AnCan and The Marsh (well renown, long-established theater company with a large following in the Bay Area and venues in San Francisco and Oakland) collaborateevery 4th Wednesday of the month for Solo Arts Heal!
Avesha recently returned to her hometown of Chicago, where she has developed a passion for storytelling and the community surrounding it. During her twenty-two years in Los Angeles, she quickly ditched a legal career to put her whole heart and soul into arts and crafts. She spent ten years as a professional photographer before taking a risk to turn her childhood passion into a new career: ceramics. She founded a pottery studio and humbly and gratefully ran it full-time for eight years, crafting housewares and, more recently, whimsical gnomes. Now, she is counting the days until she can escape the city and start a small homestead, complete with chickens and goats.
She is deeply committed to speaking truth to story and bringing awareness to mental health and trauma-informed, shared human experiences. To her, connection is everything, to be human is to have trauma, and to heal, we first need to learn how to feel. She holds an MA in Spiritual Psychology, is trained in many healing arts, and was certified recently as a Breathwork Facilitator and Reiki Master.
Avesha will take us on a journey into the complex love between her and her father. She’ll tell of the time when her dad selflessly traveled to care for her when she was bedridden with meningitis. Years later, she found out that he had unexpectedly died alone, estranged from his relationships. She’ll tell the story of caring for the aftereffects of his life and continuing the journey of a relationship that still grows and heals through forgiveness, writing, music, and the love of nature he instilled in her.
AnCan and The Marsh (well renown, long-established theater company with a large following in the Bay Area and venues in San Francisco and Oakland) collaborateevery 4th Wednesday of the month for Solo Arts Heal!
Are you ready for a jam packed show full of storytelling, life advice, laughter, and tears? Well, Geneva Norman will bring it to you.
Geneva is a Chicago-based storyteller and has been a student and actor at The Goodman Theatre, 2nd Story, Free Street Theater, About Face Theatre, The Looking Glass Theatre, and many others. The Goodman Theatre recruited her to be in their first cohort of storyteller teaching artists. She is also a vocalist, songwriter, musician, and music arranger. She has performed throughout Europe, including, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Poland, France, Spain, etc. She has performed with musicians along the west coast of Africa, traveling south along the Atlantic coast to South Africa, and in 47 of the 50 United States. She wrote the locally popular “Obama Vote Song” in 2007. She is the lead vocalist of the Geneva Convention Band and the G2 band. She has arranged many pieces of work throughout her career and is currently the creator and executive producer/director of “The Aretha Project- Chicago Tour”. Geneva comes from a musical family, notably the late Betty Wright, John Legend, and Kool and the Gang.
In her professional life, Geneva has served in progressive roles in clinical healthcare as a nurse, a nurse practitioner, and as a physician. She has survived her own serious health care issues and been a caregiver within her own family. She studied with Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, who developed the theory of the five stages of grief. At Northwestern University, Geneva serves as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion vice chair for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. She is also a proud mother and grandmother.
Geneva told the story of how she, an upper middle class, non-user of recreational drugs, became a pharmaceutical product development chemist/chef for her unsuspecting, streetwise husband.
AnCan and The Marsh (well renown, long-established theater company with a large following in the Bay Area and venues in San Francisco and Oakland) collaborateevery 4th Wednesday of the month for Solo Arts Heal!
I had the absolute pleasure of filling in for Rick, and interviewing July’s gust Suzie Campbell!
Suzie is a single mom living in Evanston, IL with her two children and a cat named Magic. A Loyola University Chicago alum with a degree in Sociology and Women’s Studies, she now works as an IT manager for a non-profit company. She started telling stories about her life after her hysterectomy at 35 years old and has been seen at storytelling shows such as Story Colliders, Is this a thing? and Filet of Solo. Suzie shares stories that often show that reproductive journeys are not always linear, sexuality is not always straightforward, and that seeking support for mental health treatment – especially in relation to motherhood – isn’t something shameful. She believes if more people talk about these ideas openly, the stigma around them will decrease over time.
Suzie performed “Get F***ed,” a story about sexuality, dating, and her hysterectomy as a newly single mom in her mid-30s.
AnCan and The Marsh (well renown, long-established theater company with a large following in the Bay Area and venues in San Francisco and Oakland) collaborateevery 4th Wednesday of the month for Solo Arts Heal!
We are back with Solo Arts Heal, after a month off. Welcome June’s guest, Dan Baron!
Dan has been writing about social issues that impact people in underserved communities for more than 30 years. He writes content, grant proposals, and strategic communication plans for nonprofits, universities, and public agencies. He has also worked as a journalist. His work has mostly been about listening to the stories people tell about their lives as they advocate for better schools, safer communities, jobs, health care, and many other issues—including their basic human right to just be who they are.
Wait a minute… or more… Dan also realized long ago that he has many personal stories to tell, just like everyone else on the planet. He tells his life-changing story about being a 21-year-old college student overseas who suddenly has a manic episode. Dan is part of a growing community where people share stories that aim to be poignant, funny, bizarre, challenging, and real.
Dan shared his totally unexpected, way-up, way-down, bipolar experience as a college student in the 1980s—and how he has navigated his mental health journey since.
AnCan and The Marsh (well renown, long-established theater company with a large following in the Bay Area and venues in San Francisco and Oakland) collaborateevery 4th Wednesday of the month for Solo Arts Heal!
You’ll love April’s guest, Tara Lazar!
Street magic performer. Hog-calling champion. Award-winning ice sculptor. These are all things Tara Lazar has never been.
Instead, she writes quirky, humorous picture books where anything is possible. Tara has been, however, a champion adult figure skater, but because of primary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), she now walks with a walker and drives with hand controls.
She can still figuratively skate, as seen in her book, Little Red Gliding Hood; put on a pair of detective gumshoes, as she did in 7 Ate 9: The Untold Story; and trek into the world of “fun and entertaining vocabulary building” for older kids in her most recent book, Absurd Words, which won a Golden Kite award from the Society of Children’s Books and Illustrators.
She is known by other kid lit writers for her blog, Writing for Kids (While Raising Them), and for hosting her annual Storystorm challenge that attracts more than 2,000 writers to come up with thirty picture book ideas in thirty days.
Tara read from her award-winning kid literature, but let’s be honest, can be enjoyed by kids of all ages!
I am writing with a very heavy heart to report the death of our dear Board Member, Advisory Board Member, Moderator, Participant and my good buddy, Herb Geller PhD G-d Rest His Soul.
The loss of dear Herb z”l is already reverberating around AnCan and will undoubtedly amplify as more learn of his demise. Herb touched many well beyond his Advanced Prostate Cancer ‘Brains Trust’, Moderators, Peers and Participants. The Blood Cancer group got to know him well when he attended regularly on behalf of his brother. The Pancreatic Cancer folks met him when he showed up for his next door neighbor. Our Men Speaking Freely Group loved and respected him for sharing his fears and concerns. Members of our Advisory Board got to interact with Herb as did Medical Academics and others who participated in AnCan’s research projects.
Here are a few of the words I already see bandied around –
“kind, smart, caring, thoughtful”
“My heart is heavy and I’m at a loss for words. There is something I’m feeling that I can’t express sufficiently”
“this is the deepest hurt since we lost Dominic (2015)”
“Thanks to each of you for your loving support of him and all of us for each other.”
Herb passed away from advanced prostate cancer that had evidently morphed into small cell/neuroendocrine like (NEC) disease. A late diagnosis just one day before he entered the NIH, his place of work, identified this. Herb was scheduled to undergo tests for his highly elevated endocrine markers, however the source was now evident on admission. The NIH never appeared to acknowledge or treat him for this diagnosis. It finally added a neuroendocrine oncologist to Herb’s team after 21 days after repeated AnCan prodding from the date of admission. Herb underwent research procedures related to Cushing’s Disease and its symptoms. In due course, AnCan will follow up as appropriate.
Never one to give up the opportunity to sail anything from a small dinghy to an ocean-going yacht, Dr. Herb Geller was a nationally recognized expert in neuro-biology; a profile is available on the NIH site. Herbie loved a a good Scotch, in Skye or anywhere else. On his request, AnCan did its best to sneak in a wee dram just to wet his lip in the final days but the ‘powers that be’ prevented us. I’ll have one for you tonight, Herb! And, we’ll make sure both your AnCan posters get written up for submission with credit to you.
Herb is survived by his wife of 55 years, Nancy, Director of the Office of Biostatistics for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the NIH. Also his younger brother, Ken, an eminent Supreme Court Advocate kennethsgeller@gmail.com. We wish Herb’s family and many friends, especially his “AnCan Family”, much comfort. May Herb’s memory always be a blessing – it certainly will be here at AnCan.
For our Jewish readers, Herb’s z”l Hebrew name is Chanan Moshe ben Aaron v’Sara; he died on 25th Nisan.
