My graduate school professor at NYU introduced me to Dylan Rothbein. Dylan is a fantastic musician, an audio engineer and he identifies as an Autism Advocate with the Autism Self Advocacy Network. Dylan is in his early 20's and studying audio engineering at Kingsborough Community College. He wants to go to a school - like NYU's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music - to study audio engineering. Dylan is incredibly articulate about growing up with Aspergers Syndrome. He talks about having touch sensitivity, light sensitivity and he wants to fight for the rights of people with developmental disabilities. He said that, "The Civil Rights Movement, The LGBTQ Rights Movement and Bob Dylan are incredibly influential to his work." Dylan approached me about collaborating together on songs about living with autism so . . . Turtle Dance Music is commissioning Dylan to write and record songs about what it's like living with an autism spectrum disorder. Here is the first song that we've written together. It's called, "Light Sensitivity." Dylan told me that due to his light sensitivity he cannot go to places like Times Square because the lights can cause sensory overload. So we wrote this song.
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“If these findings hold true in children as well as adults … right now we cannot diagnose autism in children who cannot speak, but that’s when early intervention would be most effective,” she continued. “But before children can talk, they can see, so we may be able to use this type of visual task to screen children and see if there’s something imbalanced in their brains.”
Hi Folks!
On Saturday I did a free 2-hour program in Camden , NJ at the Ferry Avenue Branch of the Camden Public Library . About 20 kids (with no parents - which is understandable) showed up. The ages ranged from toddler to 8th grade. We had a great time. It took a lot of focus and concentration to do classroom management but all in all we had a fun time. I showed the kids all of my instruments and we did an hour of karaoke. A huge highlight was watching all the kids sing Bruno Mars' When I Was Your Man. It was so beautiful to hear all the kids sing the chorus of the song, "I should've bought you flowers . . ." all together. It was beautiful and harmonious. After the program a few of the kids wanted to help me clean up and carry props, carpets and instruments to my car. I politely declined but they were so insistent on helping! These are really wonderful kids. They were so outgoing, warm and it was a great thing to be a part of.
I asked them about school and it seems like a few of them really like going to school. That's a huge deal. Somebody is doing something right . The school and the library should be a safe space for the kids to learn and do some intellectual, social and emotional exploration. One of the older kids told me that his cousin was killed a few weeks ago and the kids explained to me that it was rough living in Camden. But I feel like these kids are the hope for a better future. I know that sounds corny but I would like to think that the kids who were at my program are going to be some of the people who fix up Camden (or other parts of America or the world) later in their lives. At least that's the hope. My next big push is that I would like to expose the kids to more design. When a person sees exciting design ideas - their universe expands a little bit - emotionally, socially and intellectually. With more of a design influence - what if Camden was a better looking city? Would it change how people interacted and lived? There may already be an answer to this from other cities - but it is just a thought. In my next post I will share some ideas that I learned from my early childhood and autism intervention Interdisciplinary Council On Development and Learning conference in Atlantic City from two weeks ago. Stayed tuned for more info. I will be discussing healthy and unhealthy uses of Ipads for kids and neurodiversity. Hey everybody! Mr. Matt is doing a free performance this Saturday at the Camden Ferry Public Library at 2 P.M. This is a follow-up to his performance there from last year. Mr. Matt offers several free performances throughout the year for libraries, schools, children's hospitals and daycare centers located in low-income areas. These performances are part of his "Anti-Inequality" series. Education is essential. Every kid deserves access to stimulating ideas, content and design. Here is an article from The Atlantic:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/childcare-spending/407035/ This book is fantastic. It's written by a teenager from Japan, Naoki Higashida, who has autism. He communicates through an alphabet grid which is a non-verbal form of communication. The book gets more and more engrossing as it goes: Question 23: What's the worst thing about having autism? ". . . Whenever we've done something wrong, we get told off or laughed at, without even being able to apologize, and we end up hating ourselves and despairing about our own lives, again and again and again. It's impossible not to wonder why were were born into this world as human beings at all. But I ask you, those of you who are with us all day, not to stress yourselves out because of us. When you do this, it feels as if you're denying any value at all that our lives may have and that saps the spirit we need to soldier on. The hardest ordeal for us is the idea that we are causing grief for other people. We can put up with our own hardships okay, but the thought that our lives are the source of other people's unhappiness, that's plain unbearable" (Higashida, pg. 44). I am also excited to see John Elder Robison give a lecture at the upcoming Interdisciplinary Council on Development and Learning Conference. You should check out his book, Look Me In The Eye. I've also heard Temple Grandin speak live and she was excellent. Kerry Magro also has a talk coming up on October 20th at a TEDx in Morristown, NJ that I really want to see. Here is a link to that event:
https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/13867 Mr. Dan and I did two amazing performances of the Concert For Little Superheroes on Saturday at the Mastics-Shirley Library in Long Island. They were fantastic. Afterwards I met up with my little brother, Harris, and some of his friends in Brooklyn. One of his friends (from the finance world) was like, "I don't see the point of modern art - it's such a waste, it's pointless, etc." The point I wanted to make with him is that modern art is like a natural resource. Our society is amazing because of art! I feel like it is my job to make a rational case for the more practical side of the arts. I want more school administrators to hire more art and music teachers. I want people to see that art is how we make our society great. It's how we think outside the box. It's how we tell better and clearer stories . It's how we engage and intrigue people. It's how we make new ideas. Bad art is also invaluable because it teaches us what we want to avoid - what not to do. Great ideas can come from not-so-great ideas. Some of the most inspiring theater I've seen is some of the worst theater I've seen.
The thing I love the most about art is that it is a lesson in seeing things. Sometimes we get so caught up in getting from point A to point B to point C. And we miss all the great stuff that is happening as we are traveling. That is a travesty. I also love art because it's refreshing and relaxing to go see it. It's a place where there are a lot of ideas. I love that. It's also a lesson in "You don't know everything there is to know." It's a very humbling experience. As I was looking at pictures I was thinking, "This world exists? And this landscape exists? This idea exists? I had no idea that this existed." I absolutely get caught up in thinking that the world revolves around me sometimes (*cough* *cough* - by "sometimes" I mean all the time - have you read my Facebook posts lately?). I think that goes with human nature. We all do that. When I go to art museums - I see these other people in the paintings - and they have their own stories. And I wonder what their lives are like. Like the musicians in Picasso's painting - who are they? What did they actually look like? What experiences did they have? What music are they making? What clothes are they wearing? Is that a dog on the ground? Where are they? What do they know that I don't know? What have they seen that I have never seen? What was Picasso thinking or seeing? Art is bliss. You can absolutely disagree with me - and I have no animosity towards people in finance who don't like modern art. What we both do is important. I feel strongly about that. I like to think that we both need each other to exist. Everyone needs everybody. I look to create bridges. To me art is like a breath of fresh air. It's like reading an amazing book or hearing a new point of view. Seeing a funny movie. It's transcendent. It's wonderful. I also saw Van Gogh's "Starry Night". I showcase it in the show sometimes as an app. In real life - it's actually not as amazing to look at compared to the other paintings in the museum (for me). There are other paintings that are out of this world at the Museum of Modern Art. That was a learning lesson for me. There was another Van Gogh painting of a postman and his beard is the most wonderful thing ever. I've included it in the bottom of this post. When I was a kid I kicked and screamed and whined when my parents took me to the art galleries in Washington D.C. Now I go see art any chance that I can get. Take your kids to see as much art as possible. NY1 covered Turtle Dance Music's recent Concert For Little Superheroes at Mariners Harbor Library in Staten Island. Click here to check out the video:
http://www.ny1.com/nyc/staten-island/news/2015/06/28/kids-have-fun-while-learning.html I just had an end of the year concert with All About The Children Daycare. They are the best group of kids. Check out these amazing videos from the show: |
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