Dani Sanderson
Dani is a rapper, beatboxer, poet, and performer. She had a severe TBI in high school. After time off and several school transfers, she graduated and has to now figure out what comes next in life. She has strong family ties and religious faith, but she lost most of her friends after her injury.
[Photo © Jo Arlow]
2016 update: Dani has quit smoking cigarettes. She continues to live independently and has taken some community college classes. She maintains strong relationships with her family and recorded a track for Olympia’s The Bridge Community Youth Services.
Update from Dani: “Brain injurys…. Doesn’t get any better but it doesn’t get worse Thank God”
Brandon Michael Scarth
Brandon is a singer-songwriter and was training to become a Worship Pastor when he sustained a severe TBI. He attempted to return to Bible College but could not maintain his grades. He is deeply connected to family, friends at the vibrant, supported community where he lives, and the disability community in Portland.
[Photo © Sika Stanton]
2021 update: Brandon moved out of the supported living facility where he was and moved into his own apartment. He has been engaged in local brain injury support groups and meetings, though he’s no longer playing music at the Independent Living Resources center. Before the pandemic, he traveled in the US and abroad with his mother, Beth, and was working regularly at Sarah Bellum’s Bakery and Workshop.
Kris Haas
Kris is a prolific abstract expressionist painter. She had a mild TBI at work and has since become severely isolated, has experienced Major Depression Disorder, and rarely leaves her home. A part-time painter before her injury, she now dedicates all the time and energy she has to creating art although she struggles to maintain websites and online sales.
[Photo © Sika Stanton]
2016 update: After being in unstable, temporary housing, Kris received comprehensive support and has been in supportive group living situations with other women with disabilities. She continues to paint, but in her smaller shared home, she is often working in the bathtub or the back porch.
Update from Kris: “By way of letting my Brain Injury Disability get the best of me in the summer of 2014 I lost my apartment and lived in unstable housing for a while then a little bit more stable then in the early spring of 2015 I became homeless and lived out of two different women’s shelters for 4 months. Since there was no way to keep any order in my life anymore I just had to let go and stop trying so hard. How can one sum up in a few sentences the thousands of moments I experienced while being on the streets and in the shelter. ___________________________ That’s how. Yet to be filled in at a later date perhaps but where I am right now is here, in front of this computer, writing this down and this is where I want to be. Telling the story.