On stage, Donald Hyman attracts all eyes to him. In his N.Y.-based Albany High School history classroom, he captures students’ attention with broad gestures and generational jargon. At area senior centers where he sings – Motown to Hank Williams – the 53-year-old Air Force veteran’s voice flows like velvet.
Hyman regained the confidence and poise to perform through a creative arts therapy program offered in the music clinic at the Albany, N.Y.-based Stratton Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospital. Counselors say the arts give wounded and aging vets freedom of expression and connect them with themselves and others. When Don “The Soul Man” Hyman speaks, words come from his heart, without a filter. He ends his conversations with: “Peace and chicken grease.” His answering machine thanks callers for being part of his life.
But, in a quiet moment, ask Hyman about his past and you’ll see a different side. A man who knows what it’s like to lie on a Brooklyn street, bloody, screaming, and looking at the end. Who speaks in a softer voice about losing people he loved. This is the Hyman who came to Albany four years ago, a Vietnam-era airman looking to start over. But how?
In 2000, two assailants tackled and beat Hyman, then a court employee, as he came out of a Brooklyn deli. They robbed him of his $5. Hyman lay on the pavement with a shattered leg and a gun pointed at him when one of his attackers said, “Finish him off.” He rattled off questions, stalling for time. A police car pulled up to a nearby traffic light. Hyman screamed, and his attackers ran away. He crawled into the street, pounding the back of the police car for help.
Hyman spent a month in the hospital, and had a steel rod inserted from his knee to his ankle. The violent robbery occurred as he mourned the recent losses of his father and grandfather. The experiences devastated him. Needing a change, he lined up a job through the VA in its coffee shop and moved upstate. He soon discovered the creative arts therapy program.
“The only thing that kept me going,” says Hyman, “is that all my life I wanted to sing and dance.” Arts therapy reintroduced Hyman to activities he once loved. He and others say the program works like this: They create/perform art, which can heal; it makes people happy; that fulfills the performer, which helps heal psychological wounds and builds self-esteem.
John Hooks, an Army gunner in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968, also moved to Albany for a new start. A VA counselor in Harlem, N.Y. had diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 1993 after the off-Broadway actor started feeling “twisted,” angry, upset. The condition can mimic anxiety and depression, and can begin years after combat. Hooks started arts therapy in Albany as part of his individual and group treatments.
“Creative arts gives me the freedom to express myself and it relieves some of my inner turmoil and stress,” Hooks says. “It’s good for the spirit, mind, and soul.” Hooks is now 61 and married with an 18-month-old son. He is in the choir at New Testament Baptist Church in Arbor Hill, N.Y. For this year’s entry in the contest, Hooks played a father presiding over his son’s funeral, an intense drama skit with religious prose.
Of the 65 local vets who submitted art entries this year, all but one fought or served during World War II, Vietnam or Korea. That one, Staff Sgt. John Peryer of Colonie, 44, is dealing with PTSD stemming from combat in the 1991 Gulf War. In 1998, some fellow veterans taught him to draw. He is now exploring all art, including photography. “I find it to be very therapeutic,” Peryer says. “It’s helped me a great deal. Some of the most creative people I have met in my life have been in the service.”
Troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan haven’t joined because they are busy addressing civilian and medical concerns, or don’t know about the program, according to VA music therapist Rachelle Vishneowski, MT. The National Veterans Creative Arts Festival was televised on PBS earlier this month. Hooks and Hyman were among the Albany area vets who won seven awards out of 3,166 veterans and 113 VA centers entered.
Hooks took first place for his acting; Hyman won second place for the song “Secret Agent Man” and third for “It Had to be You.” For Hyman, art therapy meant finding his place in the community and connecting to what’s really valuable. He sees performing as a form of ministry. He parlayed his recovery – and two master’s degrees – into a full-time teaching job at Albany High. “I don’t look back,” Hyman says. “I thank God for the moment I began to connect with what I really wanted to do.”
Source: Albany Times Union/Dennis Yusko
