According to March to the Polls, only 31% of high schools in our area met the mandated obligation to register student to vote. March to the Polls says that they have raised that number significantly.

Each semester, March to the Polls gives presentations to senior-level social studies classes. In these presentations, that school’s Student Voting Empowerment Coalition is formed, which allows students to engage on campus throughout the year. March to the Polls started their high school initiative in Dallas County, but now there are Student Voter Empowerment Coalitions across the Metroplex. And March to the Polls is working to build these coalitions on all high school campuses in North Texas.

Camila Correa Bourdeau is March to the Polls’ executive director. She is passionate about giving young people the best tools to become actively involved in their communities.

Coming from an educational background, Bourdeau said, “I immigrated from Chile; my parents were recruited to teach. Because of them, I was encouraged to go into teaching myself. I realized how little I was able to do as a teacher in terms of influencing change. That’s when I started volunteering for school board campaigns and got elected to be a union representative at one of my school campuses.”

Eventually, Correa Bourdeau left the classroom to work for an educational non-profit focused on school boards. It was through that job that she discovered the work March to the Polls was doing with high school campus outreach. She started volunteering with them in 2017 because she saw the chance for a different level of engagement.

Engagement is important. In the past, a high school voter drive might have been a parent sitting at a table in the cafeteria, hoping to register students during their lunch break. Now, as Correa Bourdeau said, “We’re going into the classroom and making sure we’re talking with every senior, putting the registration form in front of their face.”

March to the Polls presents to approximately 20,000 high school seniors every year. Sample ballots are given to the students, encouraging them to research the candidates. A significant part of the classroom presentations involves making students aware of government beyond the national races, familiarizing them with their local elections for city council and school board. At one school, March to the Polls took 50 students on a field trip to a school board meeting so they could see the decisions that impact them most directly being made.

Former Texas State Representative Lon Burnam and March to the Polls board member Athena Chavez were integral in expanding March to the Polls’ mission into Tarrant County schools. Lin Patton joined March to the Polls in 2019 and has been the Tarrant County Voter Engagement Leader since December 2021, working with volunteers to coordinate this important outreach.

“I’ve always been active with voting and voter registration; it’s one of my passions. So when I had this opportunity to work with the youth [of Tarrant County], it was really exciting for me,” Patton said.

In March of 2022, March to the Polls organized meetings with Fort Worth ISD’s leaders, including Dr. Cherie Washington, the districts’ Director of Secondary Schools. She authorized March to the Polls to establish Student Voter Empowerment Coalitions on all 21 secondary school campuses in the district.

Part of the work on school campuses is training volunteers to be licensed to register voters. In order to register voters, a volunteer must become a Voter Deputy Registrar. March to the Polls now offers Voter Deputy Registrar certification training. “We’ve brought four counties together, Dallas, Collin, Denton, and Tarrant, so people can learn to register voters in all of those counties with one training [session],” Correa Bourdeau said.

Voter Deputy Registrar certification training occurs in the summer. Many teachers and a growing number of parents took advantage of March to the Polls’ certification programs this summer.

Correa Bourdeau knows politics is a divisive subject.

“At the end of the day, it all comes down to trust. Our work is absolutely on the side of the law [which mandates student voter registration] … we have to provide opportunities for students to register to vote.”

The post Creating Civically Engaged Students first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Peaches are one of the most popular treasures drivers discover on the byways of Texas. They come in various types: white, yellow, or red; those better for baking in cobbler, canning in preserves, or those that are delicious on a summer afternoon, ripe with a bounty of sweet juice.

Ten years ago, Shannon Houchin was between businesses and looking to build cash quickly. A good friend from Olanta, South Carolina, deep in peach country, convinced her that peach stands were perfect for her.

Houchin took her son, Finn, east, where they learned all about peach brokering and negotiating prices for large quantities of high-quality peaches, whether with farmers or other brokers.

“Peaches are good; peaches make people happy. Nobody is ever upset or disgruntled when they buy peaches,” Houchin explained.

Houchin started with a hundred stands across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia before bringing the business back to Texas.

She knows what she’s looking for in peaches from East Texas to the Carolinas, as well as the delightful peaches in Colorado, where her son studies business at the University of Colorado Boulder. Every region’s climate and soil impact flavor profiles.

“I like to support Texas growers,” Houchin said. “No peaches are the same. I essentially curate peaches; I choose the best of the best.” Flavor Rich, for example, is the first of the season to harvest. Orchards pick the varieties of peaches, harvesting from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Commercial cold storage disrupts the natural ripening process, which is one of the advantages of buying roadside. These peaches naturally ripen and are fragrant and sweet.

As she grew increasingly savvy about the peach game, Houchin also became an expert on how to sell virtually any product from a pop-up shop.

Over the years, she showed people how to get established with this approach to business. When COVID-19 shifted the livelihoods of so many folks, she took the time to formalize her process to reach more potential entrepreneurs. And Roadside Republic was born. The Houchin model is used all over the country, including Louisiana, Oregon, and Minnesota.

“There were so many people at home who needed cash,” Houchin recalled. “That’s when I created the blueprint, put it on video, and started teaching it.”

One big part of the process is locating spots with prominent visibility and plenty of traffic. Each municipality has different laws, and anyone considering starting a pop up or roadside stand should research ordinances to assure compliance.

“With a couple of hundred bucks, you can get started selling peaches, and you can be in profit in the first couple of days you are in business because it is such an easy way to generate revenue,” Houchin said.

Many of Houchin’s students are college kids who are able to earn money for tuition and expenses. Several of them were inspired to follow in the footsteps of Finn, a graduate of Trinity Valley School, who is also her business partner in Roadside Republic.

Finn is developing his own business acumen. “We have made so many mistakes along our journey. It is because of our propensity to take massive action and learn through trial and error that we were able to become successful.”

That success has allowed the Houchins to continue growing. Look for their fruit stands around Fort Worth, where you can find peaches, tomatoes, cantaloupe, and watermelon for sale. This summer, they expect to sell more than three thousand pounds of peaches per week.

“Those are the things people love, and that’s what people in Fort Worth know us for,” Shannon said. “Mainly peaches… they call me ‘The Peach Lady.’”

For the past couple of years, the Houchins have partnered with various HOAs, bringing produce straight to neighborhoods, where they set up and sell to residents, like June’s pop-up in Monticello. Additionally, the Peach Truck delivers half bushels (25 pounds) of peaches to customers who order online.

These past few years have been uncertain to be sure, but a few things remain consistently true. Peaches make people happy, and there’s still room for old-fashioned business models if done well. As Finn shared, it is all about connecting: “The fastest way to connect with people is to ask questions about them, listen to their stories and make them feel heard.”

The post Lessons from the Roadside first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Fort Worth singer-songwriter Jacob Furr has been known to pack up his car and head out of town for days and weeks at a time to play songs all over the country. With regular showcases at Magnolia Motor Lounge and The Post, his career for the past decade has been a saga of earning fans and adulation one song at a time. 

Releasing his poignant EP “Return” on March 13, 2020, the collection concludes a powerful musical trilogy formed along with his previous records, 2014’s “Trails and Traces” and “Sierra Madre” from 2018. However, Furr’s touring plans for the year came crashing down only days later. 

photo credit D. Anson Brody

Content with the pattern of writing tunes and booking gigs to showcase them and support himself, Furr had never thought much about teaching. But the lockdown necessitated a dramatic shift in perspective. 

“While I’ve grown to love it, I never wanted to teach before this,” he explained. 

For most of the past year, the talented musician has been teaching principles of music using guitar and ukulele at Grapevine Performing Arts. The ukulele has become a foundational step for young kids as a tool for brain development. In addition, there’s a growing subculture of ukulele players on YouTube garnering teenage attention for the instrument. Teaching ages from six to 70, Furr works with all levels of skill and interest. 

“It is such a personal art form; there’s such a vulnerability to learning to play,” Furr said. 

Furr’s teaching career began with a steep learning curve, identifying the various building blocks and discovering multiple techniques to convey them effectively. 

Recently he’s started adding classes at 7013 Studios off of Camp Bowie in West Fort Worth to expand his services to more folks. The facility, where Furr and his recording partners will soon have a studio, was utilized for live streams early in the pandemic. The owners agreed to grant him space to teach students as well. 

Growing up, Furr’s parents required him to take lessons if he was going to have a chance of getting an instrument of his own. He started on the piano before graduating to classical guitar lessons for 12 years. 

“My mom insisted that if I wanted a guitar, I was actually going to learn how to play it. She didn’t want me to just sit around strumming,” Furr recalled. “I went back to the books when I started teaching and realized I’ve been doing this for a long time.” 

Students have different goals when taking music lessons, so much like a musician reads a crowd when performing on stage, a teacher must adapt their style to suit each learner as they engage the finer points of theory and technique. Some students want to learn how to read music or write songs; others just want to know how to play their favorite tunes in order to entertain folks at parties. 

photo credit Brooks Burris

Furr developed his teaching technique using his foundational experiences as source material, starting with basics like building chords and learning to play in time and tune, eventually touching on all the elements of his formal training. Beginning in the key of C, it is a process that students have followed for many generations. 

“My classical experience helps me to show various fingerings and explain why things work the way they do,” he said. 

Furr is developing a template for songwriting sessions to help aspiring artists refine their work. He offers a safe space to explore the process of expression for those who may have always wanted to try it but never knew how. 

“What I really like doing is helping clean up songs,” he described. “They send me lyrics and bring the instrument in, and we play through the song and see what works and what doesn’t.” 

As Jacob Furr gets back to performing his own material or playing bass in Guthrie Kennard’s band, it seems teaching has evolved the way he looks at his role as a musician. 

“These are my people. This is my community. I don’t need anything more than this at the end of the day.” 

An Austin native, Lyle Brooks relocated to Fort Worth in order to immerse himself in the burgeoning music scene and the city’s rich cultural history, which has allowed him to cover everything from Free Jazz to folk singers. He’s collaborated as a ghostwriter on projects focusing on Health Optimization, Roman Lawyers, and an assortment of intriguing subjects requiring his research.

The post A Dramatic Shift first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

With my family located in another city, my pod consisted of my dog Mingus. He’s a seven-year-old poodle mix with Muppet tendencies.  

As the pandemic continued, Mingus and I left any species hierarchy behind. Settling into a surreal life, we negotiated various routes around our daily neighborhood walks. And, once it re-opened, we made regular visits to our favorite dog park.  

Mingus

My mental health flagged as quarantine continued. The leash became my lifeline, giving both of us unexpected adventures to anticipate each day.    

Some rare outings were the occasional meetings of our dog club, orchestrated by a former neighbor, Hayley Spinks. We would socially distance in her lovely backyard littered with colorful blooms, have a drink, and watch the dogs.  

Her senior bichons, MissyLu, bald from alopecia due to Cushing’s, and Annie, a fluffy snowball, are quite the pair. After adopting Annie as a pup, Hayley was looking to add to the pack. Following a visit from a dog that wasn’t a good match, MissyLu came into their lives.  

“MissyLu was an owner surrender. The gentleman who brought her in was heartbroken because they could not afford the care she needed,” she explained. “He sent her heartworm medicine which had the owner’s name on it. I was able to look them up and send a letter letting them know she had been adopted and was loved and taken care of.”   

Her dogs offered Hayley a sense of normalcy and routine during the pandemic, often acting as icebreakers while they were out on walks. During shutdown, we appreciated more than ever the vital importance of sharing brief exchanges with our neighbors.  

Through her work with Good Neighbors Animal Rescue, for whom she has fostered more than ten dogs, Hayley met Maddie Love, who caught the rescue bug as a junior at TCU and never looked back.  

Love’s own family of animals runs seven deep, consisting of Belle, a 12-year-old Jack Russell; Miley, 7-year-old rat terrier; Titan, a 3-year-old cane corso; and the pit bulls Diva, Koda, Diamond, and Vanilla Bean.  

Love started funding rescues on her own in 2019, eventually making it official under the auspices of Love & Paws Rescue about a year ago. She has rescued more than 110 dogs and 70 cats. When asked for a highlight, she tells the story of Sunny.  

Part of a semi-feral pack of more than 40 animals left behind when their owner died, Sunny was a senior dog who had never been socialized and remained unsure of people. Love was not sure Sunny could find a home until a wonderful family saw her story on Facebook.  

“They had the patience and understanding, as well as the love to give a dog that was broken and needed it. She still takes special attention and probably always will. But they have no problem putting in extra time to their routine for her to feel comfortable,” Love said. “It’s very rare that a family puts the dog’s needs before their desires. They accept that she doesn’t want to play fetch, go on car rides, or do ‘normal’ dog things, and they love her anyway.” 

Our beloved animals transform us. They impact our lives in ways we could never imagine before they enter our homes and become a part of our families. We share love and comfort, speaking secret languages as we become devoted to one another.  

Left: Spot
Right: Fido

For Madeworthy editor Lee Virden Geurkink, her “dogcat” Spot became a source of sweet salvation following her divorce, especially when her children were with their father. 

“I was alone for the first time in my life for 50% of the time. Spot is a great listener. I would talk to him (still do), and he would listen intently,” she recalled. “Then he would roll over and lick his nethers. But simply having another living being in the house kept me sane(ish).” 

The charming camaraderie has only grown with the addition of Fido (a female cat) to the household. According to Lee, both cats help her teenagers with homework during remote learning, despite occasionally disrupting classes by sitting on the keyboard, demanding attention.  

Perhaps, if we are lucky, the past year has taught us the true value of the friends and connections we make throughout life. This goes double for the furry ones who curl up beside us or plop down in our laps and remind us to live in the moment and take one day at a time. 

An Austin native, Lyle Brooks relocated to Fort Worth in order to immerse himself in the burgeoning music scene and the city’s rich cultural history, which has allowed him to cover everything from Free Jazz to folk singers. He’s collaborated as a ghostwriter on projects focusing on Health Optimization, Roman Lawyers, and an assortment of intriguing subjects requiring his research.

The post The Leash as a Lifeline first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Portrait of Sean Scully, 2018. Image courtesy of the artist. Photo by Felix Friedmann. © Felix Friedmann

Many who have visited The Modern in the past may have noticed Scully’s large striped panels. The museum has approximately 20 of his pieces on hand. While it is their third show of his work, it represents the first retrospective anyone has shown since 1995.

Originally scheduled to open in Philadelphia in May of 2020, the show is finally making its way before audiences as the world slowly re-opens. Perhaps after a year in various forms of lockdown, these minimalist portals are an ideal way to reconsider art and how it feels to absorb it in these large spaces once again.

From his earliest projects into his more recent years, Scully has continually revisited themes, motifs, and concepts that unify his style while experimenting with elements that serve to bring new energy to the overall project.

A work that shows this process exceptionally well is “Harvard Frame Painting” from a 1972 fellowship that brought him to the United States. Following a trip there in 1969, the artist incorporated Moroccan influences of textiles utilizing felt strips. The rhythmic gestures of the crosshatch or chessboard resonate in many of the pieces, seen in the application of spray paint. The light dancing on the wall behind the work hints at the shadow play and grids persisting throughout the artist’s career.

A common language of line distills through all of the work regardless of the size or materials. It is an underlying conversation Scully seems to have with his work and that of other artists and writers, as he often references historical and literary artifacts.

Heart of Darkness, 1982, by Sean Scully. Oil on canvas, 8×12 feet. Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Society for Contemporary Art, 1988.259. Image courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago/Art Resource NY. ©Sean Scully.

Moments of discovery come in various forms: from insets that act as “paintings within paintings” to the found pieces of wood that illustrate time and the lives of objects. As the projects grow in size, these architectural, often improvisation panel pieces reward the patient eye that sits with them. One might make a note of wood from a Montauk barn he came across during an artist residency, which he utilized for “Heart of Darkness” from 1981.

Building on this sense of place is the “Wall of Light” series starting in the late 1990s, which bear an intense residue or trace of memory. Scully’s artwork is profoundly alive, colorfully reflecting, for example, a trip to Mexico. These pieces are triumphant and resonate with the deep architectural sensibility of his work, inviting the viewer to follow the passage of time as seen in light migrating across the surface of a wall. The various material textures represent a sort of “organized chaos.” They give off vibrant energy that organically gives way to the rich colors found in the “Doric” series, many of which are seen together for the first time.

With patterns reminiscent of Matisse, formal experimentation compelled by Picasso, and structural forms that recall the work of Ellsworth Kelly, Scully has continued to challenge himself.

The recurring motif of the checkerboard and mirror transform with the inclusion of different materials – like stucco. Progressing away from the feel of paint enhances the sense of layered architectural facades.

Landline North Blue, 2014, by Sean Scully. Oil on aluminum, 7 fee 1 inch x 6 feet 3 inches. Forman Family Collection. Image courtesy of the artist. Photographer: Robert Bean. © Sean Scully.

From one gallery to the next, one sees classical proportions and an ongoing discussion of reflection and rhythm, displayed perfectly by the “Landlines” series, dating back to the ‘70s. The bands of color are meditative and recall the abstract breakthroughs of Mark Rothko.

More recent work, including 2017’s “Yellow Ascending,” develop this sense of the work as a window into other spaces or worldviews. However, they are not obligated to specify anything further to the viewer about how to envision these portals.

Sean Scully: The Shape of Ideas will be on view through October 20th at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The show expands dramatically on The Modern’s collection of Scully’s work. It makes excellent use of the museum’s sightlines and heightens the complete sense one has as they walk through the artist’s career.

An Austin native, Lyle Brooks relocated to Fort Worth in order to immerse himself in the burgeoning music scene and the city’s rich cultural history, which has allowed him to cover everything from Free Jazz to folk singers. He’s collaborated as a ghostwriter on projects focusing on Health Optimization, Roman Lawyers, and an assortment of intriguing subjects requiring his research.

The post A Legacy of Experimentation: Sean Scully at the Modern first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

With the new year approaching, there was a trace of hope in the air – hope for a time when we might once again be convivial and embrace one another. And it was in those waning days of 2020 that I received a much-needed care package from my old friend, Yinka. 

It wasn’t the banana bread from my grandmother I’d get in college. Nor was it the cozy socks and tea my mother might send in more recent years. This was an assortment of craft beer from all over Texas. Treasures like Spindletap’s Haymaker Triple IPA out of Houston and Zilker Brewing Company’s Houseplant Hazy IPA from Austin. There, too, was Devil’s Brigade Amber Ale from San Antonio’s Longtab Brewing Company. 

Yinka had acquired them through a network of connoisseurs and collectors. These enthusiasts admire the breadth of flavor and expression of creativity held in each bottle or can. Thus, we began our long-distance toast across the state, each sip a reminder that despite dark times, your best friends will find a way to brighten your life. Whether a fruited sour or a stout, these beers represented the power of a lasting friendship that makes life worth living.  

I’ve known Yinka Ogunro for more than 20 years. He’s a chemist who lives in San Antonio with his wife Victoria and their toddler Kweku. His interest in craft beer began as a grad student in Atlanta, where he checked out local breweries like SweetWater Brewing Company and Red Brick Brewing Company.  

A couple of years ago, I traveled with him to Enugu, Nigeria, for his wedding to Victoria. He introduced me to the magic of palm wine and other local delights, like suya and egusi soup. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  

I responded to his generous parcel by sending several items from North Texas breweries. These included a smattering from the creative folks over at Martin House: stouts like This Is the End Stout and Ejecto Seato, Cuz!, with its peanut butter, graham cracker combination, and delicious fruited sours like Imperial True Love Raspberry sour and Nebula, the bourbon barrel-aged black and red currant sour with lactose.  

There was also a lovely West Coast IPA from 903 Brewing out of Sherman, where we first met as members of the Austin College Lacrosse team. He would eventually share an impressive sour DIPA, The Eye of Souron, from 8 bit Brewing Company in California. The potent beast brings together blackberry, pomegranate and passion fruit and combines them with Motueka and Nelson hops for an otherworldly flavor. Our lacrosse teammate Lamar Ingram is brewer at 8 bit Brewing, and from the taste of it, is doing quite well.  

When the unprecedented blanket of ice and snow further shut down the state, Yinka’s family huddled together without power for four days, without water for three of them. Breweries across the state made water available, and his family was able to get 15 gallons of purified water from nearby Islla St Brewing Company. He sent me their 36 Hazyfists IPA, made with a dynamic bounty of several types of hops, which sends the palette on an adventure. 

Another San Antonio-based brewery, Weathered Souls, provided Black is Beautiful, an imperial stout incorporating West African flavors like kola nut and yam. Beyond the delicious brew, proceeds go to an initiative to support justice and equality for people of color, inspired by last summer’s police brutality and civil unrest. (Those breweries and beer fans who are interested can learn more about the cause at the Weathered Souls website.) 

Legion represented Dallas’ Community Beer Company well in one of the packages. It is a Russian Imperial Stout that is a wonderfully boozy potion, ideal for those foggy February nights following the deep-freeze. 

Yinka and I frequently chat, encouraging each other’s workout routines and other efforts to stay healthy. We met briefly in the fall for coffee; it touched me that he made an effort to bring his little family with him. It was a sunny day, only the second time I’ve met his son, for whom this year may never register a memory. But, for me, these toasts across Texas have been a delight I’ll never forget.    

An Austin native, Lyle Brooks relocated to Fort Worth in order to immerse himself in the burgeoning music scene and the city’s rich cultural history, which has allowed him to cover everything from Free Jazz to folk singers. He’s collaborated as a ghostwriter on projects focusing on Health Optimization, Roman Lawyers, and an assortment of intriguing subjects requiring his research.

The post Toasting Across Texas first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

In 2019, her novel The Other Half of Happy was published by Chronicle Books. It tells the story of Quijana, who is learning to fit in as a bi-cultural girl while honoring her family’s heritage. 

Balcárcel’s work has been widely recognized, garnering both the Texas Institute of Letters’ Jean Flynn Award for Best Young Adult Book and the Pura Belpré Award, given by the Association for Library Service to Children. The book is the culmination of a six-year process, beginning with a collection of prose poems, which reflected Balcárcel’s bi-cultural upbringing and were inspired by Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, which develops character and tension through connected vignettes. 

After developing the pieces in workshops, Balcárcel sought an agent. Twenty query letters later, she got a response that made it clear she had to decide what direction the material would take. According to her future agent, the poet could pursue publication with small presses as a collection of poems or create a work of fiction and seek a larger audience. 

Balcárcel recalled, “She told me, ‘If you want to take this to market, it needs to be fiction. It needs characters, structure, and a plot.’ And, I decided that I really hoped this girl could speak to a bigger audience.” 

This kind of feedback would cause most writers to shrink. Still, Balcárcel dug in and continued building a plot to carry her protagonist through the story. She began the transformation over a summer, writing four more drafts. Eventually, the aforementioned agent agreed she was moving in the right direction and took her on as a client. 

Now Balcárcel found herself in new territory; although she taught literature, she had focused on poetry throughout her writing life. She explained, “I had to think about action arcs and character development. It was hard, but eventually, [my agent] told me, ‘I think we can sell this.’” 

After the book was sold to Chronicle Books, Balcárcel realized that was only the beginning. Her new editor presented her with 13 single-spaced pages of notes and commentary on the book as an introduction to the world of novel writing. 

“I was still making big re-writes even after the book sold. It was another nine months before we sent it to the copy editors,” Balcárcel said. 

Through the process, she remained committed to connecting her main character’s world to a broader audience while keeping the poetry of the language alive. She said, “I think that’s why it got some love from the awards.” 

Going from poetry to fiction required a shift in Balcárcel’s mindset: who would her audience be? “I thought it was [told by] an adult looking back, but my agent helped me realize it was a middle-grade novel,” she remembered. “I didn’t know what a middle-grade novel was, so I had to Google it.” 

The “middle grade” designation is an umbrella description of readers who are between 10 and 15 years old. This revelation led her to consume between 40 to 50 middle grade books to get a sense of voice and other critical literary elements that middle grade readers seek. 

This was the eureka moment, where the story’s underlying energy came to the surface for Balcárcel, allowing for harmonic resonance between writer, story, and character. She explained, “The book is for any kid out there that feels like they are straddling two worlds.” 

Balcárcel has attended conventions for teachers and librarians. “It has been really rewarding meeting the adults who put the books in the kids’ hands,” she beamed. 

At Houston’s Tweens Read convention, thousands of kids were bussed to the event to meet dozens of authors. Balcárcel sat on a panel for the kids in her audience. And she was able to have face-to-face interactions with her readers, like the girl with a similarly bi-cultural background who told her she had never felt so seen. 

Wasting little time and remaining inspired, the idea for her second book came quickly. It sold to publishers on the appeal of her outline and just a couple of chapters. But when it came to fleshing out her concept, Balcárcel found herself stuck in the mud. 

“I was behind on the deadline, and then COVID happened. I decided I’m just going to put my head down and concentrate,” she shared. “It is so surreal because the first one took so long, but now it all feels set up.” 

In March and April of 2020, early in the lockdown, she wrote 50 chapters of her next book, Shine On, Luz Veliz, which is scheduled for release in the spring of 2022. The book focuses on a young soccer star who suffers an injury and must find a new way to value herself. This novel allowed Balcárcel to explore STEM education themes as her main character, Luz, discovers a passion for computers and technology. 

“We meet her as she’s forming a new identity,” Balcárcel enthused. “It was fun because we don’t see a lot of Latin characters in the science world.” 

Working at TCC for over 15 years, Balcárcel is truly an educator at heart, as can be seen on display on her YouTube channel in her 6-minute scholar videos, which find her explaining elements of literature and writing. “Being edited changed how I edited and taught writing. It is humbling to see the gap between your intention as a writer and what you put on the page – that gap can be painful,” she said.  

Balcárcel’s experiences in the publishing world has made the authorial process real for her TCC students. “I share with my students all the editing work I do throughout the publishing process. I can show them my query letter and explain how it works.”

Spoken like a true teacher.  

The post A Poet Writes a Novel first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth has developed a Master of Science in Lifestyle Health Sciences and Coaching.

It is the first program of its kind in the nation. The platform educates wellness coaches in a multi-discipline approach, including psychology, behavioral sciences, emotional intelligence, health literacy, and leadership.

The program is open to anyone with a bachelor’s degree interested in learning how to help others take positive steps towards a healthier future. They are currently accepting applications through April 1st for the one-year degree plan ideal for those seeking professional development that utilizes transtheoretical approaches to behavior change.

Graduates of the MS in Lifestyle Health Sciences and Coaching will be prepared to transform lives and motivate real change in various applications, from human resources to future physical therapists and physician’s assistants.

The curriculum has evolved from a primary certification that UNTHSC offered for five years, representing a jumping-off point for this more robust set of courses. As students move through the coursework, they will engage with a range of wellness imperatives like exercise, nutrition, corporate wellness, and a solid foundation of coaching courses.

Physicians can tell patients they need to exercise or alter their diet. Still, without appropriate experience and background, those recommendations will not ultimately benefit them. Real change is difficult and requires someone who knows how to establish a plan and effectively guide someone according to that plan.

While we often think of coaches as personal trainers, a wellness coach is an evolution in healthcare. These positions represent a key to improving outcomes for those living with chronic disease.

Once limited to the insurance field, many companies are adding corporate wellness specialists to their staff with growing digital support. The role has evolved to a critical part of interprofessional teams dedicated to building healthier overall health patterns, including addiction treatment centers.

UNTHSC has partnered with Wellcoaches, the national certifying body for health and wellness coaches. They incorporate evidence-based tools that bring science into practice. Coaching courses offer tools to evaluate a client’s readiness for change and shape mindset by using the psychology of behavior change.

These professionals walk alongside clients who are on a path to make significant changes. The MS in Lifestyle Health Sciences and Coaching builds skills that fortify intentions, acting as crucial support for fulfilling goals. While expertise shapes the process, clients remain the experts in their health and wellness. The priority for these coaches is to serve those goals.

Health and Wellness coaches make a physician’s directives concrete for a patient. If, for example, they want to get heart disease or diabetes under control, coaches instruct them on necessary nutritional changes and help navigate how those changes become part of daily life. Graduates benefit from a range of crucial knowledge like cultural competency, emotional intelligence, communication, and teamwork, preparing them for successful careers in the field.

Also, the Capstone course is a designed thinking project that develops real-world interventions in community partnership with those who will most benefit. This year they are working with older members through the City of Fort Worth Community Center. Students collect information, define needs, and develop targeted, functional interactions based on the program’s foundational elements.

Classes start June 1st; learn more about UNTHSC’s Lifestyle Health Sciences and Coaching program.

An Austin native, Lyle Brooks relocated to Fort Worth in order to immerse himself in the burgeoning music scene and the city’s rich cultural history, which has allowed him to cover everything from Free Jazz to folk singers. He’s collaborated as a ghostwriter on projects focusing on Health Optimization, Roman Lawyers, and an assortment of intriguing subjects requiring his research.

The post UNT Health Science Center Introduces One-of-a-Kind Graduate Program first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Shirin Neshat, Untitled, from Roja series, 2016

“I Will Greet the Sun Again” represents an unforgettable journey through 30 years of creative output, starting with black and white photography and moving into video installations. It also includes new work, “Land of Dreams,” which unites various modes of expression into a profound look at loss, grief, assimilation, and allegory.

As the show moves through her career, Nashat’s Iranian homeland remains present. The nomadic journey is also there, one she has been on since the Iranian Revolution sent her into exile. As explained in her introduction to the show, these pieces add up to a whole. “We need art to inspire us and help us cope,” Neshat said.

The show opened on February 28th and will run through May 16th. It manifests a very human process beginning with numerous conversations about women’s role in Islam – building first from political modes into a universal vocabulary of dreams.

After first coming to America decades ago, Neshat has lived here longer than she ever did in her country of origin. She considers the United States her home, a place she sees as founded on immigrants’ blood.

The show incorporates more than 250 works throughout the Modern’s galleries. It establishes the confrontational, political fervor of Neshat’s childhood before drawing viewers into the more subtle immersive form of filmmaking she would eventually develop with her installations. Though she studied art at UC Berkeley, she stopped making art for a time, moving to New York and working on the periphery of the exploding art and architecture scene of the 80s.

Her return home after 12 years would mark the re-ignition of her career as an artist, where she found a transformed landscape physically and culturally. Islam placed such limitations on interpersonal relationships and bound expression so tightly into censorship that she sought ways to use her creativity to celebrate humanity and history.

Shirin Neshat, Bonding, 1995

The first pieces took the form of self-portraiture, depicting the “Women of Allah” in various stages. We see modes of feminism, martyrdom, and ultimately questions of identity that have remained pervasive throughout her career. Often utilizing texts from Iranian poets like Forugh Farrokhzad, this work deepens the texture and complicates the images. Intricate pieces incorporate cultural elements while maintaining a provocative sensuality.

Following her last trip to Iran in 1995, she shot the “Garden Photos,” a series of images based on historical work from the 19th century. This trip would seem to represent another punctuation mark in her artistic career as the artist began a formal transition towards filmmaking.

The installations “Turbulance” and “Tuba” challenge filmmaking conventions, continuing to engage concepts of duality and division. The dual projections require a level of audience immersion to the degree that the viewer must participate in self-editing as they switch between the various images.

Shirin Neshat, “Land of Dreams”

In more recent times, Neshat has used her work to stand in resistance against traditional forms of power. She has engaged the conversation regarding the winds of the revolution that would eventually become known as the Arab Spring.

Neshat’s art incorporates the dance between poetry and image to evoke the opposing forces of mind and body that lie at the heart of exile. These principles shine brightly in her new work, “Land of Dreams.” We see her at the height of her powers processing her existence in America through a lens of magical realism. Layering together the portraiture, film installation and the interrogation of dreams, a powerful saga of identity and dislocation informs us all on some level, particularly during the surreal passage of the pandemic.

“The pieces of the show are like chapels within a church,” described curator Ed Schad.

An Austin native, Lyle Brooks relocated to Fort Worth in order to immerse himself in the burgeoning music scene and the city’s rich cultural history, which has allowed him to cover everything from Free Jazz to folk singers. He’s collaborated as a ghostwriter on projects focusing on Health Optimization, Roman Lawyers, and an assortment of intriguing subjects requiring his research.

The post I Will Greet the Sun Again first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Photo courtesy of MyWorkChoice

When CEO Tana Greene started the company in 1988, she built on her experience as a college counselor. Her favorite part of the job was when students graduated and joined the workforce.

At one point, the North Carolina-based business grew into 26 brick-and-mortar offices, helping fulfill many companies’ staffing needs.

In recent years, however, the paradigm began to shift. Employees used to expect an opportunity for full-time employment after twelve weeks of consistently good work. Employers were now becoming more interested in sticking with a model built around hiring temporary workers instead.

Greene noted one critical problem implicit to these changes: these companies held contingent workers to the same standards as their permanent counterparts. Most concretely, this applied to the chronic issue of absenteeism. Employers dropped workers if they missed three shifts. Missing work sent ripples across the landscape, as she discovered large numbers of employees wouldn’t show up or even call to notify management of an absence.

With this in mind, MyWorkChoice experimented with ways to reimagine the process. They saw early success in building a community of workers for whom upcoming shifts were made available. If they could work shifts, they signed up, but if they had to drop a shift due to a family emergency or any other reason, they can cancel that shift without risk of losing their job because others in the community can pick those shifts up.

Photo courtesy of MyWorkChoice

Beyond the benefits traditionally granted to full-time employees, much of the workforce seeks is flexibility. Greene realized quickly how profound the change could be. First, the company developed a proprietary web interface, which eventually led to its smartphone app growing across the country during the pandemic.

Despite an employment crunch, many employers have seen difficulties in staffing for several reasons this year, full of so many uncertainties. The MyWorkChoice app’s ramp-up has allowed big-name employers like Stanley Black & Decker, American Eagle Outfitters, and Shutterfly to staff up and meet supply-chain challenges.

This innovation is ideal for workers who cannot commit to a regular full-time schedule. The service brings pre-trained production-ready employees to work anywhere from 4-40 hours each week. From college students to stay-at-home moms and retirees, anybody can become a part of the community. Job enrollment is open, and the app’s portal takes care of vetting, training, and manages W-2s.

They’ve incorporated a points-based star system, which rewards the user experience. Better ratings allow workers to see available shifts earlier, thus encouraging workers to show up when they say they will.

Photo courtesy of MyWorkChoice

The community has grown beyond 16,000 as more workers use the app and discover the benefits of picking their shifts. While it may sound too good to be true, the message is resonating and empowering both employers and workers to make sense of the shifting employment landscape.

Employers avoid paying overtime rates because MyWorkChoice helps them fill positions from a community of employees. Thus, ending the vicious cycle that starts with 30% of employees not showing up. Shifts become available daily. The number of partner companies is growing daily, drawn to the support MyWorkChoice offers. Dedicated managers assist each partner company, either on location or through the community engagement center, to ensure a smooth operation.

As these communities continue to flourish, My Work Choice adds to their client base and expands regional support for existing partners. They offer a revolutionary new approach for companies and workers to find one another and get to work. In fact, MyWorkChoice is hiring in the DFW area now. Check out myworkchoice.com and get started today.

An Austin native, Lyle Brooks relocated to Fort Worth in order to immerse himself in the burgeoning music scene and the city’s rich cultural history, which has allowed him to cover everything from Free Jazz to folk singers. He’s collaborated as a ghostwriter on projects focusing on Health Optimization, Roman Lawyers, and an assortment of intriguing subjects requiring his research.

The post Transforming the Way We Work: MyWorkChoice first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.