Arms Around America (Dan Froot & Company)

Dan Froot and special guests, Refujio "Cuco" Rodriguez and Bryonn Bain, explore how guns shaped the lives of two brother living in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood. The jumping-off point for the converstion is Dan Froot & Company's short audio drama "Rich & Dave," based on the brothers' oral history.

Rich and Dave struggle with the emotional toll of gun violence in their community, managing family responsibilities while charting a path away from troubled pasts. The drama highlights their familial bond, the pressures of their environment, and the pervasive presence of guns, even when not visible.

Following the audio play, Dan discusses the broader entanglements of gun violence, race, and the prison-industrial complex with guests Justin Alston, Refujio Rodriguez, and Bryonn Bain. They emphasize the importance of empathy, understanding systemic racism, the need for community resources to address the root causes of violence, and the case for prison abolition. Through personal stories and informed insights, the episode suggests that acknowledging each other's humanity could transform the gun debate. It is an appeal for dialogue and support over judgment and punishment.

Chapters:

• 00:00 - Introduction
• 02:41 - Audio drama: Rich & Dave
• 14:05 - Dan and Justin frame the discussion
• 15:30 - Introducing Refujio Rodriguez
• 18:40 - Introducing Bryonn Bain
• 28:11 - Dedication from the real-life Rich
• 31:58 - Thank you's and credits

Guest Bios:

• Refujio “Cuco” Rodriguez is the Chief Strategist & Equity Officer at Hope and Heal Fund. He has served as a Program Officer for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, division chief and ethnic services manager with the Santa Barbara County Department of Behavioral Wellness, where he established Santa Barbara’s first Latino Mental Health Consumer and Family Advocacy Network in order to engage Latino stakeholders.
• Bryonn Bain is a scholar, activist, theater director, actor, writer, producer, and spoken word artist. He uses the arts and activism to build movements for justice, criminal justice reform, prison education, and abolition. As the founding director of the UCLA Prison Education Program, Bain has drawn on his decades of work in prisons to establish opportunities for higher education, the arts, and research in southern California prisons.

Resources:

Dan Froot & Company

Collaborators:

• Producer, Artistic Director, Lead Writer: Dan Froot
• Actors: Justin Alston, Sola Bamis, Natalie Camunas, Krysta Gonzales, Donna Simone Johnson, Anthony Rey, Christopher Rivas
• Dramaturg: Bobby Gordon
• Composer: Julio Montero
• Musicians: Julian Gomez, Tom Moose, Isaac Rodriguez
• Sound Designer: Duncan Woodbury
• Oral Historian: Tula B. Strong
• Administrative Magician: Annie Kahane
• Social Media Manager: Lily Stockton
• Publicist: Lynn Tejada of Green Galactic
• Recorded, mixed, and mastered at ReadyMix Studio in Van Nuys CA.

Please like, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts!

DM us on Instagram: @danfrootandcompany

This podcast is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, on the web at arts.gov, and is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, the UCLA Office for Research & Creative Activities and the Chancellor’s Council on the Arts. Arms Around America is a National Performance Network Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Miami Light Project in partnership with The Myrna Loy (Helena MT), the UCLA Center for the Art of Performance, and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information, visit http://www.npnweb.org. Arms Around America was created with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Theater Project, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and additional support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

At age 19, Patricia survived unintentional gunshot wounds resulting from intimate partner violence in a Tallahassee home. Since then, her lifelong healing journey has included becoming a birth doula, an urban farmer, an artist, a teacher, a spiritual seeker, and a homeschooling mom of six children. Patricia’s creativity and self-love have the capacity to transform a nightmare into a story of ongoing recovery and adventure. Told as a “musical audio drama,” through a collection of three original songs, we follow Patricia from her rebellious teenage years to the birth of her first child. After the songs, we hear from the real-life Patricia, who provides a surprising epilogue to her story.

The episode paints a complicated portrait of survival and healing, of pain and self-love, of ways that guns can be used to both tear lives apart and bring people together.

Chapters:

• 00:00 - Introduction
• 2:08 - Musical Audio drama: “Patricia”
• 17:14 - Epilogue with the real-life Patricia
• 23:16 - Discussion of Intimate Partner Violence
• 25:50 - Conclusion
• 28:31 - Thank you's and credits

Resources:

• National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800.799-SAFE (800-799-7233), or text the word “start” to 88788, https://www.thehotline.org
• Peace Over Violence: https://www.peaceoverviolence.org
• Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network (RAINN): 800.656.HOPE (4673)
• National Sexual Assault Hotline: www.rainn.org: 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
• Love Is Respect: www.loveisrespect.org, 1-866-331-9474, TTY 1-866-331-8453, Text: loveis to 22522, Chat Online: www.loveisrespect.org
• StrongHearts Native Helpline 1−844-762-8483 (call or text)
• Statistics culled from: Tobin-Tyler E. Intimate Partner Violence, Firearm Injuries and Homicides: A Health Justice Approach to Two Intersecting Public Health Crises. J Law Med Ethics. 2023;51(1):64-76. doi: 10.1017/jme.2023.41. Epub 2023 May 25. PMID: 37226755; PMCID: PMC10209983.

Dan Froot & Company

Collaborators:

• Producer, Artistic Director, Lead Writer: Dan Froot
• Actors: Justin Alston, Sola Bamis, Natalie Camunas, Krysta Gonzales, Donna Simone Johnson, Anthony Rey, Christopher Rivas
• Dramaturg: Bobby Gordon
• Composer: Julio Montero
• Musicians: Julian Gomez, Tom Moose, Isaac Rodriguez
• Sound Designer: Duncan Woodbury
• Oral Historians: Tula B. Strong, Rufio Vasquez
• Administrative Magician: Annie Kahane
• Social Media Manager: Lily Stockton
• Publicist: Lynn Tejada of Green Galactic
• Recorded, mixed, and mastered at ReadyMix Music in Van Nuys CA.

Please like, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts!

DM us on Instagram: @danfrootandcompany

This podcast is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, on the web at arts.gov, and is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, the UCLA Office for Research & Creative Activities and the Chancellor’s Council on the Arts. Arms Around America is a National Performance Network Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Miami Light Project in partnership with The Myrna Loy (Helena MT), the UCLA Center for the Art of Performance, and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information, visit http://www.npnweb.org. Arms Around America was created with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Theater Project, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and additional support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Recorded live inside UCLA's Royce Hall, the audio drama at the center of this episode takes place in southern California the immediate aftermath of the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde TX. Tiffany struggles to balance the need to protect her young children with the urgency of finishing her doctoral dissertation, which is itself related to school shootings.

After the performance, actors Natalie Camunas and Sola Bamis are joined by guests Marine Corps veteran Tess Banko and Army veteran Robert Ham to discuss the implications, for parents and veterans in particular, of school shootings becoming commonplace. "Tiffany" is based on the oral history of retired Air Force Captain Jessica Huerta. Jessica, who is also a PhD student in Sociology, joins the discussion as well.

The conversation unearths provocative questions about cultures of hyper-masculinity, and the need to balance our freedoms and responsibilities regarding guns.

Chapters:

• 00:00 - Introduction
• 01:56 - Audio drama: "Tiffany"
• 10:43 - Discussion with Tess, Robert, and Jessica
• 23:16 - Conclusion
• 25:23 - Thank you's and credits

Guest Bios:

• Jessica Huerta enlisted in the Air Force shortly after 9/11. Often she was the only woman in airfield-communications teams, among leaders in security forces, as the wing equal opportunity adviser, and as a public affairs officer. As a citizen-airman, a sociology doctoral candidate at UCLA, and a parent, she became aware of the discrimination fathers face when they seek deep emotional connections with their families and greater involvement in childcare. Jessica believes research to demonstrate the strategies fathers use to defy rigid gender rules could greatly improve the lives of men, their partners and their children across our military, veteran and civilian communities.

• Tess Barragan Banko, MSW/MPA, a Marine Corps veteran, serves as the U.S.VETS West Los Angeles project director and The Veterans Collective community development director. A survivor of post-traumatic stress disorder and military sexual trauma, Banko deeply identifies with fellow veterans and families on their paths to recovery, wellness and empowerment, and is honored to serve the community on behalf of her military and veteran sisters, brothers and their families. 

• Robert Ham is a 4x Emmy winning director/writer, a decorated Army Combat Veteran and an alumni of the USC School of Cinematic Arts MFA program. During his time in the military he served a combat tour to Afghanistan in ’09-10 and then would deploy to over a dozen areas in the Pacific. Robert received the Department of Defense Military Videographer of the Year award three times (the highest decoration for military story-telling), the most in Army history.

Resources:

Dan Froot & Company

Collaborators:

• Producer, Artistic Director, Lead Writer: Dan Froot
• Actors: Justin Alston, Sola Bamis, Natalie Camunas, Krysta Gonzales, Donna Simone Johnson, Anthony Rey, Christopher Rivas
• Dramaturg: Bobby Gordon
• Composer: Julio Montero
• Musicians: Julian Gomez, Tom Moose, Isaac Rodriguez
• Sound Designer: Duncan Woodbury
• Oral Historians: Tula B. Strong, Rufio Vasquez
• Administrative Magician: Annie Kahane
• Social Media Manager: Lily Stockton
• Publicist: Lynn Tejada of Green Galactic
• Recorded, mixed, and mastered at ReadyMix Studio in Van Nuys CA.

Please like, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts!

DM us on Instagram: @danfrootandcompany

This podcast is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, on the web at arts.gov, and is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, the UCLA Office for Research & Creative Activities and the Chancellor’s Council on the Arts. Arms Around America is a National Performance Network Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Miami Light Project in partnership with The Myrna Loy (Helena MT), the UCLA Center for the Art of Performance, and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information, visit http://www.npnweb.org. Arms Around America was created with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Theater Project, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and additional support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.