Acting Out Priorities

By Oliver Lukacs

Jan. 13 -- A man assumes the fetal position to absorb imaginary blows. A woman clutches a make-believe violin being pried from her grasp. A group stands still as a row of statues to embody the concepts of "leadership," "community" and "justice."

It may have resembled a theater workshop, but the event that drew more than 250 people to John Adams Middle School auditorium Saturday morning was in fact a City-organized event marking the culmination of an ambitious new project that gives Santa Monica residents a chance to grade City social services.

Sponsored by the Human Services Division (HSD), which annually funds 31 non-profit and housing development organizations, the "Community Voices" meeting helps City officials decide how to spend $8.8 million to help bankroll more than 62 different programs -- from shelter, drug-rehab and employment services to education and mental health services.

Stepping outside the box, Human Services officials this year decided to scrap the "town-hall" meeting format previously used and instead break the community members into one-hour classes taught by artists and theater professors to encourage fresh, creative thinking.

"It's about loosening up, its about opening up," said Mark Schwarz, a freelance consultant and co-produced of the event, as he stood outside a classroom of laughing, screaming adults doing theater exercises. "When you see the smile on their faces and the energy is up, they feel comfortable talking to each other.

"It is a positive affirmation rather than just complaining" that helps "break down the barriers," said Schwarz. "If we can do it with kids, why can't we do it with adults? I think one of the problems is that we don't give adults enough of that kind of freedom."

The adults were given the freedom to physically express their feelings about pressing community concerns by becoming statues, writing poems, miming emotions, dancing, and performing for the whole community five-minute skits on the themes they developed.

Before breaking into subgroups of between ten and 20 people, participants were given statistical food for thought collected from numerous studies, including a demographic report by RAND Corporation, the city-commissioned Special Census (homeless census), the Community Voices Survey and the Neighborhood Services Survey.

Except for proclamations, such as "homeless people are human beings" and "put the money in the youth," the group as a whole did not discuss any of the major issues identified in the studies.

A classroom for Spanish speakers taught by Hector Aristizabal, a co-founder of the Center for Theatre of the Oppressed in Los Angeles, was mostly filled with residents of the Pico Neighborhood who acted out the problems facing in their community, as well as potential solutions.

In a pantomime representing police brutality, one man assumed the fetal position on the floor using his hands to shield his head from a rain of invisible Billy clubs and boots, while others silently thrust fists into the air or mimed shouts of protest in a call for political action.

Trina Trevino, mother of two and a longtime Pico resident, was struck by some of her preconceived notions when her class was asked to act out the concept of "diversity." Trevino's group united -- "we were all rainbow hands" -- while the others drifted away alone.

"I think it helped me learn about myself and being naïve thinking everyone is going to be good and everyone will inherently know the right thing to do," Trevino said. "Reality is not like that, and it showed in there with all the different people and all their different views."

Trevino -- who acted out the looming school budget cuts by clutching a violin, while hands representing the State tried to rip it from her grasp -- said she enjoyed the creative simplicity of the exercises and preferred them to a politically charged dialogue.

"It's intellectual in a different way without needing a big vocabulary," she said.

In another room, Jerry Quickly, a poet/activist and radio host on KPFK, taught a poetry "class" where participants wrote random collective poems on community-related themes. Called "exquisite corps," the process allows each participant to add two lines to a poem after seeing only the last line written.

"It takes a lot of chutzpah" for ordinary people to open themselves up for a creative approach to problem-solving," Quickly said. "It was very outside the box, and I am thankful that the City is so progressive and forward thinking."

But not everyone agreed. While the new format received some favorable reviews, some participants gave it a thumbs-down, saying they were disappointed that the issues brought up were not discussed in depth.

Preferring to stay anonymous, one elderly resident walked out of Quickly's sessions disappointed. "I thought we were going to talk about the issues," that "there would be a discussion," he said. This forum, he added, "was a strange way to talk."

Another participant, who also declined to give his name, called the spectacle a "dog and pony show" that evades the real issues, and only give people "false hopes."

Mayor Richard Bloom, who was on hand with Council members Michael Feinstein and Pam O'Conner, welcomed the new format.

"What we're trying to do is get people to think in a creative fashion how to solve problems in the community," Bloom said. "This wasn't intended to be a meeting where people are bickering with one another over priorities they have chosen.

"Those types of sessions," Bloom added, "frequently devolve into who has the loudest voice, who musters the largest number of people to come down and tell us why their issue is more important than everybody else's issue."

Bloom added that City staff would report to the council about "what they heard and they are the people who tell us how we should allocate our resources to meet the needs reflected from the whole process. It's a really well thought out process."

School Board member Oscar de la Torre, who runs a community center funded through HSD, said the meeting was "a great forum for people to come and speak and have their voices heard, but the important thing is follow-up.

"Who in the City government will be the caretaker of the issue brought up today?" said de la Torre, executive director of the Pico Youth and Family Center. There must be a way to make sure "that programs, policies and practices change for the betterment of the community, especially those community members who have historically suffered poverty, violence, and political disenfranchisement, who need more services than the general population."

De la Torre said he plans to tackle the issue of alleged institutional racism within the public school system.

One of the major themes of the forum was "taking a special look at the needs of older youth (11-23 years)." Statistics were projected, while younger children created a collage of crayon and color pencil drawings illustrating issues in their communities, while the older kids drafted a list of concerns.

According to a City survey of 377 young people, 25 percent reported trouble with the police, 10 percent said they're in trouble with gangs, 96 percent said they attend school and 28.5 percent said they're employed part-time.

In their free time 77 percent said they hang out with friends after school, and 84 percent said they watch TV, play video games or listen to music

For support, 74 percent said they turn to friends, 60 percent go to their family, and 25 percent go to their counselors, church/religious organization, or other human service agencies.

The drawings of schools, stores, basketball courts, homeless people and a corner liquor store that the younger children drew on colorful construction paper were mounted on a cardboard panel and presented to the audience by the artists, who voted for the best ideas.

Topping the list compiled by the younger group was more money for affordable housing, followed by funding for a communal "tag-wall, "where people could come and tag, over and over" and less expensive and smaller stores "for people who can't afford food or clothes."

Other ideas included building more recreational facilities for activities such as basketball, baseball "and a skate park" and cleaning the city. Finishing nearly last was "more money for schools."

The list compiled by the older youth and presented by a middle school boy was a little less philanthropic. It included indoor basketball, more pool tables, computers and a kitchen, more vending machines, field trips, jobs, scholarships, more help with colleges, computer graphics, "better food like hot dogs and hamburgers and stuff," art, more furniture, "good furniture, like leather," girls, "good staff that are young," and a women's group.