{"id":2073,"date":"2020-01-09T16:43:21","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T08:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brack.sg\/?p=2073"},"modified":"2020-01-09T17:14:13","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T09:14:13","slug":"brackchat-holding-space-the-arts-of-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/2020\/01\/09\/brackchat-holding-space-the-arts-of-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"BrackChat: Holding Space – the arts of transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Kei Franklin<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Arts for Good Fellowship (A4G)<\/a><\/strong>, organised by the Singapore International Foundation<\/a><\/strong>, is an annual programme organised to grow the Arts for Good ecosystem by fostering a community of practice that harnesses the power of arts and culture to create positive social change. The A4G Fellowship brings together artists, arts administrators, creatives and programmers from the social sector from around the world to take part in an exchange of ideas and best practices across a four-month period. <\/em>
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The fellowship consists of a series of webinars, as well as two exchange programmes in Singapore and Delhi, India. This year \u2013 the third iteration of the A4G Fellowship \u2013 focuses on the theme of Creative Empowerment for Children & Youth. In November, 26 Fellows from 11 countries joined 7 Fellows from Singapore for four days of co-learning that would spark collaborations which will grow and evolve over the coming weeks before the Fellows reconvene in Delhi in February, for their second exchange programme. <\/em>
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On the eve of their final day of the Fellowship, I sat down with SIF Arts for Good Fellows Shaza Ishak <\/a>(SI)<\/strong> and Nilisha Mohapatra <\/a>(NM)<\/strong>, to discuss their artistic practices. We ended up speaking about many things \u2013 from what feminine leadership can look like, to the role of food in building community, to their respective journeys of deep-diving into personal vulnerabilities in order to hold space for others to do the same.
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Shaza is the Company Director and General Manager of Teater Ekamatra<\/a><\/strong>, a Singaporean ethnic minority theatre company. She programmes the company’s seasons and manages the financing and other administrative aspects of producing a show. She has just returned to Singapore from completing her Master\u2019s degree in Creative Producing at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in the U.K. 
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Nilisha describes herself as a creative facilitation trainer, learning designer, and adult learning specialist. She leads programmess designed on experiential learning methodologies that are focused on reimagining the way people learn, thus breaking routine ways of thinking and doing. This, to build critical 21st<\/sup> century skills. She worked for many years in education sectors across the USA and India and has now expanded her practice to work with communities outside of education. 
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I specifically requested an audience with Shaza and Nilisha, because their practices \u2013 theatre and facilitation \u2013 intersect with my own curiosity about the potential for creative \u2018space-holding\u2019 to invite transformative experiences in people that, in turn, can contribute to positive social change. 
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What follows is a re-telling of our conversation, edited for clarity and flow. I hope that it inspires in you a moment of hope, curiosity, or self-reflexivity which can be valuable to your own practice, whatever it may be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

——<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s 8pm on a Thursday evening, and we\u2019re seated at a table outside of a kopitiam near Bras Basah, in Singapore. Shaza and Nilisha have just finished their penultimate day of the Fellowship. While both women are A4G Fellows, Nilisha has also been involved in facilitating various sessions throughout the day. They are clearly tired, but in good spirits. We begin our conversation in between taking bites of dinner, raising our voices in order to hear each other over the rumble of traffic.<\/em>
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KF: I\u2019d love to begin by asking you both about the intersections of your work. Are there ways that your practices \u2013 creative producing and creative facilitation training \u2013 might resemble one another? For example, are there elements of your work \u2013 Shaza \u2013 that resemble facilitation? And, Nilisha, are there performative or theatrical elements of your work?
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SI: Definitely. As a producer, I \u2018hold the space\u2019 like a facilitator would. That\u2019s why producing from London over this past year was very difficult because I wasn\u2019t there to make sure that everyone was okay. Being in community and feeling like family is a huge part of our work at Ekamatra. Everyone is always there, everyone has very close relationships with everyone else that we work with, and even if it didn\u2019t start out that way, it usually ends that way. It makes for beautiful art.
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SI: We try to break any barriers between the creative team, the production team, and actors. Food is such an important thing, and it makes everyone feel like they\u2019re part of the team, because we\u2019re always eating together. We have very little money, but we make sure that there\u2019s always food – that we always eat together. 
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Work in Process documentation of Kakak Kau Punya Laki written by Alfian Sa’at and directed by Fared. Shaza Ishak at home with the Teater Ekamatra team.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

KF: So it seems like the act of bringing people together \u2013 especially around food \u2013 is a sort of fundamental form of \u2018holding space\u2019 in your work, and this then facilitates community building? 
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SI: Definitely, and it works. Ekamatra is home for so many people, that\u2019s why they hang around so much \u2013 they feel seen. 
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KF: What about for you, Nilisha? How would you articulate the intersections of your work with Shaza\u2019s? 
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NM: I definitely believe that facilitation is a performance in itself. I find it extremely vulnerable. I do it all the time, but I still feel it\u2019s pretty nerve wracking. Theatre too, is very exposing. People can see through us. To be able to manage this process and create safety for myself and the group is where facilitation comes in. 
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Nilisha speaks with a kind of gentle firmness \u2013 confident yet humble \u2013 her presence is one of a person who knows herself very well. She pauses thoughtfully before she speaks, and \u2013 once she decides what she wants to say \u2013 the words tumble out with a measured certainty, at once intense and engaging. <\/em>
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NM: I ask myself \u2018how safe can I make you feel, so that you\u2019re willing to take this risk, even if it is nerve wracking? I work to create a space where people feel willing to be brave. 
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KF: It seems like \u2013 in a theatrical space like Ekamatra, there is a community of performers, and thus a shared ownership and vested interest in building trust. But in your facilitation work, Nilisha, the group typically comprises strangers, meeting each other for the first time, so there is no opportunity for a gradual building of rapport. That must be a bit scary \u2013 how do you as a facilitator go about creating trust in such a context?
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NM: The most important thing is taking the risk myself, leading the way. The first hour of a session makes or breaks it. The more I can get people to laugh, be silly, and try things that are out of their comfort zones, the more buy-in they will have. This means that I have to be three steps ahead of them \u2013 in terms of modelling vulnerability. I also need to be very nimble in my facilitation \u2013 ensuring that everyone\u2019s voice is being heard as soon as possible, that I\u2019m hitting upon all the learning styles in the first two hours. Then they start trusting me to shape the process. 
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Nilisha Mohapatra finds ways to engage people of all preferred learning styles through creative facilitation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While I am technically leading the workshop, it\u2019s actually the group. Once there is shared ownership and everyone feels included, the group starts stepping in to shape their own process, and I am stepping back and just enabling it. Sometimes even one-time contact is enough. It\u2019s important to trust not only the process, but also the people you\u2019re working with. We must remember that they\u2019re very capable of managing their own experience, finding their own learning, and discovering their own wisdom.
<\/p>Nilisha Mohapatra<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

SI: As an observer to Nilisha\u2019s work, I would just like to add that her humility brings people in. It\u2019s clear that she wants us to be equals in the space. Even in a room full of sceptics \u2013 as artists tend to be \u2013 you can feel that she is sincerely wanting to share power. 
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Shaza leans forward to interject. Hers is a generous presence, one that makes you feel welcome and calm. She speaks with sincerity, relaxed and comfortable in her skin. <\/em>
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SI: Modelling vulnerability is also crucial to my own work. It\u2019s important to be honest and vulnerable about your weak points. People can smell sincerity, and they\u2019re always watching\u2026 way more than we think they are. 
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KF: Speaking of modelling vulnerability and sincerity, I am very curious about both of your personal journeys, and how your own lives may have intersected with or prompted your professional journeys. 
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Nilisha and Shaza share about their own traumatic experiences \u2013 from walking away from a marriage that wasn\u2019t working, to finding the courage to confront the person responsible for childhood trauma.  <\/em>
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NM: My work is all about investing in people\u2019s imaginations so that they can find new ways of thinking and being… But during my divorce, I remember asking myself \u2018am I a healthy person?\u2019 and realising that I needed to start investing in my own imagination and asking myself \u2018Now what? Who am I going to be now?\u2019 Everything I knew to be true, wasn\u2019t anymore. That was the beginning of my self-discovery, and leaning back on the world, because I knew that it was giving me the ground to walk on, but I had been rejecting it.
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NM: My humility comes from this journey, it was my undoing; People who know me from this phase tell me I\u2019ve turned myself inside out since then. I think I was arrogant and even unaware of myself before. I realised life is a constant dance \u2013 being present in the moment, investing in relationships; looking at who I am, and asking myself \u2018who do I want to be?\u2019 
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SI: I remember asking myself, \u2018What is it that I really want to bring to the stage?\u2019 and realising that I wanted to work with more women. You see, I had experienced sexual abuse as a young woman but kept silent about it. I soon realised that, in order to be honest about the work that I was doing, in order to be more \u2018me\u2019 \u2013 I needed to be honest about what had happened.
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SI: So last year, after 17 years of silence, I confronted my abuser. This meant losing immediate family members, but I realised \u2013 this is bigger than me. I think I always knew that, but it was only when I wanted to work on this issue at Ekamatra that I realised \u2013 I can\u2019t be hypocritical about this, I have to be honest. You need to want to do things for yourself; only then you can do things for others.\u2019
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KF: Thank you both for sharing those experiences with so much honesty and vulnerability. In line with the overarching theme of \u2018Arts for Good,\u2019 I would be very curious about how both of you would articulate the social impact of your work?
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NM: To me, this whole journey \u2013 more than addressing any one social issue \u2013 goes a level deeper in terms of helping people realise that they have a choice, and what we choose has repercussions. Our choices shape the people and environment around us, and as we make different choices, our environment begins to change in response to that. The problem is that many of our choices are automatic. But fortunately, that is not the be all and end all \u2013 there\u2019s a wide spectrum of choices you can make. The ability to step away from who you are and examine who you are, and choose who you want to be\u2026 I believe that the lack of this skill is crux of everything that\u2019s happening in the world. 
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What happens when I look at myself and I choose differently? How does the ecosystem around me change? It is not about giving agency. It\u2019s letting people see that they already have agency, and that their choices do not have to be automatic. In fact, they can exercise their agency to an immense extent, and this is what creates change. Beyond that, the creative elements of my work add a very joyful and expressive element. Engagement with art allows for people to express different parts of their selves.
<\/p>Nilisha Mohapatra<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

NM: I\u2019m also recently looking for opportunities to do this work in non-education spaces. We need coordinated efforts across different systems; we need to be pursuing systemic change.
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SI: We need to embody our social values in our process as well as our end product. I see so much hypocrisy in the theatre scene, and it\u2019s easy to become blind to the issues around you, because of the \u2018bubble effect.\u2019 There are often uncomfortable dynamics in the performing arts, because there\u2019s a lot of physicality involved with working together. When there are instances of sexual assault, everyone around the perpetrator knows, but no one wants to say anything, no one wants to be difficult. 
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SI: I recently started including what people have referred to as a \u2018No Assholes Clause\u2019 in our contracts at Ekamatra which outlines the kinds of conduct we expect. It basically says that you cannot scream at someone you disagree with, that we don\u2019t tolerate sexual assault, and that if there\u2019s a situation where you feel uncomfortable, that there are people you can reach out to. There is still a lot more we can do as a company but I see this as a first step as well as the beginning of a conversation with everyone involved.
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SI: During the A4G Fellowship, Nilisha got us to write a code of conduct, a document \u2013 generated by the whole group – that would answer the question: \u2018how do we want to be with each other for the next 4 months?\u2019 This is something that I want to do with my company, and I\u2019ve been trying to figure out how to discuss difficult things that happen in productions like bullying, sexual harassment, or discomfort. This kind of process creates a sense of shared ownership over the production process that goes beyond basic questions of who\u2019s controlling the money.
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Nilisha Mohapatra facilitating at the SIF Arts for Good Fellowship.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

SI: We need more leaders who are willing to make it very clear upfront that they are ready to handle messy and complex situations. 
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Ekamatra has given me so much. I\u2019ve chosen it as my family, and as the medium through which I effect social change. I want to expand the empowerment that we all feel at Ekamatra outside of Ekamatra. I want to work with the community to change policies that affect us. If I\u2019m not being invited to the decision-making table, I’m going to force them to make space for me. I was always so afraid of having uncomfortable conversations, because I didn\u2019t want to be uninvited. As an ethnic minority in Singapore, you learn how to keep quiet \u2013 you don\u2019t want to be problematic so that the people with power will keep supporting you.
<\/p>Shaza Ishak<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

SI: We\u2019ve been conditioned to keep quiet about our situation, to not complain because then we are seen as difficult. But I\u2019m so okay with being that difficult person now. I don\u2019t even mind when people tell me \u2018can you just shut up about the ethnic minority stuff?\u2019 because I want to use my social capital to call out racism and prejudice when I see it. Not everyone has that opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SI: As artists we are more visible than other occupations. This visibility highlights our responsibility to ensure that there is representation when we are doing our work or making decisions. We are lucky to have people watch us and listen to us \u2013 we need to use our visibility for the greater good. People are so afraid of being seen as activists, but there\u2019s no such thing as being apolitical. You just need to own it. Trust that there is a community that is with you \u2013 and sometimes everyone is waiting for someone else to act, so you just need to do it.
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Work in Process documentation of Kakak Kau Punya Laki written by Alfian Sa’at and directed by Fared. Shaza Ishak at work with the Teater Ekamatra team.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

KF: This is really fascinating. It seems like we are touching upon a multi-pronged approach to social change \u2013 one that starts with transformation of the self, and then expands to invite collective transformation. It seems that \u2013 in both of your practices \u2013 this collective transformation is guided by an initial setting of clear intentions and principles by the group, which can then act as a reference point for the group to return to and revise as they learn more from negotiating the ever-messy dynamics of relating to one another, live. 
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KF: It also seems that humble leadership is a crucial part of this process of transformation, as humble leaders can actively work to invite the group to exercise their creative agency and share ownership over what they have created? 
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NM: Absolutely. I often ask myself \u2018Who are the women leaders around me that I can look up to?\u2019 and there aren\u2019t many. We need more. There\u2019s a stereotype of \u2018the female boss\u2019 that I want to resist. Today, feminine leadership looks different. It is expansive, it is fierce, compassionate, an advocate for justice, and the power of the collective. We need that!
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NM: I want to learn to embody the kind of leadership that I want to see more of. I want to model that you can have a career, meaningful relationships and find fulfilment. I\u2019m playing with it, and it\u2019s exciting. I\u2019m lucky to have found people who are willing to invest in my journey. We have to lead ourselves into the big unknown, alongside each other.
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I check the time, and realise it\u2019s been more than an hour. Our plates our empty and there is a kind of resonant buzzing energy in the air, as ideas and experiences shared swirl all around us.<\/em>
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KF: As we wrap up the conversation, I\u2019d love to briefly ask you what you both have gotten out of the A4G Fellowship thus far. 
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NM: Having been steeped in this form for over a decade, I feel like I\u2019ve been in a certain space of my own, doing what I\u2019m doing. This has been a wonderful opportunity to expand my toolkit, and to get different perspectives on how people are receiving my work. It\u2019s given me new lenses with which to view my work, and that\u2019s wisdom enough for me. It feels less isolating to find a group of people who speak the same language share the same values and sense of blind courage. We\u2019re all saying, \u2018this is what I\u2019m going to dedicate my life to, and to hell with it!\u2019
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SI: I\u2019ve learned so much from the different fellows about how they work effectively with children and youth, and I\u2019ve already found collaborators (in Singapore and abroad) that I will absolutely work with. A big shout out to SIF for bringing us all together \u2013 I\u2019m left feeling like I want to do even more. 
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By Kei Franklin The Arts for Good Fellowship (A4G), organised by the Singapore International Foundation, is an annual programme organised to grow the Arts for Good ecosystem by fostering a community of practice that harnesses the power of arts and culture to create positive social change. The A4G Fellowship brings together artists, arts administrators, creatives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":2097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[450,2],"tags":[481,479,501,485,488,38,487,73,486,133,490],"class_list":["post-2073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brackchats","category-conversations","tag-a4g","tag-artsforgood","tag-facilitation","tag-india","tag-nilishamohapatra","tag-performance","tag-shazaishak","tag-singapore","tag-socialchange","tag-sociallyengaged","tag-teaterekamatra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2073"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2943,"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073\/revisions\/2943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brack.sg\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}