Teatro V!da brings arts and culture to Greater Springfield and offers resources to youth and adults

Teatro V!da presents "Rumors of a New Day" on Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.,
affords arts and culture opportunities to youth and adults.

When we think of societal plagues like substance abuse, depression, violence and assorted health ailments as a result of diet and stress, the cures we most often reach for are medicinal, believing it provides a quick fix. Though medicines are  important treatments in many cases, we should not overlook the role of intervention and prevention strategies, especially when it comes to our youth.

Intervention means attacking a problem at the first sign of trouble by changing mindsets and behaviors. Prevention seeks to stop the issue in advance prior to becoming a health disparity. So how do we do that?

• Get our youth involved in positive activities to steer them away from the trouble zones.
• Help our adults overcome the daily challenges of life by balancing the struggle with hope and compassion.

Greater Springfield is fortunate to have a wealth of organizations in our backyard who espouse the same beliefs as the Mason Square Health Task Force; agencies that consider whole health and intervention as necessary goals in serving the people in our community. We need to do more to support them and help them flourish and grow.

Teatro V!da, the city's first Latino theater group is one such agency. Teatro V!da is the brainchild of Magdalena Gomez, a teaching artist for more than 35 years. In 2006, Gomez rallied the support of key leaders in Springfield's Latino community. One year later, Teatro V!da was born with funding from the Latino Breakfast Club, Hispanic Resources Inc., MassMutual Financial Group, Baystate Health and other community supporters. Since its founding, Teatro V!da has produced over 20 events, including four original full productions with music composed by artist, musician Heshima Moja, the theater's current Music Director.

"We offer the community an opportunity to build up our young people, and fill in the gap that's left vacant as a result to cuts in public education in the area of arts and culture," said Moja, an independent artist whose recent cd release has been getting national airplay. "We give them a chance to discover theater, acting, dance, but we also focus on issues like literacy, and health, and wellness and compassion. We take a whole health, holistic approach using artistic expression."

 

Their latest production, "Rumors of a New Day," is a  multi-media performance celebrating Springfield and the arts. It will be held  Monday, September 13 at 7 p.m., at City Stage. The performance was written and directed by Gomez. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 on the day of the show. For more information call the City Stage box office at (413) 788-7033.

"This performance piece is about the issues we face right here in Springfield, the criticisms, the stereotypes, the 'isms, the things we care about and face in our everyday lives in Springfield," said Moja, noting the theme of "Rumors." The production uses a variety of artistic mediums including acting, dance and music.

The production has more than 100 people involved, including cast and crew. At least two dozen youth are tied to the play, either as performers or as apprentices under Daniel Jaquez, an acclaimed choreographer from New York City, Moja said.

"This show offers solutions woven throughout the fabric of the piece offering steps to emotional wellness, emotional intelligence, empathy and compassion," Moja said.

The Mason Square Health Task Force encourages you to support the show, and support Teatro V!da in its efforts to keep our city culturally diverse, artistically rich, healthy and well.

An extraordinary blogger you should read

Adia Colar

The Internet provides us with many opportunities to better health. Not only are there hundreds of thousands of health-related web site that report on the latest medical research, treatments, discoveries and controversies, there are also bloggers who bravely share their health issues.
Adia Colar is one such blogger. A publicist who promotes psychology, self-help and health books, Adia is also a freelance writer who has written about many subjects, including her own recovery from an eating disorder.
Her essays are posted on her own blog and other places, such as the multi-million hit site Psychology Today and  Huffington Post
Her blog entries are engaging and informative. She has strongly-held beliefs and shares them with humor, anger, pain, always honestly, giving courage to a lot of women who feel similarly but haven't had the words to express themselves. For them, Adia provides a bridge between what they feel and how to describe their feelings.


Sample quote from a blog entry by Adia on the television show, "The Price of Beauty," which shows the extremely painful -- physically and emotionally -- lengths some woman go to fill in mainstream media's definition of what a beautiful woman should look like:

"The optimal way for me to be with someone like that is to accept myself, curves, lumps, bumps, aunties, and all and not settle for anyone who didn't feel the same way." 

When NBC decided to produce yet another show that ultimately serves to make people feel bad about their bodies, "Thintervention with Jackie Warner," Adia wrote a pointed letter to the network:

"Dear NBC,

Sigh. You're doing it again. First it was The Biggest Loser, then Losing It with Jillian, then Bravo planned a SkinnyGirl show before Bethenny Frankel got pregnant, and now you've created Thintervention with Jackie Warner.

I already know about the dangers of The Biggest Loser. Third season's Kai Hibbard has recounted her experiences, including:

• trainers encouraging contestants to dehydrate before weigh-ins,
• overexercising,
• contestants being pushed to work out despite being injured,
• producers overriding doctors' orders

...and more. Kai has shared how she ended up developing an eating disorder that she still struggles with as a result of her experiences on the show.

But simply having a weight-, eating-, and workout-dysfunctional show wasn't enough for you. To reward The Biggest Loser's high ratings, you gave the main trainer, Jillian Michaels, her own show to further spread this dangerous, deceptive message."

One of the greatest things about Internet is the many web sites that offer free blogging templates -- essentially, a blog is a web site where you write short essays about whatever subject you want --  so that people can share their experiences and thoughts. And sometimes, there are bloggers who share information that benefits a world of people. Adia is among those bloggers.
For more information on how to set up your own blog, here is a short list of free blogging sites that provide a range of templates -- or designs -- for you to choose from. They also show you step-by-step how to set up your blog so that you, too, can share information that, like Adia, can be helpful to untold millions of people.

• www.blogger.com
• www.wordpress.com
• Blog.com