I was raised on a small farm in western Wisconsin. The third of 4 biological siblings, with over 25 cousins, I grew up very close to my family of blood and family or heart. I picked up several other siblings along the way, people who I knew since early childhood, Katrina, an African American girl who stayed with us one summer when my parents participated in a cultural exchange that brought black children from the south to stay with white families in the north and vice versa. I thought she was my sister and tan like me. Being born with a naturally dark complexion, much darker than any of my siblings, my mom called me her brown baby and her little Indian child. I grew up thinking I was Native American, and I was very proud of that heritage. I thought that people of different skin colors could come out of the same parents, it was just chance. 

When I was around 9 or 10 years old, my parents bought a tape from a man named Tom Peese and on it was a song called World Citizen. The chorus is:

“I’m a world citizen (world citizen!)

Step up and shake my hand

I’m not just from Wisconsin

I’m not just American!

I’m a world citizen (world citizen!)

Home the whole world round!

You and I can break those borders down!”

This song had a profound influence on my psyche. I greatly influenced the way I see myself in the world and how I’ve approached life. I even started an early childhood music business called World Citizen Baby, a culturally plural parent and child music and dance class.

I am an actress and musician who has been making a living as a performing and teaching artist for over 10 years. As I began to focus more on teaching and less on art making, my life became out of balance, and in the fall of 2011, I discovered the Applied Theatre Arts program and USC and it resonated very deeply with me. I had stepped away from theatre over the past several years as I was building my World Citizen Baby business, and I felt a deep need to get back to it. Additionally, I was very interested in using art as a tool for social change and healing work.

I was put on the wait list and even told I didn’t get into the program but that I could reapply next year. Despite that, I took a stand for myself and made a very difficult choice to sell most of my business and return to theatre work and art making. Then, the end of July, I got a phone call from Sergio saying a spot had opened up and it was mine if I wanted it. Having just created a space for myself to dive deeply back into art making rather than business owning, I felt it was the universe opening up and offering me what I wanted now that I created space for it.

I am a great believer in healing through art and social change through art and about giving yourself over to instinct, taking a stand for yourself and allowing space for the unknown. Living in liminality. 

I offer my personal journey over this past year as an example of how art can be used to heal oneself and free oneself. In addition to working with community partners, I have used this time to crack open my heart and heal wounds from losing several loved ones, particularly my sister, Hannah, and my nephew, Wolfgang. 

Sometimes our hearts heal in temporary ways so that we can push through and make through the day and all that we have to do. Sometimes this leads to boxes and compartments and walls built up inside that can get very heavy. Sometimes we forget what it is like to have freedom and space inside. 

There are times that we can crack our hearts back open and let them bleed so that they can fully heal and we can be free. 

This is one of those times.