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Every year the Brooklyn Working Artists Coalition (BWAC) fills the Beard Street pier in Red Hook with the work of local artists. Every year more and more sell. The exhibit this year was the 11th. Every year BWAC reaches out to an underserved part of the community to see what they can do as artists. This year people living with mental illness were invited to show their stuff.

Thanks to the Creative Arts Therapy Committee of the Brooklyn Mental Health Council, consumers displayed their work from May 10 through June 14.

On June 14th, 2003, from 12-6 PM, the committee organized Creative Arts Therapy Day at the festival, filled with music, dance, and drama. On June 14th, Barbara Bornmann, the Creative Arts Therapy Festival chairperson, and Peter Jampel, Chairperson of the Creative Arts Therapy Committee, presented the third Sonia Brodsky Memorial Award to Audrey Frank Anastasi, President of BWAC, and Elliot Miller, the deceased art therapist at the O'Brien Center in Red Hook. Said Barbara Bornmann, "It is with great pride and special thanks to the board members of BWAC that our consumers take a step into the larger community of Brooklyn artists."

Peter Jampel moderated a panel discussion. Consumers testified about what creative arts therapy means to them. They ranged from women who gained strength from singing to men who grew sensitive on poetry and prose.

The artists led a walking tour of their work. Among those who participated were Kevin Cooper from Far Rockaway, who attends the Interfaith Hospital MICA program; Lloyd Atwell, also at Interfaith; Shiheim Jones; Chesiel John from East Flatbush; Fontini Frangion from Cobble Hill; George Peets, who attends the Baltic Street clinic; Margaret Pacheco; Abedotun Adegboyega; Lenwood Artis; Marilyn Hamer; and Vladimir Rozenfeld.

Kevin Cooper's works were a mix of reality and fantasy. On the one hand, he used a postcard of the World Trade Centers as his model; on the other hand, he painted a tree filled with eyes instead of flowers. With or without the WTC, he managed to turn the world inside out. "I took something still and brought it to life." Every stroke is moving.

Lloyd Atwell has been drawing since he was a kid. It seems like a matter of time before he would do a pastel of Harriet Tubman. Then he saw a picture of people dancing in the paper and he came up with his own lively version. Said Lloyd, "I just felt like dancing that day."

Shiheim Jones more or less grew up with Spiderman so it's natural he would try his best at Spidey. He said, "I like to draw anything that has to do with the city. It takes my mind off the negative things. I drew this out of my head." He has his own characters and he would like to make them into a movie.

Chesiel John combined graffiti-like slogans with pen and ink drawings to create a visual commentary of New York street life. In one painting, a huckster yields the American flag as if he were a many-headed monster. According to Chesiel, in "Coverup," an anorexic young woman "is hiding but she can't hide. How far will you go for your mother? I am beautiful, layers like Ocean, dive in, have fun, move on. You never know what people can do. Art is an expression of recovery."

Fontini Frangiou believes in beauty and hope. She said, "There is a God. Since I'm little, I express the violence of the world through portraits. They are full of pain and intense fears." Her "Jewish woman" bears the sadness of the past and the present. She knows more than we care to remember.

George Peets is an artist and a musician. Said George, "I have the best of both worlds. When you can express yourself and inspire others to do better. There's something inside of me. We all have that spark." And you can see it in the eye of his "One-Eyed Indian."

Then participants at the celebration were offered an introduction to dance, drama, and music therapies. The dancers set waves of cloth material in motion. The actors told a story about a great flood that hit the piers because people were evil. The musicians busted out of Baltic Street with some mean blues singers. Judging from the enthusiasm of the crowds and the number of consumers' paintings sold, people in Brooklyn find all art therapeutic.