TESTIMONY

Prof. Alisa Solomon | Director, Arts & Culture MA

Graduate School of Journalism | Columbia University - Pulitzer Hall | 2950 Broadway New York, NY 10027

(212) 854-1996 | as646@columbia.edu

It hadn’t been long since my partner and I had seen – and admired – RUFF when I overheard her on the phone with a friend of ours, sounding a little strange. We had spoken to the friend earlier about catching a movie together that evening, one that my partner was keen to see, and now the friend was calling to arrange our plan for meeting up. “I never heard of that movie,” I heard my partner say, though we had discussed it only a few hours before. And then, in place of her usual rational, down-to-business way of talking on the phone, she began to lose her bearings. “I don’t know about that,” I heard her say more than once,  confused. Then, something like, “I know don’t that about.” 

Thanks to  RUFF,  I knew what to do and I knew I had to do it  F-A-S-T. I followed the instructions Peggy Shaw had so charmingly conveyed in her hokey-pokey version of a Public Service Announcement. I practically heard the snapping drumbeat and thrumming electric guitar that had accompanied Peggy as I went through the  steps she had musically explained, checking Face, Arms, and Speech, and in good Time.

I asked my partner to hang up the phone and to smile. No drooping mouth. Whew. And to hold out her hands, palms up. No uneven sagging. But her speech was slurred and she wasn’t making sense. “Who’s the president?” I asked. Her eyes widened as she realized she couldn’t find the words. “Oh. Um. Uh. Argh. I can picture him. Um,  um,” she said. 

“Come on", I replied. "We’re going to the hospital.” “No, I don’t want to,” she answered. “Ask me another.”

“Who’s the prime minister of Israel?” Since she has been deeply involved in Israel-Palestine activism, I figured she had to get that one right.

“You know. You know. Um, um. Whatshisname. That bad guy.” “That could be any of them", I said. "We’re going.”

When we arrived at the ER, the clerk asked her why she had come and she turned to me, unable to summon any language to answer the question. When I described what had happened, they took her in right away to test for a full-on stroke. Luckily, it turned out she had suffered a TIA – temporary ischemic attack – not an ischemic infarction, like Peggy, and she was back to normal in a matter of hours. But we had absolutely done the right thing to hurry to an emergency room.

For more than 35 years, the work of Split Britches has enriched my life in ways that can’t quite be catalogued or measured. On this occasion,  Ruff – in addition to providing a highly entertaining, emotionally profound, and aesthetically rewarding experience – handed me some practical information that I needed in a crisis.

TESTIMONY

Testimonials from Coordinators of Green Screening Workshops

Stockport, UK Coordinator: 

"Totally amazing  and  awe inspiring."
"I have never seen the whole group so actively engaged.  The session reached all group members at a level they could participate in."

Liverpool, UK Coordinator:

"The Green Screen was a first in digital activity  and they have never done something like this before."
"They really enjoyed the aspect of being screenshot  into experiences they would never have the opportunity to try out eg, pop star."
"They spoke to other members of the group after the session  and have made a collage of themselves from the pictures which they shared with the other members.”

TESTIMONY

Testimony from Chris Larkin, Director of Stroke Support England

“Stroke survivors found the opportunity to utilise creativity within a group setting invaluable in a number of ways. People were able to forget their challenges & disabilities for a couple of hours; they had fun, remembered happy times, shared experiences, but also challenged themselves without realising. People have often spoken since about what a privilege it was to learn more about a creative process such as Green Screening, whilst also feeling the personal benefits of doing so. ”