Borrowed Wisdom with Robert Barry Fleming

Robert talks to Stacey Wade, founder and CEO of Nimbus, and Dr. Dawn Wade, Chief Strategy Officer at Nimbus, about their approach to connecting cultural nuance with brand and marketing strategy, defining strategy as connecting goals to success, and how their successful personal and professional partnership ticks. Learn more about Nimbus. https://hellonimbus.com/ Actors Theatre of Louisville: https://actorstheatre.org https://www.facebook.com/ActorsTheatreofLouisville

Chandra is the Executive Director for the Center for Peace and Spiritual Renewal at Spalding University where she provides institutional vision and strategies for personal spiritual renewal, inward liberation, and social transformation within and beyond the Spalding community. In 1994 she established Irvin, Goforth & Irvin, LLC, a consulting firm which has helped individuals and Fortune 100 organizations throughout the U.S. and internationally to: clarify ambiguities in relationships; overcome chronic difficulties; resolve conflicts; and build meaningful relations across diverse groups. Following the shooting of 9 worshipers in Emanuel A.M.E Church in Charleston, SC, she served as consultant, designer and facilitator to the city’s acclaimed “Illumination Project,” a year-long city-wide process to strengthen community/police relations; and she is presently engaged in a similar endeavor in Louisville called, “The Synergy Project.” Chandra has authored and contributed to several books and articles on peace, human relations, and polarity thinking including, “Finding Peace in Life, Work, and Love, Listening to the Voice Within.” She describes her “sacred innate identity” as Peace. Employing her experience as a licensed minister, certified strengths and life coach (ICF), facilitator, and master consultant in polarity thinking, she journeys with individuals and organizations through uncertainties and disruptions to establish greater peace, purpose and wholeness in their lives. Chandra and her husband Nat have three adult children: Nate, Jovian (George), and Roman; and they look forward to their first grandchild in January.

Beth Howard is the Organizing Director of Southern Crossroads. She is from a working-class family in Eastern Kentucky. She has over 12 years of experience in grassroots community organizing and leadership development. Beth began her organizing career as Lead Organizer at Fighting Against Injustice Towards Harmony in Daytona Beach, FL where the organization won campaigns to secure a substance-abuse treatment program and mental-health services for incarcerated people in the county jail. After five years, Beth moved back to her home state of Kentucky and worked for nearly seven years as a chapter organizer and later as Deputy Organizing Director of Leadership Development for Kentuckians For The Commonwealth. At KFTC, she worked on winning campaigns to raise the minimum wage in Fayette County and to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 Kentuckians with felonies in their past. She also created an organizing apprentice program and a community organizing 101 intensive training program for KFTC”s grassroots members. In 2019, she graduated from Catalyst Project’s Anne Braden program, a transformational anti-racist organizer training for white social-justice activists and served as the lead staff support for KFTC’s organizational racial justice assessment and visioning process. She is deeply committed to liberatory organizing strategies to build a multiracial poor-working class people’s movement in the American South. She lives in Lexington, KY with her partner Andrew, their faithful dog Sandy, and their defiant cat Tadpole.

Robert and Kellie dive into the local impact of the Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's announcement of the grand jury decision in the murder of Breonna Taylor. Kellie shares her personal and professional perspectives on civil service, violence, and community activism. Kellie R. Watson was the first Chief Equity Officer for Louisville Metro Government, providing strategic, visionary planning and oversight to advance racial equity in Louisville Metro Government and she oversees the Department of Human Resources and the Human Relations Commission. Prior to this, she was the General Counsel/Legislative Liaison to Mayor Fischer. She was also the Director of the Human Resources Department/Labor Relations within the Fischer administration. Kellie has served as the Director for Office of Human Resource Management/Acting Director of the Office of Civil Rights and Small Business for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. Kellie’s early years in City of Louisville, were as the Director of the Louisville Metro Human Relations Commission for several years, as the Director of the Office of Affirmative Action. Kellie is a member of the Kentucky and Louisville Bar Associations; Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. serving as the Executive Board Chair of Beta Alpha Xi Zeta Chapter; Legislative Liaison for Derby City Chapter of Jack and Jill Inc.

Robert and Eric share their perspectives on the narratives surrounding BIPOC leadership, the roles of allies versus accomplices, and disrupting dominant culture legacies and systems in non-profit arts organizations. Mr. Ting is an Obie Award-winning director, Artistic Director of California Shakespeare Theater. He previously served as Long Wharf Theatre Associate Artistic Director. Recent credits include the world premiere of Sam Hunter’s Lewiston (Long Wharf Theatre), To Kill a Mockingbird (Cincinnati Playhouse), The World of Extreme Happiness (Manhattan Theatre Club / Goodman), Appropriate (Mark Taper Forum), Kimber Lee’s Brownsville Song (LWT / Philadelphia Theatre Co), A Great Wilderness (Williamstown), Nora Chipaumire’s Miriam (BAM Next Wave), Jackie Sibblies Drury’s We Are Proud to Present a Presentation… (world premiere, Soho Rep / Victory Gardens) and Rising Son (world premiere, Singapore Rep). Ting is a founding member of the artists’ collective INTELLIGENT BEASTS. Upcoming: Othello (Cal Shakes), Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower with Toshi Reagon (National Tour) and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ An Octoroon (Berkeley Rep). He is a recipient of a TCG New Generations fellowship, a Jerome & Roslyn Milstein Meyer Career Development Prize, a NEFA National Theatre Project grant, and (with Meiyin Wang) a MAP Fund Award. Additionally, he has served on grant panels including the Doris Duke Charitable Trust, Jerome and McKnight Foundations, NEA, TCG, PONY, Creative Work Fund and Alpert Awards.

Advisory: this episode includes discussion of sexual abuse, sexual assault, addiction, and recovery. Robert and Anthony explore how male sexual abuse intersects with masculinity, shame and silence. Anthony Edwards is an American actor and director. He is most widely known for his role as Dr. Mark Greene on the first eight seasons of “ER”, for which he received a Golden Globe award and six Screen Actors Guild Awards, and was nominated for four consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards. Edwards is the Chairman of the Board of 1in6, a leading national organization dedicated to helping men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences live healthier, happier lives. Visit https://1in6.org/.

Co-Principal Investigators Jessica Bellamy and Josh Poe share their work connecting data justice, housing justice, and abolition and discuss their practice of accountability and accompaniment, and subversive intellectualism in the South. Jessica Bellamy is an award-winning international speaker, workshop facilitator, motion infographic designer, and research analyst. She and her colleague Josh Poe are the founders of the Root Cause Research Center which is a grassroots-led institution that collects data, creates data visuals, and trains impacted community members in research and data storytelling. Jessica's research career began at the University of Louisville's Neurodevelopmental Science Lab, where she worked for nearly five years. She later used her training as a research analyst, as well as her training in community organizing and graphic design to start GRIDS: The Grassroots Information Design Studio, which was a social enterprise that combined all three skill sets to benefit social initiatives. Josh Poe is the co-founder and Co-Principal Investigator at the Root Cause Research Center here in Louisville. He is an urban planner, community organizer, and geographer with over 20 years of scholarship, activism and practical experience in planning, urban land policy and housing issues in his home state of Kentucky and Seattle, Washington, including with Black Lives Matter Louisville. Make your voice heard about the Smoketown development: https://www.cflouisville.org/resources/smoketown-feedback/

Lisa Gunterman is the Director for the LGBT Center at the University of Louisville, and a lifelong social justice organizer with nearly 30 years of experience in non-profit, social justice and government sectors. As a co-founder of Louisville's Fairness Campaign, Lisa played a key role in passing the city's ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and ensuring the inclusion of protections based on gender identity and expression.

Robert chats with two local mental health and advocacy experts - Nancy Brooks and Donna Pollard - to explore combating isolation, fear, anxiety in quarantine, intergenerational trauma, and cultural obstacles to mental health resources and healing. Content warning: discussion of suicide and suicidal ideation, child abuse, addiction, police brutality, domestic violence, and sexual assault. Nancy Brooks has been the executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Louisville since 2017. A Louisville native, she’s passionate about advocacy at the local and state level for the needs of those being served by NAMI. Nancy is an experienced non-profit director with a history in community development, education, and the arts. Donna Pollard dares to believe in a world where young girls can be free from abuse and exploitation. A native of Kentucky -- a state burdened with thousands of cases of abuse and a history of child marriage -- she is leading the charge for change. Donna successfully advocated for improved legislation in her home state and many others that put an end to child marriage through parental consent and continues to advocate for this protective change both nationally and internationally. She most recently traveled to Finland as the keynote speaker for the Zonta International Centennial Conference, shedding light on the devastating implications of child marriage and critically needed global reform. As a survivor herself, Donna realizes the need for healing, support, and encouragement for past victims. She founded Survivors’ Corner, a nonprofit that empowers those ready to share their survival experiences with the goal of breaking abusive cycles and challenging policies and laws that perpetuate crimes against women and children. Her journey through the trauma of child marriage and exploitation can be accessed through the A&E Documentary, "I Was a Child Bride," interviews and articles in Good Housekeeping, Glamour, NPR, Stateline, Fox News, US News and World Report, PBS, CBS News, the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, the Lexington Herald-Leader, and the Louisville Courier-Journal, among many other national and international outlets, such as The Guardian and Daily Mail. She is a frequent panelist, speaker, and trainer, and has given numerous keynote speeches as well as testimony before legislative committees. Donna is a mother of two girls, a business professional, and an avid advocate for child welfare.

Robert and Nataki share their experiences directing stories of enslavement, transitioning from performance to leadership, and being an artist during the paradigm shift we’re experiencing today. Nataki Garrett is Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s sixth artistic director. As the former associate artistic director of CalArts Center for New Performance, Garrett has been hailed as a champion of new work as well as an experienced, savvy arts administrator. 2019 was Garrett’s first season at OSF, where she directed How to Catch Creation. At CalArts, Garrett oversaw all operations of conservatory training and produced mainstage, black box, developmental projects, plays, co-productions and touring productions. She is currently on the nominating committee for The Kilroys, and she recently served on the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust Distinguished Playwright Award nominating committee and the Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship panel.

Robert and Christen discuss investing in Louisville’s cultural future, building capacity within our arts organizations, and evolving local philanthropy towards more inclusive and relevant support. Christen Boone is the President & CEO of the Fund for the Arts in Louisville. Before that, she held leadership roles at Actors Theatre of Louisville, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and Cincinnati’s Fine Arts Fund.

Shannon Craigo-Snell joins Robert to explore Christianity, theatremaking, and the great American project through the lenses of performance, practice, and doubleness. Shannon Craigo-Snell is a theologian and a faculty member at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. She previously taught at Yale University and is an ordained Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church, and she’s the author of The Empty Church: Theater, Theology and Bodily Hope.

Dr. Monalisa Tailor shares a COVID-19 primer and chats with Robert about being “the first” in leadership positions and approaching healthcare from a human-first perspective. Monalisa Tailor, MD is a practicing outpatient internist with Norton Community Medical Associates: Barret. As only the 6th female President of the Greater Louisville Medical Society, the first Indian American, and one of the youngest Presidents in its history, she is honored to be able to serve the Louisville community in this role. Dr. Tailor is a native of Bowling Green, KY. Her parents are Indian immigrants who are self employed business owners. She graduated from the University of Kentucky summa cum laude in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science. She then graduated from University of Louisville School of Medicine Class of 2010. Actor and musician Nick Cordero passed away from COVID-19 on July 5, 2020. Here is the link to the memorial fund to benefit Amanda Kloots, his wife, and their 10-month old son. https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-amanda-kloots-nick-cordero-amp-elvis Actors Theatre of Louisville: https://actorstheatre.org https://www.facebook.com/ActorsTheatreofLouisville

Robert talks to Chef Nikkia Rhodes about serving Louisville, leadership, and empowering the next generation in and out of the kitchen.

Robert talks to Dr. David Anderson Hooker about radical hospitality, extravagant welcome, and building community after conflict and protest.

Joshua Poe, co-founder of the Root Cause Research Center in Louisville, joins Robert to discuss racial capitalism, redlining, and the Breonna Taylor protests. Recorded June 4, 2020. Root Cause Research Center: https://www.rootcauseresearch.org/

A new podcast from Actors Theatre of Louisville, hosted by Executive Artistic Director Robert Barry Fleming. Season one coming soon!