Page 18 - APAP Inside Arts - Spring 2020

During many sessions, artists and arts leaders offered advice regarding the conference theme.
“You just have to keep going,” jazz drummer and composer Terri Lyne Carrington said during the conversational plenary session. “I didn't record for 10 years because people kept saying no.” She persisted, and it led to one of her three Grammy Awards.
“Being resilient is just taking all the knocks of life and not letting them hurt you,” said attendee Karen Maberry, an actor, director and promoter from Britain via Florida. “You’ve got to bounce back and realize you are just here for this one,
short, crazy journey – and you can choose to be safe and not really live.”
The conference committee’s four co-chairs – Lynn Fisher, Shanta Thake, Beatrice Thomas and Martin Wollesen – were outspoken in their desires to exemplify and create a culture of generosity, listening, risk-taking, facilitation, humility and self-care. From the outset, they placed a high value on facilitative leadership, peer-to-peer learning and creating spaces that acknowledged that everyone has something to offer.
“This year, we would like to ask you all to think of APAP as a neighborhood and all of the
FROM UPPER LEFT CLOCKWISE: Jen Kober’s Homegrown Comedy Show, Jersey Tenors, A Hunger Artist, Creative Presenting and Producing session, YPCA participant Hanzhi Wang
CENTER IMAGE: Choreographer Antoine Hunter
participants as your neighbors,” Thake said.
The result of this thinking was a schedule that to many, while still overwhelming, felt more forgiving. The intentional availability of self- care resources, such as yoga classes and a quiet room on the Hilton’s fourth floor, made a difference.
Jen Shyu, a multidiscipline performer and Artist Access Member, reported her most memorable conference moment as “hearing the other artists practice self-care, and the changes we need to make, that we hope to make, in sustainability. I realized I’m going to change my practice. That’s going to be my goal.”
16 INSIDE ARTS SPRING 2020