Annual Luncheon Program September 30, 2022
We invite you to join our upcoming luncheon program and be inspired by creative artists and first-hand expressions of compassion. Be uplifted by the transformative power art and compassion can bring to our lives and the Houston community.
Read on below to learn about Compassionate Houston’s Artists of the Year awards and the ten artist nominees, and for an introduction to Martin Cominsky and the second part of our luncheon program which he will moderate.
COMPASSIONATE HOUSTON’S “ARTISTS OF THE YEAR”
AWARDS and nominees
As a creative field where exploration of the personal and universal interact, the arts bring great pleasure and meaning to our lives. They can also serve an important societal function when focused on our shared humanity and the empathy enabled through “standing in another’s shoes.” Compassionate Houston believes that the power of compassionate artists has significant implications for our world. Our project’s intent is to quicken compassion’s ripple effects in Houston and beyond by highlighting and promoting artists and their works that help us all empathically identify with people and situations different from our own.
Background…
In August 2021, following showings of our virtual event Compassion Through the Arts, we formed a committee of two of our Board members (Ted Isensee and Pam Lewis, to the right) and three esteemed local compassionate artists from the visual, literary, and musical fields to help further refine our vision of highlighting Houston artists expressing compassion at a high level: Robin Davidson, Kenneth Gayle, and Sneha Bhavsar (from left).
Vision and Nominations…
Meeting for five months, the committee crafted a vision and criteria for nominating qualified compassion-focused artists. Each panelist nominated three or four artists from their own field (visual, literary or musical), and the full committee then carefully reviewed and selected three artists (one from each category) to receive Compassionate Houston’s Artists of the Year awards.
Compassionate Houston’s Artists of the Year, moderated by Kenneth Gale…
The entire field of nominees will be introduced at our annual luncheon on September 30 by acclaimed tenor, Kenneth Gale (learn more about Kenneth here) and three winners will be announced and will receive awards. “Compassion Through the Arts” recognizes the Creative Arts as unique and necessary tools for building compassionate communities and strives to inspire and encourage artistic engagement and creative partnerships that cultivate compassion within the Greater Houston community.
Meet the Artists…
Meet our 10 nominated artists below and learn about their background and upcoming events and presentations.
Visual Arts Nominees
Anne Houang is a photographer and educator whose body of work is committed to celebrating cultural diversity as well as inspiring and empowering Houston area refugee communities.
Kill Joy is a printmaker and muralist whose artistic practice interprets world mythology and ancient symbolism to highlight issues of environmental and social justice.
Matt Manalo is an artist activist whose work draws from multidisciplinary techniques to explore the constructs of colorism and colonial mentality as it relates to the Philippines and US.
Literary Arts Nominees
Ayokunle Falomo is a Nigerian, & American, poet and author of four poetry collections, including the forthcoming AFRICANAMERICAN'T, whose meditative verse celebrates the power of human community.
Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, Houston’s first Black poet laureate and internationally known poet, librettist, memoirist, and author of the poetry collection Newsworthy, focuses on issues of race and social justice.
Jasminne Mendez is a Dominican-American lyric poet, playwright, and author of two hybrid memoirs, several plays and children’s books, and a forthcoming poetry collection, City Without Altar.
Jemma Leech, self-described as a “silent poet with a loud voice,” speaks from the perspective of cerebral palsy, to craft powerful lyric verse celebrating nature and the intimacy of human relationship.
Musical Arts Nominees
Apollo Chamber Players, led by Founder, director and violinist Matthew J. Detrick, is a Houston-based string quartet committed to fostering globally-inspired music for the 21st century, highlighting diverse perspectives contributing to Houston’s cultural richness.
Phillip Hall Singers is a Houston-based vocal ensemble noted for quality performances of multi-genre choral music and bringing audiences diversity, joy and the experience of music as the “great unifier”.
Purple Songs Can Fly is a Houston-based songwriting program located at Texas Children’s Hospital where its skilled staff provide a therapeutic creative outlet for young patients and their families.
First-hand expressions of compassion
Moderated by Martin B. Cominsky
This year's program highlights two ways in which Houston’s Culture of Compassion leads with brave action. We will feature compassionate local artists as shared above and local community leaders and members, all of whose unique, creative, and courageous voices and expressions quicken compassion’s ripple effects in Houston.
Meet Martin B Cominsky
Martin Cominsky is the President and CEO of Interfaith Ministries, and acts as our luncheon moderator for the second part of our program, presenting beautiful stories of local compassion that have only recently been captured.
Named the most admired Nonprofit CEO by the Houston Business Journal in 2018, Martin is proud of his accomplishment of "engaging the Greater Houston community in service to others." (Bizjournal, 2018)
Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston
Martin has been the President and CEO of Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston (IM) since 2015. In addition to being the largest Meals on Wheels provider in Texas, IM fosters youth and community dialogue between and among religions; resettles hundreds of refugees from war-torn countries, and operates Volunteer Houston, which matches people with their passions at local non-profit organizations.
Called to Compassionate Actions
In prior engagements, among others, Martin developed the school-focused No Place for Hate® programs as the Director of the Southwest Region of the Anti-Defamation League; he founded the Serve Houston Youth Corps, a program recruiting high school graduates who serve as tutors and mentors to students in under-resourced schools. In the past, Martin served as the National Director of the Business Volunteers for the Arts program, headquartered in New York City, bringing together the expertise of corporate executives with nonprofit arts organizations.
We are honored Martin accepted our invitation and look forward to his own sharing and uplifting of those whose lives were touched by the power of compassionate actions in our city.
Caring for Others
Houston has a strong history of neighbors helping neighbors during times of crisis. Those positive responses generate friendships that would otherwise never have begun and opportunities that would have been lost.
Choosing to respond to another's suffering, helps us collectively build foundational pillars that support the city and the compassionate culture we want to be a part of.
Refugees Welcome
Houston is recognized for its diversity and excellence in many areas. This includes the arts and our capacity to serve the greatest number of refugees from across the world.
Hear stories of radical transformation, following the experiences of newly settled refugees, as well as refugees who came over a decade earlier. They will share what really made a difference in their new lives in Houston.
We will also present the stories of compassionate responders in the moment, as well as volunteers who stepped forward to contribute with organized non-profit and faith-based efforts.
Be uplifted by the presented stories that will illustrate the unexpected, personal meaning and purpose experienced from these actions and the hope and transformation they bring to all involved.
Invite your friends, family, and acquaintances to join you at your table and share in this new, inspiring presentation about compassion at work in our great city of Houston.
Compassion is a verb
As Zen Master, poet, and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh, put it, Compassion is a Verb and is a fundamental starting point in building and sustaining our Houston community, due to its transformative power.
When we are compassionate, we choose to respond to the suffering we see others are experiencing.
In those moments, we set free a beautiful chain reaction that brings hope to challenging life circumstances and shows love for others.
“COMPASSION IS A VERB”