this stage had you told me that the last
time I was up on the stage that in just
two years I’d be living next to a
hundred and two-year-old woman who still
makes her own vodka I would have never
believed you ever I mean honestly I
would have been really jealous of that
premonition and I’ve always had a really
special taste in my heart for the
elderly population but again
I wouldn’t have believed doing the
slightest but that is exactly what one
facet of my life looks like right now as
the artists and residents at Milwaukee
Catholic home which is a retirement
community and health care facility for
the elderly population on the east side
of Milwaukee and though I’m the youngest
resident by about sixty years it’s
absolutely phenomenal I love it and so
in exchange for programming based around
the arts I received free housing
professional development and by far my
favorite part and never-ending series of
challenging and lightining conversations
and countless bouts of laughter and this
all began with a conversation that I
actually wasn’t even a part of but I’m
so glad that I stepped into that
conversation and really challenged
myself in this role and I was catapulted
into it
and the thing is is that everything that
I do is in efforts of something much
bigger than myself
everything I do surrounds combating
stigma that surrounds the elderly
population as well as social isolation
and feelings of loneliness that also
greatly plagues it too and so what I
mean by social isolation and feelings of
loneliness is that it’s not necessarily
a sickness it’s not something that
something to be prescribed for it’s not
there’s no physical symptoms there’s no
way to really kind of cure it that you
can just give them medication yet after
a while it starts to take a toll and
those
that have those feelings of social
isolation and lonliness are more prone
to long-term diseases especially
Alzheimer’s and other dementias and so
you know how do we combat this thing
that we can’t give a prescription and
it’s not as easy just to say yeah come
to my program it’s going to be great
so varenna medic who was a professor at
McMaster University says that research
on interventions for social isolation
and loneliness are inconsistent and
inconclusive and that’s really not
surprising at all considering the fact
that every single person has lived a
very unique and different life so
therefore we must engage them uniquely
and differently right but I’ve through
my program have found a kind of
commonality that everyone kind of
gravitates towards whether they’re 5 or
25 or 105 and that’s the arts and so
when I started as artisan residents I
was really kind of scared really kind of
terrified because I was about to be
living with people that were at least 60
years older than me who had seen life
who had had all these challenges and
Here I am 23 years old and I like fresh
out of the gate how do I engage with
them and you know what everything
started to melt away when they begin to
talk to them
I especially leaned on the arts for this
because as artists in residence and my
kids in my title right but they began to
talk about my love of music my love with
the arts my love of theater and that’s
when I really started to notice that we
all have this inherent nature to want to
relate to one another and as humans we
also have this need to create or to
externalize a piece of ourselves
and we want others to be witness to that
and what I mean by witnessing is being
able to take the time to see or hear or
touch smell taste
something that someone else created so
for example right now you are all
sitting here and you’re witnessing me
talk and so for example in what work I
do is I run a community art group and we
all get together so myself and about
four or five of my other residents and
we create art together we are there to
witness each other’s process we’re we’re
there to witness each other’s products
that we make we are there to see the
frustrations that come through making a
piece of art because it can be
frustrating we are there to see the
triumphs that happen once we are able to
overcome those frustrations and honestly
through this process often times stories
come up because you know when you’re
creating a piece of art that’s a piece
of your life that you’re externalize it
you’re putting out there for everyone
else to see and that can be very
vulnerable and then my residents also
link stories to that and they’ll start
to kind of go on tangents to where you
know we’ll be talking about you know a
lighthouse that they visited one summer
and then you know ten minutes later
fifteen minutes later we’re talking
about what the best recipe is to bake
cookies like it’s completely tangental
and it’s wonderful and so I really
picked up on this this need to really
share their stories and so I created a
storytelling group as well just to allow
for a little more structure and
facilitation so every other week my
residents come prepared with a story
from their lives surrounding a certain
topic so topics can range from
travel to sports to scary stories to
love to poetry just kind of a little bit
of everything and I even have one person
in my storytelling group that has a
binder that’s like this thick of all the
stories he’s written throughout his
practice because he’s a retired doctor
and he is one of the most phenomenal
storytellers I’ve ever heard in my life
every word that he says is so creative
and captivating just the way that he
uses his language and the words in his
tone and my residents then are able to
relate to him they’re able to witness
these stories that he’s telling they’re
able to internalize what’s happening but
they’re being witness to and then
they’re able to give feedback to him
whether that’s through another story or
oh my gosh that was just absolutely
amazing
and so I think this comes from again
from this this inherent needs to relate
to one another right we want to find
those commonalities so that we’re able
to say hey I’m like you in some way but
I’ve also found that relationships can
really be formed in differences and in
my stories playing group I decided to
practice what I preached one one time
and I decided to share with my residents
something that I loved but I didn’t
think they were going to love and that’s
slam poetry which can be very loud and
abrupt sometimes abrasive and very sharp
right I figured you know this is kind of
similar to like rap it’s something
that’s completely new and different
something that they have probably never
heard before and they month it or at
least those that didn’t love it we’re
really intrigued by it and they really
appreciate it
because somehow my generation had taken
an art form that you know might have
been dying out a little bit and we
evolved it so that it’s still
captivating and engaging I think there’s
two big table takeaways from that story
number one again we were able to relate
to one another we were able to open each
other up to new perspectives number two
I had to eat my own words you see I had
assumed that my residents were going to
hate this art form because it was
something completely new and it was
something completely
different and I had stigmatized them in
that moment something I was actively
trying to come back and just because you
know it was something new and and I had
to take a step back and really check
myself in that moment and I know it
comes as a shock and it comes as so
surprising but the elderly generation is
really intrigued and what the millennial
generation is doing they really want to
know what kids these days are up to and
they’re always willing to try something
new and that reminds me of a story that
I really taken to heart one of my
residents shared with me once that he
has a sign that his daughter got him in
his apartment that says I may be over
the hill but the view was sure worth the
climb and I was like okay yeah and then
he was like I hate that side and I was
like why he just said I don’t think we
should ever stop climbing I don’t think
we should ever stop learning and I think
that’s something that I carried with me
through this entire experience because
that just gives you a whole new
perspective that we should never stop
climbing we should never stop learning
from each other from new things from
everything you know and so as I was
thinking about you know okay so why
don’t more people like me why don’t more
Millennials engage with this elderly
population I mean they’re so full of
life they’re so full of resources and
we’re just like oh you know maybe not I
think it’s because they make us
uncomfortable because they’re different
from us
and it’s just that feeling of other and
I think the second part of it is it
makes us face our own mortality I can
say as a 23 year old I don’t think about
that
end-of-life case very often but the
thing is is the people that I work with
are dead they’re very much alive they’re
so full of life in fact that I often
have to try to keep up with them and I I
guess from all of us I’m not saying you
go out and be an artist and residence
and live in a geriatric population what
I’m asking from you is that next time
you see them supposedly frail lady
sitting across from you instead see the
person sitting across from you see a
body that has been lived in eyes that
have seen so much and a soul that has
seen countless challenges heartbreaks
and joys ask that person the question
whether that’s a simple how are you
doing today or you know even what was it
like to be alive when the Beatles were
in full swing because I can guarantee
you that that conversation you have with
them it’s going to be so meaningful for
both you and them you’re opening each
other up to new perspectives and you’re
together you can open the world up to
each other so please never forget that
you should never stop creating you
should never stop relating and you
should never stop learning thank you
very much [Applause]