Creativity Moves Nashville Young Adult Cancer Survivors Program
Creativity Moves will bring together young adult cancer survivors, family, friends, and caregivers for an afternoon of inspiration, joy, and bonding.
On Sunday, May 27, Playing By Air will perform a free, private show in partnership with local cancer non-profit organizations, followed by a program on Sharing Your Story led by cancer survivor authors, songwriters, and other inspiring creative leaders.
Schedule
1:30pm - Check in, meet fellow attendees and presenters, and get a good seat!
2:00pm - Playing By Air: A Symphony of Action & Comedy
3:15pm - The Power of Your Story: Speakers/Panel on Creativity and Sharing Your Story
4:30pm - Group Song Creation!
5:30pm - Wrap up and after party/social!
Venue
Belmont Black Box Theatre at Belmont University, 2100 Belmont Boulevard Nashville, TN 37212 (see map)
Playing By Air: A Symphony of Action & Comedy
Playing By Air's performances bring families and communities together through shared laughter and inspiration. The company inspires, entertains, and supports many community arts and health initiatives, in particular, the cancer community through its Playing By Air Cares and Catch It Early programs.
Testimonials from Attendees of Playing By Air Performances at Cancer Survivor Celebrations:
"Absolutely fabulous show today at the Celebration of Life at Nashville General Hospital. Your performances brought the child in my heart out to play with you in the air. What a gift of laughter and joy you brought! It was a truly magical experience. Thank you so very much!"
"Their act was as entertaining as anything I've seen at a Minnie Pearl retreat (and that's saying quite a lot). Tremendously inspiring, impressive, and amusing."
"I so enjoyed the jugglers! They were entertaining as well as presenting a message that we are never given anything that we can’t handle by God. Juggling life, cancer, loved ones is truly a struggle and I believe that everyone else enjoyed as well."
Group Song Creation!
Kidbilly Music - Group Song Creation
Great songs tell stories and creating a song as a group allows us to share and celebrate common experience; to be engaged and energized, to brainstorm and interact in a fun musical setting. Led by award winning hit songwriters you’ll create and record a song that will be a powerful take-away, encompassing the experience of Creativity Moves Nashville. Learn more about the program at kidbillymusic.com.
This program is led by Grammy and Emmy nominated, CMA & ACM award winning songwriter Billy Kirsch. Billy has harnessed the power of creativity to lead a successful life as an entertainer, songwriter and entrepreneur. His body of work includes award winning songs and career songs for the artists who have recorded them. “Holes In The floor Of Heaven” recorded by Steve Wariner, won a Country Music Association song of the year award, was nominated for a Grammy award and was a number one hit. Top 10 songs, “Is It Over Yet” and “Come Some Rainy Day”, both recorded by Wynonna Judd, have become standards in the repertoire. “Stay Gone” launched singer Jimmy Wayne’s career as a Top 5 single. The list of artists who have recorded Billy’s songs include Tim McGraw, Kenny Rogers, Englebert Humperdink, Lee Greenwood, Donny Osmond, Alabama, Collin Raye, Steve Wariner and Wynonna to name just a few.
Billy’s unique abilities as facilitator, leader and performer are the foundation of his highly successful corporate event programs, Team Building Through Song and Harnessing Your Creative Power. Billy’s presentations help people rediscover their creativity to become more innovative and engaged in their work. Microsoft, The Walt Disney Company, Healthways and Vanderbilt University are among the many groups who have benefited from Billy’s interactive and entertaining presentations.
The Power of Your Story: Speakers/Panel on Creativity and Sharing Your Story
Learn how to share your story and explore creative expression for health and healing with presentations led by cancer survivors and creative professionals. This program will provide you with inspiration and practical ideas for using your creativity to connect on a deeper level with yourself and with others.
Mattie Bates
I am breast cancer survivor. My cancer was detected in the Spring of 2000.
I am currently the coordinator of Davidson County's Witness Project®. The Witness Project® is a community based, breast and cervical cancer education program through which cancer survivors and lay health advisors increase awareness, knowledge, access to screening, and early detection behaviors in the African American population to reduce the mortality and morbidity from cancer. Being part of the Witness Project® allows me to share my story and to let others know you can be a survivor if cancer is detected early. Knowing the importance of early detection, I have also become part of the Cancer Queens. The Cancer Queens is a cancer prevention musical revue. The Cancer Queens consist of a group of professional health educators including survivors who are on a mission to inspire women to treat themselves like a Queen and to take care of their health. We encourage them to make their health a priority. I have also had the honor and privilege of being one of the 13 survivors to participate in Project Crowning Glory sponsored by the Parthenon Chapter of The Links. This has been another outlet to share my story and tell the importance of early detection.
A little more about me. I am a graduate of TSU with a B. S. degree in Math. I am married to Theodore Bates and have been since 1974. We have 2 children, daughter, Bethany and son, Theodore, Jr. I retired from Bellsouth after 34 years of service.
My spiritual life is very important to me. I thank and praise God for what he has allowed me to do. I enjoy being involved in my church. I sing in the choir. Some of my hobbies are bowling and playing bridge.
Tracy Hamilton
My name is Tracy Hamilton and I am 35 years old, a wife of 6 years and a mother of a baby boy born in August 2011. I am a native Nashvillian who opened a neighborhood bar with my husband in 2010 in East Nashville called the Village Pub & Beer Garden. I am also the Festival Director for the Riverside Blossom Festival, a neighborhood spring festival held in Riverside Village.
In January of 2012, I was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer. I am doing chemo treatments that started with Adriamycin and Cytoxan every 2 weeks for 8 weeks, then Taxol every week for 12 weeks. This summer, I will have a mastectomy to remove my entire right breast and then radiation. The hope is by the fall of 2012, I will be cancer free.
My doctors and nurses have been telling me that a positive attitude works healing wonders when dealing with cancer. So, I started a Facebook page called "It's Positively Cancer" to have an outlet for my thoughts, make myself laugh, and keep family and friends informed of my progress. So while my doctors are treating me with drugs and surgery, I try to treat myself to laughter and positivity when facing each challenge presented to me in the only creative way I know how - writing about it. My hope is not only to heal myself, but to bring awareness to women my age in order to heal them too. By opening the conversation through a social medium that most women my age use and understand, maybe we can detect breast cancer early for them and try to save lives.
Joy Huber
Founder & Author, Cancer with Joy
Joy Huber is a stage four young adult cancer survivor and the founder & author of "Cancer with Joy" published by Morgan James Publishing of NYC. She is an award-winning international presenter, individual coach, and the co-writer of the song "Bright Side Effects" (see the Music Video and additional videos on YouTube).
Joy helps the newly diagnosed and those on their support team discover how to transform fear into happiness with resources, support, and en'courage'ment. She wrote "Cancer with Joy" to be the essential resource for the newly diagnosed providing helpful and highly valuable information that saves precious time, energy, and money. Joy was professionally trained in coaching by Coach U, and she offers individual coaching on a limited basis.
At Creativity Moves Nashville, Joy will share her story of how she went from stage four cancer diagnosis to book deal in less than a year! Joy is professionally trained to coach others with a story to tell and presents an entrepreneurship program for young adults.
Jonny Imerman
Founder of Imerman Angels (*appearing from Chicago via videoconference)
Jonny Imerman is a young adult cancer survivor who strives to make sure no one fights cancer without the support of someone who has already triumphed over the disease. After being diagnosed with testicular cancer at the age of 26, Jonny decided to found Imerman Angels, a non-profit organization, which carefully matches a person touched by cancer (a cancer fighter or survivor) with someone who has fought and survived the same type of cancer (a Mentor Angel). Imerman Angels now has more than 4,000 cancer survivors and more than 1,500 caregivers in its network, and has been featured by dozens of news organizations including The Wall Street Journal, Harpo Radio’s “Oprah and Friends” with Dr. Oz, Men’s Health, NBC5 Chicago, CBS2 Chicago, ABC7 Chicago, ESPN Radio Chicago, Chicago Sun-Times, Detroit Free Press, LIVESTRONG Quarterly, and Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing. Jonny received the 2012 Lincoln Park Young Professionals ‘Chicago Best of The Best’ Award; 2011 Twilight Foundation Detroit’s Civic Leadership Award; 2011 Chicago Social Magazine’s ‘Who is Chicago’ Award; the 2010 Jefferson Award for Public Service; 2010 University of Michigan Humanitarian Service Award; 2009 Ulman Cancer Fund For Young Adults ‘Hope Award’; and 2007 Daily Candy ‘Sweetest Thing’ Award. Jonny has been invited to speak at cancer centers such as MD Anderson, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Mayo Clinic, Dana-Farber, City of Hope, Northwestern, Rush, and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Jonny grew up in Bloomfield Hills, MI and lives in Chicago.
Martin O'Connor
Martin O'Connor is well known in the Nashville arts community. He has worked with many organizations, such as The Nashville Ballet, Tennessee Association of Dance, Vanderbilt Dance, MTSU Dance and Theatre, Franklin School of Performing Arts, Playing By Air Productions, University School of Nashville, StillPoint Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Tennessee, Lustig Dance Theatre, Aerial Fabricators, and the Centennial Youth Ballet to name a few.
In 2008 he was diagnosed with cancer and entered into an aggressive regiment of chemotherapy and all the challenges that come with it. Because of his many stays at the hospital for treatment, transfusions, and surgery, he had plenty of time to walk the Oncology floor when strength permitted. During this time, the spirit of creativity revealed itself in a most unusual way. The image(s) shown today illustrate one way the power of creativity can be a vehicle of personal expression, support, and communication. He is indebted to the many who have granted him their time, talent, and artistry.
Namaste.