The Straz Center for the Performing Arts has an exciting summer lineup this year. The Straz has expanded its community engagement over the past several years to include more diversity, veterans’ events and now, the healthcare community, as well. This June, the lineup of events is meant to draw the public in for free events, many along the Riverwalk in Tampa. Here’s how the Straz focuses on veterans, healthcare providers in the next few months:
Reflejos: Artistic Reflections of Health Care Providers
First up will be Reflejos: Artistic Reflections of Health Care Providers, a topic not often put on public display at a performing arts center. It takes place in the Straz Center’s TECO Theater on Saturday, June 4, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. It features Jennifer Caputo-Seidler, who wrote a piece called Conversations in the COVID Unit, about the experiences of the physicians who deal with patients, isolation, overwhelming workloads and changing seasons.
“Reflejos is a project that came to us,” said Alice Santana, vice president of Education and Community Engagement for The Straz. “These healthcare workers were our partners in figuring out all the protocols we needed to come up with at The Straz. Through our conversations and with our chief operating officer, they mentioned a collective of physicians creating art and writing pieces they had turned into a publication called Reflejos. They connected with us, and we worked with this group of physicians to take their stories off a magazine they produced and create a presentation.” It includes a visual arts display and photography going through the journey, as healthcare providers, during the pandemic and the lockdown.
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In Caputo-Seidler’s piece, she “walks you through what it was like being a doctor during that time,” Santana said. “The patients, the isolations, the seasons changing. It also projects images from other doctors.”
Translated from Spanish to English, reflejos means “reflections.” Here, it is healthcare providers reflecting their interests, thoughts and emotions about the entire COVID experience. They will journey away from their white coats, scrubs and stethoscopes into recognition of their humanity through the language of arts.
The event is free, and no tickets are required. It’s sponsored by Tampa General Hospital in partnership with USF Health.
VetChat Live!
Next up in the lineup will be the free VetChat Live! Event on Saturday, June 11, with workshops from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and performances from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. It will be held at the Straz Center’s Riverwalk Tent and Patel Conservatory.
VetChat Live! is built around the Straz Center’s monthly virtual gathering of veterans, active-duty military professionals and their families and friends.
“VetChat Live! is actually a program that started during the pandemic,” Santana said. “We used to do these in person, discussions with veterans and civilians and when everything shut down with the pandemic, we were meeting virtually with contacts at Creative Forces and the VA hospital. They mentioned that during the pandemic, something vets were really longing for was opportunities to connect, so we created a monthly virtual event, an open discussion with an artistic prompt.”
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The Straz would have artists come in and frame the event around different topics each month. “The artistic prompts became so popular that we designed a series of interactive workshops, discussions and live events.”
Topics have included “How to Be a Photographer with Your Cell Phone,” that taught photography enthusiasts how to better use their technology to create art. There was also virtual art creation and sound sculpting. In this activity, percussion music was paired with breathing exercises.
Veteran Community Open Mic
On June 12, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., The Straz offers its Veteran Community Open Mic series at the Riverwalk Tent. The performing arts center, Art2Action and Paint22 present the open mic and visual arts series where all people are welcome, regardless of their identity.
Andrea Assaf, artistic director for Art2Action, and poet veteran BlacJak will co-host the event, with music by DJ Cotton. Featured guest artists include choreographers/performers Celeste Miller, Dora Arreola and Miroslava Wilson. These three women of different generations collaborate on site-specific, bilingual dance-theater work.
Arts Legacy REMIX: Second Annual Juneteenth Commemoration
Finally, The Straz will present Arts Legacy REMIX: Second Annual Juneteenth Commemoration. This will take place on Sunday, June 19, from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Arts Legacy REMIX celebrates the varied cultures and talented local artists who live in the Tampa Bay area. Each performance focuses on a different theme. The last show of the season will be an evening of remembrance and celebration to share recognition of the importance of the date June 19, 1865, known as Juneteenth. Juneteenth was the date when enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas were set free. It’s the act which officially ended slavery in America. The event will include spoken remembrances, writings of historical importance and an original performance of music, poetry and dance created just for this commemoration.
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