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Welcome to the Stories Love Music blog where we share the progress of this now 501c3 and how it is evolving. Update: It was 2012 after Hurricane Sandy, when the seed was planted to find a way to bring music and story telling together in a magical way. Stories Love Music hit a milestone this month! On May 9th 2018, we presented and fully funded our first caregiver creative engagement workshop since becoming a non-profit 1 year ago! We held this special full day event at Worcester County Commission of Aging in Snow Hill, Maryland. It was a two part workshop that included creative engagement as both self care and tool applications for caregivers working with elders with dementia. The workshop was free for all the caregivers, they also received lunch and payment for attending. So grateful to all our supporters who helped us get here. Thank you so much and stay tuned for more program announcements. 
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 Hello and Thanks for visiting our site! It has been a while since our last blog update, as we have a very busy start to the new year. As you may have heard, Stories Love Music recently became a 501c3 status and we already have such wonderful supporters and donors and we are so grateful! Thanks to the donations and grants we have received, we will be able to bring the "Joy of Creative Engagement" programs to more deserving groups of caregivers. We would specifically like to thank our supporters at Cobble Hill Foundation in New York and Community Foundation of Eastern Shore in Maryland. Please feel free to look around the rest of our site to: learn more about us, make a donation or contact us for more information. Stay tuned! Ilyana Kadushin (Executive Director)  Hello and Welcome back to our blog news page. We have a special announcement! As of May 2017, Stories Love Music is now incorporated as Stories Love Music Inc.*
It is has been determined to be Tax Exempt under 501 (c) (3) of Internal Revenue Code. And as a result, any contributions to Stories Love Music Inc. will be tax deductible. With contributions and grants, we can develop and expand this program; allowing us to share this program nationally. We are looking forward to creating more opportunities to share this program with you! Stay tuned for more, Ilyana Kadushin Wonderful News! Stories Love Music recently received another grant! This is a teaching artist grant for The Creative Aging programs at The Brooklyn Public Library. Brooklyn Public Library is part of the Lifetime Arts Affiliate Network, made up of over 20 library systems across the United States that offer multi-session creative arts workshops for people 50 and over, which are taught by professional teaching artists. This is a 9 week session that starts Wednesday MAY 17th and then every Wednesday at 1:30pm to 3pm. Our Stories Loves Music sessions will focus on Self-expression through the Art of Music and Story Telling and is for both the seniors and their care givers. For more information about this Creative Aging Event, please call the Services for Older Adults Department at 718.236.1760. ext. 51141.   We had the pleasure of creating a custom Stories Love Music event for a Connect to Culture JM Journeys Event at The Jewish Museum in New York City.
JM Journeys are events when the museum is only open to elders with memory loss and their care givers. We were asked to create this event based on two works of art in the museums permanent collection by Ibram Lassaw, called CREATION and ETERNAL LIGHT (featured in this photo above). We utilized sound design, voice narration of guided meditations, live music and interactive story telling about the art pieces. The audience was guided to have an interactive experience with the art and the group's energy grew through each moment. We as artists and coaches found this event very inspiring and look forward to the next one! Thank you to the Jewish Museum for this opportunity. ~Ilyana  Happy New Year!
We are delighted to announce that on February 1st 2017 Stories Love Music is collaborating on a Connect to Culture Program at The Jewish Museum as part of their JM Journeys program. JM Journeys is a program that is only for visitors with memory loss and their care partners. They are invited to explore Ibram Lassaw’s Synagogue Wall Sculpture Creation in the Jewish Museum collection through a special performance by Stories Love Music. We are thrilled to be a part of this special place and program; and we will be integrating sound design, voice narration and live music that is inspired by the beautiful works, Creation and Eternal Light by Ibram Lassaw. We wish you a joyful new year and as always reach out to us if you have any questions. ~Ilyana  Happy Holidays from Stories Love Music! What a year it has been and we are committed to bringing more Stories Love Music to more people in 2017.
I would love to hear from you. Have a peaceful and prosperous new year ahead. Much love, Ilyana Hello and welcome back to the Stories Love Music blog.
Over the last few months we have led our program for big and small groups in memory assistance facilities and with individuals in their private residence here in the New York area. So many great moments happen in the group work. There is often a shift, when it goes from a group of struggling individuals, to a group of individuals that energetically and musically come together with a sense of calm and joy. From that place, ideas and stories have the space to pop up and be shared. When I go into all my sessions with an open mind and heart, I will often be pleasantly surprised what comes up! For example, I have another story from a private client session. As we sang a song in Hebrew together, as we often do, he stopped suddenly with something to ask me. I said "You have something to ask me." He said " I was wondering if it's been difficult for you in this life because you are a woman." I said "Well at times yes, but as I grew up, I became self possessed and did not let that hold me back or limit me. Does that make sense?" He says "Well I don't know, because I'm a man. I do know that it's good that you come here and tell us these things." I say "Thank you for asking me that.". His caregiver had a look of surprise on her face as well. Take away: Let yourself be surprised by people, with the idea that you don't know everything they are thinking and feeling, as this does something to the energy around them. Thanks for reading! Ilyana  Hello again! I Hope you have had a great summer. I have been traveling, spending precious time with family and re-charging for the fall season ahead.
I would love to share a story from the field. One of my private clients with Alzheimer's, whom I do one on one Stories Love Music sessions with, has been quite erratic in his responses to these sessions. Some days he is engaged and responsive and other days he is too restless to bother. Over the past few months, I had some realizations that helped this tremendously. This client had been the president of his own company and was used to feeling in charge, involved, heard and seen. Every morning he still dresses for work, even though he cannot go anymore. Like most people he was used to his rituals and feeling engaged in his routine and now it was changing and he was frustrated. I discovered however, that he still went to a local temple and knew Hebrew. I decided to bring in several Hebrew prayers and songs to sing with him. He loved them and sang with me with a gusto he had not before. In the following sessions, I told him I was there to practice these songs with him so we would be ready to sing when he went to temple. Our sessions became "practice sessions" and gave him a new purpose and meaning in our time together. Amazing! Little did my 12 year old self know, when I was studying Hebrew with my rabbi for my Bat Mitzvah, that I would be using my Hebrew years later to give a renewed sense of purpose to a man with Alzheimer's. Now I should point out that many people I work with, love and connect with music and singing so much, they don't need this extra sense of purpose and structure to it, but some do! Remember this and when you use any kind of creative engagement with your client or loved one, know your audience! Find out what they did, what they love and find a way to make it as meaningful today as in their past. Thanks for reading and as always, please leave a comment or question as you wish!  Hello and Happy Spring!
Latest News: With the additional grant from MAC (Maintaining Active Citizens), that Stories Love Music received this year, I was able to hit the road again and bring my program to another group of care givers in Maryland. Yet again, it was another group of hard working humans with huge hearts (AKA- Care Givers) and we had an amazing session together. These session are fun and stress relieving experiences where one also learns new tools and approaches to creative engagement. I am ready to travel the country and bring this program to every care giver out there! I launched a new podcast series called "No, I Know" and it's now on Itunes store. On the show that I co-host with my husband, we bring in special guests for spirited conversation and live music! We recently had on the show, Nancy Lee Hendley. She is former head of care giver education at Caring Kind (formerly Alzheimer's Association), and now she is manager of CONNECT2CULTURE at Caring Kind. We had an inspiring conversation with her about CREATIVE ENGAGEMENT and Memory Loss. You do not want to miss it! Stay tuned for more and as always I welcome your questions and comments. Thanks for reading, Ilyana |
Ilyana Kadushin
Musician, Story Teller, Coach and Activist. Archives
May 2018
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