Seniors Storytelling Day will tell a wonderful story to you!

"The Best Day of My Life So Far...
Seniors Storytelling Day"

Sunday, November 14, 2010 at 2:00 PM

The Parkway Central Library *
The Free Library of Philadelphia

FREE

Inspired by her relationship with her grandmother, Benita Cooper started a a weekly storytelling and writing class at Philadelphia Senior Center. This class, The Best Day of My Life (So Far), is now a vibrant, multimedia storytelling project where older adults connect and share their stories with younger generations.

What happens when Philadelphia seniors open up by sharing stories from their lives? On Seniors’ Storytelling Day, be ready to smile, laugh and even cry as our city’s seniors take the stage to read stories that they have written, and answer questions from the audience.

Enjoy this video and get a taste of what to expect on Sunday:



And yes, The Best Day of My Life So Far...Storytelling Day has a Facebook Page!

(Can't see the video? Go to Artful Aging and enjoy!)

*The Parkway Central Library
1901 Vine Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(between 19th and 20th Streets on the Parkway)
No tickets required. For info call: 215-567-4341.

Experience Aging through Art at the ASA East Coast Conference here in Philadelphia

Creative Arts & Aging Network
is presenting

"Creative Connections: Experience Aging through Art."

at the American Society on Aging's (ASA)
East Coast Conference on Aging

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

at the
Philadelphia Corporation for Aging 

642 North Broad Street (Broad and Wallace Streets)

Center City Philadelphia.

This September ASA, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging, is offering cutting-edge programs and continuing education for professionals who work with older adults. And Creative Arts & Aging Network will be there! “Creative Connections: Experiencing Aging through Art,” will feature two sessions:
Morning Session:* Experiencing Aging through Art Part I (9:30-12:30)
The morning intensive is designed to help staff working in the aging field find and develop the resources necessary to implement arts programming for older adults. A panel of arts, humanities and local professionals will discuss the opportunities available that provide professional arts programming and/or funding.
Afternoon Session:* Experiencing Aging through Art Part II (1:30-4:30)
During the afternoon intensive, professional teaching artists (experienced working with older adults) will explore the opportunities for to artists to bring creativity to aging services The need for older adults to nurture creative expression and find meaning through the arts will be explored from the vantage point of  artists as teachers. Adaptations for well elders will be the focus, but frail elders, and elders with dementia will be discussed as well. Workshop participants will also engage in a hands-on sensitivity learning activity focused on what it may be like to have diminished senses as part of the natural aging process.

Early Registration (Paid registration received on or before August 31, 2010)
Half-Day:  $70 each (Members) or $85 each (Non-Members)
Full-Day (includes box lunch):  $150 each (Members) or $170 each (Non-Members)

Late/On-site Registration (Paid registration received on or after September 1, 2010 and for on-site registrants, Last day for online registration is Sept 10, 2010 Midnight EST)
Half-Day: $85 each (Members) or $100 each (Non-Members)

*Yes, we know. The Conference Brochure (p. 13) lists our morning program as the teaching artists session and our afternoon program as the arts and humanties professionals panel. However, the session times ARE as listed above. What would a conference be without just a little confusion?!

Benita Cooper & Her Senior Storytellers Use Art to Create Change...

Benita Cooper has just received her first grant! Her project The Best Day of My Life (So Far) began only months ago with two core media: the classroom and the web. With The Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grant two new components can be added to this multi-media storytelling project. Now performance and video can be added to the classroom and the web in the form of a blog.

Receiving this grant gives Benita the opportunity to develop Seniors Storytelling Day. This will happen in Philadelphia, in a public venue, with teens and older adutls on stage together telling stories to a physical audience.

This blog is the digital window into a weekly storytelling and writing class at Philadelphia Senior Center, a proud member of the New Courtland Network. We meet every Thursday from 1-2pm...The seniors are so full of life; their stories are so full of grace, wisdom and humor. This blog won't capture the seniors' every word, but at the minimum we hope their voices come through.

In June 2006, Benita Cooper, an architect in Philadelphia, called her grandma in Seattle for the first time in her life… just to talk. They haven’t stopped talking since. Inspired by the stories that her grandma tells her over the phone, Benita began the class and blog in September 2009.

Creative Arts & Aging Network was fortunate to have Benita as one of our panelists for our May 20th Event--The Arts for All Ages:  A Creative Conversation. Congratulations, Benita, to you and all your older adult writers!

Read more about Benita Cooper and her project The Best Day of My Life (So Far) here and here.  And you can follow The Best Day of My Life (So Far) on both Facebook and Twitter.

MindAlert Live Web Seminar Series--FREE!

The American Society on Aging (ASA), with funding from MetLife Foundation, is offering a FREE MindAlert web seminar series. Whether you are in the Aging field or the Arts, be sure to mark your calendar for these three upcoming web seminars:

May 27, 2010 at 1:00 PM EDT

Build Community and Health through Storytelling and the Performing Arts

presented by Stuart Kandell, PhD

The performing arts help elders connect with one another and improve their overall health. Using the Stagebridge model, you will learn simple techniques for employing storytelling and improvisation with groups of elders, recognize the elements of creating/expanding performing arts programming in elder settings, and be inspired.

June 3, 2010 at 1:00 PM EDT

Guided Autobiography: Enriching Lives and Enhancing Mental in the Second Half of Life

presented by Cheryl Svennson, PhD

Life review techniques assist middle-aged and older persons move through transitions in the later stages of life. Learn how you can adapt techniques such as memory priming questions based on the common themes of life to fit various venues and diverse populations.

June 10, 2010 at 1:00 PM EDT

Memory Action Program (MAP)

presented by Robin Lea West, PhD

Design your community’s roadmap to memory improvement based on the highly successful, evidence-based methods designed at the Everyday Memory Clinic. Discover the key elements of any successful memory training program and how to implement training in your own community.