Disability and the Arts Conference

Starlight Artist, Janet Harrison, writes:

"On Friday, April 1st, at the UB North Campus Center for Tomorrow, we attended an Arts and Culture Conference with about 100 people in attendance that Cindy Wu organized. There were professors who did studies on disabilities and the arts. Susan from California talked about the book, 'Yesterday Was Tuesday All Day and All Night', a book about a man with Down Syndrome who travelled all over the world.

Hershini showed a video of a man who lost his leg but still dances hip-hop and danced on a car!"

People submitted different types of artwork and many people from Starlight won awards! The awards won were as follows:

Best of Painting: Janet Harrison, "Untitled" Certificate of Recognition:Kimber Rodgers, "Daphne"

Best of Drawing: Shirley French, "Untitled" Certificate of Recognition: Jessica Levesque, "Cell"

Best of Mixed Media: Larell Potter, "Corruption Tube" Certificate of Recognition: Paul Chandler, "The Forge"

Best of Poetry: Jeremy Pratt, "Edges of Clouds" Certificate of Recognition: Janet Harrison, "Ocean Wave"

Best of Verse/Spoken Word: C.Q. Higgins, "The Darkness" Certificate of Recognition: Andrew Calderon, "Let Me Tell You"

Certificate of Recognition for Prose: Thomas Sausner, "The Color of Peace"

"The conference was very nice and I enjoyed being there.

I would like to thank everyone who made it happen because they work very hard and it was fun and very exciting."

-Janet Harrison

Janet with her winning painting at the Disabilities and the Arts Conference