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

📷 Instagram: @actorstheatre, @robertbarryfleming

🐦 Twitter: @atlouisville, @flemingrobertb3

Produced by Elizabeth Greenfield

Edited by Paul Doyle

Original music by Omega Latham III

Opening song written & performed by Erica Denise

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.

📚 References:

Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman (1949)

Louisville Synergy Project

The Illumination Project - Charleston

Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems by Barry Johnson (1992)

More Beautiful Than Before: How Suffering Transforms Us by Steve Leder (2017)

Actors Theatre of Louisville: https://actorstheatre.org

https://www.facebook.com/ActorsTheatreofLouisville

📷 Instagram: @actorstheatre, @robertbarryfleming

🐦 Twitter: @atlouisville, @flemingrobertb3

Produced by Elizabeth Greenfield

Edited by Paul Doyle

Original music by Omega Latham III

Opening song written & performed by Erica Denise

📚 References:

Southern Crossroads

An Appalachian Reawakening: West Virginia and the Perils of the New Machine Age, 1945-1972 by Jerry Thomas (2010)

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X Kendi (2017)

Owsley County, Kentucky, and the Perpetuation of Poverty by John R. Burch Jr. (2007)

Combahee River Collective

adrienne maree brown

Actors Theatre of Louisville: https://actorstheatre.org

https://www.facebook.com/ActorsTheatreofLouisville

📷 Instagram: @actorstheatre, @robertbarryfleming

🐦 Twitter: @atlouisville, @flemingrobertb3

Produced by Elizabeth Greenfield

Edited by Paul Doyle

Original music by Omega Latham III

Opening song written & performed by Erica Denise

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.

📚 References:

“The 1619 Project”

The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter (2010)

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson (2020)

Actors Theatre of Louisville: https://actorstheatre.org

https://www.facebook.com/ActorsTheatreofLouisville

📷 Instagram: @actorstheatre, @robertbarryfleming

🐦 Twitter: @atlouisville, @flemingrobertb3

Produced by Elizabeth Greenfield

Audio Engineer and Editor: Paul Doyle

Cover art by Mary Kate Grimes

Original music by Omega Latham III

Opening song written & performed by Erica Denise

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.

📚 References:

California Shakespeare Theater: https://calshakes.org/

The Third Wave by Alvin Toffler (1980)

The People’s Institute for Survival & Beyond: https://www.pisab.org/

Macbeth, 1969, directed & adapted by Eric Ting (Long Wharf Theatre, 2012):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDYVg0NZcz0

Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare by Geoffrey Bullough (1975)

Actors Theatre of Louisville: https://actorstheatre.org

https://www.facebook.com/ActorsTheatreofLouisville

📷 Instagram: @actorstheatre, @robertbarryfleming

🐦 Twitter: @atlouisville, @flemingrobertb3

Produced by Elizabeth Greenfield

Edited by Paul Doyle

Cover art by Mary Kate Grimes

Original music by Omega Latham III

Opening song written & performed by Erica Denise

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/.

📚 References:

The Betrayal Bond: Breaking Free of Exploitive Relationships by Patrick Carnes

Intimate Strangers: The Culture of Celebrity by Richard Schickel

Actors Theatre of Louisville: https://actorstheatre.org

https://www.facebook.com/ActorsTheatreofLouisville

📷 Instagram: @actorstheatre, @robertbarryfleming

🐦 Twitter: @atlouisville, @flemingrobertb3

Produced by Elizabeth Greenfield

Edited by Paul Doyle

Cover art by Mary Kate Grimes

Original music by Omega Latham III

Opening song written & performed by Erica Denise

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/

📚 Resources:

Root Cause Research Center: https://www.rootcauseresearch.org/

“Weaponizing Truth: A Spirited Analysis of Movement Science & Design” by Jessica Bellamy:  https://link.medium.com/81jQmwxv28

GRIDS: The Grassroots Information Design Studio: https://www.gridsconnect.me/

Our Data Bodies: https://www.odbproject.org/

Stop LAPD Spying Coalition: https://stoplapdspying.org/

Invest/Divest Louisville: https://www.investdivest.org/

#CancelRent:  https://www.rootcauseresearch.org/cancelrent

“Russell: What is the Right to Remain? Part 1: https://www.rootcauseresearch.org/post/russell-what-is-the-right-to-remain-part-1

Tressie McMillan Cottom, "Race in the U.S.": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwYjmEuvldg

Actors Theatre of Louisville: https://actorstheatre.org

https://www.facebook.com/ActorsTheatreofLouisville

📷 Instagram: @actorstheatre, @robertbarryfleming

🐦 Twitter: @atlouisville, @flemingrobertb3

Produced by Elizabeth Greenfield

Edited by Paul Doyle

Cover art by Mary Kate Grimes

Original music by Omega Latham III

Opening song written & performed by Erica Denise

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.

📚 Resources:

Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming Of Gay And Lesbian Liberation by Urvashi Vaid (1996)

The Scandal of Redemption: When God Liberates the Poor, Saves Sinners, and Heals Nations by Óscar Romero (2018)

The Church Cannot Remain Silent: Unpublished Letters and other Writings by Óscar  Romero (2016)

The LGBT Center at the University of Louisville: https://louisville.edu/lgbt

Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research: https://louisville.edu/braden

Fairness Campaign: https://www.fairness.org/

Actors Theatre of Louisville: https://actorstheatre.org

https://www.facebook.com/ActorsTheatreofLouisville

📷 Instagram: @actorstheatre, @robertbarryfleming

🐦 Twitter: @atlouisville, @flemingrobertb3

Produced by Kathryn de la Rosa and Elizabeth Greenfield

Edited by Paul Doyle

Cover art by Mary Kate Grimes

Original music by Omega Latham III

Opening song written & performed by Erica Denise

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.

📚 Resources:

NAMI Louisville: https://namilouisville.org/

Survivors Corner: https://survivorscorner.org/

Actors Theatre of Louisville: https://actorstheatre.org

https://www.facebook.com/ActorsTheatreofLouisville

📷 Instagram: @actorstheatre, @robertbarryfleming

🐦 Twitter: @atlouisville, @flemingrobertb3

Produced by Kathryn de la Rosa and Elizabeth Greenfield

Edited by Paul Doyle

Cover art by Mary Kate Grimes

Original music by Omega Latham III

Opening song written & performed by Erica Denise

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.

📚 References:

Brandon Jacob-Jenkins’s “An Octoroon” https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=5049

Read more about Dominique Morisseau’s “Confederates” https://www.blackburnprize.org/home/finalists-2020/dominique-morisseau/

Read more about Katori Hall’s “Pussy Valley” https://www.playbill.com/article/katori-hall-takes-on-strip-clubs-power-sex-and-the-south-in-her-explosive-new-series-p-valley

Read Alesha Harris’s “Is God Is” http://www.3holepress.org/is-god-is

Actors Theatre of Louisville: https://actorstheatre.org

https://www.facebook.com/ActorsTheatreofLouisville

📷 Instagram: @actorstheatre, @robertbarryfleming

🐦 Twitter: @atlouisville, @flemingrobertb3

Produced by Elizabeth Greenfield

Audio Engineer: Paul Doyle

Cover art by Mary Kate Grimes

Original music by Omega Latham III

Opening song written & performed by Erica Denise