By Dayana Moreno
When Maria Hawkins, a blues singer, asked a group of developmentally challenged adults to express their thoughts through music, one participant created these lyrics:
Nobody wants to listen. Nobody ever wants to listen.
Why won’t anybody listen?
I’m talking.
“These are a group of individuals who are crying out for help,” says 46-year-old Hawkins. “They are a group that needs a voice.”
And that’s why she’s trying to give them one. Hawkins is working on developing a new arts program for persons with disabilities called WAMM, which stands for Watercolor, Arts, Music and Mixed Medium. The aim is to use art to help people with special needs to express themselves.
“It gives them the opportunity to put it into another language within the arts. Something that they may not be able to express vocally, they may be able to express on a piece of paper, they may be able to express with watercolor on a canvas, or through the creation of a musical piece,” says Hawkins, who works on the program with the Ottawa-Carleton Association for Persons with Developmental Delay.
Many of the 1000 individuals in the Ottawa-Carleton region that the Association works with have been helped through the use of music and arts, says Debbie Blasutti, co-developer of WAMM. Access to more arts-related programs like WAMM will increase the confidence and self-esteem of individuals with disabilities, says Blasutti, because it helps them learn how to relax, communicate, and develop group skills.
Hawkins knows this firsthand. She grew up surrounded by people with various disabilities.
“My step-father had a mental illness, my brother was born with meningitis and had severe mental and physical disability,” she says. “Around me, two of my three children have a learning disability and I had to help them as best I could.”
She used music, she explains, as a tool to help her children, and to teach herself how to cope.
Hawkins, who works with developmentally challenged individuals during her free time, says the need for this type of service exists in Ottawa. She realized that when working with the Kiwanis Action Club, a group of about 80 individuals with special needs.
“Everybody is aware of the fact that there are disabilities in the room and we’re all accepted as that,” she says. “Face value, that’s not something you get out there in the world. Face value, whoever you are, you are.”
When Hawkins visits the club, she sings, dances and livens up the entire room. The clapping, stamping and ringing voices of the members makes it easy to see why Hawkins is pushing for programs like WAMM.
Douglas Beckett, an individual with special needs, says having music is something many of the participants look forward to.
“It brings all of the major art forms together in one program, and when it’s done that way, it lets people know that there’s something out there for them,” he says.
But the program will only get off the ground once Hawkins drums up enough support from the community, she says.
“Let’s help our own to strive for a measure of achievement in the arts. We have some talented people that deserve to have confidence in themselves.”
Hawkins will perform for WAMM on Nov.7 at the Rainbow Bistro. They hope to raise enough money to get the program going.