Salut!
My name is Daniel. I am a 22 year-old college graduate. Although I was born in Chicago, I have lived in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for most of my life. I am taking a year off as I work, plan, and apply for graduate school. By fall of next year, I will be pursuing my MFA in Acting (applications are in the works, auditions in February). Currently, I am working three jobs: ISS teacher at Axtell Park Middle School (full-time), Assistant Oral Interp Coach at Lincoln High School and as a Box Office Representative and Community Learning Center Instructor at the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science ( I try to keep busy).
In college, I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English (literature emphasis) and in Communication Studies & Theatre (that is one major). While I do many things and I have many interests, I am an actor. My career goals lead me toward a life as a professional actor (yeah, I know what some people are thinking…but only time will tell). My preferred acting venue is in Musical Theatre. I have been fortunate and lucky with my college acting career, but I am looking to carrying that over into the “real world.” My ambitions, goals, and self-standards are high. Those who know me expect nothing less.
At any rate, on to the blog…..
My passion for the arts and for culture is what drives me to write this blog. Literature, music, visual art, performance, academics, diversity, community, and life style are some of the subjects I plan to explore in my blog. These are subjects that we should seek to incorporate in our lives because they enrich us as people. In my life experience and in my observation of society (in a very general sense of the word) when times get tough, the pocket book gets tight and life challenges us in a way we have never experienced the Arts is the first thing to fall to the waist side – out of our frame of mind. In communities, in schools, and at home the Arts have become optional and expendable in tough times. I contend that when life throws challenges our way that is the point where the Arts must be at the forefront of our lives. Throughout the days, weeks and months to come, I hope to really explore what that means and that my blog can begin to challenge more people view life in this way.
This is my reflection on everything Arts & Culture related from the community of Sioux Falls, the state of South Dakota, and the United States.
Also, thank you to The Post (South Dakota’s Independent Online Newspaper) for including my blog as part of their reader’s online experience. Check it out at www.thepostsd.com.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit”
— Aristotle
Humbly,
Daniel Deshon Hodges
