Power to Change: Creative Aging Symposium was a one-day virtual
event hosted by Senior Center Without Walls (SCWW) and Creative Aging San Francisco:
“Elders are looking for
ways to have their voices heard, to create change in their lives, and the lives
of others…
Whether you think of
yourself as creative or not, we will give tools to unlock the creative promise
we all carry… creativity is beyond art-making – it is about using your
imagination to forge new paths. This symposium will share inspiring stories and
creative tools to ignite changes from the very personal level of communicating
one’s story all the way to addressing policy-makers.”
This online Symposium, accessible via computer or phone, included
15-minute breaks for reflection between presentations and a 75-minute lunch break.
Fred Mandell, Ph.D., co-author
of Becoming a Life Change Artist: 7 Creative Skills to Reinvent Yourself at Any Stage in Life (2010), talked about risk-taking in his creative transition. Leaving the familiarity of a 21-year career
in financial services, Fred explored the unknown when he enrolled in a
sculpture class as he had not taken an art class since 7th
grade. Three years into studying
sculpture, he had a one-man show to sell his art and then took up painting; his
artworks are sold online. His reflections: “Do and learn at
the same time …Build skills through failure in workshops …Find a community of
support …develop a new network (tribe) that will be a source of encouragement
and resilience … passion will sustain growth and discovery.” He recommended journaling that helps reflect
on our state of mind and heart, opportunities and disappointments.
In 2014, Fred founded Global Institute for Arts and Leadership,
a nonprofit that uses arts-based learning for innovative leadership and social
impact. Fred explained art’s value in problem-solving by providing divergent, expansive
ways of looking/thinking and a communal experience to make and share art that
will elicit a response and dialogue that is less threatening than politics—a
fixed mindset can be challenged with art that connects what’s deep inside us
and to the world.
According to Fred’s book, here are the
7 creative skills to reinvent yourself:
- Preparation: Deliberately engaging in activities that help break us from our usual patterns of thought and feeling, and prepare us for creative insight.
- Seeing: Discerning new connections, fresh perspectives and possibilities.
- Using context: Understanding how varied environments in which we live and work influence our thoughts and behaviors, and then using this knowledge to make changes in our lives.
- Embracing uncertainty: Acting on opportunities, sometimes hidden, presented by change and uncertainty.
- Risk taking: Acting without certainty of outcome.
- Discipline: Acting consistently, regardless of motivation.
- Collaboration: Engaging with others to help one make desired changes.
- Time Slips creative storytelling project (Anne Basting's “forget memory, try imagination”) with people with dementia, using photo image, facilitator, echoer, and scribe. This experience enabled member Emily to be more comfortable with memory loss, after realizing that memory goes, but lots left—creativity, imagination and fun remain.
- Playback Theater with Ed Bernstein and Sarah Strong, learning that improv is about trusting inner guidance; using roles of conductor (like to add anything?), teller (new perspective on life story), and actor.
After lunch break, enjoyed 15 minutes of
Poetry Reading by Gregory Pond, who has published two books of
poetry, Blackened Blue and after
moon. We were nostalgic or looking forward to our next meal as he read home
cookin’:
back burner glows
slow slimmer on
crock pot watch
heated up then
turned down low
to slightly bubbling
babbling brook…
rich thick steam rising
and mixing above
with
the good home aroma
of spices
and love.
David “Lucky” Goff, Ph.D.,
author of The Evolving Elder: Applying What Really Matters to Life (2017) and community organizer, talked about surviving a hemorrhagic stroke in 2003 and
experiencing a “traumatic blessing.”
After his stroke left him permanently disabled, he lost his marriage,
home, and career in psychotherapy. He started
writing a journal, Reports from the Slow Lane (now blog),
to exorcise his regrets, re-learned to speak so he has been on Growing an Elder Culture radio show for past 6 years now, and co-founded Elders Salon in Sebastopol. Lucky said he has been living
creatively as a social artist because of his hardships, and his experience with
disability has meant moving to a slower pace so he can notice what’s going on, rather
than miss a lot while speeding through life.
Postcards with a Punch workshop demonstrated
how writing your legislators does make a difference and provided tips on how to
make our letters stand out.
- Shirley Krohn of California Senior Legislature discussed Meals on Wheels’ “Don’t Empty My Plate” campaign that involved seniors writing their personal stories (“If it wasn’t for Meals on Wheels, I would starve”) on paper plates for visual impact and sent to Congress.
- Jessica McCracken of Ruth’s Table suggested ways to get informed on policy issues (American Society on Aging, Leading Age, Americans for the Arts), and then showed how to create a collage from magazine clippings, using glue stick, on a 3”x5” postcard with message—"AGING massive power JUST BEAUTIFUL" or song lyrics/poems that touch the soul.
After the polarizing 2016 election, Cindy Weil left her
wallpaper business to follow her impulse to be part of something bigger and
found Enactivist. She launched the Immigrant Yarn Project, involving
seniors and Girls Scouts in piecing together a yarn-based creation (knit
squares, pom-poms) representing our common immigrant roots for a massive public
art, open-air installation at Fort Point this fall.
SCWW Program Manager Katie Wade (pictured above at left) concluded the symposium, noting the mosaic Power to Change logo of the butterfly symbolizing transformation, reflection and exploration of our creativity as a tool for change within ourselves and our community.
SCWW Program Manager Katie Wade (pictured above at left) concluded the symposium, noting the mosaic Power to Change logo of the butterfly symbolizing transformation, reflection and exploration of our creativity as a tool for change within ourselves and our community.
Art-making
Rhoda Goldman Plaza (RGP) Assisted Living residents learned step-by-step Portrait Painting taught by Mike Ritch of Jean Henry School of Art (pictured with model Amy Hittner,
Board member of Legacy Film Festival on Aging and former Chair of SFSU
Counseling Department).
RGP’s
Annual Resident Art Show + Reception with
strolling violinist Seth Byrd, featured origami by Hedy, paintings by Roberta,
and mixed collage/painting by Shelly.
Metal sculptures by
Barry
Upcycled art by
Freda
Power of Resilience
This month’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration at
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts featured a screening of the documentary, “Resilience:The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope”,
followed by journalist Belva Davis moderating a discussion with panelists: James
Redford (filmmaker), Claire Willhite (Center for Youth Wellness), Lyslynn Lacoste (Bayview-Hunters Point Mobilization for Adolescent Growth in
our Communities) and Lauran Cherry (Alameda Department of Education).
The
documentary explored the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE, such as
abuse, neglect, household dysfunction) on adult health and behaviors, and adopting a resilience-oriented approach to trauma-informed care. According to
the ACE study, chronic inflammation due to toxic stress in childhood can lead to changes in brain
development and body systems. Resilience is built over time, so universal
screening and interventions (presence of a stable, caring adult; therapy;
mindfulness; nutrition; exercise) are key.
FDR Democratic Club
hosted a community conversation on Disaster
Preparedness for Seniors and People with Disabilities (PWD) at Lighthouse
for the Blind and Visually Impaired. We
viewed Rooted in Rights’ “Right to be Rescued,” a short documentary that tells the stories of PWD affected
by Hurricane Katrina. In times of disaster (hurricanes, wildfires, severe weather, etc.), older adults and PWD are vulnerable due to special needs and tend to be
overlooked. In “The Right to be Rescued: Disability Justice in an Age of Disaster," Adrien Weibgen argued for the right of PWD to receive emergency services,
including their input in emergency planning.
“…the
systemic exclusion of PWDs from disaster plans, coupled with arguments that it
may be impossible to meet the needs of all people during times of disaster,
suggests a widespread, if tacit, endorsement of the notion that it is fine to
value lives differently when push comes to shove…Rather than accept as
inevitable that some people will be left behind, we must significantly increase
our overall level of commitment to managing emergency events.”
We heard from local
and state officials on disaster preparedness:
Daniel Homsey, Director of Neighborhood Resilience, visited New Orleans 10 years ago in aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which he called a “social justice disaster." Each of us can asset map, prepare Recology disaster kit, get Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) training by SF Fire Department, and know our community (get connected to AlertSF to receive real-time emergency alerts by texting your zip code to 888-777). After noting that 70% of the City’s first responders do not live in the City, Daniel talked about building community resilience through grassroots Neighborhood Empowerment Network (NEN)’s Empowered Communities Program (ECP). He encouraged us to build “who’s in kit” (social capital) through relationships in the community to kick-off a social contract of caring and problem-solving; for example, Resilient Miraloma Park neighbors staged an off-the-grid block party to practice their safety responses using emergency radios for communications and solar generators for cooking. Daniel explained that the City promotes Neighborfests as community building tools through incentives by removing fees, providing free barricades and training for organizing block parties for neighbors: how to form teams, implement a plan and feed one another – frequent practice uses muscle memory to respond in a real emergency.
Vance Taylor, Chief of the Office of Access and Functional Needs at the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, joined the meeting via Skype. Vance is responsible for ensuring the needs of individuals with disabilities and persons with access and functional needs are identified before, during and after a disaster.
Daniel Homsey, Director of Neighborhood Resilience, visited New Orleans 10 years ago in aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which he called a “social justice disaster." Each of us can asset map, prepare Recology disaster kit, get Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) training by SF Fire Department, and know our community (get connected to AlertSF to receive real-time emergency alerts by texting your zip code to 888-777). After noting that 70% of the City’s first responders do not live in the City, Daniel talked about building community resilience through grassroots Neighborhood Empowerment Network (NEN)’s Empowered Communities Program (ECP). He encouraged us to build “who’s in kit” (social capital) through relationships in the community to kick-off a social contract of caring and problem-solving; for example, Resilient Miraloma Park neighbors staged an off-the-grid block party to practice their safety responses using emergency radios for communications and solar generators for cooking. Daniel explained that the City promotes Neighborfests as community building tools through incentives by removing fees, providing free barricades and training for organizing block parties for neighbors: how to form teams, implement a plan and feed one another – frequent practice uses muscle memory to respond in a real emergency.
Vance Taylor, Chief of the Office of Access and Functional Needs at the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, joined the meeting via Skype. Vance is responsible for ensuring the needs of individuals with disabilities and persons with access and functional needs are identified before, during and after a disaster.
Event included
resource tables by nonprofit and government organizations:
- Independent Living Resource Center SF (Fiona Hinze, Systems Change Coordinator/Community Organizer): “Prepare to Prosper: The Positive Way to Prepare for Emergencies” video focuses on building resilience--1) think ahead (preparedness is for everyday life), 2) communicate in different ways, and 3) mobilize assets (make environment safe).
- Community Living Campaign (Marie Jobling, Executive Director): builds neighborhood networks of support—turning strangers into neighbors, and neighbors into friends
- SF Department of Emergency Management (Lisa Starliper, Emergency Planning Manager): sign up for public alerts and check out resources at https://www.sf72.org/
- Joanna Fraguli, Deputy Director of Programmatic Access at Mayor’s Office on Disability: Disability Disaster Preparedness Committee (DDPC) meets every other month to identify policy needs and propose concrete recommendations.
