Alexandra Adlawn’s books, part of a series called, “The Adventures of Maddie and Albert," pop with colorful whimsy on a website,
Amazing Artists, that she created herself.
She is one of the many neurodiverse artists who will be at the Autistic Creators Festival of Media, Performance, Design, and Story. The festival, held Saturday, Sept. 28 on the Avenue of Fashion on Detroit's west side, will host live readings from autistic authors, live rap, ventriloquism, live-stop motion and hand-drawn animation, all from artists and performers from both the Detroit area and from across the country.
The festival is the brainchild of Tawd b. Dorenfeld, founder of
Tink Tank Animate, a neurodiverse storytelling program, that services autistic artists from all over the country and beyond. Dorenfeld, who has been mentoring neurodiverse students for years, started the program after being inspired working with Adlawn and Andres Lerma, another mentee who he instructed in animation.
“Tink Tank exists to assist and develop marginalized individuals in the arts of storytelling, exercising their creative, cognitive, and communicative muscles through their artwork and stories,” he says.
Dorenfeld was approached by
Detroit Month of Design about expanding visibility of neurodiverse artists, and the Autistic Creators Festival – in its inaugural outing this year – was born.
All together, the festival has slated more than 20 performances and hours of entertainment, "all devised by the wondrous minds of these autistic creators," he says.
Lerma, Dorenfeld's other mentee, is a writer, director, animator, and composer originally from Southern California whose work will be on display. Lerma has produced a children’s TV series, three long-form animated movies, and for the past two years has been collaborating with Dorenfeld in creating a full musical entitled, "Valentino and the Very, Very Sad Girl from France."
“The musical is about a Detroit baker in the 1920s traveling to France to feed the hungry, falling in love with the very, very sad girl, and collecting a parasite of a ghoulish trickster who will follow Valentino all the way back to Detroit, for he is the Nain Rouge.” Andre’s website is at
https://sites.google.com/site/wwwlermaanimationstudiocom/about-us.
Some other artists who will be featured include:
Madison Cahill, a writer, illustrator, fine artist, animator, and director who lives in New York. She has written a comic book series, "Growing Strings" along with directing an award winning (Marvels of Media) music video for PENIX, a Timothy Young band. Her artwork has appeared at the Museum of the Moving in New York City. To see her work at her company MMC Doodles, head to
https://www.facebook.com/MMCDoodles/?locale=ja_JP.
Harry Schad, a writer, director, animator, and children’s book author. Schad splits his time between Minnesota and Colorado and was mentored by Tink Tank. He is a freelancer for Harry-O-Graphs. “Our tag line is "Where paper comes to life". Our motto there is "Be Kind, Be Magical, Be You".” He has produced animated short films, including “Mama’s Ducks,” a feature length documentary. Schad has written several children's books including “Many Ways to Travel” available on
Thriftbooks.
John Pannozzi, who is an author, director, and editor from Rhode Island. He is the author of the book "Laughing to Death: A look at horror comedy," and for the past three years been producing the movie version as a mini-series which will be streamed on various platforms. His book may be purchase at Amazon at
https://www.amazon.com/Laughing-Death-Look-Horror-Comedy/dp/B08P1M66YB.
Jacob Haffey, a Detroit resident, who is an author, director, and actor who was mentored by the collective at Tink Tank, Dorenfeld, and Doug Freel for over two years. Jacob works as a postal worker and in his spare time has been writing his first novel and producing a visual podcast series about Colin Mercury, a radio talk show host. “My name is Collin Mercury, and this is Mercury All Night,” Haffey says in a soft voice. “That’s not all there is.” Jacob adds, “Collin Mercury’s catchphrase, “That’s not all there is,” is inspired by the song “Is That All There Is?” by Peggy Lee and what he’s saying is that real, true romance is out there; it’s not out of reach.”
Metro Detroit resident
Gabriel Taraborrelli, a rapper and ventriloquist, will be performing at the festival. In two years, Gabriel has produced several singles, completed his first album, and produced a music video. A ventriloquist clip of him performing went viral on Instagram and TikTok. Gabriel has performed all over the metro area including in the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase. His work is on Instagram at
https://www.instagram.com/gabespuppets/.
All ages are welcome. The event takes place on Saturday, September 28 from 3 p.m.-8 p.m. at 18109 Livernois Ave. in Detroit. To register for the festival for free, visit https://www.detroitmonthofdesign.org/event-details/autistic-creators-festival-of-media-performance-design-and-story/form.