Creativity in Captivity Sweetwood Creative

A color-forward visual artist, comic storyteller and the author of the new book Kinda Funny: Stories by a Full-time Comedian (with Four Part-time Jobs.)  JJ takes her stories from the comedic stage to the comedic page in a comedy-club-meets-therapy-session collection of essays. From aging parents, awkward first dates, and avoiding the dentist to traversing the difficulties of eating disorders, wrestling with faith and depression, and yet still stumbling into love after looking for thirty-five years in very odd places. JJ uses her experiences to reveal her understandings of humor, faith, mental health, and what it means to finally “grow up,” if that’s even something we ever actually do.  Her book offers stories that are kinda funny, kinda deep, kinda awkward, and even kinda spiritual, giving readers a place to go, offering comfort, sanity, and little to no answers about how to live a better life, but certainly a place to feel a little less alone and a little more entertained. KINDA FUNNY reveals the freedom a quippy sense of humor can unleash in all of us by bringing levity to those gritty moments.

One of America’s most iconic photographers, widely recognized for his fine art, editorial and commercial work. Stephen’s pictorial stories of Mainland China, California’s Highway One, Ellis Island, the ravages of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and an impressionistic study of Burned Objects set the tone for a series of career-defining projects that catapulted him to the top of the photographic landscape. Stephen’s work has been featured on NPR and CBS Sunday Morning as well as being on the covers of New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Time, Fortune, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, and many others. Day to Night, Wilkes’ most defining project, began in 2009. These epic cityscapes and landscapes, portrayed from a fixed camera angle for up to 30 hours, capture fleeting moments of humanity as light passes in front of his lens over the course of a full day. Blending these images into a single photograph takes months to complete. His photographs are included in the collections of the George Eastman Museum, James A. Michener Art Museum, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Dow Jones Collection, Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation, Jewish Museum of NY, Library of Congress, Snite Museum of Art, The Historic New Orleans Collection, Museum of the City of New York, 9/11 Memorial Museum, Fenimore Art Museum, Art in Embassies, U.S. Department of State and numerous private collections. 

It’s National Poetry Month and we are joined by the Nebraska State Poet, Matt Mason who has run poetry workshops in Botswana, Romania, Nepal, and Belarus for the U.S. State Department. Matt’s poetry has appeared in The New York Times and he is a recipient of a Pushcart Prize as well as fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and the Nebraska Arts Council. His work can be found in Rattle, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, and in hundreds of other publications. Matt serves as our poetry tour guide through a pantheon of poets as we showcase work from Scott Woods, Aliyah American Horse, Denise Duhamel, Deb Carpenter-Nolting, Sean Patrick Mulroy, Nicholle Laffer & Mighty Mike McGee.

The Nebraska State Poet, Matt Mason, serves as our sherpa guide through a pantheon of poets: Scott Woods, Aliyah American Horse, Denise Duhamel, Deb Carpenter-Nolting, Sean Patrick Mulroy, Nicholle Laffer & Mighty Mike McGee.

Sarah & Shannon are no strangers to the music industry. Together they span decades of hard work, songwriting, touring, and perseverance. Shannon LaBrie’s undeniable voice and musicianship have been described as “nothing short of breathtaking” by American Songwriter and NPR added her heroic anthem Firewalker to their Top 20 of 2020. Sarah Holbrook and her three sisters make up the genre-twisting spellbinding band SHEL with whom she wrote and performed for over 15 years. As a violinist and multi-instrumentalist she has earned her way onto stages with Amos Lee, Michelle Branch, Emmy Lou Harris and more. As a duo they span genres, coasting in and out of LaBrie’s soulfulness and Holbrook’s folk roots and unveiling a whole new phenomenon in the blend of their distinctive vocal tonalities and the arsenals of instruments they play. The “Folk Soul” duo is set to release their debut record in early 2025 and are headed out on tour with Maia Sharp and Bonnie Raitt in May of 2024. To keep up to date with their upcoming tours and releases follow them on Spotify and Instagram. 

Charlie Frye began life as a clown, performing alongside his father and grandfather. He then joined the circus and kidnapped a ballerina – his future wife, Sherry. Together they created a distinctive, original act that’s undeniably fresh, yet designed to feel classic, blending skill and physical comedy. As one of the world's most successful variety acts, they've appeared on television in over twenty countries, including numerous appearances on Le Grand Cabaret du Monde and starring in The World's Top Shows. They've also opened for Liza Minnelli and traveled extensively with The Illusionists, playing the famed Sydney Opera House and The Palace on Broadway. Voted “Specialty Act of the Year” in Las Vegas for their star turn in the Folies Bergere. Charlie Frye & Co are also the recipients of the coveted Ken Dodd Comedy Award in England, the Award of Excellence from the International Jugglers' Association, a Performing Fellowship from The Magic Castle in Hollywood, and an Honorary Professional Membership from The Magic Circle in London.

Lindsey Ferrentino is a prolific playwright who writes with, according to The New York Times, “a muscular empathy which seeks to enter the minds of people for whom life is often a struggle of heroic proportions”. Whether writing about a female burn survivor or the first leading role for a person with Down Syndrome, Lindsey has been called “a brave playwright of dauntless conviction whose unflinching portraits are hard to come by outside of journalism." Her produced plays include Ugly Lies the Bone (Roundabout Theatre Company, The National Theatre, UK, NYT Critics Pick), the “barrier breaking” Amy and the Orphans (Roundabout Theatre Company), This Flat Earth (Playwrights Horizons), and The Year to Come (La Jolla Playhouse). She is writing the book on a number of new musicals from - Queen of Versailles with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, starring Kristin Chenoweth; The Artist, based on the film by the same title directed by Drew McConie. Lindsey is a screenwriter, with various projects in development. Most recently announced, she is adapting and directing her play Amy and the Orphans, produced by Aggregate Pictures and the screenplay for the film Not Fade Away, for Annapurna Pictures. David O. Russell and John Krasinski are producing. Ferrentino is the recipient of the 2016 Kesselring Prize, Laurents/ Hatcher Citation of Excellence, ASCAP Cole Porter Playwriting Prize, Paul Newman Drama Award, 2015 Kilroys List, finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn, Catalyst Award for Entertainment Industry Excellence, NYU Distinguished Young Alumna Award, nominated for the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award, and is the only two-time finalist for the Kendeda Playwriting Prize.