Pillsbury House + Theatre 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.

This is a 2 Part show. Here is a link to Chapter 2 and the Bonus Episode: Lorraine Hansberry @ Pillsbury House + Theatre - Gifted & Black

BIO’s

Signe V. Harriday is Artistic Producing Director at Pillsbury House + Theatre. Signe is a fierce visionary and powerful storyteller who crafts theatre that awakens our individual and collective humanity. As a director, multidisciplinary artist, activist, and facilitator, she uses theatre as a catalyst to ask questions about who we are and who we are in relation to each other.Past accomplishments include:

Associate Company Member of Pillsbury House Theatre.

Co-founder of Million Artist Movement, a collective of artists committed to Black liberation.

Co-founder of the award-winning synchronized swimming team, The Subversive Sirens.

Founder of Rootsprings Coop, a retreat center for BIPOC artists/activists/healers.

Co-founder of MaMa mOsAiC, a women of color theater company whose mission is to evoke positive social change through female centered work.

Core team member of REP Community Partners.

Signe earned her MFA in Acting at the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard and Moscow Art Theatre.

Current projects: Director of Bridgforth’s bull-jean stories, Associate Director of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower Opera, Choreography for Love of Silver Water, Playwright for Dysmorphia. Recent directing credits: Dining with the Ancestors, Fannie Lou Hammer Speak On It, Hidden Heroes

Noël Raymond is the Co-Artistic Managing Director at Pillsbury House + Theater. Noël 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.

Mike Hoyt: Mike is a visual artist and Pillsbury’s Creative Community Liason. For nearly twenty years he has been producing, managing, and directing arts-based community development projects and youth development programs, while making his own art in his community. Creating and facilitating unique shared experiences that connect diverse and often non traditional art audiences drive his art practice. Hoyt’s work has been exhibited locally and abroad at the Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Arts At Marks Garage in Honolulu, University of Hawaii Art Gallery, Pillsbury House + Theatre, Soap Factory, Soo Visual Arts Center, Intermedia Arts, Franconia Sculpture Park, Art Shanty Projects, and the Walker Art Center among others. He has received awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board, a Northern Lights.mn Art(ists) on the Verge Fellowship, a Jerome Visual Artist Fellowship, and a McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship.

Hoyt has the added benefit of raising a family three blocks from PH+T and is honored to have the opportunity to engage local artists and community members in creative practice towards the development of a vibrant and healthy community for all of its members.

Notable Mentions:

Pillsbury House + Theatre A cultural landmark at the crossroads of four historic and diverse Minneapolis neighborhoods, Pillsbury House + Theatre (PH+T) unites innovative human services with professional arts experiences for 30,000 residents who call the area home. A hub for transformational art that brings the public as close as possible to the best local talent while engaging important conversations that lead to positive change. Visit pillsburyhouseandtheatre.org for upcoming performances.

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.

Dakota Uprising / US- Dakota War: Viewed in a larger historical context, the Dakota War was part of a series of conflicts that have been called the American Indian Wars. These caused, together with starvation and disease, a massive decimation of the Indian population across the United States. Following these repeated attempts to destroy Native American populations, the United States government embarked on a policy of assimilation towards indigenous people into Euro-American society. These policies would remain in effect until well into the second half of the twentieth century.   

George Floyd: On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was suffocated by a police officer in Minneapolis, while three other officers looked on. This tragic murder was not a one-off or something that can be attributed to a rogue officer: George Floyd has joined a long list of black men, women, and children who have been killed in recent years by police officers in the US. (Here is a list of some of the names of black people killed by the police since Eric Garner's murder in 2014 and George Floyd's murder this year.) Protests have since erupted all over the world, not only in response to George Floyd’s murder, but also in response to the systemic racism that has devalued black lives,  and has left black people vulnerable to police brutality and inequality. In the UK, Black Lives Matter UK has organized countless protests in towns and cities across the country: people have taken to the streets in their thousands to not only demand justice for George Floyd, but also to call for an end to systemic racism. 

The One Parenting Decision that Really Matters, Atlantic Monthly, May, 2022: Summary) Parents make an estimated 1,750 difficult decisions during the first year of their kid's life. Almost none of them matter as much as parents think they do, writes Seth Stephens-Davidowitz in The Atlantic. But there is one decision that seems to have a substantial long-term impact on a child's wellbeing: where they were raised. Research suggests that the best cities can increase a child's future income by about 12 percent, for example. According to Stephens-Davidowitz's estimation, "some 25 percent — and possibly more — of the overall effects of a parent are driven by where that parent raises their child."

CSA (Community Supported Agriculture): Community-supported agriculture (CSA model) or cropsharing is a system that connects producers and consumers within the food system closer by allowing the consumer to subscribe to the harvest of a certain farm or group of farms. It is an alternative socioeconomic model of agriculture and food distribution that allows the producer and consumer to share the risks of farming.[1] The model is a subcategory of civic agriculture that has an overarching goal of strengthening a sense of community through local markets.[2]

Chicago Avenue Project: ince 1996, the Chicago Avenue Project has brought local youth together with the Twin Cities’ best adult playwrights, actors, and directors to create and produce original plays. The Chicago Avenue Project features two performances each year. For the spring performance, kids and their adult acting mentors star in 10-minute plays written just for them by adult playwrights. For the winter performance, kids and their adult playwriting mentors write 10-minute plays that are performed by adult actors. The result is original theatre that is heartwarming, hilarious, and infused with the brilliance of young minds. The project is not about teaching youth to perform, though they do learn acting—nor is it about teaching them how to write plays, though they learn that, too. The Chicago Avenue Project gives every child—no matter their circumstances—the opportunity to discover that they have a lot of creativity and value to offer.

What to Send Up When it Goes Down by Aleshea Harris: What to Send Up When It Goes Down is a play, a ritual, and a home-going celebration that bears witness to the physical and spiritual deaths of Black people as a result of racist violence. Setting out to disrupt the pervasiveness of anti-Blackness and acknowledge the resilience of Black people throughout history, Aleshea Harris’s acclaimed, groundbreaking play blurs the boundaries between actors and audiences, offering a space for catharsis, discussion, reflection, and healing. The play was created for a Black audience, but all are welcome. The intention of the play is to create a space for as many Black-identifying audience members as possible.

A Streetcar Named Desire: Streetcar Named Desire is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947.[1] The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of personal losses, leaves her once-prosperous situation to move into a shabby apartment in New Orleans rented by her younger sister and brother-in-law.

Williams' most popular work, A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the most critically acclaimed plays of the twentieth century.[1] It still ranks among his most performed plays, and has inspired many adaptations in other forms, notably a critically acclaimed film that was released in 1951.[2]

Pillsbury House + Theatre Chapter 1

But, before we hear from the folks at Pillsbury we invite you to take a brief step back in time

We know that finding the great herd and returning safe with our sustaining lifeblood will be difficult. We are a small, vulnerable tribe, We know that without the help of the gods, our story will end. Our Spirit leader ducks and swirls, dancing, and singing, amidst the flying embers connecting us to the powers we need to succeed. We also know Our next chapter depends on this dancer, singer, storyteller, healer helping us in our conversation with the spirits. And we are thankful.

Way, way, way back in the day, deep inside that pre-historic cave, that twisting, chanting figure, that pre-art artist had a big job. She not only tended the sacred fire, she healed the sick, nurtured the tribal story, sustained its rituals and celebrations, mentored its youth, and presided over all rites of passage: including birth, marriage, death and, of course, everything related the fertility of our lands and families

Now, as they say, times have changed. Our spears are certainly more efficient. It looks like Human beings have replaced herds of wildebeest as our prey. We also seem to have snuffed out the ancient ritual fire, and given the state of things, one could rightly say that we are once again on the eve of a crucial hunt. But unfortunately, the progeny of that whirling signifying conjuror artist is a stranger to the functional center of our communities.

But, what if that weren’t the case. What if there were places where those rapturous, spirit stirring, healing, story making, celebrating, teacher, problem solving, provocateurs, were welcomed as full partners in the essential work of building the beloved community. What if there were places where social workers, teachers, medical professionals, organizers, job counselors. youth, and child care workers, AND modern day community artists change agents worked side by side helping, healing and making needed change.

If you are a regular listener you have probably guessed that the “what if” I have posed is, in fact a real thing. If that’s the case, you would be right. But, the subject of this Episode, Pillsbury House + Theatre is not just a one off demonstration project or a pilot. It’s a long running, full time creative community center serving 30,000 people living in the Powderhorn and Central communities of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

This is Change the Story / Change the World, my name is Bill Cleveland.

Part One: Foundations

Over the past 13 years, this vision has become a reality. This means that human and health services have become a primary gateway for Pillsbury’s cultural work in the community and, the arts have become a catalyst for personal advancement and community development. At the ground level, this shows up as creative collaborations involving artists, and human services professionals, and community members across all of Pillsbury’s programs. Bottom line: Pillsbury House has shifted its focus from problem-based triage work to creative community development — from a work of charity, to a work of art.

Like most artistic endeavors, Pillsbury is a constant work in progress. This does not mean that they are mercurial or unpredictable. Quite the contrary, they are clear that both their priorities and their accountability are come from their relationship with the community and the integrity of their creative work on stage and in the streets. What it does mean is that they are constantly asking questions about the intentions and impact of their work.

BC: Welcome to the show. Where are you hailing from this fine morning?

Mike Hoyt: Yeah, we're speaking to you from the occupied Homeland of the Dakota, Ojibwa and Anishinaabe people in Mni Sota territories.

BC: So, if you don't mind, I'd like to begin by stating the obvious. We all know if you don't know where you are, it's pretty hard to get where you want to go. And I guess, another way of putting this is that if you don't know the story, of your place, you can't even begin to move that story to a better place. So we all know that some folks regard what is referred to as a land acknowledgement as a kind of pro forma, progressive ritual.

But I know for you and Pillsbury House paying respect to the land and its indigenous history is foundational to your work. Signe, could you speak to that?

Signe Harriday: As culture workers and, community members understanding who we are and where we are and how we are in relationship to the places that we. Is not only central to our work, but is a part of our past present and future. And I think as that relates to our siblings in indigenous communities, both in our close vicinity, but also across, these Midwests means that we have to understand that harm has happened. That genocide has persisted despite the dominant narrative, that harm did not happen. And as culture workers who aim to speak truth and invite our community into have difficult conversations, holding the complexity of being a land based center for community means that we have to wrestle with the continued legacy of colonialism, even as we strive to decolonize our minds, our work and our actions, and to situate ourselves and be humbled by the possibility of relationship and healing.

BC: Noël you want to jump in.

[00:10:01] MH: Yeah, it feels very much like it's shaping as a settler acknowledgement as well. yeah, right. Yeah. Um, you know, Pillsbury United Communities, which is the organization that we're a part of is over 140 years old. And it essentially became an organization at the same time that the city was incorporated. So that's only 10 years removed from the Dakota Uprising and the US- Dakota War. So the country, this region was very different. and the founding of this organization as an entity was enmeshed in all of that history.

[00:11:29] NR: And I'll just add to that. As you're talking about origin story, we've been doing an oral history project with some the U of M (University of Minnesota) and part of what they have found out in doing that work is the history of the original Pillsbury house, which was, in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood and, actually moved when that area started to be developed, by some folks who were looking to gentrify, that neighborhood

And as far as we can tell at this moment, Pillsbury was complicit in supporting that effort. and co-opting the voice of the community that was trying to work against that effort and moved in order to facilitate that development. Which is a piece of our history that I did not know, until the student really started looking deeply into that.

But, I think, you know, that's sort of emblematic of a lot of the ways that we're looking at our work these days is like to really deeply excavate what has been happening in community how we have been contributing to either the harm or the healing. And to try to firmly plant ourselves on the side of the healing while acknowledging and making up for the harm. which also, you know, given where we are located now, which is at the, Pillsbury housing theater, is at corner of 35th street and Chicago avenue, which is, in the neighborhood where George Floyd was murdered and the impacts of that event continue to resonate in our community and to, drive a lot of how, what, we're, what we're thinking about doing and how we're thinking about doing it.

SH: I think for me as an artist and a human being, I think I'm trying to live up to the dreams and the expectations of my ancestors and trying to create the conditions of a better world for my grandchildren. That's a little bit like the 10,000 foot view, but I think that inside of this organization, daily, we are setting a path towards that being responsible as an organization and a, and an interconnected group of people who recognize the role of art, the role of healing, the role of community in creating a better world — where everyone in community is valued, where people have the ability to make choices about their lives, who see power in their voice, who feel a sense of connection and compassion and empathy for others around them, who, who feel like they belong. And, I think that's the work that we have been doing and will continue to do. We can get into the specifics, but that's the 10,000 foot view from my perspective.

NR: Very simply I feel like what I see happening here every day and what I live into, intentionally every day. Trying to, connect people, to help people connect to one another and then resource them to dream up things they wanna do together and do it right to, to help people access their own creativity and their own power.

And then put some oomph, underneath it, leveraging whatever we can bring to the table to help manifest that. Oomph and, and telling stories and creating art that gives people, fuel for that. And inspiration for that is a big piece of what that resource is that we use as the Oomph.

[00:17:25] MH: It was essentially someone making the argument that the one single choice that parents can do for the benefit of their children, based on data and research, was choose where they live. And it was in a way talking about social determinants of health, and how your zip code is at least 60% of the impact, or, you know, whether or not you all graduate high school make a good living or whatever. But it was framed in the context of not challenging why people choose where they live. And really it was for me, I read it as a blanket approval for white flight, 2.0, right. Mm-hmm or class flight.

And, especially in this moment, in this time, in, our country. And so I agreed with the research on, in that zip code matters , but it completely voided the decision, or the choice that exists, as well, which is, to stay and remain in the community in which you live in and to raise a family if you choose to do so. And to be in conversation with your kids about the structural conditions that exist and what our role is, improving it for the people that we live amongst. And It was infuriating because that's that wasn't part of the equation, and I feel like that is so rooted in the work that we do here.

And that I think about as an artist is that we, we have accountabilities to one another to our communities and that what we practice as community members, or artists is that we practice neighboring. In all the sort of bountiful, full ways, generous ways that we can because we're committed to staying and we're committed to investing, not just in our families and our kids, but the outcomes of our neighbors and their neighbors and the people three blocks down. And so that's how I tend to think about the work, both in where I live, but also how I get to show up in this work at Pillsbury House and Theatre

[00:20:05] NR: Maybe, to make it clear, Pillsbury house and Pillsbury House Theatre coexisted in the same building at 35th in Chicago for a long time and mutually reinforced one another, but, weren't structurally together for a long time. So, Pillsbury House Theatre produced professional theater ,did some youth programs in collaboration sometimes with Pillsbury House. But, Pilsbury house had some more traditional social servicey, kinds of activities, based on funding and perceived needs over many years, all of which were important to the community. Everybody in this neighborhood has a story about the Pillsbury.

And so figuring out how to leverage creative practice, and add it to everything we were doing and help everybody in community access their own creativity has changed the way we are thinking about things. As you said, from a deficit model to an asset based model. And part of it was in response to this neighborhood had been characterized for a long time by the violent things that have happened here. Right at that time, there had been a stabbing, at 38th in Chicago, of somebody getting off a bus. And that narrative had dominated this community for a long time.

[00:22:34] BC: Part Two. "It's not hard to see it, when you see it."

BC: So I'm going to ask you to share some specific examples of all this, but, before I do that, Signe, for people listening to this who might be thinking, okay, you've got a social service agency and a theater. And at some point they're joining forces and I just don't understand how that translates on the street in the real world of human services and healthcare and all that. Could you describe how that marriage, how that integration works?

Or, for people who move through this space and then our community, that doesn't feel like an anomaly. It just makes sense to us. And so I think that's how it shows up. And for people who are less familiar, I would just invite people to evoke their own imagination. what would it feel like to you to be able to go to a place where people, treat you well, who greet you, who make you feel welcomed, who are, invested in helping you navigate a resource, perhaps, where you could bring an idea of something that you want to make or create, that you could be connected with other community members in conversation or through a memoir writing class.

Like we have for some of our seniors in community. And that, as you imagine what that might be like that place might also be where you get your taxes done, because that's a resource that's available here. Or it might be the place where you see that there are children there. So, you see that your neighbor had a baby and you're like, “Hey, if you're thinking about childcare, right up the street.” I think that it's not hard to see it when you see it.

And I think that compartmentalization of the nonprofit industrial complex, and the ways in which the medical industrial complex, and the prison industrial complex, and all of these things, invite a kind of segmentation of our lives into buckets that someone else needs to solve for. And I think what we see as thriving community is deep integration. And so that's what the work really tries to do. And art is the thread that binds us together. .

[00:25:45] MH: Yeah. And I would just add onto all of that. Sometimes we experience it even just with the artists that we work with. Or I've experienced this myself as an artist coming into a role here, or the teaching artists, for example, who maybe have trained in a very specific discipline, their careers. They've reached a level of rigor or mastery, and they're invited to, to step into a position that can encompass so many more things that are relevant to their lives, but maybe weren't relevant to their practice in a professionalized context. And I think that's what we all experience to a degree, and what people experience in relationship to their many entry points into the work here.

MH: And I think the exciting thing is that it can start at 16 months and end at 106, That the relationship can change and be multi-layered. but it will always be here. It just might take a different form depending on where you're at, in life as well. And where you feel compelled to connect to it,

And Signe, to your point about those institutionalized bubbles that people have to deal with whether it's healthcare or criminal justice or social service systems. Nobody in this community lives their lives in these separate compartments. A person's health and their work and their family situations are all interconnected. They're all one story. So it makes sense. That when you come through the door at Pillsbury house. Your whole story is welcomed and celebrated, and engaged in a variety of ways

SH: One of the things about this place that has been true for me personally and professionally, and I think it's true for, lots of people is that this is also a place where we recognize, our connection to things and people that have come before us. And to say that, as you were talking about people don't live their lives and buckets It in bifurcated ways, but we also don't live our lives in a singular moment. And I think what's exciting about Pillsbury house and theater to me is that this is a place where we are connected to legacies and ancestors and, and the past in a way that is not nostalgic, that's not romanticized, but is lived.

This building feels like a living archive. That is a place that vibrates, the experiences of so many people luminaries as well as, you know, regular folks.

BC: Oh, that's a great image. A living archive. Noël. How do you see that showing up in your everyday experience

And there might be a couple of folks, in a, in the adult day program for folks with, physical and cognitive disabilities. And so, the artists are moving through a whole world of life, which is very different than if you walk into a dark theater, with no bodies in it and no life happening.

And, we're on the, at the, stop on the busiest bus line in the city, at the corner of a busy bustling neighborhood where life is happening. and we hear from artists all the time that it makes such a difference to, to walk through and then carry that into the room where they're making the work. There's a tangible, resonance of that life inside the space where they're creating their work, that, that informs everything that happens. That gives them a feeling of who they're doing this with and for and about.

And, and I think that infuses everything. And the same for the little kids. They see all of. these adult artists, and then they're working with a teaching artist who can then reference this is what's happening. Sometimes they peek through the door and say, “Hey, what's happening in here?” you know. I mean, there's interruptions, but also connections being made all over the place that feels natural here.

[00:30:53] SH: And it's it sends these endorphins to your brain. everything's okay. Look at the children, look at the children.

But I think to what you're speaking to Noël, that's the gift too. Like I remember once, I think of myself as a social activist as well, and. an elder activist was saying, if you're not working with young people, then you have no business being an activist because who and what, and why are you here then?

And I think that's, what's so dynamic about this building is it is purpose grounding. if you are not grounded in purpose, being in this building will get you grounded in purpose because it's all around you, the whys and the how comes and the, for who, and that is a different way of approaching. I would say life and art and their inter commingling

Part Three: Stories

BC: So I'm gonna ask you to, add a dimension to this conversation, which is if there are some threshold moments, some stories, some events, some experiences that you've had, related to Pillsbury house and its work that really personifies what you're up to

They could have been running around. They could have been at the mall. They could have been, playing video games or just hanging out at the park, but they chose to come here to support, getting emotional, these kids. They actually didn't really have any connection to at all. But, it was because they had a connection to this place and to their experiences here.

And I think that they recognize the opportunity that was being presented for these, this next generation of younger performers who, were just taking this bold step onto a stage in front of an audience. And those are the moments that remind me of the thing that Signe spoke to around how time and relationship are, it's not just this moment.

[00:33:39] BC: Big time! And, you know, what those kids were doing was taking place in a moment of shared meaning of community across time. It's about the history that Signe, that you referenced, as a connection to something other than how important you are. But actually a connection to the next generation of kids who were coming up because they knew what was happening on that stage.

I wish every kid had access to that kind of an experience.

And it was COVID. So we performed the play in our parking lot to the south of our building on Chicago Avenue. And there's so many things that were amazing about that. You know, audience members often said, “I came and got what I didn't know I needed,” in terms of how we move through, collective trauma that they're having access in a theatrical experience to think about transforming trauma into some moments of healing.

I don't wanna be, hyperbolic here. I don't think that we solved all the things, but we created a safe place for people to grieve and to laugh and to be together. And one of the parts of that project that I don't often talk about, but is really exciting to me, was when we were performing outside. Which means that there's speaker systems. and there's no covering around the swear words or the music or the screams or the laughter.

Black people, Black people!

We are going to get in so much trouble for getting together like this, Black people.

To bad, to bad, to bad!

This is my face. This is the only face that I have.

It literally poured out over into our neighbor's homes, their backyards, their kitchens. And we passed around some letters to our community, letting them know this was going to happen. But a neighbor who lives across the street, shared with me how much he appreciated being a part of that ritual over and over again, that he didn't have to be sitting in the actual ritual circle that we created, but to be adjacent to. It was powerful for him.

And I don't know that our neighbors are ready for that all the time. but I think for a neighborhood that has been reeling from the mounting traumas that this community has had to navigate over the last two years, it brought healing to more than just everyone in that circle. And I, that's something that, that feels just really special.

[00:36:56] NR: And I've got one from way back, We were doing a production of Streetcar Named Desire years and years ago, and a high school choir group bought out a weekend, matinee. And, the show started, and we got almost to intermission, and there was a whole lot of buzzing happening. And at intermission, I was in it, so I wasn't entirely sure what was going on.

But at intermission stage manager came back and said, “They don't think they can stay through the rest of the play. They didn't realize the content. They don't have the parental permissions for what the content is.” And we were like, “It's Streetcar.”

But, so we ended up stopping the show and instead of the students leaving we had a big old conversation about art and the complicated themes in art and of that play and why it's important. And, and again, I feel like that could have left everybody feeling like robbed of something, the artists and the, audiences, but instead it created a connection and was a super powerful conversation that brought us all together after a moment of intense friction.

And I feel like, again, that's a emblematic of our approach to things, we wanna figure out how we all do this together. And not just do our thing and have you consume it. Or take your thing and present it, but really make this for of us.

This isn't revolutionary. This is common sense. This is actually what an a village, a neighborhood, a community needs in order to thrive. And if it's not happening, that's a red flag.

And, but one year, my, my neighbor across the alley, Robert, he works for the city. he works in the recycling waste management for the city. And one day he rolled by and gave a shout out and waved from his truck. And 20 minutes later, he was parked on the side of the road, bringing two dozen hot dogs, and buns just to throw on the grill, cuz he recognized that, “Hey, this is something that's in my neighborhood and this matters. I'm gonna go off my route. And probably, , make someone's recycling late that week just to be part of this thing.”

And it, those are just the small moments and gestures. But I think that they're the sort of cumulative impact of making those choices that are a little outside of what we think we should be doing or. What's expected of us.

These stories, bring us to the end of the first of our two Pillsbury focused episodes. In our next episode, we'll explore how the past two tumultuous years of the pandemic, and the continuing impact of the George Floyd story has effected Pillsbury house and the community, it serves. We'll also hear how these momentous events are helping shape what comes next in the Pillsbury saga.

Until then, this has been Change the Story, Change the World, which is a production of the Center for the Study of Art and Community. It's written that hosted by me, Bill Cleveland, and our theme and soundscape are by the fantabulous Judy Munsen. Our editing is by Andre Nnebe. Our special effects come from freesound.com and our inspiration rises up from the mysterious, but ever present presence, of UKE 2 5. Until next time, please stay well, do good, and spread the good word