AllBrands Show: Sewing as Therapy with the Arts Council & Salvation Army's “Common Threads” Project

Join specials guests Renee Chatelain, and Xero Chancelier Skidmore, as we follow up on the Arts Council & Salvation Army's “Common Threads” Project. This program was developed for the men in The Salvation Army’s substance abuse recovery program.

More About: Chancelier “Xero” Skidmore Chancelier “Xero” Skidmore is a writer, spoken word poet, educator, percussionist, voice actor, radio show host, and arts administrator from Plaquemine, Louisiana. He has consistently facilitated writing workshops for youth and adults in Louisiana and throughout the country since 2005. He published a collection of his poems entitled upBEAT DOWNbeat. He has served as Program Director and Executive Director at two non-profits. In 2013, he won the Individual World Poetry Slam. He now serves as the Director of Community Engagement at The Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, where he facilitates writing workshops for the incarcerated, oversees the state Poetry Out Loud competition, and hosts the radio show/podcast, AC23.

More About: Renee Chatelain

Renee Chatelain is a native of Baton Rouge and a graduate of Louisiana State University, holding both a B.A. Degree in History and a Juris Doctor. She is the President and CEO of the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge. Her career as a dancer includes performing with the Eglevsky Ballet in New York, Delta Festival Ballet of New Orleans, Tampa Ballet, and American Dance Machine in New York. Renee has been a guest teacher for Iceland Dance Theater in Reykjavik, Iceland, and at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, at Hunter College in New York City, Southeastern Louisiana University, as well as several local dance companies in Baton Rouge. She serves on the Advisory Board of the American Mural Project, supporting internationally known visual artist Ellen Griesedieck, and was selected to participate in South Arts Dance Touring Initiative. She is a co-founder of Mid City Dance Project, Inc., and served as Executive Director at the Manship Theatre at Shaw Center for the Arts in Baton Rouge, LA. Prior to her position at Manship Theatre, she founded the dance programs for two independent schools in Baton Rouge while serving on staff at both schools as a history teacher and community service director. Renee is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, The Baton Rouge Bar Association, and has been a panelist for the Lt. Governor's Cultural Economic Summit. She is a recipient of Baton Rouge Area Foundation’s John W. Barton, Sr. Award for Excellence in Non-profit Management, the Baton Rouge Business Report’s Most Influential Women in Business, the Unsung Hero’s Award by Louisiana State University’s Office of Multi-Cultural Affairs, the Esprit de Femme Award by the LSU Women’s Center, and has been recognized by the Louisiana State Senate for her contribution to African Americans in Louisiana through the Arts. She has been awarded The President's Award by the Baton Rouge Bar Association, was a 2005 finalist for the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Angel Award, was recognized by the Louisiana Association for Non-Profit Organization as a Louisiana Heroine, was a member the 2005 Leadership Class of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, and has been inducted into the Redemptorist High School Hall of Fame. She has served as a panelist at the Association of Performing Arts Presenters in New York, at the inaugural Women in Dance Leadership Conference in 2015, and has served as a community coach for the City of Mandeville Louisiana, through the Louisiana Department of Culture and Tourism’s Creative Placemaking Initiative. Renee considers her passion project the creation and staging of The Fading Line: A Commemoration of the 1953 Baton Rouge Bus Boycott, and is grateful to all of those who played a role – past and present. She is most grateful for the love of her life and constant source of inspiration, her husband, Kevin Lyle.

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Salvation Army
Mission: The Salvation Army exists to meet human need wherever, whenever, and however we can.

Programs:
- Help Rescue Christmas
- LGBTQ Support
- Disaster Relief
- Homeless Shelters
- Food Pantries
- Grassroots Services
- Life Skills to Escape Poverty
- Alcohol and Drug Rehab
- Spiritual Healing
- Job Training
- Summer Camps
- Solutions to Human Trafficking
- Veteran Services
- Services for Aging
- Help for Domestic Abuse
- After School Programs


Arts Council BR
Mission: To foster the creative capacity and vibrancy of the capital region through advocacy, resources, and education.
Programs:
- Arts Education
- Arts in Corrections
- Creative Aging
- Events
- HeArt Trails
- Live Music
- Poet Laureate


AllBrands.com:
Mission: We put our customers first. We Strive to enable creativity. We move our community forward.
We came from humble beginnings, and because of that, we’re driven by a deep belief in giving back through philanthropic endeavors & education.