#which is even Wilder if you interpret them as being different universes/timelines

[stella-clara]

Something about Dismas being the one with barks implying he has vague memories about the Hamlet

Something about Dismas being the one who recognizes the Hoarder but can't place from where

Something about Dismas having unique barks showing For Certain he remembers Reynauld. That that's his friend he's trying to save his friend

There's something here and by god am I fascinated by it

[so-shiny-so-chrome]

Witness: Weirdness_Unlimited

Creator name (AO3): Weirdness_Unlimited

Creator name (Tumblr): Burn-your-face-upon-the-chrome

Link to creator works: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weirdness_Unlimited/works

Q: Why the Mad Max Fandom?

A: In the Mad Max universe, anything that is completely absurd and outrageous is represented as the norm. Leather fetish gear? Oh, that's just the security guard uniform at Bartertown. Those guys over there are wearing black and white face paint? No, you're not at an ICP concert, those are War Boys, also run. Whoa, there are acrobats being flung through the air on poles attached to moving vehicles! No worries, that's just any Tuesday in Gas Town. I love this fandom because pretty much any nonsense my skull meat can come up with, as long as the mechanics of it work, I can throw it into my fics and not a single person will bat an eye. As a matter of fact, the weirder, the better. 

Q: What do you think are some defining aspects of your work? Do you have a style? Recurrent themes?

A: Life is gross, humans do gross things, and the environment around you could not care less about any of your moral dilemmas. I suppose you can say my style is a lack of it. I like things straight forward and I know this characteristic often weakens any aesthetic appeal to my writing. “To Love Reptiles” reads from Slit's perspective the same way a radio manual does but with a lot more cursing. I try not to make it too complicated to digest. I'd like for people to be able to fill in any blanks with their own interpretation of the situation and then move on to the next. 

Themes though, I go heavy on themes. The main theme is interpersonal relationships, coping with failure within them, and personal growth. Other themes include coping with mental illness, codependency, hunger, greed, warfare, trauma, etc.  

Q: Which of your works was the most fun to create? The most difficult? Which is your most popular? Most successful? Your favourite overall?

A: The most fun work of my own, by far, has been “To Love Reptiles.” It has also been the most popular, most successful, and my most favourite. The most difficult has been an original work with no working title. I can't give away much about this original piece but it has to do with local myths and survival in the wilderness. I quit working on the rough manuscript when my grandmother passed away several years ago. I'll be picking it up again soon. It may turn up on AO3 in the next three or four years.

Q: How do you like your wasteland? Gritty? Hopeful? Campy? Soft? Why?/

A: Gritty but hopeful, I think. The wasteland is nasty but humans need hope, right?

Q: Walk us through your creative process from idea to finished product. What's your prefered environment for creating? How do you get through rough patches?

A: Alright, so that's an interesting question with a pretty messy answer but I'll try to make it brisk.   Step 1: I start with a summary of the story as a whole with a point A (the beginning) and a point B (the end). Step 2: I break that summary down and and fill it out with events that can ferry the characters from the start of the story to the finish on a drawn timeline to keep things in chronological order. I also have note cards. I break this down further into named chapters. This can take a while. Step 3: I summarize each of those chapters to figure out if this story needs more than one installment. It depends out how the series of events land and how many minor arcs are included with the main arc/objective. Sprinkle some drama in there, scrap some unnecessary things, narrow an installment down to thirty (30) chapters at maximum. Step 4: I summarize individual scenes within the chapters and hack out important dialog. This takes weeks. There's typically between four and ten scenes per chapter. Also more note cards. Step 5: I try to flesh out one scene per day. (key word: Try) 

 I get the most writing done in the morning over coffee and before work. I usually sit at the breakfast table with my phone and spit out about 500-ish words before my husband wakes up. I'll write intermittently throughout the day. Lately I haven't been writing much because of holiday junk and winter being kind of a bummer. 

 If I'm in a rough patch, I can break though it by sitting in a room with no internet access and forcing myself to scratch out a scene or two in a notepad. Usually these notepad scribbles are so awful that they get torn out and chucked in the waste bin but the next day I'm keen to do the job right. 

Q: What (if any) music do you listen to for help getting those creative juices flowing?

A: Ambient sound, white noise, or nothing. I do listen to music and there's a lot of songs I associate with stories, fics, characters. Tove Lo is a big one for Dune. Most of the time I find that music with lyrics or a high tempo is distracting if I'm in the act of writing something but it can be a source of inspiration separately. 

Q: How do you keep track of all the details as you're writing? How do you keep details consistent in your works? How do you fact-check your writing?

A: I have a little memo pad with numbered facts that do not change at any point through the story. These are kinda the cardinal rules. I can't tell you the rules because they contain spoilers. After the “RULES” there are miscellaneous details that I'd like to remember in case they come up later. Things like birthmarks, scar placement, mannerisms, things I've hinted at without exposition that will need to be revealed later.

I fact check by googling stuff and falling down research holes for several hours until I forget what I was doing. EVENTUALLY I'll come back to writing and realize that's why there are things in my search history that probably have me on some kind of government watch list.

Q: What motivates your writing?

A: My motivation. Real talk? For AAL it's to get to a particular scene in the planned third installment. Scene thirteen in chapter seven. I know that answers exactly nothing and is weirdly specific but... yes. Other works of mine, I'm motivated by the idea that some of my ideas might entertain someone out there, even if it's just one someone then I've succeeded.

Q: What is your biggest challenge as a creator?

A: Time management. I have a lot of hobbies and finding time for individual projects is... Hard. I made a boredom jar that lets me pick an unfinished task/project/piece at random to do whenever I'm bored so that I can stop myself from starting anything new when my apartment is already full of unfinished junk.

Q: How have you grown as a creator through your participation in the Mad Max Fandom? How has your work changed? Have you learned anything about yourself?

A: Yes. My organizational skills have improved by miles and my attention span is better focused. Grammatically my work has undergone general improvement.  

Learned anything about myself? Hmm, I learned that my opinion of what is canon and what makes good fan fiction are two completely different things. If you ask me anything specific about the Mad Max franchise you will probably get both opinions. As an example: Does Maxosa make for good fan fiction? Heck Yeah! Will canon Max Rockatansky or Furiosa ever be mentally and emotionally healed enough to actually be in a relationship? Probably not and that's okay. I can happily read Max and Furi getting cuddly and domestic and enjoy the heck out of another writer's interpretation of these two overcoming the hurdles of their respective traumas. I can do this knowing full well that Max and Furiosa probably never canonically saw each other again after the closing scene of Fury Road. I'm okay with this because that's the magic of fandom and why I love it.

Q: Which character do you relate to the most, and how does that affect your approach to that character? Is someone else your favourite to portray? How has your understanding of these characters grown through portraying them?

A: I relate to Max the most, and I think the reason I haven't yet published anything written from his perspective is because he'd be the most difficult to write without touching on my own fears and inadequacies too much. Max is not interested in being involved with the dramas of anyone else's life. He's already seen too much turmoil and had a hand in it too many times to actively seek people and their inherent problems, however, when presented with zero alternative he'll do what needs to be done and suffer though forming new attachments to very mortal people who may drop dead at any minute. He isn't comfortable with the process of forming attachments and he'd rather avoid it. He doesn't want another ghost. At least that's my interpretation of him. 

 Slit, remarkably, is my favorite to write for in spite of the fact that I don't relate to him in any way and my interpretation of his portrayal in the film is, simply put, a blunt edged euphemism for abusive relationships. He's just... a guilty pleasure to examine and write. I blame my fondness on the stunning character design and Josh Helman's energy on screen. The character says and does ridiculous things and it's just hilarious to watch Slit dig his own grave and humiliate himself. Case and point: I've got his boot! My understanding of Slit has grown through writing about him. He's probably (canonically) deeply insecure and his way of thinking very toxic and self focused. There's gotta be trauma there (I took massive creative license in that area) and a whole host of personal issues that explain his behavior, but will never excuse it. Does that make good fan fiction??? Parts of it do, the rest has to be that very human ability to grow and improve, although I don't think he'd have that opportunity in canon or accept any form of assistance... If he'd lived. 

Q: Do you ever self-insert, even accidentally?

A: I think you kind of have to self-insert to a point. Writing tends to involve exaggerating your own experiences and the imagined interactions in your own head in order to make the experiences of the characters relatable. I'd rather not examine every individual facet of the issue but yes, I think Dune is an unintentional self-insert to cope with health problems before I was consciously aware of what I was coping with and since that realization, lately, she's a lot harder to write. 

Q: Do you have any favourite relationships to portray? What interests you about them?Honestly? Close platonic friendship. Emotional intimacy is interesting. I draw a lot of inspiration for friendship in fiction from Mulder and Scully in early seasons of The X-files.

Q: How does your work for the fandom change how you look at the source material?

A: I see more minor details and the context of silent interactions. Some of these details are unsettling, some of them are so subtle and subliminal that they're easily missed when you watch the films, especially Fury Road. Oddly enough, I'm a lot more- Ah whats the word? Not quite critical of but unnerved by my own observations of Capable's relationship with Nux. I'm not sure why. It could be that I'm misinterpreting the actress's tone or George Miller vision/direction, but I watch the movie now and find that the way Capable looks at and talks about Nux so intensely makes me uneasy. The previous is just an example among many that I've spat out so far, it's not important.

Q: Do you prefer to create in one defined chronology or do your works stand alone? Why or why not?

A: Everything I write within the Mad Max fandom with the exception of collaborative works will probably be linked together and consistent with one another because that means less to remember and fewer mix-ups.

Q: To break or not to break canon? Why?

A: If you have to, break it. I'll read it. I like my fandom unlimited, baby. In my own works I try to keep with canon somewhat but I resurrect a lot of characters who almost certainly died because if I didn't, it would really only leave seven (I think) named characters with dialog who did not die in Fury Road. (The surviving women of the Many Mothers weren't named.)

Q: Share some headcanons:

A: 1) Max has intestinal parasites. He ate a live (two headed) lizard in the first thirty seconds of Fury Road. You really really really should not do that. 

 2) Furiosa didn't want to kill Ace. She could have just blown his head off instead of punching him in the face with a pistol. She didn't shoot him. 

 3) Ace did not go under the wheels. Foxy Grandpa lives. 

 4) Miss Giddy is also alive somewhere 

 5) Actually, most people in the wasteland probably have intestinal parasites. 

Q: If you work with OCs walk us through your process for creating them. Who are some of your favourites?

A: My original characters tend to create themselves. I don't know how they do it, they kinda just decide for themselves for better or worse what they'll look like and how they'll behave. Dune was an accident and the “About a Lizard” series wasn't supposed to happen at all. It was supposed to be a one-shot word dump of what Slit's final moments might have looked like. Slit was supposed to die in a fleeting but intense two seconds of delusions about Valkyries and Valhalla... And then be eaten by a scavenger cannibal. The whole thing kind of just happened on the fly. Ardith, Phil/Crank, Featherknife, Bones, and the kids were also accidental. I had no idea where I was going with the encounter with Crow Fishermen. They just popped into existence of their own will and the rest is history. The only original characters that have been planned and designed well beforehand have been villains. This probably says something about me as a writer though I'm not sure what. 

Q: When creating a new character for the AAL series, how do you approach their first interactions with your main characters?

A: The first thing I ask is “What does this scene need” and sometimes it needs a new character for villainy or friendly acquaintance reasons or for a skill-set the main characters do not posses. New characters have a habit of changing a chapter or making it much longer than intended. First interactions with Slit probably won't surprise anyone. He phases through distrust to dislike to begrudged cooperation and from there he's either on his way back to dislike or entering the tolerance phase. Beyond the tolerance phase is... The Complicated Zone. The Complicated Zone is where Nux and Dune are situated. Dune has two basic instincts with people: Should I shoot you? Or should I befriend you? Bizarrely, being friendly is the weirder option in the wastes. Shooting is almost always a consideration if she's taken by surprise.

Q: If you create original works, how do those compare to your fan works?

A: My original works are probably darker and deal more with modern problems. I turn to fan fiction for fun and to indirectly work through things.

Q: Who are some works by other creators inside and outside of the fandom that have influenced your work?

A: A lot of the fandom, too many names to name but one stands out and I can't remember their name or the title of their work. It was about Ace growing up and there was a dingo and a young Miss Giddy. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, please help. I've been looking for this fic for ages.

Q: Is there a specific author(s) that inspired your work when you began writing TLR?

A: I don't think any specific author inspired me while I began TLR but The Dark Half by Stephen King is one of my favorites and I recall re-reading it shortly before getting deep into fan writing. I may even have unconsciously plagiarized a few lines off that book. In my latest attempt to re-read that novel I'm feeling like there's a lot of Thad Beaumont in my portrayal of Slit.

Q: What advice can you give someone who is struggling to make their own works more interesting, compelling, cohesive, etc.? 

A: Don't be afraid to write things that are too soft or too dark or too this or too that. Sometimes readers crave that stuff that makes us feel warm and safe and sometimes we're also here for things that make us wonder how the @!#$% the characters will ever recover or IF they will ever recover. The real world is full of all sorts of feelings, situations, serendipitous coincidences. Take us down whatever funky road you got! You're the driver, you decide. Your fic is your world. Write WILD things sometimes because it's fun. 

Q: Have you visited or do you plan to visit Australia, Wasteland Weekend, or other Mad Max place?

A: I would love to take a trip to Australia one day to paint scenery in oils but that predates my time in MM fandom. I really want to go to Wasteland Weekend in the next two years but finances, necessities, costumes, etc need to be sorted out first.

Q: Tell us about a current WIP or planned project.

A: Well, I'm buying up model car kits to make little Mad Max cars for nerd purposes.

Thank you @burn-your-face-upon-the-chrome

[elexuscal]

Prompt: Faded Blue Bloop meets Little Rebellions Bloop

For those who don’t know, Little Rebellions is a story by myself, which explores the lives and problems of Homeworld Pearls. While familiarity helps, it doesn’t need to be read to understand the following story; you just need to know it has a very different interpretation of Blue Pearl.

oOoOo

Counterpart

The chamber was dark, and cold, and silent, and filled with looming shadows.

Outside it was loud. Pearl could feel the vibrations through the floor— the shudder of explosions, the roar of flames, the panic of screams being cut off—

How many Gems were still standing?

Pearl shook her head. Couldn’t think about that. Had to keep moving.

She went deeper and deeper into the darkness.

Her intel had been good. It was right where she’d been told it would be. A little thing, an antique. An hourglass, all fine silver metal that glowed dimly, its inside filled with sapphire dust…

Would it work?

Yes. It would. But there was a very good chance that it would work in the same way as a mass-driver bomb.

Pearl pressed her eyes closed. Could she really do this? There was a reason not even the Diamonds dared dabble with time travel. A single ill-placed change, and everything could become so, so much worse than you could possibly imagine.

Nothing can be worse than this.

Too many tortured. Too many shattered. Too many lost.

And it shouldn’t have had to be. That was the worse part. The civil war had been brutal, but rebellion could have won. It nearly had.

But the Diamonds would not allow for that. So rather than lose, they had broken the board.

How many Gems were still standing? Surely no more than a hundred, in the whole galaxy…

Pearl could save all of them. Make it so it never happened.

An explosion nearly knocked her to her feet. The distant screaming grew louder.

She hardened her resolve. Her people were depending on her. She had to do this. There was no other option.

She held the hourglass to her chest, letting it touch her gem. She closed her eyes and thought: Change this. Rewrite this existence. Give me one where it didn’t go wrong. Where I didn’t lead us all to our own destruction. Where I can still make things better.

All noise cut out. All sight, all sensation. Except— except Pearl could still feel everything rushing past her, like she was moving at impossible speeds, yet floating in a void, winds sweeping past her, and through her, or her through them. She didn’t seem to have a body or a form at all, she could see things, entire worlds, entire nebulae, entire galaxies, just for instants- could-have-beens and might-have-beens, too huge to comprehend, to grasp, to remember— It went on and on and on for eternity, and for no time at all and then—

— it stopped.

There was wind. A normal wind, soft and gentle, carrying a scent she vaguely remembered. There was light. Normal, simple light from a yellow sun. The ground under her feet was springy. There were sounds in the background, soft, sweet sounds, and the suddenness of it was shocking.

Slowly, gradually, Pearl began to recognise the things around her. Trees. Grass. Birds. Insects.

Earth?

She had not been on Earth in millennia, and certainly never alone in its wilderness. Thankfully, she did not have time to become overwhelmed before she saw something familiar, grounding.

Blue Diamond’s Palanquin.

Pearl’s relief was short-lived. If the Palanquin was here, then no doubt so was its owner. Straining her ears, Pearl could hear it: Blue Diamond’s Song. It was strangely faint, but Pearl had spent her entire life in its presence, always wary of it, and it was unmistakeable.

It was accompanied by the sound of footsteps.

She had to get out of here.

In her hands was the hourglass- or the remains of it. Its bulb was broken. The stress of the reality alteration had clearly damaged it. Glass shards littered the grass below, and the sapphire dust was pouring out. Pearl frowned at it. Messy. Suspicious. But no time to clean or hide it.

On light feet, she headed for the treeline. Earth was good for hiding. It took her only moments to find a suitable bush to crouch behind, one which would block her from view, but still allow her to peer through the branches. It even offered enough cover to store the hourglass’s remains in her gem.

Looking out through the leaves, a figure came into sight.

She was short, chubby, dressed in blue clothing of an unfamiliar style. At first, Pearl assumed her to be one of the Earth’s dominant species, a human. But she had not survived so long by assuming, and when she paid closer attention— she noticed the figure was the source of Blue Diamond’s Song.

Impossible.

But it wasn’t. As the being bent down to inspect the sapphire dust, Pearl spotted a blue point of a gem sticking out from beneath the being’s clothes. Blue Diamond’s gem.

Pearl could have shook her head from confusion. What— what was this timeline? In this universe, had they found a way to trap Blue Diamond in a weak, ineffective body?

There wasn’t any time to think this over, because Blue Diamond was now coming closer.

No chance to retreat deeper into the underbrush. Pearl was quiet, but she wasn’t that quiet. Any movement would surely disturb the leaves, bushes, and sticks, drawing Blue Diamond even closer. It might make the bird chirping overhead take flight. So instead, Pearl took refuge where she always had: stillness.

It didn’t work. Blue Diamond stepped into the undergrowth, pushed aside the bushes, and stared right up at her. “Pearl?”

Pearl said nothing. Not yet. Wait and see.

“What’re you doing here?” Blue Diamond asked.

“Hiding.”

Blue Diamond raised an eyebrow. “Hiding? From… what?”

Pearl pointed up to the singing bird.

“… why?”

“It frightened me.”

Blue Diamond raised her eyebrows. “You’re scared… of Nari?”

Nari. Perhaps a type of bird. Pearl nodded.

“O…kay. Well, Nari’s not gonna hurt you. Why don’t you come out?”

In her mind, Pearl was smiling. This strange Blue Diamond did not appear angry or suspicious at all. And of course, why would she? Pearls were so easily frightened, after all. Of course she’d gone hiding in the bushes.

It would be easy to slip into this timeline.

As Pearl stepped out of the bushes, Blue Diamond asked, “What’s that blue stuff on the ground, d'you think?” pointing at the sapphire dust.

“I could not say,” Pearl murmured, which was true enough.

This Blue Diamond was strange. She did not press about the sapphire dust, even though it should have been a fairly easy deduction to make. Instead she just shrugged, laid down on the grass some distance away, and asked Pearl to join her. Pearl complied. Blue Diamond took out a book and began to draw. She spoke very little, giving Pearl time to think, to observe her surroundings, and consider them. Had Blue Diamond returned to this planet to grieve? If so, she did not seem very sad. Perhaps things had gone very, very different in this timeline.

“What d'you think Pearl?” Blue Diamond asked, holding up the book she was drawing in. There was a quite-realistic picture of what appeared to be an extremely rudimentary wheeled vehicle.

Very different indeed.

“It is very nice, my Diamond.”

Despite the compliment, Blue Diamond frowned. She opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by another voice.

“Steven! Lunch is prepared!”

The voice was a Pearl’s voice.

Pearl turned towards it, because Blue Diamond had, and so it would not be seen as suspicious.

The Pearl coming out of the palanquin looked like her. Same hair, same color, same gem-placement.

This was not immediately shocking. There were many Pearls in the galaxies which had been modelled after her, by Gems emulating the fashion of their Diamond. Pearl herself had been an exact duplicate of an untold number of predecessors.

But then Pearl watched as her counterpart’s mouth dropped open.

And she heard it.

It was like an echo- but no, echoes came after the original. This Song was playing in time with hers, like two instruments in such perfect harmony that you couldn’t even determine the difference unless you focused on it.

This Pearl’s song was the same as her own.

This Pearl was her.

If you’re captured, reveal nothing.

If the rebellion had had formal rules, that would have been rule one. And Pearl would not betray it.

Blue Diamond and the Alternate Pearl interrogated her, and with every question, Pearl played dumb. Innocent. Confused.

“Where did you come from?”

The ground.

“Which Kindergarten?”

I do not know.

“Why were you spying on us?”

I was not spying.

“You were watching me from the bushes.”

I was hiding. I was scared.

“But were you sent by Homeworld?”

Homeworld?

“Who’s your owner?”

I have no owner.

This Blue Diamond continued to perplex. She did not get angry. As the interrogation went on, she wore an expression of increasing concern and confusion. Pearl did not trust this. Not for one moment. There was an angle there. A lie. A trap, a trick.

But she had her own tricks. It would only be a matter of time before Pearl found a way to escape. Blue Diamond had not hurt her, and neither had this Alternate Pearl, for all that she had brandished a knife. They underestimated her. As long as she had her body, she would be able to find a time when she wasn’t under surveillance, a chance to run.

But then the Lapis Lazuli arrived, and held her in a bubble of water.

“I know you are lying,” Alternate Pearl said, voice very soft. “No Kindergartens have been functional on Earth for millennia, and no Pearl farms were ever established here in the first place.”

Pearl said nothing. This was all true. She had heard it all from overhearing her Diamonds’ meetings.

She had realized, in the back of her mind, that Alternate Pearl must have too.

But she hadn’t expected her counterpart to use it against her.

Alternate Pearl held the knife up and continued. “You were not made on this planet, which means you came here somehow. And somehow, you have my Song. We will find out how, and why.”

“Pearl,” Blue Diamond said, tugging on Alternate Pearl’s sheer skirt. “I think you’re scaring her.”

Alternate Pearl said nothing. Pearl knew she was staring at her through thick hair.

The questioning continued for some time. Eventually the Lazuli sighed. “We’re not getting anything out of her.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but maybe we should bring her over to Rose Quartz.”

Rose Quartz? Pearl thought.

“Rose Quartz?” Blue Diamond echoed.

Lazuli shrugged. “The Crystal Gems have a way with runaway Gems.”

The Crystal Gems.

Pearl did not believe it. Or she could not, until she was brought before rebel leader herself.

Had she betrayed the cause? Pearl wondered.

But no. There was no diamond emblem on her form, and in its place was that single, iconic star.

But still, Pearl did not trust her. For her entire life, silence had been her greatest protection, and it was not one that she would give up so easily.

Until another figure stepped out of the Crystal Gem base; a spear in one hand, an oblong white gem at her temple.

The Renegade.

Over five thousand years ago, Pearl was offered an outstretched hand and a choice.

In one lifetime, Pearl had looked away.

But in another, she had looked the Renegade in the eyes.

“You will need information from the inside. I can provide it.”

That had been Pearl’s life, during the War. To all appearances, a silent, dutiful figure, the perfect specimen. She was at her Diamond’s side at all times, never speaking, always listening.

She found ways to smuggle her information out. Sometimes in person— exhilarating and terrifying treks into the Earthen landscape, stealing away on warp pads, sneaking between trees— a chance to surround herself with fellow rebels. More often, especially as the centuries wore on, through other messengers. Quietly exchanged whispers or holograms, maps exchanged in passing, a hand signal or brush of skin.

Pearl passed on everything she could. Battle plans, construction locations, Gem production numbers, weapon delivery dates, star maps, the rumors circulating around Homeworld. She listened out for sympathizers, and helped them escape or defect. She helped change the course of the rebellion. Battles were won on the details she supplied. She helped secure victory, secure the planet Earth!

And then, in a single flash of light, that victory had been stolen.

It could have ended there. Perhaps it should have.

Pearl had longed for it. Oh, so many times. It would have been easy. The rebellion had failed, and surely that was more than enough proof that Homeworld’s ideals were the right ones. Every Gem a duty, every duty a Gem…

She could have been a Pearl again. She could have been a silent, dutiful figure, the perfect specimen.

But she’d decided to keep fighting.

It had been a long, slow, arduous progress. After the Crystal Gems’ defeat, no one wanted to step out of line. Too much fear, too much uncertainty.

But Pearl had listened. She had schemed, and planned, and reached out. She’d helped smuggle defects to safety. Helped hide illicit fusions from discovery. Helped sway the outcome of trials by altering evidence.

Over the course of millennia, she’d built up a network. Another rebellion, seeping into the very foundation of Homeworld society, reaching out its tendrils, ready to pull it all down.

And they had.

They had.

But the Diamonds were not ones to accept defeat.

It had all fallen down. All of it.

So in one final, desperate move, Pearl had tried to repair all that had been broken.

Pearl told these Crystal Gems- these few miraculously surviving Crystal Gems. She told them everything, and eventually, they believed it.

Pearl figured out the events of the Alternate Pearl’s life in bits and pieces, through implications and deductions.

She had rejected the Renegade’s offer. She’d remained the perfect Pearl.

She had given the Crystal Gems no information, no battle plans, no supplies. The Crystal Gems had fought on despite that, and fought well.

But they had still lost.

“What was even the point?” Pearl wondered allowed one night, staring up at the stars. “All my spying, my scheming? It was all for naught.”

“It wasn’t,” said the Renegade.

“Do not give me false flattery, Pearl. I can see quite plainly I mattered very little to your rebellion, and that I mattered too much to my own. What was the point, if all I did was lead my people to devastation?”

The Renegade did not answer. Merely looked away, her face grim.

Rose Quartz was the one who met Pearl’s eyes. They were usually so light, so joyful, but just then, there were familiar shadows in their depths. She said, “The point was we tried.”

Serving at Blue Diamond’s side was one of tedium and monotony and inescapable sadness. It had worn away at Pearl, threatening to dissolve her into nothing.

Her rebellion was what she had clung to. It had been terrifying and stressful and painful, but it also had been glorious, and those emotions had burned in her core, completely and utterly hers.

Pearl wondered what had kept the Alternate Pearl going all those years, had kept herself from simply eroding away.

Pearl had fought and fought and fought for her independence from Blue Diamond, and in the end, never truly won it.

Alternate Pearl had never fought at all. But she hadn’t needed to. Her Blue Diamond had just stepped away and let her go.

Pearl hadn’t been sure what to make of Steven Universe, the bearer of the Blue Diamond gem. Even after being given the explanation, it had seemed too ludicrous to be true. Suspicion had burned within her.

“Are you certain we are safe around… him?” Pearl had asked the Renegade, tripping over the strange pronoun.

The Renegade waved the question away. “Safe enough.”

That had reassured her somewhat. But the true reassurance had come from Steven Universe himself. Pearl had spent her entire life at Blue Diamond’s side, and knew she was no actress. This hybrid did things she never would have. Spoke to animals. Spent hours playing games and drawing pictures. Said ‘please’ and 'thank you’ and apologized if he hurt someone.

Pearl watched him carefully, at every opportunity she had. Watched him at lessons, carefully listening to Alternate Pearls words. Watched him tear up from a sun burn, and then giggle as he let Alternate Pearl rub a soothing cream on his back. Watched him wrap his arms around Alternate Pearl and bury his face into her waist.

It should have been a relief, to know there was no Blue Diamond left in this timeline, that she had been replaced with someone so much better.

But watching such moments simply filled Pearl with another emotion, nameless and dark and painful.

Pearl spent much of her time in meetings with the Crystal Gems. They were not war meetings, as such, since there was no war going on. But they had the same atmosphere.

It was an exchange of information. Pearl gave them everything she knew about modern Homeworld— its politics, its technology levels, its size, its weaknesses. Every single scrap of information the Crystal Gems might be able to use in the defense of their planet. The Crystal Gems, in turn, listened carefully to her tales of her own attempted rebellion, each win, each tie, and especially, each loss. They gave her new perspectives, insight into what went wrong, and how it could go better.

Pearl wasn’t sure how much help either of them were to the other. After all, neither of them had been victorious. But it was all they had.

Never once did Pearl allow Steven Universe to sit in on the meetings. He may not have been Blue Diamond, but that did not mean she trusted him to know all her secrets and her tactics. Just in case.

She never let Alternate Pearl in either. Not when she’d surely just run and report everything she heard to her Owner.

Eventually the stories dried up, and there were no more discussions to be had.

Pearl found herself looking for ways to fill the time. The Renegade began to train her in combat— it was not a skill she’d ever had the opportunity to learn before. Garnet guided her in the basics of fusion. Rose Quartz invited her to help out in the gardens, tending to plants. Amethyst always encouraged her to 'lighten up’, showing her around the planet and guiding her through human culture. Over time, Pearl improved at all of it.

It was enjoyable. Very much so. In fact, it was the most pleasant time she’d experienced in the entirety of her long life.

But it all felt aimless.

“I can give you a ship.”

The words came so suddenly, so startling, that Pearl nearly punched the speaker in the face.

Instead, she grabbed a hold of herself. Forced her face back into neutrality. Looked at Alternate Pearl right in her hidden-eyes and said, in her softest, most polite voice, “Pardon?”

“I can give you a ship,” Alternate Pearl repeated. “Blue Diamond left a number of Roaming Eyes for Steven’s use.”

“Why would you do that?”

“You do not want to be here.”

Pearl said nothing.

“You try to hide it,” said Alternate Pearl. “But I know what to look for. You’re anxious. You want to return to Homeworld. Finish what you set out to do.”

There was a long, long silence.

Finally, Pearl spoke. “Why do you care?”

“I—” began Alternate Pearl.

“You didn’t care when the Renegade offered you a place in the rebellion,” Pearl said, her voice rising for perhaps the first time in her entire life. “You evidently didn’t care after the Crystal Gems fell. You didn’t let yourself care! You were too scared! Too selfish!”

“Maybe,” said Alternate Pearl. “But I didn’t destroy our entire civilization.”

Cold fury rushed through her, all the colder because she knew it was true.

“How do you know these things? Who told you?” Pearl certainly hadn’t, after all. Had one of the Crystal Gems, after she’d deliberately asked them not to-

“No one,” said Alternate Pearl. “I am not stupid. I have ears, I have eyes. I have basic common sense. I would never be foolish enough to meddle with time, not unless I was truly, truly desperate. It’s a matter of simple deduction. The only thing that would drive you to it is if there was absolutely no other choice. You started a war that destroyed us all, and now you’ve come here to try and start it again.”

“Then why help me go back?” Pearl demanded, the words coming out hot and loud.

“For now Earth is a safe haven,” said Alternate Pearl, “but it will not be for forever. Homeworld will be expecting the Cluster to emerge, and when they come looking for it, they will find us. It is in all our interests that when the time comes, we have an ally on the inside.”

So even now, that Alternate Pearl was still motivated out of fear and selfishness.

But was that so different from her? When the Renegade offered a hand to her, had her mind been filled with lofty ideals?

No. There had been fear— fear of Blue Diamond and her punishments, but fear too, of being away from her, lost in the wilderness of a strange planet. And there had been anger, too, and resentment, and the savage thought of the satisfaction she’d feel, if she took everything from the ones who owned her.

Pearl told her alternate self, “Very well. Give me the ship.”

“I will,” said Alternate Pearl, “if you promise me something in return.”

Pearl balled her fists. She nearly snapped, That wasn’t the deal!

But there had not been a deal. Alternate Pearl had simply said that she could provide a ship, not that she necessarily would.

A distant part of Pearl’s mind appreciated this tactic. Get somebody to want something you could give, and then use that desire to control them. It was one she herself had utilised on some of the less willing rebellion members.

Most of her mind was simply infuriated.

She refused to let that irritation show. Pearl said, “Tell me what you want.”

“To not harm Steven.”

“As long as he has no intention of harming myself or my cause, I have no intention of harming him.”

Alternate Pearl stepped forward, gave the smallest shake of her head. “That is not enough. You must ensure that in the chaos you will stir, he will not be caught in the crosshairs.”

Pearl pressed her lips together. There was no promising that. This alternate self did not understand: on a scale as grand as revolution, the safety of any one individual did not matter. Even— or perhaps, especially— the 'child’ of a Diamond.

But she wanted that ship.

“I shall do all that that I can to protect him.”

“You had better,” the Alternate Pearl said, and though those words were soft, they reverberated with something so cold and deadly, they hardly seemed to belong to someone so sweet and delicate. “If you make those same mistakes this time, you will be putting Steven in danger. If that happens, then you will not have a chance to escape again. Because I will find you first. And any pain that was inflicted on him, I will inflict upon you, three times over.”

She could do it, Pearl realized. This other Pearl was her, and if Pearl herself was capable of it, then so was this reflection.

If the rebellion was what Pearl clung to, to keep herself whole, it seemed she had found what this Alternate Self’s anchor.

And for a moment, she wondered— wondered what it would be like to care about a single individual so deeply, to care about a Diamond that deeply, to feel there was anyone deserving of such devotion—

But she pushed those thoughts away. They hardly mattered at the moment.

“I understand,” Pearl said.

There was a silence as the Alternate Pearl surveyed her. “Then you can have your ship.”

It was only a few short Earth days later when Pearl found herself in the cockpit, giving one last look over the equipment that would take her from the peaceful, wild beauty of Earth into the hostile, strict regime of Homeworld.

She could wait. There was nothing stopping her from taking a little more time, enjoying the freedom, the safety, a little longer. But no. Every moment she delayed, the more opportunities were lost. She would need to start reaching out to contacts, contacts who in this world, she’d never made. Build up a reservoir of informants, of safe houses, of intelligence. Begin to leverage the uncertainty that was no doubt brewing in Blue Diamond’s absence.

“You do not need to go, if you don’t want to,” Rose Quartz said.

“But I do.”

“It’ll be dangerous— an unowned Pearl, you’ll be so exposed—” the Renegade said.

“There are ways for a Pearl to blend in.”

“Yo, are you sure we don’t want us to come with ya? We can help keep ya safe!” Amethyst said.

“You would simply stand out.”

“But when the time comes, if you call for our help, we’ll come,” Garnet said.

“That is appreciated.”

Pearl had expected parting words from all of them. She had not expected Steven Universe to come too, hands buried deep in his pockets. After that first day, the two of them had barely exchanged a handful of words. The blue diamond gem was poking out, barely visible beneath his shirt.

“Be careful,” he said. “Just— try not to get hurt.”

“I will try,” Pearl promised, her voice much softer than she had expected.

To her surprise, the hybrid rushed forward and gave her a brief hug, before quickly backing away.

His body had been surprisingly soft and warm.

Everyone gave their goodbyes then, and Pearl watched as they all left the ship, looking back over their shoulders at her. Eventually the only two remaining was Pearl, and her alternate self.

“Go well,” Alternate Pearl said.

Pearl nodded.

Then she too left, and Pearl was left alone, to set off into the stars.

[2700fstreet]

THEATER / 2018-2019

SHE A GEM

TEACHER AND PARENT GUIDE

A world premiere Kennedy Center commission Written by Josh Wilder Directed by Paige Hernandez

Student Guide: She a Gem

Parents, Teachers, and Caregivers: Get the Conversation Going

She a Gem is the story of four African American teens at a pivotal point in figuring out who they are—as girls, as Double-Dutch teammates, and as part of a multi-generational sisterhood. It touches ground where our young people in the audience can perhaps serve as our guides in sharing what the play’s central themes mean to them and their friends; themes that include identity, freedom and courage, family and community.

“I hope young audiences will leave the theater thinking about their own community,” says director Paige Hernandez. “And about their families—both those they come from and those they make.”

For adults—caregivers and teachers—She a Gem offers unique openings to engage our young people in conversations about relationships, managing conflict, goal-setting, and their place in their communities. The play also dramatizes the relationship between the personal history of the teen girls and the collective memories safeguarded and shared by their elders. We can also observe Ms. T and how she engages the young people in her care with an open heart and ears, offering guidance that is gentle, firm, respectful, and loving.

The creators hope this adult guide will support the theater experience and the discussions it inspires.

BEFORE THE SHOW

Start a discussion with your young people or students to determine how they want to prepare for going to see She a Gem at the Kennedy Center. The Student Guide can serve as an entry point. Then invite their input: What else do they want to know to prepare for the performance? Do they want to learn more about the social and historical contributions of African American women? Take a tour of the Kennedy Center? Find jump ropes and take a turn on the ends and inside?

Consider following their lead on how they want to prepare. You can suggest explorations of theater etiquette (see “Know Before You Go”), stagecraft (see “It’s Not Just a Stage”), and themes in She a Gem.

Activate Knowledge: Chants and Game Songs

To prepare for the play, ask students to share their own experiences with game songs, jump roping, and other examples of casual play not associated with organized clubs or sports. Have them share stories of simply playing with friends and family.

Refer to the Double Dutch chants featured in the Student Guide, reading them aloud or having groups of students prepare them for presentation. (They are meant as an oral art, after all.) Ask your young people to share the game songs, chants, and other examples of word play they know and have performed. Better yet: Grab your phone and document your work with pictures.

Access the “Take Action” section in the Student Guide to invite young people to create and write down new chants, in styles that someone could recite as they jump rope or step. Encourage them to write, revise, and share them with you, their friends, or the class. Encourage them to play with rhythm, rhyme, and nonsense words.

Activate Knowledge: The Games We Play

Introduce the idea of playing and its role in not just childhood but as part of being human.

She a Gem focuses on a group of young African American women and how Double Dutch serves as a means for them to connect, bond, express friendship, and process conflict. Before going to the performance, consider discussing with your young people perceived social differences between how girls and young women play as compared to boys and young men.

As a group, consider creating a Venn Diagram to show how gender play differs and where it overlaps. (You might also discuss the emotional and social needs different types of play fulfill.) As much as possible, keep the discussion on real experiences and away from abstract or popular generalities. Model and guide mutual respect as much as possible, using questions to probe problematic ideas that may arise.

Pose Open-Ended Questions

Use and solicit open-ended questions inspired by the “Check This Out…,” and “Think About This…” sections in the Student Guide. These questions are designed to inspire young people to connect the show to their personal experiences.

Collaborate

Before attending the show, lead a class preview of the Student Guide sections “Check This Out…,” and “Think About This…” clarifying points as needed. Putting these points in front of students before the show can help them be ready to spot and engage illuminating details in the performance. You might also assign teams of students to choose a point or two from the list to watch for and describe during post-show discussions.

AFTER THE SHOW

Join forces with your young people to determine how they want to process the play afterward. Let them brainstorm ways to get the most out of the experience and keep the conversation going. Do they want to go deeper into the play’s themes? Consider the characters and their motivations in more detail? Talk about acting and stagecraft?

Return to the Student Guide

Return to the two sections from the Student Guide: “What to Look and Listen for” and “Think About This …” Use them to guide discussions about the production, scenes in the play, the plot, and its characters.

Consider Three Central Themes

Here are three important themes in She a Gem, though you and your young people may note others, as well.

Identity relates to how we see ourselves and others, and how we form and express ideas about who we are. Especially for Krystin and Symone in She a Gem, they are at pivotal moments between girlhood and adulthood. They must make choices that reveal who they are and are becoming.

Freedom and courage are linked in the play, and explored through the metaphor of Double Dutch. At the very beginning, Krystin talks about the freedom she feels as she pushes through the moment of fear she feels before stepping into the ropes. Near the end, Symone urges Amber to “Stop being scared of the rope…” With the help of Ms. T, each of the girls faces her fears and sees the possibility of greater freedom if she can overcome them. They are discovering they can learn to be brave, especially with the support of their sisterhood, and that may be the path to true freedom.

Themes of family and community overlap in the play. Is it relational blood and loyalty that binds people together? Or the unity that comes with shared experiences, belief in one another, and the alchemy of respect and love? The play models how bonds of community and family are formed and tested, and ultimately become infused with faith.

Facilitating the Conversation

Again, create space for young people to explore the production from their own vantage points. To set the tone, consider sharing something from your personal experience that relates to the play and its themes. The intention is to start conversations and keep them going.

At the same time, you can use questions to help students spot details they may have missed and dive deeper into the play’s content. Encourage students to back up their interpretations or views with supporting details from the play.

Here are several open-ended discussion points to consider posing:

Describe the setting onstage, including the set, lighting, props, sound effects, etc. What grabbed your attention, made you smile or tense up? How did that stagecraft influence how you felt as you watched the play?

As a group or class, recount what happens in the play. No need to speculate or judge what’s happening, just describe the events as a means to gather detail. Creating a timeline can serve as frameworks for analysis.

Describe how Krystin acts when she feels confronted, threatened, or frightened. How do the other girls respond to her when she’s distressed? What about Ms. T’s actions? Forming character profiles can serve as frameworks for analysis of how the characters develop.

What makes a thriving neighborhood? What is the responsibility of individuals in a community? What is the community’s responsibility to individuals?

Write and Create

Review the activities in the Take Action section of the Student Guide. See which ones might resonate with your young people, such as researching gem stones, writing Double Dutch chants or about “memory objects,” or even getting out some ropes for some real jumping action.

Q & A WITH PROFESSOR KYRA GAUNT, PHD

Professor Kyra Gaunt, PhD, is an ethnomusicologist at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Ethnomusicology is the study of music as it relates to the social and cultural aspects of the people who make it. She is also the award-winning author of The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop.

Kennedy Center: What’s your personal history with Double Dutch?

Professor Kyra Gaunt: I grew up in the Washington, D.C., area in Rockville, Maryland, and my mother was a Double-Dutcher. She was great at it. I was an only child and an introvert. And honestly, I was not very good at Double Dutch, in part because I thought I was too fat. But the music-making involved in it became something that serendipitously got my attention while in graduate school at the University of Michigan studying ethnomusicology. I was at a reception for an ethnomusicology conference around 1994, and I heard the sound of girls down the hallway. They were twin seven-year-old sisters, black girls, playing a popular hand-clapping game sung in a pentatonic blues scale: “Mary Mack (clap) / Dressed in black (clap) / Diamonds all down her ba - aa – ack (clap).” It was an epiphany to me. I was familiar with this game but not the song. But the beats and rhymes reminded me of rap. It sounded just like Hip-Hop.

It was after that that I began to explore and study Black girls’ game-songs, cheers, and the chants and rhymes that accompany Double Dutch. As part of my research, I interviewed 15 African American women and a handful of girls from different parts of the country about their game-songs, and saw that as girls they considered them central to their lives. Also as part of my research, I learned to jump with the Double Dutch Divas in New York City. These were grown women [35 and up] and they let me join the group and taught me how to jump and dance in the ropes to recorded music. It was really a powerful experience—to be doing Double Dutch again, but this time as an adult surrounded by the support of Black women. Each member was given a nickname. One Diva named “Joy” started calling me “Twinkle Toes.” But they ended up calling me “Dr. Diva.” Why? Because I had a PhD. We respect people who have earned a doctoral degree and since I was learning from them so I could write my book about Double Dutch and hip hop, “Dr. Diva” stuck.

KC: When and why did Double Dutch take root among girls in African American communities, particularly in urban areas?

KG: Street Double Dutch has probably been popular for at least 70 or 80 years, and it was dominant in black neighborhoods like Harlem in the 1950s. It wasn’t all that familiar or popular in the South, though, or in suburban and rural communities.

The 1970s was when Double Dutch became bigger than street play and grabbed national attention. Starting in 1973, two New York City police officers, David Walker and "Mike” (born Ulysses) Williams, organized Double Dutch into competitions and tournaments for girls. The Fantastic Four were a ground-breaking group in the late ’70s, and these four teen girls were a very innovative, self-taught team. It’s important to me to say these black girls’ names: Dolores Brown, De’Shone Adams, Nikki Adams, and Robin Oakes. Their picture appears in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. They won the American Double Dutch League Championship in 1980, then appeared in two McDonald’s commercials, and the 1981 video documentary, “Pick Up Your Feet: The Double Dutch Show,” which won an Emmy®.

All this was going on at the same time Hip Hop was being born in New York City. The Fantastic Four were part of the very first international European rap tour in 1982 with Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, the Rock Steady Crew, and others who all became legends in Hip Hop. But on the tour they were called the Double Dutch Girls, not the Fantastic Four, and they are largely erased from the history of the birth of Hip Hop as it was becoming commercialized from 1979 to 1982. They essentially were made invisible. That has so often been the case—African American girls and women and their contributions get left out of our picture of the past. Still, there is a dynamic relationship between Hip Hop and Double Dutch and the two practices have often sampled from each other. All you have to do is compare the lyrics of Nelly's “Country Grammar” with the popular Double-Dutch chant called “Down, down baby” or “Rollercoaster” and you'll see how girls’ games influenced the music of an emerging Hip Hop artist back in 2000. He went on to win a Grammy® with that song. “Down, down baby” is basically the entire hook.

KC: Double Dutch is athletically and creatively intense, but it’s so much more than that. What is its meaning and power, especially for young black women and girls?

KG: Over time, Double Dutch became synonymous with “black girl” community and identity in many urban cities. Boys had their usual sports, but as a rule, space wasn’t made for black girls to participate or express themselves, especially their embodied music-making and dance, which was too often viewed as hyper-sexual given the rhetoric about teenage moms or welfare queens in the Reagan era. Double Dutch was one realm where black girls ruled the game and called the shots. They were defining black culture in a public space doing something where Black boys and White girls couldn’t keep up or were not interested in being included.

It’s an important reason why Double Dutch has mattered so much for many women of color. It actually created boundaries, carved out a safe space, where black girls could be all they wanted to be devoid of the gender stereotyping and anti-Black sexism elsewhere. Black girls have so often been demeaned and denigrated, or punished for talking too loud or showing attitude, or made fun of because of their “different” names or their hair or their body shape or skin color. Their bodies don’t necessarily conform to the white normative ideals of beauty. But when you’re turning those twirling ropes or stepping inside what looks like an eggbeater that others find impossible to jump through, none of that matters.

Double Dutch has been a powerful symbol of identity and sisterhood for black girls and women. Decades ago when doing my research, I interviewed a sister and fellow musician who grew up in North Carolina. The only Double Dutch she knew was from television. She told me without a second thought, “I’ll never be a black girl until I learn Double Dutch. And that’s me. That’s us. It’s not like anything else. Double Dutch is Black girls’ jazz. And that’s the root of our Black Girl Magic.”

KC: You sometimes discuss the concept of “kinetic orality” related to Double Dutch. What do you mean by that?

KG: Part of being human is the need to pass along our own stories. We usually think of stories in terms of writing or storytelling, but there are also stories in how we move, how we dance, the sounds and songs we make, how we carry ourselves. These are examples of “kinetic orality” – telling stories and learning lessons of style and identity through word of mouth and body. I call the game-songs “oral-kinetic etudes.” Such self as well as social expressions are passed from person to person, generation to generation, place to place, especially within the African American community where so often attempts have been made to erase our history, especially the lived memories and history of black girls. Kinetic orality is an important element in our story, and it is very present in Double Dutch, game songs, and other embodied musical expressions of what we know and who we are.

KC: You’ve also talked about “memories in objects.” How do we experience and use such objects in our lives?

KG: What I mean by that is that we attach memories to objects and they carry that memory, so to speak, for us. The women I interviewed about their childhood might say, “I don’t remember how the songs to Double Dutch go, it was so long ago.” But as soon as they heard the recording of the twins I first interviewed or when they pick up the handles, they’re right back there. Embodied memory takes you there. If you grew up baking bread, as soon as you put your hands in the dough it connects you to the timeline of your tactile experience. The toys from childhood, they carry memories. An “object” can also be a song or vinyl record cover from the past. These objects trigger social memories—the chants can [do that] when it comes to Double Dutch. Just the feel of your feet scuffling on asphalt can remind you of the playground, a sidewalk, or the tick-tat sound the rope makes as it skips across the pavement.

Black girls were musical griots in our neighborhoods and communities across generations. We were the librarians of musical traditions, and the caretakers of those sonic objects that held our collective memories. We helped keep them intact for us and for the world.

[END of Q & A]

GO DEEPER/LEARN MORE

“How the Jump Rope Got Its Rhythm.” Small Thing Big Idea, a Ted Series. Professor Kyra Gaunt, PhD. Professor Gaunt shares some of the history jump ropes and the unique culture of Double Dutch among African American women.

The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop by Kyra D. Gaunt, PhD. New York University Press. 2006.

Read some truth about the early ties between Double Dutch and Hip Hop. “Double Dutch’s Forgotten Hip-Hop Origins.” By Lauren Schwartzberg. Vice. March 31, 2015.

“The Power of Theater: What Does Theater Do?” ARTSEDGE.

“Hip-Hop: A Culture of Vision and Voice.” ARTSEDGE.

Foster care, including group homes, are part of a government system to take care of children and teens who cannot live with their families, for whatever reason. Curious about the program and how it operates? Check out:

Group homes: “Giving Group Homes a 21st Century Makeover” by Teresa Wiltz. June 14, 2018. The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Foster care: “Foster Care”; Child Trends.

Now you're ready for She a Gem.

Standards Connections

English Language Arts - Reading: Literature (RL.7, RL.9) Social Studies - Psychology

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Writer: Sean McCollum

Content Editor: Lisa Resnick

Logistics Coordination: Katherine Huseman

Producer and Program Manager: Tiffany A. Bryant

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She a Gem is part of the Kennedy Center's Human Journey representing Identity.www.kennedy-center.org/humanjourney

The Human Journey is a collaboration between The Kennedy Center, National Geographic Society, and the National Gallery of Art, which invites audiences to investigate the powerful experiences of migration, exploration, identity, and resilience through the lenses of the performing arts, science, and visual art.

David M. Rubenstein Chairman

Deborah F. Rutter President

Mario R. Rossero Senior Vice President Education

Bank of America is the Presenting Sponsor of Performances for Young Audiences.

Additional support for She a Gem is provided by A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation; the Kimsey Endowment; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; and the U.S. Department of Education.

Funding for Access and Accommodation Programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

Major support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by David M. Rubenstein through the Rubenstein Arts Access Program.

Kennedy Center education and related artistic programming is made possible through the generosity of the National Committee for the Performing Arts.

© 2019 The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts