♪♪ Hello, my name is Lanisha, and this is how art changed me.

Art artist changed my life by improving my overall quality of life.

It has saved me many, many times when I didn't know where to go, couldn't look up, couldn't pick myself up, didn't have anybody.

But I always had art.

I'm originally from Louisville, Kentucky.

I went to a performing arts school when I was in high school.

I majored in theater.

And I joined the military on my 18th birthday, 1996.

I initially signed up for eight years.

However, when 9/11 happened, it was almost close to my contract ending.

But the military said, "Oh, no, we're going to keep you a little longer."

So I actually ended up doing ten years.

I drove trucks.

I drove fuel trucks.

Every day I thought I was going to die.

And I still have nightmares about it, but I try not to think about it too much.

I've been home for a while now, but it still bothers me.

Came home and I was just... something was missing.

I just wasn't fulfilled.

I didn't know what I wanted to do next.

I had graduated college, I did ten years in the military by this time, but I still felt empty, like something was missing.

So, I went back to what I knew best.

So, at the beginning of 2017, I found a manager, I found an agent, but I still didn't have a plan at this point, didn't have anywhere to go, and I was like, You know what?

No, no, no.

God didn't bring me this far to just quit and just leave New York: I'm staying.

So, I was homeless, and I ended up living in my car.

I was still going on my auditions.

You would never known I was homeless unless I told you.

I would get a hotel room when I could afford it.

And when I couldn't afford it, I was back in my car.

Then I found a shelter at one of the VA hospitals out in Long Island.

When I was in the shelter, I saw a, uh -- I saw a flyer on one of the bulletin boards, and it was for a class at the Public Theater for their public works program.

The group with them was called MRF -- Military Resilience Foundation -- and I was like, I'm going.

They were so inviting and so welcoming.

They said, Come on.

And I've been part of the community since 2018.

And then this year, this year was amazing.

My first time ever doing theater in New York, in the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

Oh, my God -- and Shakespeare.

Never in my life would I thought I'd be doing Shakespeare, could never understand it!

It still gives me chills.

I often laugh when I tell this story because as a child, when you're sick, your family always tell you, "Here, drink some ginger ale, or eat some chicken noodle soup and you'll feel better."

And I promise you, that was like the cure for everything when you were growing up as a kid.

But as an adult, my ginger ale and my chicken noodle soup was being on that stage or being in front of that camera.

Art is... is healing.

I never knew that growing up.

I think going through that traumatic experience of being at war and then coming home and just feeling like something had been taken from me and I didn't know what to do, and then finding my love again, i-it changed me.

It has definitely changed my life.

I feel free.

I feel...exhilarated.

I feel powerful.

It's such a... an integral part of my life, and I couldn't see myself doing anything else in this world.

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