November 2024 Community Gathering with Anna Shneiderman of BLACspace Cooperative

Anna Shneiderman was a co-founder of the Ragged Wing Ensemble, a theater company, and The Flight Deck, a cultural space in Oakland, CA. In 2020, after 17 years in operation, the group made the difficult decision to close. In this riveting session, Anna shared her experience with Ragged Wing and The Flight Deck and how she's carried out those learnings into new projects.

Her presentation was divided into 5 short acts:

Act One: The Beauty and The Struggle
In this act, we learned about the rise of the ensemble and the distinct challenges they faced running the group and managing their physical space.

Act Two: The Art of Leaving
We learned how Ragged Wing resolved that they had to shut down, and the appropriately creative approach they chose to take. During this section, attendees were invited to listen to some beautiful music Anna had created for the ensemble's final performance. While we listened, we were invited to answer prompts via text in the chat.

Act Three: Things Fall Apart
The ensemble's plan to close with one final performance was unexpectedly cut short by the arrival of COVID. Global political unrest coupled with internal strife and the inability to confront issues together in person only added to their difficulties. .

Act Four: Ritual Release
During this act, we learn how the group handled the nuts and bolts of dissolving the organization.

Act Five: Compost and New Sprouts
In this final act, we discovered what came after the end. In addition to the friendships that blossomed and grew during the life of the ensemble, many other things have sustained long past Ragged Wing’s final flight. The space has been taken over by a new community-based ensemble, and the work that Anna is doing with Oakland's BLACspace Cooperative as well as the support she has been able to extend to theater groups who have found themselves in similar straits is deeply infuenced by the lessons learned from Ragged Wing.

After Anna's presentation, a lively conversation continued in which we talked about the challenges of holding and owning physical space and remaining sustainable, the possibility of building internal mechanisms for closure, and the dangers of using the word "permanent"

Thanks again to Anna for joining us for another great session!