BWW Previews: TRANSFORMATIONS FREE PERFORMANCE EVENT CELEBRATING ADA ANNIVERSARY at Straz Center For The Performing Arts

In collaboration with the Hillsborough County Alliance for Citizens with Disabilities and Tampa Mayor's Alliance for Persons with Disabilities, on July 26, The Straz Center is presenting the inaugural performance event, Transformations: Building a World of Access and Inclusion.

As part of the celebration of the 29th-anniversary celebration of the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) legislation, the event, hosted in Maestros from 6-8 p.m., is free to the public.

Tampa City Council Chair Luis Viera will offer the welcome at the event and it will feature artists with mixed abilities including musicians, singers, and spoken word artists James A. Williams, Stephanie Slagle, Johnathan Davis, Marion Gwizdala, Euphoria Black, Sign of Da'Times, The Tampa Pyramid Players, Together As One Drummers, and REVolutions Dance.

Saxophone musician Matt Weihmuller will be debuting an original composition at Transformations.

"I'm a jazz saxophonist and I actually teach Jazz and Saxophone at the Straz Center. I'll be performing with my quartet. I'm visually impaired, pretty much totally blind. I'm going to be performing one of my original compositions along with some Jazz songs of the swing era. I'm excited to perform my piece as I've only performed it a handful of times. It's called Dots on Page. It's significant because I read braille which is a six-dot system. I read braille music with my fingers. Something I trying to do is champion the cause for braille music, so I wrote this piece in honor of that. I'm really excited to be able to share with people, to share my thoughts and emotions of promoting braille literacy through my music," said Matt.

"Transformations demonstrates that persons with disabilities can really be active and capable as any other person in society and that their disability does not define them. I always say that people should turn a disadvantage into an advantage and I really think this event is doing a good job of showing why the Americans with Disabilities Act is there. Persons with disabilities should have the same freedoms and opportunities. I think that these performances will showcase that disabled artists are just as able and capable to perform as anybody else. It might change the way that someone might interact with them in the future."

For more information about the event, visit the Straz Center's website at https://strazcenter.org/Events/Straz/Shows/Other-Straz-Center-Events/ADA-Celebration.

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