If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time.  But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together. – Lilla Watson

VALUES

Here are a few of the guiding values that I bring to my work...

• Creativity is central to healthy lives.

• Telling stories brings us closer to knowing each other and ourselves.

• Building community is a radical act in a capitalist culture.

• Deep listening.

• Reflection is key to learning.

• Meet people where they are.

• Transparency and celebration of those that have influenced my art and life.

• Collaboration and dialogue. I can't do what I do without it.

• Radical hospitality and belly laugher. (I don’t know if that’s a value or practice… but it’s important to me. I mean look at that apron!)

• I am striving to create a more just and equitable world through my art and daily practices.

ROOTS

• Southern. Green bean casserole and buttermilk cornbread cooked in cast iron. Whoopie Pies!

• Rural. Sunday drives on the Blue Ridge Parkway and springtime that smells like cow shit.

• Urban. New Orleans, Baltimore, Detroit, Atlanta, Seattle, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Honolulu. Simultaneous immersion and scratching the surface.

• Political. Heated family discussions about the role of government and learning how to love and disagree at the same time.

• Les Mis and Pink Floyd's The Wall. Musicals lead me to community-based social justice theater.

• Alternate ROOTS. Member of a participatory democracy at work.

ART and IDEAS INFLUENCES

ArtSpot Productions, Bob Leonard, Cornerstone Theater Company, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Synchronicity Theater Company, Kathie DeNobriga, Lisa Mount, MK Wegmann, Mondo Bizarro, DXM Theatre, Jack Bentz, Megan Carney, Tufara Wallar Muhammed, Highlander Center, Sage Crump, Complex Movements, PearlDamour, Jeff Becker, Carol Bebelle, Mark Valdez, Network of Ensemble Theaters, Alternate ROOTS, M.U.G.A.B.E.E., New Paradise Laboratories, Honolulu Theater for Youth, P'AI Foundation, Junebug Productions and John O'Neal, Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble, NACL, The Conciliation Project, Team Sunshine, Nicole Garneau, Ricardo Levins Morales, Damon Gbuduala Azali-Rojas, Sarah Jawaid.