Few things happen that significantly change your life.
I am a different person after spending eight days with the mighty
mentch, Anna Deavere Smith, a faculty of generous, creative teachers, and 40 courageous,
compelling people who convened in San Francisco at Yerba Buena Center for the
Arts and Grace Cathedral to participate in the Personal Narratives: Global
Identities Workshop.
“Why this group of people?” Anna asked day one. “We are all here for a reason,” she told us.
We had an endgame of doing a “presentation/performance” at the
Yerba Buena Theater, but that wasn’t the purpose of the workshop.
Anna talks about ideas such as radical hospitality
("saying yes to who or what turns up before determination, anticipation or identification"), presence/wide
awakeness, saying words often enough until they become you. She inhabits real-life characters including
Brent Williams, the rodeo Bull Rider, and Maxine Greene, philosopher of
Education, to teach us about the human condition, naming the world, mind and
imagination, tension/struggle, try and determination.
As Anna/Maxine notes,
“But art involves us in dimensions of our own experience
That we never knew before.”
This is exactly why the workshop was so very powerful.
We spent our days engaged in making art:
Singing in four-part harmony for three hours with Maggie,
who emanates light and love, and whose choral direction helped connect our
group and infuse us with spirit…
Convening each day in a morning and day end circle, hearing
the work we had undertaken synthesized and expanded upon by our astute peers…
Listening to people’s personal narratives, watching them
edit, hone, clarify, refine, revise, and redo their stories, transformed by the
workshop process …
Lying on the ground, actively resting, and re-educating my
body with the expert help of Lori and Bonita, Alexander Technique and
Feldenkrais practitioners.
Paying close attention to my words and their delivery,
working with writer Sarah and dialect coach Amy, and benefiting from the
perceptive critiques of my peers...
Dancing with Michael and sharing his joy in movement; doing rich
acting exercises facilitated by Will and Kimber…
Exploring the meaning and transformative power of a single
word, in a singing exercise facilitated by Anna, Marcus and his band, and etymologist
Phillipa…
Walking in other people’s shoes literally, making this metaphor
about compassion and empathy, come alive in letters we wrote to our solemates…
Performing at the Yerba Buena Center Theater, a thrill for all
of us, seeing how far we had come, and how fully the audience received our
stories…
I am so grateful for this opportunity. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My own journey had a lot to do with my dad, my
grieving his loss and finding ways to keep him with me through laughter. I had
the privilege of invoking him to open our storytelling in the theater.
Since the workshop I have been writing everyday, interacting with my technology coworkers with focus and determination, going to more live performances, practicing Tai Chi, and being present for the people in my life, including some wonderful new friends I made during that week. It feels great. I am energized, inspired, heartened, and full of try.
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