This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Hal Luftig: Brooke, if you could see me, you would see I'm giving you a huge standing ovation. What you just said about the arts being integral to any economy coming back and how important it is to just, you know, the socialization of all of us. The arts bring people together, let alone the income it brings. I so agree with you, and I'm so thrilled. I'll join the Broadway Biz.

[0:39] Hal Luftig: You'll be a Broadway wiz. You'll learn to raise cash, you open your smash, you'll be all the rage from the patron stage. In no time you'll know the business of show the greatest god there is. So join our squad as we unplug our love these Broadway. Let's get busy with the Broadway Biz.

[1:11] Hal Luftig: Hi everyone, this is Hal Luftig with my podcast, Broadway Biz. On the podcast today is Brooke Ishibashi, who is a co-founder of Be an Arts Hero. Be an Arts Hero is a grassroots organization that campaigns for proportionate relief to the arts and culture sector of the American economy. I'm looking forward to hearing all about Brooke's advocacy on this episode of Broadway Biz. Hi, Brooke.

[1:40] Brooke Ishibashi: Hi, Hal. I am hanging in.

[1:44] Hal Luftig: That is great. You know, and we're all doing what we have to do, right?

[1:48] Brooke Ishibashi: Yeah, we are. We sure are. It is a pleasure to meet you today. You are doing a ton of great, interesting work that I want us to talk about. Um, first and foremost, why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and your incredible organization, Be an Arts Hero.

[2:08] Brooke Ishibashi: Absolutely, and thank you so much for having me on, folks. I'm we're so honored to be here and representing Be an Arts Hero. So a little about me. I'm from Southern California. I was raised in Orange County, where they shot my favorite movie, That Thing You Do. And I went to New York City for theater. So I was there for 11 years doing downtown experimental theater, and I did that for 11 years. I went to school at Marymount Manhattan College, and my whole family is a showbiz family. My mom and dad are in the music industry. My sisters are both writers, singers, actors, dancers. So, you know, it's in the blood. And also going back further than that, it's my grandparents were opera singers. My mother's mother, who's 95 and in impeccable health, she was known as the songbird of Manzanar.

So in World War II, when the Japanese were imprisoned in concentration camps, my grandmother sang at the camp dances when they had some form of recreation or some form of entertainment. So she's somewhat famous in the Japanese American community, and so there's a lineage of music and entertainment in my family. So that's who I am. I'm also a national counselor for Actors’ Equity Association and a member of Fair Wage Onstage, a grassroots group in New York City. And I'm in Southern California now. So last June in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, a couple friends and I founded Be an Arts Hero, and that's how that crazy ride started.

[3:42] Hal Luftig: Brooke, I'd love to know the impetus for forming Be an Arts Hero, what your goal was at the time that made you form this incredible group.

[3:53] Brooke Ishibashi: Absolutely. Well, you know, Hal, it's interesting because we, along with our friends Karen Olivo and Eden Espinoza who founded Affect Change, you know, these groups didn't exist before the pandemic, so we were born out of the pandemic. We were born out of a desperate need. Myself and a couple friends, Jenny Grace Macholm, Carson Elrod, and Matthew Lee Ehrlbach, we're all in the performing arts. We're all in the arts and culture industry. We're writers, directors, singers, actors, producers. And a couple months into the pandemic, it was about goodness, I think it was like it was actually in the late spring, early summer. We looked at each other and we were honestly waiting for the cavalry to come save us.

And I think that was an ideology that a lot of our colleagues had. It's like we're the Steven Spielbergs of the world and the Lin-Manuel Mirandas of the world are gonna come save the entire arts and culture sector. And I think there was this false hope that we were waiting on an omnipresent force to come save everyone, right? All of our institutions, all of our jobs, all of our workers. And that didn't happen, and rightfully so, because that's not their job. And the only people who have the infrastructure, the resources, and the know-how to provide that foundation, that support for us is, you know, federal relief, it's Congress. So we looked at each other and we were like, well, I guess we gotta be the heroes that we're waiting for.

What if we had a mobilizing effort or a collective, a unified front that brought the entire arts and culture sector together? Because something we realized was everyone was out advocating for their own individual needs, right? Our unions were, our institutions were, our workers were. And so when we started taking meetings with senators and house reps, what we were hearing is that there was like a pile of 16 different arts and culture related bills that were just sitting in a pile collecting dust because they didn't know what to do with it because there wasn't a unified voice, right? So the four of us looked at each other and we said, wow, what if we created the Arts Avengers Assemble moment or our own Voltron or our own Captain Planet moment where we bring together the entire sector?

So it's arts and culture workers, shoulder to shoulder with producers, with cultural leaders, with institutions, with union leaders, you know, everyone, you know, it's essentially envisioning, you know, the elimination of our individual silos, because we realized that we were less effective with everyone advocating for their own individual needs. What if we were able to all sing the same song from the same sheet music? So that's how we started.

[6:30] Hal Luftig: That's incredible. And I couldn't help but think while you were describing how Be an Arts Hero was formed, that, you know, this program, this podcast is Broadway Biz, which talks about the business of Broadway. And one of the things that we talk about on the podcast is how shows get produced and how you have to bring all those different parts together to produce a show. And what struck me was the way you put the arts hero together is sort of like the way a show gets together. And I'm thinking, like, wow, this woman can be a, you know, a producer of if you'll mentor me, Hal, if you'll mentor me. What is your specific role in Be an Arts Hero?

[7:17] Brooke Ishibashi: Sure. So I'm co-founder. And you know, when we first started, because we don't know how to run a nonprofit or anything, and we're all performers and creatives, we first started and we were all doing all the things. So we were jacks of all trades, we had our hands in every pot. We realized very early on that we needed some sort of structure and that we needed to formalize our status as a 501c4 and figure out what that was going to mean for us and get the help that we needed. And so as we created our own roles and positions and departments, and we started formalizing our structure, it became very clear to me that what I'm good at, what I care about, and what I also in terms of what's in line with my values, I naturally fell within the boundaries of celebrity talent outreach in terms of having ambassadors and working with folks who represented different sectors, different parts of the sector.

And I also realized that the company culture, the diversity, equity, inclusion, the staffing needs, that that was something that I also very much cared about and was very much in line with my principles, my values. So that's what I'm currently doing now. I'm the director of talent outreach, and I'm also the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion and a co-founder of Be an Arts Hero.

[8:29] Hal Luftig: You said that Be an Arts Hero actually began in June, which was a couple of months into the pandemic. What were the initial goals of Be an Arts Hero? And have they changed since we're now in February?

[8:51] Brooke Ishibashi: Sure, yeah. We started when we first launched at the end of June, it was simply with the goal, it was one goal, get federal pandemic unemployment compensation extended beyond August 1st. When we started, and that basically gave us a month to work as fast and furious as we possibly could to build coalitions, build an army of rank and file workers who were all, you know, blaring their horns and demanding an extension of this FPUC money, which was a $600 lifeline that was keeping our workers in their homes and keeping food on the table, literally. At that point, we were looking at mass evictions in the millions. It was upwards of almost 40 million evictions that we were looking at. We were on the brink of folks who couldn't pay their bills.

So at that point, we were looking to sustain the human infrastructure of our sector. So when we started, it was let's get FPUC extended. That and at a very base level is what our people need to in order to survive. And for most folks that we knew, you know, we had friends who work for Disney who live in Florida. At the base level, I think the maximum they could make for their minimum weekly benefits was 125 or 135 a week. And no one can live on that, obviously, and much less provide for a family or an elderly parent, etc. So we realized that that $600 lifeline was what was keeping folks literally in their homes and fed and on their health insurance during a deadly pandemic. So that's why we started, Hal, it was simply to get FPUC extended.

When August first came and went, and we realized that that wasn't happening for a lot of political football reasons, we realized that our efforts couldn't just dissolve. We realized that Be an Arts Hero needed to have a more long-term purpose. So that's when we took a step back, Hal, and we said, okay, if we're gonna be around for a while because this crisis isn't over yet, we're just at the onset of the crisis, right? Then what are the needs of the sector and how can we be most useful? So we took a step back and we did some, you know, big picture thinking, and we realized, okay, well, we'll have some short-term and we'll have some long-term goals, but you know, all in all, we're here so that we can elevate and position the arts and culture sector of the US so that it's a legislative priority for support and for investment that's truly commensurate with our socioeconomic value in terms of the nitty-gritty of what we contribute and why the arts and culture sector is so integral to the overall well-being of the entire nation's economic welfare. You know, we provide $877 billion in value added to the economy with 5.1 million jobs, we're 4.5% of the GDP. So they need us.

[11:41] Brooke Ishibashi: And in order to rebuild, in order to rebuild back better, you know, there cannot be a full American economic recovery without a robust arts and culture recovery because our fates are so intrinsically tied together, and we're in every nook and cranny of every region, every locale, every city, every state of the entire nation.

[12:02] Brooke Ishibashi: So it became evident to us that that needed to be our long-term goal. Essentially, how we realized, okay, well, we started because we wanted it to get FBAC extended. And as we build, as we develop, our job now is to help sustain the human and physical infrastructure of our sector as we move through this crisis. That's the very short-term goal, the most immediate, urgent goal. And in the long term, it's, you know, creating a department and secretary of arts and culture and using all of our resources to make that happen within Biden's cabinet, et cetera. So we have a lot of goals, but that's kind of breaking down the short term and the long term of it.

[12:43] Hal Luftig: Brooke, if you could see me, you would see I'm giving you a huge standing ovation. What you just said about the arts being integral to any economy coming back, and how important it is to just, you know, the socialization of all of us.

[13:05] Hal Luftig: The arts bring people together, let alone the income it brings. I so agree with you, and I'm so thrilled. Brooke, I want to ask you on your website, which for my listeners, if I would love for you to go and check it out, it's beanartshero.com, and you spell it just like it sounds. Be an arts hero. On your website, there's a letter writing section where I can't believe the breadth of all these different people who have written letters to their senators or congresspeople.

[13:49] Hal Luftig: How did that come about? How did you get all these people to write these letters?

[13:55] Brooke Ishibashi: Sure. And you know, it's kind of a multi-pronged answer. We, as I was saying, you know, a little bit earlier, we realized that we serve a very, very unique need in the arts and culture sector because we have our amazing long-standing advocacy groups like Americans for the Arts, we have our unions, we have our grassroots organizations, but we realized that we had a very we were very uniquely positioned because we could innately bring those forces together and be the convener, but we also realized that we weren't just a social welfare organization and a lobbying entity pushing forward our own legislation.

[14:32] Brooke Ishibashi: We weren't just an educational outlet, we weren't just an advocacy grassroots advocacy group. We were kind of a hybrid of all of those things. So, as you mentioned, the playwrights campaign, we realized that be an arts hero basically started as a campaign. It was a campaign to get FBAC extended. So we have since launched a series of campaigns mobilizing rank and file blue-collar arts workers across the nation, bringing together coalitions of different arts advocacy groups, bringing together instant co arts and cultural institutions across the entire nation, not just Hollywood and Broadway and Chicago.

[15:08] Brooke Ishibashi: You know, we're talking Alaska, we're talking Kansas, we're talking museums and libraries and publishing, etc. So the reason why I say that is because we realized that campaigns were effective in getting directly to the people, you know, like getting people the boots on the ground folks actively engaged in the process, actively engaged in claiming what our needs are with the people who represent us and the people who make our laws.

[15:38] Brooke Ishibashi: So this playwrights campaign is a part of our larger campaign called Arts Workers Unite, 100 days of arts and activism. And in this campaign, it was essentially 100 days mirroring Biden and Harris's first 100 days in office. Because you know, the first 100 days, that's when the most can happen, and that's when we have the most opportunity for possibility and huge change in those first 100 days.

[16:03] Brooke Ishibashi: So we decided to launch a calendar with weekly events for folks to basically civically engage on a regular basis. It's resources for them to watch and listen to. It's breakdowns of policy so folks could understand it in a very rudimentary level, happy hours with arts workers so we could talk about what their experience is through this crisis, etc. And this playwright campaign became a part of it. We partnered with Dramatist Guild of America, they've been incredible, and we basically just started asking everybody.

[16:34] Brooke Ishibashi: It started with playwrights and then it built out to composers, librettists, lyricists, etc. I think right now we have over 100 letters that have been submitted. And essentially the prompt was can you write a letter to Biden and Harris and say, this is who I am, this is what the arts and culture sector provides, and this is why we desperately need your help. Help us. And so we kind of just gave everyone that prompt, and everyone wrote what was in their hearts.

[16:58] Brooke Ishibashi: And it's such an eclectic bunch of folks. It's everyone from, you know, we were inspired by Jeremy O'Harris because Jeremy had written an amazing letter to Biden and Harris, and we onboarded Jeremy and we said, Hey, can we, you inspired us? Can we have you be a part of this movement? He agreed to it. Rachel Chafkin and Jenny Coons had written an incredible letter also asking for a department and secretary of arts and culture. They we onboarded them and they became a part of this collaboration.

[17:25] Brooke Ishibashi: John Leguizamo and Michael Moore, and you know, friends of mine like Madhuri Shekhar, and we had folks from all over the nation, folks who were famous folks who were just beginning in their careers, folks who were at all different points of their career and have all different backgrounds. We wanted it to be as intersectional as possible to represent the fabric of our industry. And we had this incredible outpouring of folks who wanted to be involved because they had something to say.

[17:57] Brooke Ishibashi: And I think the key or the most interesting part of that to me, Hal, is that everyone is everyone is recognized, and I'm sure everyone on this podcast can agree, everyone has recognized in the shift in this new administration as we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel coming through this crisis and we're getting vaccinated and we're kind of rounding the bend. I think everyone's realizing that there's a unique area of opportunity now.

[18:26] Brooke Ishibashi: Like it's almost as though a window has opened where we see an opportunity for change, and everyone's thinking, oh goodness, we've got to jump, we've got to make it into that portal before it closes to be a part of this change. And it's really an individual and collective responsibility that we all have together to write that new narrative together. So that's, you know, that's that was the ideology behind this campaign, Hal. It was let's all imagine what we what this our future can be together.

[18:55] Brooke Ishibashi: And when we specifically talk about Broadway, you know, we're talking about a lot of systemic change, we're talking about we see you white American theater and groups like Karen and Eden with affect change, demanding some sort of economic transparency. I think all of us are realizing wow, as we start to reopen, we have an opportunity to create a wholly new landscape, and that means all of us need to be a part of that change together collectively.

[19:20] Brooke Ishibashi: So that's a long-winded way of saying that's why we did the campaign, and that's what it stands for.

[19:26] Hal Luftig: Wow. Wow, you know, I heard you were talking about the sort of change of administrations and what's done. I've heard somebody, a couple of people say actually, that it felt like during the Biden Harris inauguration that we suddenly stepped into the light. And, you know, and we got the we can feel the sun on us, you know, for the first time in four years.

[19:50] Hal Luftig: I know this is probably an unfair question, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. You said that your one of your goals was to affect change within the first hundred days. Right. And I know we're only 28 or 29 days or into it. Do you feel at this point that you are on the right track or have succeeded in affecting change in the new administration?

[20:17] Brooke Ishibashi: You know, I think it's hard to measure success because sometimes it feels like 10 steps forward and five steps back. I think we're newbies to the political landscape, and we've been very grateful to get taken under the wings of folks that are far more experienced than we are. That being said, you know, we've had a lot of incredible allies in the who are lobbyists who are working alongside us.

[20:43] Brooke Ishibashi: We have incredible relationships with Senate and House rep offices, some of which I can't exactly go into, but you know, I can't go into the intricacies of the relationships, but I will say that it's hard to measure success, right? But I will say that we in the last what is it, seven to eight months since we've been alive as Be An Arts Hero, we've met with, I think by this point, we've had hundreds of meetings with Senate and House Rep offices, many repeat meetings with folks who we're working more closely with.

[21:17] Brooke Ishibashi: I think in terms of affecting change, Hal, do I feel as though we've been successful? I think we've made incredible strides. If we're talking specifically about legislative goals, you know, we developed Dawn when you're talking about the light, you know, we named this bill summary that we developed Dawn, and it's Defend Arts Workers Now. And the reason why we created that in the first place is we were taking meetings, and I think it was Kamala Harris's office who told us that, you know, do you have your own bill?

[21:48] Brooke Ishibashi: And so we said, no, isn't that your job? We're just we're just arts advocates. Like, what are you talking about? And they said, well, just write a draft of a summary and send it to us, and you know, and we'll see what happens. And many offices were telling us the same thing. So we created we essentially created the intelligible principle that is Dawn. So it was asking for 43.85 billion dollars for the entire arts and culture sector in the form of grants.

[22:12] Brooke Ishibashi: And we got that number because we use the same model that the airlines use. It was five percent of their contribution to the nation's economy. So we did 5% of $877 billion. We got 43.85 billion dollars, and that's what we asked for. We thought that was fair. And the airline industry is such an incredible model because look, they got 25 billion in the CARES Act, and then they got more shortly thereafter.

[22:35] Brooke Ishibashi: And they have incredible lobbyists, and we realized, wow, if we provide 265 billion dollars more than all of transportation combined, not just the airline industry, not just 10 US airlines. If 10 US airlines got 25 billion dollars, we can ask for the same amount. In fact, we deserve more than that. We require more than that in order to sustain ourselves. So we just use that same template, and that's how we developed Dawn.

[22:58] Brooke Ishibashi: And so we're now in a position where we're almost ready to go public with the newly expanded, evolved version of Dawn and what it represents and who we're officially working with. And I think we're going to be announcing that pretty soon. But you know, all of that is to say if I feel as though we've been successful in our efforts, I think yes. I think we still have a long way to go, Hal. You know, and I know this is I think something that we're gonna discuss later on, but we were so we were so inspired and emboldened by the passage of Save Our Stages SOS.

[23:31] Brooke Ishibashi: And the fact that that was possible meant that anything was possible because it was heralded. It was historical and unprecedented in every way. We have never been able to acquire that much money for the arts and culture sector through federal means in our entire nation's history. So it really marked a turning point for us where we realized, oh my goodness, this is a keen opportunity now where we can really, anything is really possible, and we truly do need to bring all of these partners together throughout the entire sector because this is the chance we have to all work together and demand more because that's just the beginning. Not only am I now standing and cheering, I'm like chopping up and down. What you just described is amazing.

[24:19] Hal Luftig: Is amazing.

[24:23] Brooke Ishibashi: And I think you mentioned save our stages. And I think that was born out of being part of the Broadway League and the organization that helped push that along.

[24:28] Hal Luftig: Absolutely.

[24:28] Brooke Ishibashi: Was born out of not only helping the people who so desperately need help in terms of rent, medical insurance, food, those things, but it also was because I, for the first time, I think all of the senators and congresspeople, wherever they come from, there's a theater either in their town or city or one very close.

[25:02] Hal Luftig: Exactly.

[25:02] Brooke Ishibashi: They all realize, as you mentioned earlier, that when there's not a theater or performing arts center, everybody's hurting. You know, hotels, taxis, everything. And I think for the first time, and maybe ever, everyone's eyes were open to not only the importance culturally of the arts, but the economics of it too. And I think what you guys were able to do in a short amount of time is amazing.

[25:46] Hal Luftig: And so hats off, you know, once again.

[25:48] Brooke Ishibashi: Thank you, Hal. I wanted to jump to the future for a second, if I may.

[25:55] Hal Luftig: Don't we all want to jump to the future?

[25:57] Brooke Ishibashi: What do you imagine Be An Arts Hero will look like post the epidemic?

[26:05] Hal Luftig: Right.

[26:06] Brooke Ishibashi: You know, something I mentioned a little earlier is that we're still in the thick of the crisis, right? I think all of us can acknowledge, you know, within the Broadway community, within the entire arts and culture sector, that we're not out of the woods yet. And so we still have a lot of work to do. Something that we realized after CARES, you know, after the skinny bill was passed, after SOS was passed, was that there's still a lot of work to be done. I think what we were starting to metabolize is that, you know, one round of a stimulus package and the relief that that brings to our institutions and our workers, that's simply not enough, right? That we were going to require subsequent waves, successive waves of relief and recovery legislation in order for us to survive because we are looking at a human and a physical infrastructure that needs to be sustained because everything is imploding. You know, we're looking at the fabric of our entire sector just completely tearing apart.

[27:04] Hal Luftig: And so, you know, we can look, we can look at previous packages and relief efforts as a band-aid on a hemorrhage.

[27:12] Brooke Ishibashi: And so we're looking at a more comprehensive solution, and so we're realizing that we're gonna need to get as much relief and recovery past coming through this crisis and coming out of this crisis in order for us to rebuild. I think that's why, you know, Americans for the Arts has created the incredible putting creative workers to work proposal, and it's essentially envisioning an arts new deal, you know. And we've had incredible talks with Rachel Chavkin and Jenny Coons and Jeremy O'Harris and Lear de Bessenay about what a federal theater project would look like, what a WPA 2.0 would look like.

[27:48] Hal Luftig: And so, if you're asking how, you know, what I envision post-COVID Be An Arts Hero looking like, I think if the relief and recovery efforts, if we've gotten it all by then and we're all golden and our human and physical infrastructure has been sustained, then awesome. The next step after that, and that's gonna take a good while because at this point we've already seen, you know, massive closures, permanent closures, and sadly the human toll of this is, you know, we're seeing folks who haven't been able to hang on, they've already been evicted, they've already lost their health insurance, and even more morbidly, we have huge rates of suicide at this point within the arts and culture sector because folks don't have a lifeline anymore and they don't know when they're going to be able to return to their lives. They feel like they have nothing to grasp onto.

[28:35] Brooke Ishibashi: So as we look, as we consider that and we look forward, we have to think about what are we gonna do to tend to the hemorrhage within the arts and culture sector, to preserve our institutions, to sustain our workers, to keep everybody alive and afloat. We have to look at that. And then once we get a handle on that, we look at, okay, what's post-COVID, what's that climate gonna look like? I think for us, it is in working with the Biden administration in developing a department and secretary of arts and culture. I think it is creating what is essentially going to become, you know, a WPA 2.0. I think for us, you know, as I mentioned earlier, what do we need to do to make sure to ensure that the entire arts and culture sector is treated as a legislative priority in terms of investment and support that truly matches our socioeconomic value? What does that mean? And I think that's a conversation we all have to have together.

[29:36] Hal Luftig: So being an arts hero is having conversations with folks like you, Hal, with leaders throughout the industry, with working folks, with our unions and our guilds and our associations to figure out what that actually means. Like, what are the granular details of what it means for us to be a true legislative priority? And like you said, it's about looking at our ecosystems and saying this is our value and communicating that to our lawmakers so that we're able to sustain ourselves. So I think it's a very big picture approach that we have, but you know, it's gonna take all hands on deck, and that's why, you know, we talked about envisioning the future together. I think all of us have to be a part of that conversation together, and that means basically everyone coming to the table together and agreeing to the fact that this change needs to happen and we need to be a part of this change, but also, you know, demanding that we have a seat at the table when it comes to, you know, a literal department or a secretary, because there's a, you know, a secretary of transportation.

If we provide 265 billion dollars more than all transportation, why do they have a secretary when we don't have a secretary? So that's a whole other conversation about arts and culture being politicized, and we also want to be a part of changing that conversation.

[30:59] Hal Luftig: Yeah, and as you should. And I agree, I think it's not just the here and now that this conversation has to happen, but it has to continue happening, you know, into the future for hopefully many, many years and through many administrations.

[31:17] Brooke Ishibashi: Um, I just worry that sometimes people have a short memory.

[31:21] Hal Luftig: So organizations like yours are great because you won't, you know, you won't let up on the pedal.

[31:28] Brooke Ishibashi: You said one thing that just, I want our listeners to hear again, which is that people have committed suicide because, you know, they've been cut off from their lifeline. People have lost their homes, you know, because they can't pay the rent, things like that. And I actually know people who are down to do I use whatever money I have to buy medication that I need or to buy food. And you know, it's like crazy. You should never be down to that. And I'm sure, and I hope, every person listening to this, it will touch their heart and they'll want to do something.

[32:07] Hal Luftig: So, how can someone, one of our listeners, become involved in Be An Arts Hero?

[32:14] Brooke Ishibashi: Yeah, absolutely. And thank you for acknowledging that, Hal. You know, I think we have to look at the, as morbid as it is, we have to look at the human toll of this crisis and acknowledge the fact that it's not over yet, and it is going to get worse before it gets better because relief hasn't gotten to people fast enough. And we're already measuring it in incredible losses. So in order for in terms of how people can get involved, you know, directly with Be An Arts Hero, if you go to BeanArtsHero.com, as you said, Hal, there's a get involved section and it's for individuals and institutions, etc. And we have tools for folks. So on a very basic level, it's demand the lifelines that our workers and our institutions need, whether that's specific pieces of legislation that's coming down the pipeline, or just simply the extension of emergency unemployment benefits to self-sustain our people, whether it's COBRA subsidies, etc. Folks should be singing that song as loud at the top of their lungs and frankly pestering their lawmakers as often as they possibly can.

[33:32] Brooke Ishibashi: You know, what we want, what Be An Arts Hero wants is for all 5.1 million arts workers who fall within the arts and culture sector to be tweeting, texting, calling, sending letters to their lawmakers every day, because really that's the change that we require in order to get these bills passed in order to see these provisions getting tucked into subsequent stimulus packages, etc. So what we want is for everybody to be pestering their lawmakers as often as they possibly can in terms of what these folks should be asking for in terms of how to do it. We have a lot of that laid out on our website and on our social media on our Instagram, etc. So we have all of the senators' social media handles and phone numbers and addresses available in a spreadsheet.

We have sample call scripts that we tweak based on, you know, what's on the docket on any given day that folks can follow if they don't know what to say when they leave a message when they call their reps. We have all these tools. We have action network letters, so people can just type in their names and send a letter, you know, as simple as just pressing a button. We have pre-written tweets that are pre-populated tweets people can just pull up on their mobile phone or on their laptop and just hit send. So we try to make civic engagement and advocacy and activism really easy for folks. So if folks just go to BeanArtsHero.com or go to our social media pages, we have a link tree with all of those assets just lined up for them.

[35:09] Brooke Ishibashi: But essentially, Hal, you know, long story short, it's just be a loud squeaky wheel, you know, and we need everyone to be a loud squeaky wheel in order for us to survive. So it's really just all of us acknowledging that we have a duty to save ourselves and save our community. And it's not gonna happen if we're not all raising our voices.

[35:31] Hal Luftig: Yeah, very true.

[35:32] Brooke Ishibashi: And I hope that you mentioned the five million people that work in the industry. I hope that anybody who has ever gone to the theater, who loves the theater, who wants to support the theater will get involved in this too, because that person or people will be a very important part on how we come back. And you know, they're not only showing up at the theater is important, which I hope everyone does, but making sure that we sustain this industry. Um, so I hope everyone who's listening will think about or possibly take action on getting involved or writing a letter and raising your voice to make sure that not just Broadway, but every community theater, every kind of arts group has every nonprofit has the sort of infrastructure, you know, at hand when they need it to sustain. So please I implore you, uh, go to be an arts hero and get involved.

[36:36] Hal Luftig: Um Brooke, be I'm gonna now like jump to a more personal, if I may, you know, a couple questions.

[36:44] Brooke Ishibashi: Sure.

[36:45] Hal Luftig: Um, I'm always interested in, you know, what people have learned during this, you know, this pandemic. Um, you know, yeah. In the beginning, we all thought it was gonna be, you know, a month or two months, and no one really took it, you know, okay. But now it looks like it's at least a year, if well, not a year and a half until we can come back. Um, I'm curious as to what is the I guess greatest or biggest thing that you have learned over this shutdown.

[37:20] Brooke Ishibashi: You know, I would say in terms of the work that I've been doing and being arts hero, the biggest lesson or the biggest surprise or lesson that I've learned is that individuals really have the power to affect change. You know, the four of us when we started, we didn't think we would be working on a national level. We didn't think we would be, you know, in Harris and Schumer's offices. We didn't think that we didn't envision that's where we were gonna be. Uh, we didn't think that that's what our 2020 was gonna look like. But it's the idea that, you know, we didn't exist before the pandemic. We decided that we needed to do something, and that, you know, folks like us who didn't have legislative lobbying backgrounds, you know, I didn't I don't have a degree in political science.

I don't I this is not something that we were trained to do, that we really just had a lot of moxie and a lot of grit, and we decided to do something. So that to me is an incredible lesson. And that also speaks to Eden and Karen and Affect Change. That speaks to, you know, Neva and the National Independent Venue Association that didn't exist before the pandemic either. Coming together, working with the Broadway League and getting SOS passed, you know, the fact that that was possible, that individuals came together to create such profound change is just utterly remarkable to me. So that was one thing I learned kind of on a level that's related to the work that we're doing. And then on a very personal level, all those things aside, how I would say, you know, I've learned about resilience.

I've seen human resilience in ways that are shocking and humbling and just incredibly mesmerizing over the last year, just seeing how much all of us can withstand, you know, especially for us in the theater industry, you know, we were the first ones to shut down, we'll be the last ones to reopen. And for a lot of us, we won't have jobs for the foreseeable future. And that's incredibly terrifying and humbling. But to see folks in the theater industry learn how to navigate a completely new world with so many unknowns and so many factors that are out of our control, and to see the resilience required from these incredible humans, you know, all around us, it's been moving, and it's also been it's just very humbling.

[39:52] Hal Luftig: Yeah, that is very true. I've seen, like you, I've seen people rise to the occasion in unthinkable ways that they probably never thought they could do, and yet they have done it. Doesn't mean we don't want to get back as soon as long.

[40:09] Brooke Ishibashi: Exactly.

[40:10] Hal Luftig: Uh Brooke, as we're winding down, I wanted to ask you another futuristic question. As we come back, you know, through this pandemic, and as you know, theaters start opening up and we all tackle the questions of diversity and inclusion and things like that. What is the greatest or what is the most important thing that you hope changes as we move forward?

[40:40] Brooke Ishibashi: Well, I think it is a lot of things. If I were to simplify it in one sentiment, I think it has to do with the most marginalized and oppressed and disadvantaged communities having a seat at the table, being able to voice what their needs are and getting the support that they require. I think, you know, on a very personal level as a performer, I want the work that is being produced on stage, on TV, in film, etc. I want that to reflect the world that we live in. I want that to represent the stories and the experiences of the world that we live in. I want our art, the boards at every theater to reflect, you know, different experiences, and that's about looking at the models that we're following and, you know, looking at who has access and who doesn't have access and having conversations and accountability measures, you know, that are essentially correcting imbalances that are keeping up unfair systemic structures.

So, you know, I think in a very general level, I think it's about having conversations and doing the work to include the folks who need to be in on those conversations, and that just requires a lot of legwork and more time. But I also think it's about, you know, everyone willing to have uncomfortable conversations and be open to radical change. And, you know, sometimes it is about ceding your space, your time or your space to someone else who should be contributing, you know, in an equal way. And I think all of us have to be aware of what that means for us individually, because I know that I innately have a lot of privilege in my own ways. So I'm very much dealing with that question on a regular basis myself.

You know, how can I cede my space and my privilege to someone else who, um, who needs, who's maybe not so privileged to have the platform that I may have in the same way. So, you know, it is a very, uh, it's a big conversation, Hal, but I think it's about everyone being willing to have the conversation and being willing to be uncomfortable through the change. And, you know, it's about accountability, I think, that we're all holding ourselves to a different standard.

[43:05] Hal Luftig: Yeah, yeah. You know, when I when this is over, you know, one of the first things that I'm gonna do, I'm gonna meet you in what you're saying. I couldn't agree more and how you're saying it. It is so important that we have those conversations. And, you know, it's okay to be uncomfortable. And we can't change if we're not willing to ask an uncomfortable question and hear what might be an uncomfortable answer. That's the only way I that I know that things change. So my word that as we move out of this, uh I that's exactly what I will be doing. Um, hell, you're the best. And we would, you know, we just appreciate the fact that you you're having these conversations, you're doing everything you're doing, and that, you know, you invited us to be a part of this conversation because we really do have to look at ourselves.

There have been, you know, unfair power dynamics that we've all, you know, subscribed to in some ways, and it's given folks a false idea of, you know, being able to have conversations or not. And I think, you know, we say the term arts worker because I'm an arts worker, you're an arts worker, everybody on this call is an arts worker. So why can't we just look at each other through that lens and discuss what do we need to do together? What are our roles in that, you know, moving forward, and how do we have that conversation? So it's, you know, it's about leveling out the playing field, but for all of us truly to say, okay, well, we're all arts workers in this in the arts and culture sector. So, you know, we gotta, we gotta, we're in this, you know, shoulder to shoulder and we gotta look at it that way.

[44:45] Hal Luftig: Yeah, yeah, perfectly said. Well, Brooke, you know, as the expression goes, like all good things, this has to come to an end. Uh, I would love to, as we move out of this pandemic, have you as a guest again so we can discuss what has happened, you know, not just theoretically, but what has actually happened and how we see that continuing to happen. So I hope you'll think about rejoining me at some point.

[45:15] Brooke Ishibashi: Oh, absolutely.

[45:17] Hal Luftig: Brooke, I I know what I don't want to say goodbye because I think Brooke, thank you so so much for joining me today. Um sure you've you've imparted so many brilliant things. And I hope our listeners, please, um, if you love theater, get involved, raise your voice, write a letter. Um, now's the time we need your help. And uh I can't thank you enough, Brooke. Stay well, stay healthy, stay safe, because when this is over, I want to meet you in the back of a theater someday.

[45:54] Brooke Ishibashi: That would be incredible. Thank you so much, Hal and everybody. It was such a pleasure.

[45:58] Brooke Ishibashi: It's a date.

[46:16] Hal Luftig: Our theme music is by Nell Benjamin and Larry O'Keefe. Be sure to subscribe to Broadway Biz and follow us on Instagram at Broadway Biz Podcast.