Healing Arts from the Borderland

The Art of Singing: Erica Rosales Nagaglioni

A singer, former newscaster, community activist and attorney, I called Erica a chameleon. “At my core, I am a story teller. If I just say, ‘Who am I?’, and I have to, you know, narrow it down, I really think its about story telling. Because even in the fighting, even in the advocacy work that I do, even in the reason in coming back to El Paso, and being a volunteer for the immigration work and working in the County Attorney’s office, which is all about advocacy and helping the community, it’s still, ‘Let me get this story from these people and explain it in a way that will try to make a difference.’ Like how can I move you, how can I compell you to help this effort or to be a part of it.”        
 

The Art of the Documentary: Julie Lunde Lillesaeter

Documentary filmmaker Julie Lunde Lillesaeter describes herself as someone who tells “stories that have some sort of meaningful impact”. When I asked her about trauma, she gave a nuanced, smart response. “After working on so many different projects, maybe in particular ‘An Army of Women’, where I worked with people who had trauma that was very deep and very dramatically impacted their life, I’ve always felt careful about using the word ‘trauma’ to describe anything in my own life.”
 
Consider accessing Julie’s documentary film ‘An Army of Women’ here: https://watch.eventive.org/togetherfilmsus/play/67f3e95cab4969913a48207b?m=1    

The Art of the Wrap Up: Avery and Aaron

It’s a wrap for Season 3. After 27 episodes, Aaron checks in with Avery to see if he’s still into sharing his sage wisdom. And they touch on the great “Is sport an art” Debate, make funny faces and make a big decision about the future of the cast.  

The Art of Writing: Scott Carter.

Scott Carter’s career spans 5 decades and includes acting, stand-up comedy, writing for top tier television productions, writing plays, performing Ted Talks, podcasting and as I highlighted to him, being a deep thinker. Frankly I can’t believe he agreed to do our little podcast. Consider Scott’s contemplation and comments comparing his experience in interviewing guests with our previous guest, Mercedes Medici, a professional Italian tour guide: “Being a guide is a very interesting thing to do. You’re a concierge to someone else’s experience and [for] a lol of them, you will determine whether or not they enjoyed their experience by your performance.” Seems like a life lesson, actually.
Listen to Scott’s podcast YE GODS on⁠ Apple Podcast⁠ and ⁠Spotify ⁠or wherever you get your podcasts.
Thanks!
 

The Arts of Directing and Therapy: Jason Wyatt

Here’s Jason’s explanation for why therapy is art: “I’m glad you talked about it as the art of therapy, bc I really think that’s an important piece. There’s an element of expertise – you have to have this knowledge in psychology but really I think what makes therapy work is the art of it. Like being able to connect with people and just have genuine curiousity for who they are…But really to me the real magic happens in the middle where the emotional experience of the artist and the person perceiving and experiencing the art kind of connect. To me the art of therapy is creating that space…It’s to create a space in which they can heal themselves.”  

The Art of Film Appreciation: Lisa Elliott

Lisa Elliott’s super power is helping you take take the power back from films you love, but that don’t love you back. “By teaching…the art of…appreciating film…people [learn] how film has shaped them and how culture has shaped them, and then that gives the power back to them. It helps them heal from the traumas of loving something that doesn’t represent you or doesn’t show what you feel your lived experience is as a woman or as a lesbian or someone who’s gay or somebody who lives on the border or somebody who is Hispanic. Like all of these things that could be part of your identity that film doesn’t represent [well] and you can take that back.

The Art of Guiding: Mercedes Medici

Professional tour guide Mercedes Medici calls herself “a giver of words...I’m always impressed about the power or words – the tremendous, magical creative, healing power of words.” Sit back, picture the Coliseum in Rome in the distance, and listen to Mercedes Medici’s silky voice, beautiful accent and poetic phrasing explain how she uses the art of guiding to heal herself and others.

The Art of Acting, Part 2: Teddy Sanchez

“First off…I am not comfortable at all being interviewed. Working in radio, I definitely feel more comfortable and confident as the interviewer than the interviewee. Revealing myself and putting myself out there in the world is very scary to me.” Kudos to Teddy for going “there” with me in talking about trauma and change and growth. And also hamming it up. As usual.    
 

The Art of Bad A#@ Boot Making: Nevena Christi

Nevena Christi’s career path goes from from the Met Gala to Hollywood and beyond. But basically she’s “the same kid from when I was little. I just want to make stuff and draw and get messy and basically anything – furniture, art, boots, anything – that’s me...at home we restore vintage travel trailers – we love everything old. On weekends I’m restoring the [Rocketbuster] building which was built in 1900. Before the movie people came downtown to film, I spent 8 weekends varnishing the floors. That is my play time.”  

The Art of Exotic Retirement: Sherri Kendall

After a career of helping others, Sherri lives the dream retirement in Costa Rica. “I live on top of a mountain. I have a very chill lifestyle. I get up when I want to get up and I go to bed when I want to go to bed. No alarms, other than my dogs and monkeys when I’m in the jungle.” Listen in to hear more about her Pura Vide life.