A powerful testimony from Asheville busker, Sandra Hess:
My hands are getting sweaty. My heart beating harder and harder as I take my seat. The footsteps of the people on the street echo through my mind like a freight train. Confusion and panic start to set in. The cars that drive by feel as if they’re driving right through me, rocking me to the core and leaving me broken. I feel as if I’m tumbling in a rock slide, longing desperately for someone to pull me out. I close my eyes as my fingers grasp my instrument tightly, and suddenly I can breathe again. I hug it tightly against me and it creates a barrier between myself and the neuro-typical society that is spinning around me everywhere – the one that frightens me so much.
This is what it’s like, for me to be an autistic musician.
I began to play music on the streets to make myself feel less invisible, to give myself a voice, and to be heard. Without music I would have no voice. It has opened doors for me that for so long remained closed and locked. Music is the only thing I know. It’s the only thing that makes sense anymore. John Lennon said, “They tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe-” I spend my time blind, tumbling until the music finds me, and saves me once again.
I really only have one thing to say. Busking chose me, music chose me, all I had to do was say yes.
Sandra Hess
We filmed a performance by Sandra in Columbia SC and her energy was fantastic – look forward to her performer page!
Chris