Fulfilling the Vision, Inc.

We have landed in New York for the NEW YORK leg of our interviews and photo sessions of alums. More to come!! Tomorrow is Day 1.

We are on the road for photos and interviews for Volume 2.

Donate $50 or more, and you get Fulfilling the Vision Volume 2 when it comes out + join us in the private Facebook group as we travel to produce this exciting second book!

Here is the link to donate $50 for the Private Facebook group + Book #2 when it comes:
https://square.link/u/pKFYZRS3

Here is the link to donate any amount:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=QSNEJTVDLZLNA&ssrt=1679707353772

Here is the link to buy the first book:
https://fulfilling-the-vision.org/

📸 We had the privilege of capturing the stunning .kuper.harris in her element at her recording studio in LA!

🎤 A quick shoutout to this incredibly talented singer - if you aren't following her already, you're seriously missing out! She's not only mega-talented but also a dream to photograph 🌟

📘 Exciting news: Olivia will be featured in the upcoming book "Fulfilling the Vision: Volume 2" co-produced by Susan Hamm and Vonda Klimaszewski.

If you want to follow along with this exciting project, you can join our Facebook group for donors.

What you get for your $50 (or more) donation:
(to help us cover travel and printing expenses)
* A BOOK (when it is done)
* Private Facebook group to watch our travels and interviews with people.

Here is the link to donate $50 for the Private Facebook group + Book #2 when it comes:
https://checkout.square.site/buy/BB34PSUVMOVZ5PHYFEXTYM2G

Here is the link to donate any amount:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=QSNEJTVDLZLNA&ssrt=1679707353772

Here is the link to buy the first book:
https://fulfilling-the-vision.org/

We are on the road for photos and interviews for Volume 2. This week we are in Los Angeles. You can come along with us for behind-the-scenes posts as we make this book. We have just started posting so you are not behind yet.

Donate $50 or more and you get Fulfilling the Vision Volume 2 when it comes out + join us in the private Facebook group as we travel to produce this exciting second book!

You will tour Warner Brothers Studios' prop house and go behind the Hollywood Sign just to name a few places we are going.

Here is the link to donate $50 for the Private Facebook group + Book #2 when it comes:
https://checkout.square.site/buy/BB34PSUVMOVZ5PHYFEXTYM2G

Here is the link to buy the first book:
https://fulfilling-the-vision.org/

Here is the link to donate any amount:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=QSNEJTVDLZLNA&ssrt=1679707353772

He was a founding member of the Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum-selling group the Spin Doctors and continues to perform with the group. After three decades of performing, he tells aspiring musicians: “Work hard; don’t complain; jealousy is not healthy; keep yourself inspired; and stay open to everything and to others’ ideas.”

A 1986 music graduate of Arts Magnet (Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts), Comess was featured in the coffee-table book, “Fulfilling the Vision: Celebrating One Dallas Art School’s Impact on the World.”

Book #2 is now in the works to gather and update stories about a variety of successful BTW alums.

“As an artist, you have to wear many hats,” says Shawn Smith.

Working in his Austin, Texas, garage studio, sculptor Shawn Smith often dons zip-up mechanic overalls as he wields power tools and other materials to build intricate pixelated wood sculptures of animals, birds, and the natural world.

His recent endeavors include completing an 18-foot-tall sculpture of a giraffe, “Tower,” for the US Embassy in Niamey, Niger. The project celebrates the conservation efforts to save this majestic animal. “Tower” stares from the embassy window towards Dosso Partial Faunal Reserve. Since Smith’s studio is only 12 feet tall, the image of its installation was the first time he had seen it in all its glory.

Smith’s work still travels internationally and was included in a show in Paris last year. Closer to home, he recently embedded with the Austin Fire Department and EMS to prepare for a project that will honor those first responders.

Fulfilling the Vision Book #2 is now in the works to gather stories of more interesting alums like Shawn Smith.

To order the first book, go there: https://fulfilling-the-vision.org/

Join the Booker T. Alumni database http://artsmagnet.org/ to be informed about the Advisory Board's Alumni Initiative and activities! Click here to share your contact info.
https://artsmagnet.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f4cdaff5d5fd21ab56b1f9173&id=579324a597

“When my music is good, it’s like a levitation thing, like you leave the planet,” says Keith Loftis. “Vessels, that’s what we are as musicians.”

Ever since Loftis decided he wanted to be a professional musician during his sophomore year of high school, “Music just became my voice,” he says. “My music is smooth jazz, but it’s also really intense, spatial.”

A 1989 Music graduate of Arts Magnet (Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts), Loftis was featured in “Fulfilling the Vision: Celebrating One Dallas Art School’s Impact on the World.” Based in Brooklyn, he is also a composer and music educator who performs widely.

Fulfilling the Vision Book #2 is now in the works

To order the first book, go there: https://fulfilling-the-vision.org/

Join the Booker T. Alumni database http://artsmagnet.org/ to be informed about the Advisory Board's Alumni Initiative and activities! Click here to share your contact info.
https://artsmagnet.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f4cdaff5d5fd21ab56b1f9173&id=579324a597

“I’ve run three marathons in my life and what I’ve learned also applies to my career: Mile Nineteen is a killer. It’s too far to go back, and it’s too embarrassing to quit so close to the end. It hurts and you just keep powering through. I remind myself, God didn’t bring me this far to leave me.”

As an executive producer, writer and director of shows such as “Empire” (Fox), “Nashville” (ABC) and “Revenge” (ABC), Wendy Calhoun believes that one should not try to rush success. “People are going to tell you that so-and-so made it by this age, but you’re going to need wisdom and experience. I wouldn’t have been ready if I’d succeeded too early. Don’t try to be in such a rush,” she advises. “I could have saved myself lots of sleepless nights if I’d known that time and luck are meaningless if one’s not prepared,” she says.

A 1987 Theatre graduate of Arts Magnet (Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts), Calhoun was featured in “Fulfilling the Vision: Celebrating One Dallas Art School’s Impact on the World.”

A note from Vonda: Alumni speakers are arranged by faculty, and we were lucky to have a chance to meet and photograph Wendy in the lobby of the Montogomery Arts Theater before speaking with students.

Fulfilling the Vision Book #2 is now in the works

To order the first book, go there: https://fulfilling-the-vision.org/

Join the Booker T. Alumni database http://artsmagnet.org/ to be informed about the Advisory Board's Alumni Initiative and activities! Click here to share your contact info.
https://artsmagnet.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f4cdaff5d5fd21ab56b1f9173&id=579324a597

“I’m free. I just do what I want, say what I want, say how I feel, and I don’t try to hurt nobody. I just try to make sure that I don’t compromise my art in any kind of way and I think people respect that,” says Erykah Badu

Did you know about “Erykah Badu, The Musical”? Staged during the summer of 2022, the show featured 375 youth performers singing and dancing to almost two dozen Badu songs. Written and directed by Emmy Award winner Curtis King, the weekend of shows was supported by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, Dallas ISD, City of Dallas Office of Arts & Culture, and the Dallas Mavericks. It was a visual and musical treat for audiences.

Photo by Elizabeth Lavin, Courtesy of Erykah Badu.

Fulfilling the Vision Book #2 is now in the works
Join the Booker T. Alumni database http://artsmagnet.org/ to be informed about the Advisory Board's Alumni Initiative and activities! Click here to share your contact info.
https://artsmagnet.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe...

“I didn’t get here overnight. It took a lot of work,” says Pilar Tompkins Rivas (remembering when she spoke to a group of 400 art professionals at the Smithsonian.)

Editor Susan K. Elliott Hamm interviews Pilar Tompkins Rivas at the Vincent Price Art Museum.

Now museum curator Rivas has a new challenge in front of her. She is chief curator and deputy director of the bound-to-be magnificent new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (set to open in Los Angeles in 2024) and she has her hand in just about every aspect of what the new museum will be. Located near USC, this museum will fulfill creator George Lucas’s vision of the art of storytelling. Years of Rivas’ behind-the-scenes work will go into what museum visitors get to enjoy.

Fulfilling the Vision Book #2 is now in the works

Join the Booker T. Alumni database http://artsmagnet.org/ to be informed about the Advisory Board's Alumni Initiative and activities! Click here to share your contact info.
https://artsmagnet.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f4cdaff5d5fd21ab56b1f9173&id=579324a597

These are photos from the talk back after Hargrove-the movie, and the student musicians before the movie on June 17th at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas.

The private showing for the Booker T. Washington/Arts Magnet Community was a reminder to me of why Susan Hamm and I set about producing the book Fulfilling the Vision eight years ago.

The film is about the gifted jazz musician and artist Roy Hargove and his life touring and performing during what would be his last year.

The film is profound and illuminating, most especially if you are an artist. I was watching a peer from my beloved art school walk the walk that we all learned about if we were paying attention.

The former students and now teachers on the stage represent the people who are walking the path and lighting the way for the next generation. The musicians represent the young people who are finding their way: Fulfilling their Visions.

The event itself, to me, represents the glue that binds all of us — students, artists, teachers, and lastly, and also importantly, the patrons who appreciate the words we say, the notes we play, the worlds we create with our art.

Artists tell the story of the truth of the experience of life. We each Fulfill the Vision of our hearts, of our teachers, of the school, of our parents. There are so many ways we each fulfill a vision of ourselves and the world each and every day.

Please join Susan and me as we begin a new journey, for the new book, Fulfilling the Vision, Vol. 2; chronicling the artists who are forging the path from one big-hearted art school in Dallas.

Featured here: Guinea Bennett Price, Fredrick Sanders, Dean Hill.