Where do I begin? Chicago. AMAZING. What a town. Public art is everywhere. 
Rode my bike along Lakeshore Drive, past the Chicago Yacht Club 
filled with sail boats, speedboats, dinghies and cruise ships and made my way to Navy Pier. For those of you who don't know about this pier let me give 
you the DL. 
1 Ferris Wheel, 1Super Swing Ride, a Fun Maze, 
tons of boat tours, restaurants, bars, The Chicago Children's Museum, the beautiful Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, another theatre space (sponsored by Pepsi) and more public art all situated on a boardwalk filled with people. People of all colors, shapes, countries, abilities, you name it this town is diversity. How refreshing!
I had a meeting at Chicago Shakes (yea, that's right, I got the lingo) but before then I rode back to Millennium Park. WOW. I arrived to hear an orchestra playing in the most amazing and uniquely designed amphitheatre. 
No bike riding allowed in the park so I walked around visiting all the works of art. 
There was a section of Chinese sculpture, these cool 4 story projection/waterfall towers (yes, I said projection and waterfall in the same sculpture) called The Crown Fountain. 
Two giant rectangles, lit up in rotating colors on three sides with the fourth side displaying the image of a Chicago local. Imagine a 4-story face with water spouting out of what is a mouth hole. This picture does not do it justice, but you can check it out on line here. And then, of course, there is the Cloud Gate or what locals call "the bean." 
One of the coolest structures I've ever seen. A big mirror shaped like a legume. What struck me most was how fun and alive the art in Chicago is. More public art Pittsburgh.
By then it was time to head back to Shakes and meet my fellow Fellows. I'm in awe of the group of people I share this round of Fellowships with. Though only three of us were at this first meeting (Bill Barclay, Ellen Lauren would join us later) I already feel someone is going to come around the corner and take the Fellowship away from me when they've realized their mistake. How the hell am I at the table with these awesome artists? Hoon Lee, with The Lark Theatre in NYC (you've probably seen him on TV) is working with Lloyd Suh (a playwright in know from my NYC days) to develop "framework" texts that mandate a personal connection. So no stage directions, character names, places, dates, etc. Nothing specific. The idea is that scripts can be wildly different depending on the imaginations of the participants. It's like neutral dialogue taken to the next level. Pretty cool. I'm totally not doing the project justice.
The other Fellow there was my new bestie Zishan. An incredible woman from Turkey now living in the US (16 years with La Mama) who is traveling all over the world to study with Muslim women in their homes, Muslim women out in the world and Muslim women in the context of ritual. She rocks my socks and I can't wait to go to NYC and work with her and I'm excited about bringing her to Bricolage to teach some workshops.
After our Fox briefing we had a giant peer session with all the more than 80 other grantees and alumni. TCG is amazing and gives all kinds of grants to different disciplines. Go to their website and check it out here. I met so many wonderful people in the New Generations and Young Leaders of 
Color programs from Cleveland, New York, Houston, Boston, California, Oregon, San Jose, D.C., and Minneapolis, New Mexico. And the Kennedy Center International group of amazing teachers, actors, directors, playwrights, AD's from Zimbabwe, Dominican Republic, Hong Cong, Moscow, Paris, Philippians, Syria, India, Columbia and beyond. Totally inspiring to be in such a diverse group. I was overwhelmed.
The peer session was led by Daniel Banks a super cool cat that should come to Pittsburgh and lead some workshops. I'll get his info to you. He started off talking about the direct relationship between dialogue and healing. My kind of thinker. We worked on goals for the conference. I wanted to make actual connections with actual people. Gather resources for me, Bricolage and to share with you. I didn't want to focus on the result. I tried to let my intuition be my guide. I wanted to listen generously and speak the truth.
We then broke up in to groups by joining together through commonalities. I gravitated towards two women in dresses. A few men gathered and we were a team. The "dresses and boys team." A super cool group 2 Young Leaders of Color, one international guest, one New Generation alum. We talked about how the work is too safe, and wanting to including the audience, more experimentation, new plays, "why just text?” young audiences, old audiences, the power of intention, the practice of intention. The intention of your practice. Daniel told us about villages that specialize in one craft, say stone carving. Kids as little as 3 carving stones outside of their homes. By the time they reach 13 they're masters. You need 10,000 hours minimum working on your craft to even begin to think of calling yourself a master of technique. That roughly translates 10 years, 8 hours a day. 
The conversation flowed from personal goals to a group goal. I admitted to the group that when I saw the Young People of Color flags I got sad. Sad that I'm not invited to that table. I totally get the reason for having a specialized group, but it isolates me from the discussion and I want to be a part of that discussion. Then Sam (Sam what's your last name? He's a New Gen) said that TCG should have a breakout session where artists/leaders of color talk to, well, white artists/leaders. "What white people can learn from artists of color." I'd go to that. Kanisha Foster and Samuel Roberson (our groups Young Leaders of Color) took the charge and are going to make it happen. The goal is that next year in LA there will be such a discussion. Will be very, very interested in who shows up. I really, really want to go back next year.
After the peer session we had a peer mixer at a fancy-schmansy place called Bin 36. Yummy cheese and delicious wine bar. We talked and drank and ate and carried on into the wee hours of the morning. It was terrific. 
