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!
Our special October guest was fabulous Kelle Jolly!
Kelle, “The Tennessee Ukulele Lady”, is an accomplished music entertainer and educator. She shares musical stories and songs from the South. Her repertoire includes traditional African American music of blues, jazz, spirituals, and folk. Kelle is a graduate of South Carolina State University, where she studied Music Education with Concentrations in Voice. Kelle is the 2011 Mountain Soul Vocal competition winner and the Knoxville Community Shares 2013 Artist of the Year.
Kelle Jolly is the host of Jazz Jam, Knoxville’s only vocal jazz radio show, on WUOT 91.9FM. She is the founder of the Women in Jazz Jam Festival and Ukesphere of Knoxville. Kelle and her saxophonist husband, Will Boyd, have served as ambassadors of jazz from Tennessee to Japan. They are Knoxville MLK Commission Artist Award recipients. In 2021, the City of Knoxville proclaimed July 21st, “Kelle Jolly and Will Boyd” Day in Knoxville, TN. Kelle Jolly is currently a graduate student in the Communication and Storytelling Studies program at East Tennessee State University, pursuing her Master of Arts degree.
Kelle told personal stories of loss and self-care. Loss: A baby story normally ends with a baby. But what happens when it doesn’t? “Losing a baby changes the story you tell about yourself as a woman. I saw myself as a sad failure. Not only did I lose a baby, I lost the ability to ever be pregnant again. My pregnancy loss left me feeling hopeless until l I was asked to conceive something else.” Self-care: Every year, the Women in Jazz Jam Festival has a theme. “I can’t always tell if the theme is a result of the festival planning experience or if the festival planning is shaped by the theme. But the year of the ‘Hearts’ theme was too relevant and real.”
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!
Our guest for August was William Wonders III.
William grew up in Brooklyn, NY. He attended Nyack College from 1998-2001. William secretly began writing and shooting video during this time. It all came to a head in 2009 when William decided to enroll at New York Film Academy in Manhattan, NY. He did this after starting an afterschool program to teach film and video to at risk youth. William has directed a number of short films.
His short film, “Fear Itself”, premiered in Florida, California, Mexico, Atlanta and New Jersey film festivals. William owns his own production company, so he can write and produce films, inspiring everyone that sees them. William’s latest project “Fixing Grandma” has been picked up by Amazon Prime. William is currently working on documentary about the current state of health of Black Men in America.
William presented an original piece about the paradigm shift he went through to produce content that addresses the disparities in the health of the black community.
Watch here:
Special thanks to John Ivory for filling in for Rick Davis. We appreciate you!
To SIGN UP for any of our AnCan Virtual Support group reminders, visit our Contact Us page.
(Editor’s note: This is a ‘master’ list of books related to death, dying, and grief. We hope you will find this to be a helpful resource in your journey, no matter what it is. If you would like to share a book that has helped you, please email alexa at ancan.org. Amazon links here for your convenience and ease of purchasing the book. Remember, you can help AnCan with absolutely no cost to you by purchasing through AmazonSmile. Read how to here. Special thanks to Dr. John Antonucci.)
“We face fears of death and dying, and at times turn to authors who have thought deeply and written about the topic. I offer here a short bibliography on the topic. Ideally it would be an organic list, onto which readers could add suggestions or comments.” – Dr. John Antonucci
Today’s a BIG DAY if you’re a fan of ordering everything you need from Amazon.
October 11-12th are Amazon Prime Early Access Days, and guess what? If you sign up for Amazon Smile, you can give back to us without having to spend anything extra! It sounds too good to be true, but it absolutely is real.
Amazon will donate .5% of eligible purchases to the organization YOU choose. That could be us…we would be grateful for it, and you would be helping us provide quality peer-to-peer support for all AnCan-ers.
In case you’re new or need a reminder:
We’re a peer-to-peer organization that provides support to many different conditions – Prostate Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, Sarcoidosis, Thyroid Cancer – quite literally just to name a few. We also host many a webinar – all in the name of support for our community and groups. Check out our YouTube page for past recordings.
On June 29th we hosted a webinar that we know you’ll love to share! Titled “Genetic and Genomic Testing The How’s, Why’s and Where’s“, you’ll get a crash course on everything genetic and genomic testing related.
