human interest – Page 2

Lexi

March 3, 2019Posted in MakerTagged human interest, human stories, Kansas Young, photo journalismLeave a comment

Lexi Rodriguez is the creator of Hope Through Headphones, a nonprofit that started out as a Washburn Student Organization and is now looking to expand with chapters to other schools.

—

“I was bullied starting in fourth grade. I was called words that I didn’t even know what they meant. It just got progressively worse and worse, until sophomore year of high school which was my lowest point. I ended up eventually having to transfer schools because I just got so low. Everything that everyone was telling me to do wasn’t working. I would go home from school and go to my room and cry myself to sleep at night and wake up in the morning and I would feel physically sick thinking about going to school. I started skipping classes, then getting bad grades because I was skipping classes and getting into fights with my parents who at the time didn’t understand what was going on. Now they’re amazing and the second they realized what was going on they read books and articles and did everything they could to help, but for a while they didn’t understand what was happening.

It was really music that got me out of that and got me more hopeful and got me to feel better about myself. Ever since then I kind of stuck to that– this is what music can do, this is what music did for me. That transition from high school to college can be a crazy hard one, especially if you’re moving away from family and so seeing college students go through breakdowns, anxiety attacks and depression, seeing all that happen around me, is why I’m so proactive about mental health.

We may not be able to get students to just go sit and listen to five speakers about mental health, but we can get students to listen to music with mental health thrown in between it. So we did that and it was terrifying. I had never put a concert together ever. I had never planned a big event like that. Out of a core group of students putting this concert on I was the oldest one, and I wasn’t even 21. We had 13 bands and five speakers. Washburn Student Government gave us funding since we’re a student organization and that was super helpful. We realized that on top of the speakers a lot of the musicians had their own things to say about mental health and so that’s where I think it really expanded from.

This year we purposefully picked artists who are passionate about the topics, so all of the bands are taking time out of their sets to talk about it as well. We opened the conversation to more than mental health this year too. We have a music therapy speaker, a speaker talking about substance abuse and addiction, as well as resources coming in and talking about domestic violence and abuse. It’s seriously just a room full of love.”

–

“What’s one piece of advice you want to give the people reading this?”

“Find the people that support you and help you and are there for you. Starting the Mental Music Scene I went up to my best friend and I said, ‘Hey, I want to have 10 bands, five speakers at a giant outdoor festival with food trucks. What do you think?’ And his first question was, ‘Okay, how can I help?’ Find those people in your life and keep them.”

Huascar

March 3, 2019Posted in Kansas Young, WriterTagged amwriting, human interest, Kansas Young, photo journalism, writingLeave a comment

This is Huascar Medina. Huascar is a writer, an artist. Recently, his play “Theodore’s Love” was chosen for the 5th annual Ad Astra Homegrown Playwright Project. This is his story.

“I have this constant existential anxiety about my place in the world. I need to know that I’m not wasting my time and that my art is taken seriously. I want to be seen as an important voice, for whoever is reading my work. Whatever my “group” ends up being, whether that’s the Hispanic community, or lower-middle class American, first-generation immigrants, whatever those voices are that I’m speaking out of; I want them to hear it and be sincere about what they feel. I want them to pick up my work and say, ‘I’m about to experience something and I need to be ready for it.’ I want to create change with my work.

For me it’s always about significance. Does you work compel other people to do better in any aspect of their lives? Does it lift up their spirits or does it shed light on something that needs that light? Are you capable of creating a story that allows people to be vulnerable or to put themselves in someone else’s place?

We are limited with the day-to-day lives that we live with the number of experiences that we have and that’s where art comes in. It gives us those avenues of experience.

Art grounds me. Art keeps me in the place I need to be and I stay focused and the outside stressors don’t affect me as much because I’m creating something. I’m a maker. I’m a craftsman. I’m not just me. I’m not just a person. I’m not just a father, or a brother, or a son. I’m an artist. That’s a very safe place to be.”

“What’s one piece of advice you want the people reading this to know?”

“Write, feel, and create, at all costs. Do it because it’s who you are and what you want to do. Don’t let anyone deter you from that, ever. If it’s something you’ve always wanted to do, do it. Don’t just put it on a list. Set it as a destination or point to meet and get there.”

Kat (3)

November 12, 2018Posted in Actor, Kansas YoungTagged human interest, human stories, humans, Kansas Young, photo journalismLeave a comment

(3/3)

“Lucky Us Show was something that I wanted to do before I couldn’t. I wanted to make my own thing and I wanted to tell stories that people might relate to. I feel like I’m surrounded by really brilliant people and I’m lucky to be friends with them. I grew up in a very tight knit family and we always said that ‘If somebody could put a camera on what’s happening right now I would watch this, this is hilarious.’ It was genuinely funny. And I’ve always been really lucky to be surrounded by people like that and there’s so much that happens in life that is so freaking absurd that it deserves to be told.

Dané and I have both been involved in projects before that went belly up, so I said, ‘Hey, I know you’re not going to back out and I’m not going to back out, so let’s make this, let’s do something together.’ That’s how it started. Everything’s based in a little bit of reality, kind of a hyperbolic version of that.

I hear people all the time saying they’re not creative and that’s ridiculous. If you pass down stories that your family always told, that’s an art form. I’m very introverted and so are a lot of my friends. I’ve collected this circle of introverts. I have a girlfriend of mine who said, ‘I’m so excited for you that you’re doing this, this is really cool. I want to write my short story, just for me and for the first time I feel like I could do that.’ I hope that’s what the show does, that it inspires others to be creative.”

“What’s one piece of advice that you would give to others reading this?”

“This is advice that my mom gave me when I was early in middle school and that is to ‘remember that nothing anyone does is about you.’ For example that person who wasn’t paying attention on the freeway wasn’t cutting you off to inconvenience you. They were in their own space. And so it’s a way to just keep things into perspective and be a little bit kinder than necessary and to give a little more understanding.

If we took things a little less personally and took ourselves a little less seriously, I think we’d have less conflict.”

Kat (2)

November 12, 2018Posted in ActorTagged equality, human interest, human stories, Kansas Young, mental health, photo journalismLeave a comment

(2/3)

“My mom is my hero and one of the most fascinating people I know. She’s always educating herself and always learning more. I was 11, was when my father left us, so my mom told us from very young that we had to work hard to buy our own school supplies. My biological father was quite a character. He was mentally ill and a pathological liar and a lot of different things, so no one really surprises me because some of my earlier experiences were really shocking and surprising.

When people show great kindness and compassion, when people remind me that they are capable of those things, I think it’s more uplifting now. Looking back, I’m grateful now that it was all part of my experience. It wasn’t going to be any other way. I’m more discerning about connections. I will filter out and keep people at a distance that have that energy about them. I’m not easily taken in. It really makes you appreciate the connections that you have that are really authentic and really genuine even more.

I’m incredibly passionate about helping people come through trauma. I’m going into social work and I want to go into private practice and go into therapy and I also want to publish. I want to help people create a framework where people are more empathetic with one another, where they can more naturally step into another person’s shoes. Neither one of us arrived at our belief system nor who we are today in an instant. We arrived here through all of our cumulative experiences. And I think that there’s got to be an easier way to help people to be able to step into that empathy and say, ‘I may not like a thing about you, but I get why you are the way you are.’

I have a lot of theories about empathy in general and how we can use that and I think that we can do better in schools, in governments and just better across the board. Someone like Brené Brown is really inspirational to be me because I believe that stories and conversations are so important because it lights things on fire and it arms us all with a common language where we can talk about vulnerability and we can talk about these themes that are really, really important. I don’t know what form that’s going to take, but that’s what’s next for me. I want to see where social work takes me. I want to help people through traumas caused by sexual and domestic violence and the only way out is through.”

Kat

October 28, 2018Posted in ActorTagged acting, Actor, human interest, human stories, humans, Kansas Young, photo journalismLeave a comment

This is Kathryn Keyes (she goes by Kat), she’s the co-creator of the web series Lucky Us Show and a producer and filmmaker at MotoVike Films.

—-

“I’m a very open person, but in the last several years I’ve struggled with being vulnerable. Being open and being vulnerable are two very different things. I’ll talk about anything you want to talk about, but actually being seen is a very different thing. I think at its root, connection is the most important thing. That’s why we’re here. We’re here to connect meaningfully. We’re here to develop really important relationships with people and we’re all on this journey together. There’s never going to be a point in my life when I’ll say, ‘I’m self-actualized, I’ve arrived!’ That’s not how that works.

I’m going to fight the same battles and I’m going to fight them over and over. So, fighting that battle of trusting self and trusting myself to be open with people and letting people in is my challenge. I kind of hate that because I love people. I like connecting with people, but every single time I meet someone new I ask, ‘Are you safe?’ That’s affected me in the way I recharge, the fact that I’m very introverted, the friends that I’ve chosen, the activities that I’ve chosen, the way that I work in a daily basis and what distracts me and how.

My biggest challenge right now is being patient. I love learning and I have all of these ideas and I’m constantly reading and learning. I want to be doing more, but there’s only so much time and there are only so many hours in the day. I love what I’m doing. I do feel like I’m helping move the needle with organizations that need to have a voice. We work with the YWCA for example and organizations that are doing a lot of good and every second of that is meaningful and I want to give myself to that. But I also feel kind of pulled. I’ve done that work for so long in that sort of realm in helping communicate on their behalf that I want to take that even further, so my challenge is getting there. I’m working full time and going to school again.”

Dané (3)

October 26, 2018Posted in Actor, Artist, Kansas YoungTagged Actor, human interest, human stories, humans, Kansas Young, photo journalismLeave a comment

(3/3)

“Recently I started reading a book by Leslie Odom Jr. and he had a whole section where he was talking about mentors. And I was like, I need some of that. I don’t really have mentors. I do a handful of things and I think I do them pretty well, but they’re all self-taught. There are things that I want to see and the only way that I get to see them is if I make them happen myself. I learned to draw and color my own artwork. I also learned to write because there are roles that I want to play and I felt that no one was going to give them to me. I learned to sing because I wanted to do musicals.

So everything that I’ve learned to do I taught myself and it’s all raw. I don’t know the right way to do anything. It’ll be nice to have someone, at least for one of those things that I do, help me channel it. It’s all raw, it’s all untamed energy and it’ll be nice to have someone to help me focus all that. There are tons of people who have inspired me and that I respect and that have made me better by example, but there’s never been anyone who took a special interest in me.

I remember watching a recent awards show and it was great seeing all those colorful faces. Donald Glover is doing some great stuff right now. Mindy Kaling and Issa Rae are, too. There are so many wonderful people of color out there looking like they’re having the time of their lives and that’s where I want to be right now. I am like one degree of separation of black excellence and the frustrating part is not knowing how to reach out and make that connection. I just don’t know how to make that leap over the fence.”

Dané (2)

October 24, 2018Posted in Actor, EntrepreneurTagged human interest, humans, Kansas Young, photo journalismLeave a comment

(2/3)

“What I try and tell everyone is to do what they want. I see lots of people give up on their dream. Since I wanted to be an actor, since high school when I started that, there are lots of people who used to be with me in that and I’m the last one. I’ve also seen lots of things change. It used to be you had to move to the coast to be an actor and follow certain channels, but I never subscribed to that. I’ve never had this romantic idea of Hollywood. I’ve always wanted to do my own thing. I’ve always wanted to tell my own story.

I’ve always felt that if you went out there, you’re going to become part of a school of fish and no one ever pays attention to a fish in a school. But if you’re doing things out here they’ll say, ‘What’s that fish doing over there? No one does anything over there. What’s going on with this fish?’ So I always try and do my own thing. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that your dreams are unrealistic because I feel that ‘unrealistic’ was invented by people who gave up on their dreams, so don’t ever let that be the case.

Also, everyone else seems to think that they know your dream better than you do. I’m like ‘Man, it’s my dream! Give me the benefit of the doubt! Maybe I have done some of my own research on how to do what I want to do.’ So yeah, ultimately when it’s all over I want people to say ‘Dane Shobe was stubborn, but he got things done the way he wanted to do them on his own terms and did not compromise. He did it his way.'”

Dané

October 18, 2018Posted in Actor, Artist, Kansas YoungTagged acting, human interest, human stories, Kansas YoungLeave a comment

This is Dané Raphael Shobe. Dané (he really wants you to know that it’s pronounced ‘Daynuh’ and Shobe, like ‘globe’) is the co-creator for the web series Lucky Us Show. Dané’s passion for acting stems from his love of Power Rangers and pro-wrestling when he was younger. We talked for a while. This is part one of three. ‘Like’ the page to be notified when part two comes out tomorrow and please share with your friends.

—-

(1/3)

“I don’t want to have kids because I don’t want to bring another brown baby into this world with the way it is right now, because I’d be afraid for that kid every time they were out of my sight.

I had a heavy conversation with a friend of mine the other day about this. There’s no way I could protect that kid. I phrased it to her this way, ‘You think highly of me and that’s great, but if I were to be killed by the cops, you’ll have to watch a bunch of strangers on the Internet try their best to justify my murder. You’d have the media digging through my social media past looking for examples of me being a thug and more than likely you would have whatever officer did it walk away with no repercussions or consequences and that’s what my mom would have to go through. If I had a wife that’s what she would have to go through with our kid if it happened and I’m in no hurry to experience any facet of that.’

Nowadays is the scariest that it’s ever been in our lifetime. One day recently I was walking home from a bar real late and I was walking down 17th street and I saw some white cats way down the way and maybe a couple of years ago I would never think to do this, but this time I went and hid in the neighborhood and waited until they passed because you just don’t fucking know right now.”

Courtney (2)

October 18, 2018Posted in Entrepreneur, MakerTagged human interest, human stories, humans, Kansas YoungLeave a comment

(2/2)

“I was trying to think of a clever name and my dad who’s not creative at all was like, what about ‘Bondbons?’ and I thought that was great.

Back when I started Bondbons, we had just started a Financial Peace University class by Dave Ramsey to pay off our student loans and get rid of our debt. Between the two of us we had $82,000 in student loan debt so I thought that maybe this was something I could do to help us pay it off. I posted something in January of 2014 and told people I was making cake balls for Valentine’s Day, but I wasn’t expecting to get many orders. But I had a lot of friends and family place an order out of the kindness of their hearts and then I told my husband that I probably wasn’t going to get any orders out of this, but I did keep getting more orders from other people and it kept snowballing from there.

That class helped our marriage a lot. We were never on the same page financially until we took that class. We actually sat down and did a budget together. We just talked about money stuff last night and if that would’ve been five years ago we would’ve been screaming at each other because we would get in a lot of fights about money. This time we had a very calm and mature conversation about money because we’re on the same page about it.

My husband started painting on the side and I did this, and in 38 months we became debt free. There’s no way we could have done it without Bondbons and his painting business. That’s one reason why this is so special to me, not only because I built this from the ground up and came up with the concept, but the fact that it helped us get financial freedom is priceless to me.

It’s funny because when we got married I had never baked anything in my life, so he had to teach me how to cook. I remember the first time I tried to make something for him and he was very sweet and eating it and I hadn’t taken a bite. Then I took a bite and realized that it was disgusting! He was like, ‘Well, I was only eating it because I didn’t know if you found it gross, too.’ He had to teach me how to cook. It boggles my mind that me, who didn’t even know how to cook, can start this thing and turn it into something successful. So, I hope that encourages people. Don’t be discouraged where you are now or what you can or can’t do now because anything’s possible. Everybody starts somewhere.”

Dennis

September 18, 2018Posted in WriterTagged human interest, human stories, humans, Kansas YoungLeave a comment

This is Dennis Etzel Jr. Dennis is a Washburn University English professor, a poet with multiple books and awards to his name, as well as a husband and father. He got a degree as a Computer Programmer Analyst, before finding his passion for teaching and writing, which led him to earning an MFA from the University of Kansas and a Graduate Certificate in women and gender studies from Kansas State University. He frequently advises students in the Black Student Union and Hispanic American Leadership Organization (HALO) on how to move forward with their education. He grew up with two mothers, something he wrote about a few years ago in a chapbook titled “The Sum of Two Mothers.” Sadly, his mother Sondra passed away recently. I’m really thankful for his time and friendship.

—-

“My mothers both have nursing background. My biological mother Susan was an RN who worked for the state and at Saint Francis and Sondra worked as a psych nurse at Menninger’s, so I felt like I had the best of both worlds growing up, the mind and the body. When Sondra moved in she moved in with her books and music. I feel like I owe a lot to her. I was her son. This was the 80s, so having two moms wasn’t something people did. The neighbors thought she was an aunt, or whatever assumptions they had. I didn’t tell anybody growing up.

The one thing that made me really proud of the book ‘The Sum of Two Mothers’ was the feedback from the community. Poetry for me is like a high form of ethics. You can’t just write anything you want. If poetry is a reflection of our world and our experiences and those all have ethics, then we need to write ethically too. So, for example, I didn’t want to write a persona poem. I can’t write what it is to be a lesbian, but I can write what it is to be the son of one. So that’s what the writing is out of, it’s out of the observations and the experiences.

The great thing is that when I read poetry from that book at an open mic night, I had people come up to me who were either two mothers or two fathers raising kids that saw me as a success, that seeing me up there was a relief to them. I would have never even thought of that but it was great. Any of the poetry I write has to have some sort of activism in it. There’s always something I want to tackle, there’s always something I want to voice.

For example, one of the most heartbreaking moments was during the time of the Michael Brown shooting.The AME church had a vigil and we took our kids and Asmund at the time was five or six. He was on my shoulders and he said, ‘Is this about the boy who died?’ and I told him that yes, it was. It was really cold outside and then he said, ‘Can you feel my breath?’ It was heartbreaking, my own son breathing on the back of my neck while all of this was going on; it really brought home what had happened. Those moments are hard to put into words. Poetry allows us to express them. Metaphors try to find those words.”