Terri New
"On Travel"
“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” -
Susan Sontag
I can say I have had the good fortune to travel much of this
incredible world. From the European countries of France, England,
Spain, Belgium, Czech Republic now known as 'Czechia', Slovakia,
Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Greece, Ireland, Scotland, Wales,
Norway, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Vatican City to South
and Central America, Mexico, Panama, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador,
Venezuela and Argentina, Canada, Morocco and Algiers, And Islands!
Seychelles - Dennis Island and North Island, Hawaii, Haiti , St.
Thomas, St. Kitts, Saint Lucia, The Bahamas from the North and
South of India to many African nations, from Botswana, Namibia,
Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi , The
plethora of the states of the union, excepting the Dakotas and the
Carolinas...and lately to the northernmost town in the world,
Svalbard and the southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia in South
Pole... And You bet I took the polar plunge on both sides of the
earth, I wanted to experience the frigid waters and really feel I
had touched that space in the world...
I love adventure and can't wait till the next great exploration!
I feel so very fortunate to lay witness to the incredible sights and
experiences this world has to offer from scratching baby gray whales
heads while their mama's kept close watch in the Baja to singing to
elephants in the Botswana bush who were riveted by my tune...really!
WHY!? “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.”
To give you an idea of my background I am a multimedia producer
and have worked in the field of multimedia, public relations and
marketing for many years in many parts of the world. I am also a
performer, composer and have traveled in that capacity.
As a filmmaker I try to open people's eyes to experiences, and
try to lay the ground work to allay travel fear, and to educate on
issues that need confronted from wildlife poaching, to poverty, to
other ways of being.
I love to highlight people who are making a difference. I want
people to love and respect this incredible planet and its
inhabitants as much as I do.
I also inherited from my Grandma Slama, that we are on this
earth to make it a better place. So in my travels I strive to be not
a tourist, but a world citizen.
As an example, I created and organized Project Booklift which
after the fall of Communism was an International effort which
brought books to the Czech and Slovak Republics to nurture the new
democracies, bringing needed books for law reformation, for learning
English and sciences, they desperately wanted to catch up with the
western world. This grass roots movement championed by so many
caring people, according to the Czech Foreign Minister Jiri
Dientsbier "was the first sign the outside world cared." For me I
had the added honors from this International work resulting in two
"Woman of Distinction" Awards (1993), both in Los Angeles and Santa
Barbara and the “Woman of the Year” in Santa Barbara. I was one of
the subjects in a book by David Forward entitled Heroes After Hours
- Jossey-Bass Publishers (1994).
These experiences taught me valuable lessons on how individuals
can impact this world...and significantly... And when we travel we
become ambassadors of our nation.
Let's show the world we are a caring nation!
“When overseas you learn more about your own country, than you do
the place you’re visiting.” – Clint Borgen
In our travel businesses, AfricanSafarsi.travel,
Photo-safaris.com and TheAdventureTravel.Company, my husband, Louis
van Tonder and I concentrate on making connections with stellar
operations, to put people in safe hands so their experiences elevate
their lives and those they visit.
I promise you, Louis and I can create the most amazing time
you will have in your life and we love doing it! So what does it
take to be a traveler, world citizen and not a tourist. Let's have
the conversation!
Terri New - Incite Productions
Co-Owner: African Safaris and Travel / Adventure Travel Vacations
/ PhotoSafaris.com
Terri New
"Why Art?!"
I learn to walk in other shoes through great writing, extending
kindness, empathy, compassion...understanding.
Art is a daily cup of inspiration, a heartfelt motivation, a healing,
an enlivening, a complicated problem solving discourse, a joy, an
enlightenment, exploration of the furthest recesses of mind. Through
our stories...as a family, as a community, we define our
purpose...our world comes together through an understanding of each
other, in our histories, our truths and confrontations with life.
I slip in to the eternal abyss when looking into the paintings of
Da Vinci, of the plein air artists, and it leaves me awed,
inspirited motivated, excited by life and calm...it help me make
sense out this great cosmos we are part of.
Music has an emotional language that touches me in ways that
warps time, delves into hidden mysteries, it performs the task of
keeping me grounded and connects my own humanity and yours.
When I see a great performance I know I have been touched by
something bigger than all of us. The resounding effect is hope and
belief in something greater than myself and something that we
perhaps can accomplish together, it sears my imagination, it
provokes, incites me to want to do great things.
Artists provide us all an inroad to what we all spirituality
yearn for, a connection with something greater, emerging life with
purpose, give us depth where we might not have it, that give us soul
when we have lost our connection, that give us breadth and
complexity and greatness. Through ART we evolve, we as a culture
evolve...it all starts with an idea, who better has ideas...and
ideas of greatness than artists?
As a child with 11 siblings, a schizophrenic mother and an
alcoholic father, it was singing and plays that we created that gave
us an anchor to a better world. Music has been my salvation, my
healing, my source and as I grow older and take on other creative
challenges it has enriched my joy and my life... by the doors it has
opened, by the special people it has put me in contact with.
When I see a child singing one of my songs with her eyes to the
heavens, I know I have done a good thing. I have helped open that
door to possibilities, to hope, to that intimate world of
creation...with God or whatever you deem to call, the instinctual
being that propels us into some kind of glory in our life.
Glory is created through heroics deeds and to me, artists are
heroic people, to feel, to unearth an expression that daily needs
defined, to keep reaching into indefinable realms that come into the
forefront of life, to expand, reach, teach... for all artists
teach. It is inherent in the activity, this living prayer of
creation. Meaning and sense and beauty and thought provocation,
that is art to me.
I cannot imagine a life, or who would want a life without
art. I believe we are propelled towards creating sense and
beauty,...if it is nurtured in us, by our culture, if it finds
expression in our early years, we never let it go.
Terri New - Artist, Composer, Writer, Vocalist