A Giraffe has been sighted
in Cleveland (and on the road)! |
In 1992 Jeff Moyer ignored the misgivings of family and friends and walked away from the security of his job as a program director at the Cleveland Sight Center. He packed up his musical instruments and sound gear, and hit the road with a mission: he would use music to give confidence and hope to kids with disabilities, and to give the people around them a sense of their shared humanity with those who have disabilities. His gigs are in conference auditoriums, classrooms, and school assemblies, familiar territory for someone who’s spent most of his professional life teaching people with disabilities how to function effectively. He especially likes school audiences, singing to them in English, Spanish, Zulu and Sign. His program, “We’re People First, a Celebration of Diversity,” helps children understand and accept those around them who are “different.” He sings about how it feels to be an outsider in a society that values physical perfection. Moyer’s songs come from his own experiences of losing his sight and of having a brother who has retardation. The hands that make the music are riven by repetitive strain injury, aggravated by wrestling his performance gear through airports and into auditoriums. When Moyer steps up to the mike, it’s with the authority of one who knows. Moyer says that what he sings about is losses of all kinds. |
His work doesn’t sugar-coat the facts, but he points out that people with disabilities have experienced losses—and so has almost everyone else. “It’s about not making the team, families breaking up, moving from school to school, but surviving and thriving. Disability doesn’t involve a special pyschology, just the very common human experiences of feeling different and of overcoming.” Moyer wears braces on his wrists when he’s not performing. He took out a second mortgage on his house to finance his crusade; his finances took a steep dive when he gave up regular paychecks. His income now comes from performance fees, and from sales of his recordings and books. Moyer says he’s losing less money every year, so the financial picture is getting better. But he’s sure that his real pay comes when kids light up with understanding, when they tell him they feel better about themselves because of his work, when they “get it” that all kids are the same inside. |
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