Booking Process
Began to examine my need to be an artist. Grew up in a strict military family. Came fromgenerational poverty. Moved a lot. The schools I attended did not have art classes. I found no joy in education. I began to realize that at the core of my work as an artist was the need to fit in, to feel close to people and have them feel close to me. I wrote a raw, autobiographical one-woman series called Trailer Park Queen. The project flowed easily form childhood memories which are personal, often shameful. A painful childhood became my greatest creative asset.
The training is informal. The style—thematic storytelling, spoken word, songs, stream of consciousness, and crude humor. The music has been described as “garbage can desert music”. The Project has evolved into seven episodic shows, a music CD and is performed in clubs, theaters and on college campuses. My work continues to be shown and purchased across the US and internationally.
1998, I founded Musicians for Education and its signature program, Street of Dreams, a nonprofit arts education and college bridge program that provides educational, creative and emotional support for teen mothers. The project uses the creative process as a healing mechanism.
Trailer Park Queen evolved from childhood wounds. I believe creative blocks contribute to the disease of addiction. I have taken my life story, my core being as an artist and molded it into a bigger purpose—art that can be used to achieve social change—the prevention of generational poverty, alcoholism, drug addiction and mass incarceration.
Trailer Park Queen is a performance coupled with an optional college workshop geared to high school and college students, artists, educators, criminal and social justice professionals. The performance/workshop demonstrates the power of a 12 step model when used within a performance art curriculum. Trailer Park Queen, Musicians for Education, and Street of Dreams work collaboratively with the Alcohol and Other Drug Studies (A.O.D.S.) department of San Diego City College and Lindsay Community High School for Teen Mommies.