Using Music As a Way to Roll Forward
By Amy Halloran
Mike Whelan, Will Just, Brian Teschka, and
Dylan Walrath
When people think of singers, the names Prudence Mabhena
and Dylan Walrath generally don't come to mind. Both, however, have musical
gifts that have garnered widespread attention only recently.
Mabhena, who lives in Zimbabwe, has gained acclaim for her
beautiful voice; Walrath is the lead singer in a band in upstate New York. Both
use wheelchairs for mobility.
Mabhena, born with a condition that deforms the joints
(arthogryphosis), is the subject of a documentary short, “Music by
Prudence,” by Roger Ross Williams, who became the first African American
to win a directorial Oscar. The film is breaking ground in Zimbabwe, where
physical disabilities are often viewed as a curse, and where families routinely
disown disabled children.
Mabhena is a songwriter and lead singer for Liyana, an
Afro-fusion band formed at the King George VI School & Centre for Children
with Physical Disabilities. Mabhena, 21, was raised by her mother until age 4,
and then by her maternal grandmother, who sang to her granddaughter while
working in the fields. When it came time for education, Prudence went to live
with her father and stepmother. She was severely neglected for two years, until
she went to King George VI School. It was there that her beautiful voice was
noticed. 
The band Metsy Smesher consists of, Will
Just, Mike Whelan, Brian Teschka, and Dylan Walrath (Lead singer). Tracy
Teschka is on the far left . Photo Copyright © ILCHV
Another band made its official debut this spring, at the
Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley's annual fund-raiser, the
Dessert Spectacular, in Troy, N.Y., in April. It was Metzy Smesher’s first
big gig after a long hiatus. A few band members played together in high school,
but their combined musical efforts were detoured by college and other events.
For lead singer Dylan Walrath, an ill-advised dive off a
snowbank in the Adirondacks in March 2003 resulted in a spinal cord injury. His
hands were incapable of holding a cup, much less dressing, writing or playing
guitar. He was recently interviewed by phone.
Q: Did music play a strong role in your recovery?
A: My recovery was more focused on getting back to
school and getting to a point where I could get a job and support myself. So
music took a back seat for a while, except that I had those old tracks that I
had laid down, and I wanted to capture what I had done. I did a lot of editing
and splicing after I got out of the hospital before I went to school. I
continued to write. Writing music ... kept me kind of connected with Brian
(Teschka, lead and rhythm guitarist in the band) and (strengthened) our
friendship."
Q: Where did you return to school?
A: I went back to SUNY Albany (now called the
University at Albany). I was going to school for forestry up at Paul
Smith’s College (in the Adirondacks), and I thought maybe I could get into
landscape architecture. I’d still be kind of outside and use that
knowledge about trees and plants. I was interested in the visual design aspect
too. I got into urban planning and design, and I graduated in 2006.
Q: How did you get your current job?
A: I was an intern in 2005 at EnCon (the New York
state Department of Environmental Conservation). I work in the Division of
Lands and Forests. I work on the natural resources planning team, doing long-
range planning for state forests, and also helping the Adirondack Park
Community Smart Growth Program. I administered that grant program. As the
administrator I helped put the request for applications together to help the
communities grow economically in the context of the park, where there’s a
lot of environmental protections. The way to (achieve) that, we think, is to
revitalize the hamlet areas (and) bring tourists into the downtowns of those
little hamlets so they can enjoy the park as a whole. That work was providing
grant assistance to the communities to do their own planning, for community
housing, transportation, regional planning and land-use planning.
Q: Does your job get you outdoors?
A: I work on the computer so much at work, but
sometimes I do help out with our Universal Access Program. Carole Fraser (EnCon
access coordinator) actually brought me into the Division of Lands and Forests.
I was working with her at the start, as her assistant. We inspected all sorts
of fishing access points, accessible trails, boat launches, campsites. When we
do new construction, or there’s something that needs to be inspected,
sometimes I can get out in the field, so that works out great.
Q: Isn’t there a recent project with an
accessible campground?
A: Two summers ago I actually went up by myself to
John Dillon Park. I have a battery-powered air mattress, and they have beds
that fold down – they have assistants there, and they had folded the bed
down before I got there. There’s a ramp that goes right into the lean-to.
There’s a lot of setup involved with camping besides that, but soon as I
had everything in place, I was there.
Q: I’m curious about how people reconnect with
nature once accessibility changes.
A: I do miss being able to hike back into the
woods, but it doesn’t take much, if you really like nature. Where I am,
I’m in a new development and I can go up the street a little ways, and off
the end of a cul de sac there’s a scrap of woods there, and if you just
sit at the end and look off into the woods, it’s quiet there and
there’s no lights, you can feel like you’re out there a little bit.
The scale changes a bit. An adventure is not what it used to be. A trip down a
half-mile trail is more like a hike used to be. That’s me, but
everybody’s different. There’s people out there in wheelchairs
climbing mountains.
Q: Tell me more about getting back into music.
A: I never got rid of the guitar I had. I would
pick it up every once in awhile. It was really difficult not being able to do
what I used to do, so I would set it back down and not really think about it
for a few months. When I started playing electric guitar, it has a little more
"sustain." It's a little easier to press down on the strings, and it sounded
good. Plus I had more distance from it to where I was happy to do what I could
rather than always feeling like I couldn’t do what I used to do. I used to
do complicated finger work, trying to be fancy. Sometimes you can get in your
own way, because I think I have a tendency to make things more complicated than
they have to be, because music can just be about the feeling. Now I’ve
gotten to understand that better too because I’m more limited.
Q: Where does the band play?
A: For a long time there, probably about three
years, we played just a couple of times a year at house parties with family and
friends. We try to practice every week but, due to summer, we’d be busy.
We built up our skills over time as a band. This spring we felt we were ready
to play out more, and we had our first official gig at the fundraiser.
Q: Sounds like you were able to pick up where you
left off, in terms of getting the band back together. 
From left to right: Brian Teschka, Tracy
Teschka, , Will Just, Mike Whelan, and Dylan Walrath
A: Some of my friendships were probably more of a
struggle after because, even if it’s just subtle differences, I think
people look at you different. But with Brian and Mike (Whalen, who plays drums,
keyboard and percussion) and Will (Just, who plays bass), nothing was really
different. They were more than willing to help out if I needed something but
still respected me as an individual. I definitely appreciated their friendship,
still do. I don’t see myself as the lead singer in a wheelchair, I see
myself as a musician and part of a band. I find myself a little bit conflicted
as to what my role is as far as being an example, but I know I kind of have to
accept part of that because it’s just part of who I am. I’ll be fine
as long as I let the disability be there as part of what’s going on but
not the focus. I’m all right with that. Half the time I don’t even
realize I’m in a wheelchair. Probably more like 90 percent of the time,
I’m just doing my thing.
Q: It’s a fine line, an internal balance
between how you see yourself and how the world sees you.
A: I’m all right with exploring that line and
seeing where it goes, so I think I’ve been lucky. I was really quick to
accept what happened to me and try to look for ways to work around it, but I
can totally understand people that can’t get past it. It’s such a
self-identity kind of thing. People think “That will never happen to
me!” and they’re wrong. Everybody needs to know it’s going to be
them. People need to know at some point something’s going to put them
down. It’s not that big a deal. If everybody knew that ahead of time,
they’d be better adjusted.
Amy Halloran, a writer, lives in upstate New York with
her sons and husband. |
