Adoption Odds and Ends: Adoption Music, Arts, Films and Events
There are ways to finish up National Adoption Awareness Month by supporting and sharing information and links to really great projects the support adoption truth. Here’s some great projects created by adoptees and the people that support them!
Mary Gauthier: The Story Behind Blood is Blood
The ever wonderful Mary Gauthier has a new release coming out February 5 Live at Blue Rock. To celebrate this she is telling the stories behind her songs. This week it’s the story behind Blood is Blood; being left at an orphanage and her lifelong search for identity as an adoptive child.
“I was told as a child that my mother loved me so much that she gave me away. I was told she “loved me too much to keep me.” A child cannot make sense of this, but even as an adult it makes my head swim. Loved me too much to keep me? My mother? I know my parents were trying to tell me that my mother could not care for me for reasons we never got in to, that she was so unselfish and generous that she gave me away so that I might be better cared for. The problem with this (aside from the fact that it’s probably not true) is that it forever equates love with abandonment, and the fear of abandonment has haunted me my entire life.
I’d like to play this song in the halls of Congress one day, play it in front of legislators, congressmen, judge’s—maybe it would open their hearts and minds to the plight of people they do not yet understand. The antiquated laws that permanently seal birth certificates desperately need to be overturned, but the going is slow and the opposition is well funded. The fight for truth and justice in this arena continues. I hope this song helps, somehow. It sure helped me.”
Blood is Blood is one of my personal favorites. I actually am seriously thinking of getting the words tattoo’d next. I’m thinking maybe down the inside of an arm? You can live stream Blood is Blood all this week and Pre-Order an Autographed Copy of Live at Blue Rock on http://www.marygauthier.com
The Justice Hour
I spent an hour this past Saturday talking on the radio with Lisa Marie Macci on The Justice Hour.
I have to say that it was a pure delight to be Lisa’s guest. It’s so great to speak to someone about adoption issues who just gets it. That often doesn’t happen in the media, but Lisa was so on it! Plus, we had a whole hour to talk about adoption issues, so we were able to really get to some good nitty gritty including calling out the Adoptee Rights Coalition, The Angels of Love Adoption/ Grayson kidnapping case, and the coercion overall in adoption practices today.
The show should be archived any minute here if you missed it.
Get Broke Wide Open in New York
I had the pleasure of meeting Rock Wilk back in April of 2011 when he brought the emotional journey of adoption in Broke Wide Open to the Hudson Valley. Since that performance, I have watched him work to bring his vision to the New York Theater. If you have plans to be in or near NYC anytime before the end of December, you’ll want to get in on this.
Catch Rock in Broke Wide Open at The 45th Street Theatre 354 W 45th St, NYC. Tickets are only $35.00 and you can get them here.
The Fifth and Final Name
During the Kentucky Adoptee Rights Demonstration back in 2010, I had the honor of meeting Rhonda Noonan an Oklahoma adoptee who also had the distinction of having that weird truth is better than fiction adoption story. She really DID come from a world famous family – her grandfather was Sir Winston Churchill! It’s a great story and so, Rhonda wrote a book which takes the reader though the hell that is the current US legal system if you happen to have been an adoptee and dare to desire your original identity.
I am pleased to say that I have an invested interest in this project now as Rhonda asked for my help building the website for The Fifth and Final Name as one of my first projects going freelance with AdoptingSocial. Check http://www.thefifthandfinalname.com/out here!
Support Adoptee / Adoption Films
In case you have been living under a rock, I thought I’d take a few minutes to highlight some really great adoption projects that could use some support and promotion!
All My Life:
Fellow New Yorker and Adoptee Jason Darner’s Flower City Media Inc. has ventured to create “All My Life” A Documentary Film about Adoption. Jason joined the ARD in both San Antonio and Chicago to film the Demonstrations and interview folks. You’ll catch beloved favorite of all, Jeff Hancock in the teaser and a few of moi acting the fool with a bull horn in Texas!
A worthy project to donate to. For more information check out Flower City Media’s “All My Life” here.
A Girl Like Her:
Speaking of Adoption films, I am literally FROTHING at the mouth while I wait to see Ann Fessler’s “A Girl Like Her”. So far the closest I have seen to a New York showing was Rhode Island, and I passed on that, but the wait is killing me. If you are lucky enough to have a screening near you, jump on it! Screening dates for A Girl Like Her are can be found here, but I also recommend signing up for notifications on the mailing list.
A Simple Piece of Paper:
The YouTube description says: When adoptee Gay Ellen Brown is told to get a BRCA test by her surgeon following the removal of suspicious lesions, she never anticipates that her insurance company will deny her the test because she cannot prove a family history of breast cancer. Gay Ellen is one of the first Illinois adoptees to have access to her original birth certificate when records are unsealed in November of 2011. Her story is part of a Jeanne Strauss documentary currently in production: “A Simple Piece of Paper”.
I say, I have known Chris and Gay since the Philly ARD in 2009 and have watched her struggle and wait. I heart them.
Land of a Gazillion Adoptees
Kevin and the crew at Land of a Gazillion Adoptees are on fire!
Seriously, if you haven’t found them on your radar yet, they should be. Besides launching WatchAdopteeFIlms.com, they just released Parenting As Adoptees which can be purchased through Amazon directly to Kindle in three seconds flat!
WatchAdopteeFilms currently has FIVE adoptee movies in the queue: Adopted, Resilience, Opening the Bird Cage, Roots: Unknown and Running Dragon.
AAC: ADOPTION: NO SECRETS. NO FEAR
The American Adoption Congress has image banners to add to your websites:
Adoption: No Secrets. No Fear. is about normalizing the reunion and reconnection process. It is about access and adoptees’ right to know who they are. It is about the connection that birth parents feel with their children and their desire to know them as adults. It is about adoptive families and their support for openness at every stage of the adoption journey.
Get your AAC banner of choice here and save the date: the Annual American Adoption Congress Conference is April 10 to 14th in Cleveland, Ohio. Guess who will be speaking there this year??
Ah, another November almost survived! Let’s count down the final days together! Get ready to say good bye to #NAAM!
