April is Autism Awareness Month, and communities across the nation are celebrating. Texas folk singer, Terri Hendrix lead a songwriting workshop for autistic students who attend the transition academy at the Burkhart Center for Autism on the Texas Tech campus.
Hendrix is one of Austin’s best new artists, and even received a Grammy in 2002 for co-writing ‘Lil Jack Slade’ At the end of the day she said music is about connecting people.
“I love doing this, I love working with people who have autism because I really love watching music take over someone’s body basically,” Hendrix said. “Within a disability is an ability and you have to see that and bring it out, it’s amazing the power that music can have on the human soul.”
Morgan Brundrett is a sophomore at Tech, she has autism and takes classes at the Burkhart Center. During the workshop she helped write the chorus for the song.
“It felt natural and it felt food just finding that beat and be like ‘yes this is perfect!'” said Brundrett.
Brundrett explained that Autism comes in many forms and its important to not be afraid of it, but work to understand it.
“What you got to understand about autism is there’s different levels of it, very mild cases like high functioning autism to severe cases, you can’t just say ‘oh you’re autistic, which means you can’t speak or understand relationships,” Brundrett said. “I mean yes in some cases that’s true but in other cases they can pick it up real quickly like: yeah I understand you.. I get you.”
The Burkhart Center’s Walk for Autism Awareness is this Sunday at the John Walker Soccer Complex on the Tech Campus from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM.
