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pilgrimartfoundation · 2 years ago

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@drjulisoulhealer @angiewhitehurst12 and me celebrating ⭐️ALAN SHARPE ⭐️ at @bravesoulcollective #sweet16🎂& @asharpebgm 💐 @a_act_dc #30thbirthday 🖤 🎭 Alan Sharpe HIV+ Writer/Director co-founded African-American Collective Theater (ACT) after his move to Washington, DC. Since 1992, he has written and directed over 100 plays and short films, all showcasing contemporary Black gay and lesbian life and culture. Sharpe is proud to be a charter member of Brave Soul Collective (BSC) for which he has also written an ongoing series of plays, as well as the African-American Playwrights’ Exchange (APEX), Urban Playwrights’ United (UPU) and the Dramatists’ Guild. 👀 What IS African-American Collective Theater (ACT)? NOT a theater company OR a production company -- rather, ACT is an informal group of actors, other artists, technicians and volunteers that has emerged and evolved over the years to support and realize the artistic projects of writer/director Alan Sharpe on an ad-hoc basis, as time and resources permit. #AlanSharpe #AfricanAmericanCollectiveTheater #BraveSoulCollective (at Anacostia Arts Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClxFR2TMA3l/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#sweet16🎂#30thbirthday #alansharpe #africanamericancollectivetheater #bravesoulcollective

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lonewolfe · 4 years ago

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Those Three Words...

The first Sunday of February 2006 will forever mark a turning point in the story that is my life. By that year I had been consistently attending First Sunday, which is a monthly spiritual service held in the Washington, DC area, for about six years.

As one of my two spiritual advisors had been known to do, on this Sunday morning as we were setting up the space for the monthly gathering, Muhsinah Berry-Dawan placed a small book in my hand and looked at me as she gently suggested to me to, “....have a thought”. The book she placed in my hand was called “Bullshit or Fertilizer: Tough Love for Artists on the Fence” written by Pierre Bennu. It was in that book, as I sat and randomly opened to a page that I was left with three succinct messages that I just could not shake. To this day, I remember vividly being so taken by the three things I read that I was unable to stop thinking about the words which all were charged, specific and aimed directly at that 31 year old me who by that point had been living with HIV for about a year and a half, had been for years “pounding the pavement” by going to auditions, and working vigorously at honing my craft and landing whatever jobs I could as an actor while still working 9-5 jobs at theatres and arts organizations across the DC area.

Each month, at First Sunday both Muhsinah and her sister Janice Ellis would select a theme on which to focus that gathering’s discussion and readings. As was the usual practice, in February most of what they would read from selected books were things having to do with the idea, the notion, the concept of LOVE - as a nod to Valentines Day and its observation in mid-February.

As the service began, I could not shake what I read within the pages of the “Bullshit or Fertilizer” book. By the time we moved into the meditation part of the service (which would usually happen mid-way through), I remember feeling different. I don’t know how else to describe it.

Sometimes during meditation, I would still feel my mind wander into the realm of mundane thoughts. But that Sunday morning - as Muhsinah would always advise us to do during guided meditation - I kept the focus on my breathing. I inhaled deeply, holding for a few seconds, before exhaling with a release, repeating this process as soothing music played in the background and I inhaled the aroma of incense burning.

As I was sitting there allowing my mind and thoughts to settle and silence, I heard a voice inside my head speaking directly to me. “It’s on you”. “You have to do it”. “If there’s a void somewhere, a need that you feel needs to be filled, it’s up to YOU to do it”. I couldn’t tell you exactly how long this went on, because by this point I had sunk so deep into meditation that I wasn’t overthinking it. I was merely breathing deeply - in and out and just listening to what was being said without trying to make sense of it.

During the next part of the service which would always immediately follow meditation, all were welcomed to speak freely and openly, to share about anything that was on their heart, anything that may have come forth for them in meditation. It was there in that space after coming out of a quite deep state of meditation that I spoke, (without even really understanding much of what was coming out of my mouth at the time - mind you) and I shared that the messaging I’d received from the three passages in the book earlier that morning, and the words I heard loud and clear during meditation were: “...YOU. You have to create something”. So I spoke. The next three words that came out of my mouth…“Brave. Soul. Collective.” I remember feeling terrified as I said it out loud. Almost as if I was unsure I had gotten them right as they were uttered to me. “Brave Soul Collective. I don’t know what this is, or what it’s ‘sposed to be, but that’s what just came up for me”. I remember this day so vividly because the day that I’ve just recounted was exactly 15 years ago, today.

I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know why I was being called on. I was terrified. I was confused. But one thing that I was even amid all of those feelings, I was clear. I could not (as hard & as often as I had tried), I couldn’t unread what I read in that book, I couldn’t unhear what I heard during that meditation. I couldn’t let go of those three words “Brave Soul Collective”.

While today was certainly not the first time that the significance of this date has crossed my mind, it has in fact, been one of the hardest days since it dawned on me last year (during the redesign of our wearebravesouls.com website) that this day, this year, this anniversary was nearing. So today, I almost talked myself out of writing this.

As full and memorable as the last 15 years have been at the head of what has become an outreach, education and performing arts organization and theatre company...the last 11 months surviving this pandemic have sadly overshadowed much of it all. This also leads to helping me to better understand my own existing fears and trepidation about what to do, and how to celebrate what is such an important milestone in my life and in the life of what has become a lifeline for me and so many others.

There have been many times since February 2006 that I’ve wanted to quit, to stop trying, to try “doing something” safer, with far less (literal or figurative) mental or emotional risk. I never wanted to “lead”, nor did I want all the loneliness or responsibility that comes with being labeled as such. What I’ve always wanted to do is my part, my work. To heal my shit. To have more joy. To move through the rest of whatever time I have in this life just a little bit lighter. What the last 15 years has taught me is that to be brave, means to fucking be human. At this point, I’m also accepting and acknowledging all of this as a human being who is also currently fragile as fuck from the last 11 months of living through this pandemic.

To that end, as this 15th year “officially” begins today February 7th, 2021 (on what is also National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day - #NBHAAD), as the human being responsible for its creation, I do so with a continued sense of responsibility, purpose, and with a charge - the same one I heard clearly, 15 years ago.

- Monte J. Wolfe, Founder, Artistic & Managing Director - #BraveSoulCollective

Breakin' the Silence ... Buildin' the Bridges ... Bringin Light to The Truth

www.wearebravesouls.com

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