A Fabulous First Day In DC

What a fantastic first day we had at the City Center Shelter, the largest shelter in the city - over 600 beds! The people were wonderful and we were welcomed like heroes!
Hearts Of Fire event posters announced our arrival as Amy Vokes, program director, helped us lug our equipment up 3 flights of stairs and down a very long hallway. The City Shelter is housed in a run down surplus federal building without a nearby functioning elevator. Dave Quammen, an amazing man who owns & runs the Museum of Contemporary Art here in DC, appeared at the perfect moment to lead the art workshop. Not only did he provide his skill and the materials, but he had a remarkable affinity with the participants which captured on film.
After a long delay, we finally found a vacant room to conduct our recording sessions. By the time we started, we had an excited throng of musicians vying for our attention.
The musicians were incredible people and several were very talented. Two musicians from Gil Scott Heron's (a famous jazz artist) band showed up to record with Greg, their homeless friend. They made an amazing recording which we burned on CD for them. Andre, the incredible bass player, invited me to be on his live internet radio show this Thursday for an interview! Aside from a computer crash and the incessant wheezing of the ventilation system, Crystal and I performed impeccably and all the participants were quite pleased. They only thing they didn't like is that we weren't coming back (at least not this year). People were taking our flyers and running around the neighborhood to let everyone's know we were there. We didn't have time to see everyone, and many wanted to follow us to the next shelter.
When we packed up, we found another way out, through the building to the working elevator at the other end of our floor. It took us down to the basement and out to the back parking lot. While I was returning the flat bed truck we used to haul out the equipment, I discovered an amazing mural on the wall with a great message (see attached photo).
There were so many wonderful experiences, it is hard to describe them all. I guess I can best sum it up as life affirming, an experience of the love of humanity.