Shari Sherman

Shari Sherman

Friday, February 4, 2011

Let Your Voice Be Heard

I realize that it has been a couple of weeks since I have blogged and I want to give you an update. Rest assured that I have not dropped off the deep end, nor have I been suffering from artist block, and I definitely haven't grown tired of the blogosphere. I've just been taking care of business. Business business. Family business. House business. Personal business.

Busy, busy, bee, that's me!

I know there was a time when I said to myself that January is a great time to schedule all of the physicals and dental appts. To start fresh, to start anew. That's all well and good, but it's a lot to take care of in one little old month, especially after getting a slow start. The good news is we're all almost up to date. The bad news is that I'll need some physical therapy to rehab my shoulder from my skateboarding "incident" last year. But as far as bad news goes, that's really not that bad. I'm hoping for some heat wraps and deep massage.

I've also been restoring my Soul, and cleaning out my Soul House with The Brave Girls, and that takes a lot of energy and time. And I feel drawn to devote my time to it, to myself. If I could do this course all day, I would. It has been amazing so far and I highly recommend it to anyone considering this e-course. It's like a big hug that I've really needed, especially during this busy season. When, like a lot of other wife-mother-artists, we have a tendency to lose ourselves in the day-to-day needs of EVERYONE.

Also, my creativity group, the VOGs, have been feeling feisty, and hopeful, and ready to take on this new year...ready for whatever comes next! We've been reading Brene Brown's, I Thought It Was Just Me, which is deep and I can already tell it's going to be life changing. I'm in the process of planting my seeds and tending my garden, so when I figure things out a little more, I'll let you know. Right now, I'm just happy going in the direction I'm going. Slow and steady like a turtle.
 
On the other hand, some of us are breaking out, such as our beautiful, inspiring, courageous Elle Dowdy.  
Elle is a writer and a poet in the richest, fullest sense. And she has the type of reading voice that actually makes me love listening to poetry. This woman could make a grocery list sound luscious and velvety and....you get the picture.

So our group recently enjoyed a very special event in her life...her first public reading! Her word for the year is ACTION, and this was some serious Brave Action.

There is a wonderful little place in downtown Orlando called The Dandelion Communitea Cafe. A bright green building specializing in homegrown, organic goodness with a big emphasis on community!
They have a wonderful spoken word night on the 1st Tuesday of the month, called Di-verse Word, hosted by Shawn Welcome, an amazing poet, who was "welcoming" and quite funny.
Elle was called early in the evening and she got up there in front of us and a full house of perfect strangers. Her words flowed easily like she'd been doing this forever. She was just fabulous, and I am still in awe of her talent and her fearlessness. Simply magical. I am just so honored to have been there for her debut. Our little group is blooming...

The rest of the night was just plain inspirational. Most of the poets are quite a bit younger, in their 20s, and they are just so genuine, raw, real, AUTHENTIC. The power that they put behind their words, behind their voices is AWESOME. Mr. McKinnon, Kate Mariner, Curtis Meyer...just a few of the amazing young souls that are letting their voices be heard and spreading some powerful inspiration. If you have a chance to catch this night, do it. You will walk away with a changed perspective, inspired, and energized.


 

Diverse Word's host, Shawn Welcome, is a nominee for Best Poet at Orlando's Hip Hop Awards being held this weekend. I hope he does well. His whole heart is definitely in it and I always like to see that type of inspired creativity get recognized. Good Luck, Shawn!

So that is just a bit of what has been going on in my part of the world. I'm happy that I found some time today to blog about it. I've missed this.

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1 comment:

  1. It was a magical night! Elle was so very brave, her magical words pouring forth. Wow, the power of that night!! Thanks for sharing photos, Shari.

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