“Art to me is a humanitarian act and I believe that there is a responsibility that art should somehow be able to effect mankind, to make the world a better place.” ~ Jeff Koons
Something I don’t talk about very often is that at its very core Invisible People is art. Years ago, my boss at the time had in his office a coffee table book of photos of homeless people. The pictures humanized homeless men, woman, and families as the real people that they are. I said to myself: “I could do this with video.” Shortly after, I was laid off and Invisible People was started. If you’d like to learn more about my story and how Invisible People started, please watch this documentary.
Art and music have the power to bring people together and change our world for the better. Both art and music can play a huge role in giving homeless people a purpose. Yes, housing ends homelessness but just putting homeless people in boxes will never end homelessness. People need to thrive and not just survive. Art therapy and music therapy are powerful tools for wellness, and as you’ll see in this vlog – art, music, and theater can be used for advocacy to help change policy.
Last year, With One Voice sent a delegation to the ATSA État d’Urgence Festival in Montreal, Canada. It was an amazing few days meeting new friends and brainstorming on how we can help other creative organizations scale to have more impact on helping homeless people. I shot a bunch of footage but never got around to editing it into something until this month. My dream is someday to be able to produce mini-documentaries like this vlog highlighting cool ideas and amazing people working to end homelessness who may not always get a lot of media attention.
For example, in this vlog, I reference a video I shot when I was invited to the Dallas Public Library that you can watch here. The folks behind With One Voice saw this video and invited Jo and Heather to Montreal to share about creating safe spaces. I hope to one day be able to produce more like this but on a much larger scale!
