there were workbooks that you assigned in very sequenced very methodological ways um I was creating my own kind of ancillary programming and I'm bringing bringing kids in and practicing Arts integration in those subject areas because that's what I love and I think the Arts should be everywhere all the time so that's also where I got very interested in arts integration so kind of sped up I uh decided to pursue a masters in vocal performance still a little unsure of where I wanted to go but so drawn to vocal music and and wanting to continue exploring that uh so I came to the University of Minnesota here in Minneapolis I studied with Adriana zabala who sings very frequently with Minnesota op yeah yeah um so that was one of my first connections sh out to yeah hi yes um and I um had a teaching assistant ship uh directing for Opera workshop and then I discovered my love of directing but directing is very very similar to teaching in a lot of ways um how do you communicate things to people ideas to people how do you kind of motivate or Inspire uh either performers students to kind of take this thing and run with it so I was drawing a lot of parallels between the teaching and directing and I thought maybe directing was what I wanted to do was still doing teaching too and Performing I loved Opera I loved Coral music I love art songs so I had all of these things in the general music industry that I was having trouble deciding between uh what I wanted to do uh but then I started doing a lot more teaching artistry for the Opera Minnesota Opera and I loved it and I think that was what I was searching for when I was originally thinking of that music education degree the Arts education but not locked in this public school classroom you know Arts education free and exploratory no no testing no you know how can you really use the Arts to help transform lives um to to have students Express themselves to be used for healing uh and thinking about my personal Journey as an artist I got into art because I didn't feel accepted in other spaces I didn't necessarily feel safe in other spaces so I came to this place that made me feel so whole so connected and I kept going and kept going and kept going and when I think about the whole journey I go back to that as what is most important to me now and then and what I hope to facilitate for the students and participants that I work with um that they have a place of Refuge that they have um art as this tool to share themselves with other people for connection for healing for growth and I think that more than anything is is kind of why I am where I am right now that's beautiful [Laughter] so do you have any you know memory or experience um during your time teaching um or here at the Opera that has been like really impactful um you know when it comes to well really anything you know upholding all of those values that you just talked about yeah okay so I you know I racking my brain as you're saying that and then one like do I do I there are so many lovely ones and then one just immediately jumped out at me um the year the program you're leading up to co so I guess 2019 I was lead teaching in the after school music program music out loud for middle school and I was teaching at fallwell Middle School four days a week after school so if you want to get to know a kid it's a good way to do it after school they feel a lot more free um they have more space the rules aren't quite as tight so I got to know students really well and I had been a teaching artist not full-time at the Opera at a teaching artist two three years prior to that and I had been working with these same students so at that point I had been working with some of these students three years multiple days after school for the whole program year really close relationships um and there there were several students that I felt very deeply connected to those older students that I had uh multiple years and you know we were getting getting into a rehearsal into the rehearsal process for Little Mermaid Jr they were very excited very excited we should have cast you all middle schoolers and then and actually I want to be arsa yeah that's the part you wanted to absolutely yeah so they were about halfway through the rehearsal process they were doing wonderfully wonderfully I was so proud of how far they had come especially in comparison to past years they were really pushing forward um very focused very committed and then I don't know maybe March 17th oh right we oh yeah yeah we were told that there was going to be no more School uh they said you know we'll we'll kind of come back after spring break I was like oh okay got to adjust to the rehearsal schedule okay okay but it's okay but it's okay everybody because they're way ahead um and just seeing all of the personal growth and transformation you know casting as a middle schooler you see some potential put them in a roll and then they they step up and they do it and you see all of this growth and it's so magical so I'm witnessing all of that from several stud dozens of students and I'm like okay it's fine I'm very optimistic that we'll get get back right after spring B maybe push the performances off a week and of course you know how 2020 developed and that was not the case and we went from seeing each other four days a week to nothing in the middle of a in the middle of a show wow and you know there were there were students that I worked with where you know this after school program this musical that was their home that was their safety that was their th these were their people um and it was so heartbreaking to know that that was ripped away from them that they they would prefer to be at school they'd pre prefer to be in after school and now they don't get any of that um and you know they don't have cars they don't as a middle schooler you can imagine what that might be like so that I think that was difficult for a lot of those students and there was really no way for me to check in on them or see what was going on um even their teachers were were finding it difficult to to get them to log on to online school they just wouldn't hear from students or families for 10 12 weeks at a time wow goodness oh my gosh yeah yeah I think that was you know common common experience with with certain schools and districts uh so I had no idea what was going on with any of them and it was there were nights where I was really kept up um I feel like I had the insid scoop on their lives and how they were doing how things were going and then nothing and I maybe three months into the pandemic I was out grocery shopping with my partner you know everyone's in mass and I saw a student that I was like that surely cannot be the student because she was about two feet taller but you know how Middle School you know how middle school goes so I'm just but and and the mass too he like what and I'm just looking like and then she looks at me and she's doing the same thing we're like 15t away like and then she said Miss Rebecca and it was one of the students from music out loud and you know no no you know no no touching or anything so how are you doing it's so good to see you tell me tell me about what's going on and she was just frozen and she just started crying oh yeah and I uh you know her family was kind of looking at her my partner was behind looking at me and it was just like this moment of what is going on um and I said okay I think it's okay we hug so we had a hug in the middle of Target um and it was it was heartbreaking to know that this to to see just how the pandemic had affected her and how it had ripped away this special special thing for her um but then also heartwarming to know that the relationships we were building in this program were lasting that this was meaningful for our students um yeah that that their relationships kind of transcend it's not just some after school thing but you know as a teacher you C you can have that impact if you take the time to really develop relationships with your students I'm going to cry forgot we were on the [Laughter] podcast I I feel like the only way we can follow that up is with the game oh yes I almost forgot we're g to play a game today another another edition of ready yeah one two three fire that K we'll be right [Music] back and welcome back America it's time to play America's favorite P time the game sweeping the nation ladies and gentlemen it's time for fire the Canon yes or I could put actual music I guess underneath it I'm I am your host Rocky Jones and I'm here with three wonderful contestants Lee bam how are you doing today hello America paig Reynolds how are you doing today I'm swell and Rebecca Blackwell our special guest how are you doing today very excited to be here oh we're excited to have you everybody knows the rules of fire that Canon we take a a look at a popular Opera in the repertoire and we decide can we perform this Opera responsibly uh in 2021 because I don't know if you've heard but some of the the operas in the cannon are are problematic SM key word responsibly key word so I will throw out an opera I'll give a quick synopsis and then we all will discuss and decide whether we keep it or we fire that Canon come on come got to keep up all right so the first oper we're going to tackle this week is porgi and best composed by George gerswin leeto by dubos Hayward and Ira gerswin uh premiered in 1935 poran best tells the story of porgi a disabled Black Street Black Street beggar excuse me living in the slums of Charleston AKA catfish row it deals with his attempts to rescue best from the clutches of crown her violent and possessive lover and Sporting Life her drug dealer who wants to start do we keep it or fire the cannon oh these faces of consternation maybe we'll start with our guest there's no right answer question mark no right answer well I think you know there's a lot of discussion about this particular Opera right now and as there has been um obviously it can be an Opera when produced that hires a lot of black singers um and maybe you all are the better people to speak on this but you know that's problematic when that is the job of a singer to sing poor G and bass over and over you know is that like limiting for someone's career that they're not able or don't feel able to explore other things um not great uh and then I would say gerswin as a white person very interested in telling a black story I don't know well you know for me uh yes and um I find porgi and best to be super boring and I don't really like that the score casts people and then doesn't allow them to sing in ways that their training has prepared them to sing I am not crazy about all of the rampant stereotypes and one other time I will say it is boring it is very long and there are two stretches of about 40 minutes each that I I find to be endlessly repetitive and the last time I saw it um despite the fact that I had a lot of people I know un love in the production about 45 minutes into it I was cheering for the hurricane to win I just enjoy poran B um yeah it's not it's not a favorite of mine so I guess that's one fire the cannon yeah I'll even load the cannon this time all right you know I might hand you the match for that Cannon because I tried I tried to love the whole Opera but I just couldn't I had the same I thought it was just me when I the first time I saw porgi in best I was but that same it's probably the same 40 minute stretches that we're that we're talking about that I was like this could have this could have been an email this could have been one or two ad this could have been an email or this could have not been written by a white man or there's just all kinds of different points where we can have something different than what we have now but I mean as Rebecca said I respect that you know it has this place and that it you know when it happens all these black singers get to work and can we just create other things to do that that's how about that that that's that's an idea like the Black Panther of operas or whatever like oh I'm ready or like a few a few of those in rotation instead of porgi and B absolutely that's yeah absolutely porgi has had its day and I've seen a lot of Productions and you know being a black person trained in black history who works in Opera I've written a lot about por gamb bass and it's I it's just enough can I also just say that for me as a black woman best is very onedimensional [Music] like her name is in the title but she's made one of the like most forgettable characters it just like centers around her trauma but not her as a person or like yeah yeah I I I think we have a verdict so I'm hearing two definite fire the Canon oh yeah yeah fire it fire it away fire the cannon let's do it I have to find that sound [Laughter] effect all right so we're gonna go to our second and final Opera of the day uh which is JPI ver AA the breest Antonio gizan it thank you it's my specialty if you like some good it premiered on Christmas Eve 1871 AA is an Ethiopian princess held captive in Egypt in love with a general ramees and he with her when he is chosen to lead a war with Ethiopia we follow the conflict of aa's love for both rames and for her country do we keep it or do we fire the cannon I'll start with you paig I keep it with stipulations with some guidelines no more white AAS that's it what about wait wait what about uh Anna trco [Laughter] one more time for folks in the back of the room I think we just got our our episode title that's it yeah just no more why I every Ethiopian I have met personally has been black pretty much there may be there's probably non-black Ethiopians out there somewhere but they're sparse right Andor can't always be AA like that's not how that shakes out no no so yeah well well okay okay actually in my in my world it's not just AA it's anybody who's part of her posi her crew her Squad her Nation whatever no more your facial expressions are taking me out cuz I feel very strongly about it but I'm trying not to cuss the score director's cut late night score oh I'm with you Paige um I like I there's a lot that I like about it and it's an opera I would love to direct um so if anybody that's a big job it is a big job and if anybody's got the budget and is looking for somebody to pull you together an old nasty piece of a please reach out to me on LinkedIn or Facebook um I think it's a very interesting work I have a lot of ideas about it I have seen not very many satisfying Productions and a lot of it has to do with how it is cast and then also like some of the weird orientalism with like you know yeah they it's put together in a curious way and I think if you know we're really sort of thinking about what we know of the time and sort of ethnic migration patterns and who was living where when I'm not convinced that AA and amares would have looked different right and what what kind of production is that you know so there are lots of things that I would be interested in seeing with the piece um but I don't know that I need to see another like allwhite AA ever I feel like your a would be fierce yes I think so cuz I also sketched out a couple costumes whoever's listening and has a budget here we go we have our email dance okay now I'm interested now I want to see that like like you're like on the ones and threes or you just you're you're nowhere I mean I am firmly on the two and the four um but the the flexibility is not what it used to be yeah when I was duck walking around the house it was a very quick thing cuz those knees kicked in and I was like okay my my dancing P are well at least you got down there and you tried yeah I sure did you gave it [Laughter] the Rebecca okay I have to admit I was a little surprised we're not firing doesn't sound like we're firing this cannon so maybe the the uh thing here is responsibly right what's the casting like what's the direction like of course under Le Binum it would be incredible so you know I am intrigued by this you know what what can we do with AA to to tell this story responsibly I think at the end of the day I'm still a little hung up on uh who wrote and told this story about two countries in the height of 19th century imperialism so that's not a story about Egypt or Ethiopia that's a story about Europe yeah and decontextualized with these stereotypes the Ori orientalism as you mentioning that's still perpetuating oppression you know it's like in the at that time uh Ori orientalism was used to you promote imperialism to make other countries vulnerable to imperialism by um putting out these stereotypes and I think that Aida does a lot of that and Italy occupied Ethiopia in the 20th century so like what did what did that art serve historically um in terms of Oppression and you can't art you know there's this like art doesn't have to be political why are you making it about race you wrote an opera about race for political purposes so I don't it's it's such incredible like societal Amnesia that we can put up AA and say I don't understand why we need to talk about these things so okay I won't fire it but I think any anyone putting up this this oper needs to dig deep into that conversation and understand the origins of this storytelling okays soad that you sort of brought that because I always kind of feel like the that moment sits very uncomfortably I think especially for the the Italians with like the Battle of adwa and like Minik and T and the fact that Italy in its you know aspirations of being able to colonize Ethiopia had 99 Problems right and and I feel like that is also for me part of why it's interesting right what how can we use it as a commentary on this failed Colonial experimen but I really like what you said and I want to sit with it and and spend even more time thinking about imperialism than I already do because it it does rear its ugly head in our art at all times right and what are we supposed to do with that you I do wonder how do we feel or how would we feel about a production of Aida or understanding of AA where it's not through this same Colonial gaze and maybe like for instance it actually recognizes that Ethiopia is in Africa and and doesn't try to make it its own act like North Africa as its own continent or like Europe Junior like the so what about Anita that like I feel like maybe that starts there would be real different and like looking at it through the lens of like black or like African women's leadership would be much more powerful you're welcome for whoever I gave that nugget to I love all of these ideas like this is fascinating yeah when we get this hundred million from Bezos we are going to make a production we're going straight to the I was going to say in aachi Magic one that goes on the director so it sounds like we're gonna keep it for now some guidelines yeah paig will write down the guidelin yes yes there'll be some there'll be some rules going forward for anyone who wants to produce it but we will keep it for now mhm all right well thank you all so much for joining us for another edition of fire K and we especially want to thank you Miss Rebecca Blackwell yes thank you so much for for being with us this a blast was there anything while we still have you that you want to promote put out there make sure that people get their eyes and ears on oh my goodness well I will say I am singing in the chorus of the R's progress with Lakes Area Music Festival for any of you Minnesotan folks who want to travel to brain nerd in August it's a fun little Excursion SE some Stravinsky and lakes can't can't get enough of those Land of 10,000 well thank you so much Rebecca for sharing all of your knowledge and wisdom and stories with us uh we had so much fun and can't wait to do this again yeah this is extra fun in person I know I don't know what it was before but and we will be right [Music] [Music] back all right and we are back with our favorite segment and yours pure black Joy is peanut butter jelly time peanut butter jelly time our PB&J our little snack for your soul where we talk about uh things that black people are doing that are making us feel Joy um so I don't know for me I don't know about you all but I you know we talked about you know Paramount plus earlier and I have to say that stealing my friend Molina's past and username has been the best thing that I've ever done because I am thoroughly enjoying Drag Race All Star it is I think it's probably the best Allstar season and so I just want to thank mother Rue and I also want to shout out Raja O'Hara curious Davenport and Trin K bone for that Beyonce performance that have won can we talk about that I'm still upset I promise I wasn't get upset during this P Joy sry you know what I'm upset that she didn't win but I'm I feel Joy that I experienced it yeah um because it was a beautiful performance she I mean she Beyonce the house she really like I it was she she was Beyonce I have never seen anyone who is not Beyonce be beon it was it was amazing and then she did not win no she didn't yeah no she didn't so the challenge either they weren't paying attention or they don't realize how hard it is to actually look like Beyonce doing Beyonce it it you have to be a special person it it has to be that because the performance oh they didn't see home coming or something or like they miss lemonade or like they don't understand that if you emulate Beyonce like and you do it well that's some type of like demig status like guess you not many of us it's true it's true you know she did she she lost to Jan and very when I thought was a rather mediocre Lady Gaga that was no parts of Gaga in that odd I didn't quite perance understand like cuz she put her leg on the piano like I am not now and she like had like a claw hand yeah I'm not feeling the jany and I don't think I'm going to and instead let me just refocus on the the pure black Joy part Trinity righteous black doing so well this season segment RBA rightous black about drag race CU everything going on in the world this is still where my like passion is right now um but yeah all of all of those girls have been doing great and you know there there have just been so many great moments there have been a lot of great seriously lip syns um you know and I have to give a special shout out to my girl Eureka I have been a Eureka fan for a minute and I have enjoyed her this season it's been good to see Ginger Minge back it was great to see jiggly for like two minutes I'm just I'm happy with this season and I thank you R you know like this is exactly what I needed to get me through the doldrums of this hot disgusting summer so and this weird you know it's nice on Fridays to like just have this little Oasis of just glitter and magic and you know fun and excitement like during like whatever this is this Delta nightmare fire racism just hellscape that we're living [Laughter] in but also you know and Trinity she came close with the that lip sync with laganja she I I enjoyed Trinity more I mean like laganja was doing flips and splits out of the the rafter so like that that was what that was but like I I I'm just I've been pleasantly surprised with Trin me too I feel like she's a special kind of most improved from her season and also I will admit I was sleeping on Raja during her season and every one of her looks has been great I mean Aira is always great and I mean air is just just everything and beautiful and I I don't think she's getting her due but it feels like she's on the come up yeah certainly so that's exciting yeah if y'all aren't into Drag Race Allstars this season please get into it because it has been a really fun experience and if you are paying for the app with uh ruse non us drag races they the espania one should end this week and that has been pretty fun has it cuz I stopped after like the third episode cuz it like well I will say this I have never minded watching somebody just body everybody else and Carmen fora I mean she's wearing them like Head and Shoulder about the rest of the I mean I would just pack my wigs and go home like I I don't know what they're doing but she's been a joy to watch after the let down that was Australia Australia was disappointing it was wiggity wiggity whack in the parlons of the mid 90s like it gave me so but it's funny because I was again talking to my friend Molina this is gonna be the Molina episode hi Molina I love you um and she was saying any know if legendary is like sax Avenue then like once you watch that then like drag race feels like Marshalls and no and I was and I was like well then drag race as is like Five [Music] Below no I'll concede that I mean I'm just saying well my only pure black Joy is uh trying Haitian food for the first time about a week or two ago I don't think I've ever tried Haitian food it's so good [Music] I you maybe you can tell by the tone of my voice it was a spiritual experience okay what did you have um so it was on my way home from you know our vacation week I was in Michigan and I went through Chicago and stopped and had lunch with a couple friends from college there and just want to try something I can't get in Minneapolis so I said I've heard Haitian food is so good and I go in the shop and first of all I know it's going to be good when they're not immediately there to greet you right away that's how I know because and there's a logic to this and let me tell you why people y'all got a problem with leaving like bad Yelp reviews and Google reviews and stuff when stuff like this happens but let me tell you I know that they're not at the front because they're back there making that food delicious they're back there helping uncle or Auntie or grandma or whoever make that delicious fried goat that I've had it was like dry rubbed like kind of like a crispy situation but not tough like for even for goat meat like it was it was it was tender and like just well spiced we got me and my friends did the style where you know we just add order whatever we want and share it so we got three different types of rice honey we got like white rice with some type of black bean sauce over it we got one thing that kind of looked like pillow but I'm pretty sure y'all don't call it pillow in Haiti and then another thing that reminded me of dirty rice I know y'all don't call it dirty rice in it was all delicious and stew chicken to um there was some type of pork dish that I cannot remember what it was called I got to look up the names of everything y'all I do not speak Creole I don't speak French I don't speak any of it I am just a fan and a supporter of everything that Haitians have done in the realm of food and art and culture and Liberation so thank you three cheers for haiting thank you and I spoke to a lovely older woman who uh recommended told me what to get on the menu she lamented about the upheaval in her country and gave me Sage life advice about uh not staying where you are not wanted she said that's the lesson that the president didn't learn and I'm not here for I'm not here for political commentary at all but she was just like there's been a lot of unrest and like once you see things are dangerous she was making it into a life lesson for me and was like you know don't stay where where you're not wanted just just go you can you can go and I was like oh thank you ma'am I mean that's a gorgeous lesson it was it was I hate the circumstances that she had to tell me about it under but so all around you know wonderful experience that was my pure black joy and I mean in haian food is on the com of there with that that dude on Top Chef Gregory yes oh really mhm and he won restaurant Wars that one like I guess it was the last Allstar season um Haitian recipes like his family's Haitian recipes I love that I haven't seen either show so the next time you're on your way back from home and you decide to just stop in Chicago for lunch as one does then make sure you bring some Tupper Weare and bring some back to work will please because you know they had the catering menu with the big family style pans and whatnot and you know 6 hours I think between here and Chicago that's all right for the fridge time freezer time I think'll in the winter if you're coming back from the holiday there we go I mean yeah you have nothing but winter so okay just enjoy the summer you've got you've got like two weeks all right well I think that's going to do us for this week a special announcement I have an announcement to make oh we're going to switch to Mondays after this episode so we will not be back in two weeks we will be back in two weeks and 3 days and we will be starting your week off rather than your weekend off with pure black Joy so just look out for that if you don't see us on Friday in two weeks don't get mad it's okay we'll be right back to make your Monday morning commute better yes that's and you know one thing that you can do one thing you can do with those extra three days is you can make sure that you subscribe and write a review leave a five star review whoever left that one star review we don't need that and we don't care and whoever left that three star review okay but also stop like what the hell but the 12 of you that left five star reviews we love you and thank you and we would love some more of those so rate review subscribe send us mail send us mail at thecore MN opera.org and uh make sure that you're sharing us with all of your friends tell your little friends about us see are fine you little friend little friend but we're fun and we don't bite usually usually but I think that's it for us any words of wisdom well I'm just happy that we're all back in the same place and we're all safe so everyone stay safe if you're not vaccinated please go do that please go oh my God and we will see you in two weeks and 3 days bye bye everybody [Music]