My insatiable appetite for implementing Art therapy based interventions for traumatized children and families, coupled with my innate love for music and creativity led me to record and release the music of You and Us.
As a part of our series about stars who are making an important social impact, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nicole Porter.
Nicole Porter is an artist, songwriter, producer, and Art therapist. She directed child therapy immediately following the Sandy Hook Massacre in Newtown, CT, currently leads the mental health organization, the Emerald Sketch, to mobilize trauma response programs globally, and is the elected President of the New York Art therapy Association. Porter now produces and performs as the virtual band, You and Us, creating healing arts music for families. The first album, For Children of All Ages, debuts on Valentine’s Day 2022 as a love letter to the planet for pandemic response and mental wellness.
Thank you so much for joining us on this interview series. Can you share with us the backstory that led you to this career path?
During my graduate studies, it became abundantly clear to me that our American impoverished children are and always have been suffering great injustices. Early childhood trauma response is a specialization I chose at a very young age, as I see the crippling need for greater equality, resources, and most importantly, healing. Art therapy provides a scientific mechanism for change that supersedes most forms of processing pain.
As early as 2005, I can remember innovating the chant song “hands up high, tickle the sky” to capture the attention of the 2–5 year olds when I worked in the Therapeutic Nursery at the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center in Philadelphia, PA. It is in my blood to “Niki Poppins” this unconditional love and freedom, to heal into every nook and cranny of this nation.
I have always been an artist and a musician. Song writing has always been a natural response for me when experiencing my own intense emotions. The music of my new band, You and Us, is a logical evolution in my life projection.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your career? What was the lesson or takeaway you took out of that story?
A moment of laughter and tears, late June of 2019 — my first play/musical solo performance “An American Nightmare” was accepted into the NYC Summerfest performing downtown at the Hudson Guild Theater. After months of preparation, the competition began and it dawned on me I had no plans for recording the performance.
A dear friend, Nick Cordero, had been cheering me on every step of the way with this play. He was there years earlier urging me to perform the work, as I had already recorded the music. For those who know Nick, or have read about him, he was an earth angel. When he heard the news that I hadn’t thought about filming my performance, he immediately volunteered to help. At the time, not only was he a brand new Dad and a working Broadway star, he jetted downtown between his own rehearsal and performance to help me film.
Everything being so fast paced, there was no time upon his arrival. I had bought a brand new sweet little camera, gave Nick a quick tutorial and suddenly — out of nowhere — there was a quick scream and a crash! As Nick balanced the camera for a steady angle, the camera fell and hit the floor! The small team took a breath of shock. Then we made eye contact and roared with laughter, it may even be on the recording. In the end, we did record the show, the camera still works brilliantly, and has a happy silver ding to remind me of how the best of friends help create and elevate more meaningful experiences.
One year later on July 5, 2020 Nick very tragically died due to complications from COVID-19. In the most playful and sensible ways this story and friendship reinforce for me to work collectively, always go, always strive for the best, and always have the most fun in the making.
What would you advise a young person who wants to emulate your success?
Be MAD. Study to master a Musical instrument, a visual Art form, and a form of Dance/Movement. Discover yourself creatively. Set your goals clearly, digest them, know them, and you will become them. Take innovative action to achieve your plans, sharing your curiosities and ideas as you go.
Is there a person that made a profound impact on your life? Can you share a story?
Linda Chapman, Art therapy legacy, author of Neurobiologically Informed Trauma Therapy, met with me weekly on the telephone for well over one year, volunteering her time to supervise my clinical work in Newtown, CT. It is among the most greatly appreciated gifts of my life.
How are you using your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share with us the meaningful or exciting causes you’re working on right now?
You and Us, the virtual band, is my latest production! The debut album For Children of All Ages releases on Valentine’s Day — this is a weapon of mass healing to be sprinkled liberally across the globe! Directing mass trauma response for the past nine years has been challenging to say the least, and to pivot for vignettes of time into my own stratosphere where I can apply the Art therapy sequences as Healing Arts music is sublime!
Events with You and Us will be offered throughout 2022 in celebration of the album release and the brilliant science supporting the Healing Arts! Each event interweaves the song sequences with Healing Arts tasks for children of all ages!
Can you share with us a story behind why you chose to take up this particular cause?
My insatiable appetite for implementing Art therapy based interventions for traumatized children and families, coupled with my innate love for music and creativity led me to record and release the music of You and Us.
When the pandemic started in 2020, I was suddenly home with my partner and three year old. I utilize song and story readily in our home, as well as inside my art therapy practice, especially for very young children. As the pandemic worsened, and prolonged, I became more and more immersed in my own drive to produce and create virtual tools (a magical music album) that could bring the healing arts experience directly into homes, hospitals, classrooms, and crisis centers.
Can you share with us a story about a person who was impacted by your cause?
At the beginning of this horrid pandemic, my mental health organization, the Emerald Sketch, launched a local upstate New York Black Children Matter movement and the impact has been tremendous. Through multiple obstacles to implement high quality services during this pandemic, the art therapy programming surpassed my own expectations when four of the children involved were able to safely participate in the recording of the music album. The expressions of gratitude from the parents whose young girls sing with me on this album are impossible to capture in description. The children involved in the Emerald Sketch programming truly know how to dialogue with their own imagery and make change within themselves.
I am very fortunate, as I continue to hear from parents weekly throughout this pandemic who are implementing the mental fitness strategies and healing arts practices that I’ve shared, to sustain themselves and their children.
Are there three things or are there things that individuals, society, or the government can do to support you in this effort?
Purchase You and Us’s debut album For Children of All Ages! Select singles are currently available on all streaming platforms and the full album will be available on February 14, 2022 — follow and share the movement! Play the songs and integrate them into your own family, educational, or clinical routines. I’ll be hosting live virtual You and Us events this Spring.
The mental fitness app, Roxygen app, is another wellness tool that I created for adults and adolescents to create a new vision of themselves through a creative arts therapy lens; it’s for pandemic parents, health care workers, COVID survivors — you name the person in need of support. More savvy and self-indulgent, Roxygen gives users full access to a growing portfolio of fabulous Healing Arts exercises by me with music/video by You and Us co-creator Wyndham Garnett!
People can contribute to the Emerald Sketch GoFundMe — our current efforts include distributing KN95 masks to young children attending public schools during the ongoing pandemic, as well as Emerald Sketch Art therapy Kits for qualifying children isolated at home.
I would love federal funding to open a safe house in New York for migrant, or pandemic orphaned children ages 0–3. I envision the first Emerald Sketch Safe House existing as a Healing Arts Neurobiology research center for education and excellent outcomes where children arrive at the earliest age and thrive into young adulthood.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started”
I have three:
No written knowledge prepares you for experience.
No product has universal appeal.
After recording the songs, they must also be mixed and mastered.
You’re a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
The music I am co-producing is a weapon of mass healing.
I want to take You and Us to the next level and co-produce music videos with the virtual characters geared for children to relate directly to. Artist and veteran Emerald Sketch Art therapy trauma responder Javere Irie illustrates You and Us as very young musicians composed of an American medley — Nona Me on lead vocals/keys, Sanka on guitar/vocals, Sinia on Drums, Chepi on bass, and Shysie on percussion.
The music of You and Us is meant to captivate and inspire children of all ages to imagine and illustrate wondrous creations like a personal Super Healer character or a Roxstar to represent themselves. If your Super Healer or Roxstar sketch wanted to join You and Us how would your character collaborate? What would your player love doing?
A new children’s series is ready to hatch, reinventing Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood mixed together with a hint of Mary Poppins and a modern Healing Arts twist, to help families and children directly cope with stress amidst this pandemic. You and Us is Now Here! The therapeutic sequences are defined, the music is written, the creativity is flowing, and the healing arts are happening!
Can you please give us your favorite life lesson quote? And can you explain how that was relevant in your life?
“Think globally, act locally”. I was a Red Cross volunteer as young as 12 or 13 years old, practicing this phrase without fully understanding its significance. Years later, I attended Guilford College, an eccentric liberal arts school in Greensboro, NC. This phrase is embedded in the ethos of all the alumni who attend. For instance, when studying the Underground Railroad on campus we all had to take on the roles of different historic characters, and reenact movement through the woods, locating original underground tunnels. This type of tenacity and drive within education opened my eyes to the importance and translation of American history and how to have an impact on pioneering experiential learning and outreach. I reveled in the reality of how small acts for one person have vast ripple effects beyond what we tangibly see. The civilians who helped African Americans escape slavery one by one resonates with the reality of helping families recover from disruptive trauma one by one. That is what having a real impact takes.
When called upon to respond in Newtown, CT, I felt it was my ethical obligation, as a New York neighbor. Since the original response effort, my organization, the Emerald Sketch, has continued to assist mobilization and inspire Art therapy for countless families across the globe. Now I create music locally, and play for the globe virtually.
We are blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Ooh fun question, first response — Kate Middleton, she has always had her finger on the pulse of art therapy and early childhood, plus I would love to have a huge splash in England!
If I may cash in two more for the “things I wish someone had told me” I missed in a previous question…
I want to spotlight Lady Gaga for her own deep understanding and process advocating for the arts and healing. Plus she recently debuted the Cole Porter tribute album “Love for Sale” with Tony Bennett- It’s the Top!
Final shooting star is for Johnson & Johnson to have a listen to the Ouch a Boo Boo chant and call me for a wellness campaign! You and Us has the rest of the song ready!
Thank you so much for these amazing insights. This was so inspiring, and we wish you continued success!
Stars Making a Social Impact: Why & How Nicole Porter of You and Us Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.