What's on our mind...

• Fight club
• searching for leisure
• Theory of everything 
• Stephen Hawking 
• Finding comfort 
• Blank sheet of paper
• Beginning of everything 
• Greek mythology 
• childhood memories
• Reality is in terrible conditions
• how do you cope? 
• reality is a fantasy 
• Future
• universities 
• public transport = freedom and independence 
• freedom --> Future 
• independent 
• wants and desires
• big city 
• When my life looks like this, then my life will be happy 
• I already have this and I'm not happy 
• Perspective
• how small I am in this world
• physically and spiritually 
• Cannot put so much attention on ourselves 
• Religion
• Jesus Christ is always walking next to me - He will always be there to listen

Manifestos

• 1: Molly
• Freedom
• God's plan
• Faith - Bible
• Knowledge is understanding 
• Family 
• Service 
• Love your neighbor as yourself 
• 2: Lynn
• Love everyone 
• Receive love
• Youth is temporary 
• Abandon the fear 
• Create for love 
• Don't hide 
• Show people
• 3: Karen
• Embrace the good and the bad
• Fight for the things worth fighting for
• Learn to let go
• Legacy is eternal 
• 4: Antonio 
• Beauty
• What is beauty for you? 
• Surface of seasons
• Escaping 
• Positive thinking 
• Be who you want, but never what others want
• 5: Michael
• Expectations 
• Disappointments 
• Trust - who do you trust 
• Friends do not do favors for favors 
• Everything is not always someone else's fault 
• Use your power of choice when navigating the choices in your life 
• 6: Goose
• Being strong
• Creating peace 
• A million goodbyes 
• I am nothing 
• I am screaming 
• I can't cry 
• People build a lot of walls 
• give yourself to truth telling and vulnerability 
• 7: Adam
• Equality - privileges 
• color of skin and sex should not matter 
• I want change
• Live in the present
• Talk to each other 
• Leave your phone at home  
• Have faith in humanity 
• 8: Shannon - Teenagers 
• "what if..."
• Endless possibilities 
• Do I look like that girl without a care in the world?
• I know my future 
• feels like you're trapped in a little box 
• Digging a hole that could become a grave 
• Small things 
• God only gives you what you can handle 
• Appreciate the small things now 
• You can mess up now, because you have time to restart 

Then and Now

In the past year, a lot has changed about me. I don't draw as much as I would like to anymore. It's hard to find free time without feeling guilty about spending it on something that's doesn't necessarily have to be done. A piece of a world that I've seen is the countryside of Japan this past summer. It was amazing to see how beautiful the nature truly is. The best production I've been in is either Thoroughly Modern Millie or Pinocchio. It was a lot of fun interacting with different types of people.

Notes - August 26, 2016

• The Road to Mecca 
• Athol Fugard 
• South African playwright 
• Play about a real woman named Miss Helen Martins 
• Lived in South Africa's version of  "death valley" 
• Her vision 
• The Owl House
• Inspired by religious imagery 
• Suns and owls were often used symbols 
• http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/helen-elizabeth-martins 

Notes - August 24, 2016

• Edwidge Danticat --> Creating Dangerously: THe Immigrant Artist at Work
• Haitian author - attended Brown University and written many books
• Advocate for immigrants 
• Bridges between Haitian literature and English literature 
• Mass media - what is "okay," and what isn't? 
• spectacle of their deaths 
• Artists tend to be influenced by personal experiences more than others, however, what influenced her was watching someone else die 
• Still loves her culture, but recognizes there are many struggles in Haiti
• Loving her country, despite the government is corrupt 
• The government's control over what can be shown to society 
• Despite how terrible a country may be, people still stay in their home 
• Argentina --> government pays for everything so nobody leaves  
• Difficult to relate at times due to lack of personal experience 
• The present tense makes it feel more "real" --> "words hold more weight" 
• Earthquake caused literal destruction 
• So many aspects people can connect to 
• Death of a family member
• Natural disasters 
• Oppression 
• Making that connection --> Compassion 
• "You find a way to get through"
•  Government manipulation 
• "Nobody can bend people's will - only by their ideals" 
• Pg. 9 "And no matter how hard he tried, Papa Doc Duvalier could not make their words go away" 
• Reading Dangerously --> Create dangerously for somebody to create dangerously  
• Choosing what to read to help yourself - personal development 
• It may bring you harm 
• Created despite the hardships from her homeland 
• Risk --> appearing as if one is not tolerant of anything
• Why did they go back? 

Alexa Meade Art - Creating Dangerously

• Alexa Meade is an artist that paints over the human body - giving the illusion that an object that is originally in 3D appear as to be 2D. 
• Background Information
• Career involves politics 
• During this stage in her life, she "...became really fascinated by how we interpret information and the mismatch between what is said and what is heard."
• Her style of art goes against the standard "traditional" form of art that is acceptable in today's society
• Rather than trying to create a portrait that is most accurate (3D), she reverses them into 2D form
• The art becomes something that is real "...living, breathing thing that (isn't) fixed into any place." 
• http://www.alexameade.com/

Double Edge Theater Company - The Farm

• “What we attempt to create in our theatre is a living culture, a rebuilding of the fragments into an admittedly utopian integrity of human existence. We do this for ourselves, but also with the belief that we can share and transmit this experience to the people we meet. We must be committed to transforming our dangerous flirtation with extinction to the reality of a living and sustainable culture.”— Stacy Klein, Founder & Artistic Director 
• The Double Edge Theater Farm Center is located in Ashfield, Massachusetts 
• Company founded by Stacy Klein in 1982
• 1994 - Company moves from Boston to Ashfield 
• The Farm consists of the following: "...two performance and training spaces, production facilities, offices, archives, music and outdoor performance areas as well as hay fields, grazing pastures, a stream, pond, and forestland."
• Gets involved in the community --> locals help the Farm stay in working condition year-round 
• Company acts as an activist 
• "Black Lives Matter" project 
• A Latin American Spectacle 
• Stacy Klein 

Works Cited: http://doubleedgetheatre.org/ 

Creating Dangerously

• What does it mean to create dangerously? 
• to not conform 
• to ask questions that may be shocking or uncomfortable 
• as an artist --> to go places they had not expected to go 
• force you to take risks in your thinking and actions
• compromise safety 
• Nina Simone 
• What can our art contribute to our world today? 
• Albert Drive, Scotland; Glasglow --> Glass House
• poorest people and home on one side and the richest on the other
• glass house on this street made by theater group 
• richest and poorest people would have a conversation 
• Glass = transparency  
• Lindy West - Shrill: The not of a loud woman
• Jae Yup Kim 
• Rachel Griffin - We Have Apples 
• Hamilton Musical
• SNL