INTRO
Claire: A lot of the storytellers on this show fell in love with the performing arts at a young age, but Chad Harper's childhood was ALL about sports.
Chad: My mother said that I just had insane amount of energy and always running and playing. I was always outdoors.
I played basketball, baseball, football, but at the age of five, I started to suffer from a lot of pain in my left knee and they diagnosed me as child arthritis, and it would swell up and it would look kind of awkward. So I was little insecure, but it also kind of limited my sports activity.
Claire: His knee kept getting worse and worse, and then when he was 15 years old, the doctors discovered that it wasn't arthritis, it was a tumor.
Thankfully, it was non-cancerous, but he did have to get the tumor surgically removed.
Chad: Initially, the doctor didn't realize how bad the tumor was and told me that, after you know the surgery, you'll be as good as new you'll be playing sports. And then afterwards he told me, no, it was a lot worse than we thought and there's no possibility.
Um, so that's when like my dream for that kind of stopped
>>music
Chad: Music really hit me when I was sitting in healing and like hip hop music especially because it was like the hot new thing. this is like mid to kind of late eighties when hip hop and you run DMC and Public Enemy and KRS-One were like this new type of culture.
And it also like, it was like people who looked like me had something to say. I think L. L. Cool J was like 16 when his first record came out.
So it was like, yeah, like this is, this is the youth speaking, you know, and having a voice.
>>music
Chad: I remember when I first when I first wrote my first rhyme. And I shared it to my classmates.
And they read it and they were like, “You didn't write this.” And I was like, “Why would you say that?” And they were like, “because it's good.” And I was like, “oh, okay.” So then like instantly I knew, okay, maybe I have something here.
That was the only thing that gave me that excitement, that energy. Like sports did and I didn't know like music could like affect me like that.
>>music
Claire: You're listening to ARTS.WORK.LIFE, a podcast from the Association of Performing Arts Professionals. I'm Claire Caulfield.
Today’s episode: Inner Compass
Working in the arts requires imagination, intuition, and a belief in oneself because oftentimes, you have to follow your own inner compass. You might not know the exact destination, but trusting your instincts will help you find your way.
On today's episode, stories about discovery, perseverance, and recalibrating your direction when the road ahead isn’t clear.
Because in the arts, there’s no one path to fulfillment. You have to chart your own course.
ACT ONE
Claire: Act One: Para—-lyrics
For our first act today, we return to Chad Harper's story.
After college, he started writing and producing music professionally, and founded Hip Hop Saves Lives, a nonprofit foundation that uses music to teach young people around the world about social issues.
Chad’s story is about finding a personal connection to that work, and the large impacts that realization had on his life.
Chad: I'm going to use my music to celebrate humanity and social good. That's what Hip Hop Saves Lives does. So I go to different countries and look for different stories and then find hip hop artists to like write songs about it and bring attention to it.
I was in Sierra Leone in September, 2023 and I'm looking for a story. We write songs about everyday heroes.
So I was on the beach coming out of like a kind of tourist restaurant. And I remember like six or seven guys who were disabled kind of surrounded me and were asking me for, you know, give him some money, a dollar or you know, some coins or whatever. I remember making a joke and that saying, “You know, are you a, are you guys a gang? Are you about to attack me?" And just being funny with them and, and they just shared that, you know, in their country, there, "there are no jobs for people with disabilities and we're kind of looked down upon and we're kind of outcast in society and there's no opportunity for us. So just to like, have a few coins to buy some food. This is what our lives consist of," you know, and I was really kind of overwhelmed by that and like, okay, this, this is the story that I, that I want to do.
>>music
Chad: I ended up meeting these two disabled rappers that have polio, uh, 50 Don and Prophet. And 50 Don is like a legend.
And they were excited to jump on the song and have this opportunity to record with me.
>>music
Chad: You know, creating the song called "Ability", because the guys from Sierra Leone rapped saying like, we, you know, disability doesn't mean we don't have any abilities. Hire us to use the abilities that we do have.
>>music
Chad: And then after they recorded their verses, I shared a verse of mine that I had written as well to explain my story.
And it was just a wonderful experience, um, you know, to, to share with them because I had never ever really spoken or written anything about my, my physical limitation of, of my left knee. So that was really special for me.
>>music
Claire: Once the song was complete, Chad's friend recommended they submit the song to the Grammys. That year the Grammys had introduced a new category, Best Social Change Song and "Ability" was a perfect fit. So they submitted and Chad started campaigning.
Chad: I was like, what else can I do to bring attention to this song? And that's when I, you know, I'm, I'm living in Spain, Paris is just a short flight away. And the Olympics and Paralympics were in August, so I was like, I'm gonna go to the Paralympics.
I didn't know at the time that the Paralympics is now the third biggest sport event on the planet.
So I literally never spent so much time on the subway of a city in my life.
Because every single day I'm, I'm like, okay, I'm going to basketball, then I'm going to seated volleyball, and then I'm going to a swimming event, and then I'm going to a tennis event.
So you're just all over the city at all these different venues, and it was just amazing the amount of care that I would say that Paris put into the Paralympics was just phenomenal. It was, it was like a top-notch experience.
I'm on the subway and I saw this guy in a wheelchair. I saw that he was speaking English, and I could tell that, okay, that's, that's American English. and then he turned and looked at me, looked at me, and he gave me this like, head nod.
And I was like, oh, that's very American. You know, the way he just get like the, the, “what's up?” So then I started talking to him and he was explaining that he was going to the opening para basketball event. And he's like, “Are you going?”
And I was like, well, “I'm going now!” and he's like, “okay, cool”. Like the next stop we have to get off and we get off, and we're coming out of the subway and unfortunately his wheelchair wouldn't fit. And I was like, “oh man”.
But he like stood up and lifted his wheelchair over these like bars and then put it back down. I was like, “oh, wow. Like you can walk.” He's like, “I can walk. It's just a lot harder to walk and takes a lot more time and a lot more effort, but I definitely can't run.”
And then he told me he was a college basketball player for the number one college in the States for para basketball.
And he was like “Yeah, everyone who plays parasports doesn’t live in a wheelchair.”
So. I went to the stadium with him and the game was, was, was amazing.
But the way some of the other basketball players, when they would call time out, they would get up and like at least two or three of 'em would get up and walk to the bench and leave their wheelchair like in the middle of the basketball court. And I was like, what?
And they kinda walked a little normal, and I was like, what? What is this? You know?
And it just kind of, you know, shocked me, so later on I learned that a lot of para athletes are in the same situation I am.
That can walk totally normal and they just can't run.
I thought you probably had to have some extreme level of disability to be classified as a para athlete.
I just knew like I wanted to be part of this community and support this community as much as possible.
'Cause I was so like, excited and moved by what I saw at the Paralympics. I went to a tennis tournament in northern Spain, like north of Madrid, and interviewed about six or seven different para-athletes and got their stories.
One guy was, was actually like the, the very last person to ever get polio in Spain.
And then the majority of them unfortunately, were like accidents, but it was just really interesting to get their stories and understand how they coped with like their life totally changing.
They're, they're like me where I can walk totally normal. And me walking down the street, no one would ever think that I had a disability, but I can't run.
Some days I do have really like bummed days, like my knee really affects me and it really frustrates me.
But to just know there's people out there that like, still have a smile on their face, and they still get up and play sports and travel and live a full life.
So that was a really great experience just to get their stories and, and, uh, compare that to like mine.
>>Song: One Giant Leap
Chad: So we're working on a new album.
It's a hip hop children's album, and it's called Everyday Hero. And we're celebrating everyday heroes and humanitarians from all over the world.
And one of the songs on the album is called One Giant Leap, the story is about a guy named John McFall.
Long story short, he had to get his leg amputated above the knee.
>>Song: One Giant Leap
And I was just so amazed by him, you know, he was 19 years old, such a young age. I, I can just imagine the level of devastation, but there was just like no pause in his spirit. He was on the British Paralympic team competing in the Paralympics.
And after, winning medals all over the world.
He went to med school, became a doctor, and then he wants to be an astronaut and he is the first disabled person to ever complete astronaut training.
And it's like, in, in this song, I just, I just celebrate his resilience of like, going through something so devastating and not even like pausing for a second.
>>Song: One Giant Leap
Chad: When I met those disabled guys in Sierra Leone, you know, that touched me because I know about my own personal, limited leg. And I would say like, if you're a performing artist, look at other aspects of your life outside of just being an artist, and see how you can incorporate that into your art.
For me, making music is always like the joy of my life. But to do it now with disabled artists and help them have that platform and submit the song to the Grammys and promote it for them, it is just like the icing on the cake.
>>Song: One Giant Leap
Claire: Chad Harper is the founder and CEO of Hip Hop Saves Lives. He lives in Madrid, Spain.
ACT TWO
Claire: Act Two: A Day in the Life.
In this episode, we’re spending a week with Kersee Whitney as she finds a path to making ends meet while making a career in the theater work for her and her family.
Kersee interview: There's definitely a lot of balancing that is happening in my life right now. Um, my husband just graduated from school and so we're kind of in limbo, which is super exciting, but also super nerve-wracking as an artist trying to figure out. Whether to make a step to move to LA or to New York, or depending on different things like that.
And so right now I do a lot of teaching, which is super fun and I love that. And then I'm constantly auditioning, submitting self tapes with my agency here in Utah or, um, performing in local theater, doing voiceover work. Kind of do a lot of different things.
If I am on set, then it kind of changes everything. Um, sometimes I'll get last minute calls or emails from my agent, like, Hey, can you be on set tomorrow? And I'm like, yep, I'll be there.
>> scene recording voiceover:
Agent: Rolling. Rolling.
Kersee: Did you know airlines regularly fly only two thirds full.
Agent: Nice. I like that one. Okay, now I would just say on,
Kersee self-recording: Alright, just barely finished, um, working on my voiceover reel. I was in the studio for about three hours, so decently good session right now. I'm just gonna head home. It's about three o'clock. It'll take me about mm, half hour to get home. And then I start teaching. I'll teach for about, um, three hours today.
>>sound of driving
Kersee interview: I started my private voice studio maybe like two or three years into my undergrad.
Um, and so I've been doing it now for four years, and so that has slowly built up over time. I think this last semester a voice. Has been one of the most profiting semesters for me ever.
>>scene of voice lessons
Kersee: All righty, miss Kaylee. So we're just gonna jump into our Lippa exercise, so it'll go like
" la la la la"
Kersee self-recording: the voice student concert went really well. Everyone was so awesome and sang so amazingly. It's really fun to see my students who have worked so hard for. The past couple months on these songs to get the opportunity to perform them in front of other people.
I had one student today who, this was her first time really singing in front of other people and she was so nervous and she couldn't quite get through her song before getting emotional and not really being able to continue. Um, she ended up coming back a couple people later and trying again and made it through the whole song and wow, that is so hard to do. She is. Definitely my inspiration of the day to be so strong as to like mess up and not be able to continue her song in front of everyone and then come back and sing it right after that, like that takes serious guts and strength. So I always love seeing my students wins like that. That was just really inspiring.
>>singing
Kersee interview: Yeah. And then after six o'clock, if I'm lucky, I get to go home. Um, if I'm not lucky or I don't know, maybe lucky's the wrong word, but if I'm fortunate enough to be working in a show at the time, then I will either jump into rehearsal or I'll drive to a theater. I am in, um, a production of Footloose. I'm playing Arial, and I'm super excited. It's gonna be way fun.
>>singing
Kersee interview: The past, like six months to a year especially have been really crazy. 'cause my husband is finishing up his degree in school. He just graduated in neuroscience. So very busy for him, but so proud that he finally graduated. But I've been kind of in charge of, um, covering finances for the last six months-ish a year, which has been crazy doing, being an artist and a working artist and trying to figure all that stuff out.
Um, so to make ends meet, luckily I'm fortunate to, um, make money doing what I love and being an artist, which is awesome. But besides those things, um, I also do some substitute teaching maybe two or three times a week depending on my schedule. Um, and then I also do, um, wait tables on the weekend. And so classic, classic artist job, I guess.But it works.
Kersee self-recording: Man, today was crazy. It was like, go, go, go, go, go. It was kind of like eating in the car while I was driving from place to place, but that is not unusual. So right now I'm just getting ready to head out for, um, some substitute teaching. Um, and then I have a free hour or so. Um, and I'm gonna work on editing and filming.
I've been trying to get better at, um, posting content more regularly on my social media platforms. I feel like sometimes social media is one of the one platforms where I have control over, 'cause I can audition all day long, but not necessarily book work. But what I can do is post on TikTok or Instagram or. You know, YouTube shorts or whatever, and that is something I have control over, which gives me a lot of balance in my life. So that's nice. I'm gonna work on that today.
>>singing
Kersee interview: I probably film three to four self tapes a week, and on average, I think I only book like one in twenty. You know, or I guess it depends on the year one in fifty even. You know, it really depends. Um, being a really young performer and trying to put yourself out there and audition for new opportunities can be really intimidating and stressful.
It's really vulnerable. Facing rejection constantly is difficult, but even those experiences where I was rejected. I think it's really established a head space for me now where I can trust that the right opportunities will present themselves for me and that I'm on the path that's right for me.
>>Kersee singing
Claire: Kersee Whitney is an actor and vocalist in Salt Lake City, Utah
ACT THREE
Claire: Act three: Art. Therapy.
Angelica McCarthy spent her childhood playing saxophone, participating in musical theater and singing in the choir. But sports and athletics were also a passion. So in college she chose to pursue physical therapy.
Throughout school, she worked with all sorts of athletes, and while she loved the healing and support aspect of the work, she missed the performing arts. So instead of athletics, she went on tour with musical acts and shows.
Angelica's story is not just about finding a place in the performing arts as a physical therapist, but also about returning to her own creativity and artistic fulfillment. Here’s Angelica.
Angelica: The repetitive nature of performance tends to be the, uh, driver of injury. So the biggest thing is that prevention of injury through maintenance, through continuing to educate performers on their bodies so they can better understand how they're putting theirselves out on the stage, how am I recovering all of these things.
With a full-time show. we continue treatments. If anybody needs care during the show, there are times where there are more emergent needs. I twisted my ankle while I was doing this, part of the show. Um, from there too, then post-show, it's making sure everybody's good.
There are some shows, especially with Broadway, some shows may not have full-time care. So you're, there's usually a, typically a two hour block before call time, and that's where we're doing any type of maintenance, 20-minute treatments.
Okay. Is your alignment off? How do we wanna make sure that we're tending to all the things that could be contributing to that discomfort so that we'll realign you and then your go out and perform to your fullest potential?
Claire: Angelica traveled all around the world with various shows. Then in 2015, she was offered the opportunity to move to New York City and work with Sleep No More.
Sleep No More was an immersive theater experience where dozens of actors and dancers told the story of Macbeth. If Macbeth was staged by Hitchcock during the Paisley Witch Trials, that is.
Angelica's job was to help performers navigate six flights of stairs, dozens of set changes and audience members who are milling about in masks, all while staying in character and avoiding injury.
Angelica: The beauty of that show is that it's an immersive show, and you are wearing masks and you're walking into a dark space that tells the story of Macbeth. And so you don't, you may not know exactly where you're gonna lead. Um, up it was a six story warehouse, so you could have been on the third floor and then happened to come across Macbeth himself, the character, or Lady Macbeth or you may have, um run across so many different people and or not know who they were.
And for me, on the backend side, it was helping them to be able to support them physically and mentally and emotionally at certain aspects to be able to be in that space.
I was there, you know, seven hours a day, six days a week. and you know, being, uh, the, the therapist, you are the person that people tend to come to.
>>music
Angelica: And a lot of the times. The emotional need, um, the emotional wellbeing and or mental wellbeing is intertwined and wrapped up into the physical, and I think being at Sleep No More, that's where I actually really started to understand the spiritual side, the mental emotional side into character work and how that manifests in the body.
>>music
Angelica: The biggest thing that really drove me within the work was that mind body connection of what it really meant to, to be mind, body, soul in a character, um, and how I could best educate the performers on yes, you could still be very present as the character, as well as also take care and mind yourself.
Really tapping into like, the essence of what it means of being a person as well as being an artist and that creative that is, um, creating that work.
Claire: Because Sleep No More was immersive. The performers had to improvise a lot. So instead of spending all day wrapping wrists and recommending stretches for the first time, Angelica was intimately involved with the creative process. She was helping choreograph movements and character beats that would both aid the storytelling while avoiding injury, and she was hooked.
Angelica: The creativity of Sleep No More, when you have people immersed with you, you have a character that has a whole crowd around them, that then requires the artist to have to adapt and change their, their routine a little bit. and their, their minds are always thinking. So the creativity for me comes in that. how can I best support it in a creative way?
What is their body telling me and showing me today of, you know, this knee pain is actually not knee pain today. It's actually the alignment of the entire leg that needs the support. Let's try it this way. Let's see what, how we can best support you. And so the creativity definitely came out in me and it's actually collaboration together with me and the artist of how can we best pay attention and support the body.
Claire: After the transformational experience with Sleep No More, Angelica was offered the opportunity to go on tour with a major pop star. She signed a contract and again hit the road, but she found that the repetitive life she once loved was just no longer fulfilling.
Angelica: I had the opportunity to go out with, um, Katy Perry. In hindsight, that's where I actually ended up, I ended up being burnt out 'cause I'd worked out a whole, worked a whole year with Sleep No More. Then went on to um, tour and then went on to another tour.
And so once I got out there, then I started to realize, oh, this isn't where I wanna be either. I wasn't getting that same type of vibrancy, um, and the care that I was providing as, as I was when I was with Sleep No More.
And that was probably one of the hardest decisions for me to make because I ended up leaving the tour, um, right in the middle of the tour. I didn't finish it, I didn't go overseas, and it affected the relationship with the leadership because that was a contract, that was a big contract. And, um, to be with Katy Perry's tour, I had to audition for it.
So it took me a minute to be able to come to that awareness to say, I need to do this for myself.
Woo. That is the hard, I think that's the hardest thing that you can do.
>>music
Angelica: That's when I said to myself, I'm gonna leave here and start my own independent practice, get back into New York and, you know, just start to build up clientele, start to get back into what does it look like to get back into the arts.
And that's kind of where my creative sense, kind of reignited back inside of me, kind of as, as if I were young Angelica performing again, that's where I started to really co-create, creative experiences, dynamic experiences with my husband.
We're in the process of continuing to build that out and, right now I'm in Oakland, California, helping to support, I'm the company manager for a new Afro-Brazilian residency that's out here. I'm, I am the athletic trainer just as much as I am the company manager, just as much as I am the creative and I, my athletic training experience has brought me into a different way of seeing of how we're making sure that we support creative works.
>>music
Angelica: My biggest sense of my journey at this point has been a learning of, of myself, of who, who that really is and that I do have worth and value, even in moments where I have felt like I haven't. And I know that's a thing that we deal with in the arts. As currently where we are, we're defunding and all of these different things. Yes, it, it can devalue a person and their, their, their sense of self, and, um, what does it look like for us all to still feel our sense of purpose.
The journey doesn't have to look like what we think it's gonna look like, and it's in staying open to the possibilities of growth and change. It's not a, it's not a bad thing, even though there are moments where it's really hard.
All those things have created me to this point and are only gonna continue to create me going forward.
Claire: Angelica McCarthy is a doctor of athletic training and creative consultant based out of Clinton, Connecticut.
>>music
OUTRO & CREDITS
>>music
Claire: ARTS. WORK. LIFE. is a production from APAP, the Association of Performing Arts Professionals.
The opinions expressed in this podcast are that of the storytellers and not necessarily those of APAP.
APAP is the national service organization for the performing arts, presenting, booking, and touring industry.
You can join APAP at APAP365.org. The podcast team includes Grace Asuncion and Sam Meyers, all led by Jenny Thomas, our amazing executive producer, and I'm Claire Caulfield, your host and producer.
Our music today is courtesy of Chad Harper and from Blue Dot Sessions.
This podcast wouldn't be possible without the generous support of the Wallace Foundation. So thank you.
Other thank yous to the APAP staff and board of directors, and, of course, our storytellers today and the hundreds of thousands of arts workers across the world.
Your stories matter, and arts workers are essential.
If you enjoyed this episode, which I really hope you did, please leave us a review as it helps other people find the show.
Carolyn: Arts, Work, Life. That’s real *laugh*
