Leisa A. Hammett

Sisters Unite!

So, this event was Saturday and while many of my admirable, courageous sisters--whom I hold in highest esteem--were down at the capitol, I was driving back from Athens, Tenn., taking down the first of two GraceArt shows dismantled this weekend. But, the solidarity to keep Republicans from taking Women's Rights back 40 years did not and will not end with Saturday's demonstration. Gratefully, a critical mass--what looks to be a tipping point--of American women are waking up (if they had not already) to what's at stake with politicians who leave our gender out of discussions about reproductive and other vital health care rights.  Too late. The tide of public sentiment has turned. Young are uniting with Old. Just know: #WeWillNotBeSilenced!

Age is Just a Number

Today is the 74th birthday of my friend, spiritual mentor and companion, Rev. Dr. David Kenneth Wheaton, Ph.D. But, no bother. He's not big on numbers because he's "not a number." Ken, rather, is 74-years-young.

As we spend time together in public I am amazed, to put it nicely, the parallels of his public perception with that of Grace's. As Grace grows older, she seems to attract more attention. Children with autism can be easy to ignore after a bit. They are children sometimes acting weirdly. But an adult young woman acting rather strangely? Well, that's a curiosity. Being a member of the second oldest profession in the world (some argue that it's the first)--no, I'm not talking prostitution but promotion--I readily promote my daughter's art (or any cause or thing about which I'm passionate. Noticed? Ha!) So, I've been intrigued to watch people's jaws drop when they try to correlate the visual experience of my hyper-active, mostly non-verbal, often wacky-acting daughter with autism with the art she creates and is exhibiting in six shows this year. (I'm adding in the Hillsboro High School and the Mayor’s Advisory Committee for People with Disabilities exhibit at Vanderbilt Kennedy Center.)

Likewise, when people view Ken as a chronological number, I like to shock them out of their inside-the-box, categorical, stereotype-thinking and inform them that he awakens at four a.m. each morning to mediate for two hours, runs two miles thereafter and practice advanced yoga. (Like, full lotus over his head kind of advanced.) He also runs 5-K's for charity and is a former body builder and is still building body mass. (Age is just a number.)

If you wish to read more about the most fascinating man I've ever met in my life, you can visit his site, Journey with a Modern Mystic where you'll find a free PDF download of his epononmously named book and You Tube videos of each chapter. In addition to being a former prison chaplain, social justice activist, and university professor, Ken is a former yoga teacher, has lived as a Tao hermit and is shamanically trained.

Remember: Age is Just A Number. And Autism? It's not always what you think! And in the end? There is a special spirit in a human body within the each of us that is called One. When we see the beauty and amazing in one of us, we have the opportunity to really know it and embrace it within ourselves. 

Join me in breaking outside the box. It's liberating.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

photo: Kristen M. Chipman (Kristen literally came running up to Ken and I during a walk at Radnor Lake. Intimidating professional honker-of-a-camera in hand, she pleaded "Can, I please take your picture?" She wasn't talking to me. She had a photographer's eagle-eye for interesting subject matter.)

Carnival Kia, Parnassus, AAM, Pieces of Hope & Our Book

The lights were off and the chirping cricket chorus was deafening. For a year, my dear publisher and  collaborator-photographer and I had a serious disagreement with the charity benefiting from our book, From Heartache to Hope: Middle Tennessee Families Living with Autism. So, my promotion of the book and its' appearances in the author community was virtually nil. This followed a very successful year of generous television, newspaper and online press (thank you) and sales of all but a fifth of the coffee table book's inventory. But, baby, the fences have been mended and the lights are back on at LeisaHammett.com in regards to our book and I'm singing in the shower. Happy news is also that:

Parnassus Books (Nashville's internationally acclaimed new indie bookstore) is carrying copies of our book. Of all the pictures I need to delete from my droid, this is the one I inadvertently erased. Boo! It looked real pretty sitting on the shelf with other local author's books....

And, the Autism Society of Middle Tennessee continues to make creative use of Rebekah Pope's beautiful photographs of the special families whose stories graced our book. Despite our stalemate/disagreement, I continued to promote the good work of information and referral that they do...Principle before people. It's about helping people. ASMT is the go-to source for information and referrals about all-things autism in Middle Tennessee. As, well, I continued (and still do) to speak for ASMT for their parent portion of their (free) bi-monthly Autism Orientation. The next one is Thursday, May 17, 6:30p.m.-8:30 p.m., Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. All ties were not broken with this small, now burgeoning non-profit. So, I celebrate with ASMT, and as part of the general autism community, the goodwill of Chris and Dessie Bostick of Carnival Kia ("Don't You Leave Without Seeing Me") as the lead sponsors of ASMT's annual "Pieces of Hope Benefit" this year during April -- National Autism Awareness Month. See our book images here in their video:

 

Qatsi Series II ~ Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation

Thanks to my Atlanta friend, Joe Westbury, a lover of all things cultural, I learned about the initial film in the brilliant Qatsi series. In commemoration of Earth month, last week I shared on The Journey with Grace, the amazing film Koyaanisqatsi. Subtitled "Life Out of Balance," the film shows, via inspiring yet graphic images set to the moving music of composer Philip Glass, the toll that humankind has racked upon Mother Earth. I watched the first film on PBS in 1984, two years after it's release.

Powaqqatsi was released in 1988. Joe saw it in one of Atlanta's art theaters and I missed it. His report back was that it was depressing. I didn't reconnect with the series until my friendship began last decade with filmmaker Jon Kent whose movie "Embraceable," and an accompanying photography exhibit on Williams Syndrome, will be featured on the opening night of the Spout Film Festival this Friday, April 27, in New York.

On the shelves in his Nashville Kent Creative office, Jon had rows of the best of the best--the most inspiring films he'd seen. And there it was, the Qatsi series, all three--the films I had yearned to see and revisit. For 28 years, the powerful imagery, music and message of Koyannisqatsi, the first film, had haunted me. I grabbed them and clutched them to my chest and Jon graciously loaned them to me until I could obtain my own copies. (You can rent them via Netflix or purchase them on Amazon.)

I disagree with my friend, Joe, however. Yes, Powaqqatsi, in its' message, is depressing. The reality of what the indulgent lifestyles of most civilized western culture has done to our entire planet and her people is depressing. But the music and the images used to capture this message make Powaqqatsi my favorite of the trilogy. See what you think:

 

The film opens with the beauty, joy and innocence of the work-play-life of "primitive" people in Asia, Africa, India, the Middle East and South America. But, then it switches abruptly and grows dark and heart-heavy as it portrays, again, as with Koyannisqatsi, no words, how life is transformed in these cultures when they adopt western ways. Like the title of the first film, Powaqqatsi is a Hopi Indian word. It's meaning is "parasitic way of life" or "life in transition." From Wikipedia: "While Koyaanisqatsi focused on modern life in industrial countries, Powaqqatsi, [...] focuses more on the conflict in third world countries between traditional ways of life and the new ways of life introduced with industrialization."

Glass and the brilliant director and the brain behind the film series, Godfrey Reggio, collaborated differently with Powaqqatsi. This time Glass wrote the music and then the movie was filmed to the music versus the typical reversal. Next week I intend to feature the last in the Qatsi series: Naqoyqatsi. There is also some imagery visually celebrating and recognizing the beauty in other cultures' spiritual traditions.

Godfrey was so far ahead of our time when he created this trilogy. Watching them now up to 30 years later (from the first one,) his message is more timely and potent than ever and once again, another nudge toward the 2012 shift. We must wake up to what we are doing to our planet and our fellow and sister human beings inhabiting it.

I hope you'll watch the video above and see the series. Come back here and tell me what you think, will you? And in the meantime, don't forget that you've got four more days to check out the terrific flicks here at the Nashville Film Festival. I took in three this weekend and squeezing in one more. Next week I intend to share on The Journey with Grace about one or two of them.

Wrapping the Week & Launching Nashville Film Festival

Last weekend Grace and I traveled to her show in Athens, Tenn., at the McMinn Living Heritage Museum. This small town hosts a featured artist for Autism Awareness Month each year. Chattanooga Times-Free Press reporter Randall Higgins made the hour-trek over to Athens to interview us. The story is here:

Autistic Artist Brings Work to Mcminn County

If you're in Nashville, you've got until the end of Saturday, April 28, to see the Hot & Cold GraceArt show in Hillsboro Village. It features watercolors with retro pricing and the famous eight-foot mural. We'll hang the Athens GraceArt show at the Green Hills library at the start of May and will host a reception Sunday, May 20, 2-4:30 p.m. Reminders, of course, to come. This show will be a completely different body of work than the Hot & Cold exhibit, and also a more representational one of her work to date.

Nashville is blessed to host its' returning Film Festival starting today. Per usual, the choices are mind-boggling.  I've been so swamped with GraceArt that I've not had a chance to check things out and share them here. I'm grabbing a copy of The Nashville Scene as soon as it hits the newsstands and uncapping the yellow highlighter. Here's a shout out to the producers that called me about their films. I've also been on the other side of that phone line or the sender of a like email. So, that counts for something. And the Festival is juried. Not just any film gets accepted. So, they are all winners to some degree. Here's a shout-out to the hard working folks who produced these films. 

Mulberry Child is a compelling-sounding film by producer Susan Morgan Cooper. "My mother wanted to show me China. China showed me my mother." I hope I can see this.

Franklin, Tenn.-based animator Mike Salva telephoned me the night I was pulling out into the hard rains en route to Grace's Hillsboro Village exhibit debut. His film, "Pound Dogs," is a clay-animated comedy, produced entirely in Nashville. It is about two dogs in an animal shelter who discuss trivialities while waiting to be adopted. One of the dogs discovers that he is going to be put to sleep at the end of the day.

Lee Baker is the producer of the new rock documentary about Nashville musician Bobby Bare Jr. titled, DON'T FOLLOW ME (I'm Lost). 

Neil Berkeley's debut film "Beauty Is Embarrassing" recently held its World Premiere at SXSW and was just awarded Best Documentary at the Cleveland International Film Festival. (Sounds intriguing.)

There were a couple more contacts. But, honestly, if they don't tell me what their film is about....Well, I don't have much to go on and share here.

This is a gem of an opportunity, Nashville. Check out the Festival's line up here.

Untitled (Torn Watercolor,) above, is a part of the new GraceArt NoteCard Series.

Must See Movie During April ~ Earth Month

Yes, I review films ocassionally on "The Journey with Grace." They are films that strike me as poignant, artful, funny, that communicate an important message and/or deal with autism/disAbility. I share them when I feel they are worth your viewing, too. But, the trilogy that I am highlighting today and the next two Tuesdays during April, which, of course, is Earth Month, is honestly the most heart- breaking-grabbing- and chakkra-shaking, gorgeous, disturbing and important film series I have ever seen in my life! I have watched each numerous times starting with a friend's clue-in when PBS featured the first in the series in during the mid-80s. (I rarely read any book or view any film more than once.) I was hooked. Enthralled. A forever enthusiast. It wasn't until my friendship with filmmaker Jon Kent that I was reunited with the series and saw the two subsequent films. For years I've urged a local earth movement group to show this film. Everyone "needs" to see "Koyaanisqatsi," the first in the Qatsi series. Watch this two-minute trailor:

   

The backstory: "Koyaanisqatsi" is a Hopi Indian word that means, in essence, if we destroy the world, it will destroy us. (Seem a bit familiar?) The subtitle of this first in the trilogy is "Life Out of Balance." The team that created it is nothing short of BRILLIANT! As is the film itself. Director Godfrey Reggio joined a Catholic order of monks as a teen and then left in his early 20s because he believed he could make more of a difference out in the world. (Has he ever!) In the late 70s, Reggio began the series, teaming with composer Philip Glass and filmmaker Ron Fricke. Most of the film is either time-lapsed or slow motion and there are no words, just the typical heart-thrilling compositions of Glass and an ominous chant of the word eponoymous with the film title and imagery that, honestly, needs no verbiage. (I promise its' palatable.)

In slow motion the viewer sees the world as what it might have looked like in it's natural formation and then the painful degradation of humankind's destructive inventions and distortionist lifestyle which is klling Mother Earth. Incredibly moving. Shocking.

Please watch this film. You can order it from Netflix or purchase it from Amazon. You, too, will be haunted and become a fan. And, you'll thank me. There. I've said it....I've been wanting to share this series with you for a long time. Earth month presented the perfect timing.

That timing collides with the launch of the annual Nashville Film Festival. Oh, the choices! I've been studying the schedules. Yummy! I hope you'll also take advantage of this wonderful opportunity in our fabulous city. #IheartNashville

Grace Walker Goad, Tennessean Arts Coverage

Great coverage by Tennessean reporter Jessica Bliss who got it, as are other media reports and reporters these days. It's been a long road since 2000, when we began getting deserved coverage. Reporters are getting that autism doesn't go away. It's not all "bad." And, there are gifts and blessings. Featured in this story are friends Dr. Blythe Corbett, Ph.D., founder of SENSE theater and Juli Liske and her son, Ben.

Enjoy the link:

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120410/LIFE03/304100011/Art-opens-window-autistic

With two shows, one out of town, one under our belt and another almost, then one next month...I'm having trouble keeping up this month, folks! I'll be back on Tuesday with the school breaks schedule, (Tuesdays and Thursdays). That's gonna be the pace until I make it through April. Also have two presentations to craft. Good stuff. Just uber busy.

Life is Good.

Why does everything always happen in October and April? I won't miss the Nashville Film Festival this year because I'm busy, however, though it (blush) has happened a few times in past years. Hired a sitter and carving out some time next weekend. So should you. Nashville is lucky!

The Perilous Precipice of Autism/DisAbility

 

Thanks to WSMV Channel 4, Nashville, reporter Dennis Ferrier, for coverage that captured the passion as well as the essence of our national crisis.

My addendum: While change is slow, I am sensing momentum and am feeling hopeful. It’s going to take all of us raising our voices, collectively, to create awareness and change. As I said in the above interview, and I will continue to say, we’ve now grown up en mass, as a generation within the autism community and are standing on the perilous precipice of an unknown future. The following quote didn’t make the interview....Thanks to Erik Carter, Ph.D., new wonder boy of Vanderbilt Peabody, for the talking points...If we look at the problem facing our youth regarding college supports, meaningful employment and independent living supports/housing, it is overwhelming. However, it is manageable when we ask--what can one organization, one faith community, one person do--each--to help one person with a disAbility?...I do not single out autism in this crisis we are facing. Of course, it is a greater disAbility problem. Now is the time for change to happen. An encouraging fact is that we do not have to "reinvent the wheel to create these opportunities." They are being innovated nationally. We just need to bring them home to Tennessee.

And here's what every parent of a child with a disAbility can do to enable themselves to be the best and most effective advocate possible for their child and community. Partners in Policymaking Leadership Institute is absolutely THE best decision you'll ever make on behalf of your family member with a disAbility. Absolutely LIFE. CHANGING. If you're not in Tennessee, check your state Developmental Disabilities Council (or whatever it is named in your state,) as all but just a couple of states have this program. I am a graduate of the class of '99. Now pay attention! The date to sign up for the coming year is at this month's end:

The Partners in Policymaking Leadership Institute is a no cost leadership, advocacy and self-advocacy training program for adults with disabilities and family members of persons with disabilities from across the state, sponsored by the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities. Partners attend 7 information sessions by local and national experts in the disability field on a variety of disability-related topics, and complete related assignments. Most Partners training weekends begin at 12 pm on Friday, and continue until 3 pm on Saturday. Classes are scheduled for September, October and November, 2012, and January, February, March and April, 2013. Apply by April 30, 2012. Contact Partners Director Ned Andrew Solomon at 615.532.6556.

Coming to the blog on ArtsFriday: Laura Craig McNellis shows again in NYC and GraceArt featured in a two-page spread in yesterday's Tennessean.

April and May were so busy, I failed to get the raw footage of this interview, which is gone offline. As of June 7, you can read the print version here.

Resurrection

 

 

"Happy Resurrection from Fear to Love, from grief to joy,

from ego to Field, from separation to Unity. You are Loved

and kept in the Light."

This email from my beloved spiritual teacher greeted me this Easter morning. I wanted to share it's loveliness with you, dear readers. And these Tennessee Redbuds! Aren't they lovely, too? For me, they are one of the joys of springtime in Tennessee. They start out as small, orchid, multi-petaled flowers budding and lining the slender limbs of these small-in-stature trees that line highways and roadsides. They follow the Bradford Pears' burst into white, voluminous blooms. Then, trailing the Redbuds are the cherry tree blossoms ranging from milky to girly-girl pink. Together, they sing amid the heavenly backdrop of a spring-blue sky, creating a cacophony of soul-joyous color for about a week or so. When our uncommon "sprinter" melted into the premature warmth of summer last month, their flowers all arrived a month early. Then all of the sudden, the flowers of the Redbuds disappeared and in their place, one day, these tiny garnet leaves budded jewel-like themselves when shot with a ray of sweet, golden sun. Glory. Glory.

The Easter/Passover holiday for us has been soulfully sweet. Hope so for you too. Eh? 

GraceArt Launch Tonight! Hot & Cold; First of Four 2012 Exhibitions

Oh my! It's 2 p.m. here and not only did I not get this prepublished per usual, I'm just now writing today's second spring break post and that's because all that's been going down here in GraceArtLand in the last week. 

Saturday: Hung Grace's 8' by 5' mural and small watercolors (with retro pricing) at Hot and Cold coffee shop, next to Fido's in prep for tonight's First Thursday Hillsboro Village Art Walk, April 5, 5-8 p.m. Please stop by! If you don't make tonight, no worries: you can see GraceArt there through the end of the month. Then the mural will go to the home of a Vanderbilt employee who purchased it to hang in her cathedral-ceiling-ed great room.

Sunday: Drove to Chattanooga where we took in the lovely outdoor riverside sculpture art before leaving on Monday to deliver more GraceArt to the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum in Athens, Tenn. This small town and museum will host us for their third year of an autism artist show for National Autism Awareness Month. Too cool, huh?!

Grace has been in camp the rest of this spring break week as I've worked feverishly with a little play thrown in. The last two nights, with the help of kind, dear friends, I've folded half of 1,250 cards and created packages of 10 cards to sell at the three spring GraceArt shows. The new GraceArt NoteCard Series II will have a fifth bonus design. (All sales from cards cover GraceArt expenses. Sales from paintings going into her future independent living account.)

Late this morning, WSMV Channel 4 reporter Dennis Ferrier was in my home for an interview that will air tonight. Channel 2 will feature my friend Dena Gassner and also another friend who is helping tell the truth about a private school scandal. I've also been emailing jpegs of GraceArt to Dennis and Tennessean reporter Jessica Bliss, who will feature autism arts next Tuesday, I was told.

Last, the Green Hills Library will show a more comprehensive and current body of work, (also being shown in Athens,) that entire month with a May 20, 2-4:30 show. The posters look great. I'll be sharing that too, if possible.

It's April, folks. It's always crazy. This year more so. And part of the extra activity includes Nashville's Fabulous Film Festival coming up in a few weeks, too. More on that, too, coming soon.

Happy Easter all! May our entire planet experience a rebirth of the spirit as we make a needed shift into 2012 and beyond.

Apologies dear readers for the lack of links above. Now I'm cooking a meal to stuff Grace so she won't eat too much Jenni's Ice Cream at Hot & Cold tonight and must tend to www.GraceGoad.com. You can find more details about the above art shows on Grace Goad | Artist Facebook page, which is public and also mine, Leisa Hammett. And, here is the public exhibition event page. GraceArt 2012, Art Exhibitions: Grace Walker Goad ~ The Art of Autism. Related Journey with Grace stories on all of the above are: Announcing GraceArt 2012... and GraceArt Card Series Premiering...