Mike Turner: Giving Voice to Truth

Politics, to me, has nothing to do with Republicans and Democrats, and the left and the right –all these labels that we want to apply to people we don’t agree with us. I wanna focus on what we DO agree about; I want to build off that consensus about what we can do about this particular social issue.

Take one part blues, one part folk, one part country. Add a dash of Southern gospel, rock and jazz. Season with world-weary experience. You’ll have a taste of Mike Turner’s eclectic original music.

Raised outside Detroit in a family steeped in the traditional mountain music of West Virginia, Mike grew up listening to the diverse sounds of gospel quartets, classic country and Motown. A 30-year career in law enforcement gave him a perspective few encounter – a world populated with smugglers, gun runners and folks on the wrong side of the tracks, and the law.

In retirement, Mike picked up the ukulele and tenor guitar, wrote his first song and hasn’t looked back. He was named 2016 Traditional Gospel Entertainer of the Year by the Alabama Music Association, and 2017 New Gospel Entertainer of the Year by the North American Country Music Associations International (NACMAI). His recordings have played on Internet and terrestrial radio in the US, the UK, Europe, New Zealand and on the US Armed Forces Radio Network.

Mike directed and was a featured performer in the Alabama Bicentennial program, “200 Years of Alabama’s Music,” in 2019; and was showcased on the “15 Minutes of Fame Stage” at the 2020 Monroeville (AL) Literary Festival.

Mike handles A&R and public relations for Music For World Peace Records; and manages its subsidiary label, Blue Uke Records.

Mike makes his home on the US Gulf Coast, where, when not writing and performing, he sails an historic schooner.

Website: Mike Turner (miketurnersongwriter.com)

Facebook:: www.facebook.com/MikeTurnerSongwriter    

YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/MikeTurnerSongwriter                                  

Email:  SailorUke@aol.com

Re-Defining the Teaching Artist: the Marriage of Pedagogy and Artistry

 

What does it mean to be a practicing artist?  

I started as a teaching artist in the spring of 2001.  I didn’t even know what a Teaching Artist really was. I was sometimes referred to as a Workshop Leader, a Visiting Artist, an Artist Educator or a Teaching Artist and I often wondered – what did all these things mean? Was it just semantics?

Are there really necessary skills to support the work that I do? Is it really a practice?

I was in grad school and still learning.

Often I have prospective graduate students come to the City College Educational Theatre program, not really knowing what a Teaching Artist is.  I speak to emerging practitioners in the field who have no idea how to develop a career, artists who did not seem to reach their desired level of success in their artistry and think that being a Teaching Artist will buy them some time until the big break. How hard could it be? My need for a definition emerged. Read more

Sobha Kavanakudiyil is Faculty in the Graduate Program in Educational Theatre at The City College of New as well as an Arts Education Consultant. She is currently on the Board of Directors for the New York City Arts in Education Roundtable and a Co-Chair for their Teaching Artist Affairs Committee.