October 14, 2020
reader,
If you're new here, well howdy! Welcome to my weekly blog about Houston arts and culture, plus whatever else I wish to share from my brain. Scroll to the very bottom for more about it.
I'm having a blast doing two weekly Facebook Live chats on my Facebook page: MONDAY MEDITATION CHATS at 10am (the latest one is here) and WEDNESDAY NIGHT LIVE arts & culture chats at 9pm (the latest one is here). Tune in!
As you read, please note that all the words in purple are linked to websites.
WHAT'S ON MY MIND THIS WEEK? VOTING is on my mind! Early voting has started in our great state of Texas and runs through October 30. I've been doing a daily countdown to Election Day on my Facebook page and I'm having fun sharing videos, articles, voting tools and tips, etc. The largest voting block in the 2016 Presidential election were registered non-voters! That was 43% or 100 million Americans. Ya'll don't be part of the apathetic crowd! Use your voice at the ballot box.
And if you're thinking this has zero to do with arts and culture -- let me tell you, my friend, it does. The people who represent us at all levels of government wield power in all areas of our lives, including the arts.
Get all the scoop about voting in general at Vote.org and about voting in our lovely city at HarrisVotes.org. We even have 24-hour polling sites and drive-through voting!
Last week I wrote about our mental health resources -- I spent 3 hours combing websites and calling people about free or low cost/sliding scale therapeutic help. If you missed that, please check it out here...and feel free to pass it on! There are so many resources in our city and I am very thankful.
|
|
LET'S CONNECT! If you are wondering wassup with me, my offerings are below. If you'd like to keep up with all my doings, please click here to get a sorta monthly newsletter from me full of info about my events and more, including my IGNITE YOUR LIFE! art project. Be sure to follow my Facebook pages too -- Gish Picks Kids and Gish Picks Adults. I'm always throwing words and pictures around somewhere!
|
|
⬆️CLICK ON IMAGE TO ACCESS WEBSITE⬆️
|
|
My ⭐️ARTS PICKS Spotlight⭐️ this week is The Printing Museum, which is now open Thursdays through Saturdays from noon-4pm. Tickets are $8/adults and $5/children; children 5 and under are free. Be sure to purchase your tickets in advance. If you've never been, this museum is a gem! Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, their interactive activities are not happening but they've got plenty to look at: there's a historical tour through the galleries of books and writings, leading up to the history of printing and presses.
They have two special exhibits on view: Dottie Erwin-Legendre: Paper Expressions, which is a beautiful show that explores the varieties of handmade paper. And just in time for the voting season, AIGA Get Out the Vote: Empowering the Women’s Vote, is a show of over 60 posters that are part of a campaign to celebrate when most women got the right to vote (it wasn't until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 that Black women's right to vote were protected). The collection on view encourages voter participation while also serving as a backdrop for discourse and examination of the history of voting rights and women’s fight for equality.
|
|
And now -- the two virtual events I am PICK-ing this week. Please note that even my VIRTUAL PICKS are always Houston-based because I am very committed to Houston arts & culture.
|
|
➡️ Virtual for ADULTS: Unfortunately, the Bayou City Art Festival could not go on as usual this year, but lucky for us: their website has become a wonderland of Houston arts and culture. You can see tours of artists' studios, local music videos, culinary arts, and more. My favorite clip was the Arts District Houston poem, "The City that Pushes and Pulls," featuring poets Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, Rayla Crawford, Gerald Cedillo, and Dulcie Veluthakaran.
|
|
➡️ Virtual for KIDS: Express Children's Theatre has gotten creative about teaching children about voting in their new show, Vote for the Goat. The story follows Billy Goat, who learns all about democracy when he tries to convince every animal in the petting zoo to vote to keep it open. The film is a great introduction to the power of voting and how an election can come down to one single vote - yours! It's perfect for ages 4 to 10 and anyone young at heart. You can rent it for $9.95 and buy it for $16.95 here.
|
|
HIRE ME! If you want help getting centered -- or for focusing your life -- here's how I can help (I'm available for groups too):
-
One-on-one labyrinth walks or nature mandala-making sessions (or both!), all done with masks and physical distancing. The fee varies based on what we are doing.
-
Virtual Life Path Sessions; see more about those here. It's $50 for 45 minutes during COVID.
-
Virtual meditation lessons for up to 30 minutes. I've been doing weekly Monday Meditation Chats and was interviewed on Great Day Houston about fun ways to make sounds for meditation (see that here). The fee varies based on what we are doing, and all ages are welcome.
To book me for anything, please call me at 713.492.1173 or email me. I'd love to help you find PEACE in this crazy time.
In non-pandemic times, and since I started publishing my blog in 2004, it has been a space to promote my curated list of unique live Houston area cultural events (PICKS) on the weekend for adults and kids. Because of COVID-19, those haven't happened since mid-March so I originally re-worked the format to focus on 5 Houston-based arts & culture organizations in my (Almost) Daily Dose of ARTS PICKS blog each of the NINE weeks of quarantine. You can see each edition - and read about 45 arts groups! - here.
And now I'm bringing you an ⭐️ARTS PICKS Spotlight⭐️ each week -- featuring an arts & culture space that is open -- and you'll get info about all of their activities and sometimes a video to bring them to life. Alongside that, I'll also be PICK-ing one local virtual event each for ADULTS and KIDS.
I'll keep doing all of that until public events start happening again on a larger scale and I can start curating live event PICKS again.
In the meantime: please enjoy my weekly Spotlights and VIRTUAL PICKS, and please stay healthy!
Sincerely,
Sarah Gish
713.492.1173
P.S. If you want to IGNITE YOUR LIFE now or anytime, check out my list of "12 Ways to Ignite Your Life Daily" -- and watch the 12 videos I made about each Way here. I'm very proud of that list and my work and I hope it will help you live a fully creative life. Meditation, taking care of yourself, enjoying life, and laughing -- plus more! -- is what will get us through this global pandemic.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
