Talking to Strangers (About Music)
86 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 7 ratingsConnections to other humans are crucial. But what does that look like? How can we trust others? This second segment of Talking to Strangers focuses on Steph Thompson, founder of sound healing practice Sacred Bloom Tribe talking to strangers about music. Sound and rhythm are crucial aspects to building up our listening skills. Trusting one another--whomever we might be, whatever race, creed, religion, political persuasion--we have to learn to listen to one another and find a common vibration. We need to get in tune, and in this podcast Steph will chat with the amazing people who create and work with sound and music, those people who make creating harmony their mission! We have a lot to learn from one another, and it all starts with DEEP LISTENING!
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Episodes
In the Midst of Chaos, Finding Calm
June 28, 2022 16:00 - 43 minutes - 29.8 MBWhen confusion reigns, where do you turn? We are strangers to ourselves in these moments, unfocused and unclear. I often turn to the piano, or other musical instruments to get at and get out what's going on inside. More even than writing, composing music allows thoughts and feelings to flow through me unencumbered (or, at least, less encumbered than the more rational reasoned way I sometimes feel I have to write, or talk.) In this episode, I play some piano and talk through some ideas about...
Fans of Phoebe Bridgers Cite 'Collective Catharsis'
June 21, 2022 11:00 - 16 minutes - 11.8 MBWhat makes us love a musician? The connection with a performer and their music is not unlike other loves probably, a slightly inexplicable alchemy that hits us hard, right off the bat. Seeing a long line of people waiting mid-morning for the best seats for the Phoebe Bridgers benefit concert in Prospect Park last week, I was curious: why do these folks love her so much they’d wait all day in the hot sun to get as close as possible? So I asked. I’d never even heard of the 27-year-old indie...
Moxie the Band: The Read on The Future is Great
June 13, 2022 17:00 - 36 minutes - 25.2 MBMy interaction with the young band Moxie is a direct result of saying 'yes.' "Can a band stay with us a couple of nights?" my son Eli asked a couple weeks back and--based on my love of strangers, especially meeting them in my house--I didn't skip a beat. "Yes," I said. And so it was that I found myself in my kitchen with four of the most lovely dynamic clear-headed young people ever, the Brattleboro, VT-based members of the fast-rising Moxie the Band, in the early days of their Summer 20...
Cool Drummer Chick: Dani Markham
October 18, 2021 19:00 - 1 hour - 41.5 MBWhen I sat down to write about Dani Markham, the first thing I did was look up "cool." Even though it was the first word that came to mind when I thought to describe her, I guess I don't really know why, or what 'cool' really means... Obviously, like all words, 'cool' is subjective. But what came up from psychologists who study perceptions of human behavior were qualities like 'attitude and behavior seen as uniquely their own" and "accepting who you are, showing up authentically, being kind...
How Naked Can We Be?
June 29, 2021 17:00 - 18 minutes - 12.6 MBFor this episode, I sat down naked at the piano. Sometimes, it is only through music and rhythm that I am able to get at what I'm REALLY thinking and feeling, what I want to express. Sometimes, often, words don't work. I so like to express my naked thoughts and ideas. And I like to hear other people's. People often can see that in my eyes, in my body language. They tell me things, sometimes things they haven't told anybody else. I often wonder what that is, why people feel they can say thi...
Jason Naradzay - Relabeling Ex-Cons 'Humans'
June 17, 2021 16:00 - 50 minutes - 34.5 MBTrust is an interesting thing. To talk to someone, to engage with them, is to offer them a sort of trust. When I first talked to Jason Naradzay a few years back, it was to interview him for a piece I was writing in support of Musicambia, a nonprofit music education organization he had been involved with during his time served at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. He was out of Sing Sing and applying the therapeutic skills he'd learned inside the prison to help those still there. He knew firsth...
Jason Naradzay - Relabeling Ex-Cons 'Humans'
June 17, 2021 16:00 - 50 minutes - 34.5 MBTrust is an interesting thing. To talk to someone, to engage with them, is to offer them a sort of trust. When I first talked to Jason Naradzay a few years back, it was to interview him for a piece I was writing in support of Musicambia, a nonprofit music education organization he had been involved with during his time served at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. He was out of Sing Sing and applying the therapeutic skills he'd learned inside the prison to help those still there. He knew firsth...
Jamee & Leonissa: An Artful Miami Connection
November 23, 2020 19:00 - 1 hour - 44.3 MBI knew that Jamee Jurecki and Leonissa Morris were to be my pals back when I first encountered them in December of 2017. As we stood there in front of the long mirrors of the communal bathroom at the Posh Hostel in South Beach, brushing our teeth and hair, preparing to hit the town, it was very clear. We had come to Miami on our own, adventurous ladies staying at a low-cost high-style hostel by the beach during the city's fabulous Art Basel show, and we were definitely gonna be able to hang ...
Ourida, the Courageous Singer
October 07, 2020 16:00 - 55 minutes - 37.9 MBOn Facebook the other day, someone posed the question, "what career did you dream of having when you were a kid?" I didn't skip a beat. "A singer!" I responded. My sister and I spent countless hours singing into a tape recorder (yes, a tape recorder, with cassette tapes whose plastic film we often had to detangle and re-roll with a pen. I am that old.) There was something about the freedom of belting out one's more melodramatic emotions full on with a fake microphone in the mirror that was t...
Designer, Color Maven, Dog Whisperer Nora Fish
October 02, 2020 12:00 - 34 minutes - 23.8 MBI first met Nora Fish in a little cafe named Parco, in Park Slope. She had a beautiful German Shepherd named Annika and an adorable pug named Tootsie. As she reminds me during this podcast, she and I "were constantly complimenting each other's boots!" I have always admired Nora's style, from the great knit ponchos she makes herself to the gorgeous knit sweaters she has made for her dog, my dog and so many others, including those four-legged creatures she so lovingly invites to stay with he...
Designer, Color Maven, Dog Whisperer Nora Fish
October 02, 2020 12:00 - 34 minutes - 23.8 MBI first met Nora Fish in a little cafe named Parco, in Park Slope. She had a beautiful German Shepherd named Annika and an adorable pug named Tootsie. As she reminds me during this podcast, she and I "were constantly complimenting each other's boots!" I have always admired Nora's style, from the great knit ponchos she makes herself to the gorgeous knit sweaters she has made for her dog, my dog and so many others, including those four-legged creatures she so lovingly invites to stay with he...
How Do You Illustrate Meaning? Talk to James Yang
September 30, 2020 18:00 - 52 minutes - 36.2 MBWhen James Yang came to my kids' school to talk about his illustrated children's book back in 2013, I was immediately struck by its powerful simplicity. I had just started volunteering at a school where kids didn't get to meet authors like my kids did, and I invited James to join. We reminisced during this podcast about that day, about how the kids swarmed around him as he showed them on a big piece of butcher paper taped to the wall how to make the simple shapes and designs of the robots an...
When the Stranger is Your Teenager
September 30, 2020 03:00 - 24 minutes - 16.9 MBIt was quite the coup to get one of my teenagers to come on to the podcast. After all, they are independent humans with ideas of their own about how to live life, and doing my bidding often takes low priority, as it should be. Over the years, I humiliated them bi-weekly with my Fearless Parenting column in the Brooklyn Paper, subjected them to a few awkward photo/video shoots for newspaper and TV and regularly interrupt family outings by...yes, talking to strangers (at one point stopping to ...
Talking with Plants: Permaculturist Emily Sause
September 29, 2020 02:00 - 32 minutes - 22.4 MBWhen I first met the lovely Emily Sause a few years back, she was 'head of community' for a stunning Manhattan co-working space called The Assemblage. It was part of her job to be welcoming, but she seemed to go above and beyond with her bright-eyed enthusiasm. While I didn't end up joining the super-cool workspace, I did manage to come for a couple of events, including Emily's 'vocal toning' workshop, which was one of the more relaxing deeply meditative hours of my life. We got together a n...
The Games We Play with Strangers...Scrabble with Sarah and Roberto
September 27, 2020 14:00 - 10 minutes - 7.6 MBI met Roberto at Cafe Martin in Park Slope. He was a mathematician/philosopher working there between gigs. A song had come on and I asked a question about it, and he said how popular it was with the French kids. He said it with a bit of a scoff. He sounded French but...”where are you from?” I asked before I guessed. “I’m Italian,” he said. He grew up in Monaco though. Maybe I learned that then, or later, that relationship between his Italian roots and growing up in France. It read on his fa...
Musician/Barista Ben: A Chat at Java Joe
September 26, 2020 01:00 - 26 minutes - 18.1 MBWhen I run out of coffee, I am always glad because it means I can take a walk over to Java Joe. For so many years, I have been going to this little shop on 8th Street, in Park Slope, to buy their deliciously strong Black Magic espresso beans. The shop is adorable, run by a lovely frank Irish lady, and besides the INCREDIBLE mint malted milk balls (a holiday gift staple) I always have a good chat. In this episode, I went in for beans and a new mug (I have too many, but always want a new one w...
Drumming Up Trust: Finding Rhythm with Strangers
September 24, 2020 17:00 - 21 minutes - 14.9 MBIn this episode, I head to the beach to drum, and I talk a bit about how we learn to trust ourselves and others. It's not easy. I often use the metaphor of music, and work with people, including homeless men, to try to get at thoughts about connection, and trust and flexibility through drumming together. What we can create together, quickly, us strangers, with a little music, is nothing short of magic. Have a drum or something to hit your hands on to make rhythm with me at the beginning. Lis...
Samir LanGus: Playing the Sintir in Adidas
September 23, 2020 01:00 - 21 minutes - 14.9 MBWhat I loved about Samir LanGus from the first time I saw him was how comfortably he seemed to mix cultures seamlessly and stylishly. As a Moroccan musician steeped in the classically spiritual Gnawa music of his homeland, he is always sporting American fashions like his favored Adidas jackets or running pants along with more traditional Moroccan garb. The look is representative of Samir's extremely nimble balance of traditional and modern, which has shown up in the collaborations he has for...
Samir LanGus: Playing the Sintir in Adidas
September 23, 2020 01:00 - 21 minutes - 14.9 MBWhat I loved about Samir LanGus from the first time I saw him was how comfortably he seemed to mix cultures seamlessly and stylishly. As a Moroccan musician steeped in the classically spiritual Gnawa music of his homeland, he is always sporting American fashions like his favored Adidas jackets or running pants along with more traditional Moroccan garb. The look is representative of Samir's extremely nimble balance of traditional and modern, which has shown up in the collaborations he has for...
Discussing Fear & Other Emotions with Facebook 'Friend' Chris Rael
September 22, 2020 02:00 - 33 minutes - 22.9 MBI'm "friends" on Facebook with a lot of people I've never met. Maybe we have mutual friends, maybe they read something of mine or listened to my podcast, maybe I heard them play somewhere. Neither Chris Rael nor I remember exactly how we became "friends," though we have a long list of friends in common, mostly musicians (since he is one.) Even though we've never met, I reached out to Chris recently after a post of his caught my eye, and asked if he would be on my podcast to discuss it. In ...
Talking to My Therapist (Friend): Mubasher Naseer
September 20, 2020 16:00 - 47 minutes - 32.8 MBI try not to take advantage of my friendship with veteran psychoanalyst Mubasher Naseer. After all, he is clearly easy to talk to, listens well and has many years' experience helping people sort out relationships and other of life's strains and stresses with his sage advice. Since we met, roughly six years ago, Mubasher is always a good person to chat with about what's happening in the world and what people are feeling, including he and I. It is nice to hear what a mental health professional...
Pianist James Carney Talks Shop
September 19, 2020 12:00 - 25 minutes - 17.3 MBSince meeting jazz pianist James Carney seven or so years ago in a little bar in Park Slope, I have sat many times in various venues to see and hear him tickle the ivories, his fingers flying fast across the keys masterfully to create rhythms that resound in the soul. It was a pleasure to sit with him again and hear a few of these sounds, this time in his new PianoWorks studio in Brooklyn's cool Industry City complex. While musical performances came to a halt during Covid, James decided to e...
Hilary Robertson: Styling a Beautiful Truth
September 18, 2020 09:00 - 1 hour - 41.5 MBIt is fitting that in our chat, in her sumptuous living quarters in the Fort Greene area of Brooklyn, stylist/creative director Hilary Robertson would quote Keats' Ode to a Grecian Urn. She waved her hand this way and that with her usual English dramatic flair, and the crisp striped fabric of the full-length dress shirt she wore shifted slightly. "'Truth is Beauty, and Beauty Truth' or something like that," she said, eyes up toward the soaring brownstone parlor ceiling as she rendered th...
Hilary Robertson: Styling a Beautiful Truth
September 18, 2020 09:00 - 1 hour - 41.5 MBIt is fitting that in our chat, in her sumptuous living quarters in the Fort Greene area of Brooklyn, stylist/creative director Hilary Robertson would quote Keats' Ode to a Grecian Urn. She waved her hand this way and that with her usual English dramatic flair, and the crisp striped fabric of the full-length dress shirt she wore shifted slightly. "'Truth is Beauty, and Beauty Truth' or something like that," she said, eyes up toward the soaring brownstone parlor ceiling as she rendered th...
Saskia Layden Kaya: Teacher of Yoga, and Love
September 17, 2020 04:00 - 42 minutes - 29.4 MBI first met Saskia Layden (now Saskia Layden Kaya) when she was teaching yoga to children at Still Waters in a Storm, a storefront after-school program in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Her smile and laugh lit up the room, and the children gathered around her, all over her, like puppies. I knew immediately I needed her to teach the kids in my own program for InspireCorps, at PS81, and when she did...I was blown away. She had no doubts, not a single qualm it seemed. She knew exactly what t...
The Serious Stylings of Jazz Guitarist Andy Bianco
September 16, 2020 03:00 - 42 minutes - 29.1 MBIt is fitting that I am posting this episode of Talking to Strangers late at night, as that's when I met today's guest, jazz guitarist Andy Bianco. We met at Korzo, a Park Slope restaurant and bar, during one of the late great Konceptions Music Series shows put on by pianist James Carney and his wife Heidi Bayer. He wasn't playing that night, but I would hear him on a number of subsequent occasions, both in bars and in my house, where he began to teach my son. As much as I try, with this p...
Trainer Stanley Mills: Believe, and the Body will Follow
September 14, 2020 20:00 - 5 minutes - 4.1 MBBelieving in yourself can be a hard thing. With Stanley Mills' sure smile and easy laugh, and his gentle prodding, it seems easier. Stanley has been a personal trainer for over 20 years, though his body seems to defy that that's even possible! It is his physique that is physically impressive, but it is his amazing positivity that really drives one forward. I can hear his voice in my head sometimes, "You can do it Steph..." Everyone in my family except my oldest son has used Stanley as a tr...
Deep Chat with My Contractor & The Plumbers
September 14, 2020 03:00 - 19 minutes - 13.6 MBWhen you buy a house and decide to gut renovate it, you are suddenly in contact with a lot of strangers you have to learn to trust. Last November, I hired upstate contractor Andy Kane from Peak Builders, and he began to work on the fixer-upper we'd purchased in Elka Park, NY. It has been 10 months since then, and there have been an amazing cast of characters Andy has brought in do the plumbing and electrical, to tile the bathrooms, fix the roof, deliver the wood, to paint and help him with a...
Talking to my Teenage Stranger Self, Working at a 50s Diner
September 13, 2020 05:00 - 17 minutes - 11.8 MBIt's funny to remember back nearly four decades ago to a time and place, to a 50s diner in Tucson, Arizona in the 80s. That young girl in the too-tight Laverne shirt making shakes behind the ice cream counter was me, Steph Saull. I found this recording I made talking about that time (and digressing, of course, onto other seemingly related topics) and I thought it was fascinating how I seem to recall details then that I'm not even sure about now, a little more than a year later. I posit theor...
Talking to my Teenage Stranger Self, Working at a 50s Diner
September 13, 2020 05:00 - 17 minutes - 11.8 MBIt's funny to remember back nearly four decades ago to a time and place, to a 50s diner in Tucson, Arizona in the 80s. That young girl in the too-tight Laverne shirt making shakes behind the ice cream counter was me, Steph Saull. I found this recording I made talking about that time (and digressing, of course, onto other seemingly related topics) and I thought it was fascinating how I seem to recall details then that I'm not even sure about now, a little more than a year later. I posit theor...
The Music of a Stranger: Pierre-Yves Plat at the Sunset in Paris
September 12, 2020 02:00 - 14 minutes - 10.3 MBDiscovering a fabulous musician you've never heard of at a club, alone in a foreign city is...well, it is an amazing, life-affirming highly connected experience, one I wholeheartedly recommend. Rolling through recordings on my phone, searching for a podcast for Day 4 of my 30-day lead-up to 50, I happened upon a performance I'd recorded at the Sunset Sunside Jazz Club in Paris back in May of 2017. I'd gone on vacation with my mom and sisters, but no one else felt like going out, so I headed ...
Alex Grant: A Free-Range Life
September 10, 2020 16:00 - 51 minutes - 35.7 MBTrying to title this podcast, I was uncharacteristically at a loss for words. It's hard to put Alex in a box. He said he would go into one, but only if he knew who he was in there with...Ha. This is why Alex and I have become great friends and confidants over the last five years, ever since we met on the lunchroom balcony of the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY a place seekers like us go to...well, find. In addition to whatever we learned in our workshops, Alex and I found each other. He sm...
Artist Per Adolfsen: Teaching Us to See
September 09, 2020 11:00 - 48 minutes - 33.6 MBThere is definitely something about the cadence of someone's voice. At the crowded poolside bar at the Raleigh Hotel in Miami Beach, on a gorgeous night when the Art Basel art fair had taken over the city, Per Adolfsen's urgent yet mellifluous Danish tone broke through the din. There had been some drinks consumed, surely, that fueled his passionate outcries, but it was obvious from the moment my friend Miok and I met him that Mr. Adolfsen was a force. Honesty is always powerful. The same ton...
Joelle Provost: Sculpting to Save the Environment
August 31, 2020 15:00 - 44 minutes - 30.3 MBI am always amazed at the power of instantaneous connection. The moment I met Joelle Provost at a diner in Brooklyn Heights is a perfect example. A wide-eyed young artist/art teacher, she struck me right away as a powerful force, one I wanted to get to know. I shortly thereafter visited her on the wide porch of the Ditmas Park Victorian she was living in with other artists to view her work, and I knew my instincts were correct: this young woman is gifted with a great vision, and the power to...
Photographer Giles Clement, Unfiltered
August 04, 2020 19:00 - 43 minutes - 29.8 MBWhen we sat down together recently at an outdoor cafe on my corner, in Park Slope, I liked Giles Clement immediately. Though he might use one as a photographer, it was clear from his comment about the waitress that in conversation he had no filter. Just my style. I was told weeks ago by my friend Maggie to call Giles. Maggie is the owner of the Krooked Cafe in Tannersville near my new house in the Catskill Mountains of New York, and she is a special human, mother to all. When she left me a...
Meeting Monica On the Trail
July 20, 2020 17:00 - 9 minutes - 6.49 MBSitting at a lookout on a beautiful Catskills trail, staring out toward the Hudson Valley framed below, I caught sight of a young woman running along. She seemed wet, and I wondered aloud to her if there was water from where she'd come. It was a hot day and I was looking to dive in somewhere. She came to a complete stop to regard me, and clearly considered my question a responsibility. She began looking in earnest on her phone for how to guide me to water. She hadn't been in any. She was jus...
Tara & Earle: Partners in Dance & Life
June 29, 2020 18:00 - 52 minutes - 36.2 MBWhy are Tara Sanders & Earle Legister, Jr. together? "We always connected on the dance floor," Tara says emphatically. And Earle agrees. Of course, there is no way of ever knowing, exactly, what brings two people together, on the dance floor and off. That alchemy is long-studied, long-pondered. But for the last year-plus, the strange chemical equation called 'love' has Tara and Earle in its grips, and they are dancing together, and inspiring others to do the same, especially recently. "...
Tara & Earl: Partners in Dance & Life
June 29, 2020 18:00 - 52 minutes - 36.2 MBWhy are Tara Sanders & Earl Legister, Jr. together? "We always connected on the dance floor," Tara says emphatically. And Earl agrees. Of course, there is no way of ever knowing, exactly, what brings two people together, on the dance floor and off. That alchemy is long-studied, long-pondered. But for the last year-plus, the strange chemical equation called 'love' has Tara and Earl in its grips, and they are dancing together, and inspiring others to do the same, especially recently. "Whe...
Finding Common Ground with Southern Historian Dr. Edward Lee
June 19, 2020 12:00 - 38 minutes - 26.3 MBI found Dr. Edward Lee on Facebook, not exactly sure how. He is a renown professor of history at South Carolina's Winthrop University, an author and lecturer who looks back with reason on the 20th Century. He has more than 4,000 friends on Facebook, humans of all kinds, former students, friends, and strangers he has made friends with from around the world in his efforts to understand what happens, and why. He is clearly much respected for his open ears and open mind. Recently, Dr. Lee post...
A Little Rhythm, People
May 25, 2020 18:00 - 28 minutes - 19.4 MBReason + Flexibility + Love. This is how we get in tune with the stranger within us, and the stranger outside. Nose to the wind...breathe it in. In this episode, we feel our way through. Join us on our journey.
A Recipe for 'Friendship': Chai with Navodita Singh
May 14, 2020 13:00 - 28 minutes - 19.4 MBThe concept of "friend" on Facebook is a strange one. So often, people request to be 'friends' from all over the world, and I don't even know them. "Why do you accept?" my husband asks. And I think about this. What better way to interact and learn about people from all over the world quickly and easily then social media? Seven years ago, a request came in from a young woman in India named Navodita Singh. I accepted. In the ensuing years, Navodita--a beautiful always-smiling dancing woman...
Agni Zotis: The Art of the Silver Lining
May 05, 2020 21:00 - 57 minutes - 39.5 MBWhen I first met NYC artist Agni Zotis at a cafe near her apartment/studio in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, I knew she was a force to be reckoned with. In her iconic gravelly voice, inflected with a little Greek, by way of Queens, she offered up tales of the nonprofit she created to bring kids much-needed meditation and art, May Kids Transform. And she spoke of the inspiration she'd found for her latest series at the time -- amazing fluorescent depictions of the cosmos, backlit. Whe...
Singer Pi Jacobs: All There is to Do is Dance and Sing...
April 27, 2020 11:00 - 44 minutes - 30.8 MBThe great Americana singer Pi Jacobs has a wonderful idea of how to cope in the face of Covid-19: dance and sing. In her newly released single off her Two Truths And a Lie album, called "No Sin to Be Poor," the effervescent Jacobs recalls her own childhood poverty, and how they managed to get through it by having fun and being silly. "There's no shame in needing help," she says in our chat. And while many people now might need that help, there is never a better time to find creative express...
At Home with The Lone Bellow's Brian Elmquist
April 09, 2020 17:00 - 45 minutes - 31.3 MBA major silver lining of the current pandemic is that one can find usually VERY BUSY people at home, and eager to chat. One-time stranger, longtime friend Mr. Brian Elmquist has been very busy in recent years on the road around the world with his spectacularly popular 'Americana' band, The Lone Bellow. But I was able to catch up with him at home in Nashville with his lovely wife and beautiful kids and chat about a whole lot of things including his LIVE streaming concert on Instagram TONIGHT ...
Guitarist Guru Raed El-Khazen
March 24, 2020 12:00 - 47 minutes - 32.8 MBTo me, Raed El-Khazen is one of the best examples of how talking to strangers changes the course of one's life. It's hard to know what to say about this man I met 12 years ago at Dizzy's Diner in Park Slope, hard to pin down exactly why when his eyes sparkled at me and his gravelly voice spoke I felt the need to look more closely at myself and at the world. He has that affect on people:) Raed is a musician, and a dedicated devotee of learning and thinking about the ways in which humans need ...
Nena's Test of the Love Universe
March 10, 2020 16:00 - 26 minutes - 18.2 MBI met Nena Hribar at my friend Saskia's wedding in Fethiye, Turkey, last spring. She is from the tiny European country of Slovenia, and was one of 14 women from all over the world--a mini United Nations--with whom I sat naked in the sauna at a beautiful Turkish Bath (otherwise known as a Hamam). We found ourselves together at the airport in Dalaman, waiting for a plane to Istanbul, and I recorded our chat. I've been looking for the perfect opportunity to put our amazing conversation out i...
Teens on Inspiration and That Pesky Inner Voice
February 11, 2020 19:00 - 41 minutes - 28.9 MBAfter an awesome rhythmic drum session and a collaborative chalkboard drawing (beautiful!), my new interns Jalissa and Breanna sat down with me over popcorn and chamomile tea to discuss...well, how they might stay inspired a la Kobe Bryant, to whom they dedicated their gorgeous art work. I talk too much in this, filling in the silence too often with my own thoughts, which is exactly what teachers and adults do badly, so shame on me. These ladies are bright and engaged when given half a chanc...
Tutorial: How to Talk to a Stranger
January 08, 2020 20:00 - 25 minutes - 17.4 MBMy intern, Abby, and I were talking about self expression. She is 16 and admittedly quiet. "How do you do it? Talk to strangers?" she asked. So I decided to show her. We went to Barnes & Noble. We looked around, and I told her I would buy her a journal, and a pen so that she could better connect to her thoughts. We first need to connect to what we think before we are ready to express it. Abby spent a while choosing the journal and pen she wanted. We bought them, and then headed to the ...
Artist Claudia Vieira: Tracing the Connection
December 10, 2019 19:00 - 39 minutes - 27.4 MBSince I've known her, Brazilian artist Claudia Vieira has played with lines. Drawing them, using tape to make them, on walls and floors and various surfaces. Her line is continuous, spiraled, repetitive. It is an immersion, a self-reflective cathartic, healing experience of the crossing of space and time, both for the artist and the viewer/participant. Her creations are trance-like journeys, meditations that connect one place to another, one time to another, the world to itself. She and I ...
Creativity with Nature: Talking to Artist/Store Owner Randy Tompkins
October 23, 2019 19:00 - 5 minutes - 3.98 MBRandy makes things from bones and stones, hence the name of his amazing shop in Tannersville, NY: Bones & Stones. He also makes things from animals and bugs. I was incredibly impressed with the creativity of Randy's work, how he takes things from the natural world and creates other things, like lighting fixtures and pipes. It is, of course, ancient practice to utilize our natural resources in creative ways, but sometimes we can forget. Randy is a wonderful breath of fresh air, a fascinating ...