Author Archives: artistsoulspeaks

About artistsoulspeaks

Zelda (aka Judith Z. Miller) is a multifaceted artist: visual artist, performer, producer, percussionist, workshop leader and healer who live in an erotic, musical, spiritual universe. As a feminist Jew who studies shamanism, she is inspired by the beauty of nature and the guiding force of her intuition as she explores the themes of connection to the Earth, spirituality, sexuality and gender via a variety of art forms. Under an Individual Artist Commission awarded by Arts Mid-Hudson, Zelda developed her new one-person performance Que Será, Será: A Life’s Journey of Sexual Orientation & Gender, live-streamed by Radio Kingston. She was also awarded an NEA Arts Management Fellowship in Theatre and a Fractured Atlas Development Grant to study with Tommy Joseph, Master Native American (Tlingit) Carver in Alaska. She was a winner of the British Airways Face of Opportunity Contest. She produces Zelda's Happenings, a series of black-light, body-painting, percussion dance parties. As the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Fine Line Actors Theatre in Washington DC, Zelda produced and performed in special constituency projects, including the groundbreaking Women’s Prison Project. Zelda has produced numerous other community events, such as The Celebration of Life Be-In in Park Slope Brooklyn NY, incorporating professional and community artists of all genres honoring 9/11. Zelda produced numerous showcases at APAP (The Association of Performing Arts National Conference in NYC), and co-produced the acclaimed APAP Special Event, “Presenting Latin Music,” at Broadways’ New Victory Theatre. Zelda performed at such venues as Source, GALA Hispanic Theatre and the Kennedy Center in DC, in NYC at WOW Café Theatre and Dixon Place, and with the TMI Project in Kingston New York. Zelda was profiled in The Daily News; the subject of feature articles in Mann About Town magazine, Home News Tribune, In Brooklyn, The Park Slope Paper, The Wave, and The Daily Sitka Sentinel, and featured on NY-1 Television. Zelda is published in Inside Arts magazine, The Washington Post, American Theatre magazine, Ecosexuality: When Nature Inspires the Arts of Love, and she is a contributor to Queeries Blog and Zine. Her paper Sometimes A Tree Isn’t Just a Tree was read at the International Linguistic Conference in Morocco. Zelda has led experiential workshops at Chelsea Piers, DreamYard Drama, Nehirim, the JCC NYC, The World Game Institute, and The Fine Line Actors Theatre, and workshops on the business of art for the Brooklyn Arts Council, The Field, and the Red Tent in NYC. She founded ZAMO! (Zelda Arts Management Organization) which for 20 years represented a multicultural mix of World Class performing artists nationwide, including Grammy nominated and Juno award winning performers. She is also a spiritual body coach and the creator of ZELDA’S Body Breathing Healing System™, a transformational system that incorporates intuition, breath, sound, visualization, and percussion. Zelda lives at the Lace Mill artist residence in Kingston New York with her Great Dane puppy ZaZelle.

Earthquake … Hail … Eclipse … Oh My!

I’m making PASSIONATE LOVE to her. The floor starts shaking and the pictures catapult themselves off the walls. Being the always HUMBLE person that I am, I’m thinking to myself “damn – I AM good!” Continue reading

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What I take with me: The Leaves of Park Slope and Memories of my Neighbor Sylvester

I’d carefully carry the leaves back to my apartment, pressing them between sheets of parchment paper, and placing them under a big pile of heavy books, to press and preserve their beauty. Continue reading

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I Was with My Mother the Moment She Left Her Body

My mother, Ann “Buddy” Waldenberg Miller, passed away 32 years ago on August 29th 1989. My mother passed in 1989, 32 years ago, from an inoperable brain tumor —  and/or from the highly toxic chemicals they pumped into her body … Continue reading

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Dreams: The Perilous Ledge – The Steel Door

I felt trapped. But as I approached the first heavy thick door, I simply allowed my mind to believe that I could penetrate it. I had in that brief moment of approach to the barrier a meta-awareness” that my belief controlled my options – and as I allowed that thought to become a realization, my body went in-between the metal elements of the door, breaking itself up, but without losing my “self” as I emerged out the other side.
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Not Just a Walk in the Park

We head down the mountain as we came, following the well-marked trail, forgetting about the bald mountain and everything wrong with humanity and just appreciating the leaves and flowers and bird song. Also I’d better not let my mind drift off because I need to pay special attention to my footing to make sure I don’t slip on a leaf or trip on the true roots that crisscross the path. One false move and I’m on my ass – and, I remind myself as I twist my ankle slightly, I’m here alone without cell phone reception … I don’t even want to think about what that might do to my ability to descend safely. Continue reading

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Brooklyn to the Adirondacks for a Shamanic Mother’s Day Dance in the Spirit World

If I stand in a particular position, with my feet apart firmly planted, my arms slightly away from my body, hands facing downward with my fingers relaxed down and wrists just a bit higher, I can feel doves lifting my wrists with invisible strings. As I raise my head erect and proud, I feel a falcon sitting atop my head staring fiercely, proudly forward. Continue reading

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Journey to Yara – Water Goddess of the Amazon

Cautiously, I raise my head to gaze upon her. Behind the Goddesses’ thick black hair, to her left side, I catch a glimpse of a moist gathering darkness – it is as though she carries behind her voluptuous beauty, a raging storm, ready to be unleashed at will. Continue reading

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Thank you Mr. Rosamelia!

Despite the pain and panic at my inability to breathe, my ferocity took over. Like a Wild Child, I grasped the edges of the two desks standing between us and flung them helter-skelter to opposite sides of the classroom, where they thundered into the walls. The boy ran licitly-split out of the classroom, and I, now at full speed, chased him – and came bashing, smack dab into the formidable belly of my over 6 foot tall teacher, Mr. Rosamelia.

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Birth. Death. Shit. Life.

But when I was there by V’s side, watching the crown of her tiny baby’s head emerge from her birth canal; the wet, bloody, hairy head, followed by a plop of mushy perfectly-formed little baby-body oozing out, still connected via a thick flat white and blood-red umbilical cord … I was astounded, awed – intimately connected – and, surprisingly, the blood didn’t bother me at all. Continue reading

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September 11th – Celebration of Life “Be-In”

On September 11th 2011 I produced the Celebration of Life “Be-In” as an alternative way for local artists and community to acknowledge, process and transcend, via ritual, the events of 911. While I am horrified by the tragedy and its aftermath which claimed many thousands of innocent lives and still impacts worldwide events – I think it is essential not only to mourn those who have been lost but to make a conscious choice to go on living, loving and celebrating life so we who envision a better world will have the strength and courage to actualize that vision. Imagine peace – work for justice! Continue reading

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