Breaking Ice - Chapter 2

Fear of judgement, the courage of sharing pain, or guilt, or confusion, owning that not knowing is not an excuse for hurting, that humility is hard, that learning hard things is harder, and accepting responsibility is a daily struggle. This is the rocky relational landscape being explored by five BreakIng Ice performers on a bare stage at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. louis, Missouri in the winter of 2019.

LISTEN TO Breaking Ice Chapter 1

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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.

Breaking Ice - Chapter 2

[00:00:13] Ashanti Washington: I think it's important to name what you're afraid of. What are you afraid of?

[00:01:02] BC: Fear of judgement, the courage of sharing pain, or guilt, or confusion, owning that not knowing is not an excuse for hurtful actions, that humility is hard, that learning the hard things is harder, and accepting responsibility is a daily struggle, is not a destination. This is the rocky relational, emotional landscape being explored by five BreakIng Ice performers on a bare stage at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. louis, Missouri in the winter of 2019. Despite this the 300 or so staff who have been listening for the past 45 minutes are being more than just a polite audience, in fact, they are into it. This is probably because they recognize the hopes, and fears, and truths and confusions being shared on stage as their own.

In that moment all of the actors rise and stand facing the audience. The actor playing Suzanne continues. But her stance is different. More present.

[00:02:20] BC: Now as Dr. McElroy steps forward to speak. It's clear. That the

the committee chair steps forward to speak its clear that the confused and somewhat defensive doctor we have been watching in this diversity committee scene is fading and the actor who has been playing him is kind of testifying, and actually breaking what is referred to as the fourth wall — which is the invisible barrier at the front of the stage that separates the make-believe world of theater from the real world.

[00:03:20] BC: Listening to him. I'm acutely aware that over the last 45 minutes how much I've come to dislike his character, actually, all of his characters. But now hearing him describe his fears. His paralysis. I feel like he's been. Reading my mind. The actor playing Ashanti (C. Michael Menge) 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: This type of powerful I am afraid monologues by all five Breaking Ice actors concluded our last episode. But as you will hear there is much more to this story.

Another longer scene is playing out on stage. The actor who played DeAndre in the last episode is a stay at home husband talking, no arguing with his physician wife. It’s not going well. She is two hours late and he is angry that she didn’t return his increasingly frantic messages. She reminds him that phones are prohibited at the hospital.

But this is just the trigger for a deeper set of wounds. They go back and forth in increasingly fraught circles of hurt and blame. He says he feels ignored, “like a single parent” caring for Nina, their daughter. She bemoans his lack of support and his “mansplaining.” He protests that he “gets it” that she has a tough job, but that he has given up a lot, for her dream of being a doctor and feels short changed.

It is clear that the dam is breaking for her and she is ready to burst. Her raw vent cuts across the auditorium as she makes it clear that there is no way that he gets it, painting an anguished picture of how that dream is actually playing out.

[00:06:12] C. Young Doctors Husband: and I don't, I'm,

I…my day today, I have, I have been working with this patient, this child who I've been treating, and we've built this really great rapport between us, and today the parents found out that I'm Mexican, and so they asked for a different doctor. And I, I just, I am so tired and I'm trying so hard to make it all work.

[00:06:53] Young Doctor’s Husband: But it's not working.

[00:07:00] Young Doctor: I know.

[00:07:06] Young Doctor: I don't know what to do.

[00:07:29] Young Doctor’s Husband: Me neither.

[00:08:27] NR: That's why the people in the room are so important cuz we are relying on each other's different perspectives and lived experiences and intersectional identities to help, make sure that we're honoring the complexity of these issues too.

And not squashing everything into, “If we could just be nice to each other, then everything would be great,” and really, being able to show where we're bumping into each other and, and who that's harming the most and why that's harmful in that moment. And, and not solving it, but watching people reckon with it and deal with the, the mess and the fallout in real ways, like people do, you know.

[00:09:30] BC: Now, back on the BJC stage the young doctor steps forward. As I watch her wiping her tears I find myself wishing for a way out of the emotional dead-end we have all just traveled together. She obliges:

“But you're something right? Could you make yourself sound a little more authentic?” I am from deep breaths and trying hard to figure out who I am in a country that is constantly questioning my identity. I am from my grandmother who taught me many things, but above all, To never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever pluck out my eyebrows.

She is followed by the actor, Mikell, who played her husband. He describes his roots in Alabama, being the only actor in his family and the strange experience of coming to Minnesota and where snow is not an anomaly and people who look like him are few and far between.

They say, “the black of the berry, the sweeter the juice.” I say, “the darker the flesh and the deep of the roots.” I hear from living in Alabama and making the conscious decision to move to Minnesota from the blazing heat to the extreme cold. What I thinking,

I am from the country. I am from Alabama, but a lot of people still choose to pronounce it as “Alabama.”

I am from two plus two is….

…is addition.

I am from that joke, usually not landing.

[00:12:25] Noël Raymond: I am from women who determine their own destiny without ever hearing the word Feminism from Anna who got on a boat by herself at 20 and lived to be 104 in America from birth of Virginia, who raised five children.

And from my 15 year old daughter's, crazy long legs and complete disregard for all rules. I am from my four year old son's question at the dinner table about whether our family would have to split up if there was a gay marriage ban. I am from..crying through my I am from. I am from being granted the right to marry a few months before my 25th anniversary, and feeling very conflicted about whether I wanted to join a club and adopt the norms that had excluded me for so much time.

As company member C. Michael Menge begins their I am from ... the story in the room completes its shift from “the actors up there” and the audience down below to “hey, here we all are in this big space”, fully dismantling that fourth wall.

BC: With that the five actors move forward together to the center of the stage and begin to drop a beat. Thallis Santesteban the actress who played the young doctor speaks directly to the audience.

BC: Noël , steps up

Then Mikell Sapp, the Alabama transplant, intones the French poet, Guillaume Apollinaire

[00:14:35] All: It's too high, too high. Come to the edge. Woo. Ball, come to the edge. And they came and he pushed them and they flew. Thank you,

Thank you, Thank, thank you.

[00:15:06] Noël Raymond: A really warm and receptive audience. First thing on a Monday morning. Hi, my name's Noël le Raymond. I'm the co-artistic director of Pillsbury House and Theater of which Breaking Ice is a program.

As Terry said at the beginning, this is, I think, the fourth time that we've actually been to St. Louis to work with BJC, and a lot of the content that you saw today was created out of conversations that we've had, um, with BJC folks. So we, we really appreciate the opportunity to learn more about you. And in that vein, We are about to launch into the second half of what we're here to do today, which is to facilitate a conversation that you all have with each other.

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?

[00:16:11] Noël Raymond: So we throw a lot at you super fast. Um, so I would love for you just to sit and get quiet for a minute. For what, for about 10 seconds and see what, what's buzzing, what resonated, what felt familiar, what bugged you, what stuck.

And then when you have that, turn to the two or three people closest to you and just share what those are. And then we'll come back as a big group. Uh, in three or four minutes. Okay. Ready, set, go.

BC: Within 30 seconds the big hall transforms from an uneasy silence to a cacophony of chatter. I look across the room. Faces are animated, talking, smiling, laughing, listening hard.

The woman on my left turns and introduces herself as MarIy, in Home Healthcare. A middle aged man next to her with sandy hair smiles and holds out his hand. “His name is Steve. I reach over and shake it.

I introduce myself and ask if they work together.

“Yea, We’re office mates. But actually we don’t spend much time here at the hospital. We’re mostly in people’s homes, so a lot of this is kind of turned around.”

I turn to them both, “How so?”

Marly smiles, “Well, patients here are visitors and this place can be kind of intimidating. But in our case, we’re the visitors and they are on their home turf. Most often, If we mess up, they let us know. We have to learn fast.”

Steve continues, “This whole thing today is about trust. Especially for us, If our patients don’t trust us then we can’t help them, and that’s our job.”

BC: Noël ’s echoing voice pierces the clamor.

Noël Raymond: So if I, if I could have everybody's attention back up front.

I can tell you want talk, which is awesome. I hope that you continue these conversations. but I want to move us through, um, the rest of the dialogue.

Uh, so, um, I wanna ask a few people to share out what you were talking about and, um, throw your hand way up high. If you have something to share. What, what resonated? What stuck?

[00:18:40] Noël Raymond: See now here's where everybody goes silent. Because, everybody was talking. We saw you in here.

Audience Member: Yeah. When we were talking, um, something that resonated with me was as a nurse and I grew up in forest Ferguson, and when the Ferguson riots happened the next day, I was out at the first day, and helping whoever needed it. But honestly, as a white female, it was, “Why are you here?”

You know, there's a lot of things that I think all of you brought to light as we discussed, that are kind of things that people don't really talk about. And I think that's one of 'em is, you know, if they're helping let them know, you know, yeah. The intent, your intent, I don't care. Your ethnicity, your sexual orientation, and whatever. And I think people miss that. The kindness. The kindness does matter. And I mean, that was something that I just care about.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And it's complicated though, right? Because the, there's lots of situations where somebody might not be safe, and so trying to create a context and be clear about what allyship means in that moment and be able to to express that that's why you're there, Um, might help mitagate some of the fear around what your, what ulterior motives might be based on previous experiences.

BC: This back and forth brought to mind something we used to call the “do-gooders dilemma” when I worked in prison. Some volunteers would complain about prisoner’s “lack of gratitude.” Of course, everybody likes to be acknowledged for their good deeds, but when one of my prisoner mentors’ heard this he responded with characteristic bluntness, “Hey, If your looking for props, you came to the wrong place.”

Noël points to a woman raising her hand on the left side of the room.

And so people can really be honest about how they feel if they have fears and just what's going on. Even like, um, some of the response you were saying, well, I don't know the answer. I don't, I don't know where to go left or right, but at least just acknowledging that is a good place to start.

And, that's part of what we hope, you will start practicing here is like thinking about how is it that you create an inclusive environment where it's okay to slip up, because we all will, where it's okay to say, “I'm afraid to do this because of this” and not have that meeting like at water cooler, where people will just say, good luck with that.

Right, and not have that shut down relationship, but create a space where it's okay to be told that you did something wrong and to accept that, and then change your behavior. Right. Great.

BC: After a few more comments from the audience Noël moves from reflecting on what what stuck to what people were feeling during the performance.

Noël Raymond:. Well, I'm, I'm gonna move us forward and just ask what kinds of emotions did this bring up for people? Just popcorn. Just throw 'em out. “Wow.” Oh, wow. “emotion.” Wow. “sadness” sadness, gratitude, “gratitude,”guilt, “guilt.” What else? This side of the room didn't feel anything, “frustration,” frustration, “uncomfortable,” uncomfortable, “hope,” “empathy,” “hope,” “grief,” grief.

BC: the dozens of theater artists who have shared the Breaking Ice stages over these many years share a belief that their craft is not just a delivery system for do-gooder messaging about the harm wrought by discrimination and bias. They have a common understanding that the true-to-life stories, and recognizable characters they bring to these workplace stages allow connections and insights that are not possible using traditional instruction. Noël Raymond extrapolates.

But it feels like really to change things substantiall, and disrupt some of the ways that harm is being perpetrated inside organizations and person to person, if not more systemically, we have to get to people's hearts. We have to get them to care. They need to really believe that they have a stake in it.

BC: At BJC, One woman's response to Noël s question about the emotions engendered by the performance dramatically reinforced this point.

[00:24:06] Audience Member: For me it was everything. It was everything. All the thing everybody talk about because you really tackle everything that we live in today in this political environment and which was very important to us to hear. At the same time, what do we do after here is what I'm thinking about.

Yeah. And being an immigrant, people don't know how you, when you open your mouth, how they look at you, how they behave for you.

To me it was a very, very emotional, in every way I think my eyes are wide from the paper I used. Cause we don't talk about it. And when you bring it out, you are the one, the evil one, talking about somebody, uh, addressing you with things.

And I'm having a meeting with somebody who I thought did the same thing to me today. and it give me a way to go and talk to him about what I really feel Right, to put it out there, because we have to be strong enough to start the conversation, even though if its uncomfortable for the other party, because I have to also consider my own health because it is not healthy to hold it in.

Yes. That is not just from outside is we bring that to. Yes. I don't want to take all your time.

So, so, a number of things. I wanna say, so, that emotion is important, right? And you are healthcare folks, we're, we're emotional beings. We cannot separate how we feel from who we are. We cannot leave it aside before we go to work. And especially as leaders and managers, paying attention to how you make people feel, and the work culture you're creating in whatever sphere of influence you have, that's really important.

And paying attention to how people feel. You know, there's that Maya Angelou quote:

“People won't remember what you said. They won't remember what you did, but they will remember how you made them feel.”

Right? So, how do you get super curious, as leaders, about making people feel awesome. “Wow.” All day, every day.

Um, what is it that you can do? What is within your control to create a space where people feel good, where people feel free to say, when you've slipped up, where people are, getting really curious about each other and trying to come together. Um, rather than getting worried about how, how you might be slipping up and creating an environment where everybody has to stuff everything.

Right? And, the other point that you so beautifully and eloquently brought up is that this is a practice, right? Where nobody's gonna get this diversity, equity, and inclusion stuff right? Today or tomorrow, or three years from now. It's about really taking it, and changing your behavior and thinking about how this becomes something you do every day, that is practiced as leadership right?

BC: This point about leadership and practice is the heart of what has emerged over their thirty years of working in the DEI field as the Breaking Ice practice. A practice which brings theater into the workplace, not as a lecture, or a mandated training, but as a hands on collaborative learning experience. Kurt Kwan explains:

If you watch it on a screen, that's a little different. If you hear about it, that's also very different. Right. Noël and I were having a conversation about grounding the work because there are so many new, variables within the workspace, the culture space, the political space, all those pieces.

And how do we, not just pedal, you know, “Be nice to each other.” This is diversity, how are we on the front edge of that? And really helping people get to that space where they understand what the work is in the future and all those pieces.

And what Breaking Ice does, and what theater does is really showing in human ways the impact on the people who are being crushed. You know? I mean, that's what we do, I think if you see someone being crushed, however you feel about them externally, all the labels you attach, there's a different sort of impulse I

There is a saying; The more i know of our story, the less likely I am to fear you, hurt you, that I think rings true in many cases. Another way of putting it might be that learning about each other expands our common ground and shrinks areas of potential conflict or misunderstanding.

Its striking then, in high stress, collaboration intensive workplaces like hospitals and schools, and corporate how little people really know about each other, beyond the transactional framework in which they operate. In their conversations with workers, concern with disconnected, impersonal nature of the workplace is a common theme. Its not surprising then, that each Breaking Ice performance concludes with an invitation to create and then share a personal "I am from”...poem

The only rule is every line starts with I am from, and it's honest. It's about you. and if you're about to write down, or think about something like I am from my mom, I would encourage you to go a little bit deeper and really think about what, what are the, the people, the context, the geography, the culture that has influenced how you show up as you show up in relationship with people each day from the time you were born until the moment of you sitting here now.

And just, try to come up with four to six lines. Then I'll start with “I am from…" I'm gonna give you three minutes,

I just wanna unpack that a little bit. So what was, what was that like either thinking about your I am from story sharing your I am from story hearing other people's, I am from stories.

What? What was that like? Emotional. Emotional, enlightening. Eye. Eyeopening. Eyeopening. Yeah. Thank you. Cathartic. Cathartic. Personal. Personal, burdening, lifting, burdening lifting. Yeah. Yeah. Great. So that was 10 minutes of your life. And in that, how, how many of you found out something about the people sitting next to you that you didn't know?

BC: Most of the people in the room raise their hand.

Noël Raymond: How many people found points of connection that you didn't know you had?

BC: Again hands pop up all over

Noël Raymond:, Yeah, so the, so in 10 minutes, That exercise helped you create relationship and be vulnerable and courageous in a way that I would posit as the way you start this diversity and inclusion work, right? That, that this is the space where you wanna be in order to be able to say who you really are and how you really feel and, and show up fully at work.

Um, and that “I am from…” exercise, it's both about ha having you really think about, who you are and what makes you you, and what makes you show up.The way you show up.

But it's also about identifying those unconscious biases, right? What are your gaps? What are the things that are shaping how you are perceiving everybody in all of the situations that you're in? And how do you bring those to the level of awareness? So you're making conscious choices about those things, right?

So my last question for you all before you're released, done to your Monday day is, um, what are you gonna do?

So how do you take whatever experience you've had here today and think about how to turn this into a practice with what you have control over the assets and the sphere of influence that you actually have some control over. How do you think about making this active?

BC: Noël points to a hand waving in the back of the room

[00:32:40] Noël Raymond: Yes, that exercise does not belong to us and we've used it in many, many, many different contexts. What else, what else can you do?

BC: Another audience member stands.

Audience Member: Um, I think that like you mentioned, having space to, to really work on this, um, cuz it does take time and also grace. And understanding that people are gonna slip up and just having that, um, just that kindness and most respectful interpretation of and helping people along, we're all in it together.

BC: Heads are nodding as Noël points to woman in the corner of the room

Noël Raymond:. What else?

Audience Member: I'm seeing, um, actual like bubbles that say I am from love people's heads and kind of keeping that image front of mind so that as you're interacting with others, recognizing that they're coming from a lens and a perspective and what they may or not looked at the door that day. Um, and extending that grace now to amen it to yourself.

Noël Raymond: And we're all way more layered than we visibly present, right? there's lots of ways that you can go learn things There's lots of ways to put yourselves in context. Where you are, uncomfortable in order to practice moving through that discomfort with grace. There's lots of ways that you can bring up these kinds of conversations to make it easier for other people to actually have them.

And there's lots of ways that you can, um, model that kindness and that respect and that inclusion in the way that you interact with all of the people that you interact with on a daily basis.

Right. I'm seeing people pointing is somebody got a hand? Yes. Okay. Sorry.

Noël Raymond:. Great. Get really super, genuinely interested in finding out who people are. Right.

BC: Noël steps back a bit and bows slightly to the audience

Great. I, I am gonna say goodbye and thank you so much. We so appreciate the energy and the vulnerability that you have shared with us this morning.

BC: With that she turns to an elegant black woman who has been standing in the wings and holds out the mic

Jada Reese: Hello everyone. I'm Jada Reese and I have the privilege to lead HR for home care, behavior, health, and corporate health. So I wanna first exhale and thank you all for being here. I mean, was that not one of the most powerful things you've experienced truly in your adult life?

Right? And so one thing I'd like to do is just take a minute to just exhale again together.

I had tears, and this is not my first time seeing this. Um, my colleagues had tears. It is just something when you think about the human spirit, because that's really what we're talking about. And so we wanna thank you all for being so vulnerable and leaning in, because that's really what this is about. Our CEO talks about the platinum rule. To Candace's point, I came from an era of leadership where you didn't talk about what was happening at home, it was about work.

Didn't want to know your personal life, right? And now we're saying we have to know that because that's who you are. It has to come in without judgment. Right? That story about the wife and immigration in hr, we see that all the time and it's a scary time for us and in healthcare, we have to know who people are.

We have to know one another. We have to embrace 100% of one another in order for us to do our best work. Would you agree? So as leaders, when we think about what is next, each of us has a little drop that we can put into the pond to make the ripple.

BC: For Breaking Ice, this is the kind of conclusion to a performance that they hope for but truly have no control over. They know that the story of their being here is a very small moment in the life of an organization like BJC with a $6 billion budget and 27,000 employees. But they also know from their many years doing this work that the ripples that Jada Reese referenced are real when they are Owned and nurtured and supported over time by leadership. Here's Kurt Kwan:

I think that knowledge is out there and is being passed around as well. So I I'm really heartened every time a leader comes in and says, “I'm about it. I'm here. I'm learning with you.” And I think that's also notes that change in leadership, especially corporate leadership, which was heavily top down, right.

In all aspects. And lateralizing that leadership and identifying many different types of leadership has also been, you know, in tandem with this work as well.

BC: Noël sees the long term relationships they with have with these committed leaders as equally critical making an impact on large systems like BJC.

And so, they want everybody to have had this as a base common experience. And a way to reference, like Kurt said, that aesthetic distance that thing that they did in Breaking ice, that's this thing right here, right? To be able to, to name, “Remember when that actor did that thing”, or “They said that in that meeting,” or “When they called out white privilege and that's what's happening right now”

Often we are part of, an ongoing thread in organizations for multiple years.And I feel like we're colleagues with the DEI folks for the length of time. And I also feel really, responsible to help them be successful in what they're trying to do, and that what we bring adds value, and does, and boosts and amplifies their work.

BC: This has certainly been the case in t heir relationship with BJC Healthcare. When this visit, their fourth, concludes they will have worked with all of company's senior and mid management level employees, and plans for continuing to spread the Breaking Ice wealth are in the works.

Post Script: Needless to say, when the pandemic hit, America's healthcare sector shifted into a crises mode and large scale in-person programs like Breaking Ice were halted. True to their nature though, as resilient, adaptive creators the Breaking Ice team produced an an online version of the show that was performed for a BJC affiliate, and many other organizations.

Doing this was both a challenge and a revelation. It reinforced the company's firm understanding that there is no substitute for the dynamism of live theater. But, it also showed how virtual programing could help extend the power of their work. An example is a short addition to the I am afraid… piece that concluded our previous episode and is referenced at the top of this one. It was created by company member Aimee Bryant. It is called, I am not afraid…

Aimee K. Bryant: I am not afraid. I am not afraid of your fear of me, and I am not oblivious to the danger that that fear poses. I know hatred. I know brutality. I know discrimination. I know systemic oppression. I know slavery, and the middle passage, and lynching, and Jim Crow, and redlining, and the preschool to prison pipeline, and the achievement gap, and mass incarceration, and the war on drugs, and the war on poverty, and how the American Injustice system applies to just us.

I know blackface, and Backstreet Boys, and Macklemore, and I know Ben Carson, Clarence Thomas, Diamond and Silk, Kanye West. I know, we know. But I also know that in the words of Ntozake Shange, we have never met an enemy that we cannot outlive. So, I am not afraid. I'm not afraid because I know who we are. I know that we are powerful. I know that we are creative. I know that we are resilient. I know that we are beautiful. I know that we are indomitable,

So I am not afraid. We're here and we're not going anywhere. So I'm not afraid. I'm ready.

BC: Change the Story / Change the world is a production of the Center for the Study of Art and Community,

Our heartfelt thanks to the dozens of committed creative change agents who have worked over the years to hone and present Breaking Ice to audiences all across the US.

Our theme and soundscape spring forth from the head, heart and hands of the Maestro. Judy Munson. Our text editing is by Andre Nebbe. Our effects come from freesound.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.