What happens to dreams when they die?

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Destiny lives in the choices we make that result in dreams realized, deferred, or denied. Regardless of the intention or merit of one’s choices, they often substitute for what we originally wanted, whether for ourselves or others. Ten years ago, on Oct. 24, 1999, my niece Bernadette Lewis realized her destiny in a fatal choice at a railroad crossing in Baltimore.

A barren landscape of anguish, regret, and sorrow confronted her survivors with the loss of possibility and the futility of hope. Yet, while her dreams for herself had ended, 10 years on ours for her and for ourselves have continued, changed forever by the choices she had made.

In the climactic scene of Bright Star, Jane Campion’s current film about the 19th century Romantic poet John Keats, Abbie Cornish as Fanny Brawne receives news in England that Keats, her betrothed, has died at 25 in his rooms overlooking the Spanish Steps in Rome. In her grief, Cornish is wracked by the suffocating spasms of angina pectoris and cries out that “I can’t breathe.”

Ten years ago, I could not breathe after hearing the news of Bernadette’s death, and believed I would suffocate in the middle of the night on a hillside above a lake. The intensity of my emotional turmoil in the months that followed exceeded by many factors that of the multi-year mess that had marked my coming out as a gay man many years earlier. I discerned few choices and no dreams in the wake of Bernadette’s demise.

Over coffee with my friend Florence, a retired dance educator, I asked when the pain would end. “It never stops,” she answered. “The intensity may diminish and surrender to time, but it will keep coming back. When it does, you need to let it wash over and through you.”

Every person experiences these dynamics from a different perspective. The members of my family have made new choices and adjusted their dreams in different ways. Bernadette’s mother, my sister Debra S. Lewis, published a book in 2007, Song of Bernadette: A Mother’s Memoir of a Daughter.

As I have done on other occasions before and since, I entered into the loss and gradually harnessed the power of its pain, bending it to new choices in pursuit of new and old dreams.

One of the choices led to the life-changing journey of a two-week tour of Kansas in 2000. My brother joined me for a few days from his home in Denver. We met new relatives who were more excited than anyone had been to see either of us for a long time. We found the lost roots of our paternal grandfather, and from there we found a story of family, country, and dreams stretching back nearly 400 years. The outcomes of those choices led to the launch of this blog and inspiration for a future book that ties the story together.

Three years ago, when I visited Baltimore and the place where she died, I told Bernadette all the news that had happened since, and told her that as long as we all lived, so would she.

Thwarted dreams can resurge and lure us to create new possibilities, testifying to the resilience of things we do not fully comprehend, and providing evidence that while people die, dreams never do.

Bernadette “Berni” C. Lewis passed away Oct. 24, 1999. She was 26 yrs old. Berni was born in Fridley, MN on March 15, 1973. She lived in Mpls until she was 11 and moved to Kenton, Ohio, where she graduated Valedictorian from Kenton High School in 1991. She graduated from Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA in 1995 with a Biology Major. Following graduation, Berni worked at Henry M. Jackson Foundation in Rockville, MD as an AIDS researcher until 1997 when she accepted a position at the University of Maryland. Berni loved her family, her soul mate, Su-hun, her friends, her dog “Lola” and the outdoors. Her future plans were to attend Medical School and become a rural family Physician. Berni is survived by her parents, Jeffrey & Debra Lewis of Ashland, WI; her grandparents, Kenneth & Millicent Vetsch of Monticello, MN and Dr. L. Clifford & Jacqueline Lewis of Mantoloking, NJ. She also leaves her sisters, Jenine N. Lewis of St. Paul, MN and Emily J. Lewis of Ashland, WI, along with her brother, Peter E. Lewis of Ashland, WI. A Memorial Service will be held in Washburn, Wisc., on Sat., Oct. 30, 11 AM at the Messiah Lutheran Church.-

Never too late for the chance of a lifetime

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Is one moment of exhilaration worth the risk of a lifetime? That’s the question posed by “Exit Strategy,” a two-act drama that weighs the risks of grabbing for the brass ring, discovering new dreams, and learning it is never too late to take a chance.

Romantics of both active and passive dispositions will appreciate this story by Twin Cities playwrights Bill Semans and Roy M. Close. Their characters, the unrelated elders Mae and James, live on fixed incomes with much time on their hands. They are 30-days-and-waiting from being evicted from the shabby rooming house they call home. Enter Alex, a man on a mission with an intriguing proposition, who jolts awake Mae and James’ very existence.

The play receives its west coast premiere at the Falcon Theatre in Los Angeles, Oct. 23-Nov. 15, under the direction of Casey Stangl. Written originally for the actors Charles Nolte, Shirley Venard, and Semans, “Exit Strategy” was first presented in Minneapolis last year at the Mixed Blood Theatre. The current, all-star cast features Debra Mooney (‘Mae’), John C. Moskoff (‘Alex’), and James B. Sikking (‘James’).

“The great thing about ‘Exit Strategy,’” wrote Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, “is that it strikes such an entertaining balance between tragedy and comedy, ultimately providing a sense of reassurance that life isn’t over until it’s over, and until the lights go out, interesting things can still happen.”

Semans and Close will attend the final preview and opening night performances in Los Angeles, Oct. 22-23. Family members joining them for the festivities include sons Andrew and Macrae Semans of New York, spouse Linda Close of Minneapolis, and daughter Maggie Close of Denver.

Semans started acting in his native Minneapolis before moving to New York in the 1960s. He returned home to found the Cricket Theatre in 1968, where he produced nearly 100 new American plays over 12 years, including works by Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, and David Mamet. He has written and directed eight documentary films plus one feature film, “Herman, USA.” which was “appallingly unsuccessful.” He is presently working on a Civil War documentary series for HBO.

Close, a Twin Cities native and graduate of the University of Minnesota, covered theater, classical music, and dance for The Minneapolis Star from 1971 to 1981, and then served as a critic and editor for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press until 1992. The Brave New Workshop staged “Lies, Lies, Lies,” his 1996 musical about the newspaper business. His portfolio of short plays includes “A Postcard from the Corn Palace,” “Zambezi Blue,” and “Your Call Is Very Important to Us.” He is currently Director of Resource Development at Artspace Projects.

A veteran of theater, opera, and film, Stangl has worked with many producing entities, including the Guthrie Theater, Denver Center Theatre Company, Minnesota Opera, Portland Opera, and, most recently, the El Portal Theater in Los Angeles. She was recognized as 2004 Artist of the Year for her work at Eye of the Storm Theater, the company she founded in Minneapolis. Her short film “C U @ ED’S” has screened at 18 film festivals, won an Audience Award at DC Shorts, and was a finalist in the USA Film Festival National Short Film Competition.

Mooney (‘Mae’) has enjoyed an extensive career, with Broadway performances that include “The Price,” “The Odd Couple” “Talley’s Folley,” “Death of a Salesman,” “Getting and Spending,” and “Chapter Two.” She has appeared all over television screens in “Everwood,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Private Practice,” “The Closer,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “The Practice,” “Murphy Brown,” “Rosanne,” and “ER.” Film buffs have seen her in “Domestic Disturbance,” “Anastasia,” “Napoleon,” “Dead Poets Society,” and “Chapter Two.”

If you missed Moskoff (‘Alex’) in more than 300 television commercials, you may have seen him on “Friends,” “Golden Girls,” “Mad About You,” “Desperate Housewives,” “ER,” “Brothers & Sisters,” and “Everybody Hates Chris.” (Among others!) He has performed in films, and on the boards on Broadway and throughout the U.S., including the role of Oscar for several productions of “The Odd Couple.”

Sikking (‘James’) was a series regular on “Hill Street Blues,” for which he was nominated for an Emmy for his role as Lt. Howard Hunter. He also was a regular on “Doogie Howser, M.D.” and “Brooklyn South.” His visage graced the big screen in “American Primitive,” “Fever Pitch,” “The Pelican Brief,” and “Ordinary People.” He has appeared in “The Big Knife” on the London stage, toured in “Plaza Suite,” and performed in “The Price” in Washington, D.C. and “Nobody Loves an Albatross” in Los Angeles.

“Exit Strategy” runs through Nov. 15 at the Falcon Theatre, 4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank, CA. Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 4pm. Tickets $27.50-$40. Call 818.955.8101.

James Sewell Ballet’s 2009-2010 Minnesota season opens Oct. 22

France bestows knighthood on Minnesota’s Lucia Watson

Minneapolis, Minnesota

The French Ministry of Agriculture bestowed the title of Chevalier d’Ordre du Mérite Agricole on Minnesota’s Lucia Watson last Friday. The author and restauranteur of Lucia’s Restaurant, Wine Bar, and Lucia’s To Go received the honor from Alain Frécon, Honorary Consul of France in Minnesota, at a noon luncheon and ceremony at Windows on Minnesota.

Created in 1883 to acknowledge exemplary services to agriculture, the knighthood recognizes Watson for promoting bills of fare that use fresh, locally-produced foods based in sustainable agricultural practices.

Watson, whose love of French literature and life predates her 24 years in the business of preparing and presenting food, majored in French at the University of Minnesota and lives for parts of each year at her second home in Brittany. She also serves as a director for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), and previously served on the Organic Advisory Task Force of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

As the co-author of two books, Watson contributed in 1994 to “Care and Preparation of Freshwater Fish from Field to Table” with Doug Stang and Bob Piper. This was followed 10 years later by “Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland,” written with Beth Dooley.

The French American Chamber of Commerce of Minneapolis/St. Paul sponsored Friday’s program. Its president, Jérôme Chateau, presided as master of ceremonies.

In addition to Watson, program speakers included Jim Boerboom, deputy commissioner, Minnesota Department of Agriculture; Mark Ritchie, Minnesota Secretary of State and founder/past president of the IATP; Gunnar Liden, executive director, Youth Farm and Market Project; and Jim Harkness, president, IATP.

Executive Chef Thierry Penichot presided over the menu, which included roasted breast of chicken, provided by Callister Farms, West Concord MN; braised cabbage and root vegetables; local Camembert from Alemar Cheese Company, Mankato MN; a Minnesota apple tart; and red and white wines offered by Grand-Père Wines, Minneapolis.

President Obama speaks at the annual Human Rights Campaign Dinner

Washington, D. C., Oct. 10, 2009

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Falco dance returns to Minnesota 31 years after premiere

Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Louis Falco Dance Company presented the premiere of “Escargot” in Mankato, Minnesota, on Oct. 1, 1978. Last Friday, thirty one years and a day later, the work was performed again in the state by student dancers at the University of Minnesota’s Barbara Barker Center for Dance in Minneapolis. In the interval, the 18-minute modern dance, accompanied by Ralph MacDonald’s music album The Path, became one of Falco’s signature works, performed throughout the world by the Cleveland Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and many others. One of the performers from 1978, Alan Sener, restaged the work for the University’s Cowles Visiting Artist Program and visited about it with a studio audience.

One notices early on that “Escargot” requires great aerobic stamina from the two casts of six dancers, each composed of three men and three women. A series of solo and group turns in quick succession filled the stage with movement patterns that appeared more complex and challenging than anything an individual dancer was doing. Such a perception proved somewhat false, however. Although no longer novel to the bodies of 21st century dancers, and taken for granted by the eyes of their audiences, Falco’s layers of individual vocabulary and phrasing are exceedingly dense and demanding.

Although MacDonald’s music traces the evolution of jazz – from sounds African to Caribbean to New Orleans to New York disco – Falco created the work in silence, according to Sener, intending originally to use classical music accompaniment.

“However,” Sener said, “one day someone brought in what was a hot album at the time – and we were a hot company.”

Born in 1942 to Italian immigrant parents, Falco grew up on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Following his introduction to modern dance at The Henry Street Playhouse, and while attending the High School for the Performing Arts, he joined the Charles Weidman Dance Company in 1959. He then danced as a principal in the José Limón Dance Company, serving as Limón’s muse from 1960 until 1970. As one of the world’s most exciting dancers, he changed the perception and role of men in modern dance.

Falco first presented his own choreography in 1967, and continued until 1983 when he folded his troupe in order to focus on commercial work in films, music videos, and television. His work gained its greatest visibility from his role as choreographer for the 1980 film Fame. A choreographer in the “fall and recovery” style, Falco worked with contemporary popular music, and with contemporary design artists (e.g., Marisol and Armani) for sets and costumes. Known for its fashion and glamour, particularly in Europe, Falco’s company was characterized by “explosive energy, sensuality and chic” according to his 1993 New York Times obituary by Jennifer Dunning.

In a just world, stations of honor would be assigned to the acolytes, like Sener, who tend the fires of our cultural trail blazers. For many of these loyalists, the blessing of professional association with their principals fuels devotion to the preservation of legacies not their own. Beginning as a principal dancer in Falco’s company in 1978, Sener served as the choreographer’s assistant until his death, and since has served as biographer-in-progress and artistic director for the Falco repertory. Since 1991, Sener has been associated with the University of Iowa where he teaches and creates his own body of work as professor and chair of the Department of Dance.

Student performer-members of the University Dance Theater will present “Escargot” in their concert program at Rarig Center, Dec. 11-13. For tickets call 612.624.2345 ($5-$17).

The BBC’s Victor Fehrenbach Story

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Review: Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre at the Ritz

Minneapolis, Minnesota

As a way of life, flamenco chafes at the inimical strictures of the concert stage. That its art is known at all within the United States owes much to its expression by a handful of American Spanish dance ensembles, the Twin Cities-based Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre among them. Since its founding by Susana di Palma in 1982, Zorongo has presented traditional flamenco programs as well as its original and signature theater flamenco works that explore contemporary themes and issues.

Although traditionally associated with Spanish Gypsies, flamenco evolved from the mash-up of Muslim, Jewish, Indo-Pakistani, and Byzantine cultures in the Andalusian provinces of southern Spain: Almeria, Cadiz, Cordoba, Granada, Huelva, Joen, Molega, and Sevilla. The form is distinguished by its four elements of singing (cante), dancing (baile), guitar playing (toque), and rhythm (jaleo). In adapting flamenco to the theater, its practitioners seek to maintain the passionate soul of flamenco that may be found in the night-long juergas of the Spanish countryside.

Following an engagement at North Dakota State University, di Palma brought her troupe’s Retratos – portraits – program to a weekend of performances at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis, Sept. 18-20. The program featured a range of traditional and thematic flamenco, delivered with a satisfying cohesion and strong, technical consistency.

Two opening segments nicely introduced the personalities and performance quirks of four accomplished dancers. A trio of Deborah Elias Morse, Sachiko Nishiuchi, and Laura Horn danced to recorded cante by Carmen Linares. Attired in contemporary garb, the women rushed about the stage as though in a downtown street scene, cell phones pressed to their ears, before preparing to throw off the frenzy and fashion of modern times for the traditional, floor-length gowns of traditional bailaoras. As they departed, Julia Altenbach arrived to deliver a commanding alegrias.

For many years, di Palma has drawn on the lives and art of women for inspiration in creating her theatrical works. A solo for herself to the recorded voice of El Pele, singing “Alfonina y El Mar” by Felix Luna, drew from the final poem by Alfonsina Storni, a 20th century feminist and suffragette. Beset by breast cancer and a broken love affair, Storni, a Latin American writer, penned the poem in 1938, the night before her suicide by walking into the sea. A videographic seascape created by di Palma provided a panoramic backdrop for the dance and song.

Pedro Cortés, Jr., who represents the third generation in a family of Spanish Gypsy guitarists, has served as Zorongo’s music director since 1993. A panoramic sound journey across his strings in the program’s third section earned him a rousing audience ovation.

Then, depending on one’s perspective, Cortés and singer Felix de Lola either accompanied – or were accompanied by – Altenbach, Morse, Nishiuchi, and Horn in “Maja” (Solea por Buleria), a fast-paced closer for the first act.

In “Memorial for Neda,” di Palma and company, joined by dancer Andrea Plevan, paid tribute to a student, Neda Agha Soltan, 22, who was shot and killed on June 20, 2009, while attending a protest in Tehran against the fraudulent Iranian election results that defeated the reformist candidates for president. Neda’s murder made her an instant martyr and symbol of the Iranian people’s longing for freedom. In poetry, music, and dance, backed by a video collage of Iranian protests, the company maintained a focus on the experiences of Neda the individual and those of the individuals around her, while depicting what became a singular event for a global mass audience.

A fiery, traditional flamenco finale ended the show with solo dance turns for Morse and Nishiuchi, followed by an exquisite display of solo cante by de Lola, who would have been welcome to sing all night. A bubbling, Bulerias free-for-all brought the proceedings to a satisfying conclusion.

A notable, if more subtle, success for the Zorongo program may be found in the performing presence of five, solid flamenco dancers in addition to di Palma. In the best of times, even in Spain, “flamenco’s greatest deficiency is the shortage of good dancers” (Pohren, 1984, p. 59).

From her earliest days dancing solo in Twin Cities night clubs, di Palma found herself bedeviled by the shortage of flamenco artists in Minnesota. The expensive conundrum of hiring performers from Seattle, San Francisco, Mexico, and Spain for short-run productions limited creation time, stressed rehearsals, and restricted touring opportunities. The current company represents the fulfillment of a long-held dream, and results from the founding of Zorongo Flamenco’s school more than a decade ago.

That, alone, is a singular achievement of no small consequence.

Pohren, D. E. (1984). The art of flamenco. Dorset, England: Musical New Services Limited.

Twin Cities: Take the St. Croix Valley arts survey

Minneapolis, Minnesota

At first blush, artists and audiences in the Twin Cities might overlook or dismiss an online survey about space needs of artists of all disciplines in the St. Croix River Valley along the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. While talk is cheap and so are surveys, the results of both do get used to determine how and where communities invest their infrastructure dollars. Thus, metro residents should take a few minutes to complete the survey by Oct. 1.

The valley communities of Stillwater and Lake Elmo, Minnesota, and Hudson, Wisconsin, are at the center of a growing population and an increasingly vigorous, sub-regional arts scene. As artistic activity has increased, so too has interest in the physical amenities in which artists and audiences gather to experience, work, and perform.

Nine organizations in the area have joined together to sponsor the online survey that is being circulated by mnartists.org. These organizations include the Art Reach Alliance, Lake Elmo Regional Art Center, The Phipps Center for the Arts, Stillwater Area Public Schools Community Education, Trinity Lutheran Church, Theatre Associates of Stillwater, Performing Arts Study Committee, Valley Chamber Chorale, and St. Croix Valley Community Foundation. Survey results will be shared early in 2010. [Disclosure: I attended one meeting of this group last year on behalf of the organization conducting the survey.]

During the current economic recession, individuals and organizations should be using their time to position and prepare for the recovery and their futures. Twin Cities artists and audiences who perceive that they have an interest in the East Metro’s cultural life should take the survey to help shape that area’s potential impact on their lives and careers.

The passage last November of the Legacy Amendment guarantees that Minnesota’s statewide public investment in arts and culture will increase significantly for 25 years. The impact of those funds will be leveraged when they meet the aspirations and plans of communities throughout the state, like those in the St. Croix Valley.

Aspirations and plans are everywhere.

Early this year, the new Burnsville Performing Arts Center opened for business just south of the Minnesota River from Minneapolis and Bloomington. If it finds its programming voice in the next two years, the Burnsville PAC will have a significant impact on community and professional music, theater, and dance. The Center has the potential to become a regional powerhouse in a manner akin to that of the four halls of the Carlsen Center on the campus of the Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas.

The Burnsville experience may hold interest and influence for the folks in Rochester, Minnesota, the state’s third largest city, who have been trying to thread the needle for a new performance hall for years. The embryonic emergence of a University of Minnesota campus in Rochester has added fuel to their hopes and thinking.

The St. Croix Valley may or may not build new performance facilities that anchor the East Metro, but – like communities elsewhere – its cultural leaders are determined that the area will serve artists and audiences in ways better than it does now.

Help them to make that happen and take the survey.

Embrace adversity to develop character and leadership

Minneapolis, Minnesota

“Crisis takes many forms,” said Bill George, “and crisis is the real test and making of a leader.”

Authentic leadership has been a cause of George’s life since stepping down as chair and CEO of Minnesota-based Medtronic. The current professor of management practice at Harvard Business School has authored three best-selling books, including his most recent, “7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis.” He serves currently as a director of Exxon Mobil and Goldman Sachs, and served formerly on the boards of Novartis and Target Corporation.

George convened and moderated a “Summit on Leading in Crisis: Personal stories from the trenches,” Sept. 17, at the Ted Mann Concert Hall at the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis. The four panel members included John Donahoe, chair and CEO, eBay; David Gergen, CNN commentator and Director, Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School; Anne Mulcahy, chair and former CEO, Xerox; and Marilyn Carlson Nelson, chair and former CEO, Carlson Companies.

In opening remarks, George said that leaders need a willingness to show vulnerability and weakness, and the ability to face reality, particularly in times of crisis. He observed that “the Chinese character for crisis has two parts, representing danger and opportunity.”

Mulcahy learned about all of that when she became CEO of Xerox in 2001, a time when the company was billions of dollars in debt, embroiled in an SEC scandal, and faced Chapter 11 bankruptcy. “It was important,” she said, “that I understood how serious the problems were and that I let people know it.” When she told investors on a conference call that Xerox’s business model was “unsustainable” the stock price dropped 45% overnight. “It was the truth and the right thing to say,” Mulcahy said, “but it was painful.”

She spent her first three months as CEO traveling the globe, listening to Xerox employees and customers and spreading optimism. “The organization doesn’t move if people don’t believe,” she said. “The way to get results is by engaging our customers and our people, and we had to devise a set of actions that people could understand and believe in.”

Gergen has served in the administrations of four U. S. presidents during his career (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton), and observed that the public sector deals well with crisis because people come together, particularly when there is preparation. New York City and its mayor, Rudy Giuliani, were ready to handle the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Gergen said, because they had studied and prepared after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and because Giuliani had read about how Winston Churchill rallied Britain’s people during World War II.

Similarly, Gergen said, the handling of the 2008 financial meltdown by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson worked as well as it did because both men were students of the Great Depression. “Intellectual preparation has a lot of value,” he said.

The hardest crisis for government, according to Gergen, is the one that lives over the horizon. “It is easy to pander to popular taste, and hard to have courage to summon the will to deal now with looming crises. Great societies and great leaders figure out how to deal with big questions.”

A test for Nelson began on the morning of 9/11 when she arrived at the headquarters of Carlson Companies whose 180,000 employees engage globally in the travel and hospitality industry. “It was difficult but easy,” she said. “It was a command and control moment. All that had gone before made us successful. We had hired to value and had taught our credo. We simply had to give our people the power to lead within the context of our values when we could not communicate with them.” The company’s people even took care of its competitors’ customers.

Donahoe readily admitted that “I make a lot of mistakes.” The past 18 months have been a time of crisis for the 25 million people who sell on eBay, and for the 1.3 million who make their living through the company. However, crisis presented his company with the opportunity to make changes in its business model and become more customer driven. “Still,” he said, “when I announced the changes and said it would take three years for them to be effective, our stock price dropped by half.”

Nelson observed that many business models may have to change, and voiced concern that “we will have a chronic job crisis over time. A lot of businesses are doing triage. It is not a romantic time.”

The question of how to get people back to work will be, according to Donahoe, a test of what America is all about. “In the last 15 years, 70% of all job creation happened in small business. Large businesses are not going to create new jobs in large numbers.”

Nelson agreed, but said small businesses need large businesses for distribution. She also noted that small businesses need banks and venture capitalists to make loans to get them to the next level. “We need to get financing moving,” she said.

Mulcahy argued for more long term investment, particularly in research and development. “Leadership is needed to drive it.”

A question from George asking how each had survived and maintained their personal resilience during crisis was met by a long silence, broken by Mulcahy. “Your people inspire you in ugly times,” she said. “Crisis makes you step up to the plate and accept accountability to not let them down. Every night, I asked myself the question, ‘Did you do everything you could today?’”

All four panel members believe in the value of crisis and adversity in building character and leadership. “A sense of entitlement doesn’t cut it,” said Donahoe. “Adversity builds character.”

Gergen, who worked in the White House during the Watergate scandal of the Nixon administration, said it is important for young people to get into the arena and be tested early. “That was a long ordeal. We were told one reality within the White House, and another was coming to us from investigations and newspaper reporting. It is very important to have an ongoing set of bonding. You find out who your friends are – and aren’t. After many Republican friends stopped calling, it was my Democratic friends who called to check-in. You become acutely aware of the anchors in your life. If you have mountain top experiences, it is important to have been in the valleys in order to appreciate the mountain top. After the valleys, you are ready to take anything on. Fear is gone.”

Nelson believes in the anchors of faith and family. Living through the crucible of losing a child in an auto accident provided perspective. She learned that “as long as you have breath there is opportunity to recover. Adversity gives young people the sense that they will survive.”

Donahoe concurred. “Once you have been in a valley,” he said, “you know you can survive everything – and know that there are other valleys coming.”

Mulcahy responded to a question from the audience asking what kind of leadership would change the country’s discourse. “One person cannot do it alone,” she said. “All the branches of government are responsible for bringing the country together and demonstrating better leadership to the American people.”

Nelson added that “We become afraid with a scarcity mentality. We can ask leaders to lead, but we have to engage with them and not just shout at them out of anger.”

Gergen worries about violence and governability, citing a deteriorating situation. “When every issue turns bitter and divisive, it becomes very hard to remain a great country. Will the U.S. still be at the world table 20 years from now?”

“This rancid environment is not good,” Gergen continued. “What is said in churches, synagogues, city government, and the press is important. We are ‘allowing’ manufactured controversies. As the president said on 60 Minutes last week, we have to find ways to make civility interesting.”

To a question about executive compensation, Nelson answered that corporate boards need to engage the issue. She said she worries about legislating and regulating but recognizes that there are unsustainable compensation models. “People need to be compensated if they add sustainable value.”

Mulcahy added that boards are stepping up, and need to focus on performance metrics that are aligned with long term good.

A 13-year-old boy from Eagan, Minnesota, asked what lessons the panel had learned from their biggest crisis when they were his age.

Nelson replied, “Take yourself seriously as an actor. Whether you are 12 or 75, you can make change happen.”

Mulcahy said, “Build followership. Leadership has to be earned and not taken for granted.”

Gergen advised, “Don’t give up if she turns you down for the third time.”

Donahoe learned that one must embrace adversity. “It builds character. In it are the gems of life that make leaders.”

Approximately 700 people attended “Leading in Crisis.” Minnesota Public Radio and Twin Cities Public Television recorded the conversation for future broadcast. Sponsors of the event included Target, Fredrikson & Byron, P. A., George Family Foundation, and Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal.