Every weekday, in sites across Oklahoma City, professional teaching artists are working with an often-overlooked population: our seniors. Many of the individuals reached by the Creative Aging program are experiencing dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other physical and cognitive challenges, whereas others simply lack access to the feelings of confidence and pride that come from creating a piece of work and sharing it with others.
One of these Creative Aging classes achieved something truly special yesterday at their usual meeting place, YMCA Lincoln Park Senior Center. Together, they were able to celebrate the publishing of their first anthology: “Treasures”. Nine women—Bertil Jerrie Hooks, Georgia P. Juniper, Norma Noble, Darlene Johnson Reid, Adella Smith, Joyce Tease Jackson, Lynette Hodge, Queen Ester Sattiewhite, and Donnell Davis—and their instructor, author Gwendolyn Hooks, shared selections from their anthology with family, friends, and program partners.
In the foreword of “Treasures”, Hooks remembers when Arts Council Oklahoma City asked her to teach the Lincoln Park class in the fall of 2015 and how she quickly realized she would not be a teacher, but a facilitator.
“Three of the ladies were the authors of published poetry books. They were all career women, most with college degrees, including masters. They were world travelers.”
This anthology serves as a way for these ten women to remember and express lives well-lived and still living.
Arts Council OKC is so proud of each contributing writer and what they have accomplished. We would like to thank Gwendolyn Hooks for being a Creative Aging facilitator and for continuing to inspire her students to express themselves through art.
Thank you to the YMCA Lincoln Park Senior Center for being a Creative Aging site partner and to Doodle and Peck Publishing for publishing the anthology.
To purchase a copy of “Treasures”, contact Doodle and Peck Publishing at (405) 354-7422 or by mail at P.O. Box 852105, Yukon, OK, 73085.
This program could not exist without the help of our generous donors. To provide support to Creative Aging and our other All Access Arts programs, click here.
