Bird City Improv

So in any activism, there are multiple roads - I moved my show from the Kennedy Center to the Anthem down the street, Yas advocated for artists to keep their shows, speaking about the folks who are working those shows and other really great points.

I'm a big fan of the "chorus" method of group activism (I prefer it to the 'army' metaphor that brings in violent imagery) - basically, when one of us needs to take a break, someone else has just taken one and can keep the thread of music going. Some of us are composing the songs we are singing; some of us are the soloists, some of us are the altos HOLDING THE LINE; some of us are doing the promotion, etc. The main thing is intent - we all want to make as big of an impact as we can.

Hats off to Yasmin Williams (and Cathy Fink) for asking the questions that need to be asked, and for sharing the truly rude and bonkers responses she got.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/yasmin-williams-richard-grenell-emails-kennedy-center-1235314184/

update, including Cathy Fink:
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/10/nx-s1-5357631/kennedy-center-director-emails

If you love me, please share this today. On March 19, Tavish uploaded a piece of protest art to YouTube. It was in response to Trump’s ongoing violence against people from all walks of life.

The protest contained nudity, a satire of Trump’s attack on the clothes people choose to wear. It was also a strategy to get people to listen. It worked…

Read my blog post and watch the video. Links in the bio.

The protest went viral on March 20. LA Times broke the story. Many news outlets covered it. I was immediately fired by the Trump administration.

Rather than responding to my words, the administration made me the target of homophobia. Fox News continued the administration's hate speech. Soon after, I became the recipient of hateful messaging from across the internet.

Days later, I was fired by Johns Hopkins University, where I served as a faculty member since 2017.

On March 29, YouTube removed the video protest. YouTube claimed the video contained explicit content “meant to be sexually gratifying.” This is false. It is a severe mischaracterization of my work.

I am angry and hurt because YouTube’s censorship is dangerous suppression of free speech in a time of need. It is in violation of YouTube’s Community Guidelines which allow for nudity in artistic and political contexts. Unfortunately, this action has halted my protest, while giving a sense of legitimacy to hate speech. In effect, YouTube’s censorship is contributing to the erasure of communities crying for help and silencing voices demanding change.

I'm not going to let YouTube stop me though. Yesterday, I re-uploaded it to a new account. Please watch and share.

In my blog, there is a poem I wrote for you. I also reveal what I plan to do next.

If you’d like to be in conversation with me, please reach out.

I am now living in poverty, so if you’d like to support me financially, my CashApp is $tforsyth92 and my venmo is . Over the past two weeks I have had to take costly measures to keep myself safe. Don’t worry, I am okay and my mental health is improving.

I do not regret protesting, risking my life and my safety to defend human rights and people I love.

🖤❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤

When framing our character's motivation, we want to reduce the influence of cultural bias. To do this, we want to choose motivations that are internal—like the choices listed in Part One— rather than external. Scroll through the slides to see examples of motivations that are external and based on harmful assumptions.

Further notes:
1. Characters can absolutely have backstories, but backstories do not determine behavior. Backstories inspire motivations. Motivations inspire behavior.
2. A stereotype is a harmful depiction of a marginalized, oppressed, or traumatized person. An archetype is a familiar, mythological characterization. Even what some would call “positive” stereotypes are harmful.

"At a certain point, we all have to come to terms with the unknown and the unknowable." — Lori Gottlieb

"[Jazz artists’] harmonious balance between individual solos and collective improvisation provides a metaphorical solution to one of the recurrent dilemmas of social life in the United States: how to encourage individuality without selfishness and how to encourage collective consciousness without totalitarianism."

— George Lipsitz

I invite you to interrogate why you laugh and investigate what makes you laugh. Expand outward to ask, “what makes something funny?” It’s hard to pin down, but philosophy offers us a handful of theories.

Improv is all about affirmation but affirmation is not a cut and dry subject. How do you say yes, no and maybe?

Scroll through the slides for some tips on thinking more critically about "Yes, And" and use the writing prompts at the end to continue the exercise on your own.

The golden rule of improv is "Yes, And." "Yes" is about embracing the situation you are in. It's about affirming your experience and being generous with others’ ideas. "And" is about responding to your circumstance, exploring ideas together, and respecting the needs of the moment. "Yes, And" is a radical concept because it encourages people to see the merit in an idea before identifying problems, flaws and threats. It helps us to counter-balance our “negativity bias” and approach the world through the lens of possibility.

In my own practice, I’ve noticed many connections between improv, communication, and Buddhism. In fact, one of my favorite teachers, Dave Razowsky, calls improv “Theatrical Buddhism.” If you’re interested in learning more about Buddhism, I would recommend reading Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace. It’s an easy read and the author makes some profound connections between Buddhist thought and American life.

— Junauda Petrus, from Black Woman Wildness: A Spell, an essay published in Pleasure Activism

It's important that we love each other as scene partners and as fellow actors. This means that we are supportive of each other, our experiences and our chosen forms of expressions. Sometimes we may deal with heavier subject matter, especially when we are drawing inspiration from our own lived experiences. There is no need to shy away from taboo topics or social justice issues! Read through the slides to uncover a starter list of things to keep in mind when using personal stories in improv, whether they be yours or someone else's.