So much has happened . . . where to begin

After finishing my drama therapy internship at the Institute for Therapy through the Arts I moved to Akron. Many changes in my life and the lives of my family. It's good to be back in the Midwest and back in the Buckeye state. It's true: Once a Buckeye, always a Buckeye!

I'm working at Freedom House, a shelter for formerly homeless veterans. I'm leading a stress reduction workshop series--my second of many more to come. I use all my skills as a drama therapist and incorporate playwriting, dance/movement, drawing, poetry, collage making, music, and more into the storytelling process that occurs in this group setting. I'm also privileged to help attend the flag raising and lowering outside the shelter at sunrise and sundown when I'm working as a housing specialist.

The Vet Art Project is also doing a weekly dance/movement program called BeatRoot at First Grace UCC in Akron. This is a "spiritual journey through movement" where participants come in and explore their feelings through movement inspired by different rhythmic patterns from around the world. We move for an hour--nonstop! Believe it or not you can, too.

The University of Akron is another venue for Vet Art Project programming. We'll be offering workshops for students as part of their Wellness Day program in late March and a program for faculty and staff from this and other area universities in early April.

I've also become a regular participant in Warriors Journey Home circles where veterans, family members, and people of strong heart gather to share in community stories of war and service. (Check out http://www.warriorsjourneyhome.com/)

Also Shianne Eagleheart and her Red Bird Center (http://www.redbirdcenter.org/) is a wonderful healing space that's opened to veterans and family members the last weekend of every month. There's time for sharing, storytelling, art, and healing lodges. And everyone has an opportunity to be refreshed and reconnected to the land and to their brothers and sisters.

There are grand people here in Northeast Ohio and this is a fine foundation to grow strong roots. Stay tuned for further updates as the Vet Art Project continues to transform all who participate in her programming.

It's been too long! News from the HomeFront of the Vet Art Project

Hello My Friends,
I cannot believe it's been so many months since my last blog post. I've been busy D O I N G instead of reporting on what I'm doing—my apologies, however, at my absence. Here's what I've been up to as I continue my training as a drama therapist:
—1 internship in Tucson, Arizona with One Sacred Nation Healing, a Wellbriety Program that uses Native American principles, laws, and values to teach others a program of wellness and sobriety
—1 internship in Evanston, Illinois with the Institute for Therapy through the Arts, working with creative arts therapists, drama therapists, and music therapists and 16 different population groups to get more hands-on training practice in drama therapy
—2 Grief Trainings with the Institute for Psychoanalysis, Chicago
—1 Creative Arts Therapy Workshop with the School of the Art Institute Chicago Art Therapy Program
—I attended the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference, Chicago
—1 Poetry Therapy workshop with Dr. Sherry Reiter (www.creativerightingcenter.com), Black Mountain, NC
—1 Warriors Journey Home Healing Retreat (forthcoming later this week), Red Bird Center, Cambridge, OH, and
—I will be appearing on a panel at a conference sponsored by Society for the Arts in Health Care (more to come on this) in October, Bethesda, MD
—and more to report in the weeks to come

My commitment to the project remains steadfast and will begin to grow more apparent in the months to come with upcoming announcements.
Vet Art Project Chicago continues to grow stronger with new programming the city colleges in Chicago
Vet Art Project Pittsburgh recently assisted at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games & at Stand Down Pittsburgh

And calls for programming and offers of support keep coming in from around the country.
Want to help? Send an e-mail to vetartproject@gmail.com
The Vet Art Project continues to be fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas so you can make a tax-deductible contribution. Just go to our Web site and click on the link on the home page.

In gratitude for all the stories and offers of support,
Lisa

A Life-Altering Teaching: The Medicine Wheel & 12 Step Program for Women

Hello My Friends,
I'm just back from an amazing workshop in Colorado Springs. Offered at the Wellbriety Institute (whitebison.org). This program incorporates the principles, values, and teachings of Native American elders into a program that teaches you how to live a more connected life--more connected to the land, our place in the world, a path to wellness without using substances to mask or enhance experiences, and to build communities of support. I learned, too, that the AA philosophy and its founders were influenced by Native American traditions, which Dr. Bob & Bill Wilson explored as they created their own paths to wellness.
This organization offers a variety of programs for adults and youth; they've even started a program to help those transitioning out of prison. On the White Bison Web site you can find listings for weekly Talking Circles that are held around the country to help people find the strength, support, and spirit to continue to take care of themselves and others to build stronger communities.
I am grateful to Don Coylis for building a welcoming home; to Sharyl Whitehawk and Marlin Farley for their teachings, their welcoming spirits, and their support; to my sisters from around the U.S. and Canada who encouraged, supported, welcomed, and sustained my spirit throughout the day, from greeting the sun, through our workshop day, and into the evenings exploring the breathtaking lands of Colorado.

I also want to share a wonderful book by Jamie Sams titled The 13 Original Clan Mothers: Your Sacred Path to Discovering the Gifts, Talents, & Abilities of the Feminine Through the Ancient Teachings of the Sisterhood. Originally published in 1993 by Harper Collins, this book came into my life because I was ready for it. I hope you're ready for it, too. It's an opportunity to invest in yourself, explore and acknowledge your talents and abilities, and move through the world with a renewed mission to self and helping others.

News from Vet Art Project Seattle

Caroline Brown, Lead Artist, Vet Art Project Seattle

My name is Caroline Brown and I am currently the lead artist for Vet Art Project Seattle. December 6th marks our fifth workshop and I am in awe of how our process has unfolded so far.

I was inspired to pursue the Vet Art Project Seattle after learning of Lisa Rosenthal’s project in Chicago. I have an extensive background using the arts—particularly performance—as a tool to help individuals and communities express themselves as a means of healing and advocacy and have wanted to work with veterans for some time. I began researching programs that were set up to support veterans’ return to civilian life and ironically found the Vet Art Project Webpage the day after the February performance at the Chicago Cultural Center. I immediately contacted Lisa via e-mail to inquire about the idea of using the Chicago project as a model for a similar one in Seattle. Before I even left the coffee shop from where I was e-mailing, Lisa had left me a voice mail offering her full encouragement of my endeavor.

Lisa’s support has been instrumental in helping me get the Seattle project off the ground, particularly during the preliminary stages of planning and organizing. During our first phone conversation, Lisa answered all of my questions regarding how the Chicago project was shaped and immediately provided me with the project’s mission statement and logo. From there, she put me in touch with Soldier’s Heart Seattle, the veteran’s return and healing project based on the writings of Dr. Edward Tick. The director of Soldier’s Heart Seattle, Sally Jo Gilbert de Vargas, has since become one my strongest allies in promoting the project and helping me network within the veteran’s community.

As I began to research funding for the project, Lisa agreed to serve in an advisory role for a grant that I applied for and also provided me with a great bit of narrative for the application. We are lucky to have the wonderful Freehold Theatre serve as our project’s host and fiscal sponsor here in Seattle.

In addition to offering professional support and resources, Lisa also understands the personal challenges and triumphs that one can face in pursuing projects of this nature. She continues to be a wonderful sounding board and positive reinforcement for the process.

After seven months of networking, researching, grant writing and coordinating, the Vet Art Project Seattle held its first meeting between artists and vets in October. In just four short workshops, we created a safe space of trust and openness where veterans and artists alike are able to share, create, explore and learn.

I am extremely humbled by the risks that individuals are willing to take outside of their comfort zone and I am inspired by the work that is being created through the partnerships between artists and vets.

I emphasize the term learn because even though it is very clear that there is no political agenda for the project, conversations still inevitably arise around individuals’ different experiences, opinions and perspectives. The workshops provide us with a safe environment where extreme disparities can finally be shared, witnessed and embraced rather than ignored or disrespected.

I have great hopes for the Vet Art Project Seattle and where the creative process will lead us over the course of the next three months. Week after week, our community continues to grow as new participants join and dialogues continue to build. I am confidant that we will continue to embrace the diversity of human experience amongst our group and collectively build a creative context where it may be healed, celebrated and honored.

I think I can speak on behalf of our project here in Seattle when I say that we are very proud to be recognized as Chapter Two in the many Vet Art Projects that are being pursued nationwide.

To learn more about our upcoming performance in mid-March or to join our mailing list, please send an e-mail to Caroline.e.brown@gmail.com or visit our Web page at http://web.mac.com/c.e.b/iWeb/Site%202/Vet%20Art%20Project%20Seattle.html.

Experiencing Veteran’s Voices: The Synergy of Community

By David Faigin, M.A., Vet Art Project Clinical Consultant

One of the most wonderful outcomes I’m seeing from the Vet Art Project are the ways in which community is building around the project in a synergistic way. This synergy is bringing veterans into the project, connecting veterans to artists, and connecting the whole project to other groups and organizations in the community. Synergy is what brought me to the project in the first place; offering me a way to continue to work with veterans and their families in the community, as well as blending my work in community psychology and my background in theatre and the arts.

The most rewarding thing about my involvement in the project so far by far is witnessing the positive impact it’s having on the veterans who participate. Strength, encouragement, connection, and community are blossoming out of the partnerships and artistic activities taking place. Veterans, their children and supporters, artists, therapists, veteran advocates, politicians and community members are offered a way to meet and interact that can only occur in this sort of grass-roots activity. Having worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs and hearing from veterans first hand, I am now well aware of what the various medical, therapeutic, and veteran service organization settings have to offer veterans and their families. The efforts being put into these settings and the help that they offer is critical, but I can say with great certainty now, the Vet Art Project is offering something unique, and just as critical.

My involvement so far in the Vet Art Project has allowed me to lead workshops and community conversations, share my input on growing the community, and to perform at the recent NIU event embodying one story of the veteran participants. The Vet Art Project’s partnership with the Remy Bumppo Theater Company allowed me to share my perspective on veterans issues as they relate to the acclaimed performance of Heroes that is currently running at the Greenhouse Theater. The company’s yearly salon involved a discussion of all the plays in Remy Bumppo’s ’09-’10 season and I was the panelist invited to discuss Heroes. The panel was a lively discussion and an opportunity for me to address the themes and ideas presented in Heroes as well as the Vet Art Project and the impact that experiencing veterans’ voices can have on our communities. I highly recommend the performance, which follows three WWI veterans as they navigate their friendships, and search for connection and meaning in their later years. It runs through November 29.

Here’s a link to Remy Bumppo and “Heroes”: www.remybumppo.org

Here’s a link where you can hear the whole panel discussion that took place on Sept. 14 about all three plays: www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=37198

This weekend, Sunday Nov. 22, the Vet Art Project’s partnership with Remy Bumppo gets even more exciting, as they join us for a Warrior Poetry reading, featuring many veterans sharing their own words, after the Sunday matinee of Heroes. This is sure to be a powerful event as we see veterans and professional actors share the voices of many generations of warriors.

Personal stories have the power to transform identity, relationships, and the whole community. This project is offering an open platform for veterans’ stories to do just that. Transformation can bring new understanding, healing, and reintegration. I look forward to witnessing the ways the Vet Art Project will continue to connect veterans to themselves, their loved ones, and their communities.

Art is wide enough, big enough, and strong enough to hold any narrative, any pain. It has the power to safely hold the warrior and his/her experience simultaneously. It has the power to open up all of us to hear one another more deeply. I know. I am seeing it happen.

John Fisher returns to Chicago for another inspirational talk on War and the Soul

John Fisher, Senior Veteran's Liaison for Soldier's Heart was in Chicago to speak on War and the Soul. It was an inspirational evening indeed! Here just a small taste of this inspiring warrior:

What an honor and a pleasure to be with everyone in Chicago again. The warrior's journey home is often a long, but in the end a treasured trek through spiritual morality. The gruesome experiences are often denied or harbored, yet the acceptance of destiny begins the enlightenment process to the eventual initiation into warriorhood. Without the journey we suffer with the wound. It's the process of climbing up out of the wound that brings understanding with eventual healing, not just for the veteran, but for the entire society.

LOVE, PEACE & LIGHT TO ALL,

JOHN FISHER, DC

See what I mean?!

Then John and myself and Adam Navarro-Lowery and Bill Crist traveled to Racine, Wisconsin for the Soldier's Heart Retreat. Amazing journey filled with storytelling, ritual, healing, and community. More details on upcoming retreats here: www.soldiersheart.net

Milwaukee Performances Support Dryhootch.org

Over this last weekend the Vet Art Project was invited by our dear friend Bob Curry of Dryhootch.org to come to Milwaukee and perform at the Reclaiming Our Heritage event on the historic VA grounds. We knew this was a big event but I had no idea what a huge experience this would be. The shows went off without a hitch. F. David Roth, Curtis Jackson and Dave Strong gave voice to the stories of Vietnam veterans, and others. The honor and respect they gave these words was powerful and moving. I witnessed connections made among actors, veterans, family and friends that stole my breath. So much was communicated with a simple embrace, handshake, and thank you between artists and veterans. This connection, the sharing and the attempt to understand, is why we were at the event and why we do what we do.

Other notes from the day. . .
* Soldiers from wars going back as far as the Civil War to today were represented. I almost tripped over a few hoop skirts while touring the various eras, but given my klutzy track record this comes as no surprise.
* I was unable to visit the library but I have on good authority (Bob Curry himself) our good friend Jeanine Hill-Soldner has several paintings on display (Yeah Jeanine!).
* Special visits from Curtis’s parents—lovely people!—and the wonderful Bob Breuler and Suzy Petri came by after visiting another historic venue Ten Chimneys!
* It was a great day, the weather was lovely and company was extraordinary.

I would like to thank you all for everything that you do.
Jessa Carlstrom, Vet Art Project Co-Lead Artist

Inspired by a Veteran--One Story Among Many

The stories of our Vet Art participant veterans are powerful in their re-creations of the daily tragedies of war. Not only has the Vet Art Project stirred up many war-related memories in my mind, it has rekindled a desire to be more politically active. I am grateful to a veteran who inspired me to write a letter to President Obama about the purpose of the current wars.

In a recent Newsweek article entitled "Obama's Vietnam," (02.09.09), I was struck by the article's comparison of our current wars to the horrific situation my generation faced in Vietnam. Military expert Douglas Lute's statement that the U.S. has "never been beaten tactically in a fire fight in Afghanistan" is akin to the Vietnam era military expert Harry Summers' exchange with a North Vietnamese Army expert. When Summers had stated "you never defeated us in the field," the Vietnamese military officer simply replied, "That may be true. It is also irrelevant."

It is time for the U.S. to be "relevant" on so many fronts.

--Janis Clark Johnston

Veterans lead the way at latest Vet Art Project Outreach Program

The DuPage Writers Group hosted the most recent outreach program for the Vet Art Project at the Carol Stream Public Library. A dozen of us gathered to share stories about war and learn about the plans for the Vet Art Project at the Chicago Cultural Center in February 2009. And while I came with a lot of prepared material, we were treated to a great learning experience with the help of J.D. Kammes (Iraq War and Kosovo War veteran), a member of the NIU Veterans Group, and Gerald L. Lundby (WWII veteran). J.D. talked about how sharing his war experiences with his family helped his uncle share some of his experiences during the Vietnam War for the first time. Ilona Meagher, author of Moving a Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops (www.igpub.com) and creator of the PTSDCombat.com Web site also attended and provided these photos.

Thanks to Beth Orchard of the DuPage Writers Group who organized this event. Thanks, too, to the other writers of the group who are helping to record the stories of veterans that will be published early in 2009. More details to come soon.

In Their Own Words: Veterans Day Program plans are set!

Friends,

I hope you'll come out and show your support for our veterans and current arms services personnel, not by shopping, but by truly honoring their service to our country. We, the collective of artists affiliated with the Vet Art Project and American Theater Company, have come together to honor our troops. Using original writing submitted over the years to the National Vietnam Veterans Museum, we have recreated the journey of a soldier. This will be a staged reading performance in the lobby of the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum. I hope you'll join us.

Tuesday, November 11th, 6 p.m.

National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum

1801 S. Indiana Avenue

Chicago

312.326.0270

Veterans Day Program at the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum

With the help of the affiliated artists of American Theater Company in Chicago, I set out to go through a file cabinet filled with writing by veterans, submitted over the years to the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum (NVVAM). What we found was writing reflecting the transformation and journey of a soldier. Poetry, prose, even a coloring book explaining with words and pictures of the Vietnam War were among our finds. After several selection meetings we created a one-hour program that will be presented on Veterans Day to honor our veterans. The performance will be held at the NVVAM. This is an outreach program of the Vet Art Project that we hope to be able to share with others. (Check back here for more information if you cannot be in Chicago at the NVVAM on Tuesday, November 11th at 6 p.m.) And if you can, please share this special event with a group of very talented actors and directors.

Here are the details:

In Their Own Words: A Collection of Veterans' Writing

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

6 p.m.

National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum

1801 S. Indiana Avenue

Chicago, IL

312.326.0270

Admission to the museum: free for members, $10 general public, $7 students

Admission to this after-hours performance only: by donation

Vet Art Project Events

An Introduction to the Vet Art Project for Artists and Interested Chicago-Area Residents

Saturday, August 9, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

University of Chicago

Bartlett Arts Rehearsal Space

5640 S. University Avenue

Hyde Park

The Vet Art Project is a month-long project in residence at the Studio Theater at the Chicago Cultural Center as part of their Incubator Series. This event on August 9th is an orientation to explain how you can get involved. There are different phases to this project and there is a place for both artists and concerned citizens to participate. The Vet Art Project Incubator at the Chicago Cultural Center will include community-building exercises among participants, be a writing workshop to help veterans share their voices, create new art from the stories of veterans—a collaborative effort between veterans and participating artists, use various media to tell these stories (drama, dance, song, film, visual art, and more), share this new art with the community in a public performance. This project is partially supported by the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs’ Theater Department.

Soldier’s Heart: An Introduction to War and the Soul

Thursday, October 9, 6:30 p.m.

Roosevelt Chicago Public Library

1101 W. Taylor Street, Chicago 60607

(312) 746-5656

Thursday, October 16, 7 p.m.

Bucktown-Wicker Park Chicago Public Library

1701 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago 60647

(312) 744-6022

Thursday, October 30, 7 p.m.

Sulzer Regional Branch Chicago Public Library

4455 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago IL 60625

(312) 744-7616

Wednesday, November 12, 7 p.m.

Mt. Greenwood Chicago Public Library

11010 S. Kedzie Avenue, Chicago 60655

(312) 747-2805

Mini-workshop for veterans and community members demonstrating how war affects us, the soul wound from combat, ways to assist veterans, ourselves. Ed Tick’s War and the Soul and Chicago-area veterans writing groups and the Vet Art Project will be discussed.

Save the Date: Saturday, August 9th

I'm doing a pre-workshop workshop for Chicago-area artists and other interested parties who'd like to learn more about the Vet Art Project. We'll be at a space at the University of Chicago. A big shout-out of thanks goes to the good folks of Rivendell Theatre Ensemble (www.rivendelltheatre.net) who helped us arrange this. More details to come via e-mail. Otherwise e-mail me and I'll pass the details along. (BTW: Check out Rivendell's Fresh Produce 2008: A Celebration of New Works by Women on Wed., July 30 and Friday, August 8.)

Events: 2008-2009 Exciting Schedule

Please click here for our full Vet Art Project Event Schedule for 2008 and 2009

Honoring Our Veterans with Our Support

On this Memorial Day I'd like to honor my teachers, the warriors who are helping me understand the war experience, sharing their stories of commitment, personal sacrifice, and forgiveness.

And to all the good people who help veterans on their journey of recovery, I owe you a debt of gratitude, too. I hope that readers will join with me to show this gratitude in kind and support. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Soldier's Heart (soldiersheart.net) to help veterans heal and support the good work of those who are shepharding this journey.