(upbeat music) - Hi everyone, I'm Steve Adubato.

Recently my colleague Jacqui Tricarico and I traveled with our team to do a series of interviews down at the 2024 New Jersey Education Association Convention Annual convention.

We talked to educators, educational administrators, authors, poets, people engaged in a whole range of activities, impacting our kids, impacting our schools in the world of education.

Here now are those conversations.

Jacqui, myself and some really interesting people in AC.

- Hi, I am Jacqui Tricarico, Senior Correspondent for One-on-One here at the NJEA Convention in Atlantic City.

And so pleased to be joined now by Todd Henkin, who is a musician and innovator of Creative Health and collaborative songwriting.

So great to have you with us, Todd.

- Yeah, thank you for having me Jacqui.

- So you are part of something this year called The Point.

I see it over there, it's a brand new area at the convention this year.

Describe for us what The Point is.

- The Point is a place where people can go and then write their own song, primarily.

Also make music, dance, connect to their body, connect to their purpose.

You know The Point, the idea is sort of this dual meaning of kind of where did you start, where did you get your inspiration, connect back to that, and then bring that to where you are now.

You know, there's a lot of burnout with teachers.

How do we connect to our place of inspiration and joy and why you're an educator and bring that forward?

So how to make a song of that, could be a short song, it could be just a chorus.

How do you take that and bring it with you every day?

And people have been coming by and writing with us, dancing with us, recording, we have a recording booth, and then we are taking those songs and we're doing an experiment, which last night we got together and we took pieces of all of those songs and we are creating an anthem of the convention of everyone's voices who came with us.

So it's all of those purposes-- - It's big collective.

- Together.

In one song that we're gonna perform, - So what if I walked over there?

What would I be doing?

- Well, you would be greeted by one of us and you'd be taken around and you'd get to go through a flow.

So there's two kind of ways you can think of a flow.

One is creative flow.

So you're gonna find a place in The Point where you can connect to your creativity.

I like to say, when you're looking, you can look like this.

And then when you get in the flow, you're here.

You know, you're, you're looking off and you're finding that place inside of yourself that's creative.

And actually there's a lot of health benefits of that.

It's a place where you can rejuvenate.

So going over there, you would find the place in our flow, connect with someone, they would witness you, validate you in your purpose, and then you'd start writing.

And a lot of people say, "Oh, I can't write a song."

Right?

"I'm not an artist."

- Right.

I would say that.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

It's like everybody says that.

But what happens over there is you have a conversation or you start somewhere, you know, maybe you start with a rhythm, maybe you start with just how are you doing?

And by having teaching artists over there, we have a great team, you just have people witness you and meet you where you are and get into this flow of like, wow, that's really interesting, 'cause it is, and then it starts turning into a song and people are like, "Oh my God," before they can think of, I'm not an artist, they're over that barrier and we're writing a song and I'm saying, "How do we sing that?"

And then they're like, "Oh my God, I'm writing a song."

And after 10, 15 minutes they've got something that they can sing.

- They're going through a really unique experience.

What do you hope the educators are taking away from this, and how do you see them bringing some of those concepts or ideas back into their classroom?

- So I've heard it said that teaching is 80% of just who you are, you know?

So I think rejuvenating yourself as an educator and connecting to your purpose and bringing that into the classroom is the most important thing.

When you show up there for all of those people to create a space for them that's safe for learning, that's also inspiring, that's the most important.

So teachers connecting to their purpose is the first one.

And then, you know, whatever, some people might come back for a second song, you know, to bring into the classroom.

Maybe they're inspired by one of our activities.

You know, maybe they wanna have conversations with people that bring a new context to something that kids need to learn, you know, that it's hard to connect to.

Maybe they wanna write a song or bring in a teaching artist.

It's giving people new ideas and I think creating allows people to connect to that part of themselves that says, "You know what?

"I can get, I am an artist."

And I think teachers are artists and allowing, we allow them to do that and be creative and connect to that part of themselves that's maybe been waiting to come out.

- You're an artist.

You are a musician.

How did you come up with this concept?

'Cause you're here.

I mean, you're not living in the states right now.

You're here all the way from Scotland.

- Yeah.

- What made you wanna come here to New Jersey to talk to our educators and give them this experience?

- Well, I was invited.

I posted about some of the work I've been doing in hospitals with folks with mental illness who are living in community together with parents and families.

I did the Lullaby Project with Carnegie Hall.

- What is that?

- That's this big project run by Carnegie Hall for the last maybe 15 years.

And people are, you have teaching artists and families getting together when they have a new baby and writing a lullaby, an original lullaby for them to connect as a family, to have their family song, you know?

And that's what I've been doing since the pandemic.

So it got started there.

A lot of the folks in my teaching artist team, we worked together in that.

And I posted about all of these ways in which songs and writing songs can be so helpful, so healthy, so amazing and inspiring.

And Chrissy Miles from NJEA-- - Yes, we love Chrissy.

- She's amazing and she invited us.

She invited me, said, create a team, sort of like superheroes, do a thing, make The Point.

You know, she said, just make it happen.

And this vision happened on a little drawing board.

And then I came here and it was like, oh my God-- - It came to life.

Huge sign and all the things that were drawn in little figures are now there.

And it's been such a beautiful space.

- You're using music to inspire others, to help others in so many different ways.

What does music do for you personally?

- For me, it's always been my center.

I think there's a rhythm to how you live.

So for me, it's in everything I do.

If I'm noticing, if I'm being present, then I think all of those things go in.

And when I sit down to write, it's a way of connecting to my life instead of just going through it, I can sit down and I have this practice that I've had for 25 years of what am I noticing and how can I connect back to that and then put it into a song and celebrate it or grieve it or all of the things, where are my emotions connected to the way in which I'm living life?

So it's kind of my system of noticing and living and processing, but also in celebrating and grieving, all of those things wrapped up for me.

- You're here in New Jersey, where else is music taking you?

What else is next for you and your journey?

- I don't know.

Yeah, I mean, I have a new album that I'm gonna put out and I've got, I recorded in Nashville and I did it my own style.

I didn't do it in a regular recording studio.

I invited, I had a party and I fed everyone and in Nash-- - Food, it's important.

- You've got all of these people who are incredible musicians.

And I said, I sort of put the call out with my friend Charlie Tree, and people just started showing up.

They said they found really good food, they found a bunch of good songs and then we started playing and recording and we caught an album, you know, in a week of doing that continuously for a week.

So I'm gonna release that album.

I hope music keeps taking me around the world, doing this, doing my own songs.

I love writing songs with people and performing them and recording them.

So I don't know where it's gonna take me, but I really, I love that I keep getting these opportunities - Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us too so we can learn more about what you're doing.

- Thank you for having me.

It's been great.

- So for Jacqui Tricarico, myself and our entire team down in Atlantic City at the 2024 New Jersey Education Association Convention, we thank you so much for watching, We’ll see you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

The New Jersey Education Association.

Bergen New Bridge Medical Center.

NJ Best, New Jersey’s five-two-nine college savings plan.

Seton Hall University.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

PSE&G, And by Valley Bank.

Promotional support provided by NJBIZ.

And by New Jersey Monthly.

- (Inspirational Music) - (Narrator) Great drive fuels the leaders of tomorrow and today.

Great vision paves the way for a brighter future.

Great ambition goes places, moving onward and upward.

Great empathy finds strength in kindness and in each other, working together to create something bigger than they ever imagined.

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