Milwaukee VA Medical Center

Veterans perform during the talent portion of the 2012 Creative Arts Festival at the Milwaukee VA. There will be talent portions at 2 and 6:30 p.m. at this year's Feb. 25 event.

Ever sing in the shower or the car?

It feels good, regardless of how in-tune you are. For many, music is a release of stress which is one reason why it is so popular among people with something they’ve kept bottled up; in this case we’re talking about veterans.

If you’re a veteran enrolled for care at the Milwaukee VA, we want you to participate in the National Creative Arts Festival. Veterans can compete in art or talent. The talent showcase takes place at 2 and 6:30 p.m. Feb. 25. Deadline to enter is Feb. 19.

Talent events include creative writing, dance, drama and music. Because this is a program for all enrolled veterans, the level of care you receive at the VA doesn’t matter. As long as you are signed up for care, you are encouraged to participate.

There is also an art only portion of the National Creative Arts Festival. For more information on that, click here.

Shep Crumrine, a music therapist at the VA, has noticed that a veteran’s performance closely matches where the individual is in their recovery.

“It’s interesting how artistic behavior parallels what they’re doing in other parts of their life,” he said. “When people use music, that is, they’re involved and practicing, you know their life is going well. If the music is always the same, their recovery may be stuck in a rut.”

Recreation therapy hopes to ease veterans out of that rut and help them continue their path to recovery, and Crumrine said the talent portion of the Creative Arts Festival is a great way to do it. This event is open to all enrolled veterans.

The top three winners from that evening will have a chance to compete again in June for the national first place ribbon. This year, winners will be invited to celebrate in Reno, Nev., but next year Milwaukee will host this huge annual event.

“It’s a great showcase for how vets use creative arts therapy as part of their treatment but also ongoing health and wellness,” Crumrine said. “Over a thousand people are served by music therapy on a daily basis and those onstage represent all of them who use it for all the same tear-jerking, inspiring, moving reasons.”

Once a veteran has expressed an interest in competing, Crumrine encourages participation in the VA’s Thursday night open jam as a practice. While he is happy to give them pointers, he leaves their performance up to them.

“If I tell them what to do as a teacher, then they’re doing it for me but if I help them as a therapist I allow them to bring forth their own initiative,” he said. “The initiative needs to come from them.”

That initiative has brought many people to tears.

“Creative writing almost always means coming to terms with something or stirring patriotism,” Crumrine said. “It’s very powerful.”

This was the case when a former participant sang, “Make Them Hear You,” from the Broadway musical, “Ragtime.”

“It is a show specific song but when he sang it, it was just so moving,” Crumrine said.
Part of the draw to performance art is how easily you can lose yourself in just that moment.
“It incorporates mindfulness. It’s about right now only,” Crumrine said.

Through this therapeutic practice many veterans have dealt with issues they otherwise do not want to vocalize but Crumrine has one word of advice to all performers.

“You can’t fool music,” he said. “If you don’t practice, you’re not going anywhere.”

For more information or to sign up, call Crumrine at 414-384-2000, ext. 42433.