THE WRITE TO HEAL

Triangle Review: Podcast Preview

For inquiries: Tamara Kissane, Producer
artistsoapbox@gmail.com
919-493-7972

The Write to Heal Press Release

1. STORIES SAVE US: The Write to Heal Episode 1 – June 14
Interview with Joseph Bathanti, former NC Poet Laureate and Dr. Bruce Kelly, retired Assistant Chief of Primary Care at the Charles George VA Medical Center

2. BIG GUNZ, SMALL BULLETS: The Write to Heal Episode 2 – June 21
Interview with Barbara Aragon, social worker with Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration’s Tribal Training and TA Center and Pedro Reyes, Iraq veteran and Native American digital storyteller

3. TRANSFORMING PAIN THROUGH ART: The Write to Heal Episode 3 – June 28
Interview with Brooke Dickhart, Executive Director of The Joel Fund and Linda Giles, retired social worker with the Department of Social Work at Womack Army Medical Center  

4. OUR MINDS ARE STILL THERE: The Write to Heal Episode 4 – July 5
Interview with Gail Ashby Bryant (Army veteran 1975-1981), Mark Bartholomew (Iraq Combat Medic veteran), and Bill Dixon (Vietnam veteran and Board Chair of Vets to Vets)

5. RESILIENCE IS A MUSCLE: The Write to Heal Episode 5 – July 12
Interview with Captain Moira McGuire, former Chief of the Arts in Health Program at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, and Sarah Moore, Community Specialist for Arts and Health at Walter Reed Hospital

6. LET OUR ANGELS SING: The Write to Heal Episode 6 - July 19
Interview with the podcast co-producers June Guralnick and Tamara Kissane

The Write to Heal: Soldiers Deep Dive Into Storytelling is a production of Artist Soapbox in partnership with June Guralnick.

This series is dedicated to the memory of David Brave Heart.

The intro montage is sound engineered by Royce Froehlich, and music in both the intro and outro are by David Brave Heart, with additional music by Louis Wilkinson.

Post-production by Tamara Kissane and Jasmine Hunjan.

WHEN I WRITE I FEEL… CONTRIBUTORS:
Jenny Bailey
Linda Belans
Gail Ashby Bryant
Kammie DeGheto
Chuck Galle
Linda Giles
June Guralnick
PJ Harper
Kirsten Howard
Tamara Kissane
Allie McDonald
Ray Owen
Shirley Perry
Sande Southworth
Scott Charles Whittemore
Norah & Susannah

For more information, please see the show notes for each individual episode or catch us on social media and artistsoapbox.org and juneguralnick.com.

THE WRITE TO HEAL PRODUCERS

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TAMARA KISSANE (Co-producer) is a playwright, parent, and podcaster based in Pittsboro, NC. She was the 2020 Piedmont Laureate and received Outstanding Contribution to the Arts from Chatham Life & Style.  Her plays and monologues have been presented throughout the Triangle and Triad of NC. Through her podcast and production studio, Artist Soapbox, Tamara has produced, written, and directed a variety of audio dramas from anthologies to full-length series, most recently the 9 episode audio series, JESUS PANCAKE.

JUNE GURALNICK (Co-Producer) has created plays, performance projects, and large-scale community cultural projects for more than four decades. A native New Yorker, June’s plays have been performed at venues including the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Abrons Arts Centre/Henry Street Settlement (N.Y.), Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre (N.C.), Equity Library Theatre (N.Y.), and the North Carolina Museum of Art. Awards include the Silver Medal-Pinter Drama Review Prize, North Carolina Arts Council Literature Fellowship, Southern Appalachian Repertory New Plays winner, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Writing Fellows, Hambidge Center for the Arts Writer-in-Residence, Sewanee Writers’ Conference Tennessee Williams Scholar (University of the South), Second Place winner for the Judith Royer Award in Playwriting Excellence, 2022 Raleigh Medal of Arts recipient, and most recently the 2023 United Arts Council of Raleigh & Wake County Artist Support Grant. Since 2020, June has taught creative writing to active duty soldiers, veterans and family members through The Joel Fund’s Operation Art Program, as well as with the Arts & Health Program at Walter Reed Hospital. For more info, visit www.juneguralnick.com.

SOUND AND MUSIC
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JASMINE HUNJAN is a freelance audio engineer based in Cary, North Carolina. Before the Write to Heal, Jasmine was also the sound designer and sound mixer for the ASBX Shorts series, released in the summer of 2021. She is passionate about working in audio post production and enthusiastic about collaborating with others whenever possible. A self-proclaimed “daydreamer,” Jasmine enjoys writing, reading, and creating her own music.  Listen to Jasmine on Spotify.

DAVID ALLEN BRAVE HEART earned a bachelor’s degree from Black Hills State University, South Dakota and worked as a PE teacher and coach on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Later, Dave worked as a cultural consultant in Minnesota with American Indian prison inmates, focusing on lowering recidivism rates, healing, sobriety, and supporting cultural identity. Dave loved his work as a Prevention Specialist with Tribal Tech, LLC and also served as Treasurer and then Chairman of the Mankato Reconciliation Pow Wow. His passions included making drums and playing the Native American cedar flute.

ROYCE FROEHLICH, PhD, MDiv, LCSW-R, was a studio/field audio engineer at ABC Radio Networks for nearly two decades and is now a Jungian psychoanalyst in private practice in N.Y. He holds a Doctorate in Media Studies, and Masters’ degrees in Theology and Social Work. Along with his private psychotherapeutic practice, he’s an instructor and supervisor at the C.G. Jung Institute of New York and, through his drums and metals enjoys making music with old friends.

LOUIS WILKINSON's artistic development began in his teens, during his early experiences with sound editing software. In 2016, he began his academic career linked to electronic music and in the following years, independent releases such as “Number one, two and Three” and “Ambiente 2020” appeared. He is currently interested in exploring, through sound, the notion of place and time, and how these inform identity and artistic work.Listen to Louis on Bandcamp. 

BARBARA ARAGON (Laguna Pueblo/Crow) is an experienced storyteller, facilitator, and curriculum developer with decades of experience working with indigenous communities and organizations across the U.S. and the Pacific Basin. She is passionate about reviving the healing power of storytelling by teaching digital storytelling to diverse populations in indigenous communities. She enjoys flash vacations with her three adult children and lives in Sacramento with Wilson, her rescue Labrador.

MARK BARTHOLOMEW grew up in eastern North Carolina. He served in the Army Reserves from 2000-08, deploying to Iraq from 2003-04 with the 351 st Military Police Company Combat Support (as a Combat Medic). After coming home, he struggled with PTSD and a traumatic brain injury. It has been a long road but now he happily fills his days as a husband to an amazing wife, a stay at home Dad to four wonderful boys, while enjoying nature, art, and writing.

JOSEPH BATHANTI, former Poet Laureate of North Carolina (2012-14) and recipient of the North Carolina Award in Literature, is author of nineteen books, most recently Light at the Seam from LSU Press in 2022. Bathanti is McFarlane Family Distinguished Professor of Interdisciplinary Education at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. He served as the 2016 Charles George VA Medical Center Writer-in-Residence in Asheville, NC, and is the co-founder of the Medical Center’s Creative Writing Program. The Act of Contrition & Other Stories, winner of the EastOver Prize for Fiction, is forthcoming from EastOver Press in fall of 2023. For more info on Bathanti’s work visit: https://english.appstate.edu/faculty-staff/directory/joseph-bathanti.

GAIL ASHBY BRYANT was born and raised in Harlem, New York (the middle child of seven children). She attended Pace University for teaching but upon graduation, enlisted in the Army instead. From 1975-1981 she was a cook and Mess Sergeant. After her service in the army, she graduated from Orange County Community College with a degree in Police Science and State University of New York at New Paltz with a degree in Social Work. She was Director of Social Services for nursing homes for more than 25 years before retiring to North Carolina. Writing is her first love!

BROOKE DICKHART is the Executive Director and Founder of The Joel Fund, a nonprofit in Wake Forest, N.C. that provides supportive services to veterans and their families. Brooke started The Joel Fund in honor of her dad who served as a Navy SEAL for almost twenty years. Brooke graduated from Virginia Tech and owned and operated an embroidery business, and from 2009-2012 was co-owner of a café and gift shop in downtown Wake Forest. Brooke lives in Raleigh with her husband and three children. For more info about The Joel Fund, visit: https://www.thejoelfund.org/.

BILL DIXON, Spec 5 U.S. Army, Vietnam 1967 currently serves as Board Chair for Vets to Vets United, placing rescued dogs with veterans (at no cost) as well as a Board member of Vietnam Veterans of America, North Carolina Council. He is a life member of VFW, commander of American Legion Post, member of VET-Rep. Working for VA, representative to Wake County Veterans Council and North Carolina Veterans Council.

LINDA GILES is a social worker and certified gestalt therapist, and retired in June of 2013 from the Department of Social Work at Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg, N.C. Linda’s background working with the trauma of abuse made her acutely aware of the trauma of war and the impact of PTSD on veterans' lives. Linda's extensive work history started in 1964, when she began as a caseworker for Abused and Neglected Children in Pennsylvania. She eventually taught parent education and became active in women’s issues and the impact of domestic violence on the family.

BRUCE KELLY, MD is retired Assistant Chief of Primary Care at the Charles George VA Medical Center in Asheville, N.C. In 2014, along with former North Carolina Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti, he co-founded a creative writing program for Vietnam veterans with PTSD as the central feature of a broader Medical Humanities program. He's been witness to the truth of this quote by poet Muriel Rukeyser: "The universe is not made up of atoms, it's made up of stories."

CAPT (RET) MOIRA G. MCGUIRE, was a nurse officer with the U.S. Public Health Service and former Chief of the Arts in Health Program at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence. She has worked extensively with vulnerable populations in behavioral health and oncology settings, and in 2010 was hand selected to establish the Sea Services Warrior Clinic at National Naval Medical Center where she used her skills and experience to craft and enhance the care of our country’s wounded, ill, and injured service members as the Program Manager. The focus of her professional work lies in the belief that creativity and expression are not only essential elements in the treatment
of illness and injury, but in the prevention of them as well.

SARAH MOORE is the Community Specialist for Arts and Health at Walter Reed. After earning her Masters’ degree at Columbia College, she worked as a dance/movement therapist with trauma survivors and refugees. Utilizing her bachelor’s in peace building, she facilitated dance-based conflict resolution in Bosnia for five years followed by one year of teaching dance to immigrant students in Portugal. She conducted her master’s thesis in Nairobi and returns annually as part of the collaborative leadership team supporting therapeutic arts trainings with Global Alliance for Africa. The through-line of Sarah’s work is expanding ethical and equitable access to health and well-being through the arts.

PEDRO REYES (Laguna Pueblo/Crow) is a veteran, poet, facilitator, editor, scholar, and voice-over professional. He has been called the Indigenous Morgan Freeman. He graduated with a degree in English Literature from Stanford University and earned an MBA from the University of Minnesota. He is a skilled digital storytelling facilitator and enjoys the NFT world.

The Write to Heal series is rated R for content.

Episodes contain: explicit language,  gunfire, conversation about death, war, suicide and illness.