To the backdrop of several handmade Native American drums playing a slow, steady beat, Richard Simmons read his poem about the Vietnam War. It asked the question, “Was it worth it?”
Simmons performed on flute and drums and read his poetry at the annual creative arts festival for veterans held March 2 at the College of Lake County in Grayslake. The public was invited to experience the creative inspirations of veterans who receive medical care at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago. The top three projects will compete in a national event to be held in Buffalo, N.Y., in October.
Simmons won a first place ribbon for his handmade Native American flute. Other veterans prepared photography, drawings, paintings and wood-burning projects for the event, while others performed on trumpet and guitar, read poetry and creative essays, and sang jazz and blues.
“A lot of these veterans are really shy — they don’t really know that they’re talented, that they have something to share,” said Lovell Center music therapist Elizabeth La Combe, who helped organize the event.
“They get the feedback that their work is amazing,” she said. “That really gives them a boost to their self-esteem and makes them happy to reach out to the community.”
Some of the veterans who performed or entered art work said being creative helps them deal with some of the problems associated with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Elliot Abelson of Lake Villa served in the Vietnam War more than 40 years ago, but it wasn’t until the past few years that he was able to come to grips with PTSD.
He joins other veterans in a group to several times a week to talk about PTSD, and his fellow veterans encouraged him to enter his photography into the contest.
“It took me years to come out of the veterans closet,” Abelson said. “Everybody was spitting on you and calling you baby killer and momma killer when you came back.”
For years, he added, “I was so withdrawn.”
He said the Lovell Center’s program for veterans with PTSD has helped bring out his creativity, which he said relieves tension and anxiety.
“When I take a photograph, I use it as a canvas I work on the computer with temperature, color, light, contrast,” Abelson said. “When I’m working on an image, I can get lost in it all day.”
Simmons, who makes Native American drums and flutes and writes poetry, said, “When you’re working on a poem, your mind gets off other things and problems. It helps you relax — it lets you go, and you take it where it wants to take you.”
He takes his drums to hospitals and invites patients to join him. It’s therapeutic for them, he said.
Retired disabled veteran Rick Hanson of Mundelein came to the event to see Abelson’s work.
“I wanted to support my friend,” Hanson said. “It’s hard for vets with PTSD to make friends. We find it hard to trust people. … You don’t get rid of PTSD, you just learn coping skills.”
“This,” he said pointing to the art work at the festival, “helps.”
At the event, Darnell G. Jones, who lives and is being cared for at the Lovell Center, read a short story from his wheelchair about a young man going off to war in the 1960s and being kissed by a woman before he left.
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Parts of the story are true; others are fictional, he said, adding that “the purpose of the story was to (remind people) of prejudice and bigotry (that still exists) in the world.”
Iraq veteran Justin Culliton — president of the newly formed College of Lake County Student Veterans Club, which hosted the event — said by observing the creative works of veterans, “You can see their feelings and emotions. “
Some of those feelings included hope and patriotism.
Babette Peyton, a veteran from Chicago, came to the event and performed on stage in her wheelchair.
She wore a red, white and blue outfit with an American flag on the top of her hat. She asked the audience to clap as she read a poem about veterans. She said she brought flowers for everyone who attended, because “I believe people should get flowers before they die.”
Simmons asked audience members to join him in a Native American drum circle as he read a poem, with the last words urging veterans to let their troubles float to the sky.
Marilyn Schmitt of Libertyville attended the event to support veterans.
She said she was amazed at a trio who performed jazz music. “One of them looked and sounded just like Aretha Franklin,” she said. “They were wonderful.
“We should have a talent show on television just for vets,” she added. “We need to renew our national spirit.”
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.