Virtual Speaking Advocates Training
2024-02-03 13:00 - 14:30, 2024-02-10 13:00 - 14:30, 2024-02-17 13:00 - 14:30, 2024-02-24 13:00 - 14:30 (America/Chicago)
Interested in writing, public speaking, or acting? Art Spark Texas would like to invite you to share your story on the Art Spark podcast. The Virtual Speaking Advocates classes are an updated online version of our Opening Minds, Opening Doors (OMOD) public speaker training program for adults with disabilities. We combine the art of storytelling with public speaking skills, so our speakers can bring their stories to the general public and challenge misconceptions about what it means to live with a disability. Class members will have their final story included in future episodes of our Speaking Advocates podcast, True Tales by Disability Advocates.
Register for the class here.

Image Description: Screenshot of a Zoom meeting shows 20 men and women smiling for a photo. They represent a diversity of age groups and disabilities. Below the screenshot is the Art Spark Texas logo along with the text, “Speaking Advocates Virtual class.”

VIRTUAL OPEN MIC: THE LION & PIRATE
2024-02-03 19:00 - 20:30
The Lion & Pirate invites you to our virtual inclusive open mic for writers, performers, and musicians! As always, we’re open to work in any genre: music, spoken word, improv, skits, storytelling, dance, poems or prose… Anything you can perform!
Featured performers to be announced; then, it will be your time to shine! There will be 10 sign-up slots. We ask that you sign up ahead of time. Any sign-ups after 10 will be held on a backup list.
Join us on Zoom:
Use this Link to attend our virtual open mic.
Stay tuned to our Facebook Group for event updates, signup sheets, and links, and invite your friends, too. You can tune in just to connect with your community and give us those “clap” reactions.
Questions? Please email MsBoye.

Conversation on Audio Description with Thomas Reid and Colleen Connor
2024-02-22 13:00 - 14:00
Join us for an informative and lively virtual conversation as we talk about Audio Description for Dance and other topics through the lens of narrators and trainers who are Blind. We are thrilled to have this month’s conversation with Thomas Reid and Colleen Connor! Read more about our guests below.
Registrations are limited, so sign up today! Register here to receive the Zoom link.
Note: All conversations are presented with Real Time Captioning.
Thomas Reid is the host and producer of Reid My Mind Radio, a podcast featuring compelling people impacted by all degrees of blindness and disability. Through his annual season, “Flipping the Script on Audio Description” Reid explores the art and examines its implications on the community. A member of the Social Audio Description Collective and a freelance Audio Description Narrator, Thomas has appeared on projects for Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, PBS and more. He provides consultations for independent film makers, film festivals, co-facilitates workshops and serves as moderator or panelist for discussions on audio description and content accessibility.
Colleen Connor is the co-founder and Director of Audio Description Training Retreats and is based in Los Angeles, CA. Colleen earned a Bachelor’s in Music Theatre from The Catholic University of America and attended The London Dramatic Academy in the UK. As a blind expert in the Audio Description (AD) industry, Colleen provides valuable insight and feedback to those training in Audio Description. Their ongoing work and outreach in the AD field include performing Quality Control for several studios, voice narration, teaching the various roles within the scope of description, and cultivating a network of diverse professionals. Guided by their Seeing Eye Dog Joplin, Colleen advocates for informed, equal, and culturally competent AD wherever they go!
If you missed it or just want to watch them again, our entire series of conversations are archived on the Art Spark Texas YouTube Channel on the Audio Description Playlist.
Questions? Contact the Art Spark office at 512-454-9912 or info@artsparktx.org

Image Description: Side-by-side photos of this conversation’s guests, Thomas Reid and Colleen Connor. On the left, Thomas, a brown-skinned Black man with a smooth-shaven bald head and a full, neat, salt-and-pepper beard, smiles into the camera. He wears dark shades and a gray and black sweater with a black turtleneck. On the right, Colleen, a non-binary, white person with pixie-cut, pink hair, smiles while speaking into a microphone with a pop filter.
