UAB Briefs: Family music 'all-stars,' The March Quilts, proton therapy
Welcome to another installment of UAB Briefs, in which we keep track of interesting people and events on campus.
Know people, places and programs on the UAB campus that deserve a mention?
Email Iron City Ink at sydney@starnespublishing.com or jchambers@starnespublishing.com.
Family music at The Alys
Parents and kids in Birmingham who want to enjoy a concert together are in luck.
Justin Roberts and The Not Ready for Naptime Players, all-stars of indie family music, will perform in the Jemison Concert Hall at UAB’s Alys Stephens Center on Sunday, Feb. 26, at 2 p.m., according to a UAB news release.
For nearly 20 years, Roberts – a two-time Grammy nominee – has written songs that deal with the family life and the joys and sorrows of growing up.
His songs include “Dodgeball,” “It’s Your Birthday,” “Picture Day,” “I Lost the Tooth I Lost,” “Backyard Spaceship” and “Thought It Was a Monster.”
USA Today calls Roberts “the best songwriter in the genre,” and The New York Times said he possesses “a remarkable ability to see through a child’s eyes.”
For more about Roberts, go to justinrobertsmusic.com.
Tickets are $13 for adults and $8 for children. To order, call 975-2787 or go to alysstephens.org.
Taking AIM with The March Quilts
Arts in Medicine at UAB – a program that encourages healing through the arts – is partnering with Bib & Tucker Sew-Op for The March Quilts project, now in its third year.
The March Quilts is a community art project that explores a theme of human or civil rights through open sewing sessions where members of Bib & Tucker Sew-Op facilitate the making of quilt blocks.
AIM will host a quilting workshop at the UAB Women and Infants Center second-floor atrium on Mon., March 6, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Another workshop was held Feb. 17, according to a UAB news release.
Blocks are appliquéd or embroidered, and all materials are supplied at the sessions. No sewing experience is necessary.
The theme of the quilt this year is the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Loving v. Virginia, which knocked down that state’s anti-miscegenation laws.
“By inviting members of the community to create a quilt square in honor of the annual theme, they have an opportunity to express themselves through art-making and have conversations about their own life experiences,” AIM director Kimberly Kirklin told Iron City Ink. “Art-making and positive human connections are what we strive for daily through AIM.”
The process of quilt-making is not entirely dissimilar to the work that AIM does regularly, according to Kirklin. “We strive to enhance well-being and healing through the arts (and) we do this through positive and meaningful interactions,” she said. “Our artists in residence facilitate such interactions not only at the bedside, but also in community workshops that allow patients and families to feel they are in a safe space to create art and support one another through conversation. The March Quilt Project can offer similar experiences.”
UAB and the Alys Stephens Center have partnered with Bib & Tucker for all three years of the project. “It is a natural extension to bring it into the healthcare environment as a way for patients, families and staff to come together to engage in artmaking and conversation,” she said.
AIM personnel are taking part in the open sewing sessions, according to Kirklin.
The theme the first year was the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches. The theme last year was gender pay equity.
A show of quilts from all three years is set to take place on Loving Day, June 12.
For more information, go to bibandtuckersewop.org.
First proton therapy center in Alabama
UAB will partner with Proton International to bring proton therapy, a technically advanced forms of cancer-killing radiation, to Alabama.
Proton therapy delivers a more precise dose of radiation to a tumor and can avoid damage to healthy surrounding tissue better than conventional X-ray radiation.
Proton International will build the three-story UAB Proton Center at 20th Street and Fifth Avenue, on the site of parking lot 55.
UAB physicians and staff will operate the center, and planning and pre-treatment will continue to be done at UAB’s Hazelrig-Salter Radiation Oncology Center.
Groundbreaking for the roughly $50 million project is expected in this summer, and construction and testing will take about two years.
There are 25 active proton therapy centers in the United States.
Helping police recognize special needs
A new educational program offered by the UAB School of Health Professions, in conjunction with the Interaction Advisory Group, will train law enforcement to recognize and react to situations involving people with special needs.
The Recognition and Evaluation of Autism Contact Training (REACT) program, offered totally online, is open to all law enforcement serving across the United States.
There have been incidents of law enforcement personnel mistaking certain behaviors from persons with autism or developmental disabilities as noncompliance or defiant behavior.
"Because symptoms of ASD are not always obvious during these encounters, it is important that law enforcement officers appreciate that there are multiple ways to view a person’s behavior and to respond with that in mind," said Sarah O’Kelley, director of the Autism Spectrum Disorders Clinic at UAB Civitan International Research Center – Sparks Clinic and an associate professor of psychology.
The training is important because more than 3.5 million Americans have an autism spectrum disorder, according to the Autism Society, and a study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that one in five Americans has a disability.
For more information, go to uab.edu/shp/home/react.