ART AT WORK MONTH >>>
Last night during the Art at Work Opening Party at the Museum of Glass, the Tacoma Arts Commission Board of Commissioners Chair Sarah Idstrom and Vice Chair Traci Kelly spent several minutes listing all the accomplishments of the 2011 AMOCAT Arts Award for "Community Outreach by an Artist" winner Stella Haioulani, which included filmmaker, DJ, poet and, of course, founder of Free Ya Mind and its popular last Friday open mic.
Haioulani's introduction seemed to go one forever, longer than the introductions of her fellow accomplished AMOCAT winners: Candi Hall of D.A.S.H. ("Community Outreach by an Organization"), MaryAnn Anderson with The Greater Tacoma Community Foundation ("Arts Patron") and David Fischer of the Broadway Center ("Arts Leadership"). You may read all the accomplishments of the AMOCAT Arts Award winners here.
Then Haioulani stood at the podium with her award - happy, humble and down to earth like most of the folks that make up Tacoma arts scene - and read a poem SHE WROTE THAT MORNING about what AMOCAT meant to her.
To hear her poetic words, click the audio player above (click here if you can't see it, or dowload it here).
To see a few photos from last night's ceremony, click here.