00:00Why was it important for you to be a part of this summit here this week?
00:05Because the arts are at risk.
00:09And I'm a storyteller.
00:11That's what I do.
00:14Whether I'm acting or writing, directing, producing, podcasting, public speaking,
00:19I'm a storyteller, and I believe that stories are the life's blood of humanity.
00:26And that's all at risk right now.
00:29I mean, it has been for a long time.
00:31I mean, I'm old enough to remember when we stopped having music education in schools.
00:37And that was, like, unfathomable to me.
00:41And now it's normal.
00:43And I don't want to pass on a world where storytelling is an archaic art form.
00:52Because that's not okay.
00:54We don't know who we are absent stories.
00:57And it's that critically important, I think, to the human race.
01:05That's why I came.
01:07Because this is an organization, the Creative Coalition, advocates for the arts in society.
01:14And brings attention to how important this endeavor is.
01:18I think art, continuing humanity, depends on it.
01:25The arts are especially at risk right now, it seems like.
01:29Arts have been in the headlines with what Trump has been doing with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
01:33What's your take on that?
01:34And how important does it make this summit and the conversations you're going to have here this week?
01:39Well, see, I don't believe that arts should be a part of a political conversation.
01:45Arts are above politics.
01:47At least they should be.
01:48But I guess I believe, sure, there's politics in everything.
01:52But arts should be outside of that sphere of rhetoric.
02:00Because this is about humanity.
02:02How do you think we work to make that happen?
02:04Well, we bring awareness to it.
02:07We lobby those who have the power of the purse strings.
02:11And we continue to do what we do as artists, which is to do what we can to enhance our journey along our way.
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