For the fifth straight year, a group of artists will perform in uptown Charlotte to explore “the power of creativity and human connection" in “A Night of Artistic Renewal.” Its theme this year: how art can help people cope with loss, isolation, and uncertainty.
Spoken-word artist Jay Ward, 51, sat among colorful paintings in a north Charlotte home as he prepared for the show. The artist recited lines from his poem.
“When the chemo weakened him to exhaustion, atrophied his body until the strongest muscles left were in his mouth, but he could not talk," Ward recited. "I whispered, 'I love you,' and he squeezed my hand.”
Ward’s piece focuses on the loss of his father.
“I was 19. He had cancer,” he said. “It went really aggressively and quickly because it wasn’t found in time.”
Ward says he and his father often clashed.
“He was a typical father with a military background who wanted me to do his thing,” Ward said. “There wasn’t anything wrong; it was just us butting heads like a lot of teenagers do with their parents.”
Looking back, Ward wishes they had reconciled sooner.
“When he got sick, that's when we started to try and repair that relationship,” Ward said. “Which is great that we were able to repair it. But also it sucks because the last three or four years could have been so much different.”
Ward says talking to a therapist helped him process his loss. He’s one of about 20 artists who’ll perform Sunday at Booth Playhouse. The event explores themes of “Hope, Healing and Triumph” through the arts. Dionne Hunter, who founded the organization that produces the annual show, also curates and performs in it.
Hunter recited her spoken-word poem: “Close your eyes for just a moment, allow yourself to be still, release the weight of the day, release the worries of yesterday.”
Hunter says the goal is to remind people they can overcome adversity, “to let everyone know that they can make it through their struggles and just keep pushing and going forward.”
Hunter was just 7 when her mother died. Her father was 28 when he was left to raise her and her two younger siblings.
“It wasn’t easy. He didn’t have a lot of money,” Hunter said. ”But he loved us, and he brought us up the best way he could. One of those being, pushing us to read and learn and be adventurers.”
Hunter has lived in Charlotte for nine years but is from Birmingham, Alabama.
“People weren’t talking about mental health and going to get counseling, at least not where I grew up,” Hunter said. “How I dealt with it was by writing. I’ve been a writer ever since I was young; I wrote stories, wrote poems. So, the arts and reading have always been my escape.”
Anaiah Crawford, 24, otherwise known as Enacense, held a purple ukulele. Enacense will perform her song “I Struggle.”
Enacense says she struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You’re trying to understand who you are; you are fresh out of high school,” Enacense said. “You already don’t know much about the world, and now you have to grow and learn by yourself, locked in a room.”
Learning to play the ukulele helped.
“It was a new beginning in my life, a new phase; I had just turned 18 during COVID,” Enacense said. "My ukulele is my sidekick; 'Lavender' is my baby.”
Enacense hopes the show helps others find pieces and moments that help them overcome challenges in their lives.
“I believe that music has been a backbone for me," Enacense said. ”It’s always kind of been uncomfortable for me to speak, but I realized I’ve always had a voice through song.”
“A Night of Artistic Renewal” starts at 3:30 p.m. Sunday.
