"The Next Generation Showcase," is a special bonus episode of True Tales by Disability Advocates, the podcast where Advocates harness the power of storytelling to bring community to their peers and hope to develop empathy and others.
The stories featured in this episode are written by fledgling storytellers from the Austin Independent School District Go-Project. The GO Project is a community-based transition program for students with disabilities who are 18-22 years of age.
If you are a regular listener, you'll notice a change from our regular story slash interview format. For the first time, this episode includes more than two stories, just stories, no interviews. You'll get to hear seven short stories with topics ranging from Self-acceptance to Crunchy Barbecue Crickets, as well as Family Belonging, Speaking up, and Passions for Zombie Movies and Exercise.
Stories and Storytellers
"Speaking Up" by Adrian
"The Start of Finding My Truth." By Maddison
"Travel With Family" by Miranda
"Zombie Movies and Me." By Julio
"Belonging" by Chloe
"Musical Baking" by Abigair
"To Eat, Jump Rope and Family Time." By Dezi
We had so much fun working with these young folks and we are honored to share with you the work of these talented storytellers. Special thanks to the Go-Project staff - Laney, Sam, Mike, and Lori and our volunteers, Emily and Sulith, we couldn’t have done this without y’all.
Welcome you to the Next Generation Showcase.
Music Credits
Scandinavianz Sunbathers – 7385
Feel the Sunshine - https://pixabay.com/users/oystudio-24430395/
Welcome to to True Tales by Disability Advocates, authentic voices of people thriving with disabilities. Where individuals use the art of storytelling to change the world. The True Tales by Disability Advocates podcast is produced by Art Spark, Texas Speaking Advocates Program. Keep listening to hear how life's challenges can spark a desire to speak out and advocate for themselves and others.
MsBoye:
Welcome to"The Next Generation Showcase," a Season Two special bonus episode of True Tales by Disability Advocates. The podcast where Advocates harness the power of storytelling to bring community to their peers and hope to develop empathy and others. A team of Disability Advocates creates True Tales to give disabled storytellers the opportunity to share their personal stories and lived experiences in their authentic voices. We offer our unique and often underrepresented perspective to the growing community of podcast listeners worldwide. Did you know that according to the CDC, one in four Americans are disabled? That's about 61 million adults with 61 million experiences and points of view about what it means to live in a world not designed for you. Recognizing that everyone's life is enriched by the inclusion of multiple voices, Art Spark Texas has been training Disability Advocates as storytellers for over 20 years. The stories featured in this episode are written by fledgling storytellers aged between 18 to 21 years old, living in and around Austin. They all completed our latest training, funded in part by a GTOPs grant, the Grant for Technology Opportunities Program. The focus of GOPTS is to increase the use of digital and communication technology devices, increase knowledge and skills of digital and communications technologies, and increase access to and usage of the internet. If you are a regular listener, you'll notice a change from our regular story slash interview format. For the first time, this episode includes more than two stories, just stories, no interviews. You'll get to hear seven short stories with topics ranging from Self-acceptance to Crunchy Barbecue Crickets, as well as Family, Belonging, Speaking up and Passions for Zombie Movies and Exercise. We had so much fun working with these young folks and we are honored to share with you the work of these talented storytellers. So, I'm proud to welcome you to the Next Generation Showcase, starring Adrian, Maddison, Miranda, Julio, Chloe, Abie, and Dezi Enjoy!
Adrian:
My name is Adrian Hernandez, and this is my story"It, it's Important to Speak Up". It's important to speak up when something is not right. Uh, we can speak up for our environment by picking up trash. I always speak up when I see someone abusing or hurting an animal. I, I always speak up when I see some, someone being a bully. When I saw a guy hitting my friend over the head with a paper towel roll, uh, it was, it was so mean and random. It really made me, it made me really mad and angry. When I'm, when I'm angry, I usually use calming techniques like, like going for a walk or, or, or calming breaths, but but this, but this wasn't the time to calm down. This was time to take action. I spoke up from my friend. I told the bully,"Dude do not bully her. She did not do anything to you. And what you are doing is not cool." I, I speak up from, I speak up when I feel upset or stressed about something. Uh, it's pretty rare that my, that my feelings get hurt, but it does happen and, and when it does, I try to speak up. I advocate for, for myself when I, when I need something. I, I spoke up for myself when I needed help on an, on an assignment in school. I speak up for myself when I'm not sure what to do. When I need advice, I, I can turn to my older sister. Uh, it's, it's important to speak up when some, when something is not right. It's important to speak up if you can.
Maddison:
My name is Maddison Marrufo and this is my story"The Start of Finding my Truth." I remember when I liked to hang out with my friends, Ella and Megan. I, I would go to their house on the other side of Austin and we'd watched TV and played games. Usually I loved hanging out with them because I felt safe, and they gave me new experiences. But back then there were hard things in my life, and that day I was feeling kind of lost and alone. Megan and Ella noticed I was acting weird and that I wasn't being myself. Megan asked me, Are you okay?" And I said,"I do not know how I feel." I was really embarrassed to tell them how I really felt, because we were supposed to have fun and also I thought that they wouldn't understand. Then Ella said,"Hey Madison, do you wanna know a secret?" My heart started pounding. I felt really honored, because they wanted to include me. And I felt like well, I belonged and I smiled and I said,"Yes, please." Then she said,"There's a place we like to go to, to share our secrets. Wanna come to our secret place?" I felt so safe, so welcomed I said,"Sure, where is it?" Together we went outside. It was a beautiful, warm day, not too hot. The garden was very magical and floral and pretty, and as soon as I stepped outside, I felt so relaxed and so welcomed. I love being outside in nature because it makes me feel so much better. And I love the sound of the wind and the smell of the flowers Ella and Megan led me through their yard and to the corner, there was a wooden table and chairs. They told me that they like to have tea parties and be together. We sat there for quite a while, then Megan said,"Please tell us what's going on Madison." I was still very afraid to tell them I was so scared to be honest, but so I just went for it and did it anyway. I wanted to be honest, so I said,"Well, I mean, I'm feeling a bit lost right now and alone and scared." And Ella said, You are not alone." And Megan said,"You have us." That was when I started to remember the truth that I was never lost. I was never alone. Cause no matter what's happening, I have friends that love me for who I am and my friends love me for me no matter what. I just need to remember to have faith. And I realized that they had faith in me as well. I started to learn that who I am is enough and I started to find my truth and my self acceptance. I don't feel like I need to hide myself. I do not need to pretend to be someone else. I know that I'm a part of this world and that I can't hide my voice forever. My voice matters. I can't hide who I am anymore!
Miranda:
um, My name is Miranda and the title of my story is"Travel With Family". I love being with my family. We go on family trips to different places every year. Once we took a trip to Kansas City for an Easter feast and to visit my uncle and cousins. The weather was pretty cool up there, but not terrible cold. I walked into the house and I could smell a baked ham and candied sweet potatoes. That's my dad's favorite, he used to like to eat that when he was little. My uncle and aunt, my Grandma and Grandfather, two siblings and my two cousins were there. It was chaotic at the house because my cousins were young and playing around My uncle and aunt want to get a therapy dog for one of my cousins, to help him with his"Special Needs". After we had Easter lunch, we hunted for eggs inside and out of the house. To see, my uncle made me feel happy, but his dog had passed away that year, and that made him sad. Another time when we went on a trip to Waco, Texas we were staying during the day, and come back before it got dark. I was able to see my other uncle's dog and his cat. Our dog Nugget, the pug was, unfortunately not there because we didn't bring him on the trip. The first thing that I did when I got to Waco was go out to eat for my cousin's birthday, at their favorite burger restaurant. After dinner, we went to the house, I went outside and played with the beautiful big dogs, Jack and Charlie. Charlie is brownish red, Jack is black. Then we watched movies with my cousins at home. It was about a horse called Spirit. My cousin forced us to watch it three times on repeat. I love animals. I love taking road trips and I love being around my family. I am so lucky to have so many family members to visit in so many different places, with so many different animals.
Julio:
My name is Julio Solismilam. The name my story is"Zombie Movies and Me." I am a human. I feel happy. I want a job for a goal. I offer friendship. At work I am important. At work I feel happy when I am cleaning. I want to keep working at Galaxy Movie Theater because I love Zombie movies. Since I was a baby, I liked Zombies. Zombie movies are some of my favorite movies. Zombie movies do not scare me at all, they actually make me excited. I started watching Disney Zombie movies when I was around 15. This series of zombie movies is my favorite. I loved it right away. I knew I was going to like them as much as I like Disney. I like to watch these movies both by myself and with my family. I usually watch them in the living room or in my bedroom On July 15th, 2022 I saw"Zombie 3" on Disney plus at home. The characters are Zeb and Addison. These characters make me feel happy because I have seen them in Zombies One and Two. In Zombies Three Addison leaves Seabrook, her hometown, and that part made me sad. A song called"Some Day" starts playing and Addison starts to cry because she miss her friends. It makes me feel sad because I feel her emotions. I have missed my friends before, and I know how that feels. My dream is to be a character in one of these Zombie movies. I would want to be one of the wolf characters in the wolf pack. They act like a wolf and howl at the moon. They are good guys. They help find the Moonstone before it is destroyed. I like to help others too. I found out that I liked to draw after I had seen my first Zombie movie. I have made drawings of all the Zombie movies. I drew them with my colored pencils. The characters in my drawing are Adison, Ali and Alison. Alison is an alien, she has blue hair like in the movie. I am Julio. I am a human who loves Zombie movies. I miss my friends sometimes. I like to help people. I offer to be kind to others in my life. I am happy. I am doing good.
Chloe:
My name is Chloe Rodriguez, and this is my story"Belonging". A long time ago, I went to my middle school Fancy Dress Halloween Dance. I was just going to go as myself, but my mom said,"No way, we are going to find you a great costume!" And in the end I went as Chucky's Bride. I went with my friends Zoe, Hector, Gloria, Ariana, Juan and Matthew. We were waiting outside to get in, but there was a tinsey problem, we needed ID and tickets to get in, and I realized I didn't have either. Then we figured out that my mom had my ID and she could pay for the tickets. The dance was held in the cafeteria. It's a big room that is usually full of rounds of tables, but they move them off to the side and made room for us to dance in the middle. They had a DJ and brought in party lights. It looks really cool. I noticed there were some people being, you know, party poopers, hanging out on the sides, but my friends and I were there to have fun. The DJ was playing really cool music, so we went onto the dance floor and started dancing and having fun. We were dancing and laughing and having fun, in that moment I felt like I belong and I felt happy. I am so gra... grateful to have friends like that in my life. I'm so grateful to have a place where I feel like I belong.
Abie:
My name's Abigair... My name's Abie Tiburcio and this is my story"Music Baking". I love to bake. I like listening to music when I bake. I like Cumbia music, that is Happy. Bake and listening to music make for feel exciting, proud, and happy. Let me tell you the time when I need to bake a cake for my friend Clifton. I wanted to bake him a pink cake because pink is Clifton's favorite color. So some people may think that it's so weird for a boy to like the color pink, but I think it's cool, like that shirt that says,"Real men wear pink". My family were there while I bake. I put on Kids Pop,"Cumbia a la gente” and we dance. Pop Cumbia is fun to bake with and listening to music make bake happy. Clifton love his cake and I was very proud for the the very colorful, colorful birthday cake I bake for him. My family listen to Cumbia music. My family love, eat cake and dance.
Dezi:
My name is Dezi Villasana and this is my story,"To Eat, Jump Rope and Family Time." Two things of my favorite things are food and exercise. The strangest thing I ever eaten was a dead barbecue cricket for a snack. It was very crunchy, but not that bad. In fact, it was really good, kind of tasty. Oh yeah, I would eat that again. I love to go out to eat. I, I don't really like cooking, if I could I would always eat out. I like to try lots of different foods. My favorite type of food is P. Terry's Bacon Cheeseburger and fries. I love, I love everything about it. I love the way it feels when I take my first bite and the ketchup squishes out sideways all over my fingers. When I was young, I liked to jump rope. I was given my first jump rope for my, sixth birthday from my mom. I would jump rope outside, inside, anywhere. When I jump rope it makes me feel excited and happy. I like to think about nothing and just focus on the exercise. When I jump rope I don't really get tired, I feel like I can jump rope all day. I really like exercise. I like to go for a walk with my mom and dad and sometimes we run and lift weights and I do pushups, but my jump rope is my favorite. I really like spending time with my parents exercising. When we exercise together I get excited. Excercise can be hard but it feels like I have more energy in my body. After I finish exercising, I slow down, go inside, drink some water until I feel like I can do it all over again. The best thing about food and exercising, is that I can hang out with my parents. My parents are smart, loving, wonderful, confident, and fun to be around. They are the most amazing parents I ever had in my life. I Feel so lucky to have my parents that enjoy the things I love to do. Yeah!
MsBoye:
You've been listening to The True tales by Disability Advocates Podcast."The Next Generation Showcase" was hosted, edited and mixed, by Me, MsBoye. Jerry Slayton Thank you for creating such a great class, taking on the role of producer and for help with recording and as well as everything to do with Digital Media Arts. Jerry and I would like to thank Laney, Sam, Mike, and Lori for everything they did behind the scenes in the classrooms to support the students with their stories and set up the technology for our recording sessions. We also want to acknowledge our wonderful Art Spark, Texas volunteers, Emily and Sulith, for making the classes accessible by scribing the stories and helping the storytellers edit their final drafts. To our storytellers, we say thank you for your enthusiasm and hard work. We hope you are as proud of this episode as we are and please keep writing. We can't wait to hear more of your stories. We hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into the worlds of our storytellers. If you heard your life reflected in their stories or were touched by the content of this episode, we'd love to hear from you. Share your stories by posting on our True Tales podcast Facebook page, and the link will be in the show notes. Please share this episode with your family members, friends and communities or rate our show, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. We're on'em all. Thanks for listening to The True Tales by Disability Advocates Podcast.
John Beer:
All episodes of the True Tales by Disability Advocates are free on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere you get your podcasts. The program is funded in part by a grant from the Texas state independent living council, the administration for community living and individuals like you to learn about The Speaking Advocates Program. Sign up for our newsletter at Art Spark, Tx.org. That's A R T S P A R K T X dot O R G. The free virtual training is open to people of all disabilities, no matter where you live.
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