Cactus Cafe

Re-imagining Museums for Healing

Join KUT’s Rebecca McInroy along with Annette Juba from AGE of Central Texas, Dr. Valerie Rosen, and Ray Williams and Monique O’Neil from The Blanton Museum to talk about how the Blanton is partnering with schools, hospitals, and other organizations to create groundbreaking programs that help patients, families, and caregivers navigate social, reparative experiences.

Monique Piñon O’Neil
Museum Educator, Family, and Community Programs O’Neil is an artist and educator with a master’s degree in clinical art therapy. At the Blanton, Monique’s work focuses on encouraging intergenerational dialogue and shared studio projects. She develops collaborations with a diverse array of community-based organizations, ensuring access to museum resources across the social-economic spectrum. These collaborations include focused, ongoing work with groups including homeless artists, at-risk youth, veterans, aging adults, and Hispanic families.

Annette Gracy Juba, LCSW
Juba is a native Austinite and clinical social worker received a Master of Science degree in Social Work from the University of Texas. She has worked with older adults since 1986, when she took a part-time job in a nursing home, only, she thought, until she “found something better.” In 30+ years of searching, she has facilitated caregiver support groups; worked with dementia respite programs; co-directed a cognitive intervention program for people with early memory loss; and presented about aging, social work, and memory loss at the local, state, and national level. She is a past co-chair of the Aging Services Council. She currently serves on the advisory panel for the Center for Excellence in Aging Services and Long Term Care at the UT School of Nursing and as Vice-Chair of the OneStar National Service Commission. Since 2010, Annette has worked as the Deputy Director for AGE of Central Texas, where she oversees the agency’s six programs of direct service.

Dr. Valerie Rosen
Dr. Rosen received her undergraduate degrees in Business Administration and Psychology from U.T. Austin. She received her medical degree from The University of Texas Medical School at Houston and completed a Psychiatry Residency at Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Rosen held a Clinical Assistant Professorship at Yale and worked as an attending psychiatrist at Yale University Health Services for ten years. She came back home to Texas and joined Seton in 2013. Her predominant area of expertise is PTSD and trauma; she is a Regional Trainer for Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), an evidence-based treatment for PTSD. For the past 15 years, she has trained and supervised staff and residents in CPT. She also specializes in psychotherapy and medication management for college, graduate, and professional school students and is actively engaged in ways to improve treatment and access to psychiatric care for veterans and active military and in educating providers in military culture. In her role as Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UT Dell-Seton, she enjoys teaching and supervising residents and medical students, sees patients for psychotherapy and medication management, is involved in clinical research, and is the developer and Medical Director for the Restore and Veteran Restore Programs, intensive outpatient programs for trauma that utilize CPT as their core modality.

Ray Williams, MA, EdM
Williams has been the Director of Education and Academic Affairs at the Blanton Museum of Art, the University of Texas at Austin since 2012. For more than a decade, much of his teaching in museums has been designed to meet the needs of health care professionals. For UT’s new Dell Medical School, Ray provides three workshops for first-year medical students designed to build skills in observation, empathic communication, and resilience. He also works with residents, attendings and nurses in Family Medicine, Women’s Health, Psychiatry, and Palliative Care. During his four years at the Harvard Art Museums, Ray worked with interprofessional teams from Brigham and Women’s Hospital on a regular basis, as well as young adults with cancer through a program at Dana Farber Cancer Center. He has a particular interest in palliative care and mindfulness practices, developed through work with hospice professionals and chaplains. For the past two years, in partnership with psychiatrist Dr. Valerie Rosen who leads an intensive out-patient program for trauma survivors, Ray has designed museum experiences that support skills being learned in cognitive process/behavioral therapy.

The Past, Present, and Future of The Humanities

We kicked off a brand new season of Views and Brews at The Cactus Cafe with a discussion about“The Past, Present, and Future of the Humanities.”

Listen back as KUT’s Rebecca McInroy along with guest host Dr. David Kornhaber, and an expert panel including Dennis Ahlburg, Helene Meyers, Amelia Pace-Borah, and Paul Woodruff, explore the roots of how this field of study ended up in higher-ed, and why it’s important to ensure it’s robust health today.

Jazz and The Art of Place Part II

How did jazz develop in America? What is signified by region, and how does the local dialect of music both inform and stereotype meaning? We will trace the tribalization of America as we explore West and East coast jazz — and discover musical roots from New Orleans to Kansas City, Chicago, and beyond. We will feature the music of Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Stan Getz, Charles Mingus, and others.

In this plurality of styles, we will discover common community, and see how jazz can help us draw closer together — especially in trying times.

Listen back to Views and Brews recorded live at the historic Cactus Cafe in Austin, Texas as we present an evening of music and conversation. Sponsored by KUT radio, Rabbi and Jazz Historian Neil Blumofe in conversation with Rebecca McInroy. Featuring: David Young, trumpet, Michael Malone, saxophone, Andre Hayward, trombone; Red Young, piano; Roscoe Beck, bass; and Scott Laningham, drums.

Jazz and The Art of Place Part I

How did jazz develop in America? What is signified by region, and how does the local dialect of music both inform and stereotype meaning? We will trace the tribalization of America as we explore West and East coast jazz — and discover musical roots from New Orleans to Kansas City, Chicago, and beyond. We will feature the music of Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Stan Getz, Charles Mingus, and others.

In this plurality of styles, we will discover common community, and see how jazz can help us draw closer together — especially in trying times.

Listen back to Views and Brews recorded live at the historic Cactus Cafe in Austin, Texas as we present an evening of music and conversation. Sponsored by KUT radio, Rabbi and Jazz Historian Neil Blumofe in conversation with Rebecca McInroy. Featuring: David Young, trumpet, Michael Malone, saxophone, Andre Hayward, trombone; Red Young, piano; Roscoe Beck, bass; and Scott Laningham, drums.

V&B: Sonny Rollins and The Art of Power (Part I)

Rabbi and Jazz Historian Neil Blumofe in conversation with Rebecca McInroy. Musical guests include Alex Coke, saxophone; Derrick Becker, trumpet; Sean Giddings, piano; Roscoe Beck, bass; Brannen Temple, drums.

How do we respond to uncertainty and a time of anxiety? By steeping ourselves in Rollins’ confidence and steadfastness, we bear witness to the commanding power of presence. Rollins remains a persuasive poet – as a saxophonist, improviser, and as an innovating voice, he possesses a sense of adventure in exploration and intention. He tells a compelling story of the jazz ancestors, inviting us to join with him, and we step resolutely forward together as we determine the next chapters to be written.

V&B: Coleman Hawkins and The Art of Failure

Coleman Hawkins, the great saxophone player, helped to establish jazz as a stand alone art form, distinguished from swing — the popular music of the day. With his originality, lyricism, and his keen sense of appreciating the latest trends, his work was the influence and foundation for bebop and the most expressive jazz ballads. And yet, what is the dearest price given for the artist who expresses his art?

Join Rabbi Neil Blumofe and KUT’s Rebecca McInroy for conversation and superlative live music recorded live at the Cactus Cafe in Austin, Texas. It was an evening dedicated to discovering jazz and appreciating the beauty of this incredible and accessible American art form.

Featuring:

Shelly Carrol, saxophone

Ephraim Owens, trumpet

Red Young, piano

Roscoe Beck, bass

Brannen Temple, drums