Disability and Progress-April 3, 2025-Off-Kilter Cabaret!

[00:00:31] Speaker A: SA. [00:00:55] Speaker B: This is KFAI 90.3 FM, Minneapolis. And kfai.org this is disability in Progress where we bring you insights into ideas about and discussions on disability topics. My name is Sam. I'm the host of this show. Charlene Dahl is my research PR person. Hello, Charlene. Hello. [00:01:14] Speaker C: Good evening everyone. [00:01:16] Speaker B: Erin Westendorp is my podcaster. Thank you, Erin, for all the work you do and thanks, Miguel, for assisting with engineering. Just a couple reminders, if you want to be on my email list, you can email me at disabilityandprogressamjasmin.com be happy to let you know what's coming up. Things like interview on TV is coming up next week. Also, pledge drive is the 9th through the 18th or something like that in April. Please feel free to help us, support us, show us the love, whatever you see fit. We could use it today. This week we're speaking with off leash area's off kilter Cabaret lineup and people who run it. So I'll announce people who are in the room. First of all, we have Gabriel. Roderick. Gabriel, pronounce your last name for me. [00:02:20] Speaker D: Yeah, it's Roderick Rodrik. [00:02:23] Speaker B: Thank you, Gabriel. Hello, by the way. [00:02:25] Speaker D: Hi. [00:02:26] Speaker B: Laureen Chang. Hello, Laureen. Hi. [00:02:29] Speaker C: It's Lorene. [00:02:30] Speaker B: Oh, sorry. It's okay. And Paul Herwig. [00:02:34] Speaker A: Hi, Sam. [00:02:35] Speaker B: Hi. I think I got your name right. [00:02:37] Speaker C: Yes. [00:02:37] Speaker B: That's all good. [00:02:38] Speaker A: Yes. [00:02:39] Speaker B: Simple is sometimes good. All right, so thank you guys for being on. I really appreciate it. Can we start out though by each of you and please announce your name so people know who's talking for the first time or till you do it. So people get used to your voices. Just kind of give us an idea of a little bit of your history, doesn't have to be very long and how you got where you are today. So let's start with Lorene. [00:03:06] Speaker C: Yeah, hello, My name is Lorene Chang. She they. I'm a second generation Hmong American spoken word poet, artists, performance writer. I was raised in St. Paul and I started writing and journaling in my younger years. And then when I was 14, I joined the Central Touring Theater in St. Paul. And so Jam Mandel was my device theater. And from there I sort of just fell in love with poetry and performance and ever since I've dabbled in it. [00:03:40] Speaker B: Gabriel. [00:03:41] Speaker D: Yeah, my name's Gabriel. I'm a performer here in Minneapolis. Been mostly playing music since here in the Cities since about 2012. I also do dance, improv, just general performance stuff around the cities and got involved with off leash area a few years ago. And I'm on the leadership team for this Off Kilter production. [00:04:13] Speaker B: Paul. [00:04:14] Speaker A: Hi. Yeah, I'm Paul Herwig and I. I'm old and I have a long history and I don't know why I'm not able to talk at this very moment. So I am a theater artist and I do projection art design. I am the co artistic director, along with Jennifer Isles of Off Leash Area, which is a dance and theater company here in Minneapolis that has been producing original shows for 25 years. And one of the programs that we've developed with a leadership team in the community of people from the disability community is the Off Kilter Cabaret, which is what we're here to talk about today. [00:04:59] Speaker B: All right, can you start off by telling us who Off Leash Area is and. [00:05:06] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, sure. Bunch of crazy dogs unleashed. No, we are. [00:05:13] Speaker B: That's kind of what I was thinking. [00:05:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, Off Leash Area is, as I mentioned before, is a dance and theater company, and we create only original work. So we don't do plays and written plays, and we don't create and produce choreography by other choreographers. Jennifer Isles and I, as the artistic directors, develop and write the show. And we often bring in artists that we really value in the community, some who might be known to us and some who are new to us, like Gabriel once, to come in and help us create a show. And we have a very open process and we're very interested in the people that we bring in to collaborate, having a real mark on the shows that we create. And so creating and producing shows, original shows, is really, really the main part of our identity. Just before the pandemic hit, we bought and renovated a building that we turned into a hundred seat theater, and we developed some community programs for that space. And one of them was the Off Kilter Cabaret. [00:06:33] Speaker B: We'll get to that. [00:06:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So. But just our connection to the disability community is that we have been developing this program for many years. Yeah. And I think that's. That's a good roundup of who Off Leash Area is. [00:06:46] Speaker B: We'll talk a little bit more then about your disability community connection. So how does that work? [00:06:54] Speaker A: How do our. How do. How do I. [00:06:56] Speaker B: You. You have it. How did you decide to have a connection with the disability community? [00:07:01] Speaker A: Yeah, well, when we had this theater, we were trying to find ways to really organically create, connect with the neighborhood and the Twin Cities community. And we could invent all kinds of programs that might be wonderful to have in the community, but that had nothing to do with us personally. And it was really important to us that the programs that we develop, that we have a personal connection to them, just like in the original shows that we create. We don't just pick a topic because it's in the newspapers or something, for example, we pick a topic that's really connected to us. So I have low vision and had my first pair of glasses when I was 11 months old. Really cute pictures with Coke bottle bottom glasses and a patch over one eye. And my first year of college was paid for by the state Services for the Blind at that time in Minnesota. So I was kind of like on the edge at that time of being technically considered a person with a. But it is certainly something that has really marked my life and made me who I am and affected the way I get around in the world. So there's that connection. And then Jennifer, my spouse and the co director of the company, her older brother had paranoid schizophrenia. And so she was very much connected to the world of cognitive disabilities and what that means. And that sometimes it can be a hidden disability and that you don't necessarily see somebody with a mobility device or something, but that there is a disability there at play that makes that person who they are, that helps to make that person who they are. So we had those connections and that's why we developed this program and we created this theater that we made in Nokomis neighborhood to be as accessible as possible. Well, anyway, the Pandemic took care of that. We were unable to continue the theater because of the financial hardships of the pen brought on by the Pandemic. But we really, really, really wanted to keep this program going. And I'm very excited to say that this year's cabaret that we're here to talk about is the third year that we have presented this program. So. Yay. [00:09:26] Speaker B: And how did you come up with the name Off Kilter? [00:09:29] Speaker A: Well, Off Kilter is a play on our company name. Our company name is Off Leash Area. And the idea was to that, you know, we're dog lovers. We've always had dogs. We have fur babies in our house. And when you're at the dog park, it's wild to see dogs of many different breeds playing and romping and tearing around together. And it's always improvisational. When dogs play, they don't like, have a game book that they pull out of the sand at the beach at the dog park. And they also figure it out. It's not always happy times. Sometimes there's some conflict. Somebody's a bully, needs to be put in their place. Things like that. One person might be interested in another, and that might or might not be appropriate. So Off Leash Area for us was a theatrical space where people from different disciplines, from different backgrounds could get together, create a show, and figure out how to build a community within the context of making a show. And off kilter, on one hand, it's just a play on words, off leash area, off kilter. But we also wanted to think of an equally sort of somewhat playful, potentially dangerous, risky and contemporary name for the program. So I think we're all in a way off kilter as we move literally and metaphorically through our lives and through the world. And I think being off kilter is probably the standard way. I mean, the fundamental way that humans exist. Nobody is like perfectly balanced. Nobody is perfectly anything. You know, we're all just a mess of our ingredients and we have to get along. And so the off kilter Cabaret is a cabaret that was established to highlight, promote, call attention, to give opportunities to people who have a disability. [00:11:38] Speaker B: What can you tell me about the Off Kilter Cabaret? How does that work? [00:11:44] Speaker A: Well, the off kilter Cabaret, it's a cabaret performance program. And we put out a call for proposals to the community and invite artists, both professionals and non professionals, to submit a proposal for a short performance, seven to 10 minutes. And because off leash area is so centered on creating our own original work, exploring our own artistic voices, developing our own ways of doing things, we wanted to bring that to this program. And so when we're seeking out proposals, we're really encouraging of people to create their own piece of spoken word poetry or their own piece of. Compose their own piece of music and play it, write their own play, whatever discipline it might be. So it's all the disciplines together, which is indicative of what happens in a cabaret. Usually in a cabaret, there's someone who sings, someone who juggles, there's magic or whatever. So likewise for the Off Kilter cabaret, there's dance, theater, spoken word, puppetry, performance art. It's a whole mix of stuff. And there's a leadership team of professionals and people in the community. Sam, Jasmine, you are one. And Gabriel Roderick, you are one. And Amy Soloway is another person on the off kilter leadership team, as well as Jennifer Isles and myself. Is that everybody? Atlas and Atlas Ogun Phoenix. Thank you. Atlas is a filmmaker, producer, writer, performer. So the leadership team defines the goals of the program and the cabaret and helps choose the artists of all the applicants who submit applications and generally guides the values and the principles of the program. Disability, justice, making sure that we're being as inclusive and as open as possible and really staying true to the original impetus to have the program in the first place. We as off leash area kind of oversee is a little bit of a dramatic word. We sort of manage the program and really it's the leadership team who decides how the program is or isn't going to develop and takes stock of any changes that might occur as we present the Cabaret from year to year. [00:14:31] Speaker B: Who are the artists in the Cabaret this year? [00:14:35] Speaker A: The artists in the Cabaret this year are AJ Isaacson Zvidzwa, who is playing electric violin. AJ is a classical composer and musician and Laura Kanata, who is doing a piece of storytelling. Loreen Chang to my right, who is Would you say it's a spoken word or prose? Spoken word. [00:15:09] Speaker C: Spoken word. [00:15:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Lorraine's doing some spoken and I know Lorraine will be talking about that later. Scott Sorensen, who does puppetry Zamia Theater Project, we'll be doing a piece of original theater and Young Dance, who is a local dance education organization and performance company in town. Young Dance is actually our organizational partner and maybe later on Gabriel can talk a little bit more about Young Dance. But Young Dance will be doing two pieces in the Cabaret. One is a group piece with eight to 10 individuals and then there'll be a second piece which is a trio of dance and performers and they work in primarily contemporary dance, I would say. [00:15:57] Speaker B: What are the services that will be like the access services that will be provided at the play at the Cabaret? [00:16:06] Speaker A: Yes. So I'm sure I'll repeat the dates later, but the Cabaret opens actually a week from this weekend coming up. [00:16:14] Speaker C: Yes. [00:16:15] Speaker A: Oh my God. No. We're ready and you're going. Love it. It's a Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 11, 12 and 13, Friday and Saturday at 7pm, Sunday at 2pm at the Jungle Theater downtown at Lynn Lake. So it's a fantastic venue for this program to be presented and we're very grateful to the Jungle for helping us make it happen there. So Friday, April 11th, we'll have audio description and ASL interpretation. Saturday, April 12th, we will have ASL interpretation. And Sunday, April 13th, the matinee at 2pm will have audio description and captioning and ASL interpretation Excellent. [00:17:00] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:17:01] Speaker B: And is there any mask mandating or is it all free for whichever day? As far as that goes, it's all. [00:17:07] Speaker A: Free for whichever day. [00:17:10] Speaker B: All right, so I want to talk a little bit about Young Dance because Young Dance has kind of been a program partner from the almost the beginning of the off kilter thing. So off Leash area. How does that work with them? Partnering with Off Leash in the cabaret or off kilter? [00:17:33] Speaker D: As far as I know, Young Dance has offered their space up throughout, I think, since the first cabaret. Right? [00:17:43] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Like free and very discounted rehearsal space. [00:17:47] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. Free discounted rehearsal space. They've, I think last year, Gretchen and I. Gretchen is the executive director of Young Dance. We were a mentor for one of the artists. And are there, are there other things that Young Dance does? [00:18:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I think, I think promotional. [00:18:10] Speaker D: They've done some promotional work. [00:18:12] Speaker A: Yep. I mean, you. You're on the leadership team. Gretchen, you know, is a professional friend and peer and colleague. I think Gretchen pick and I know that, you know, between Gretchen and of course, Gabriel, because he's also involved in other ways, offer us, I think, a lot of, I would say, kind of casual professional advice and consultation. [00:18:36] Speaker D: Right? Yeah. [00:18:37] Speaker A: And it's just really important for us to have a partner in the community that has such a fantastic disability program of their own. [00:18:45] Speaker D: I think. [00:18:46] Speaker B: You know, I hear the word disability justice thrown out around a lot lately, especially lately. And so could you talk a little bit about whoever wants to talk a little bit about what disability justice means to you? [00:19:03] Speaker D: Yeah, I think disability justice is a sort of ongoing changing thing for me, especially as somebody who became disabled when I was 16. I have a spinal cord injury and so it's a process for me of like what disability justice looks like. I think accessibility is a big one as a wheelchair user and making places and spaces accessible and I think maybe more so is. I think lately the things that I've been thinking about is how it shows up in a community and how we exist in a community together as many varying different brains and bodies. And that that is a hard thing to do, but it is a necessary thing to figure out. And so, yeah, I think off kilter Young Dance are doing that work and that feels like disability justice to me. Sounds like Laureen. [00:20:37] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay, go ahead. So I became disabled seven years ago until before that. I think you exist in the world and you see your grandparents, you see the people around you and you know that they have different access needs. And so it's really about being sympathetic. And so now that I'm disabled, I get to see the world from these lens. And it doesn't necessarily make me more unique or special or different. It just means I have to show up in the world differently and ask and advocate for myself in a different way. To me, I've come to learn that disability means. Disability justice means being rooted in your truth, it means being flexible and giving grace, but the fierce kind of grace. So a lot of people think disability is just about what's wrong with your body or what's wrong with your personhood. But disability justice invites us to gather information through a non judgmental lens. It's about really setting one another up to exist in the spaces and the systems that we wish to be in. Justice means asking the not so fun or most comfortable questions. [00:21:49] Speaker B: Right. [00:21:49] Speaker C: It means challenging each other, but with gentle firmness. It's recognizing and saying, I don't know what it's like to be you, but I know what it's like to want to belong. And justice just means not having to prove that you deserve care. It's not about needing to earn access or validation. It's about receiving what your body and your spirit needs. [00:22:13] Speaker B: Paul, how about you and how do you think disability justice is part of Off Kilter? [00:22:20] Speaker A: Well, I. What do I think? I think that so, you know, off leash area. And our program Off Kilter, we don't lobby government officials, we don't draft legislation, we don't fundraise on behalf of individuals who lack and deserve equal treatment in society. But we do our part as a very small arts organization to put treating people, all people equally, with respect and value at the center of everything that we do. And when we create our productions and when we manage our programs like Off Kilter, our interest isn't in developing huge subscription bases and expanding our business property. We're interested in human connection and in creating experiences through the performing arts that touch, provoke, entertain people in the very intimate, small scale situations that we're able to afford to develop. And so if part of what disability justice, capital D, capital J means is doing your part to create equity and love in the world, then that's what we do. [00:24:19] Speaker B: We're going to take another short station break and we'll be right back. You're tuned to KFAI 90.3 FM, Minneapolis and KFEI.org this is disability in Progress. We are speaking with off leash areas, Off Kilter group and artists. And we have Gabriel Rodrick and Lurine Chang and last but certainly not least, Paul Herwig. Talk a little bit about probably Gabriel, like what is Young dances. Talk a little bit about their, their production in this year's Cabaret. [00:25:00] Speaker D: Yeah, so specifically about the pieces that Young Dance is doing. Yeah, yeah. So we're doing two pieces for the Cabaret. The first piece is called Reach and it's a piece that I choreographed, lead choreographed. We very much worked on it together. I'm actually not in the piece this year. I'll be sitting and watching. But yeah, the piece came about through a conversation we had actually last year at the Off Kilter production. We were talking about grief and joy and the sort of contradiction or the juxtaposition between those two things in the world of disability and bodies. And we decided kind of at this off Kilter production, while we were warming up before the show, that we wanted to make a piece about grief. And that grief is sort of a touchy term in the world of disability and that it's a complicated thing that we deal with as people with disabilities and even just aging bodies is that our bodies change and our bodies grow and decay. And that that can be really difficult sometimes. And it's hard, but that doesn't mean that you can't also experience joy and. And the really joyful parts of life and the joyful parts of living in a body. So we started to develop this piece called Reach. And that's very much what it's about. It's about the challenges of living in a body, and that those challenges aren't necessarily bad. It's just the way that it is. And we'll be. The piece is put to some music that me, my brother, and our childhood friend MJ wrote together, probably close to seven years ago now. But we were working on the piece and I was looking for music to add to it, and I was looking through the bank of music that I have and found that. And I was like, oh, this is perfect. It's a piece called Freedom that we wrote, me and my brother wrote about our grandma who passed away in 2013, I think. So that's our first piece. And our second piece is called Launch. And myself, Lainey Lee and Piper Rolfes choreographed it together. And it's actually Lainey Lee's senior piece for Young Dance because she's a senior in high school this year. And it's pretty much just us trying to do cool moves. Very, very opposite of the piece Reach. It's not a super emotional piece. It's just us trying to have a good time and dance. And I use a wheelchair, Lainey uses a wheelchair, and Piper is able bodied. It's just us twirling around the room, launching Lainey around the room. Cool. So, yeah, we're excited to perform it. [00:29:02] Speaker B: Lorene, can you talk a little bit about your piece? [00:29:05] Speaker C: Oh, my goodness. Gabriel, I just want to say maybe I was in the same headspace with y'all. [00:29:13] Speaker D: Great. Love it. [00:29:15] Speaker C: So a little bit about My piece I'll be performing a poem I wrote called Body Memory. And so I actually have a line in there about grief. It goes, the longest relationship I've ever had is with grief. It comes in and sweeps you off your feet. So you have to come see this show so you can hear the rest of my piece. But it's almost like I wanted to invite the audience to look through a window, to tap into moments that spark their own sense of wonder. Without giving any more away about my piece, I really write about my lived experiences with having chronic illnesses, especially invisible disabilities. [00:30:00] Speaker B: Yes. [00:30:01] Speaker C: And so seven years ago, I found out I had cancer. I also have multiple TBIs, so traumatic brain injuries. My piece is about how that memory lives in the body, and it's about surviving. But really at the core of my piece, I just really wanted the audience to take what resonates with their own lives and their own stories and then ask themselves, what is my relationship to disability? What is my relationship to art? How do I put that all together? And what does justice mean to me? What does justice look like if I was to advocate for myself? I actually learned about Off Kilter last year when I came to see my friend Hua, and she had performed in the show. At last year's show, she did a comedy piece. Last year's theme was Inside Outside, Inside Out. [00:30:59] Speaker B: Ah, yes. [00:31:01] Speaker C: And this year's theme is Human Alchemy, which I feel like is so fitting, and it's really been fun to play with. [00:31:09] Speaker A: Cool. [00:31:10] Speaker C: Yeah. Paul's like, yeah, we did something great. [00:31:14] Speaker A: Well, when we think of these titles, you know, it's like we don't know who's going to be in the cabaret. [00:31:19] Speaker B: We know anything, or what they're going to do with the titles. [00:31:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And so, like, I always feel like the title should just be something just to kind of tickle people's imaginations to write something. So anyway, go on, please. [00:31:32] Speaker C: For sure. Yeah. No, the theme, Human Alchemy has been really fun to play with. And I was just like, oh, I could write so many pieces from this and morph and evolve from it. And it could be in a poetry vault that I can pull out of, you know, when I need it in the future. And I've been really fortunate that Paul and Jennifer and the Off Leash team have birthed it Off Kilter to really see it come to life. I'm glad that I get to be part of the third cabaret where they've kind of worked out some of the kinks. The first two years. [00:32:07] Speaker B: You know, that's always how it goes. I feel like anything is like that. And even when you think you've worked it perfectly, I can tell you, because I host things too. And even when you think you've perfectly worked it out, like, okay, we have it all now. We've done this, been there, done that, been there, done that, and we can do this. Something happens. It's always something. You know, I think the important thing about that is learning grace of handling things when they go wrong and being able to get back up on your feet and persevere. Right. And just move on without making too much of a oops thing about it. [00:32:46] Speaker D: Well, that's the title that's off kilter. Right. We do it and it happens. And it doesn't really matter if it crashes and burns or not. You know, we make the art and we. [00:33:01] Speaker B: It doesn't matter if it crashes and burns, but hopefully that it doesn't do that. [00:33:05] Speaker D: But yeah, we just hope that hopefully. [00:33:07] Speaker A: Come see if we crash and burn. [00:33:10] Speaker D: Exactly. [00:33:10] Speaker B: I was wondering if you guys. You know the other term that I hear is disability ability. So is disability ability different than disability? Just. Does anyone want to tackle that? [00:33:21] Speaker D: Who? [00:33:27] Speaker A: I don't. [00:33:31] Speaker D: I mean, that is. I think disability ability sounds to me like justice. You know, it is justice in and of itself that we. And it goes back to the grief joy thing, too. I think for me, that just that in. In its perspective, I guess it's how you look at it, that, yes, I use a wheelchair and I can't move most of my body, and that creates limitations on my body, but I actually use those limitations now to create work and create art and relate to the world. And that is an ability in and of itself that I choose to do that. And I choose to see these limitations as opportunities or challenges and take them on myself, but also take them on with the support of my community. And that feels like justice to me, you know, that we seek that out ourselves. And as a community, I think you just nailed it. Cool. [00:34:58] Speaker B: I'm wondering if either of you really. It's probably directed quite a bit at Paul. If political climates influence or determine if or how or how hard it will be to keep producing programs like this and functioning like you do. Can you talk a little bit about that? Does it matter? Yes. I'm asking you to stick your neck out. Come on, let's do it. Well, there's no chopping block. Let's go. [00:35:38] Speaker A: I'm not just speaking for myself here, so I'd be happy to stick my neck. [00:35:43] Speaker B: Everyone else is in tears but, well. [00:35:47] Speaker A: Let'S talk about the practicality here. I mean, first, at the core, to me, the value of this program of elvish area of Jennifer, 9, who manage it, and everybody sitting here and elsewhere in the community who participate in it. Everybody should be. Everybody should be treated equal and everybody should have equal respect. That doesn't happen. And so do we want it or don't we want it? And if we do want it, how do we get it? That's pretty simple to me. I think there's a lot of people who don't want it. I think there's a lot of people in the country and the world who aren't interested in everybody being equal and having equal access. [00:36:37] Speaker B: And I'm going to stop you there a minute. Why? Because they're okay where they are. [00:36:43] Speaker A: I, I wouldn't deem to try to define why that's. [00:36:48] Speaker B: But isn't it our kind of goal to understand why people wouldn't want that? Because without figuring that out, how do you make a change? [00:37:01] Speaker D: I don't. I don't think it is our job. [00:37:03] Speaker A: That's not our job to figure that out. No. [00:37:06] Speaker B: Then how do you get people to see where you are? [00:37:10] Speaker D: It's everybody else, I think, who, who does want to see equality and people with equal access. If we're talking about the rich oligarchs of the world, it's not our job to understand why they do what they do. It's our job to bring people in who are interested in leveling the playing field and existing in community together, because I think the majority of people in this country actually want that. But they hop onto bandwagons that are presented as, oh, we will help you, and then they don't. And it's our job to bring people in who believe in what we believe in. And it's not, I don't think it's at all our job to try and change people's mind who don't believe in equality and, you know, well, well, being for everybody. [00:38:24] Speaker A: That's the, that's the job of, of governments, social justice, nonprofits, churches and community groups. That's not the job of artists. [00:38:33] Speaker C: May I? [00:38:34] Speaker A: Please. [00:38:37] Speaker C: So I see myself. We get to be unique in this unique role of being an artist. And I think the beautiful thing about being an artist is that we get to create conversations. We get to be in these in between spaces. We get to do the raw and the vulnerable things that sometimes our political climate doesn't necessarily get to see at the forefront of it. And I love that the smart People and the people with the fancy degrees get to stop at a podium and tell us how we should run things. But I think part of that, having access or care, is really more than just a checklist or something to win votes. It's really not. It's not just about ramps and captions, because I feel like we get so limited to those things. It's that and ASL interpreters and language interpreters. It's that and being able to see yourself represented and included in spaces, no matter how you show up. And getting access needs met isn't about being extra, it's just about being human. Being an artist, I feel like, allows me to also see justice from. Well, to me, three things, I guess three dreams is one, to no longer be exhausted from fighting, fighting for it, whatever your it is. Right. Two, it's to really make space, to live in a world where we don't have to explain or be shamed for needing what we need or for being who we are. And three, it's really about just tapping into one another's strengths, imagining how much more we could do or be or build together if we just met each other at the level that everybody wanted to be seen at. And so disability ability, to me, we get to sit in this unique place of being an artist and we get to inspire conversations. And it's not always about overcoming something. Sometimes it's really just about crafting our everyday truths and making us feel like we matter. Sometimes art's going to be challenging, Sometimes it's going to be uncomfortable, sometimes it's going to be funny, Sometimes it's going to be weird. It could be sexy. And sometimes it's going to be unresolved. But I think that's part of the beauty of being a human being is really just showing up as you are and being able to present yourself in that way without having to have someone gatekeep that. [00:41:15] Speaker B: Thank you, Lorraine. [00:41:16] Speaker A: You know, Sam, I'd like to answer your question on a practical note as well. Do I have a moment to do that? [00:41:22] Speaker B: You do, but I do want to correct something. When I said help somebody change their mind, I don't mean the disability community in general, because I think as a community, we all need to learn to fit into the whole community as a whole. But I do mean the community that is seen as wanting to be fair and wanting to have everyone look at you equally. There's a lot of people, like you said out there, and don't you want to be part of that? That helps, you know, shift that, that everyone should be seen as being able to be treated fairly. And I think, I mean, that's part of where I was going as far as where that was. But. Go ahead, Paul. [00:42:10] Speaker A: Well, I don't know if this applies now, but I'll say it anyway because maybe it's an interesting topic. But so I feel like. I feel like I'll speak for myself because I'm here in front of the microphone. I am trying to respond in a way that reflects our position as Off Leash Area, which doesn't just include me. And so in that light, on a practical note, your question made me think about the current government that we have in Washington and a lot of the new rules and procedures that are being put into place. Off Leash area has received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. It's been a long time, but we did once, and we had been working with the program officer at the National Endowment the last couple of years because they've become more open to offering project grants to small organizations like us. And I mean, like, we are really small. We are super small. Nobody has a salary, nobody's employed. The only time we ever get a fee is when we do a project that gets a grant. So Everybody has jobs, etc. So we have another program called the Neighborhood Garage Tour, which is basically taking a truck with a show, going to neighborhoods in the outer ring suburbs, turning people's two car garages into black box theaters and putting on a show. It's a lot of fun. It's super community oriented. We're bringing art to people. We're not waiting for them to come to us. [00:43:58] Speaker B: Right. [00:44:00] Speaker A: And as with all things with Off Leash Area, we've been centering being more inclusive of the disability community and all of our work. We were. Nothing's ever certain when you write a grant, but we were in discussion with the program officer at the National Endowment and it looks really good for us this year. But we actually don't know if we can take the money because part of the stipulation of receiving money from the National Endowment for the Arts, which by the way, is just piss in the bucket compared to every other country in the world. Let's get real about the money that's coming from the National Endowment, okay? If we were to get a grant from them, we would have to sign off that in no other activity that our nonprofit engages in is there any work to be representative of the broadest range of people, which includes the Off Kilter Cabaret. So we would have to stop the Off Kilter Cabaret because we're Highlighting folks with disabilities in order to get a grant to do something else. So on a very practical level, there's an enormous challenge happening and that's for us, just little off leash area in the middle of nowhere, doing almost nothing. When you think about large, large companies and organizations that do huge amounts of community work, you know, their very existence is on the line. So there's a practical answer to your question. [00:45:33] Speaker D: Thank you. [00:45:33] Speaker B: Paul, can you please go through when and where again and how people can get tickets? [00:45:40] Speaker A: I will, absolutely. And I just wanted to say, you know, we're talking about art and art involves human beings trying to get it together with other human beings. And it's complex and it's messy and it's emotional and all this stuff. And it's also beautiful and fun and joyous. And I think if people come to the cabaret, they're gonna see an enormous range of individuals and expressions and it's gonna be a fantastic night out in the performing arts. And the performing arts have really suffered since the pandemic, the civil unrest of 2020 as a very blue city in a very blue state. There's been a lot of incidental trauma and direct trauma from different administrations running our federal government. It's been a tough time for the performing arts. I mean Netflix, Apple TV, etc. So come and see the show because we are going to get you and you're going to love it. So there, there's my little pitch about that. So recap the details of the show and how to get tickets. Yes, the show is the off kilter Cabaret Human Alchemy. And it's a cabaret format production with dance theater, puppetry, spoken word, poetry, storytelling, theater. And it's happening at the Jungle Theater in South Minneapolis at Lynn Lake. Friday, Saturday and Sunday next weekend, April 11, 12 and 13, 11 and 12 at 7pm, 13 at 2pm the show is about an hour and a half long tops. It's going to be a really fun night out at the theater. [00:47:27] Speaker B: Isn't there an after show discussion after one of them? [00:47:30] Speaker A: Yes, there is an after show discussion which you can participate in or not. And that's on Saturday night. And you can get your tickets at Ticketstripe. So if you go to Ticketstripe.com and look up the off kilter Cabaret Human Alchemy, you'll find tickets. And the tickets are, they are suggested donation 5 to $30. And that's there so that folks who are having economic difficulty can come and see the show for less. And those who don't have economic difficulty or as much can pay more and support the project. And the way that works out for us is that it always ends up being an average ticket price. But the benefit to us is that people who want to support the program extra can. And those who really want to come and see don't have to feel humiliated because they don't have enough money. And they can come too. [00:48:27] Speaker B: That's an excellent idea. Well, I want to thank you guys for being willing to come on. It's been great. So thank you so much. And I wish Gabriel and Lorene, I wish you guys the best of luck in your performances that you do in the Human Alchemy cabaret. [00:48:44] Speaker A: Very exciting. [00:48:45] Speaker B: And Paul, good luck with there being no huge snafus. [00:48:50] Speaker A: Yeah, no, we got it together, baby. We're ready. [00:48:53] Speaker B: All right, well, thank you guys. Is there anything anybody else wants to say before you go? [00:48:58] Speaker D: Thanks for having us, Sam. [00:48:59] Speaker C: Yeah, thank you for having us. Thank you for checking us out. [00:49:02] Speaker B: Lorene, you're spoken word sounds really fascinating. I'll be anxious to hear it. [00:49:07] Speaker C: Appreciate that. Come see it, guys. [00:49:10] Speaker B: Thank you, guys. This has been Disability in progress. The views expressed on this show are not necessarily those of KFEI or its board of directors. My name is Sam. I'm the host of this show. Thanks for tuning in. Charlene Dahl is my research PR person. Erin is my podcaster. We have been speaking with off leash areas off kilter about their cabaret. Gabriel Rodrique and Loreen Chang and Paul Herwig were on tonight to talk. If you'd like to have a suggestion or feedback on the show, you can email me at disabilityandprogressamjasmin.com please don't forget pledge drive coming up on the week of the 9th. And also please show us some support. I guess that's that. And except for we have podcasts. And if you'd like to hear the podcast, you can ask your smart speaker to play Disability in progress. Thanks so much for listening. [00:50:12] Speaker A: Goodbye.