Children's art on the walls of Inova

*Updated March 12, 2011*

On what has problably been the darkest day of my life so far, something provided a glimmer of hope.

As I walked through the halls to deal with a family tragedy, the artwork of Fairfax Public Schools students hung on the wall of Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children.


On Jan 17 of 2011, the hospital honored the artists whose work was displayed.

The hospital actually has a document on Art Therapy, specifically breaking it down to Art Therapy, Music Therapy, Dance Therapy and Imagery.

If you know me and what my family has been dealing with, you might wonder how there could've been any light on such a day, but whether I realized it or not, it was a reminder about healing, through the acts of creation and expression.

The healing power of creating or simply experiencing art addresses damage to the mind and spirit, which treating the body cannot do anything about most of the time.  And in the loss of a loved one, art can be one way to move forward. To process what has happened, to make sense of what you can, and expression frustration towards what you can't. But I digress...slightly.

Now granted art therapy is not the only tool, but at its core, the artwork shared by the young artists was (not intentionally, but maybe so) a reminder that no matter the hurt, the pain, the loss,...healing happens in many forms, day by day. And hopefully in time, my family would find that path to healing.

- J Street Jr


Related Links

• American Art Therapy Association (based in Alexandria)
• American Dance Therapy Association (based in Columbia)
• American Music Therapy Association (based in Silver Spring)
• Inova Health System - Care Pages | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

Artists providing the "Hold" music for Broken Meters

I park and I luck out with a broken meter. Yes, it's illegal to park there UNLESS you call 202.541.6030 (in DC), and report it.  Once you give the operator the meter number, they'll provide you with a confirmation number you can leave on your dashboard and is good for the maximum amount of time of the space.

But this entry is actually just a side-note of this experience.  For whatever reason(s), when I was put on hold, there was music playing, naturally.

They came an announcement that the artist the caller is listening to is a grantee of the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities.  Good times!!

To any artists in the area, not only would I encourage you to apply for grants, but I ask you to consider serving as an advisory panelist. I've volunteered several times, and it is certainly an enriching experience, whatever part of the arts puzzle you deal with.

Anyway, just thought I'd share another experience showing how present the arts are in DC.

- J Street Jr



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Sulu DC One Year Anniversary Show

An amazing night!! Okay, first off, Sulu DC is a grassroots oriented network, aimed at providing Asian-American and Pacific Islander artists a home and a venue to present their work.

It was fashioned after the Sulu series in New York, which (after 5 years) had its final show this past September, which one of Sulu DC's founders, Simone Jacobson, blogged about for the Lantern Review.

Simone, incidentally, is a classmate, not just from my time in UMD's Dance program, but AU's Arts Management program as well.

I actually got to speak and present some of my own work (via DVD), at a Sulu DC event sometime this past spring, at U St Music Hall. Tonight, I was invited but had to turn down the spot. Instead, I offered to volunteer and ended up being Simone's Assistant Stage Manager.

For the One Year Anniversary show, Sulu DC returned to the Artisphere, where it had its October show, but which had also recently opened. While there's no official website, you can "like" the venue's Facebook Page.

Before the actual event even started, audience members were treated during the pre-show reception in the lobby, to beats dropped by The Pinstriped Rebel, and a performance by members of the Dhoonya Dance Performance Company.

As the audience made their ways to the seats, the Nen Daiko drummers welcomed them.

After this, our fabulous MC, Regie Cabico, spoken word poet and co-founder of Sulu DC & Sulu Series (NYC), entered, singing in true Filipino/karaoke form to Don't Rain on My Parade.

He welcomed the audience and introduced the next performance, Paige Hernandez, who presented excerpts from her one woman show, Paige in Full. You can actually catch the full piece as part of Intersections at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, in March (2011).

Awards were then presented, the Audience and Community Partner, followed by a high-energy performance by PaperDoll recently returned from a tour in China, which featured a performance at this year's World Expo, which closed out the first half of the evening.

After intermission, Phil Good Band kicked of the second act (you can check out their FB Page). The Artist of the Year award was then handed to Yellow Rage, who, as part of their acceptance, were then prompted to honor us with a performance, which was most excellent.

Gayle Isa, the guest speaker for the evening, and Founder & Executive Director of the Asian Arts Initiative took the stage to share some words and thanks, followed by an intense performance by slam poet Beau Sia.

The final pair of awards were handed out, for Arts Education of the Year, and Community Contribution.

Overall an excellent night, and an amazing one given that it's only been a year and I can remember attending the first Sulu DC event in a church basement. In addition Simone & Kuya Regie, props have to go to Jenny C. Lares, Alex Cena, & Brian Wang.

Looking forward to seeing what the next year brings!!

J Street Jr

WAISDEA Festival '10

So one of the highlights of being part of the dance department at the National Cathedral School for Girls, is the annual WAISDEA Festival, (WAISDEA standing for Washington Area Independent School Dance Education Association).

We hosted it last year, and this year, it took place at the Sandy Spring Friends School, which had a beautiful campus and fairly new Performing Arts Center (just 6 or so years old). Interestingly enough, I'd actually been here before, but for a wedding by a couple of friends from the performing arts scene, a dancer and a fight choreographer, actually.

Speaking of small worlds, the director of the Sandy Spring Friends dance program is Meredith Rabil, a dancer I met choreographing my first professional/paid piece, for the spring concert of Montgomery College's Dance program in '07, the year after I finished my undergrad.

Anyway, the festival is a day of classes and workshops, including Bollywood, Latin, Jazz, Modern, Partnering, & African. Teaching one of the modern classes was Helanius Wilkins, Founder & Artistic Director of Edgeworks Dance Theater.

Dana Tai Soon Burgess, Founding Artistic Director and Choreographer of Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Company closed out the festival by talking to the students about his choreographic process and then presenting excerpts of larger pieces, performed by company members Kelly Southall and Connie Fink. Connie actually had taught at NCS until the past year, so it was nice to see her. I'd actually gotten to work with Dana, when he choreographed The Secret Garden for Adventure Theatre, several years ago, and I was an ASM and Understudy.

The best part of the festival (out of many great moments), had to happen during lunch, when some students from our host school put on some music, and the kids gathered in a circle and just had an impromptu dance party.

Nothing like loving what you do for a living :-)

- J Street Jr

Dance Town Hall Meeting

Artists' Bloc & Dance/MetroDC joined to host a Dance Town Hall Meeting, to close out a week of Artists' Bloc events, in one of Woolly Mammoth Theatre's rehearsal rooms.

Peter DiMuro, Director of Dance/MetroDC, and one of three on my thesis committee kicked off the meeting with an open invite for attendees to wander around the rehearsal room and go to large sheets of paper against the well, addressed with different topics, to fill in what they knew, to ask questions about what they didn't know.

Overall, a very good crowd representing a veritable who's who of the local dance community.

Names I caught included Carla Perlo Founder & Director of Dance Place; Sarah Levitt, old classmate from UMD's Dance Program and Company member with Liz Lerman Dance Exchange; Aysha Upchurch, Founder and Director of life, rhythm, move project; Nancy Havlik with her Nancy Havlik Performance Group; Sylvana Sandoz, member of the Glade Dance Collective; and Kate Jordan, one of the cofounders of the Eureka Dance Festival, who (incidentally) just joined the teacher roster with me at the National Cathedral School for Girls.

Other organizations present (represented by individuals whose names I did not catch) included Clancy Works, Dissonance Dance Theatre (whose Founder/Artistic Director, Shawn Short, I met while he was at Howard University, taking a choreography class at UMD), and the various board and committee members from Dance/MetroDC as well as Dance/USA.

I won't attempt to recap EVERYTHING that was discussed, but it was energizing to see the discussion happening.

One of the other exciting things that was highlighted, included a new partnership between Dance/MetroDC and Dance Place, which will move DMDC from its offices on 14th St, to across the street from Dance Place, pretty much the hub of Dance in DC, with programming just about every weekend of the year. And then joining the neighborhood will be a whole slew of artists, moving into the Brookland Artspace Lofts opening in June.

The Town Hall Meeting really emphasized for me how sometimes half of the battle is just showing up. The other half, particularly with regard to Dance/MetroDC as a service organization, is that as artists, we have to be engaged, meaning we have to be involved and vocal. Otherwise how do we expect an organization like Dance/MetroDC to effectively support us, in our art, and in the business of our art.

That being said, I thought the Town Hall was a great success and I'm looking forward to seeing what we make happen :-)

Arts Management Fall Colloquium: "The Future is Now" with Sandra Gibson

This afternoon, I left work early to attend the annual Fall Colloquium, which AU's Arts Management program organizes.

The event was held in the Katzen Museum, and this year, the speaker was Sandra Gibson, President & CEO of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters.

I had originally met Sandra a couple of years ago, when she was one of a number of speakers for the annual Emerging Arts Leaders Symposium, prior to Arts Advocacy Day that year. I believe it was my first year at AU.

Anyway, Sandra addressed trends in presenting, which addressed funding, audience development, advocacy, and just about every other factor that is affecting all of the arts sector.

I didn't see too many current second years from the program, but met several first years, which was nice. One of my goals is to try and help with giving students and graduates of the arts management program at AU a sense of continuity and cohesiveness, as that was one thing my class felt like it was missing.

Fortunately, I'm in a work environment that supports attending functions like this.

J Street Jr