Harmonics CULTURAL By Vell Baria (With additional contributions by Yeşim Zorlu, Katarina Simic and Joely Colmer) 6 The Harmonic Suite “It’s not too late to share your achievements, as long as it’s concrete and articulated!” Vell Baria, 2016 INAP Award Recipient for Performing Arts. Upon hearing the word “Harmonics,” what comes into our minds? The word “Harmonics,” or “Harmonic” in singular term, is originated from the word “Harmonia” in singular while “Harmonikos” in a plural form meaning “relating to music” where we harmonized vocally and instrumentally out of our own chords. In my definition and perspective, Harmonics is living together in universal harmony. I also found it more energetic to describe the way we represent no matter the place we lived in, the religion, the skin color or the status of life we have for as long as we have abilities to contribute to the world our positive impact for the world to Hear, Appreciate, Remember, Mesmerize, Observe, Necessitate, Inspire and Cherish the Standards of each individual. Prelude From the Latin word “prælūdo” meaning “play beforehand.” I started to think deeply about being involved in this progressive family where my heart, mind and soul set to “beforehand” mode of acceptance, as I feel that the big beginning to a life changing journey made fast approaching. <strong>ANCA</strong> was introduced to me and my mom by Vico Cham’s mother, Ms. Catherine Cham, whose experience in their delegation to <strong>ANCA</strong> in 2015 changed their lives and motivated them to help out other Autistic potentials to join the community where there is change. While doing research on <strong>ANCA</strong>, my mom only knew that <strong>ANCA</strong> is just an award winning body, but after such realizations, it’s an organization founded by the married Autistic couple whose vision is to support Autistic people and promote connections where it has its name sake for their children, Anthony and Catherine. For a better detail, this organization has played such major role in establishing connections within the Autism community across the world. It is also their goal to advocate the freedom of exploring and | www.naturallyautistic.com sharing talents, time, skills and vision-missions. By preparing for the Autism Fest, my mom and I got to know and meet other Philippine delegate-nominees joining us for the 7th <strong>ANCA</strong> Autism Festival during the delegates meeting organized by the Cham family discussing the organization’s history, the Autism festival and the perks of being one of the festival delegates. During that meeting, I was so blessed and being supported by the delegation team after being mentioned that I’ll be performing for the opening and the awards night with much joy and confidence. First Movement As I introduced myself this time to the international friends circle, this may not have been an easy part of my delegation career. It really took much time to get their impression about you and your expertise for reasons of being appreciated and well known in the eye. I started to introduce myself to the <strong>ANCA</strong> family by adding them up on my Facebook profile to get in touch before meeting them in person. This was also my chance to share my time in getting to know them in detail along with communicating with them online and appreciating their creative status posts like their achievements, successful things and words of devotion. Thus, this was my simple way to meet my new set of <strong>ANCA</strong> Delegate-nominee-batch mates outside my home turf very well. To expand their knowledge, I felt blessed to be selected to be interviewed for the Blog Talk Radio program hosted by Ms. Leonora Gregory-Collura herself. This gave me a chance to share my story of living on the spectrum, my parents’ way of bringing me up, my talents and skills, and my self-views on self-advocacy on Autism awareness. This is also a way of knowing me much better in a higher ground with that kind of feeling that I can’t wait, but excited to meet them in the festival week and have them as my new set of international fans as well. to page 9
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