Speaker 2 00:00:57 And good evening. Thank you for joining disability and progress, where we bring you in sites into ideas about and discussions on disability topics. My name is Sam. I'm the host of this show. Good to be here with you. Charlene doll is my research team. Hello, Charlene.
Speaker 3 00:01:13 Good evening, everyone.
Speaker 2 00:01:14 Do you know, somebody was talking to me, they're like, you know, you're, you're saying good evening, but really because you know, we an archive and you can listen to that anytime for the next two weeks. And we're all so podcasted so, and you can listen to that anytime. So you may not be listening in the evening after this, but Hey, good. Whatever. I also wanna remind people that if you'd like to be on our email list, you can email me at disability and progress at, at Sam, jasmine.com. And well, I'm gonna start, but we are supposed to have two people. You do. Oh, we do. Okay. Yay. You made it. Um, we have Anne Petta and Peter Al and good evening folks.
Speaker 5 00:02:03 Good evening. Can you hear me?
Speaker 2 00:02:04 I can hear you, Anne. Awesome.
Speaker 5 00:02:06 This is Peter.
Speaker 2 00:02:07 Yeah. Anne should be there too. Yes. There you go. All right. Hi Anne.
Speaker 6 00:02:14 Hey,
Speaker 2 00:02:14 Good to hear you guys. Thanks for being on, um, these two are gonna be talking tonight about F a or friends in art. So let's start out. Um, I was gonna say, this is, I didn't really give you an outline. This is kind of a free for all, but judging by if you were listening to the last show. Woo <laugh>. Um, let's see. Let's start out by talking. Uh, what, what is, and how did it get it started? What is friends in art and how did they get started?
Speaker 5 00:02:52 So friends in art is an affiliate of the American council of the blind. Uh, and the history is that sometime in the eighties, early eighties, when the conventions were just getting started, uh, somebody, some, some folks had the idea, that'd be fun to have serve an event where folks sort of hung out around the piano and just sang sort of stuff. And it was just of an informal event. And so that was a great success and the next step was okay, can we formal this somehow? And thus be thus form the, uh, what we called the showcase of the performing arts, which is an annual variety show, which is one of the highlights of the ape convention. And from that, the idea was, well, okay, we have this show, can we form a sort of a informal group of artists that can sort of advocate for, or other artists that can provide support for other artists and thus friends in art? Our FIA was formed, uh, and I'm, I'm guessing sometime in the mid eighties was, it was, it was formed and ever since then we have grown and, um, we still have our annual showcase. We still do, uh, a, uh, in conjunction with conventions. We do a few other things as well, which I'm sure we'll talk about yes. Um, down the road, but, but that's who we are.
Speaker 2 00:04:07 So, and
Speaker 5 00:04:08 Annie, Annie, one other quick thing. Do you remember off the top of your head? What our, what our, uh, mission statement is?
Speaker 7 00:04:13 Yes. Friends in art is the place where visually impaired artists and audience members thrive
Speaker 2 00:04:22 And thrive. How did you two stumble upon friends in art? And when
Speaker 5 00:04:29 I sort of stumbled on it, um, in earnest in the early nineties, I sort of knew a couple of the players formally, and I was just really busy. Didn't have time to in engage mm-hmm <affirmative>, but in the nineties, I started, um, participating in the, uh, the, uh, showcase. Um, I, um, I'm a composer, uh, and a percussionist. And so I, uh, did, did some work there. And then, uh, I was invited to join the board or was elected to join the board. As I remember during the meeting, when I was elected to, uh, to join the board, I was, I was investigating an, an air hockey table for blind people. I missed the meeting cuz I was so enthralled with the air hockey game. But anyway, I was, I was like, I I've been on the board in various capacities, uh, ever since. And, uh, Annie, what's your story?
Speaker 7 00:05:17 Well, Peter, you're the one that, uh, that called me one day and said, Hey, would you like to be on the board of directors for friends in art? And uh, I thought about it. And then I said, sure, why not? Before then I really didn't have, uh, like, uh, I mean I knew about friends in art. I had attended some of the workshop. I, um, I was just starting out, you know, in my writing career mm-hmm <affirmative> and I attended a couple of the poetry things. And, um, and then I had known Peter previously as well, um, through some of the work, um, we just kind of bumped into each other along the way at conventions and stuff. And then, um, you know, once he asked me to do it, I said, sure, give it a try. And, uh, I've, I've had a really great experience ever since.
Speaker 2 00:06:10 Excellent. Well, thank you. That's that was a, a really good history there. Um, now both of you have, I mean, both of you are, are artists and, and both of you actually, I know you said you're kind of a composer, Peter, but you're also an author. Um, and I can prove it cause I've had you on my show. Ha
Speaker 5 00:06:32 Ha. You have, yes, you
Speaker 2 00:06:33 Have Annie too. You have, um, so both of you are writers and so how does that work? Is that okay to be on the board and, and still folk and, and kind of promote your writing. You guys know, we,
Speaker 5 00:06:49 We, we, we try to encourage as many, uh, different kinds of artists as possible to, to join the organization. So we have folks on the board, most of the folks on the board are, are musicians, but we do have authors like Annie. And we do have, uh, people who are primarily recording engineers on the board. And we are hoping, we are hoping that over time we will get, uh, visually impaired artists to art musicians, you know, who are painters or sculptors or dancer. Uh, we, we, we are really trying to branch out to other art type of types of artists that is a goal for us over the next several years. Uh, and so, and, and our showcase or our variety show, uh, we always have several artists, uh, writers who read their stuff during the show. And that's always fun to, Annie's done it for, for several years. I've done it a couple times and it's, it's a great addition to the, to the, to the show.
Speaker 2 00:07:46 Yes. We'll talk about that in a little bit. Um, I'm wondering, because I know there's a lot of different things you do. Um, so how big is your collect of people?
Speaker 5 00:08:01 Do you know a number, Annie? I think it's, we have like 50 members right now. Something like that. Does that sound about right to
Speaker 7 00:08:06 You? It's about 60 active members and we have about Hmm, 40 or so people on our friends in art, um, email list.
Speaker 2 00:08:18 Excellent.
Speaker 7 00:08:19 Excellent.
Speaker 2 00:08:19 Yeah. Now I know that, I mean, you guys are, uh, do a lot of stuff online and I am presuming that this was going on before the big C and <laugh>. So did, did COVID even change you guys at all?
Speaker 5 00:08:40 Well, it, it changed the way we, we, we host our, do our activities at the convention in a, in a major way. Uh, the showcase prior to the COVID was, was live. Uh, and we had, in some years we had a house band, uh, where we had a, that, that backed up artists, you know, uh, uh, potential acts. And I was the drummer and we, we, we were an amazing group of musicians, uh, who every year got together and, uh, worked our butts off to, to pull this off and had a great time under a lot of pressure. Uh, it was run at the time by got my name Gordon Kent, who is a really talented musician in his own. Right. And Mike Mandel, who's currently our president who is also a musician in his own. Right. And, um, we, we, we, we were pretty good, but when COVID happened, we changed the way we do business and now everything is done, uh, virtually, you know, so folks send us stuff, we put it together.
Speaker 5 00:09:33 We have two terrific sort of engineers who put it together and it's posted on ACB media. It's played, um, in this case, it's being done on the last Friday in June. I think it is mm-hmm <affirmative>, I don't have the date in front of me, but it's, that's when it is. And, um, it will be, and then it's gonna be rebroadcast live for those who are gonna be attending the convention in person, the following, and next couple of weeks afterwards. So, um, and you know, what's gonna happen in the future. I have no idea. You know, the, the, the virtual version has gotten so much positive, um, comments, people seem to really like it. And so, um, we are, I am sort of worried that there won't be enough talent who actually can afford to go to the conventions to make it worthwhile, to do it live anymore. But you know, that over time we will determine that, but we have such talent who sent us stuff that we, we are very happy with. The way things have turned out, as far as the show is concerned. Similarly, the other, other activities were all live and, and, uh, this year, again, we're doing them all or almost all, uh, online.
Speaker 2 00:10:33 Okay. So just so I can understand. So, so let's talk a little bit about the showcase. Do you still have time to do people still have time to apply?
Speaker 5 00:10:43 They do
Speaker 2 00:10:44 Cause I've helped you with this last year. And that was a lot of fun. You
Speaker 7 00:10:47 Did. Yes, you
Speaker 5 00:10:48 Did. You were wonderful. She was, she, she was one of the co-hosts.
Speaker 2 00:10:52 That was a lot fun.
Speaker 5 00:10:54 I really, really
Speaker 2 00:10:55 Enjoyed
Speaker 5 00:10:55 That. The two of you did a fabulous job. And so, um, what, what we ask people to do, if you wanna participate, uh, is to send us something that you'd like us to be included in the showcase. We, uh, there are number, there are a number of requests, one of which is that the performance is under five minutes. The other request is that, uh, it it's fr family friendly. So, you know, we don't, we really don't encourage profanity. We know that that happens in music and, and rap a lot. And it, sometimes that's wonderful, but not for this event. I agree. Um, yeah. And, um, we ask you to send, um, your samples, uh, or, uh, a link to, we can find your stuff to what's the address. Uh, Annie
Speaker 7 00:11:37 Show
[email protected].
Speaker 5 00:11:42 So
[email protected]. Uh, and we don't guarantee everybody who sends stuff and will get on the show. Cuz we, we, uh, the show runs no more than two hours. We look for something like 20 acts or 22 acts or some, whatever the number 10 ends up being. But we, we look for a variety of different stuff. We pre, especially like in, um, uh, original stuff, whether it be poetry or, or music, uh, well, you know, we like other stuff too, but if you, if you did original stuff that that's wonderful. And we also, um, prefer up up temple stuff. People send, tend to send us sort of ballads and ballots are ballots are wonderful, but we, we, uh, you know, if you send us something that's upbeat and a bit quirky sometimes, uh that's that that's really helps us, um, uh, uh, pace the show. There's too many ballots. It's hard for us to keep the mood properly. So, right. Um, so, you know, uh, but we we'll accept anything and then we figure out who's in and who's out and we, and then we figure out which order we'll do it. And that's how it works.
Speaker 7 00:12:46 And the deadline is May 20th,
Speaker 5 00:12:49 May 20th. So it's yeah, it's a month, a month from today. Right. Still do that. Someth
Speaker 2 00:12:53 Got some time. Yep. Yep. Um, so, and you are saying that people can kind of submit anything that they're doing and you're doing it. You're not doing it live this year.
Speaker 5 00:13:04 We are not.
Speaker 2 00:13:05 Okay. So same as last year,
Speaker 5 00:13:08 Same as last year.
Speaker 2 00:13:09 And did you have people missing the live part or, I mean, I thought it sounded really good last year. Did you get any response that people were missing having it performed right in front of them?
Speaker 5 00:13:22 We have never got any feedback about that at all. People seem to absolutely love what we did now. It's quite different this year. Cuz in the past two years, the convention was totally virtual. So this year, you know, people may say, Hey, you know, why isn't the showcase live? And you know, so we, we may have that conversation, but for the past two years we haven't, it's been, I mean, people have just loved what we, you know, loved what we've done. I've got, we've gotten very, very little negative, uh, uh, feedback. Uh, so you know, so that, that's all I can say about that.
Speaker 2 00:13:54 Okay. So
Speaker 7 00:13:55 I think the other thing is, oh, um, go ahead. I'm sorry. No, no, go ahead. Go ahead. That we get, I think we get a bigger variety of performers when we do it virtually because they're not, uh, limited by whether or not they can get to the convention or pay for, you know, pay for travel or, you know, in terms of, um, then an then we had COVID and that, you know, so people, I think, you know, just having been part of it, you know, and done the live piece and then going over the virtual piece, I'm really impressed with the, you know, the, the variety that, uh, that the virtual showcase, uh, attracts
Speaker 2 00:14:36 Thing I think too, is that if you're one of those people that lies, likes delay tracks, that's a little easier to do it. <laugh>
Speaker 7 00:14:44 Yes. You know?
Speaker 2 00:14:45 Oh yeah, you're doing that. Yeah. Um, we, is it over
Speaker 7 00:14:49 Virtuosos? Yes. Yes.
Speaker 2 00:14:51 And that's allowed, right?
Speaker 7 00:14:54 Sure. All
Speaker 2 00:14:54 Right.
Speaker 5 00:14:54 Yeah. We, we, as I said, we, we like, we like original stuff. So if you lay down your tracks and send us a really polished, uh, something or other, in whatever style you, you like, we'll, you know, we'll take it seriously.
Speaker 2 00:15:07 So we were just talking about the friends and art showcase that you have until May 20th. And, um, can you just repeat that address one more time? Annie
Speaker 7 00:15:19 Showcase friends in art.org.
Speaker 2 00:15:23 Great. Let's talk about the convention. Um, I don't know if you, can you speak a little bit about the ACB convention, American council of the blind that's coming up this summer and I don't know the dates, but I presume you guys are gonna have some live stuff there.
Speaker 5 00:15:41 We actually, the only thing that we're gonna have live, uh, is a post, uh, the banquet, first of all, the dates of the convention are, are July 1st through eighth. That's that's the date of the in-person convention. We'll we'll, we'll talk about the virtual convention in a second, but so the in person is from July 1st through July 8th on July 6th, which is a Thursday is the annual ACB banquet. And after the banquet, we're gonna be hosting a, uh, showcase listening P party where folks can hang out together with an open bar and sort of listen to the show. And they'll be a, a surprise guest from friends and our people who will, who will be there. I'm hoping some of our scholarship folks will be there. And, um, so folks can get to meet and greet some of the, some of the people. And we just hope it'll be sort of a nice way for folks to unwind from the, of the convention.
Speaker 2 00:16:34 Do you know why are they having it over 4th of July weekend?
Speaker 5 00:16:38 Because the hotel rates are cheaper.
Speaker 2 00:16:40 Oh, really?
Speaker 5 00:16:42 Yep. I, I think, I think that's the, I, I think that's the answer.
Speaker 2 00:16:47 I,
Speaker 5 00:16:47 Because, because people tend to be doing other things on the 4th of July, rather than, you know, going to action centers, you know, fireworks and swimming and drinking beer and, you know, and barbecues and whatever else they do on the 4th of July. And so that's that hotel rates tend to be cheaper that week.
Speaker 2 00:17:04 So, um, do you, what are your thoughts on cuz it sounds like you guys are gonna be having a virtual presence <affirmative> um, do you think, I, I'm just curious of the numbers of live participants that are gonna show up.
Speaker 5 00:17:23 We are too
Speaker 2 00:17:24 <laugh>
Speaker 5 00:17:25 We? No, we, I seriously, we are too. And I'm sure the officers are as well. Uh, I, there was an email that came, came across my desk from somebody, uh, from ACS said that it was costing him a thousand dollars to get a round trip ticket from wherever he lived to, uh, Omaha, which is where the convention is. And I, I worry, uh, how many of us can afford thousand dollars round trip tickets? I certainly can't. Right. And, uh, I it's, it's a, a real puzzle. I don't know how, how they're gonna deal with this, but you know, it's time to, to, to experiment, you know, we've done this, uh, totally virtually for two years and it's time, you know, uh, to, to move forward and see what happens. But I really do worry about, you know, uh, the, the gap between those who can't afford to attend and those who can't, and that's why we're doing ours virtually.
Speaker 2 00:18:11 And I wonder, um, what they will do with the exhibit halls. Are they still gonna have a virtual presence with the exhibit halls? Do you know
Speaker 5 00:18:20 They are, but, but there will be in person, uh, uh, exhibitors as well. But one of the questions that I, again, I would ask as an exhibitor is, you know, the, the, the hours for them are really, really long. You know, she was like, Sunday through Thur, I'm making this up Sunday through Wednesday from essentially, you know, eight in the morning till five in the afternoon or nine to five or whatever the hours are. Yeah. They're long. And if, if, if they're not enough people to populate the exhibit room, why go exactly. You know, it's, it's a lot of money and it's a lot of time. So these are all questions that are that tattoo wrestled with over the next couple of years. Um, but you know, but there will be, there will be some kind of virtual stuff as well for them.
Speaker 2 00:19:01 And in a sense, um, that has really changed the course of how things are held in general. Um, but I, I do think, you know, as not just a blind person, but as a blind person as well, you lose something, not being able to, or not going in person at the same time, you know, this, the whole safety thing too. But, um,
Speaker 5 00:19:29 And, and for me, it's not, it's not a same issue. I mean, I I'm healthy and I don't worry that for me, it's a cost issue.
Speaker 2 00:19:34 Well, there's that for
Speaker 5 00:19:35 Me too, it's, it's a cost issue. I mean, who, you know, I'm, you know, for those who could afford it, that's wonderful, but most people, you know, that I know can't right. And how do you, how do you, how do you rest with that? I don't know the answer to any of those questions. Um, but that's something, and it's not just us, every organization who has conventions or has got to deal with this stuff. Right. You know, this is an issue that is being written about in the business press. I read stuff about this all the time, cuz my, my real thing is an organization psychologist. So I read stuff and this, these are issues that are being addressed and wrestled with, by every, uh, business, you know, uh, tra trade association out there. And so, you know, this will, I'll shake itself out over the next two or three years, I think.
Speaker 2 00:20:14 But I do think there is a safety slash health issue that is here too. Um, of course, you know, I, I think there are the people who care and who want and who have gotten vaccinated and, and whatnot, but let's face it, you get enough UN vaccinated people or sick people and in the room, it's pretty hard to fight that. And so I'm sure there's some concern, um, on what to do and, and I'm sure ACB, as well as the other, um, team will be able to, will be kind of searching this out in the next couple years of what, you know, they're gonna do with this.
Speaker 5 00:20:51 Just like every other organization. Yeah, yeah. Just like every other organization you're right. And safety is a big deal and you know, will, will, will they, will we require be required to wear masks during, you know, during programs that's still up on the air last I heard or
Speaker 2 00:21:05 Especially made be in the exhibit hall,
Speaker 5 00:21:08 In the exhibit hall. Yeah. Or, or in the general sessions. Right. You know, where there are lots of people. Right.
Speaker 7 00:21:12 Um, I contact areas.
Speaker 5 00:21:14 Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So all, all that question still has not been to the best of my knowledge has not been determined yet. Uh, except that Nebraska is pretty lenient when it comes to masks. So, you know, my guess is it's gonna be voluntary.
Speaker 2 00:21:25 Well, everyone is right now.
Speaker 5 00:21:27 Yeah. Well that's true. Fair point fair point. But
Speaker 2 00:21:32 You
Speaker 5 00:21:32 Know, fair point. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:21:33 Yeah. Um, so what is, what is friends and art doing currently? You guys have been doing quite a bit of different things with scholarships and things like that. Talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 5 00:21:46 Well, let's talk since you mentioned the scholarships, uh, every year we give a scholarship of $1,500 to somebody, a, a student, either a high school or a college or graduate student who is getting some kind of arts related degree, whether it be as a musician, as a, a visual artist, as a writer, as a recording engineer, an arts, uh, therapist, uh, uh, you know, whatever it is. And we are actually just in the process of evaluating applications as we speak, we are interviewing a few folks on Saturday. We'll make a decision. I'm assuming pretty soon afterwards. And, um, so, and we've had over the past two or two, three years, we have been so thrilled with it, with the folks, uh, who we've given scholarships to, uh, Annie Annie's on the committee as well. Uh, just terrific. Just really talented, terrific people. Yes. Um, so, uh, you know, we, uh, this year it's obviously too late, but we hope that next year, folks who are, who know of people who are students in the arts we'll consider applying,
Speaker 2 00:22:51 What's the general timeline that you're doing, that whole scholarship thing.
Speaker 5 00:22:56 Uh, the, the, uh, the deadline this year was, was Valentine's day. So be probably around the same next year, say February 14th, 2023. Uh, and you fill it up an application form, which you can go, which you can get through going to the ACB website, acb.org, clicking on scholarship, uh, whatever, I think it's called scholarship information or something. And you fill out an online application. You, you send in your documentation, which in this case is, uh, proof of blindness, uh, uh, proof of transcript, and two letters of reference from people who, you know, proof professors or whoever who know you well. And we, uh, um, you know, look at that stuff and, and figure out, you know, first who we're gonna interview. So anyway, the deadline is in February and this gets sort of complicated, but essentially we don't the friends in art crowd don't start reviewing scholarships until, um, this year we didn't start really until, uh, mid-April ah, oh, no, sorry. Early April, early April. Uh, and so we try to get as quickly as possible. So those, um, you know, the winner can, can, you know, uh, know who's, uh, he or she is gonna get a, you know, $1,500 toward their scholarship and can plan accordingly. And those who don't win, you know, know as well. Um, and, uh, as I said before, we've been so pleased with the, with the caliber of applicants. Um, we, it, it's just been, I'm just humbled by the talent that's out there.
Speaker 2 00:24:22 And I'm presuming that to be in friends of, you have to have a visual disability and you may have other disabilities, but you have to have a visual one,
Speaker 5 00:24:32 Technically not. Um, but in order to be on the board or, or, uh, an officer, you have to have a visual impairment.
Speaker 2 00:24:38 Ah,
Speaker 5 00:24:39 Okay. So, you know, if, if, if folks wanna join us, you know, as, as members, as cited folks to support us, we are thrilled. Yeah. And, and in fact, we've had cited folks, uh, at conventions, uh, to help us when, when the showcase was live to help folks get on, get an on and off stage, which is a major challenge, you know, think about it, you know, people getting on, you know, you know, they do their thing. And as, as
Speaker 7 00:25:02 The man, they're,
Speaker 5 00:25:03 The next person gets on the stage and it's, you know, it's, it's, it's a major undertaking. And, um, we, we've been just thrilled to have volunteers help us with all that. It's a major it's, it's a it's if it doesn't go smoothly, that if that part doesn't go smooth, the showcase doesn't go smoothly. So it's a major part of the part, part of the, part of the, uh, the ballet, if you will.
Speaker 2 00:25:21 So besides the current, getting ready for the current showcase, are you guys doing a of the things right now what's happening?
Speaker 7 00:25:28 Yeah.
Speaker 5 00:25:29 Well, we, yeah. So you wanna talk about some of the, uh, activities, uh, that sure that we, that we're doing virtually in June.
Speaker 7 00:25:36 So we're doing, uh, we're doing a number of things from friends in art from June 23rd to 25th. We
Speaker 2 00:25:41 Got that. And,
Speaker 7 00:25:42 Uh, okay. So, and then we, on Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening name, we have a, uh, nontraditional artist panel, um, with artists, uh, from San Francisco, California. Um, they're a collective of artists and they're gonna talk to us about what it's like having, um, a show, um, gallery, you know, and, and gallery the pieces and the curator will be there. And so we're gonna have a disco discuss about what that's like, mm-hmm <affirmative>, uh, and then we're gonna have an effortless editing panel with a number of professional editors and writers. Uh, and we're gonna have a lot of, you know, Q and a, uh, and interaction with them. And I'm really looking forward to that because we have someone from national bail press that's going to be there. Um, we have someone that I know from a literary magazine for people with disabilities, um, called breath and shadow. They're gonna be there, um, a number of other, you know, authors and, uh, so it'll be fun.
Speaker 2 00:26:42 And are they critiquing or what are they doing?
Speaker 7 00:26:44 Basically, I haven't really figured out the questions yet. Um, but I think we're gonna focus on what it means to edit a piece of your own versus someone else's piece, how to keep professional relationships, uh, on a positive level, some of the struggles you have of when you need to, you know, share with a writer, um, you know, that, you know, it, some their work needs some work, um, and you know, and how to, how to keep that, uh, that level of professionalism when you're talking about, you know, so things that are so subjectively, um, you know, you're involved with. So, you know, so I think that'll be really, uh, really, uh, uh, you know, informative, cuz I think a lot of editors, uh, don't talk about those things. You know, they don't talk about the day they had, you know, was frustrating. You know, they struggled with a writer over changing a word, right. Or, you know, or something, you, you know, it, it seems so unimportant when you think about, oh, it's just a word, but it's not, it's an investment in your creativity. And um, I think we'll have some good discussion about
Speaker 2 00:27:54 It, you know, it's interesting. And I, I don't know if, you know, I feel like I, my first, uh, reaction to somebody once cuz I said, I feel like I've I see, um, well let me explain. I know more and more people nowadays are editing their own stuff or, you know, it's less expensive or can be if you can edit your own things and, and publish your own things. But one of the things I feel like I've, I'm finding is I'm finding more errors and I'm not sure that it, we really is happening more than it ever did before. But I, I think maybe it's because I read more of other people's things now that I do see, I feel like I see more grammatical or more spelling errors. Um, so that's interesting. And, and I do a combination. I'll listen audibly as well as I do read a lot of braille too. So, you know, mm-hmm, <affirmative> you, I think sometimes between the two you can get, oh, that would be that's my problem. Oh, hello PTA.
Speaker 5 00:28:56 Hey on Matt. Sorry. I can hear your nevermind. Keep, keep going.
Speaker 2 00:29:00 Okay. So anyway, that's my, and I don't know, I didn't really expect you to say anything to that. You've noticed something, but, um,
Speaker 5 00:29:08 I, I, I actually have a comment about that, but before I say that, I wanna say something that when Annie and I had talked about this E effortless editing session, mm-hmm, <affirmative> one of the things that Annie brought up, which I thought was really interesting was how editing is different now than it was say 20 years ago. Mm-hmm <affirmative> that certain things. And, and I hope that I'm sure we're gonna talk about that as well there that there are things like, one thing I didn't know, for example, is in the old days, poetry, every line in a poem was capitalized, not so much anymore, you know, and it's things like that that I think are worth discussing a little bit as well there, you know, that, that, uh, make a difference. Uh, so I'm looking forward to co co-facilitating that session with Annie. Well, and I'm very much looking forward to that, that, uh, sort of nontraditional visually impaired artists. I think they'll be absolutely fascinating
Speaker 2 00:29:53 And it is different that things have changed. And like when I was growing up, I always was taught two spaces after a period two spaces. Oh
Speaker 7 00:30:02 Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 00:30:04 So do you think, is that longer, is that laziness that some things are happening or is it just a change in how things are being done and is it better? Yeah. Or not?
Speaker 7 00:30:17 I think it, I think it's, it's based on digital. Uh <affirmative> uh, the, you know, the, the it's based on digital work, everything is, uh, on a computer now. And I mean, think about, um, block editing, you know, there's no such thing as, um, indenting anymore. It's all in blocks of texts, the shorter, the better, you know, people expect their, I mean, they're supposedly people's attention spans have shortened to like till they're four years old and no one wants to read long blocks of text on the computer or on, on their mobile devices, they wanna just flick through and get what they need and move on. And
Speaker 2 00:30:57 Well, I think we've,
Speaker 7 00:30:58 You know, that's one extreme of,
Speaker 2 00:31:01 I think, yeah, I think technology has created some of that short attention span thing. I don't think yeah. That it's really, I think people are capable of it, but, um, society has kind of created the whole, you don't have to <laugh> idea. Well, there's,
Speaker 5 00:31:18 There's, there's another complexity to this as well as I see it is that we are so, um, fragmented as a culture that there're different sort of dialects of, of, of writing. So there's the writing for the, for the so-called common person, but then you have legalese, you have bureaucrats, you have, you know, ACA academics, you have legalese, you have, you know, fill in the blank, you have sports, sports, ease,
Speaker 7 00:31:41 You have MLA styles versus APA style. You have professional versus, you know, con con conversational. And they all have their own rules. And, and, you know, <laugh>, as a writer, you've gotta be able to be pretty Conversent in all of those things to be successful.
Speaker 5 00:32:05 And, and I, I, I agree with that. And I, and I think that we, we forget, I know I did, when I, before I started writing, I, I was so used to writing in sort of journal E or, you know, psychologies that I took, took a professor said, Hey, you need to write in English.
Speaker 7 00:32:20 <laugh>, you know,
Speaker 5 00:32:21 I mean, seriously, I mean that, that, and I think there's a lot of that going on. Uh, and, and, and, and it's a real challenge for an editor and for a writer, you know, who, who is your audience? And I'm always, I'm when I, when I do write, I, I am a conscious, who am I writing for? You know? Uh, and I, I think it's more important now than it was 20 years ago.
Speaker 2 00:32:40 What would you guys like to see for friends in art in their future?
Speaker 5 00:32:47 I personally would like to see a more diverse group of, of folks. I, I am, uh, really making an effort, uh, to work with. Uh, Annie mentioned this as well, uh, to working with other, uh, ACB affiliates. Uh, she mentioned next gen, which is the affiliate for ACB members under 40. Uh, we have so many different groups that we know have arts talent that we, we really could benefit from, and they could benefit from joining us. And so I'm making, we're making more of an effort to reach out to those groups. I'd like to see more of a, that I liked one of the things, one of the reasons I'm so excited about this, um, non-traditional, uh, arts session is that we might be able to sort of branch out and do, and, and support more of that, those folks doing that kind of work we've been, we've been sort of, you know, talking more about musicians and I'm, I'm proud of the work we've done is we for musicians and, and writers, but, you know, we can do a lot more, there's a lot more we can do.
Speaker 5 00:33:44 Uh, and so I, I would like over the years to, to, to, um, to do more of that, the other, the other thing I, I am, and I'm, I'm speaking for myself, not for friends that aren't specifically is if you, if you look at what NB is doing, the other, uh, blind, uh, you know, advocacy organization, national fed for the blind artists are doing is AC sort of the same things that we are, you know, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're covering similar ground and I'd like to see us figure out ways of working together on a project or two
Speaker 2 00:34:14 Down the, I think that's, that would be very, very commendable, um, that no, it'd be doable, but I, I, I totally agree. I think there's a lot of things though, that people need to learn. Um, and I think if people look at the a, a R P you can look about numbers and stuff happens in numbers, you get things done in numbers. Um, people listen to you more in numbers. Uh there's a lot of that can be said for that. So hopefully, you know, there's gotta be some quote common ground, right? Peter. Yeah,
Speaker 5 00:34:49 Yeah, no, I, there, I mean, it, it sort of embarrasses me when I look at some of their stuff cuz I'm on a couple of their lists and you know, and, and 90% of the stuff that they're doing is similar to what we're doing. Mm yeah. You know, and, and I just, it it's just so frustrating, you know, uh, you know, that we're, we're doing the same kinds of things and I, I, I suspect, but I don't know for certain that there are some work being done behind the scenes by officers of both groups, but could be, but, but the, but, but, but it's, it's frowned upon. I mean, you know, I, I, I'm sure we all have stories. I know I do. Or people accuse me of being a trader because I wanna do certain things with a and F B and it's like, come on, guys, grow up. Yeah. But, you know, um, and, and there's a history that, that I do respect history. There's a reason that there, that I understand why the organization split up, but there's just too much work to do to, to, to yes. Sort of, you know, en cringe on each other's turf,
Speaker 2 00:35:41 It's time to come together and work on the things that can be accomplished by both parties.
Speaker 5 00:35:47 Yeah. That's, that's where the way I look at it's
Speaker 2 00:35:49 That's through the whole world, by the way.
Speaker 5 00:35:51 Yeah. That's, True's the other conversation, but, but
Speaker 7 00:35:54 That's right. I would like to see friends in our, at a podcast that, uh, just that everybody wants to listen to. Mm. I think that's part of the future part of bringing in the younger people, um, bringing in other artists, um, we're, you know, right now I think the art parlor we're, we're practicing, we're practicing. Yeah. And, and, you know, making plans for something better for the future. And, uh, that's, that's really what I, you know, if I had not one special project, that would be the special project.
Speaker 5 00:36:28 So you might wanna know, uh, Sam, what the art parlor is. Is that a question you were about to ask,
Speaker 2 00:36:32 Oh, please tell us
Speaker 5 00:36:33 Uhhuh. Yes. So the art parlor, we, we, uh, just sort of started around the, a time when COVID started. We were trying to figure out, okay, how, what can we do differently to be, to continue to be relevant? And what we decided to do was to interview, um, a artist who is, or someone involved with the arts who is blind or visually impaired, uh, and do a sort of a hour long sort of informal interview as if you were in a parlor, you know, drinking a glass of wine or a cup of tea or whatever your beverage of choice is. And just have a very informal conversation about who they are, what they do, um, why they do it and what advice they might give to folks who want to, you know, um, go down the path that, so today, in fact, um, we, uh, right before we joined you guys, we did an interview with a woman named Satana, uh, uh, how Howie, thank you.
Speaker 5 00:37:22 Who is a, um, uh, a vocal artist, you know, she does the voiceover stuff and, you know, and, and there's so much interesting things that blind artists are doing that we don't know about. Uh, and I, you know, so our thought was, so we, so we pro we record the podcasts they're posted on, on, you know, the usual places and they're, and they're, uh, played by the ACV media crowd, um, several times a month. So we've, we've had great success with that, but A's right. We, we, we could, we could, we could do a better job with them and, and do more with them. And, and I, I, so I'm hoping we could do more of that, but what we're doing is for already, we, we can do, we can do better though.
Speaker 2 00:38:03 Is there,
Speaker 7 00:38:04 And Sam, we even have you as a guest. That's
Speaker 5 00:38:06 Right. You, you were a guest as I member
Speaker 2 00:38:08 I, where do those get, did they get stored anywhere? Those I,
Speaker 7 00:38:14 They get stored on, um, ACB media. Um, so if somebody to asked, uh, so, um, we're right now, we're working on getting them all loaded onto our website, friends and art.org, but you can go to ACB media and find them, um, through the friends in art, art parlor podcast, it'll have all the episodes listed
Speaker 5 00:38:38 Fascinating. And there is a, there is a direct link, which I don't remember if that you, you can get to, but, um, I'm sorry. We should have been better prepared for that particular question in any case, but, but they are, they are accessible.
Speaker 2 00:38:50 We need to wrap it up, but I want to ask you guys, is there any final things you would like to leave us with?
Speaker 5 00:38:59 Come join us, you know, listen to the showcase. Um, it will be heavily publicized, uh, when, when it gets closer to the event. So keep an eye out, uh, on whatever, uh, media you, you look at, listen to us, uh, listen to us, you know, if you enjoy us, you know, tell us what you think. Or if Joyce tell us what you think, and we, we are always looking for more talent, you know, and more people willing to do. We, we haven't talked a lot about our advocacy efforts that we've done primarily in the area of music and museum accessibility, but we we're always looking for, um, for people with, with, with interest, you know, with, with problems to solve or to be a part of solving. Um, you know, things are so different than when friends and aren't started and we need, we need to roll and, and, you know, move forward with the times and we need people to help us do that.
Speaker 2 00:39:46 Charlene, uh, is my research part of my research team. Did you have any questions for Peter or Ann Charlene?
Speaker 7 00:39:54 No, I really don't. It, it sounds like guys are really coming out of your shells and, and moving forward in some really big ways. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I'd like to think so.
Speaker 2 00:40:06 Well, thank you guys very much for being on and Anne, we will see you in a couple weeks for all those who, um, don't know, Anne is going to be talking about her. We released book. And so I'm excited to talk to her about that in two weeks.
Speaker 7 00:40:24 Can't wait.
Speaker 2 00:40:25 Thank you guys very much
Speaker 7 00:40:26 For being on
Speaker 5 00:40:28 And thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 2 00:40:29 Yes. Well thank you. Um, that will do it for our show tonight, but I hope you guys will email me and chat with me and talk about what you'd like to hear on future disability and progress shows. We always welcome that. Um, you can reach me by emailing disability and progress. Sam jasmine.com, that's disability and progress Al written out at Sam jazz, J a S M I N e.com. And we are very happy to be doing the show and are grateful for our listeners. This is disability and progress use expressed on the show are not necessarily those of cafe or it's board of directors. My name is Sam, the host of the show and the engineer and Charlene do is my research team. Tonight. We were speaking with Anne PETA, who is an author and writer and Peter Al, who is also an author or writer, and is also a musician. This is KFI 90.3 FM Minneapolis and k.org. Our email addresses, disability and progress. Sam jasmine.com. Fresh fruit is up after the mini culture piece. That'll be coming at the end of the show. Thanks so much for tuning in and stay safe.
Speaker 0 00:42:00 Do.
