If music and creativity were the markers that defined our wealth, Joy Rose would be an incredibly rich woman. As it is now - her life is rich with, at the very least, character, a giving spirit and an inherent ability to empower women.
This is a woman who is creating movements, redefining what it means to be a woman and a mother and honoring the value in motherhood with each step she takes every day.
Friend Lynn Kuechle nominated Joy as a Mom Who Matters, saying in part that music and and art had ’saved her life’.
Joy explains, “Finding our passion or ‘reason to be’ in life is really important, especially in the face of profound illness. Rediscovering creativity and music was core to who I was as a person. Abandoning those things as a mother left me incomplete. Reincorporating them made me feel whole again.”
In 2002, Joy and a few girlfriends created what is now the heart and soul of Mamapalooza, a “movement, a community and a resource which supports women by encouraging them to get creative and give something back to themselves”. The Mamapalooza events use arts, culture and education to embrace and empower women.
The first event took place on a single stage in front of roughtly 100 people. There were only 15 performers. In only 7 years Mamapalooza has expanded to 4 different countries and countless stages. The events from the Spring and Summer of 2009 boast more than 350 performers and over 50,000 people attending.
A mother to 4 children - Brody is 20, Blaze is 18, Ali is 16 and Zena is 14 - Joy believes the most important thing she does with her children is to set a positive and loving example on a daily basis, “I’m pretty simple when it comes to ‘mothering’: Feed them, Love them, Listen to them and share my philosophy when it is relevant.”
Joy is also the Executive Director of the Motherhood Foundation which is working to build an International Musuem of Motherhood - honoring the achievements of mothers through a wide range of exhibits and projects.
Joy’s key to balancing everything she currently has on her plate, “I move forward like a wall that spans a thousand miles. Slowly pushing the vast pool of energy another inch forward every day; Nudge Mamapalooza, the kids, the Museum, my friends, the radio show, my band, our home, my relationship….it goes on and on….”
Join us today at 12:30PST/2:30CST on Why Moms Matter on Blog Talk Radio to learn more about Joy’s inspirational journey of motherhood, illness and reinvention. You will be thrilled by Mamapalooza and awed by the Musuem of Motherhood.
