WORDS MATTER

DEHUMANIZING WORDS HURT PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Caregiver = person who cares for a human being.

Caretaker = person who cares for a thing.

Dear ableist journalists.

Stop referring to those who care for people with disabilities as caretakers.

First, it is inaccurate.

Journalism depends on accuracy.

Second, labeling a person as a thing dehumanizes PWDs when they deserve dignity and identity.

Words Matter.

SAVE THE DATE FOR MY MAY 3 BOOK SIGNING

PROUD TO BE A VISUAL ARTIST IN SAUDADES

I will be joining other artists for the book release of SAUDADES: Anthological Contemplations on Persons, Places, Identity, and Time

The event will take place 7:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. May 3 at the legendary Books and Books, 180 Aragon Avenue Coral Gables, Florida.

It will be a multimedia event featuring:

Poetry readings

Premiere of short film Saudade

Live performance by multi instrumentalist singer/ songwriter Bill Cruz who will perform the 2 song lyrics included in book

Gallery exhibit curated by Diego Quiros composed of works by the visual artists in the book

Saudades book signing by all artists.

Saudades is part of the Untranslatable Words Series by Amy Serrano.

https://www.facebook.com/SaudadesBook/ 

https://www.sirenfilms.us/films

PROUD TO BE PART OF THE SAUDADES

 Poetry/ Photography/ Short Stories/ Painting/ Song Lyrics Anthology

The book is titled: SAUDADES Anthological Contemplations on Persons, Places, Identity, and Time.

It will feature the work of artists that originate from nine countries including Brazil, Cuba, England, Iran, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Spain and the United States.

I am indebted to my friend and colleague – the immensely talented filmmaker/artist/creative force Amy Serrano, who is leading this project.

There will be multimedia events – perhaps around the nation and overseas – to come.

Though I have certainly experienced saudade and a great amount of my overseas photography portrays aspects of it, I confess I did not know the word until the brilliant and multicultural Amy Serrano posted a call for artists that explained the word. 

I borrow from her background information:

In English, saudade is often explained as a word, impossible to translate, yet quantifiable as an emotion that encompasses a wholly relatable configuration of bittersweet emotions.

These involve a distinct strain of profound melancholic yearnings that may be for a person, a place, an identity, or a time that has gone, and may never return. 

Saudade is also a word for a deep-seated longing about an idealized experience that has not yet happened, and perhaps never will. 

Aspects of saudade may include one or more these emotions: a profound sense of longing for a lost love or the homeland, bittersweet nostalgia, deep loss, a sense of "missingness,' dynamic regret, a gaping hole, transcendent emptiness, mysterious incompleteness, poignant sadness, an elusive wish, a singular absence, having "the blues," an ardent wistfulness, a haunting emptiness, a desperate yearning, and/or indolent dreaming.