Mixing it Up

I’m on the radio! While those words remind me of Donna Summer, whom I adore, my all time favorite late 70’s disco-era supergroup was the BeeGees. My parent’s wouldn’t let middle-school me see “Saturday Night Fever”, a rated “R” movie, but that didn’t stop me from loving those falsetto voices and three part harmonies.

I also love KALW, my local public radio station, the oldest FM signal west of the Mississippi River. KALW broadcasts an excellent mix of news, music, local features, and international programming. I’ve been a longtime listener, and I’m especially fond of their feature My Mixtape.  This audio program is deeply personal, and includes activists, artists, dancers, organizers, authors, community members, etc. talking about their favorite songs.

I’m tickled by the recent My Mixtape with 80’s icon and Prince protégée Sheila E. sharing the song “Saviour” by multi-instrumentalist and musical genius Jacob Collier. I wasn’t familiar with his creative projects, and I’m delighted to learn about this stellar track from from a woman who wows me with her mad Latin percussion. My friend Maw Shein Win, whose poetry is the epitome of craft, contributed her favorite Ramones tune to My Mixtape, the surf-rock-meets-bubblegum-pop song “Sheena is a Punk Rocker”.

I’m so happy to have my very own junior high school favorite included at KALW. I have the loveliest chromesthetic experiences with “How Deep is Your Love?” by the BeeGees. This song was a radio favorite when I was in 7th grade, and it stayed at the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 for 10 weeks. At 13, I didn’t know what to call my visual experiences of the sounds I heard, but my recollections of the vivid azure of the Gibb brothers is still with me.  You can find My Mixtape here.

Carolyn CC Hart

I'm a neurodiversity advocate, an artist, an author, and a licensed massage therapist. My senses are intertwined via synaesthesia, a neurocognitive difference, which informs my writing, my visual art, my costume design, and my long career in manual therapy. I am continuing to learn how my divergent brain creates both opportunities and obstacles, and I support the argument that neurodiverse traits are not necessarily pathologies, but represent part of the spectrum of human somatosensory, intellectual, and cognitive experience. I support Judy Singer's theories of neurodiversity which include the concept that just as conserving biodiversity is necessary for a sustainable, flourishing planet, so respecting neurodiversity is necessary for a sustainable, flourishing human society. I am a founding member of the International Association of Synaesthetes, Artists, and Scientists, where I serve as the IASAS secretary. I've practiced therapeutic massage for more than 30 years, and feel that my sensory sensitivities have helped me thrive in my hands-on career.

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