What it's Like Project - Voice Your Mind

MISSION STATEMENT

What it’s Like Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to removing the stigma of mental health disorders through the arts, education and community engagement

VALUES & PRINCIPLES

Awareness, activism, empowerment, healing, unification and creativity. People find value through self-expression and expressive arts. The invisible and unspoken can be communicated through various forms of self-expression As a result, a link can be created between the observer and the artist. Our unification and artistic understanding help connect individuals who live with mental health disorders to the overall community.

ORIGIN OF THE PROJECT

In early 2016, Nikki Hune attempted suicide. After the attempt, she sought mental health treatment. With little relief from intrusive thoughts of suicide, she made the choice to fully engage with these thoughts rather than avoid them. As an artist and musician, she also began seeking abstract freedom through her own artistic expression After experiencing a novel form of relief from suicidal thoughts, she began encouraging artistic expression for those with suffering with their mental health in the local Houston, TX community.

Nikki further sought to create an avenue by engaging society in the experience of “what it’s like” to experience suicidal ideation; to have survived a suicide attempt; and, to have lost a loved one to suicide. She teamed up with Cailey Baker and Andrew Robinson who had similar experiences to begin the groundwork. In addition to Cailey and Andrew, she recruited Jeff Thompson, Misty Cooper, Jackie Hune, and Edward Odom to comprise the founding team of the What it’s Like Project After the overwhelming success of the first two events, EXPOSIS and VOXIS, Justin Anderson, Jose Cortes, Jennifer Van Antwerp, Dan Workman, Ben Irwin and Ava Bates joined the team.

WEBSITE www.whatitslikeproject.org DONATE http://www whatitslikeproject org/donate

EVENT SPONSORS

PART I. POETRY PART I. POETRY

Xach Blunt

Xach is a spokesman artist who emphasizes empathy and compassion throughout his work. His mission is to challenge every person who encounters his work to ask themselves if there is room for more love. Xach’s poetry has received more than 10 million views online and he is a 2x national poetry slam event finalist.

Zachary is a Mexican-American Poet and First-Generation Texas Trial Lawyer based in Houston, TX. For over fifteen years, Zachary has been performing, writing, and celebrating poetry across Texas. Zachary’s poems have been featured on HuffPost Latino Voices, We are Mitu, the Texas Bar Journal, the Austin International Poetry Festival, and he was once the 2016 Write About Now Grand Slam Poetry Champion. As a poet, he has competed in Brave New Voices, the National Poetry Slam, co-founded UT Spitshine, UT-Austin’s only spoken word poetry organization, and as a coach, he co-coached the UT-Austin National Poetry Slam Champion Team in 2014 at the College Union Poetry Slam Invitational. Zachary loves people, poetry, and the universe that lets him talk for a living.

Zachary F. Caballero

Utilizing live sound to facilitate healing by balancing the mind, centering the emotions, expanding spiritual experiences, and supporting the reduction of mental health symptoms.

Zoe fuses her passion of music and healing to encourage alchemy through crystal singing bowls and voice.

Dan leveraged his charter membership in the punk/experimental/noise band Culturcide into a mainstream music career as an engineer/producer and co-owner of the iconic SugarHill Studios in Houston, Texas, working with Beyonce, Destiny’s Child, Paul Wall, Clay Walker, South Park Mexican, Lyle Lovett and many, many more. After working as a national trustee for the Grammys, he sold the studio and earned a degree in clinical social work. He now works as a psychotherapist treating patients who identify as creatives. His latest project is doing live & recorded performances with Welch, Workman, Welch, making the meditation music he always wanted to hear

Veronica was born to parents whose strongest agreement was on the reality of hell & heaven. This set her up for a mission to transcend duality through a path of body meditation, study of the psyche and human relationship Upon meeting Zoé Welch and Dan Workman, unlocked within her was the instinct to make sound and ask questions from the felt sense of her own body in response to another, in hopes of opening a personalized stream of consciousness for the group/person present. She is a new mother to her son, Elijah Jordan, whose presence continues to inform her quest for Truth

Veronica Welch

Zoé Welch

Dan Workman

Abi is a spirited sculptoran artist focusing on fantasy themes and imaginative interpretations of nature and it's creature's. Her expressions capture a love for creating with her hands, as well as provide refuge and healing from the waves of bipolar disorder.

Instagram: @thelucidfawn Email: abicarroll@ymail.com

Abi Carroll

Katt Harper, Katts Color Fun

Katt has always loved color and enjoyed experimenting with art. She was off work from March 2020 until the following January during COVID-19, and discovered acrylic pour. Katt thought it was just something to do; she didn't realize what an emotional release it was On May 21, 2020, Katt lost her mom. It was a very stressful, overwhelming emotional time (still is) She kept my focus on her new hobby and, without realizing it, was putting it all on the canvas. "Sometimes it brings me joy, but it always makes me feel something. I am grateful. It reminds me there is always a way to make it to another day. I hope you enjoy what I've done

Facebook: Katts Color Fun https://www facebook com/katt 4592?mibextid=ZbWKwL

Nikki Hune

Whitney Riley, Start Your Better Life

Whitney is a Transformational Mentor who has 25 years experience transforming her life from bad relationships to good relationships, from weight issues to weight happiness, from oppressive grief to lightness of being, from autoimmune disorder to healthy, and from financial issues to financial freedom. She has condensed her learning into powerful, proven sessions and classes to help others start their better lives now. She is a certified level 1&2 EFT Practitioner, and founder of Specific Meditation Technique.

www.startyourbetterlife.com Whitney@startyourbetterlife.com

If you would like to make a donation to What it's Like Project please visit www.whatitslikeproject.org