I try to find hope in struggle and resistance in small places as much as I can.

My theatrical background was in the great work of the South African playwright Athol Fugard.

Whole ideology of consumption almost to the point of religion. Whether it's the consumption of entertainment or the consumption around buying things, we're so caught up with our appetites that we don't have a clear distinction about what we need and what we just want. Plus, the decline of trade unions is a factor. When you have powerful unions, you have a working class that is politicized.

If we look at Houston, which is a very environmentally toxic place, we find that it has one of the highest levels of young men going to prison and also among the highest levels of illiteracy in the country.

What happened to Haiti is a threat that could happen anywhere in the Caribbean to these island nations, you know, because of global warming, because of climate change and all this.

The exceptionalism of a black U.S. President is not important to me. It's what he does - and who he has at the table.

It's also important for those who promote those issues within the white community - the somewhat privileged community - to talk about issues affecting people of color.