Outside The Spotlight
In this series, performing artists open up about their mental health journeys and how those journeys impact and foster their art. They also share tips and tricks they’ve learned along the way. Each episode features two artists in conversation from various artistic disciplines including music, poetry and comedy. The discussions are 100% unfiltered and led by the artists, so each episode takes on a life of its own—focusing in on whichever topics the artists feel are best suited to their conversation. At various points throughout these discussions, the artists take breaks from chatting to perform (songs, poems or comedy bits), giving us a taste of what they’re accustomed to sharing in the spotlight amidst the discussion of their lives outside of it. This series deals with difficult subject matter that may not be suitable for all listeners. Listener discretion is advised.
Outside The Spotlight
Episode 6: Sydney Wright & Traci Foster
Traci and Sydney talk about becoming aware of mental health issues as adults, generational and community conversations relating to mental health, regulating and understanding emotions, complex PTSD, anxiety, eating disorders, depression, working in mental health, somatic experiencing, grounding, medication intolerance, the importance of acknowledging and understanding physiological dysregulation, positives that come out of the difficult journey, self-compassion, speaking through metaphor and accessible language, giving yourself permission to rest, working with your nervous system or against it, “othered culture”, interdependence, learning about yourself through relationships, hope, disassociation, using alcohol and drugs for fun vs to escape, family, the legalization of cannabis, and looking for love.
Interspersed throughout the discussion are a few performances of original works by these artists, with poetry from Traci and music from Sydney.
Content/Trigger Warnings include language, eating disorders, suicide, death/grief, car accident resulting in serious injury, disassociation, sexual violence, substance use/abuse, alcoholism and domestic violence.