Edition No. 16
In this Edition
Arts and Culture
This week, the City of Detroit launches their new initiative, Undefeated: A Celebration of Detroit’s Contribution to American Excellence.
Community and Family
This winter, inspire your digital creativity with free software tools. Our creative team provides a list of their favorites to help spark the visionary inside you.
Our American Values
Revisit our January 27 event with Dr. Otis Brawley, sharing what we need to do to reduce both cancer and its unequal impact on society.
Detroit: Where The Arts Are A Way Of Life
In 2020, the City of Detroit launched the Office of Arts, Culture, and Entrepreneurship (ACE). With this new office, the city aimed to celebrate artistry in all forms—big and small, old and new, traditional and unique; An office born to be the hub for all things arts and culture in the city. The overall goal of this office includes understanding the creative needs of the city, using art to honor the rich history of Detroit neighborhoods, and work to promote organizations that tell the story of arts and culture in the city.
Beginning February 1, the city is launching a year-long initiative called, Undefeated: A Celebration of Detroit’s Contribution to American Excellence. Each month, ACE will invite programmers to submit videos and samples of works in all genres, including fine arts, music, theater, culinary, and more, to be highlighted and celebrated monthly. Anyone who wants to participate should send their work to detroitartsandculture@gmail.com.
The initiative begins with a weeklong Black History Month kickoff event, celebrating African Americans in every creative genre. One event is planned for each day this week and will be live on Channel 22, Zoom, or Facebook. The city hopes to shine a spotlight on creatives who have positively impacted society and help support those struggling due to the pandemic.
Click here to learn more and register for one of this week’s exciting events.
Your Creative Spark
This winter, inspire your digital creativity with free and open-source software tools
During these cold months, it can be all-too-easy to find oneself struggling with the winter blues — and especially now, as Detroit lingers in both a pandemic and a polar vortex.
A healthy dose of artistic inspiration may be just the perfect cure. The War Memorial’s creative team has assembled a list of our favorite — and free — software tools to help awaken the visionary in you. From music creation to digital painting to screenwriting, we’re confident you’ll find something that sparks your talents.
We took care to ensure that these tools are cross-platform, working on both macOS and Windows platforms; for the extra adventurous, a few of the apps have Linux counterparts, as well.
So, get creative! In the coming weeks, we’ll revisit this topic — and we’ll ask you to share your creations for publication in Inspired Thoughts. Watch this space for more.
Compose, publish, and record music
Dorico SE
Music notation and publishing (free with registration)
Sibelius | First
Music notation and publishing (free with registration)
MuseScore
Music notation and publishing (free)
Audacity
Music recording and production (free)
Write a screenplay
Kit Scenarist
Screenwriting and development (free)
Arc Studio
Screenwriting and development (free; paid upgrade options)
Studio Binder
Video, photo, TV and film production management (free; paid upgrade options)
Create your own font
FontForge
Professional font creation (free)
BirdFont
Professional font creation (free)
Glyphr Studio
Web-based font creation (free)
Looking for more inspiration?
Apple and Android have crafted their own fantastic series of short videos, offering tips and creative inspiration to users of both platforms. Their content is updated often, and we recommend both series to all Inspired Thoughts readers.
Being Human Is
An inspiring docuseries from Android featuring creative individuals exploring their passions and bringing their ideas to life.
Today at Apple (at Home)
Join Creative Pros from Apple Store locations all over the world for quick and fun projects they put together in their homes, so you can get creative in yours.
The Challenge of Health Disparities: Dr. Otis W. Brawley
On January 27, we held our second live online event as a part of Our American Values — a recording of that event is available below.
Dr. Otis Brawley of Johns Hopkins University — and some students from Albion College — recently joined us for a lively exploration of the impact of cancer on our society, associated questions of public policy, and what we need to do in order to reduce both cancer and its dramatically unequal impact on Americans. Dr. Brawley is well-known to watchers of TV news from his current work in the medical and public health schools at Johns Hopkins and his long service as Chief Medical and Scientific Officer of the American Cancer Society. You will never see a more engaging and informative discussion of a more important topic. This program was produced at The War Memorial and runs 60 minutes.
About Dr. Otis Brawley
Otis Brawley is a globally-recognized expert in cancer prevention and control. He has worked to reduce over-screening of medical conditions, which has revolutionized patient treatment by increasing quality of life and reducing health disparities.
Brawley’s research focuses on developing cancer screening strategies and ensuring their effectiveness. He has championed efforts to decrease smoking and implement other lifestyle risk reduction programs, as well as to provide critical support to cancer patients and concentrate cancer control efforts in areas where they could be most effective. Brawley currently leads a broad interdisciplinary research effort on cancer health disparities at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, striving to close racial, economic, and social disparities in the prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer in the United States and worldwide. He also directs community outreach programs for underserved populations throughout Maryland.
Brawley joined Johns Hopkins University as a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in 2019 from the American Cancer Society and Emory University.
Inspired Thoughts is a collection of highly curated content that embraces the spirit and purpose of The War Memorial: arts and culture, community enrichment, leadership, and patriotism.
Derived from the notion that learning from others is the key to success, Inspired Thoughts is meant to shine a light on those making a difference in the world around them. This collection features artists, poets, writers, architects, and every thought leader in-between. Inspired Thoughts is the strongest reflection of what The War Memorial stands for, and what we aim to be.
The content featured on Inspired Thoughts is curated by War Memorial leadership — we also look forward to featuring special guest curators in the near future. If you are interested in providing content for Inspired Thoughts, please email our Community Engagement team at bhoste@warmemorial.org.