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My show will make its Southern debut in Nashville the weekend of February 10-12th, 2023. If you know anyone in the Nashville area, please forward this their way. This show was booked a year ago, and now it's the focus of my daily work as I've been meeting with theater staff over zoom to approve the cover of the Playbill (above picture, love how they framed it), sort travel details, set rehearsal schedules, and arrange press interviews. And then, there are revisions to the script and starting to learn the new sections. As part of my preparation, I’ve been learning about the Tennessee law to ban so-called CRT (Critical Race Theory) from public schools. There is a scene in this iteration of my play that addresses this subject. Critical Race Theory is an academic approach to examining racial bias which was developed by legal scholars over 30 years ago and which is taught at the law school and university levels. Florida, Texas, and Tennessee were the first states to pass laws last year to ban the teaching of “divisive concepts” related to race and sex in schools. In Florida, this law is popularly known as the Don’t Say Gay Bill but is much broader than issues related to the LGBT community. These laws seek to remove content from the curriculum, along with books from school libraries, that pertain to our nation’s history of discrimination based on race, national origin, or sex. As we well know, all these forms of discrimination existed for centuries under the laws of the United States, and it wasn’t until the Civil Rights Laws of the 1960s that these laws were struck down. Today, we are still passing laws at the federal and state level to address ongoing discrimination against people from these groups. It is an undeniable fact that this type of discrimination was a key component of our legal system. The laws required separate and inferior schools for Black and Mexican-American students. With the exception of a few Black colleges established as segregated institutions, there was no access to higher education for Blacks and most people of color. Women were denied the right to attend certain colleges, were barred from working in certain professions and could be fired when we became pregnant or had children. After George Floyd's murder in 2020, there was widespread support for expanding diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Some school districts were eager to adopt material from the award-winning 1619 Project. The work of many authors (principally people of color and members of the LGBT community) about their lived experiences in this country was much sought after as part of classroom instruction and making it available as resource materials in school libraries. A ferocious backlash under the guise of banning CRT was spearheaded by Fox News and Republican elected officials. Orchestrated and well-funded efforts organized white parents around the country, and they began showing up at school board meetings demanding the banning of CRT. The Anti-CRT laws they proposed and which have been adopted in many states, are intended to shut down any classroom discussions about racism, sexism, and homophobia under the notion that to speak about our nation’s shortcomings is teaching children to hate the United States. Read more about this in an excellent article from Education Week, titled, The Evolution of the Anti-CRT Movement: A Timeline. Tennessee’s anti-CRT law (which never mentions CRT) prohibits the teaching of anything that could cause a student to feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish or another form of psychological distress solely because of the individual’s race or sex.” The first complaint filed with Tennessee's Department of Education under this law was brought by Moms for Liberty, a conservative parents group. Among the books they challenged were these four books for lower elementary grade students: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the March on Washington, Ruby Bridges Goes To School, The Story of Ruby Bridges, and Separate Is Never Equal. The parents' group claimed that the books and teacher manuals "implies to second-grade children that people of color continue to be oppressed by an oppressive 'angry, vicious, scary, mean, loud, violent, [rude], and [hateful]' white population." I purchased and read (and greatly enjoyed) all four books, and nowhere does any book suggest this. Here are two sample pages from Ruby Bridges Goes to School that present positive images of Ruby and her classmates. When the court first ordered Ruby's admission into the segregated school, white parents quit sending their children to school. Ruby sat alone in the classroom with her teacher for several months. Eventually, the parents got tired of having their children at home, and the children trickled back into their classroom. There, they discovered (surprise surprise) that they all got along just fine. The Complaint against these books and other material was dismissed by Tennessee's Department of Education last month without investigation on the basis that it challenged classroom instruction that occurred the previous school year before the law was passed. You can be confident that new complaints will be forthcoming. But back to my show in Nashville. next month at TPAC. Tickets are now on sale for three shows: February 10 and 11 (Friday and Saturday) at 8 pm. The Sunday matinee at 2 pm. Click here for tickets. TPAC is a beautiful venue in Downtown Nashville, and it has three theaters within the complex. One for Symphony and Opera, another for visiting Broadway Productions, and the third smaller theater for productions such as Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name? Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) 505 Deaderick Street Nashville TN 37243 Closer to home, in fact, right in your home, you can see a snippet of my play along with that of other performers doing monologues and songs (under 5 minutes each) on YouTube this coming Sunday, January 15th at 5 pm Pacific, and it’s FREE, gratis. My selection is part of Play Café’s 25th Anniversary Celebration of New Work. Use the CR Code to link to YouTube. Hope to see you there. I wish you good health and much joy in 2023. Thanks for reading my newsletter. If you enjoy it, pass it on to a friend.

On December 21, 1837, a South Carolina Congressman proposed a gag rule to the United States Congress that any petition or discussion related to slavery must be immediately tabled without consideration. The following year this ban was adopted and remained in effect for a decade. I learned this tidbit of American history from the Equal Justice Initiative’s Calendar of Racial Justice, which comes in the form of a short daily email describing some civil rights events that occurred that day. I highly recommend subscribing to this; so important to keep learning our nation's history. Coincidentally, yesterday, December 21st, I also got around to reading about a Florida high-school English teacher seeking to ban 150 books from her school district’s libraries. This was in Popular Information, one of several newsletters I like to read. One book she seeks to ban is When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball. Wilma Rudolph excelled in track and field and was the first woman from the United States to win three gold Olympic medals at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Wilma grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee, during Jim Crow, and attended segregated schools. As a child, Wilma was struck by polio and was told she’d forever walk with a brace. The 32-page book for elementary school children is the story of a strong and determined girl who overcame great obstacles, including prejudice, to become a world-class athlete. This teacher acknowledges that it’s a true story of Rudolph’s experiences but objects to the book because it “trashes and puts down those who are not black.” She claims the book is “white-shaming” and will make white students uncomfortable, and that this “race-baiting” book is inappropriate for any student. Efforts such as these are part of a highly organized nationwide Ban CRT (Critical Race Theory) Movement advanced by Fox News and conservative political factions. And this past year, more than half the states have introduced legislation to ban CRT, which has become the bogeyman for people unwilling to acknowledge the history of racism in our country and how it continues to have an impact on our communities. Scholars and activists who discuss CRT are not arguing that white people living now are to blame for what people did in the past. They are saying that we have a moral responsibility to do something about how racism still impacts our lives today. Refusing to discuss issues of racism and prejudice does not help us create a more fair and just society. I highly recommend this article from the Brookings Institution about what CRT is and why there are efforts to prohibit teaching about the historic discrimination experienced by numerous groups in this country. It is an undisputed fact that state and federal laws assumed the inferiority of certain groups and thus denied us the rights and liberties enshrined in the United States Constitution. This contributed to the inequities we live with today, which include significant disparities in wealth, educational attainment, health status, and life expectancy. The anti-CRT movement doesn’t just want to ban books dealing with racial and ethnic group discrimination; they object to books depicting misogyny and the empowerment of women and girls, as well as books reflecting the reality of the LGBTQ community. According to a PEN America report, in the school year 2021-2022, more than 1,600 books were banned from school libraries. The bans affected 138 school districts in 32 states. PEN America is an organization founded 100 years ago and “works to ensure that people everywhere have the freedom to create literature, to convey information and ideas, to express their views, and to access the views, ideas, and literature of others. Its members are a nationwide community of more than 7,500 novelists, journalists, nonfiction writers, editors, poets, essayists, playwrights, publishers, translators, agents, and other writing professionals, as well as devoted readers and supporters who join with them to carry out PEN America’s mission." I’m grateful that such organizations exist. This same Florida school teacher is seeking to ban a book called And Tango Makes Three, which is the true story of two male Penguins, Roy and Silo, who lived in the Central Park Zoo and were inseparable. The pair build a nest together of rocks, and after the zookeeper provides them with an egg, they jointly raise the baby penguin, Tango, after it is hatched. She alleges that the book aims to indoctrinate children and promotes an LGBTQ agenda using penguins. She is relying on two Florida laws passed this year to support removing these books from the schools' libraries. This teacher claims that When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball violates The Stop WOKE Act, which prohibits instructing students with information that produces “guilt, anguish . . . because of actions, in which the person played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, national origin, or sex." Although the Stop WOKE Act applies to classroom instruction, this teacher seeks to extend it to school libraries. The second law she offers in support of banning the penguin book is Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, popularly known as the "Don't Say Gay" law. Both laws were signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2022. Texas and Florida lead the country in banning books. When I was growing up in South Texas, books were my window to the world, and I read anything and everything from the two-room Alice Public Library. Back then, there were no characters in those books that looked like me, and none of the books told the stories of my community. But I learned so much about different people and places and ways of being and living. Reading about current efforts prohibiting access to books that reflect experiences about our racial backgrounds, gender identity, and other forms of prejudices that have shaped us, on the same day as I learn of a federal law banning discussion of slavery in 1837, makes my head spin. The United States will be a better country only if we have access to information, including stories, that reflect the lived experiences of all the communities who call the United States home.

I am writing this at Mesa Refuge in Point Reyes Station in Northern California, where I am spending two weeks at a beautiful writer’s retreat center with two other writers. Each of us is provided a bedroom with private bath and a dedicated writing space. Since its founding in 1992, Mesa Refuge has hosted over 1000 writers focusing on “ideas at the edge.” People writing about nature, economic equity, and social justice. I am honored to have been selected for this two-week residency. Mesa Refuge alumni include Heather McGhee, Michael Pollan, Krista Tippett, Natalie Goldberg, Raj Patel, Daniel Ellsberg, Rebecca Solnit, Van Jones, and many other writers whose work I love and value. Click here for more info about Mesa Refuge and to see photos of this beautiful place. My fellow writers in residence are Rita Cameron Wedding and Clayton Aldern. Rita is an internationally recognized speaker and scholar on implicit bias, and a professor of Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies at Sacramento State University, where she was Chair of the Women’s Studies Department for over two decades. Learn more on Rita's website. Clayton is a writer and data scientist interested in science and society and is currently working on a book about the effects of climate change and environmental degradation on neurochemistry, behavior, decision-making, and mental and emotional health. More about Clayton here. Although our days are spent in our separate writing spaces, we prepare and share nice meals and have interesting conversations in the evening. Two quiet weeks are a fitting end to this year, as September, October, and November were especially busy. Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name? was back on stage at The Marsh Theater in Berkeley for five weeks, and well received by audiences. Thanks to all of you who attended and brought your friends, or told others about my play. I presented my show on zoom for a variety of organizations ranging from employees of the State Bar of California to folks attending the annual conference of Healing Beyond Borders. And in early October I participated in a fundraiser for a wonderful organization, Courageous Girls, in a program titled Mt. Everest Diaries. I interviewed author and Everest Summiteer Silvia Vasquez-Lavado about her memoir, In the Shadow of the Mountain, which is being made into a movie with Selena Gomez portraying her. I highly recommend the book. The evening featured various comedians including another Everest Summiteer and co-founder of Courageous Girls, Shailee Basnet. A good time was had by all at San Francisco's Sydney Goldstein Theater. I also took two quick trips in the middle of all this. The day after my show opened in Berkeley, I flew to Nashville. My one-woman show is part of a three-show Perspectives Series and I was eager to see the opening show and the space at where I will be performing at Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC). So glad I went, as I got to meet TPAC folks and several leaders in Nashville’s Latino community. My Nashville shows are February 10-12. Tickets now available here. Know anyone in Nashville? Please let them know. Two days after my last show at the Berkeley Marsh Theater, I headed to Austin where I performed live for Ascender, the annual conference for Catch the Next, Inc, celebrating its 10th Anniversary. The mission of this Texas-based organization is to “empower faculty, staff, and institutions to increase the educational attainment of Latinos and other underserved communities in order to close the achievement gap.” I love performing for groups promoting educational opportunity. Back in the Bay Area, I was invited to present at Santa Clara Law School, Golden Gate University Graduate School, the East Bay Community Foundation, and Meta. These months were as demanding as they were rewarding. I am grateful to all the folks who suggest me as a speaker to their organizations, non-profits, colleges and universitites and coporations. And on November 1st, I headed to Tokyo for a 17-day trip visiting Japan with friends, that had been postponed because of COVID and Japan’s very strict travel bans. Japan is beautiful and the fall colors were spectacular. I welcomed December at Mesa Refuge and as I ease into this year's end, I get to reflect on what I’ve done, and turn my attention to writing new stories in a place that is providing me refuge from the busyness of my life. I am grateful for this and so much more. I didn’t get to know my maternal grandmother who died shortly after I was born. Her name was Refugia.

Starting this Friday. I’m so excited to have my first run (since the pandemic). I'll be performing every Friday evening from September 23rd - October 21st at The Marsh Theater in Downtown Berkeley. I’ve invited leaders from the legal community and academe to join me after the show for post-show Talkbacks (a half-hour conversations) about their work on issues related to civil rights and social justice. During my five-month run in 2018-2019 at the Marsh Theaters (first in San Francisco and later in Berkeley), the Talbacks were very popular and covered a wide range of topics. This group of speakers promises to share much interesting and useful information, closely related to the themes in my play. The first Talkback Speaker is my friend and colleague Beth Parker, and she’ll be talking about reproductive rights now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs case. I couldn’t ask for a more experienced speaker on this topic. Beth currently serves as General Counsel for Planned Parenthood California Central Coast and is an Adjunct Professor at UC Hastings College of Law. During the past four years, Beth has served as General Counsel for three California Planned Parenthood affiliates and their c4 advocacy organizations. Between 2013 and 2018, she was Chief Legal Counsel of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, the state-wide advocacy organization that coordinates the legal, legislative, regulatory, and, electoral work for Planned Parenthood’s seven California affiliates. Among other projects, she spearheaded the litigation against David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress for infiltrating Planned Parenthood and falsely accusing it of selling baby body parts. That case resulted in a unanimous jury verdict and more than $16 million in damages and attorneys' fees. Before joining Planned Parenthood as legal counsel, she was a partner at two major law firms in San Francisco where she focused on complex civil and constitutional litigation. She litigated more than 20 cases protecting the right to access reproductive health care services, ensuring patients’ constitutional right to privacy, contesting laws requiring parental notification and upholding minors’ rights to obtain confidential medical care. She has served and continues to serve in leadership positions on governing boards of numerous non-profits: Equal Rights Advocates, the Coro Center for Civic Leadership in Northern California, Performing Arts Services, the Women's Leadership Alliance, San Francisco Women Lawyers Alliance, Charlotte Maxwell Clinic, Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, Community Boards, and the California Abortion Alliance. My deep gratitude to Beth for joining me after the first show. It’s taking lots of rehearsal time to get comfortable moving on stage, which is an enormous space compared to the limited rectangular box that confines me during virtual performances at my home. I’m still doing some talks and presentations on zoom, which I greatly enjoy, but what a different experience to be back on stage. I’m so appreciative of all of you who have seen my show and brought your friends to see it again and again. Although the name of the play remains the same, it’s always evolving to comment on current events. Money-back guarantee, from me, that you’ll leave with new insights. Make an evening of it, and come with your friends, there are lots of restaurants within walking distance of the theater, my favorite is Cancun, right next door to The Marsh. The theater is very easy to get to, it is right across the street from the Berkeley Downtown BART station. There’s an underground parking lot with plenty of parking at Oxford Parking Garage (2165 Kittredge St, Berkeley, CA 94704), parking is $5 flat rate after 5 pm. Take the elevator or stairs on the back side of the garage (the side furthest from the Oxford entrance) and violà you are on Allston Way by Cancun Restaurant steps away and The Marsh right next to it. You don't even have to cross the street. Very convenient. Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name? What’s in a name? A minefield of misplaced notions – comical, sad, demeaning. Irma’s observations from the frontlines, notes from American history, and laugh-out-loud humor allow us to consider what it will take for all of us to get along. September 23-October 21, 2022 Fridays ONLY @7:30 pm The Marsh Theater 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley Tickets start at $20 and $15 for students (discount code: WhyStudent22). Click here for tickets. Proof of vaccination and masking during the performances is required.

Before COVID-19, I belonged to Sweat, an exercise studio in Berkeley. I loved the HIIT classes at 6 am and religiously reported for duty at least four times a week. One morning I introduced myself to a woman who seemed to be a regular. We exchanged names. “Great to meet you, Michelle.” “It’s Nichelle,” she said, “like Lt. Uhura in Star Trek.” “Oh, sorry about that, and thanks for letting me know, Nichelle.” Although I’ve never been a big tv watcher and hadn’t ever followed Star Trek, I knew who Lt. Uhura was. I‘d read about her importance as a role model for Black children (really for everyone) and that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had told her to stay on in that role when she told him of her plans to leave the series. Representation Matters and Dr. King knew that only too well. It is super important for kids of color and individuals from communities that have been marginalized and demeaned (eg. gay and trans kids), to see people who look like them living successful and fulfilling lives, even in outer space. These folks can be real people, sports figures like Venus and Serena Williams, public servants like President Obama, Congresswoman Patsy Mink, or Julian and Joaquin Castro. Or they could be fictional characters in mainstream movies and television or streaming programs. Representation matters. I was aware of Nichelle Nichols' death having heard a radio news story about this. I learned so much more from Terry Baum's BAUMblog titled OBITS TO DIE FOR: Nichelle Nichols? Some months ago, my friend Beth introduced me to the work of her neighbor and friend Terry Baum, a writer, director, and blogger. She forwarded me Terry's blog and I found the topics Terry tackled and her point of view very much aligned with mine. So I became a subscriber. It was in Terry's blog that I learned Nichelle's name story and since I love name stories, I asked Terry’s permission to share this blog with my readers, which she granted. Here are a few tidbits from the blog to encourage you to read the whole thing: “Besides being a great communications officer, Uhura, along with Captain Kirk, were part of the first interracial kiss on network television. They were FORCED to do it by the inhabitants of a strange planet . . . The episode aired just one year after the US Supreme Court’s Loving v. Virginia decision struck down laws against interracial marriage. At the time Gallup polls showed that fewer than 20% of Americans approved of such relationships.” “After STAR TREK was canceled, Nichols created a non-profit. Women in Motion focused on science education for girls. In 1977, Nichols gave a speech to the National Space Institute, challenging NASA to “come down from your ivory tower of intellectual pursuit, because the next Einstein might have a Black face – and she’s female. NASA responded by asking Nichols to lead a campaign to bring women and people of color to apply for the new Space Shuttle program.” Check out Terry’s other writings by visiting her website, where you can also subscribe and read other thoughtful pieces she has published, and you can learn more about the work of Lilith Theater. Nichelle Nichols was again in the news with the recent announcement that some of Lt. Uhura’s ashes and DNA samples will be launched into space on a memorial journey later this year. The ashes of four other dearly departed Star Trek pioneers will also be on that space flight. More here. Godspeed, Lt. Uhura. Representation REALLY Matters And while on the topic of representation, last month California Governor Gavin Newsom nominated Judge Patricia Guerrero to be the FIRST Latina Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. She has now been confirmed and holds that post. She is the first Latina Chief Justice anywhere in the United States. Read about Chief Justice Guerrero in Cal Matters. I hope you’ve had a good summer; mine has been busy with some unexpected travel, and lots of work. And I’m now rehearsing my updated show, as it will be back on stage at The Berkeley Marsh for a limited five-week run, starting September 23rd, every Friday night at 7:30 pm for five weeks. Hope to see my Bay Area peeps there. I've got some interesting post-show talkback speakers on topics related to social justice. Tickets are now on sale. Use the magic of this QR code to buy yours.

My show will be at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) in Nashville, February 10-12, 2023, yes that’s NEXT year. Things get booked way ahead of time. I’ve never been to Nashville, a vibrant and happening place, and I am really looking forward to being there. Since booking this show, I’ve started doing research on Nashville (population 700,000 +/-) and the Latino community which is currently estimated to be between 10-14%. When it comes to public schools 20% of Nashville’s students are Latino. And Latinos are both immigrants (Mexican, Columbian, Cuban, but not just) and native-born people who have moved from other states seeking jobs, education, and what everyone wants: opportunity. According to my preliminary research: “Nashville has become a trendy destination for immigrants due to a healthy job market and relatively low cost of living. The city is home to large populations of Mexicans, Kurds, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, Arabs, and Bantus. There are also small communities of Pashtuns from Pakistan and Afghanistan, mostly concentrated in Antioch. Nashville is home to the largest population of Kurdish people in the country, while many of around 60,000 Bhutanese refugees admitted to the country settled in the area. There is also an active American Jewish community here with a history dating back more than 150 years.” Wow. I can’t want to see this place and check out the variety of food, and of course, the great music venues. I’m looking forward to reaching out to people and am pleased to know that Nashville has a Hispanic Bar Association, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Hispanic Family Foundation, Latino Health Coalition, and many other organizations serving our community. If you know folks in Nashville, I’d love to connect with them. I plan to do outreach to the African American community and other communities as well. TPAC staff and I are already brainstorming some post-show talkbacks with Latino and African American lawyers to discuss civil rights and the importance of collaboration and having each other’s backs. Here’s what TPAC’s press materials had to say about our shows: “The theater series includes three powerful solo shows, including LeLand Gantt’s Rhapsody in Black and Irma Herrera’s Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name? — both of which explore themes of race and power structures in America. And Thaddeus Phillips’ 17 Border Crossings takes an “engrossing look at the imaginary lines that divide up the world and the very real barriers they create.” So how, you might wonder, did my show get booked by this amazingly beautiful theater in Tennessee? In January 2020, I attended APAP’s annual conference in NYC. APAP is the Association of Performing Arts Professionals and the world's leading convening for the performing arts industry. Thousands of people descend upon several hotels in NYC and there are workshops and hundreds of short preview shows at hotels, as well as numerous theaters around the City. I was part of a contingent of solo performers from The Marsh Theater in San Francisco. APAP Conference attracts bands, dance troupes, solo performers, musicians playing classical music, clowns, puppeteers, you name it. I had a field day watching solo performers from around the country. I performed one 15-minute preview show at APAP and the hope for any performer is that someone out there will see your show and engage you. Six weeks after APAP, COVID-19 wreaked havoc and upended all our lives, with theaters and so many other places closing down for the better part of two years. Fast forward to January 2022, and APAP holds a hybrid conference both online and in person. I didn’t go. But the agent for The Marsh was there and TPAC inquired about my show. And voilà three years later, I get to perform at the beautiful Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville. So you just never know . . . Not planning to travel to Nashville to see my updated show the weekend of February 10-12, 2023? Fair enough. If you live in the SF Bay Area you can see my FIRST LIVE performance since March 2020 on May 19th at Stage Werx Theater. Tickets here.

As Easter approaches each year, my mind turns to an unfortunate incident involving an invitation to an Easter Brunch and Egg Hunt. The host Tricia, a friend/acquaintance, treated me and my family in a way that felt so disrespectful. Several years ago, I told this story on stage, and it was recorded. This 20-minute piece is both funny and sad. More than a quarter-century later, I’m still hurt and bothered by it. If any of this is sounding familiar, maybe you were at this show, or you read the blog and saw this video last year at Easter time. All of us have done and said things that we later regret, and how we make it right varies with each situation. On occasion, I have imagined a conversation with Tricia in which we tried to understand each other’s point of view. Tricia, if this gets to you, call me, let’s talk. Last week, a friend who is the co-founder of Living Room Conversations, sent me an email asking whether I thought my readers might be interested in the upcoming National Week of Conversation 2022. I’d not heard of this organization or event so I read on, following the links she provided. “America Talks provides an opportunity for Americans of different backgrounds and beliefs to connect during a time of deep division in our country. Participants will be matched into face-to-face, one-on-one or small group conversations with one or more people." "You will be welcomed to this online event with a livestream that will help set you up for a great conversation. Then you and your conversation partner(s) will go into a breakout room (like on Zoom) to spend about an hour together using a secure video conversation platform and built-in conversation guide." Here are some editorials from prior years about the National Week of Conversation which will take place later this month. I’ve registered for one event, and I hope you will consider doing so as well. More about the National Week of Conversation here. I hope you’ll also check out Living Room Conversations, an organization that works to heal society by connecting people across divides - politics, age, gender, race, nationality, and more – through guided conversations proven to build understanding and transform communities. They are doing important work to heal build common ground and find solutions to so many of our seemingly intractable problems. The most important thing I’ve learned from my newish career as a solo performer is that “the closest distance between two people” is a story. I love this quote coined by Patti Digh whose work helps create inclusive communities. She offers seminars and workshops and I have participated in several zoom sessions of her Hard Conversations Book Club. Check out her website. Keep promoting justice and fairness. You never know the impact of your work, and even if it only makes the world better for a few people, it matters. Wishing you the best as you we roll into Spring.

Super excited to announce that I’m doing my first live solo show since March 2020 at San Francisco’s Stage Werx. This venue has been so welcoming to the solo community and many of us perform short pieces as we develop full-length shows. It’s also a great place to learn and see improv and comedy. Inviting SF Bay Area peeps to come on out and see an updated version of my one-woman show. Joining me that evening is Fred Pitts performing Aren’t You? I’ve seen some of Fred’s work online and am so eager to watch him perform. He is an enormously talented actor and storyteller. Check out a snippet of Fred’s show here. We promise you an evening of great entertainment, and a brief respite from the heartbreaking news and repression all over the world -- in our own backyards where vulnerable communities are being targeted on so many fronts, at the US-Mexico border, in Ethiopia, Ukraine . . . and I'll stop there. One ray of sunshine is that we'll soon see the first Black woman US Supreme Court Justice when Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson reports to duty on October 2nd, the first Monday of October when the new term begins. I recommend reading this moving essay by Diana Butler Bass, whose work was brought to my attention by a friend because this essay about Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson explores the power of our names and the ways in which people with power often refuse to grant us the respect each and every individual is due. I hope you’ll take the time to read it. It's truly a remarkable piece of writing. I loved this article so much that I began subscribing to the author’s newsletter. Diana Butler Bass frequently comments in major media outlets on politics, religion, and culture. Here’s how the author is described on her website: “Diana’s passion is sharing great ideas to change lives and the world—a passion that ranges from informing the public about spiritual trends, challenging conventional narratives about religious practice, entering the fray of social media with spiritual wisdom and smart theology, and writing books to help readers see themselves, their place in history, and God differently. She does this with intelligence, joy, and a good dose of humor…” I’ve certainly benefitted from reading her work these past weeks. As we begin to venture out more: eating at restaurants, attending plays and movies, traveling, congregating where there are a lot of people, I urge you to take whatever precautions are still prudent. While we may be done with the COVID, the virus is not done with us. Large numbers of people are still contracting COVID and getting sick. And although hospitalizations and death rates have gone down significantly, that is of little comfort when it is your loved one that is felled by the virus. Please take care, and be thoughtful and kind, all around us many people are living with great hardships and suffering. Hope to see my Bay Area peeps next month for my first live performance. Please note that the theater requires proof of vaccination and masking (of audience members) during the performance. Here's the 411: Thursday, May 19, 2022 @ 7 pm Stage Werx 446 Valencia St. (between 15th & 16th Streets) San Francisco (two blocks from 16th St. BART) Tickets on Eventbrite. Click here:

Today is the anniversary of Claudette Colvin's arrest. On March 2, 1955, the 15-year old refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus to accommodate a white woman passenger. In a blog I published two weeks ago, read it here, I noted that although Claudette had been arrested nine months before Rosa Parks, for various reasons, the leaders of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, chose not to launch the boycott with her arrest. Instead, they waited until a person they deemed a more suitable standard-bearer to be the face of the movement against the great injustices perpetrated by the Jim Crow laws. That person was Rosa Parks. Three years ago, lucky me, I was in Paris. At that time I wrote a blog about Claudette Colvin and here it is again with a few changes. Walking down a major boulevard, this distinctive poster caught my eye, so I crossed the street to take a closer look. An outsized young girl sits on top of a yellow bus. It looked like a school bus, so it puzzled me to see well-dressed grown-ups boarding the bus. It was an advertisement for a play called NOIRE. I made note of the theater and the dates. Later that day at the Alliance Française in Paris where I was studying, a class exercise had each student describing persons in pictures projected on a screen, in French, of course. Elle a des cheveux blonde, il port des lunettes, she has blonde hair, he wears glasses, and so on. The pictures were of people with different characteristics that reflect the origins of the French people -- Northern European, African, Asian, and mixed ancestry as well. A fellow student raised his hand. Based on appearance and his name -- Israel (pron. Is-rah-el) -- my initial assumption was that he was from Latin America, but this middle-aged businessman was from Pakistan and learning French as he had recently gotten a job transfer to Paris. “How do you describe a person’s skin color?” Israel asked. The teacher’s face immediately telegraphed disapproval. Her response, in French, “here, in France, it is considered racist (pronounced rah-sist), to refer to someone’s skin color or to talk about someone’s race.” Before going to France I had read articles and listened to podcasts about this very subject. I raised my hand. “Mademoiselle, I understand that the word noir is not used with reference to people of African origin. Can you speak about that?” “Oui, the preferred word is les blacks.” Click here to listen to the podcast, Rough Translation, We Don’t Say That. addressing this topic. Our teacher adds that in France it is illegal to ask people about their race or religion. (Let me clarify that it is illegal for the French Government to ask). NOIRE, Tania de Montaigne's One-Woman Show After class, I returned to the apartment we had rented and Googled Théâtre du Rond-Point, and was thrilled to learn that Noire was a one-woman show about Claudette Colvin, who was (then and now) little-known in the civil rights movement in the United States. The play is based on the book, NOIIRE, written by Tania de Montaigne, who also wrote and performed NOIRE. She is a distinguished French journalist, writer, and actor whom I had the pleasure of meeting briefly after the performance. Claudette Colvin, was 15-years old when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. This was several months before Rosa Park was arrested for doing the same. Claudette, was in the back of the bus in one of the seats usually occupied by blacks when a white woman boarded a crowded bus. When Claudette refused to give up her seat for this woman, she was arrested and later became one of several plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit, Browder v. Gayle, brought the year after the Brown v. Board of Education decision. The Browder case challenged segregation in public transportation. At the time the case was filed, the famous bus boycott in Montgomery was underway. The lower court and the US Supreme Court held that segregated busing violated the United States Constitution. Requests for reconsideration by the segregating entities were denied and this led to the integration of the buses in Montgomery. Days after the further appeals were denied, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as the spokesperson for this coalition of organizations and leaders backing the bus boycott, announced the end of the Montgomery bus boycott. Black residents and their supporters had stayed off the Montgomery buses for more than a year. NOIRE was a beautifully rendered and moving production with familiar African-American music and projected still photos and video images. My research on Claudette Colvin before seeing the play proved most helpful and I was pleased to learn that my French was good enough to follow Tania de Montaigne's powerful storytelling on stage. Seeing NOIRE was one of the highlights of my five weeks in Paris. Even if you don’t speak French, have a look at the website promoting this play. Click here. I was lucky enough to meet the author and actor, Tania de Montaigne after the show. Like the United States, France struggles with the issue of racism and racial discrimination, and I could not begin to tackle this topic so I'm providing references to several articles and some relevant quotes from French scholars. “Unlike many other West European countries, and very much unlike English-speaking immigrant societies such as the United States, Canada or Australia, France has intentionally avoided implementing “race-conscious” policies. There are no public policies in France that target benefits or confer recognition on groups defined as races. For many French persons, the very term race sends a shiver running down their spines, since it tends to recall the atrocities of Nazi Germany and the complicity of France’s Vichy regime in deporting Jews to concentration camps. Race is such a taboo term that a 1978 law specifically banned the collection and computerized storage of race-based data without the express consent of the interviewees or a waiver by a state committee. France, therefore, collects no census or other data on the race (or ethnicity) of its citizens." "Political leaders are nonetheless aware that race and ethnicity matter. To counter problems of ethnic disadvantage, they have constructed policies aimed at geographical areas or at social classes that disproportionately contain a large number of minorities.” You can read the entire Brookings article Race Policy in France (a bit dated since it was published in 2001) here. I also highly recommend Can The French Talk About Race? an article in The New Yorker, click here. La condition noire In a television interview, in English, French historian and Associate Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, Pap Ndiaye, discusses the issue of diversity and representation in France. He is the author of ‘La condition noire: essai sur une minorité française’(The Black Condition. An essay of a French minority. Ndiaye, was born in France to a ‘French’ mother and a father who came to France from Senegal. “The black condition in France is a way to feel French while being considered as not French. If you are black,” says Ndiaye, “most people in Paris ask you all the time, where do you come from. As a way to tell you, you must be from somewhere else. You must be not French.” Blog post and video of his interview (in English) available here. La Condition Americaine Like our French brothers and sisters, this is an experience that many of us in this country live every day. When asked where I’m from I say California. I usually add that I’ve lived in California for four-plus decades and I’m originally from Texas. I’m asked again, where are am I REALLY from, where were my parents born? The answer is still the same, Texas. And, of course, I’ve also been told to go back to where I came from on numerous occasions. I love Texas but have no plans to move back there, California is my home. One afternoon in Paris, we take an uber (no Lyft in France, at least back then) and get to chatting with the driver, who asks where we are from. His face lights up when we say San Francisco Bay Area. “I lived in Oakland several years.” He also shares that he is originally from Senegal and much of his family is there, but he has lived in France for 30+ years. I ask him about his experiences as a black man in both the United States and France. He pauses for a moment and says, “I feel like the French are a bit more two-faced, more hypocritical in their views about race. In the United States . . . there, you know how people feel about you.” And it is becoming more and more the case for so many Americans in our own country. #SocialJustice #Prejudice #solotheater #Racism

On March 2, 1955, 15-year-old high school student Claudette Colvin and a classmate were headed home on the public city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. When a white woman boarded the bus, the bus driver ordered them to relinquish their seats. There were other seats available where the woman could have sat. Claudette's friend moved, but Claudette refused, saying it was her constitutional right to keep her seat; she had paid her fare like everyone else. This incident happened nine months BEFORE Rosa Parks' famous stance of civil disobedience. Few people know about this teenager's brave and bold actions; fortunately, in the recent past, Claudette Colvin's story has received national attention. Claudette was a quiet and studious girl who loved learning. At the time of her arrest, her segregated school had just observed Negro History Week, but her teachers didn't limit the study to a week's time; they devoted the entire month to studying Black history. Negro History Week (its original name) was established in February 1926 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, later known as the Father of African American History. Although started as a week-long event, Woodson believed that Black history was too important to America and the world to be crammed into such a limited time frame and he recommended that schools teach it throughout the year. In the 1960s, Black college students advocated for more opportunities to study Black history, and in February 1969, students and educators at Kent State University proposed the first Black History Month — and began celebrating it the following year. Responding to pressure from Black leaders, President Gerald Ford officially declared February as Black History Month and noted its importance as the nation celebrated its bicentennial in 1976. During these times of racial reckoning, millions of us are actively engaged in learning the neglected and previously untold history of our fellow Americans -- Blacks, Indigenous, Latinos, Asians. For more information about the history and importance of Black History Month check out the Zinn Education Project and this NY Times article. But back to 1955 and life in Montgomery, Alabama. Months before Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on the bus, the United States Supreme Court had ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated schools violated the United States Constitution and had to be dismantled. But for Claudette and her classmates, nothing had changed; they still attended inferior and poorly funded segregated public schools. Throughout February, students at Booker T. Washington High School spoke freely about the injustices of Jim Crow. They couldn't try on clothes at department stores. When they needed new shoes, a tracing of their feet was made on a piece of paper or cardboard and taken to the store to determine the shoe size. They could not eat at lunch counters. And earlier that year, a popular classmate who lived in Claudette's neighborhood had been charged with raping a white woman, and he had been beaten and coerced into confessing to that and other crimes and sentenced to death. They knew first-hand how the system denied them their dignity and freedom in all spheres of their lives. So when the bus driver asked Claudette to give up her seat, she would not budge. Years later, she explained her reasons. "I could not move, because history had me glued to the seat . . . It felt like Sojourner Truth's hands were pushing me down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman's hands were pushing me down on another shoulder, and I could not move." Two police officers dragged Claudette off the bus while she loudly protested that it was her constitutional right to sit wherever she wanted. Although a minor, she was handcuffed, arrested, and booked into the adult jail and charged with disturbing the peace, violating the segregation laws, and assault and battery on a police officer. She had the support of her family and their pastor, and the local chapter of the NAACP. A newly minted lawyer Fred Gray, a graduate from Case Western Law School, stepped in to represent Claudette. At that time, no Alabama law school would accept a Black student, and upon returning to Montgomery, his hometown, Gray set up a private law practice. Claudette's arrest was big news at that time. She was tried as a juvenile and convicted and put on indefinite probation. Several months later, when Rosa Park was arrested, Fred Grey also represented her. Following Rosa Park's arrest, the NAACP and other Black-led organizations launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which had been in the planning stages for some time. The Black residents of Montgomery had long complained of their mistreatment by the bus company. The reserved white seats exceeded the seats available to Black passengers, even though ridership was 75% Black. Some drivers required Black passengers to pay their fare, exit the bus, and re-enter through the back door. At times, the bus purposely took off before these Black passengers (who had already paid) boarded through the back door. Drivers were rude and disrespected Black passengers in countless ways. Meetings with city officials about these complaints had led nowhere. Community activists had considered using Claudette's case as the rallying point for the bus boycott but dismissed the idea. Many thought that an unpredictable dark-skinned teenager from a poor family was not the proper standard-bearer for this movement. Rosa Parks' presented the right situation. She was active in the civil rights movement and the Secretary of the Montgomery NAACP. The 42-year-old mature married woman was attractive, light-skinned, and employed as a seamstress. She was the epitome of Black respectability and viewed as capable of withstanding the scrutiny which would surely follow. Two months after the Montgomery Bus Boycott was launched, Claudette Colvin, Aurelia Browder, and three other women became the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging the segregation in Montogery's public buses. They were represented by Fred Gray, with assistance from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Claudette Colvin was the star witness in the case of Browder v. Gayle. W.A. Gayle, the then-mayor of Montgomery, was the defendant. The United States Supreme Court decision in this landmark case in 1956 ended forced segregation on public transportation. The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted over a year, from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and only came to an end when the Supreme Court ordered the bus system integrated. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was the first large-scale US demonstration against segregation, and the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's brought him to national prominence. In 1955, there were newspaper accounts about the teenage girl arrested and convicted for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. And then, she moved to the Brox and vanished into obscurity. Claudette Colvin rarely spoke about the vital role she had played in the civil rights movement. While researching the book, We Were There, Too! Young People in US History, Phillip Hoose came across references to Claudette Colvin's arrest and conviction. He set about looking for her. Although she had an unlisted phone number, he eventually reached her. It took four years before she was willing to share her story. Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, won the National Book Award in 2009. Fast forward to January 2021-- a mural was dedicated in the Montgomery, Alabama neighborhood where Claudette Colvin grew up to recognize her contributions to the civil rights movement. The street where she was raised was named after her. In one of the numerous interviews she gave this past year, Claudette Colvin spoke of being inspired by youth activism, especially the leadership of young black women, and the BLM movement following the murder of George Floyd. She still had some activism in her, and in October 2021, Claudette Colvin filed a petition with the Court in Montgomery, Alabama, to have her conviction expunged and clear her name. That motion was granted. Check out this wonderful CBS News story where the judge who expunged Claudette Colvin's record offers an apology on behalf of the state of Alabama. Last Fall, the Montgomery City Council voted unanimously to honor attorney Fred Gray by renaming the street where he had grown up. That street was formerly named after the President of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis. It is now Fred D. Gray Avenue. Dr. King described Fred Gray as "the brilliant young Negro who later became the chief counsel for the protest movement." Fred Gray, 91, is still practicing law in Montgomery, Alabama. Claudette Colvin was at his side for the street naming ceremony.

I love hearing from you and an email from Maria Hidalgo in Tucson really touched me. In Maria's words is everything we need to know about the importance of our names, and with her permission, I am sharing her story. Maria's Story Back in 1973, I was hired to teach at Franklin High School in Stockton, California. It was my 2nd year teaching and still felt the normal anxiety of a new teacher. I was a double major - History and Physical Ed. Although I really wanted to be a history educator, Franklin needed a Physical Ed teacher and so, I took the job. I remember vividly on the first day of school, getting the student roster for all six periods and starting with period one, taking attendance. "Nancy Adams (here), Ed Brown (here)", and each time I came to a Spanish name I pronounced it correctly. I heard giggles from the Anglo students. I stopped and quietly asked what was funny. No one said anything. Not even the Latino students. Then I came to one of the most beautiful names I'd ever seen - Xochimilco Hurtado. No answer. I repeated the name and shyly a young girl raised her hand. And her classmates looked at her and asked, "Is that your name?" with an obvious tone of judgment. And Xochimilco snapped back "Yeah! what's it to you!." After class, some of the Latino students approached me and sheepishly asked if I would pronounce their name "regular." I pretended not to know what they meant. I asked, "Please explain what a regular pronunciation is?" "You know Mrs. H., without the Mexican accent." Gently, I reached out and placed my hand on that student's shoulder and replied, "there is no such thing as a Mexican accent, perhaps you mean Spanish accent?" And immediately, Xochimilco from the back of the small group spoke up. "Mrs. Hidalgo, you are the first teacher in all my life, who's ever pronounced my name correctly and that's how I want it pronounced. And you guys, pointing to the other 4-5 girls, need to check yourselves." I looked at the group and asked, "are we done here?" No one said a word. I wished them a good first day at school and politely excused myself. I can still recall those beautiful brown faces, who would eventually beam a smile back at me, every time I took attendance - after pronouncing their names correctly. Your story flooded me with these wonderful memories. To have your name validated by merely having it pronounced correctly - is empowering. Me Again If you are wondering how this beautiful name is pronounced, it's quite easy. The X in Xochimilco has the S sound, and the letter H in Huerta is SILENT, like the K in knock. The H in Spanish is always silent except when preceded by a C as is Chihuahua. A great example, if I say so myself, as there are the two silent H's in Chihuahua. Remember that you already know NOT to say the H. Another example is "hasta la vista baby." Ready? Here's how you say Xochimilco Huerta. SO-chi-mil-ko Wehr-ta Next on my list of things to learn is how to embed a sound file so you can hear the pronunciation. AND if you know how to do this, show me how. Please note that the X can also have the English H sound as in Mexico, Meh-hi-co. Thanks so much to Maria Hidalgo (that's E-dal-go with the E as in even ), What an unexpected and welcome experience for these students - a teacher who knew how to say their names and well understood that the "regular pronunciation" they were used to hearing failed to see them for who they really were.

Some weeks back I received 30 handwritten notes from 10th graders at Centennial High School in Corona, which is in Riverside County in Southern California. Along with those letters was a note from their teacher, Ms. Robyn Orozco. They had watched my one-woman show during the virtual Encuento Festival, sponsored by the Los Angeles Latino Theater Company. The day after the Festival ended, I met via zoom with several classrooms of students who are part of the Puente Program. In a minute I’ll tell you about Puente but first I want to thank the Puente Program for bringing my play to their schools. Here are a few things they said in their notes. Each quote is from a different writer: “I want to thank you for all the effort and time you spent on your play and doing the Q&A. I really enjoyed watching. I was able to relate to it in various ways. Realmente me encanto las diferentes expresiones que tuve durante la actuación.” The student then says she learned so much and that seeing my play motivated and inspired her to stand up for our community. I love that she so seamlessly goes from English to Spanish. “As I was watching, I liked how you went far back because it really gave meaning. I have unfortunately gone through some prejudice in my life, your presentation brought light to my thoughts on my culture.” The writer says he was inspired by my play and felt pride in being Mexican-American. He hopes someday to become a lawyer and fight for what is right. You can do it, joven, and I am rooting for you. “I kept wanting to hear more and more about the story the entire time. I especially liked the part when your teacher took note of the correct pronunciation of your name. I had never seen a one-woman play before, and it was really interesting seeing you play all the people.” Now, a bit about Puente. The Puente Project is a national award-winning program that has improved the college-going rate of tens of thousands of California's educationally underrepresented students since 1981. Its mission is to increase the number of these students who enroll in four-year colleges and universities, earn college degrees, and return to the community as mentors and leaders to future generations. The program is interdisciplinary, with writing, counseling, and community mentoring components. The word puente in Spanish means bridge. I am a huge fan of Puente and first became familiar with it through the local community college in the area where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have previously served as a mentor and made presentations in Puente classes and in the past two years have met with Puente instructors and counselors on Zoom. Although started to support students to successfully transition from community colleges to four-year institutions, Puente has expanded to serve students in both junior and high schools in various communities throughout California. Puente's staff training programs have benefited approximately 300,000 students across California. Puente is open to all students, and almost all participants are or will be the first in their families to access a college education. When making our charitable contributions, we are always happy to support Puente. The Puente Project has expanded and is serving students in Texas, my home state. You can learn more about Puente Program on their website, and there’s a donate button too. Now back to a few more student letters. One reported that she could not personally relate to the experience of people mispronouncing her name or the type of discrimination she saw in my play, but this led her to a conversation with her parents who told her of their experiences confronting prejudice in their own lives. “When you showed the video of that one lady saying that the immigrant children didn’t need soap or toothbrushes, it made me feel so upset because they deserve everything especially for what they are going through.” You are so right, it is upsetting. I included a clip of this video from a court hearing about conditions in detention centers so that people can know how immigrant children are being treated. Would anyone want their children treated this way? “I really enjoyed watching your show. There were so many things I relate to, for example, my mother’s name is Maria, and some of her friends are also named Maria.” The writer adds that she also hears people say you should stay out of the sun because the whiter you are the prettier you will be. “I sometimes pronounce my name wrong or say a Mexican food in a way that would be considered normal in this country. But you have changed my mind and inspired me to take pride in my name. Thank you.” And finally, one student told me he enjoyed my play, but “no offense” he though my dancing could be upgraded. Duly noted. Thanks, Robyn Orozco, for bringing my play into your classroom and encouraging your students to share their thoughts with me. AND special thanks to each student, for your personal handwritten notes (even if it was a class assignment!). I had forgotten the joy that a handwritten letter can bring. You can hold it and read it again and again. I see you and appreciate you: Alaritza, Aliya, Alyssa, Bruno, Bryan, Chris, Diana, Diego, Erick, Giselle C., Giselle DR., Gisselle, Isabella O., Isabella P. Jacqueline, Jennifer, Jesus, Jocelyn F. Jocelyn J., Joseph, Kai, Kayla, Laura, Liliana, Maximiliano, Maximus, Naomi, Nicolas, Nicole, Oliver. Muchisimas gracias. As my friend, comedian, and solo performer, Marga Gomez, says “keep shining.”