Youth Create Wholeness

Here is a project near and dear to my heart:

Last year SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) Ads Center awarded a grant to some friends of mine to create art, community and social inclusion for people in recovery. This project reached out most directly to 18 to 25 year olds with a message of self-direction, empowerment and peer support.

What went down was a series of "art raves" in Charlottesville, VA; the painting of a magic bus in Williamsburg, VA and a mural with the Monacan Indian Nation at Bear Mountain in Amherst County, VA.

Getting money to create artwork is dreamy, and then the hard work sets in. Thankfully it is fun and connecting and gratifying. It is a time to see people at their best.

Now I will show you a whole bunch of pictures, which will speak louder than words.

Magnetized Tyvek signs to move around town. Painted by artists Flora Baily, Nina Burke and Jona Baily along with the other 20 cool community folk who showed up last Saturday.

 Flora is smiling because she brang this project into the world

 a brilliant wild cat, a "spirit animal" chosen by one of the Moancan youth

 at work on the mural

 Spirtworks: "Recovery on Wheels" I made that up. They probably have something more clever.

And here is some moss on a rock of the strikingly beautiful bear mountain. Even the smallest children seem reverent (at least the times that I saw them!)

Further infomation:

Here is the link to the Ads Center http://promoteacceptance.samhsa.gov/CSI/default.aspx and here is what they have to say about themselves: "People with mental health and substance use problems are more likely to fully recover and rebuild their lives when they have access not only to care and services, but also to social, economic, educational, recreational, and cultural opportunities that most citizens take for granted. A socially inclusive society promotes the necessary supports and opportunities for people in recovery to contribute to their communities as peers, parents, employees, residents, students, volunteers, teachers, and active citizens."

Here is the link to the Monacan Nation: http://www.monacannation.com/aboutus.shtml


"Bear Mountain in Amherst County has been the home of the Monacan people for more than 10,000 years. The earliest written histories of Virginia record that in 1607, the James River Monacan (along with their Mannahoac allies on the Rappahannock River) controlled the area between the Fall Line in Richmond and the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The most western of Virginia's eight tribes, the Monacan Nation - over 1,700 strong - preserves our past heritage and ancient customs, bringing together the Siouan language and culture."

Here is the link to Youth Create Wholeness: http://www.vocalvirginia.org/#/youth/4557449041"Our mission is to empower youth with mental health disabilities to transform their communities and selves. We encourage youth to define and discover their own paths to recovery and wellness, and provide the tools to work within the mental health system as well as to build alternative systems of support. We do this work through sharing our own experiences and knowledge. We build power and community through self-expression.

We know that our identities as people who have experienced emotional turbulence, mental health crisis, or extreme states of consciousness (commonly labeled as "mental illness”) are lived in context of our background. We are not just our diagnoses or our lack of diagnosis; we are human beings and we are complex. We know that only by affirming our lives and experiences as people with different kinds of dis/abilities, people of many faiths or none, people of color and indigenous people, poor and working class people, and people with varying expressions of sexual orientation and gender identity, can we integrate ourselves and our communities and live in wholeness."

And the link to Spiritworks Foundation Center for the Recovery of the Soul:
http://www.spiritworksfoundation.org/

"The mission of SpiritWorks Foundation is to help individuals and families sustain long term recovery from addiction, and to help children and youth live free from the intergenerational cycle of addiction in their families"

Good Things Are Happening

This summer has been kid-crazy. Either we are having a lot of fun or we are torturing each other. It didn't leave much time for blogging.

Today was a perfect weather day. I spent some time cleaning, some time reading on the porch and some time pursuing the internet. Here is one good and inspirational thing:

http://projectrowhouses.org/

"Project Row Houses (PRH) is a neighborhood-based nonprofit art and cultural organization in Houston’s Northern Third Ward, one of the city’s oldest African-American communities....

PRH is founded on the principle that art-and the community it creates-can be the foundation for revitalizing depressed inner-city neighborhoods. This principle was is in part based on the philosophy of German artist Joseph Beuys (1921 – 1986) who coined the phrase “social sculpture,” which transformed the idea of sculpture as an art form into a social activity. Thus, the mission of Project Row Houses is to create community through the celebration of art, African American history and culture. PRH has established programs that encompass arts and culture, neighborhood revitalization, low-income housing, education, historic preservation, and community service."

affordable housing/interactive art/young mother's program/after school program/artist incubation/artist residencies/color....every neighborhood should be this awesome. This looks like the coolest place on earth.

Sidney

It has been a week in my neck of the woods. The picture above is Sidney Tapscott. I can tell you a few things about him:

1. He was an old gray haired man the first time I saw him and old and grey this week. This week he passed away at the age of maybe 85 or maybe 92.

2. He wore denim overalls and black framed glasses.

3. He introduced some of the best bands in town. The Hackensaw Boys (who he introduced as the Arkansas Boys) and the Hogwaller Ramblers (who he called the Tennessee Ramblers) and he played harmonica too.

4. He was a street sweeper. He kept the sidewalks clean and was paid by downtown merchants.

5. My friends own a diner and it was written in the contract that they would feed Sidney whenever he came in. One thing he liked to eat was pancakes and one thing he liked to drink was Dr. Pepper. The waitresses cut his pancakes into small pieces, even during the busiest brunch shifts. I have cut many a pancake for him.

This same diner organized his birthday parties, his wake and his funeral.

6. The Facebook group that started in his honor (about 3 days ago) has 1677 friends right now.

7. His eyes twinkled and he was a real flirt. He had a lot of "girlfriends" and a lot of these girlfriends were waitresses.

It's hard to explain what it means to me.  We all knew he had this hard life but I don't know the details. The care that people gave him was genuine.

Thinking of Jerome Caja

I culled this photograph of Jerome from http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/2008/12/a_long_way_from_mayberry.html

I've been paying more attention to my dreams lately. And I woke up this week remembering Jerome Caja and seeing his work in San Francisco almost 20 years ago. I saw little paintings of drag queens done in nail polish on tin foil. Beautifully done. Campy and wise and wacky. He also used bottle caps, plastic ashtrays, liquid eyeliner, glitter and coal.

He was also a performance artist and a character.

Read more here: http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/Caja/CajaIntro.html

Plenty more of his racy art to be seen on the web

the good stuff at home

I came back from Chicago with Proximity Magazine.

Proximity is a magazine dedicated to contemporary art and culture.
Our mission is to amplify discourse on local and global art ecologies. We hope to serve as a map of artists, collectives and alternative spaces to commercial galleries, museums and universities ­as a means of connecting and cultivating sustainable creative communities.

http://proximitymagazine.com/magazine/issue-7/

I'm looking over a million rad ideas on the plane ride home, tons and tons of sites to look at, and there is my friend PATRICK COSTELLO.

http://ptackcostello.blogspot.com/

We just had dinner together two weeks ago in little old Charlottesville. He is one of the nicest, most fun people around. I knew his work was amazing. Turns out that his blog is one of the raddest and I think we need to do a project together pronto.

Here are some images. You dig?

Butch Anthony, *Sigh*

Go and look up everything you can find about Butch Anthony. He who makes life into art and magic down there in Alabama. This is the south I dreamed of and how I came to be here and why I will never leave.

"Mr. Anthony, a lanky and laconic 46-year-old who dresses exclusively in Liberty denim overalls (he owns 25 pairs) and a battered straw hat (he has 10), is a self-taught artist, builder and local hero, whom the state of Alabama once chose to make a Christmas tree ornament for the White House — the Bush 43 version. He is also the host of the Doo Nanny, the annual alt/folk art “micro” festival, as he calls it, that started as an “art party” he and two friends gave on the side of the road 15 years ago in nearby Pittsview, and moved to Mr. Anthony’s property here three years ago. " (New York Times)

http://www.museumofwonder.com/

Over 10,000 curiosities from around the world and beyond.

Admission
25 cents.

Celebration!

 

Look at this party!

In September I was in Hanover - Ashland, VA. The Community Services Board sponsored a Recovery Festival held at the city Arts building. I drove past it at first, thinking it was a wedding. White table cloths, flowers, sunshine, fruit and veggies and lemonade - then came booths and booths of art made by people with psychiatric histories. Art of every stripe - hand-painted helmets, lithographs, altered books, flower arranging, photography, painting...then came the drum circle! And amazing hula hoopers! And a live band!

Somehow my name was put out there as a person who could speak about art and recovery on the stage with a microphone. And I really want to do these sorts of things even though I can't stand so much attention! (I know people look at me, covered in tattoos with my loud, goofy laugh and assume I love attention, but I promise I'm an introvert)

Sometimes I talk about how few rituals and celebrations we have built into our society - I really believe we are meant to make music together, to make art, to celebrate. This was wellness in action - a glorious day!

(all photos - www.photosbyjoelle.com)

...and Counting:

http://wafaabilal.com/html/andCounting.php
Wafaa Bilal's brother Haji was killed by a missile at a checkpoint in their hometown of Kufa, Iraq in 2004. Bilal feels the pain of both American and Iraqi families who’ve lost loved ones in the war, but the deaths of Iraqis like his brother are largely invisible to the American public.…and Counting addresses this double standard as Bilal turns his own body – in a 24-hour live performance -- into a canvas, his back tattooed with a borderless map of Iraq covered with one dot for

each Iraqi and American casualty near the cities where they fell.

Telling Stories

I hear a lot of good stories. And I had the idea to tape them and put them in a slideshow format like a beautiful piece that I saw on the New York Times website. Somehow I didn't realize how much I am not like the New York Times - in terms of knowledge, know-how,  resources, equipment...

Barbara is a friend of mine, nearly 35 years my senior. She has shown me a different way of  "growing up" than I knew was possible. And she achieves a lot through the art of storytelling.

Here Barbara tells me about the purple lady, an artist and character who impacted her life.

http://hosting.soundslides.com/mkv9v/

May was Mental Health Month

I may need all of June to recuperate! I had a garage sale/fundraiser for Firewalkers. Then we hosted a Wellness Expo with On Our Own on the 20th. I put out a little art group leaders guide book. We applied for grants because our money runs out in July. Then the VOCAL conference and all that brings. In my case it brought a crown making workshop, among other festivities. Here are some pictures:

I had all of my usual art supplies and together we made crowns. At the end we had an official crowning ceremony where we took on a title, such as Princess of Faith, Queen of Books and King of Jews (this one caught me off guard!).

Being an activist can be draining and I'm not even much of an activist! Happy to have this time to play...

What have ya'll been up to?