Episode 73
Breaking Ice is Changing DEI One Performance at a Time: Chapter 1
This episode and next will tell the story my time with Breaking Ice and share what I learned about the program's evolution and history, its impact, and its innovative approach helping workplaces large and small "cultivate courageous dialogue around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.
BIO's
Noël Raymond holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota and a BFA from Ithaca College in New York. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Multicultural Development Center and the Burning House Group Theatre Company which she co-founded in 1993. She is also a company member of Carlyle Brown and Company. She has taught acting classes and theatre movement in multiple settings to children, college students and adults with developmental disabilities. Noël is an Equity actor who has performed with Pillsbury House Theatre, the Burning House Group, the Guthrie Theater, Penumbra Theatre, Bryant Lake Bowl, and Minnesota Festival Theatres in Minnesota as well as the Hangar Theatre in New York. Noël’s directing credits include Underneath the Lintel, An Almost Holy Picture, Far Away, Angels in America: Parts I and II, and [sic] at Pillsbury House Theatre, From Shadows to Light at Theatre Mu, The BI Show with MaMa mOsAiC, and multiple staged readings and workshops through the Playwrights’ Center, among others. Noël has served on numerous panels including TCG/American Theatre, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Playwright’s Center and United Arts, to name a few.
Kurt Kwan has been creating performances and facilitating dialogues around issues of Diversity and Inclusion with the Breaking Ice company since 2001. He also manages the Late Nite and Naked Stages programs. As an actor he has performed with Ten Thousand Things, The Walker, Childrens Theatre Company, Mu Performing Arts, New York Asian American Writers, The History Theatre, and Theatre La Homme Dieu.
Notable Mentions
DEI programs: Diversity, equity, and inclusion (usually abbreviated DEI) refers to organizational frameworks which seek to promote "the fair treatment and full participation of all people", particularly groups "who have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination" on the basis of identity or disability.[1]
Barnes Jewish Hospital is the largest hospital in the U.S. state of Missouri. Located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, it is the adult teaching hospital for the Washington University School of Medicine and a major component of the Washington University Medical Center. In 2022, Barnes-Jewish was named one of the top twenty hospitals in the United States by U.S. News & World Report in its annual ranking.[1][2]
Pillsbury House and Theater. is a groundbreaking “new model for human service work that recognizes the power of the arts and culture to stimulate community participation, investment and ownership.” This is the first of two PH+T chapters.
Here are links to Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 of our episodes on Pillsbury’s history a and a Bonus Episode: Lorraine Hansberry at Pillsbury House - Theatre - Gifted & Black
Pillsbury United Communities Beginning in 1879 with Minneapolis’s first settlement house, Pillsbury United Communities co-creates enduring change toward a just society. Built with and for historically marginalized and underinvested groups across our community, our united system of programs, neighborhood centers, and social enterprises connects more than 55,000 individuals and their families each year. We are guided by a vision of thriving communities where every person has personal, social, and economic power.
Transcript
Breaking Ice is Changing DEI One Performance at at Time: Chapter One (All speakers are identified by their actual names except when their character's names are shared)
[:Bill Cleveland: I am sitting in a brightly lit multipurpose purpose room facing a wide unadorned stage with an audience of 200, or so staff the at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis Missouri. For the past few minutes, we have been watching five actors in black tee shirts, and black pants rapidly moving about the stage. Every few seconds one of them stops faces the audience and shouts out what sounds like a news headline.
[:[00:00:34] Adam Whisner: Disparities in quality of care are not getting smaller Over time, the gap between whites and people of color has either stayed the same or worsened.
[:[00:00:46] Thallis Santesteban: African Americans across all income levels experience poorer health outcomes.
[:[00:00:59] Noel Raymond: According to the Columbia University Psychological Bulletin, stigma, prejudice, and discrimination create hostile and stressful social environments that lead to mental health issues.
[:[00:01:14] C. Michael Menge: The future of workplace diversity is here.
[:[00:01:22] Mikell Sapp: With nearly 200,000 people transitioning outta military service each year, veterans are a rich source of workforce talent.
[:[00:01:39] Adam Whisner: Organizations which hire people with disabilities see greater retention and innovation.
[:[00:01:47] Thallis Santesteban: By the year 2050, there will be no ethnic or racial majority in the us.
[:[00:01:57] All: An advantage for many. A challenge for some.
After the five actors disappear into the wings. One of them, a tall middle aged white man returns to center stage and pivots toward a slightly shorter black man as he approaches.
[:[00:02:15] Mikell Sapp: Yes. Um, is this the Hawthorne Room?
[:[00:02:19] Mikell Sapp: Thank you.
[:The black man purses his lips and takes a deep breath.
[:The white man stares at Mr. White as though he has just appeared out of nowhere, his tight mouth blooms into a big O.
[:[00:02:43] Mikell Sapp: Yes.
[:BC: His face reddens with embarrassment, but he blunders on.
Adam Whisner: We spoke on the phone. I just didn't know you were, uh, yeah. On the phone. You didn't sound like you were, uh,
[:This Change the Story episode and the one that follows will tell the story my time with Breaking Ice and share of some of what I learned about the program's evolution and history, its impact, and its innovative approach helping workplaces large and small "cultivate courageous dialogue around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Breaking Ice is one of dozens of programs and services developed by Pillsbury House in service to the 30,000 souls who live in Minneapolis' Powderhorn and Central neighborhoods. While PH+T has a national reputation for its hybrid arts-based approach to community development, Breaking Ice is unique in its reach and influence outside the Twin Cities. The program which began as a Twin Cities diversity equity and inclusion pioneer is also one of Pillsbury’s longest running. Since its inception in the early 90's the company has performed in 10 states, to more than 200 organizations, and 40,000 people.
Actress director and cat herding administrator Noel. Raymond has helped lead Pillsbury for nearly three decades.
[:The beginning of breaking ice? It goes way back to the sixties. It was a, the seed of the idea started with the Living Stage (Theater) in DC, and ultimately became a company out in New York, called Thunder and the Light, which was started by Olympia Dukakis.
And one of the people who participated in that at that time was Ralph Remington, who's the founding artistic director of Pillsbury House and Theater. And so, when he came to Pillsbury House and Theater, he brought the seed of this idea to create performance, collage is sort of how I refer to Breaking Ice to help people literally to break the ice, it's called Breaking Ice for a reason, right? To help people talk about things that are difficult.
And then, I started here I think two or three years after Ralph started. And so, we had a very strong focus on undoing racism based on the People's Institute model. The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond did these undoing racism workshops and we were deeply steeped in their, practice.
And so, we were using their racism equals prejudice plus power definition and attempting to illuminate what racism looks like in behavior among people, in a context like a school. And then having that conversation defining what racism is, and around power and privilege.
BC: Back in St. Louis, the small Breaking Ice company seem to be everywhere at once as the performance collage Noel described is filling the stage with quick-hit skits that combine humor and straight talk with situations and language that, given, all the nodding heads, is clearly very familiar to many members of the audience.
Right now, a black man and a white woman stand side by side drinking coffee.
[:[00:07:23] Noel Raymond: you killed it. I mean, I, I even forgot you were black while you were up there.
BC: The man steps back, in an instant his face moves from shock to questioning.
[:[00:07:37] Noel Raymond: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean that as a compliment, right?
[:[00:07:44] Noel Raymond: It's just, I just don't see color. That's, that's all.
[:BC: As the nervous laughter subsides A new scene ensues.
[:[00:08:10] Mikell Sapp: Well, if you was as equally offended, why didn't you say something?
[:[00:08:32] NR: It was kind of all over the map, but mostly like smallish community groups, and high school students, and higher ed. We did one for an audience of, policy fellows at the Humphrey School We often would perform outside in parks and things, which was really difficult, because nobody could hear.
ined the company in the early:KK: We used to do site visits for all of our clients and we would take the entire acting company and we would have a meeting there and we'd walk through all the programs and the physical structure of it so you get that sort of sensory experience of what it feels like, smells like, what are the ins and outs.
NR: One of the things I personally love about doing Breaking Ice is I get to learn about all of these workplaces and really listen to what's happening; What are you doing all day, every day? Where are you meeting people? What spaces are you in? What's the behavior that's happening? What's the unspoken cultural norms in your workplace? And what are the spoken things and how are you living up to the spoken things?
All of that is such rich information and is just endlessly fascinating, and in my actor self too, which is deeply engaged in understanding human behavior and where it comes from and what makes us who we are.
[:NR: Yeah, that's always been a big part of it, is helping people, hold a mirror up to the culture they're creating in whatever group or community, that we're performing for, and really getting inside and finding out so that we can reflect that back.
BC: For Breaking Ice, getting the culture and language right is essential for helping people see themselves, and their workplace in the stories unfolding on stage. This was particularly true for their time in St. Louis. As outsiders, they knew that reflecting the stress filled, relationship intensive, hospital environment would be a challenge --- a challenge that could only be met by telling stories grounded in the audiences everyday experiences.
Thus far the black clad actors holding forth in the hospital multipurpose room seem to be meeting that test, as two characters begin another exchange.
[:Adam Whisner: Yeah. Uh, quickly go right ahead.
C. Michael Menge: Okay. Um, I, I know that there's a lot going on and, and it's a high stress environment, but they were making some comments that made me feel uncomfortable.
Adam Whisner: Oh, that sucks.
C. Michael Menge: Uh, they, they, they were making comments that undermine my identity. Mm-hmm. Uh, uh, like they were making racist comments. Yeah. Toward me.
[:BC: A woman and a man saunter to the front of the stage.
[:Adam Whisner: Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Thallis Santesteban: And I just wanted to com recommend someone. I think Nyla would be great.
[:[00:12:28] Thallis Santesteban: Well, her last name's Johnson, but yeah.
[:Uh, she's a, I just, you know, this position really is something that what needs a lot of energy, you know, it's a very fast paced, gotta move on to the next thing. And I'm just, I'm not sure Nyla…
[:BC: The man frowns, pivots quickly and a begins another scene with a woman who is just stepping forward.
[:[00:13:12] Noel Raymond: Well, wait, here's the thing. You know, um, you, you keep applying for sort of senior level managerial positions.
Yeah. And those require actually a, a decent amount of supervisory and managerial experience. So…
[:[00:13:30] Noel Raymond: No, you know, I, I mean, it translates to some degree, but there's also the issue of, you know, we just don't wanna put you in a position that might be stressful or triggering in any kind of a way.
[:Sure, PTSD. Yeah. I don't actually suffer PTSD, but if I did, don't you think it would be up to me to determine whether or not something was too stressful
BC: Scenes like this come and go quickly, and true to real life, often without any resolution. The company understands that the opportunity space between a person taking in and learning a hard truth and being defensive is whisper thin, and every organization, every community is different.
[:Part 2. Who’s Story Now
BC: Starting around:[00:15:08] KK: I think locally we're talking about, best Buy and Target, 3M Cargill, Delta American, US Bank, Wells Fargo,
BC: Kurt and Noel describe the company’s expanding universe.
[:[00:15:29] KK: …health systems, absolutely, governments. I remember doing a performance for the entire city of Denver. It was 3000 plus people. I mean, good luck facilitating that many people, but we did it.
I think what's unique about breaking ice in that space is I think we have a pretty refined understanding of the work, and the issues, and to be able to present that in an active way versus, you know, pulling all your employees into a training, walking them through a PowerPoint and saying, “Check you've been here.” It's a, you know, wildly different and a much more engaging experience because it, it asks you to participate in it in all those ways.
BC: These new opportunities also called for a more streamlined scripting process. In response they created a framework that allowed them to both address issues common to many workplace environments and incorporate elements that are unique to the culture and context specific clients like community development, banking, government or healthcare. It also called for a clear understanding with clients that they were not a one and done solution to their DEI problems. They made it clear that Breaking Ice was providing a useful and powerful tool that could only be effective in combination with a long-haul systemic commitment from their hosts.
KK: I think we speak a lot of truths, but we, we do not provide answers, you know, it's, it's, wisdom, not answers. And it's about, elevating those, submerged, behaviors and practices that they know, are living there. And I think the resonant part for them, is they understand like that's, oh yeah, that is actually us.
[:Right? these aren't just banner headline issues. This is about really how do people feel inside your work environment, and what's their experience and how do you create mutual shared accountability among everyone for supporting an environment where everyone feels good and has the same level of opportunity and in that environment.
[:BC: There are many ways to tell a story. Most stories, though, follow a familar pattern, particularly in theater which in its most basic form starts with literally setting the stage, with the characters and setting in the first act, the introduction of conflict, or dilemma in the second act, and finally some kind of resolution in the third.
As, you've probably already guessed, Breaking ice doesn't exactly follow this classical structure. The reason, as Kurt alluded to earlier, is that they have no intention of using theater to resolve anybody's DEI problem. As such, the all the frustrating unsettled, unresolved scenes in their performances are intended to underscore the fact that bias and discrimination are not problems like a budget deficit, or a worker shortage, waiting to be "solved, and done. In actual fact, they are not "problems" at all, but rather a set of ongoing intersecting social conditions that require a constant commitment to listening, learning, responding, with accountability. In short DEI work is hard, complex, and often, very messy.
BC: And this reality is about to play out, big time, on stage, in St. Louis
In this scene, all of the actors seem to be in motion once as they rush energetically around back and forth counting, and counting.
[:over and over grabbing the chairs that were sitting on the edge of the stage.
All: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
BC: This is a breathier of sorts, for the audience, at least. Nothing to think about here, just a frantic and purposeful scene transition. More numbers
All: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
BC: Once the chairs are settled in a row right to left across the proscenium, the roiling swirl of actors slows to a kind of ritual mingling that is very familiar to the audience. This and the back-and-forth banter tells everyone in the room that this is a meeting of some sort. In short order, we find out that this is a convening of the Hospital’s diversity advisory committee. The matter at hand is a “post mortum “ of the hospital’s annual Diversity and Inclusion event.”
After everyone sits, the tall white man on the left who is clearly the chair introduces himself as Dr. McElroy and asks his five colleagues to follow suit. Before anyone speaks Ashanti interjects
[:[00:21:18] KK: After some initial fumbling with pronouns, we learn that besides Ben McElroy there are, DeAndre Johnson, an African American man from the IT department, Suzzanne Linden, a white woman from legal services. Ashanti Washington, an African American nurse manager, and a HR representative Sandra Thomas. Dr. McElroy begins by soliciting feedback on the Diversity and Inclusion event. The initial consensus appears to be that it went very well, “good food, good weather, courageous conversations.”
Then Dr. McElroy asks Sandra about the results of a survey that was taken during the event.
[:As a country right now, we're facing some really, uh, intense and major issues. Uh, and people were feeling like, uh, speaking about that and talk about that wasn't welcome here in the, in the event.
BC: Dr. McElroy straightens in his chair and interjects.
[:[00:22:42] BC: Sandra pushes back.
[:BC: The chair jumps in again, a bit more intensely.
Dr. McElroy: I think that the issue here is that, uh, we dive too deeply into these things and then, uh, our environment becomes divisive. You know, that's a, here's how I like to look at it. Uh, kind of bird's eye view. So, once we start kind of getting into these divisive conversations, now we're, uh, you know, I'm targeting this group, or I'm, I'm bringing this group in, or how, you know, that we gotta kind of keep away from that sort of thinking.
BC: The look on his face says, “Case closed.” But that’s not where it goes. After a few seconds of stilted silence Ashante breaks in.
Ashanti Washington: I understand what you're saying. However, I find that problematic because certain groups of people are being specifically targeted and they're being affected in disproportionate ways. And us turning a completely blind eye and pretending like that's not happening, isn't, isn't working.
[:[00:24:09 DeAndre Johnson: When she got to her stop right before she walked off the bus, someone snatched a hijab off of her head. What? And called her a terrorist.
So, so that type of trauma that she had to deal with, or that that happened to her, she had to bring that into the workplace. But then, Still find a way to be present, and I, I just couldn't imagine what her day was like. Yeah.
BC: Sandra, breaks back in. She reports hearing many similar stories at the diversity & Inclusion event. She describes a nurse whose ten-year-old daughter was the object of an ICE raid on her fifth-grade class. Her concern is obvious.
[:[00:25:03] BC: Suzanne, who has been fairly quiet until now raises her hand.
[:Um, that it is very divisive. I mean, I would remind us too, that we are a nonprofit and we have lots of dealings with government and we have to be super careful not to appear partisan in any kind of way. Yeah. So, I, I just feel like we really need to stay neutral in this space and maybe leave those things kind of at bay.
BC: As the discussion goes back and forth I am reminded of my time working in Mississippi in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina or when I was doing research in Belgrade just after the NATO bombing campaign. These were situations where everybody, the healers and the sick, the helpers and wounded were dealing with the same persistent threats and traumas— nobody was immune. It occurrs to me that what was being confronted in this conversation was the tension between the idea of the hospital as separate and safe, and the stark reality that the separation is an illusion, that it is an intrinsic and permeable part of a community in crises. On stage Ashanti is making just that point.
[:BC: DeAndre sits forward in his chair.
[:BC: With that, he stops, looking hesitantly at his colleagues. Its clear he has something else to say.
DeAndre Johnson: You know? Um, just to share a little something about me that I know you all know about, that, um, my wife and Somali and she's here on the Green Card, and, uh, just recently, uh, we received a phone call from Somalia telling us that our father just had a massive stroke. Uh, so rightfully so, my wife wants to go home to, uh, be with her father, but there could be changes for the immigration policy like that.
BC: His voice thickens, breaking. Everybody, on stage and in the auditorium seems frozen and leaning forward at the same time.
DeAndre Johnson: So, we're stuck with this hard decision of her never seeing her father again, or never seen us again. And I can't lie, I'm being very selfish because I don't wanna lose my wife. She's my world. She's, and, um, I just find that very hard to, uh, not think about that and, uh, to just ex leave that at the door before or walk to the building and just act like this robot. So I really, um, found that really hard. I,
BC: After a long silence, Suzzanne responds. she looks stricken.
[:I mean, it's, it's just so much, right? And it's every day and it's coming at us from every direction. And you know, I just get overwhelmed and feel like in order to come in and be present at work, I have to just shut it off.
[:DeAndre Johnson: ... well see, that's a privilege. You know, I wish I had the opportunity to just shut it off, but this is my life every day.
BC: Once again, there is quiet all around. When the members of this “diversity committee” sat down, the massive stage seemed to swallow the performers. Five actors, five chairs, the familiar banter—were all safely small, and distant. At this point, though, it all seems much closer, like the stage has melted and we are sitting across from DeAndre, Suzzane, Dr. McElroy and the others in a conversation that has moved from business as usual, to the hard edge borders of the divided St. Louis landscape in less than a minute.
When the company was doing their research at BJC, this was one of the most striking differences that emerged among the BJC staff. Namely, how what was happening outside the hospital affected their individual lives? For employees of color the toxic headlines were not distant events—those deadly encounters with law enforcement, the racist name calling, the anti-immigrant scapegoating, were all very personal and threatening.
For most white respondents these things were concerning, disturbing, “awful”, but they did not intrude on their daily lives. And they certainly did not manifest as panic inducing traffic stops, neighborhood I.C.E. raids, or roadside memorials. As such, they saw separating the disconcerting messiness taking place in the highly segregated neighborhoods surrounding the hospital from the important work taking place inside as not only preferable, but necessary for them to do their jobs. To be sure, these complications were a threat, not to them personally but to the good order of the institution. From this perspective, out of sight, out of mind made sense.
These inside/outside parallel universes, brought home the inescapable fact whites and that people of color working at BJC, living in St., Louis, in MO, in America — are experiencing these things very differently— for one it is a daily lived experience, for the other, a headline about somewhere else, an abstraction
On stage Dr. McElroy looks pained. He is bending forward head in hands …
[:We don't, we don't have to deal with certain issues that other folks do. And it is specifically just because we're white people. I mean, that's just, let's just be straight about that. Um, you know, it's, it's hard. It's hard.
[:[00:32:15] Dr. McElroy: These conversations are difficult because I. I feel anymore, like the more that we focus on diversity, uh, uh, the less my, uh, for instance, my opinion seems to matter, you know, as a white man. Uh, now I'm irrelevant. I, I, that's what it feels like sometimes, and I know that's, you know, doesn't really, anyway, I, I, I see all of the same news that all of you see and, and see what's going on in the world. And I, I don't know how to, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. I don't know how to change anything. I don't know where to start. So that's where I, that's where I am.
BC: Sandra looks down the row of chairs at the administrator. “
[:BC: Everybody seems to be nodding, except Suzzane who has another, more personal point to make.
[:BC: Ashanti turns in her chair and speaks directly to Suzanne.
[:[00:33:46] BC: Suzzane looks at Ashanti. Her voice trembles.
[:BC: In that moment, all of the actors rise and stand facing the audience. Suzzane continues., Her stance is different, more present.
I'm afraid if I stand up and speak out, it's co-opting somebody else's voice. I'm afraid if I don't stand up and speak out, it's a tacit endorsement of the status quo. I'm afraid I'm racist in ways I can't or won't see, and I'm afraid there's actually way more than I even know to be afraid of.
When Dr. McEloy steps forward to speak, it is clear that the doctor is gone. He an actor, not acting, and he is breaking what is referred to as the fourth wall— the invisible barrier at the front of the stage that separates the make-believe world of theater from the real world.
[:BC: Listening to him , I am acutely aware how much I have come to dislike his character, actually all of his characters. But now, hearing him describe his fears, his paralisis, I feel like he has been reading my mind.
Ashanti is next.
[:I'm afraid that I will never find a place where I can be both queer and black without feeling like a unicorn. I'm afraid that no matter how much I accomplish, I will always be seen as an exception and never as proof of possibility for my people. I'm afraid that I don't have people that, because my mom is a white redhead, and I grew up in the Midwest, in the suburbs, but I am too white for black people.
But because my dad is a Kenyan immigrant, and my skin is the color of his childhood home in Nairobi, that I am too black for white people, and I'm afraid that my skin is just light enough to make me feel less dangerous to you.
BC: Sandra edges forward.
[:BC: DeAndre is the last to address the question.
[:[00:37:00] Thallis Santesteban: The actress playing Ssuzzane takes another step forward, this time with even more power and presence.
"The great peace. The great peace will come with all of the smaller peaces we make with each other. So I will not hurt you, if you will help me not to. I will study your confusions until I understand, if you will realize…”
She hesitates briefly as the sentence is finished by the whole ensemble.
All: …"that I have confusions of my own"
BC: I glance behind me at the vast room. There must be 200, 300 hundred people, sitting, listening, waiting to begin the daily drama that defines their hospital workplace. The performance has probably gone on longer than most expected. But, the audience is engaged. No arms crossed, no glowing phones, no ceiling stares, no furtive whispering. They know its not over and they are ready for what’s next.
So what's next at BJC and for Breaking Ice is where we travel in our next episode in it, the performances last act helps the company answer the questions they face every time they step out on the fragile limb of the relationship they forge with their audiences. Did these characters and stories land as true or at least true enough for them to ask themselves the questions rising up?
Is this our story? And if it is, what's my part in it? And most importantly, what have I learned and what is my responsibility? The powerful conclusion of the performance and the reflections of some of the players on and off the stage will also shine a light on the challenges faced by a big system like BJC when the Breaking Ice curtain falls.
If heads and hearts have been moved even a bit. How can that help them become the healthier, more equitable healing community they aspire to be. Change the Story / Change the World is a production of the Center for the Study of Art and Community. Our theme and soundscape spring fourth from the head, heart, and Hands of the Maestro Judy Munson. Our text editing is by Andre Nebbe. Our effects come from free sound.org. Our inspiration rises up from the ever present spirit of UKE235. So until next time, stay well do good and spread the good word. And rest assured, this episode has been 100% human.
