Lynn's Top 10

I just celebrated my 10-year work anniversary at VSA Texas, and it's brought to mind some of my fondest and funniest memories with this wonderful organization. Here are my top 10 moments at VSA Texas:

1. Getting hired at VSA Texas, thought it was the coolest place and still do.

2. Attending the VSA International celebration in Washington, DC with the rest of the staff, all courtesy of Celia Hughes, our Executive Director. The last morning, before we left, we toured several of the monuments, courtesy of a cab we commandeered in the hotel driveway. The driver was a true gentleman.

3. Plunking April on her head with my pencil. I think that was the first month I was here. Now I use water guns, blasters and soakers.

4. April yelling at me to chase down the AT&T telephone guy, “He’s making a run for it!” We had been without a phone system for a week, and he was trying to escape from the labyrinth of the AGE building and its hundreds of feet of extraneous phone wires in the ceiling. And then there was the flood from the frozen sprinkler system. But that didn’t involved the AT&T guy.

5. My first Art in the Park in Austin was cold and rainy. It also sleeted. But we managed to get all the art booths moved inside McBeth Recreation Center and made it work.

6. VSA Texas's first Disability From Real to Reel Film Festival where I got to meet Roger Ross Williams who produced and directed “Music by Prudence.” He won an Academy Award for the best documentary short that year.

Roger Ross Williams, Keith Maitland, and Patrick Floyd who co-made the movie “Eyes of Me” with Keith

7. Representing VSA Texas and our newly launched Distinguished Artist Veterans program at a SXSW event hosted by Kevin Bacon. Each invited guest was given 5 minutes to speak privately with Kevin about our program. I bought a new outfit for the occasion. You know I did.

Posing with Kevin Bacon

8. Helping out at the "Sight. Sound. Soul." event with piano man Henry Butler at the Palm Door. I was Madame Caphelon, fortune teller extraordinaire, who foretold many people donating hard earned dollars to VSA Texas.

9. The Bat’s Ahoy fundraiser – that was a hoot! Our boat lost power, and we drifted with all of our folks, with and without disabilities, down Townlake and eventually ran into a column beneath Townlake bridge. Our Board President called the police, but they couldn't get to us for at least an hour or so. The boat company had another small flatboat craft they used to guide us back to the pier where everybody piled off. Meanwhile, we enjoyed food, booze, and entertainment with Purly Gates singing the Gilligan’s Island theme to the kids!

Boarding the Lone Star cruise boat prior to our fateful voyage on Townlake!

10. Receiving a plaque for 10 years of service to VSA Texas. What a surprise!

Posing with Celia Hughes and Pádraig Naughton, Chair of the VSA Affiliate Council, at this year's VSA Intersections Conference in Austin

I look forward to continuing this wild ride with VSA Texas!

Sight. Sound. Soul.

Hello friends, Celia here. I am in Boston getting ready for our Inclusion by Design performance at the Americans for the Arts Convention. In Austin, this performance is better known as Sight. Sound. Soul. In 2007, I had the pleasure to join my friend Charlie Washburn of VSA Massachusetts in Idaho to participate as an audio describer in my first fully inclusive concert that featured New Orleans based musician Henry Butler. It was a blast. And I was hooked. Since then, we have done concerts in Boston at the WGBH studios and as part of the annual LEAD conference, in Albuquerque at the Southwest Conference on Disability, and in Austin at the late, great La Zona Rosa and the Palm Door. This performance will be live streamed, a new feature for our merry band of inclusive by design performers, at https://www.youtube.com/user/americansforthearts/

These concerts feature musicians, painters, ASL interpreters, open captioning, and audio description. The audio description is written as the performance is happening and delivered at agreed upon times during the live performance. At some performances, audio description is also delivered via the traditional method, although it is still offered without a preview as there is no opportunity to preview a one-time performance. It is nerve-wracking because as a describer I have to write as I see and I don't have any time to review or edit. What occurs is more spoken word description that gives a sense of the environment of a live performance, which I hope brings the patron who is blind or visually impaired more completely into the experience.

This time, in Boston again, Henry, Nancy, and I will be together after several years, hoping to stir up the magic of the arts for a brand new audience of folks. I am not sure what we will create, but I can assure you that people will be talking about it for days and weeks to come.

Nancy poses beside a colorful mural of Henry Butler.

If I don't see you in Boston, maybe you will bring us to a theater near you to create the magic of inclusive performing arts in your community!