Episode 42
Episode 42: Pangea World Theater - Chapter 2
In Episode 40 Dipankar Mukherjee, and Meena Natarajan discussed their work around issues of race and justice. In this second half, we asked: How can Pangea, a small community-based cultural institution punching way above its weight, maintain the power and integrity of its community building work amidst the chaos and uncertainty of contemporary life in America?
Pangea World Theater spent its 25th anniversary year helping their Minneapolis community heal the wounds and sort through the ashes left in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. But this mending and reckoning dance was nothing new because Pangea's work is intrinsic to the story of this place-- It’s struggles.-- It's beauty-- It's resilience.
ANNOUNCING
THE CHANGE THE STORY COLLECTION
A LIBRARY OF CHANGE the STORY/CHANGE the World EPISODES
Arts-based community development comes in many flavors: dancers, and painters working with children and youth; poets and potters collaborating with incarcerated artists: cultural organizers in service to communities addressing racial injustice, all this and much, much more.
Many of our listeners have told us they would like to dig deeper into art and change stories that focus on specific issues, constituencies, or disciplines. Others have shared that they are using the podcast as a learning resource and would appreciate categories and cross-references for our stories.
In response you we have curated episode collections in six arenas:
JUSTICE ARTS * THEATER: PERFORMING CHANGE * CULTURAL ORGANIZING FOR CHANGE CHILDREN, YOUTH & LEARNING * TRAINING COMMUNITY ARTS LEADERS * MUSIC OF TRANSFORMATION
CHECK IT OUT
Episode 41 BIO's
Meena Natarajan is a playwright and director and the Artistic and Executive Director of Pangea World Theater, a progressive, international ensemble space that creates at the intersection of art, equity and social justice. Meena has co-curated and designed many of Pangea World Theater’s professional and community-based programs. She has written at least ten full-length works for Pangea, ranging from adaptations of poetry and mythology to original works dealing with war, spirituality, personal and collective memory. Her play, Etchings in the Sand co-created with dancer Ananya Chattterjea has been published by Routledge in a volume called Contemporary Plays by Women of Color: The Second Edition.
Dipankar Mukherjee is the Artistic Director of Pangea World Theater, where he has led the organization since its inception in 1995. As a director, he has worked professionally in India, England, Canada and the United States. His aesthetics have evolved through his commitment to social justice, equity and deep spirituality. Dipankar received a Humphrey Institute Fellowship to Salzburg and has been a Ford Foundation delegate to India and Lebanon. He is a recipient of a Bush Leadership Fellowship to study non-violent and peaceful methodologies in India and South Africa. Dipankar facilitates processes that disrupt colonial, racist and patriarchal modalities of working.
EPISODE 41: Notable Mentions
Pangea World Theater: Pangea World Theater builds bridges across multiple cultures and creates sacred and intersectional spaces. We create authentic spaces for real conversations across race, class and gender. Through a nuanced exploration of privilege, our own and others, we craft ensemble-based processes with a global perspective. Through art, theater and creative organizing we strive for a just world where people treat each other with honor and respect. We believe that artists are seers giving voice and language to the world we envision.
A Pluriverse: A Post Development Dictionary: Edited by Ashish Kothari, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta. This book contains over one hundred essays on transformative initiatives and alternatives to the currently dominant processes of globalized development, including its structural roots in modernity, capitalism, state domination, and masculinist values. It offers critical essays on mainstream solutions that ‘greenwash’ development and presents radically different worldviews and practices from around the world that point to an ecologically wise and socially just world.
Arturo Escobar : is a Colombian-American anthropologist and the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. His academic research interests include political ecology, anthropology of development, social movements, anti-globalization movements, and postdevelopment theory.[2] contends in his 1995 book, Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World, that international development became a mechanism of control comparable to colonialism or "cultural imperialism that poor countries had little means of declining politely".[2]
J. Krishnamurti is regarded globally as one of the greatest thinkers and religious teachers of all time. From the time of his break with the Theosophical Society in 1929 (dissolution speech) until his death in 1986, Krishnamurti spoke throughout the world to large audiences and to individuals about the need for a radical change in mankind.
The core of Krishnamurti's teaching is contained in the statement he made in 1929 when he said, 'Truth is a pathless land'. Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, not through any philosophical knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection.'
Thich Nhat Hanh, founder of the International Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism, passed away on 22nd January 2022. Ordained as a monk aged 16 in Vietnam, Thich Nhat Hanh soon envisioned a kind of engaged Buddhism that could respond directly to the needs of society. He was a prominent teacher and social activist in his home country before finding himself exiled for calling for peace. In the West he played a key role in introducing mindfulness and created mindful communities (sanghas) around the world. His teachings have impacted politicians, business leaders, activists, teachers and countless others. Thich Nhat Hanh has published more than 100 books, including classics like The Miracle of Mindfulness and Peace is Every Step.
Tagore Rabindranath. The Religion of Man is a 1931 compilation of lectures by Rabindranath Tagore, edited by him and drawn largely from his Hibbert Lectures given at Oxford University in May 1930.[1] A Brahmo playwright and poet of global renown, Tagore deals with largely universal themes of God, divine experience, illumination, and spirituality. A brief conversation between him and Albert Einstein, "Note on the Nature of Reality", is included as an appendix.
DR. IBRAM X. KENDI is one of America’s foremost historians and leading antiracist scholars. He is a National Book Award-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of five books for adults and three books for children. Dr. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and the Founding Director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research.
Primary Colours/Couleurs primaires is a multi-year arts initiative which began in 2016. Its main objective is to place Indigenous arts at the centre of the Canadian arts system. Primary Colours/Couleurs primaires also asserts that creative practices by artists of colour, who have roots around the world, play a critical role in imagining the future(s) of Canadian art making.
Cooper Union School of Architecture: Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.
Wai Architecture Think Tank is a planetary studio practicing by questioning the political, historical, and material legacy and imperatives of architecture and urbanism through a panoramic and critical approach. Founded in Brussels during the financial crisis of 2008 by Puerto Rican architect, artist, curator, educator, author and theorist Cruz Garcia and French architect, artist, curator, educator, author and poet, Nathalie Frankowski, WAI is one of their several platforms of public engagement that include Beijing-based anti-profit art space Intelligentsia Gallery, and the free and alternative education platform and trade-school Loudreaders.
The National Institute for Directing and Ensemble is a collaboration between Pangea World Theater and Art2Action. The Institute provides a unique experience for theatre artists to collaborate and share methodologies of directing and ensemble creation in an environment with special emphasis on non-Western techniques and social justice.
J. Otis Powell‽ was an influential Minnesota-based American spoken word poet. He was the founding producer of the award-winning Write On Radio! show at KFAI-FM in Minneapolis, an advisor for the Minnesota Spoken Word Association, a curator for Intermedia Arts, and a program director for the Loft Literary Center. He was also the recipient of numerous awards, including the Loft Creative Nonfiction Award, Jerome Foundation mid-career-artists grants, a Jerome Foundation travel-and-study grant, the Intermedia Arts Interdisciplinary McKnight fellowship, and the 2017 Sally Award at the Ordway Theater. The MN Spoken Word Association awarded Powell‽ its Urban Griot Innovator Award and inducted him into the MN Spoken Word Association Hall of Fame in 2009.
freesound.org is a free and open library of sounds. About 10,000 more sounds were uploaded in 2021 than in 2020 and 300 more hours of audio! In last year’s post you’ll see that the increase of sounds was not that high, and the average duration of the sounds had significantly decreased (most probably due to the upload of a large short sounds collection), but this year we’re back to the usual average sound duration (which is 66 seconds, by the way), and therefore the hours of audio is big again. We’ve never had this many sounds uploaded in a single year!
Transcript
Pangea World Theater
Chapter 2
[:[00:00:13] MN: Without humanity, nothing is possible. That's what it is really. I mean, you can bring your craft to the table, but like I said, you can create community with the people around you, what are you creating community outside? What else is there in life, but to create, to make us as a better human being and to be joyful, you know, in the end.
[:In this second half, we turned to the daunting question of what's next? How can a small community-based cultural institution that punches way above its weight, maintain the power and integrity of its healing and community building, amidst the chaos and uncertainty that has become a hallmark of contemporary life in America.
This is Change the Story, Change the World. My name is Bill Cleveland,
Part Four: Looking in the Mirror.
[:[00:02:26] MN: I really believe in the power of the arts, and then artists to take responsibility for the time that they live in. That they can be stewards and healers in this time. And so for me, it's very much a place of healing, of relevance, of holding a mirror up. I know that's a very cliched statement, but literally, because right now we are facing really hard things on our street. We are facing displacement, and so now these, spaces that have been destroyed by fire, that are completely empty right now might be owned by people who don't even live here.
There’s also the other epidemic of climate injustice and afforded justice. So we've really tried to figure out, I think in the next two years, how we can hold a candle to some of these challenges that we're facing, and perhaps it's not possible always to do it individually. It has to be done in a way that's intersectional.
One of the things that has been so wonderful out of this is that we created very close relationships with our neighbors, and similarly with all the businesses, we knew some of that, but now it’s amplified. And so how can we be a part of that building movement, and building momentum to heal as well as rebuild the neighborhood?
[:[00:03:46] DM: We have to reimagine. We have to redefine the English vocabulary. You know, The Tower of Babel is actually The Tower of Truth. Babel is when you don't understand other languages, it sounds like babble, but the street out of the country, in which we live, it has multiple notes and songs, and our job is to really see how any human being can live with dignity, love, [and] respect. [Where] mothers and fathers and children on the street, regardless of the color of skin. And they know they'll come back safely. They get the best possible education, and just live with dignity. All of them, that's our job. That's our job. A doctor's job is to provide medication and a healthy environment, and our job is to listen to the stories, and constantly center other people.
We all have our jobs, and one of the main jobs that Pangea wants is that May 27th was a line in the sand, we will not let it go back to what it was before May 27, because everybody who talks about “oh we want to get back to normalcy”… The normalcy led to what we witnessed. There's a reason why the shit went on with brother Floyd, and all our accountability as humanity, not just artists, is to see what are the reasons that enable that, and how can we make sure that it never happens again in our lifetime. That's our job, theater is a very small aspect of it, but connecting ourselves to the largest circle of humanity is a huge aspect of our work.
[:And, uh, last thing I would ask what books, music, theater, movies, that you have encountered recently have been particularly meaningful to you at this time, so that you can pass that on to others who are listening?
[:[00:07:25] BC: That book is one of a number that have either been written or edited by Arturo Escobar that explore the concept of the Pluriverse.
ecture Think Tank in October,:[00:07:52] Arturo Salazar: It is all a question of story. We are in between stories. The oldest story, the account of how the world came to be, and how we fit into it is no longer effective, yet we have not yet learned the new story.
The first story then is The Story of Terricide: Collapsed Colonialism Inequality. The second story has to be a story that is central life, that is affirmative life, that enables us to weave and reweave and repair the web of life. And that's this story based on the concept of interdependence.
And that's the basic idea is that we're all enmeshed in this intricate web of interdependencies that incorporates humans and non-humans, and everybody in the spirits and the ancestors for many peoples, and that we have to accept that interdependence, and not separation is the real foundation of life, is the real essence of life. And hence we have to re-integrate the human, with the rest of enmeshment, of which we all exist. And so the second story is the second that allows us to develop a different ethics towards the earth, and towards each other, and ethics of care, and healing, and repair or the web of life.
[:[00:09:41] DM: I read Thich Nhat Hanh, a poet called Khabil. Buddhist philosophy really speaks to me.
[:[00:10:15] DM: Almost like the poets of the past pursue the present.
[:[00:10:23] DM: Nothing new. It could be like he's giving a lecture in Northrup Auditorium last week, and he passed away in the late eighteen hundreds.
[:[00:10:32] DM: Tagore, T-A-G-O-R-E Rabindranath. Tagore is a poet, and a writer, philosopher, thinker, brilliant.
I'm trying to not become cynical. I’m trying to remain open and vulnerable, and soft, and every time I go into listen to poets and poetry, it aids that process.
[:And in some ways, every betrayal is a collaborative effort. We can allow ourselves to be, or feel betrayed. Obviously betrayals occur all the time, but if someone steals a piece of your soul, you have a choice as to what to do with that in your life. And actually, a betrayal can hone idealism into something that is more useful, or can turn you into your shadow. Wouldn't you agree?
[:[00:12:17] BC: Yes. Absolutely, I sometimes wake up going, “whoa, what am I depressed? And what does that mean?” And there's a part of you that goes, “oh, no, we're not going there. We don't want, we don't want to be down.” And then you actually ask the question, actually, what is it I'm trying to avoid thinking about.
The other day, I watched out the window at two crows, one was being very mean to the other crow, and I knew that the other crow was wounded, and like a little crow metaphor translates to “oh yeah, some days I feel like that about the world.” One of my saving graces has been sitting and talking to people like you, who embody what's next. You're not looking out the back window of the car.
You have to reflect on the past, but you have to be going forward, and I know that's where you are, is going forward.
Part Five: The Caveat of Complexity,
[:[00:14:18] MN: For me that that's why the notion of self-awareness becomes so important. That's why. I feel like if you want to solve any problem at all, you just literally have to be able to look at yourself. The barrier is often to your own fear. It's often your own anxiety, not to change the situation. We have to look at those things very openly, and systematically, and very objective in order to solve the problem.
[:I actually had the picture of Kindi embracing a terrible person, doing something that for whatever it's worth changes, the state of affairs on the ground for people in the community. However that happens, you know, that the mother of the child who is struggling to move from first grade to second grade is not having a debate. They want their kid to be healthy, and happy, and thrive. That is it. Period. And nobody in the community should, haven't a debate about, am I safe? Do I have a future? That's it. That's it.
[:[00:16:33] BC: We're in it. We're all in it.
[:[00:17:15] MN: The idea of dreaming… One of our friends in Canada was saying that in this particular society, in this community, that dreaming was very much a job in that community for indigenous elders. So she's got this amazing project up that is all about the artists getting together and dreaming together.
Another thing that we learned from these artists in Canada called Primary Colors, which is worth knowing by the way, for anybody and the idea of witnessing the idea of there being three or four witnesses, who tell story at the end of the day, according to their own viewpoint. At the end of every day of the Directing Institute, we end with these elders getting up. And so we had a Japanese American elder, an indigenous elder, African American elder, and everyday one of them would get up and say, today, this is what we did.
[:[00:18:14] France Trepanier: It goes back to the epistemological understanding of memory.
[:[00:18:25] France Trepanier: Like what is memory, and what is it that we want to remember and for whom and how. So if she'd come from a culture that is based in orality, the responsibility of remembering takes a very different shape, right?
We're on the west coast of Canada right now, where in some communities here there's a function for people, there’s a role that is called witnessing, they are witnesses. And it's a real thing. It's not just “oh I was there.” It's people that have the responsibility of remembering an event, and all its details-
[:[00:19:09] France Trepanier: all from memory. And those people, when you accept the responsibility of being a witness, you can be called upon by that community, as long as you live, and you have a responsibility of transmitting that memory to the people after you.
So there's a huge, like millennial tradition of how we handle memory.
[:They come out of that same source because, it's that conversation with the gods. Dipankar and I went in India several years, and we observed this person becoming occupied by the goddess. And it actually happened on the beach, there was no witnesses, we were actually sitting then. This was not theater for somebody, it just happened to him. And we saw this happening. It was the most amazing sight in the whole world.
It really just reminds you of the actor actually dressing up for a full six hours, putting on his mask, wearing all the layers of the costumes, the paint, [etc]. And then finally praying to the lamb before getting on stage. It's that psychological space that an artist needs to get into, in order to embody and honor wherever it is that they are becoming on stage. So to me, that is such a huge and beautiful part of theater. That's something we can learn from and humble ourselves.
[:[00:21:20] DM: You never left. I caught you. I notice you're in our consciousness Bill, and my request to you on the, these COVID times really I you just be alive.
[:[00:21:34] DM: It is so wonderful to miss you Bill, I missed you.
[:Change the Story, Change the World is a production of The Center for the Study of Art and Community. Our theme and soundscape are created by the brilliant Judy Munson, and our senior editor is Andre Nnebe. Our FX department lives on the web at freesound.org, and our inspiration as always comes from the mysterious lurking presence of Uke 235.
Thanks to you for tuning in and please keep safe. Stay well and spread the good word.
