I've done this trick many times before. This time, however, I'm doing it in front of about 100 full-ride scholarship college students from Emory University. I asked them to count from 10 to 1 in a language they chose. As the students count down, I balance a chair on my face for their entertainment.
Read MoreSomeone smashed my car window. Broken glass was everywhere!
My car was parked in a public lot, and someone decided to break my window after I parked it. I don't know who did this. I was only away from my car for a few hours. It happened in a public car lot. Now, I had to spend the rest of my day addressing this problem. I had to clean up the mess to make the car drivable, and then I had to drive somewhere where I could vacuum the rest of the glass out of the vehicle.
Breaking something can be easy; repairing it will take work….
Read MoreI walked from the parking deck across the university campus and approached the medical school building. The destination is familiar. We've met in this building several times over the semester. I open the door and walk into the halls of the Emory Medical School. I am at the university to co-teach students at medical school as part of Emory’s Arts and Social Justice Fellows Program.
Read MoreOver the past few months, I've enjoyed playing in a different playground. I got the clown around with the Atlanta Opera. Doing this work was a special treat for me. It was my second opportunity to work with the Atlanta Opera.
Read MoreAs I played the music, there was a line of performers singing and dancing along. They all replied, "It's Alright "!. This started as my version of the Curtis Mayfield song "It's Alright." It's one of my favorite tunes to play in the hospital. At home in Georgia, people sing along. For them, it is a gospel refrain from the black church, and they are eager to join me in singing….
Read MoreI was a plainclothes clown, not knowing what to do. Should I buy the avocado? Should I put the avocado down and walk away?
Read MoreAt first glance, she looked like she is in her 60s. She was lying in her bed with a look of stoic unease. I often see this look on the faces of adults in a way that I don't see in children. A sense of fatigue and weariness is unique to adults. dr. tiny, and I carefully approached
Read MoreAt this point, I stopped everything again and said. "Why am I singing? You should be singing all the lyrics to this song."
Read MoreAfter another show today, a group of young girls began to crowd around me. Music was playing, so I took out my spoons and started playing them on my hand and leg. As the girls saw this, they began to step closer to me.
Read MoreThe older folks sat on the sidelines and laughed and smiled. The young adults sat closer to the children to tend to their needs. The children paid close attention to the show and quickly interacted with us.
Read MoreThe site of young children and adults joining us in the parade warms my heart. In one of the parades today, a woman saw a clown balancing a juggling club. After seeing this, she decided to play with us.
Read MoreLater, it began to rain when we arrived at our next camp. We paused, wondering if we would be able to do our performance in the rain. We decided to continue the performance. Halfway into the show, the sun came from behind the clouds, and a rainbow appeared in the distance.
Read MoreToday, we finished our first day of clowning here in Turkey for earthquake survivors. I woke up in Istanbul at 4 o’clock this morning to meet the rest of the team for our flight to Gaziantep. We performed in five different locations from the morning into the early evening.
Read MoreIn my experience, there has been a stigma surrounding mental health in the Black community. Many of us feel pressure to conform to traditional notions of masculinity, making it difficult to express emotions. I grew up in a society that enforced these notions of masculinity.
Read MoreIt was an evening of Black love. Six black men on stage expressed love, joy, intimacy, masculinity, frustration, anger, longing, pride, and even juggling, yes, juggling.
Read MoreClowns are known for not following the rules. It's one of the things we expect from clowns. Following this tradition is something we do in the hospital constantly. As medical clowns, we take the medical aspects of our work seriously. We are trained to function in the hospital as we do our work. That said, we are still clowns. We still find some norms to break as we follow medical regulations.
Read MoreVincenzo Tortorici, a friend, and clown, passed away 10 years ago this August. He was an actor, musician, clown, and overall wonderful artist. Looking back on his passing, I can't help but ponder how so many things are different now compared to how they were when he died. I'm also aware of what remains the same.
Read MoreI'm always looking for new material to perform in the hospital. Usually, some of the better musical material are things right under my nose, everyday things, or songs I grew up with. It's just a matter of finding the right piece and seeing the opportunity to use it.
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