Page 19 - APAP Inside Arts - Spring 2020

“SOMETIMES WE HAVE TO STEP OUT OF OUR COMFORT ZONES
AND NOT THINK TOO RATIONALLY ABOUT THROWING OURSELVES INTO THIS CHAOTIC WORLD. MY BIGGEST FEAR IN LIFE IS THE FEAR OF THE MUNDANE.”
– RAAM
“This is a community celebration
and get-together,” Wollesen said during a plenary session. “Risk the conversation,” he counseled attendees.
“Be vulnerable to share who you are and to allow them to share who they
are.”
“The universe is kind to those
who are unfettered by logic and
consequence,” said the musician Raam in relating to Defoe his harrowing story of persecution, exile
and immigration to Canada from his beloved Iranian homeland. “Sometimes we have to step out of
our comfort zones and not think too rationally about throwing ourselves into this chaotic world. My biggest fear in life is the fear of the mundane.”
“We're capable of anything, none of us are holy,” concluded Folds at the piano, segueing into his song of the same name and again referencing not only our goodness and successes but also our largest capacities for failure: to steal, lie, cheat, kill. “But the fact we decide to be civilized and not do all these things is kind of cool.”
But it was Renae Williams- Niles who memorably took the conference out by quoting Folds’ recent memoir A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons: “Remain just innocent enough to keep dreaming."
Taimane
Linda L. Nelson is the deputy director for Portland Ovations in Maine, after having founded and served as producing executive director for Opera House Arts in Stonington, Maine. Previously, she served as CIO
for Village Voice Media in New York City and assistant director for the Maine Arts Commission.
Jake Stepansky is a theater-maker and arts administrator based in Portland, Maine. In addition to writing for Inside Arts, he
has worked with Forklift Danceworks, the American Repertory Theater and London’s Gate Theatre.
Marie-Anne “Annie” Harrigan is a sophomore at Harvard University. She is
a staff writer and the theater executive for the arts section of the Harvard Crimson, a reporter for Harvard Arts blog at the Office for the Arts and the president of Harvard College SHADE, a student organization for queer people of color.
SPRING 2020 INSIDE ARTS 17