Tyler Green’s journey to MSLCE is unique. After suffering a traumatic brain injury a few years ago, he found himself longing to reclaim his identify as an artist. “At the time that the accident occurred, and after the accident, I eventually was needing my own joy and just my recovery. I was needing to get back into the arts because that was the community that I had been so heavily involved in prior to the accident,” he explains. After sustaining the injury, he felt like he was searching for something in his life that provided the most meaning, and that is when he leaned on the creative community to provide him some sense of belonging.
As his recovery is well underway, he believes that he can give back to the community that helped him so much when he needed it. “I feel like in some way I can represent people that have experienced situations like mine. I’m some sort of a voice. I can advocate for their inclusion,” he explains. As he commences his time at the MSLCE program, he envisions a future where he is working in a creative development capacity. MSLCE is giving him the tools that will allow him to contribute meaningfully to the creative spaces he gets involved in and will help him generate instrumental relationships.
“I think that another major benefit of the program is the connections that I have access to through the program and through Northwestern at large. I think that those connections are invaluable, and I will certainly be able to pursue what whatever it is I set my mind to. That’s in large part due to the opportunities that I will be given through or that I will have access to through MSLCE,” he adds.
Speaking to his own experience, Tyler believes that it is important to not give up on the pursuit of an artistic career. “There are so many facets within the creative industries … There are innumerable jobs within [these] industries that don’t receive the attention that [non-creative] jobs do. And they are all equally valuable.”
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By Priyanshi Katare