ATC: February 9, 2012

"Can't give up acting tough. It's all I'm made of" - Neko Case, Middle Cyclone

Today I am excited to feature some work by students. I have been lucky to connect with Ian Mouser at My Voice Music. He works with kids to teach them music and how to use it to resolve conflict in their life. Lovely stuff.

I also am including 2 poems created by students in the Caldera program. It is good to remember what it is like to be in middle school, to be in the process of growing. Remember how you thought it would never end? You were right. What you didn't realize is that you eventually figure out how to feel comfortable in clothes, what music you really, really like and how to take a good photo of yourself in the mirror. You eventually began to realize that everyone feels the same way you do, it just might happen on a different day.

Being able to share this student work has allowed me to reflect on what I love about teaching kids ART. It is being able to experience what they create. It becomes this blessing. This little look into how their hearts are growing and how truly complicated that process is. Your heart gets big. It gets hurt. It gets small. It gets big again. Scars begin to form- some you love and some you are shamed by. And while what you feel might be temporary the effect of those feelings is not. You will always base the next love by the previous. Good or bad. (And by the way, you deserve good).

Your heart will never leave you. It is permanent. You have the power to decide how your heart pumps the passion and love that naturally form within it out to the world. Protect it. But not so much you miss something, because those moments, when genius, light, love and passion form, are simply a temporary condition you must grab when you can.

PLAYLIST FOR TODAY'S SHOW:

Heartbreaker
Crazy P.

Don't Got A Lot Of Time
Cotton Jones

Today Is A New Day
My Voice Music

Three Little Birds
Bob Marley
(HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BOB!)

You're My Lover Now
Pietra Brown

Middle Cyclone
Neko Case

Come Undone
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan

Tumble Bee
Laura Veirs

Foot Stuming
The Oreganics

Running Mod
Young Generation

Jigsaw
Shawn Lee featuring Nicole Willis

About A Girl
Nirvana

Losing Myself
Brazillian Girls and David Byrne

When We all In
Shawn Hayes featuring Frazey Ford

Periodically Double or Triple
Yo La Tengo

I Was Made To Love Her
Stevie Wonder