A conversation with Artistic Director of Monkeyhouse, the innovative Karen Krolak, about the power of inquiry and articulate movement to help communities find more cohesiveness and compassion. In collaboration with groups and fellow artists, Krolak masterminds caring innovations that employ movement, words, and curiosity as key ingredients. She describes her creative forays, stories, and thought process with great eloquence. One could easily hang on her every word for hours.

<figure>Malden is fortunate to be home to Karen Krolak, a creative spirit who has many ideas about how to increase trust and improve communication as a community.  Krolak believes that “we could be more articulate with our bodies and use them for a better benefit if we had more intelligence about the  way we were using them.”</figure>

Krolak calls herself a “free range collaborator,” meaning she creates with a variety of people across sectors, artistic disciplines, region, space, and themes. Voraciously curious, Krolak follows her creative muse to unique projects in and around Boston and sometimes further: Korea, Morocco, England, or other parts of the globe. She is always up to something interesting; as she says, “you simply never know what will happen next around me.”

With a BA in linguistics and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts, Krolak draws from many tools, talents, and training to carry out interesting initiatives most often using dance and choreography. As Founder and Artistic Director of Monkeyhouse, she helps equip society to “move with meaning” and care through innovative applications of choreography.

A Culture Matters in Malden Episode

Hosts: Papi Xampeux and Ose Schwab

Producer: Ose Schwab

Recorded in the Podcast Suite at Urban Media Arts (UMA)

Date: May 6, 2020

Recorded: Winter 2019

Music excerpts:

"Toscano" | Quartet San Francisco

"Cinema Pathetic" | Blue Dot Sessions

"Humanity" | Scott Holmes

Featured image:

From I-Are Artist Spotlight interview with Karen Krolak at the Dance Complex as one of the 2018-2019 I-ARE Artists for The Dance Complex