Arriving at the Cahuenga Public Library right on time at 3:30pm, Imagine East Hollywood: Autobiography of a City officially began.  Although our volunteers are numerous, this first day became my private testing ground.

I keep thinking back to Svetlana Alexievich, the journalist responsible for Voices From Chernobyl, and the obstacles she faced.  She had to contend with fear, with ten years of silence, people not knowing what they could or would say.  Incredible obstacles.  Questions about who she was working for?  What did she want from the people?

I ran into that a little bit today.  I had to gauge when to bring up the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council : some people enjoy the idea that I am a bridge to their neighborhood council.  Some were scared off by the idea.  Some need questions and some just need the freedom to talk.

My main obstacle is language, culture.  Starting Thursday, there are volunteers who speak languages besides English.  I really need them.  Not for translation, but for people to feel comfortable just approaching me.

The banner I envisioned is still in the works: the banner with “Imagine” in numerous languages, to be as inviting as humanly possible. Is a table at the library entrance too formal?  The longer I sit there, I more I just want to grab my flip camera and walk out to the streets.  just grab people as they walk by me—

How do you imagine your ideal neighborhood?

What do you want from your community?

What do you want for your life?

For your children?

to be continued as we Imagine East Hollywood…………………….

Tonight I await my partners in this crazy venture called Imagine East Hollywood.  In short, the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council asked me to collect interviews and present something to the Council in the vein of my project Voices From Chornobyl during the Barnsdall Art Gallery Fluxus Project.  Basically, I collect interviews and make a theatrical installation for the exhibit, so the EHNC can take their agenda from the people.  In a true fluxus spirit, during the installation (Jan-April 2010), museum-goers will be able to leave their own interviews/suggestions/ideas on how to improve their neighborhood.

This kind of work is tricky.  I thought the process of creating a stage piece from a book of interviews was difficult, but conducting the interviews myself is already turning into a huge exercise between objective and subjective reporting.

Yes, I have my own vision of what East Hollywood could be.  From one of our original meetings, however, the President of The East Hollywood Neighborhood Council, David Bell, said that Imagine East Hollywood “will enable the neighborhood council to connect with people in the neighborhood by listening to those peoples’ actual voices. Now, we’re imposing our vision onto this neighborhood instead of deriving our vision from voices in the neighborhood….The story is completely dependent on the real people living in the setting. Ours is the start of the political dialogue in the neighborhood. Starting a political dialogue has been difficult in East Hollywood. …connect the arts and politics in a tangible discussion.  By bringing these two projects together we will cancel out both of the alienating factors (inside of the theater and inside of neighborhood council).”

While planning for Park[ing] Day in late September, the team of people from the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council as well as volunteers engaged in a debate about the purpose of these interviews during Park[ing] Day, specifically.  You can watch the video detailing the Council’s hopes for a park where there is now a light yard here.

In fact, as I type I receive Twitter updates on the Council’s campaign for a park (#EHNC).

Imagine East Hollywood, though, is not about anything the residents don’t bring up.  Let me put that in a more positive (and grammatically correct) light: Imagine East Hollywood is about what the residents WANT it to be about.

The entire title of the project is Imagine East Hollywood: Autobiography of a Neighborhood.  I am not writing it; I will create the piece based on what residents say.  Those who are stakeholders in the neighborhood will give us the story.

I soon will have dates scheduled with the Cahuenga Public Library on Santa Monica near Vermont for conducting interviews, which can be done anonymously or with your name attached.  We seek more public venues and all we need is a table and foot traffic.  All interviews are voluntary.

If you’d rather submit your own video or otherwise answer the question: what would you like your neighborhood council to do?  How would you like your neighborhood to change?  Then simply email us here .  Soon there will be a youtube channel where you can upload your own video as comments.

Want to volunteer?  We’ll need ‘em!  The meeting we had tonight at Sabor y Cultura was completely inspirational and eye-opening.  Some great ideas and considerations for the whole project!  Check back for updates or email and contribute your own interview!

What makes it a tweetpoem, you ask? 

It makes sense both backwards and forwards

********************************************

The Irony of L.A.

While cocooned within my station wagon    

And my cell phone tower    

Through my radio signal

Entwining myself with the world at large 

 Made longer by the lagging traffic 

 The Brief Los Angeles Evening

Whenever I get that look in my eyes, or hold up my head with my hands, a good friend looks me dead in the eye and says:

“What do you do all day?”

And I have to answer: Theater.  I work in a theater all day.

A major goal of my life accomplished before I turned 30.  Well, okay, right as I turned 30.

As much as I still need to trim back on the numerous projects I am developing, I can only be this proactive and productive because every day, I walk through and work among the Antaeus library.  Every day my main goal is furthering the mission: making classical theater relevant and alive in our community, our lives and our schools.

Every Tuesday and Wednesday nights I am inundated with artists who only want to better their craft, to stretch their classical theater muscles in Los Angeles.

Yeah, I am lucky.

Antaeus allows me the opportunity to learn from the masters, impart my own thoughts and insight, develop my own self as an artist and take risks on programming and audience development.

All that Antaeus demands from me in return is excellence.

Well, okay.  In exchange for more perks than I ever thought possible, all I must do is work in a theater all day.

Done.

Next?

I just returned from seeing Peace, an adaptation of the Aristophanes play by John Glore, Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza (the last three being Culture Clash).  Bill Rauch directed at The Getty Villa.

This play restored my faith in theater.

No hyperbole here.

The main ingredients?

*FUN*

*ENTERTAINING*

*SURPRISING*

*GREAT STORYTELLING*

Audience members laughed at different jokes, some jokes bombed, the actors surprised each other and everyone up there had a whole lot of fun.

Yet, within an immersion of plastic penises, blow-up dolls, beetles flying up to Mt. Olympus, I teared up.   I was moved to tears while characters longed for Peace.

Before I had time to think about it, the tables turned again and there was a wrestling match.

With a bear.  Wearing a UCLA t-shirt.

Then Peace arrived again in a completey new form.

My long run of seeing bad theater came to an end.  Not with a bang, but with a pop of a balloon dildo.

After a week of weddings, I feel even stronger about marriage equality.  I spent 16 hours last weekend at the OUT West Campaign Boot Camp to learn how I could help the fight for marriage equality.  The entire experience completely re-focused my attention on the subject, and then of course, “life set in.”  Other things became a priority, and for a few days I settled back into my life of artist, not activist.

Then my anniversary came.

I found out two great friends are engaged.

Two days later, I witnessed a friends’ wedding ceremony, which included an interpretative dance to “Sweet Child Of Mine.”

Being both part of this great union of marriage and witness to it, I am incredibly struck by how much ’marriage’ really means.  Before I got married, I wasn’t sure that it meant much more than a public declaration of complete devotion.  Before I got married, I wasn’t sure that it really meant more than living together, sharing the highs and lows and working/playing as a team.

We did that already, didn’t we?

The answer, of course, is yes.  My husband and I were already a team.  We were already in it for the long run and were already both great loves and great friends for each other.

Yet the act of marriage meant more to me than I ever thought possible.  It’s deeper than a declaration, more than public devotion.  There is no quantifying the feeling.  There is no logical reasoning.  It means something that cannot be explained or put into a box.

Very often since that OUT West Campaign Boot Camp, I stare at my husband and wonder how it would feel to be told that we CAN’T marry each other: that our love is wrong, evil and we shouldn’t feel this way.

That is why I can no longer separate the artist from the activist.

I don’t tell anyone how to live their life or who to love.  If you believe in this cause, your vote counts.

Your voice counts more.

Talk to people.  Show them this video.  Tell them why you believe in it.  Ask them why they don’t or why they are on the fence.

You don’t have to convince everyone.

Just let your voice be heard.

“Imagine if we just built bridges instead of walls.” -Carlos Ramirez

Out of all the possible advice I could give to newly engaged couples — and I have a lot to give — there are three top pieces:

1. The wedding is for you and your future spouse, NO ONE else.

2. Brides should create many collages of their dress before buying/settling on one.

3. Make your Officiate matter.

That last one is today’s topic:  Your Officiate.  Care about them.  Choose someone who cares about you very deeply.  We chose D Scott Ferguson, a musician who toured for a year with my husband, when they became very good friends.  Even though at any point in time, they live 3,000 miles apart, there is a great bond between the two.

A couple of months after Dan and I started dating, when it became clear that we were in it for the long haul, there was one step I had to take.  Some people have to meet the family, some people have to pass the best friend test, some people have to love the right movies, and what did I have to do?  Talk about Sondheim with D Scott.

If you know him at all, that’s kind of like talking Sondheim with Sondheim.  But I had proclaimed myself a Sondheim fanatic, so I had to prove myself.  D Scott didn’t demand it, Dan didn’t demand it.  I wanted to.

I believe the response was, “Well, she does seem to know her stuff.”

*Whew!*

A year and a half later, I’m on the phone with him discussing our marriage vows. 

 He sends us examples of what he likes from the typical ones and we find some mix  of the norm along with our own D Scott, then I throw a strange flower/herb ceremony I created into the mix, and D Scott miraculously merges it all into a flowing conversation with our family and friends.

Via his voice alone, we became husband and wife.  We just knew we were going to be fine.  How could you not feel that way, when faced with such a loving man who cared so much about his friends’ happiness, that he became ordained just for this moment, this one time in our lives.

Two days ago Dan chatted with D Scott because he is visiting in December and staying through February!  I have never been happier that Mary Poppins was touring through the Ahmanson–it means three whole months of time with our Officiate.

And today, on the third anniversary of such a wonderful day, I thank him.

And don’t just take my word for it…..

“You can engage, or you can be anonymous.

You can go outside your comfort zone and or you can just keep tweeting and hope somebody selects you from the other 1,000 choices they have.

Because at our core, the arts organizations we run are no different then a church, or a grassroots political organization . . . we are only as strong as the people that support us.”

Read the whole entry here: http://www.missionparadox.com/the_mission_paradox_blog/2009/09/organize-mobilize-.html

Arts Advocacy is a campaign.  It is a long-term effort that we must win.  It cannot be accomplished with online petitions, nor can we expect people to appreciate the value within art simply by the fact that WE find value within it.

“Failure is not an option.  But victory will not be easy.”

–Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire

As you may read in my previous post, I spent the weekend at a campaign boot camp.  We spoke of clear messaging and grounds roots canvassing to change people’s minds.  Finding out why people are on the fence on an issue and using that information: using it to find the right message for that specific group of people and the right messenger.

So how do we save the arts?  I suggest the same grass roots approach that the losing side to a ballot initiative campaign would take: a long-term attack which fosters those who already support, researches those who can be persuaded and find the right message to persuade individual demographics.  Those are the easy parts.  Then we must call canvass and use media to further our message.  We must CONVINCE people that arts hold great value and have strong arguments WHY.

Since the goal of the Arts Campaign will not be to win on one specific date, tactics must be altered, of course.  That might be exactly the problem, though; we have no deadline.  The only end date for Arts Advocacy is the inevitable day when no theater can keep their doors open because they failed to foster a new audience.

Maybe we need specific targets at least once a year and larger targets every two years.  Look at audience development long-term vs. purely for each specific six-eight week run of three to four shows a year.

More on this campaign after I research.

Last weekend I happened upon an event invitation on Facebook.  I rarely look at Facebook invitations in great detail, I do admit.  Facebook is usually where I go to waste time and not necessarily check my calendar.

Completely coincidentally, this was Labor Day weekend and I was having a lazy day.  I read this event invitation in great detail, because I had time.  It came from a group called All or Not at All regarding marriage equality.

Everything lined up: they were offering a boot camp on how to aid the campaign for a ballot initiative on marriage equality, it was in Los Angeles, it was my last free weekend for the rest of 2009 — then came the last item that usually prohibits me from attending such things.  It only cost $11.00 .

All of these factors rarely align in my universe.  I thought about it for five minutes, reviewed the website, the agenda for the weekend, double-checked my schedule, and registered.

The first day did not disappoint.  You can follow my live thoughts here: http://twitter.com/cindymariej

Basically, this boot camp challenges me to put my self where my mouth is.  My husband Dan and I host political events, I certainly support marriage equality, but short of signing an online petition and joining email lists, I have never really done much in the way of doing anything about it.

This boot camp really helps me understand tangible ways that I can help.  I’ll have a full report after the second and last day, but I do believe this experience ushers a new path for me and a clearer path for my art.