A care partner shared on social media that sometimes, with aphasia, you will not have a song in your heart. But sing anyway. That is exactly what our performers, painters, and poets did on March 7, 2023, at Night of Aphasia Arts 2023. They expressed themselves and showed how they continue to conquer aphasia and put art into the world.

Night of Aphasia Arts 2023 by the Numbers

  • 374 people registered to attend
  • 278 attended the event + numerous other people attended watch parties during and after the event
  • 27 recorded performances (dance, music, theater, and poetry readings)
  • 101 pieces of visual art and photography
  • 19 poems in the poetry booklet

 

Thank you to the watch party hosted by USC Aphasia Lab for starting the evening.

 

Mark Harder from Poems in Speech opened the show with his high-energy “Just Beat It!” poem set to music, and Donald Smith closed the show with his moving rendition of “Auld Lang Syne,” capturing the ache in a goodbye.

 

147 pieces of art were tracked and uploaded and hundreds of emails were answered by Melissa and Greg behind the scenes. It took over 120 hours of work to pull the evening together.

 

1 hour and 57 minutes of screen time, emceed by Chad and Darlene from the NAA board of directors.

 

Hundreds of people participated in the chat. You can read the transcript.

 

And it all added up to an unforgettable evening.

Experience it Again

 

We’ve made the slideshow available on our site. To view each video in the slideshow, click on the image, which will take you to the video on YouTube.

Visit the Art Gallery

Make sure you visit the online art gallery. Enter the five online “rooms” of art (there are about 20 images in each room), and download a copy of the poetry booklet.

What Is Next?

Night of Aphasia Arts 2024 will open for submissions next fall, but we also have other artistic initiatives we are working on to keep the act of expression happening all year.

 

If you would like to make a contribution, you will help us to keep celebrating the artistic endeavors of people with aphasia.

 

Enjoy these scenes from home and watch parties celebrating Night of Aphasia Arts 2023.

StrokeMom
StrokeMom (Michelle Humphrey)
Shai Anbar
Shai Anbar