TY JONES · ALLEN GILMORE

TY JONES · ALLEN GILMORE

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Ty Jones (Producing Artistic Director) & Allen Gilmore (Actor)
Classical Theatre of Harlem

I believe that these plays are living arguments and that when you actually read the full text, not cut down versions of them, but the full text, you'll see that Shakespeare was commenting on the ruling class, and for some reason, he found a way to comment on the workings of folks who make decisions in society. Now, I think what's tended to happen over the years is that the ruling class has essentially taken over how we see these plays… We hope that we can move people, and we hope that these are the kind of plays that ignite discourse. I hope that at the end of seeing that piece of art, their hearts begin to beat in sync. I believe all progress begins with a conversation.

DAVID A. BANKS

DAVID A. BANKS

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Director of Globalization Studies University of Albany at SUNY
Author of The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America (forthcoming)

I think that is often what tourism is starting to move towards. Is this existential authentic? And what that means is that you're not even really looking to meet expectations or validate that the thing in front of you is what it says it is. You are trying to recreate who you think you should be in a time that is disconnected from your usual life. Because we're a pretty jaded and suspicious society now. “Is it a deep fake?” We live in this world of make-believe and fakeness, and you want to get to something that's real. And what's more real than yourself and the story that you tell to yourself about yourself. And if you can really connect to that, you'll feel really good.