Re: Your work is done That was the subject line in the email I received earlier this week from my friend and colleague Eva Paterson. Ha! If only. She attached the tweet posted by Dr. Chirumamilla sharing her delight that her new colleagues had the good sense to learn to say her name. Thanks Dr. Chirumamilla for allowing me to share your tweet with my readers. As she reports, one feels seen and welcomed when people make the effort to learn our names. How I wish everyone was tr

The version of my play that was on stage for five months through the end of March 2019 poses a series of questions (paraphrased here). Does having a Muslim ban make us safer? Does it add to our nation’s security when we separate and cage immigrant children from parents seeking asylum? What does it say about a country that needs a massive social movement to tell us that Black Lives Matter? And I can assure you that ALL efforts to strip gay, lesbian, and transgender folks of th

March 8 -- it's International Women's Day, and women are leading and have been leading the way in so many arenas, too often without recognition. So pleased that my talkback guests this weekend are two women leaders. Saturday, March 9 (5 pm showtime) Navigating Disability: Trump Era’s Clarion Call for Advocates and Activists to Come Out of the (Inaccessible) Closet with Ingrid Tischer The Disability Rights Movement is an important part of this nation’s civil rights history. An

Since 2003 Merriam Webster, America's leading dictionary publisher, compiles a list of its top words of the year. It selects ONE word and ten runners-up. In an on-line video, Peter Sokolowski, Editor at Large, explains the process. “Merriam-Webster’s word of the year is determined by our on-line dictionary look-up data: the word must show both high volume of traffic and show significant year over year increase in lookups at merriam-webster.com. Merriam-Webster’s word of the y

My one-woman show gets an extended run at The Marsh Theater in San Francisco starting two months from today. I am very honored to have a chance to present my play to Bay Area audiences. Following each show, I will be joined by various talkback guests (listed below). These thought leaders -- activists, lawyers, professors, writers -- will be discussing various subjects related to social justice, and answering questions. Grateful to live in a community where folks from all raci

Please come see my new show (in development) as part of The Marsh Theater’s Times Unseen Initiative. This Wednesday, July 11, 2018 at 7:30 pm at The San Francisco Marsh Theater. Tickets $15 at the door or $17 online ($2 service charge). More info and tickets at: https://themarsh.org/times_unseen/times-unseen-initiative-prepared-pieces/ There are two performers that night presenting for a combined 90 minutes (no intermission). Here are the descriptions of our stories from the

The process of revising my one-woman show for a run this fall at the San Francisco Marsh Theater is both exciting and challenging. (I'll announce dates as soon as they get finalized). It’s hard to let go of a scene or even a small part of a scene; I do become attached to my lines. Still, as I put the material on its feet and rehearse with my director, I can feel when something no longer works. I look at her and she looks at me. “But I really like this, Rebecca, and it’s impor

It’s a long read, and Sarah Menkedick's article, The Making of a Mexican-American Dream, published in Pacific Standard, is well worth the time and effort. It covers so much in its exploration/explanation of the long and complicated relationship we Mexican-Americans have with our country, the United States of America. The only place many of us have known as home for generations, and a place where we are all too often seen as not REAL Americans.* A place that asks us to change

Postscript: I recently came across a commentary I published through New America Media on MLK, Jr. Holiday in 2011. I was struck with how much has changed in those six years. Back in 2011, Arizona was in the news because the state’s draconian anti-immigrant law, SB 1070, was wreaking havoc on immigrant communities and other states were passing copycat anti-immigrant laws. Days earlier United States Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others had been shot during a constitue