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  • The Art Parlor for August Presents: Kai Owens!

    The Art Parlor for August Presents: Kai Owens!
    2026/08/20
    Welcome to the August, 2026 edition of The Art Parlor, brought to you by Friends in Art! In this episode, our guest is Kai Owens – a gentleman you may remember from our past showcase events! We hear about his path in music as a drummer and learn how he got started, including the mentors who encouraged him and pushed him beyond the boundaries of comfort. As you will see, he is a talented young man headed for even greater heights! Included in this presentation are some music tracks for your listening pleasure. AI-Generated Transcript Jason • 00:00 Opinions expressed on ACB media are those of the respective program contributors and cannot be assumed to serve as endorsements of products or views by friends in art, the American Council of the Blind, their elected officials, or staff. Friends in Art welcomes you to the Art Parlor, where visually impaired artists of all types will discuss their work. Pull up a chair, bring along your beverage of choice, and listen to thoughtful, stimulating conversations with visually impaired artists in all media and from all parts of the world. And now, here's your host, Peter Altschul. Peter • 00:48 Greetings! My name is Peter Altschul. I am the scholarship committee chair of Friends and Art, and this is our most recent edition of Art Parlor. And our guest is a scholarship winner of five years ago, Kai Owens. Hey, Kai. Great to be here. Thanks for having me. I want to spend most of our time talking about how things have changed for you in the past five years. But before we do that, talk a little bit about how you got into drumming and how it changed your life. Kai • 01:19 Yeah, no doubt. So I got into drumming in fifth grade. I was around maybe 10 or 11 years old. And my older brother was a drummer in high school, and he was in the marching band and in the orchestra and all that kind of stuff. So I saw him kind of coming up through that program. And obviously me being the younger brother, I wanted to follow everything he was doing. And in the midst of that, I had just gotten my vision diagnosis about two years before fifth grade. So I was looking for some things that were, you know, non-visual and my parents were looking for some things to put me in and, you know, let me get out some energy and some anxiety. So I got a drum set and I started playing in the middle school band as well in the percussion section. And then before I knew it, I hit high school and I decided to not continue with the school orchestra and everything, but instead joined a school of rock sort of program from my local music store where I was taking lessons. And after a couple years of doing that, I realized, you know, just how much I love performing and how comfortable I was on stage compared to most everyone else I was around. And that kind of led me to realize that, you know, music could be a very viable career path for me. So when I started applying to colleges, I decided that I was going to go for music, and I chose music theory to be particular because at the time I thought I might want to go further into the academia music sort of world. And then in the midst of getting that degree, I realized that I instead actually kind of had always wanted to do performance and just thought academia might be safer. And then I realized that none of them are very safe career options. So if I'm going to go for one of them, I might as well just do what I'm really wanting to do. So I took as many performance based classes and was in a band all through college and just graduated from my undergrad at the University of Georgia this past December and I'll be starting this fall for my Masters in Jazz drums at William Peter • 03:15 Patterson University in New Jersey. And we'll talk a lot about your college experience, but before we do that, I want to talk about how you were when you were applying for a scholarship five years ago. Let me tell you what I remember. I remember you sending these drum tracks that were amazingly complicated. I think there were meter changes and all kinds of cool stuff. What do you remember about your life at that time and as you were preparing for college? Kai • 03:43 Yeah, it was definitely a very different time musically for me than where I'm at now. But I think a lot of it carried over nicely. So I was doing a lot of stuff with progressive metal and math rock and death metal and all these very heavy, very technical genres. And I was really enjoying the just the challenge that that brought in through that, that kind of, in a way helped me get into a lot of these programs because I had a lot of this academic technical knowledge about drumming. And then I got into my program and I showed up to my first week of lessons. Peter • 04:18 And let's stop there. Because I want to talk a little about the scholarship process. So you apply for the scholarship. And I remember calling you, I think essentially talking about your scholarship. And as I remember, you had broken your foot in ...
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    49 分
  • The Art Parlor for June, 2026 Presents: Jessica Tomlinson!

    The Art Parlor for June, 2026 Presents: Jessica Tomlinson!
    2026/06/13
    Episode Notes This month, it was our pleasure to speak with Jessica Tomlinson! Jessica is an eclectic composer, synthesist, keyboard player, and recording engineer based in the Tampa Bay area who happens to be legally blind. When she isn't playing pop rock with the band Rainbow Portal, she's crafting boundary-pushing experimental compositions in her home studio. She serves on the Audio Engineering Society’s Accessibility committee and the MIDI Association Special Interest Group focusing on accessibility. Jessica is also an active member of SoundGirls and the Earth Modular Society. She gives back to the community through Girls Rock Camp St. Pete and teaches blind senior citizens to use assistive technology. She also creates visual art with a powerful magnifier. I hope you enjoy the show as much as we did creating it! For more information about Friends in Art, please visit their website: . AI-Generated Transcript Opinions expressed on ACB media are those of the respective program contributors and cannot be assumed to serve as endorsements of products or views by friends in art, the American Council of the Blind, their elected officials, or staff. Friends in Art welcomes you to the Art Parlor, where visually impaired artists of all types will discuss their work. Pull up a chair, bring along your beverage of choice, and listen to thoughtful, stimulating conversations with visually impaired artists in all media and from all parts of the world. And now... Hi everyone, this is Annie Chiappetta, President of Friends in Art, and this is the Art Parlor. And tonight we have a very special guest, Jessica Tomlinson. And we're going to talk about pretty much all different kinds of stuff relating to creativity and music and being an artist, that kind of stuff. Jessica, welcome. How are you today? I am very good, excited to talk creativity with you as I enjoy learning about lots of different media. as you will hear, I do enjoy dabbling in many different things and I enjoy hearing about other people's creative practice as well. Excellent. Excellent. So how did you first decide you wanted to be a part of the performing arts? Was it something that you like to do as a kid? Was it, you know, when you were in high school? How did that develop for you? So I have always been very fascinated by and very attuned to sound because with people's five senses the brain tends to pick one or two to prioritize. Technical geeks will think of this as being like a computer's IRQs, meaning is the keyboard or the mouse, the primary input device. So most people, their primary input sense is sight, but I was born with underdeveloped optic nerves or optic nerve hypoplasia. So sound has always been my primary sense that I focus on. And then the sense of touch is kind of secondary and then maybe seeing is a kind of third because I do have some low vision. So I would make up words for sounds like if someone were to scrape a chair across the floor, I would say that's like calling it huge or radio static sounded a lot like frizz, frizz, frizz. So I saw musicians kind of from afar, but I didn't have any role models when I was very young, so I didn't really think of it as something I could do. However, when I became a teenager and started going to local concerts, I saw the front of House mixing console, which is the large board at the position where the engineer is able to balance the levels from all the different instruments. And when I saw and heard and was told that that was an actual job that some people do, I was completely hooked. I was single-minded throughout my teenage years that I was going to have a career in that field. And I went to a trade school. I went to full sale university back then it was called full sale real world education in Orlando. And I did I graduated from the recording arts program. And I found it very fascinating. I learned a lot of incredible things. I picked up a lot of general standard knowledge about recording equipment and how it's connected in something we call signal flow for how signal goes from the microphone to the preamp through the mixing console to the outboard gear. And finally, at that time, we were mostly using tape machines. Now we have programs on the computers called digital audio workstations that double as the tape recorder, the multi-track, the mixing console, and even the outboard effects gear too. So all that is in the computer. How many of those digital audio workstations are you trained in or that you know of? that you have knowledge of. I've used different ones over the years. I cannot say that I am expert in a lot of the ones that I used earlier. My very first one was called Cool Edit Pro from Adobe, now Adobe Audition. I used digital performer for a little while there. At Full Sail I was taught about Pro Tools and Logic. Then I used a Cubase for a while there. And now my DAW of choice is Reaper. And I feel much more comfortable with Reaper today. I can do, I ...
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    50 分
  • The Art Parlor for April, 2026 Presents: NVision Guitars!

    The Art Parlor for April, 2026 Presents: NVision Guitars!
    2026/04/02
    Episode Notes Welcome to The Art Parlor for April, brought to you by Friends in Art! It's been a spell and we are very glad to be back! Join us for an inspiring conversation with the creators of NVision Guitars, a mother-and-son team building custom adaptive guitars for musicians with disabilities. From tactile designs for blind players to ergonomic solutions for mobility challenges, their work is opening doors to music for everyone. Hear their story, their passion, and how they’re redefining accessibility in the arts. AI-Generated Transcript Jason Opinions expressed on ACB Media are those of the respective program contributors and cannot be assumed to serve as endorsements of products or views by Friends in Art, the American Council of the Blind, their elected officials, or staff. Friends in Art welcomes you to the Art Parlor, where visually impaired artists of all types will discuss their work. Pull up a chair, bring along your beverage of choice, and listen to thoughtful, stimulating conversations with visually impaired artists in all media and from all parts of the world. And now, here's your host, Anne Chiappetta. Ann Welcome everyone to the Friends and Art, Art Parlor podcast. I'm Ann Chiappetta, your president, and I'm joined tonight by some special guests. But before I get to them, I also want to let you know that Meghan Downing, one of our board members, is here to help us welcome our guests from Envision Guitars. So we have Renee and Tristan. And I just want to welcome you guys. I know we had you featured on our blog at www.friendsinart.org/news. If anybody wants to go there and check you guys out for your interview. So welcome, welcome, welcome. Renee Thank you. Thank you for allowing us to be here. Ann Sure. So you're from Iowa, right? Tristan Yep, we're from Ankeny, Iowa. So just a suburb outside of Des Moines. Ann So my new guide dog's name is Iowa, by the way. So really? Tristan Really? How did you know? Ann He was born in the I litter. And that's the name that they picked. So. Oh, okay. Yeah. I just thought that was a little, a cute little thing to let you guys know. Before we get into like the questions, could you give us a little bit of your history, how you started your business and maybe some of the reasons why? Sure, yeah, absolutely. Renee Well, Tristan started playing guitar when he was about 10 years old. And he's always had a love for guitar and played it and kind of messed around with building guitars all through high school. And anyway, about a year and a half, two years ago, I was having some health issues and Tristan was taking me back and forth to Mayo. And we just really got into some deep talks about life and the purpose of life. And I had recently retired from the military. So I had been running a Christmas decorating business that I had to actually quit due to the health issues. And so we were just talking over just what the future holds for both of us actually. And I said, you know, what would make you the happiest? What do you think would you would find most purpose in? And he said, I would find most purpose in building guitars. And that was just kind of out of the blue because I never knew that he actually just wanted to build guitars for a living. And I said, Well, you know, what's stopping you from doing that? And he said, I don't know. And I said, Well, what would that look like? And so we brainstormed on up to Mayo and we talked about how my dad, who was a quadriplegic, had went to Easter Seals and gotten training on leather making and he had gotten some tools from them and he had found his purpose through that. And then Tristan had shared with me that when he was younger, he used to play the guitar with his eyes closed because he was afraid that someday he may not be able to see and he was afraid that he may not be able to play the guitar. And so he'd been doing that for some time. And just on that same vein, we brainstormed the idea of what if we made guitars for people who can't just pull a guitar off of the shelf of a box store and play it. So what if we made guitars for people who have challenges, maybe some low vision or maybe they're blind or maybe they're in a wheelchair and they have spatial considerations or Parkinson's. You know, there's a variety of different challenges face where they can't just take a guitar, like I said, off of the shelf. And you know, as we dug into it, we realized there's actually nothing like that. There's nothing like that out there. There's guitars that look like tech toys, and there's guitars that maybe they have, you know, some tactile markers on them with glue or some homemade type of fashioned material to allow people to kind of use it, but nothing's actually made for people with these challenges. And we thought, well, why won't we, you know, we could do that. And so we have developed various adaptations for our guitars and we built a business around it. And that's what we do. So Tristan is the luthier and I do the ...
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    39 分
  • From the 2025 ACB Conference & Convention - Poems of Protest, Resistance, and Empowerment

    From the 2025 ACB Conference & Convention - Poems of Protest, Resistance, and Empowerment
    2025/10/08

    Welcome to this month's edition of The Art Parlor! This session was recorded at the 2025 ACB Conference and Confvention on June 28.

    Poetry is meant to be read aloud. In this session, poems written by Langston Hughes, Mya Angelou, Denise Levertov, Alan Ginsberg, and other powerful talents were performed and discussed.

    Facilitated by: Annie Chiappetta.

    We thank you for your support and hope you enjoy the show!
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    1 時間 5 分
  • The Art Parlor for September Presents: Abbie Johnson Taylor

    The Art Parlor for September Presents: Abbie Johnson Taylor
    2025/08/31
    Episode Notes Welcome to the September edition of The Art Parlor, brought to you by Friends in Art! In this episode, we speak with author and entertainer, Abbie Taylor. Join us as we explore her journey starting as a music therapist, with music entertainment and writing following in step. We also learn about her newly-published book, Living Vicariously in Wyoming: Stories. It was a pleasure having Abbie with us on the Art Parlor and we hope you enjoy the show! To learn more about her and stay up to date, visit her website at www.abbiejohnsontaylor.com. AI-Generated Transcript Opinions expressed on ACB Media are those of the respective program contributors and cannot be assumed to serve as endorsements of products or views by Friends in Art, the American Council of the Blind, their elected officials or staff. Friends in Art welcomes you to the Art Parlor, where visually impaired artists of all types will discuss their work. Pull up a chair, bring along your beverage of choice, and listen to thoughtful, stimulating conversations with visually impaired artists in all media and from all parts of the world. And now, here's your host, Ann Chiappetta. Good evening everyone, welcome to the Friends in Art Art Parlor, where artists and audiences thrive. You can find us on www.friendsinart.org. Tonight we are talking to Abbie Johnson-Taylor, and Abbie is a singer, a musician, a poet, and an author. Did I miss anything, Abbie? I don't think so, I think you covered it all. All right, and we're going to talk a little bit about your newest book, Living Vicariously in Wyoming, which is a great title, by the way, and all the other creative things you do in your life. Hopefully we can get it all in in the time that we're going to be talking to you. So, Abbie, first maybe you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you live, what you do, and then we'll go from there. Okay, well I'm in Sheridan, Wyoming, and I am, as you said, a writer, and I'm also a singer. I've published seven books, and there's two novels, two poetry collections, and a memoir, and then this new short story collection that just came out back in March. And when I'm not writing, I entertain monthly at two or three senior facilities in the community, plus at our local senior center, and then I also do the music for a local church the second Sunday of the month. And then in the fall, winter, and spring months, I sing with a group called the Hubcaps, which meets at the senior center and does most of our performances there. My goodness, you need a personal assistant to like help you out. Right, well, that's what I have my AMAZON ECHO devices for, and my iPhone. So, yeah, yeah, definitely. So, how long has it been for you, like, when did you get the bug, like this, you know, I know that, at least I think I remember you saying you came from a musical family, and can you talk a little bit about that? Well, my grandfather played the saxophone in a band, and so I think I must have inherited his musical genes. And then my younger brother did play drums for a while, and I think he still does, but I don't know that he does it on a regular basis as much as I do play the piano and guitar and sing. But yeah, I have, and when I went, my mother loved to tell this story about how I started playing music. They had purchased a used piano, upright piano, and they thought it would just be a toy. And I was about five years old, and I was digging around one day, and I don't really remember this, but my mother said she heard me playing "da-da-da-da," and so she immediately went to call a piano teacher. Oh, and so where did you go from there? Well, I took lessons, you know, off and on. At that time, we were living in Tucson, Arizona, and I, you know, took lessons from several teachers, and then we moved here to Wyoming, and I took lessons for another year or so, and then I finally gave up, and I then got interested in playing popular songs and then singing and using the piano to accompany myself. And I pretty much did that, you know, through my teen years. And then in college, when I decided to study music therapy, I had to get a guitar, because, you know, if you're working, like, in nursing homes, and of course the residence rooms don't have pianos, and so you need something portable that you can take, you know, and play when you're in those situations. So, and that's basically how my music career got off the ground. How long did it take for you to really learn the guitar and feel confident with the guitar? Well, I actually, I'm guessing maybe like one semester, because I just took a beginning guitar class, and that was really all I needed for what I was going to do. Just, you know, learn some basic stuff, you know, just to play, you know, a few chords here and there, nothing, nothing really fancy. So, yeah, about a semester. And then, you know, the piano kind of, I really don't remember how long it took to learn the piano. I was pretty small when I started, but, you know, I...
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    50 分
  • The Art Parlor for May, 2025 Presents: Johnny Cassidy

    The Art Parlor for May, 2025 Presents: Johnny Cassidy
    2025/05/12
    Episode Notes Welcome to the May edition of The Art Parlor! This month, oru guest is Johnny Cassidy. He is a BBC journalist and a fellow for the Reuter’s Institute for the Study of Journalism. Johnny Cassidy has been a TV and radio producer at the BBC for more than 17 years. He has recently moved into a new role into digital news, working on longer-term projects, specifically on how to best reach opportunity and under-served audiences. He is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion and believes strongly in universal accessibility for everyone. We are proud to now offer you a transcript of this episode and those in the future. Thank you and enjoy! AI-generated Transcript Opinions expressed on ACB Media are those of the respective program contributors and cannot be assumed to serve as endorsements of products or views by Friends in Art, the American Council of the Blind, their elected officials, or staff. Friends in Art welcomes you to the Art Parlor, where visually impaired artists of all types will discuss their work. Pull up a chair, bring along your beverage of choice, and listen to thoughtful, stimulating conversations with visually impaired artists in all media and from all parts of the world. And now, here's your host, Ann Chiappetta. Welcome to the Art Parlor. I'm your president, Ann Chiappetta, and the Art Parlor is brought to you by Friends in Art, the place where blind and low vision artists and audiences thrive. You can find us on www.friendsinart.org. Today's guest is Johnny Cassidy. He's a BBC journalist and a fellow for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Johnny Cassidy has been a TV and radio producer at the BBC for more than 17 years. He's recently moved into a new role into digital news, working on longer-term projects, specifically focused on how best to reach opportunity and underserved audiences. He is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion and believes strongly in universal accessibility for everyone. Welcome Johnny. Hello, Ann. How are you doing? Thank you so much for having me here. Yeah, wonderful. I'm glad you could make it and we managed to figure out the time change. At last, eventually, yeah. Right. Yeah. So before we get started into my questions, I just want our listeners to know how we met and we met through the Descriptathon of all things. And I just wanted to know what you thought of the overall experience for anyone that's listening that might be considering to do a Descriptathon. Well, the first thing to say is, if you are considering to do it next year, go for it. It was a fabulous, fantastic experience. Not least because I got to meet you, Ann, and we're talking here today. So if nothing else, that was a huge bonus. But the Descriptathon, it was a really good experience. It wasn't anything that I had experienced before. I didn't know what to expect really from it. So it was totally different. I think, you know, trying to work like that in such a big, massive collaborative way with so many people, hats off and huge kudos to the whole team at Descriptathon who managed to corral and manage that big group of people. And I think for so many people to show a passion and an interest in making images accessible to blind and low vision people, I think, you know, it's a it was just there's so many positives from it. It was just really, really good. So if anybody is considering it for next year, definitely go for it. I thought it was fantastic. Yeah, I totally agree. That's why I keep coming back. I think once you do it, you can't stop. It's just it's such an affirming experience for everybody. And you know, and it's not an easy thing either. There's, you know, times where you're like, oh, boy, I got to keep going. There's a lot of frenetic parts that just kind of come together. You don't think it's going to come together. And you say, oh, oh, wow. You know, I don't know if we'll make it to the end. But then you do. It's like, I don't know how it happens, but it happens. I think the management team must be doing so much really, as you say, frenetic stuff in the background, behind the scenes, under the waterline. Because it does. You know, I was exactly the same as you. I was thinking this is chaotic. And then it slowly but surely comes together and you find your feet. You know what it is that you're doing before you know it. Those three days are up and three big full days and they're open. There's really good, solid product to show for it. So yeah, brilliant experience. Yeah, I agree. Wow. OK, so there's a plug for the descriptor that's done. So more serious things, I guess. Could you share with us your vision loss journey and maybe incorporate that into who you are and maybe how you got to be a writer and that kind of. Yeah, from a young age, I was always short sighted. I wore glasses, first of all. But when I was I think I was maybe as young as seven, I started wearing contact lenses because there are these big, heavy glasses that I wore. ...
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    1 時間
  • The Art Parlor for April, 2025 Presents: Izzi Guzman

    The Art Parlor for April, 2025 Presents: Izzi Guzman
    2025/04/11

    It was a pleasure to visit with our guest, Izzi Guzman, in this edition of The Art Parlor! Listeners may remember her from previous Friends in Art showcases. A dynamic trombonist, composer, arranger, and educator, Izzi is passionate about sharing joy, creativity, and authenticity through music. Based in Miami and Orlando, Florida, she aims to bring stories to life through her art and foster accessible and creativity-driven music education for the next generation.

    Izzi’s innovative and technical prowess has earned her recognition, and she has performed with renowned groups such as the John Daversa Big Band, Frost Jazz Orchestra, and Florida Wind Symphony Jazz Orchestra. Along the way, she has collaborated with jazz legends like John Daversa, Jazzmeia Horn, Brian Lynch, Etienne Charles, and Marcus Strickland, solidifying her place in the jazz world.

    Listen as she recounts her journey, beginning with her childhood, and how her passion for art led her to explore music, which eventually expanded to include multiple brass instruments! You can learn more about Izzi and stay abrest of her career and social media by visiting her website: www.izziguzman.com.
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    57 分
  • Art Parlor for Feb, 2025 Presents: Michael W Moran!

    Art Parlor for Feb, 2025 Presents: Michael W Moran!
    2025/02/07
    Episode Notes

    On this edition, we're talking with author, Michael W Moran. He wrote his first book, a memoir titled "I did it Without Looking – a Blind Man's Recovery from Addiction". In his introduction, Michael writes, "I am blind and I'm an alcoholic." There was no cure for the glaucoma causing his blindness. Thanks to a twelve-step program and lots of help from others, he put down the drinks and drugs in 1982. Now, 42 years later, he's put together this heartfelt narrative of the main events of his life. Mike's friendly and open personality draws upon his world view. Listen and see for yourself how his refreshing message of hope and optimism will lighten your step.
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    55 分