the together and did channing who went to receive the award at portland oregon at the convention was present at our actors fun meeting and she is going there was off during the reception the awards were handed out and had quite a huge crowd in a conference room the hilton is definitely meant to be a convention center and we were all to line up when we realized where we were placed so we would hold the mines not join up onstage they were projects together there's really a place for them to be and to get heard right so i hope i hope everyone's inspired a little bit by what happened for you guys i don't think that you you know when you initially put it together it was to get the word out there and to tack to have an opportunity to talk about your own experiences is not wrong and to make sure people understood that because there was a lot of talk around that and then again and again i'm getting it on and then touring the plate of you know it's a community center so graduations back i will probably put this in my office here in headlines for community media is so enormous in this country there's so much that we could do i'm amazed that more love we did it because we felt it was a subject they believe it to be opened up and asked and going nowhere quickly we just did it because we needed to get the word out about the culture and about changing the culture and about the well we were interviewed listen to this heidi russell produces a podcast and she invited us to her studio to talk about the hometown award we just won so we were there deidre and jennifer barbara carol mary of course we miss the others that could not attend we were getting ready to start the interview i'd like to share mine in the sight of memory be straightened out she wrote they straightened out the mississippi river and places to make room for houses livable acreage occasionally the river floods in these places floods is the way they use it in fact it is not flooding it is remembering are so yes so international women artists law i founded in two thousand and eight and i had just come to the city and well i've been here for a couple of years and i found out that i had great skills with networking and also had a business degree and fundraising degree and all that but i moved here for my art after some challenges in my life that's around me and such i decided at thirty eight going to forty  york is like oh my gosh i can imagine living to new york absolutely love it from a small town upstate and i just found out that i had a lot of skills that a lot of artists still have so i was thinking what can we help what google can we put together would help each other and most of the artists i've been meeting in new york were women so that was just so much talent and i was like oh my god we have to really connect support each other help raise up women's artistry in but women of different disciplines different backgrounds different generations different cultures to get together and from that very st meeting in september two thousand and eight when we did our st round robin everybody told what their disciplines are where they're from how long they've been in new york oh i need an offering and everybody just they all knew me they didn't know each other but they just opened up and so we've been doing that fairly regularly free for all these years and then we had a radio show that this radio show opportunity fell in our lap so that was back in two thousand and twelve we started that we have a we have a showcase of multi disciplinary women's work at the dixon place  trying to you know keep we've done exhibitions exchanges across different places in the world so we have probably at least probably going to five thousand women connected not not system systematically so i'm now trying to build a custom design platform that can unite women artists around the world all disciplines all generations all backgrounds of students and career except read and then have a public component where the public is getting to know what women's work is all you know what women are doing in all the different areas around the world so yeah so just that's just in a nutshell you know what we're doing where we're heading i see a women's by an traveling different place of the world every two years a film festival as well as the the local it's really really important have that local connectivity and having women artists again all generations all backgrounds discipline getting together in the local communities so we're trying to set up some templates and profiles that that local communities around the world from you know from a small town in africa to the big city love you you know that your mother and your mother you are an inspiration you are so important for all of us and your group that you created what is your impression of what's happened with the of course the me too movement and also our winning a national media award it's a surprise what do you think what carmen i st off let me just say it's not a surprise to me that that the documentary and the work that you guys created and generated together about your own me two experiences  has garnered the attention and also the praise because it it hit it hit home so hard i also think it was incredibly powerful for people and for helping people to understand that this was such a long standing problem right this was something that had been going on for years so we're reading in the newspaper i got called to go to a hotel room and actresses were charging about these things happening in the two thousands in the one thousand nine hundred and ninety s to them and it and today and the members of their group are talking about the same kind of experiences i went to the audition i was asked to take my clothes off or sit on a la and it's a team a go back to team because you give us a place to meet you take us on a bus to brooklyn you let us use a theater yet you use a camera and i phone and i you help us do what we have to do this is important so we joyce with us now i'm a carmen i really again i'm just i'm just so pleased and you know as we look at some other venues for the project and festivals and places where people can see it i think again it's it's it's important for folks to understand why we need to hear these stories why they're so important because history does repeat itself right and that's what we learned we learned that for so long people were struggling and living with this stuff and when the news st surfaced right the whole when there was this big groundswell around the me too movement and what was going on you could see in our group and the folks that we all spent time together with that there was no confusion about what these women were talking about it was something that they really deeply understood because they had lived it and they were in coming together to tell those stories i think it was interesting to see in the group st where it tuesdays into and we're talking about it just as current events  news and then as people start to talk the stories are coming out and people everyone realized really part of the story you know this is their story too so this award i think is really the culmination a result of everyone's hard work and their willingness to share their story right i mean to tell people about some of the challenges that they faced in the difficult things that they went through and and to help make that universal connection you know you and to see that there are women of all ages who have these types of stories to tell so the award really honors that i think and also  subtitles right we had that you know carmen you had that you know you're already so skilled but like adding to that skill set and then again it just all coming together as a group and supporting each other and saying you know what we can do this we can do this and then having the confidence to to make sure that it was out there and that people could see it getting it on facebook putting it up but and then you would too and on you tube yeah you tube has been tremendous and then for folks who maybe weren't using there are facebook and you tube channels and tools so much i think it's have some people in the group feel more confident about putting their other work out there so that six out of another nice ancillary and our group at the the living room people saw what you guys were doing saw that you were getting a good reaction and then to see the success of you know being recognized nationally with this award there saying like i can do this you know and that's so important because as we get older i think you know we talk about ages in the group we talk about feeling marginalized and invisible and how people don't see it says we age and they think we don't have to buy anything to add or to say when the exact opposite is true you know we there's so much that we can add to the conversation and to let people know and to teach them and to mentor them through so for anybody who's gone through something  some of those same kinds of challenges that the women and the man in this group talk about their real models of success perseverance of telling your story and feeling heard that are very very important for people for people i think to to be a part of and learn about so what's the future of your group what do you  well we have a lot planned at the wall the living room but a lot of what we do is informed by our participants in the programs and what people are interested in doing and i think the other really nice byproduct of the me too documentary seniors finally have our state need to receiving this kind of recognition is that it inspires other people in the group it lifts the whole program because people are saying oh wow i can you know my work is going to be valued and can be valued the possibility still exists and so we have a lot planned coming up in the fall i'm working on some different pod cast prop projects with people's original work we have a lot of very talented writers who attend our group we have folks who have been acting and saying other people's words for a long time and they have such a beautiful sunset though spoken word and we've been doing a lot of work around that and i think we have some really exciting projects that we can bring to life with pod casts we're also looking at a few theater projects and we have our broadway baby tap group and they are going to do a recital in the fall and we also have a wonderful group that does with mark you are who is a very talented music director arranger and vocal coach who's working with our folks  who have done several cabarets i mean clearly one that they took out the actors home that was really terrific are so we have a lot of those kinds of activities that are going to again there they're up and running and we're in process with and then you know we have some other other new types of workshops music therapy art therapy that are coming up we're going to bring back our d clutter group things that people are interested in then we also have a bunch of workshops and we've been doing for some time here but we always like to introduce new topics and that's our living your best life series to help people maximize their benefits learn more about living on a fixed income how to access the very best of new york to age and place here safely comfortably and using all the best resources that we have so we have quite a lot planned but it's a great honor jet a crew it's a smart group it's a creative group of people that participate so i expect to see some really great things is that what you expected when you started what did you expect what did i think it would end well i didn't expect things to take off so quickly but to last year we did a project with n y u called of a certain age and we had students interact with a with about thirty eight dollars of our program participants and prior doing that i remember talking to my friends or salvatore he's a professor there and saying this is an incredible even when i st started to just have we had our coffee group really this is an incredibly smart and creative group of people and they have interests and needs a folks sixty five and older who have had a performing arts career been in the entertainment industry so so i you know would be interesting and i i knew that there would be a lot of fun and i think i just didn't expect things to ramp up i think that's really been the happy surprise and i also didn't realize how what it meant to have people come back again and again and to do help those relationships and this is a bonding there's a real bond between people i also i think one of my favorite things is the reintroduction i mean we have folks all the time who show up to activities and workshops and they re meet someone that they worked with and had great experiences with and friendships are renewed and rekindled along with the new ones that are made and i think that feeling of community that that you get when you're in a shadow or you're on a sat or i think that carries through and i think i i don't know i don't know that i realize how much people missed that i have and when they're presented with the opportunity what i love is that they're close well at st i want to say i'm i feel very fortunate in this work and it's incredible to work somewhere like the actors fund where they have the creativity and i've foresight and the resources to help put this all so lucky in that we have wonderful community partners and one of our community partners that was so so vital in this project was and manhattan neighborhood network i mean they they restructured our club their classes to accommodate our seniors and to help folks older age or older adults learn how to use the technology in the studio and to learn how to enjoy using she in the studio they were really open to the process and they have supported this project in so many ways through equipment through classes  through the promotion of carmen do your work you know by letting people know that it was happening by putting it up on the channel on the web so their contribution to this whole process this project in jennifer sharon stop channing is part of our group and we have all me thank you thank you girls here's a group of seniors finally say