Stories

Read This: Examining a Creative Life Well-Lived in Books By Hand

by Dr. Jessie Voigts /
Dr. Jessie Voigts's picture
Feb 24, 2022 / 0 comments
Have you ever known an artist that is so completely immersed in the creative life that they just glow with it…for a lifetime? Such is the case with an extraordinary artist, Gerard Brender à Brandis, whom we interviewed at his studio in Stratford, Ontario several years ago, and kept visiting whenever we were in town. (His studio is closed now, and only open by appointment.) 
 
Dr. Jessie Voigts's picture

Read This: Captivating History Comes Alive with The School of Mirrors

This is one of those magnificent books. You know...a book that you cannot put down, that time travels you back to a specific place and, while you’re reading it, you’re so engrossed that you look up and are surprised to be in the now? 

Read This: Captivating History Comes Alive with The School of Mirrors

Music for a Month of Transitions

by Kerry Dexter /
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Feb 21, 2022 / 0 comments

February: whether you are in the northern hemisphere with winter or the southern one with summer, it is a month of transition. In weather, in plans, in quality of light, and in the stories we tell, there are contrasts and changes, back and forth, from one day to the next.

Here are several ways musicians look at these things. At whatever point in the year you are reading this, there is much to explore and consider.

Music for a Month of Transitions

Stasia Lopez's picture

Alexandria Kovack: #CommunityCollegeBecause ... it might just be the choice that changes your life

Alexandria Kovack is currently working on her Business Management degree from the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC), and has a goal to open a nonprofit organization that helps to rehabilitate Veterans in the future. 

Alexandria Kovack: #CommunityCollegeBecause ... it might just be the choice that changes your life

A.G. Castillo's picture

Valiente: Courage and Consequences

In Valiente: Courage and Consequences, Chente Jimenez is a popular high school athlete who bravely navigates his road to self-acceptance and boldly confronts homophobia in the locker room. His road to self-discovery is filled with the impulsive innocence of young love and the cruelty of social media gossip.

Through the Eyes of an Educator: Surviving vs. Thriving

by Stacey Ebert /
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Feb 08, 2022 / 0 comments

At the turn of a new year, often thoughts turn to dreams, desires—and sometimes even destiny. We rethink, refocus, reset for the next to come. Whether you set intentions, made some of those resolutions, or have given yourself a talking to in order to remain more in the present moment, December turns to January...and then the hard work begins. 

Through the Eyes of an Educator: Surviving vs. Thriving

Music for Beginnings and Changes

by Kerry Dexter /
Kerry Dexter's picture
Jan 17, 2022 / 0 comments

The start of a new year always seems to suggest and invite beginnings and changes, thinking over what has come before and considering what may be.

In these shifting times with changes and uncertainties continuing in every aspect of life, music can offer reflection, hope, and guidance when considering all these situations.

Music for Beginnings and Changes

Dr. Jessie Voigts's picture

Close to the heart: Women-led NFT project PUL3E to launch charitable mission to raise funds for Heart Failure

PUL3E is an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) project founded by Emilie and her partner Andrew, creating unique digital art on the Ethereum blockchain. PUL3E have pledged to donate 5-10% of all proceeds raised from selling their NFT art to Heart Failure charities. Their 3D animated artwork is based on a 3D model of the human heart and true-to-life ECG patterns, showcasing a range of heart conditions and abnormalities.

Dr. Jessie Voigts's picture

Celebrating Resilience and Our Wild, Outrageous Capacity for Love: Jeannine Ouellette's The Part That Burns

Oh, this book. I just finished The Part That Burns, an extraordinary, powerful, must-read memoir by Jeannine Ouellette. The Part That Burns epitomizes what Parul Sehgal, in a recent New Yorker article on trauma, wrote: "trauma becomes but one rung of a ladder. Climb it; what else will you see?" In The Part That Burns, Ouellette does, indeed, climb a ladder from trauma to healing.

Through the Eyes of an Educator: Cultivating Compassion, Kindness, & Empathy

by Stacey Ebert /
Stacey Ebert's picture
Jan 03, 2022 / 0 comments

We’ve turned the calendar page. As December has now come to a close, the lessons of the previous year hover between one year’s end and the other’s beginning. The old, the icky, the struggles, the issues of that past year shift into the focus of lessons learned and goals for a new year.

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