Second Wind Tour makes two stops in Michigan

The innovative and theatrical Second Wind Tour,  with half-day stops in Royal Oak and Ypsilanti on May 7 and 8, offers offer audiences powerful insights into more deliberate, deeper, and connected ways of living and working.

Dr. Bill Thomas, well known as an inspirational writer, speaker, and performer, combines his efforts to promote change in medicine and society with elements of artistic expression. His background as a playwright and musician helped him to create the Second Wind Tour’s unique "non-fiction" theater experience blending theater, video, and music.

AARP Life Reimagined is a national sponsor of the event. Presbyterian Villages of Michigan and Botsford Hospital are local sponsors.

 Register for the free event at Royal Oak Music Theatre on May 7 from 1-5 p.m. at:

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/second-wind-tour-detroit-mi-tickets-10696673037?aff=aarp

Register for the free event at Pease Auditorium at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti on May 8 from 1-5 p.m. at:

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/second-wind-tour-ann-arbor-mi-tickets-10696701121?aff=aarp

   We live in a “youth obsessed” culture in which every race goes to the swiftest and every prize to the most aggressive. Dr. Thomas, one of the most innovative and creative thinkers working in medicine today, is bringing a radical new approach to growth and aging through a national “non-fiction” theatrical tour produced in partnership with AARP’s Life Reimagined, Captial Impact Partners, Merrill Lynch and more than three dozen sponsor organizations.

 Inspired by Thomas’ new book examining the baby boom generation’s reluctant generational second coming of age—“ Second Wind:  Navigating the Passage to a Slower, Deeper and More Connected Life” (published by Simon and Schuster March 11 and named by Publisher’s Weekly as a Top 10 Social Science book of 2014)—the Second Wind Tour will visit 25 cities on a national bus tour from March 31-June 6, 2014.

 Each half-day performance will be held in a premier theater with two acts. Act one will consist of five fast-paced theatrical monologues featuring a cast of speakers including Dr. Thomas and renowned consumer health expert and TV personality Dr. Janet Taylor. The second act blends the illumination of the deep connections between music, identity, and memory in the form a “marvelous surprise” documentary film preview by director Michael Rossato-Bennett followed by a live musical performance by Musicians for World Harmony Founder Samite Mulondo.

 By blending spoken word, innovative set design, film, and music into a single experience, the tour will offer audiences a holistic exploration that draws on a deep well of evidence-based approaches to growth, change, aging, health, and wellness. The goal of the tour is to start a new conversation that reframes “life after adulthood” as an exciting stage of human growth and development—a time for challenging received attitudes toward aging.

 "The Tour is really a companion to the book’s ‘second wind’ theme in that it challenges the conventional narrative of decline in mid-life and beyond,” Dr. Thomas said. “I want people to see, hear, feel, and connect to the power that arises from finding a 'second wind' in life."

 To launch the tour, Dr. Thomas assembled a coalition of more than three-dozen national and local sponsors who share his vision of helping people “re-imagine their lives, work, and communities.” Sponsors play a direct role in creating the tour, selecting the four speakers performing on stage with Dr. Thomas and personally inviting each attendee to the invitation-only events.

AARP created Life Reimagined to help millions of people navigate a new life phase, explore opportunities and live their best life.  Life Reimagined is a series of free programs, experiences, resources and services – online and offline – that help people turn their goals and dreams into real possibilities.  Dr. Taylor, a Life Reimagined thought leader, will offer insights and share tools that people need to discover their own personal path to purpose and fulfillment.

 "The Second Wind tour will be groundbreaking and promises to provide inspiration, insight and a new lens to view aging,” said Dr. Taylor. “After the show is over we want to provide the tools to help folks find their 'what's next?’ in life."

 The tour will also feature a national speaker from The Green House Project, a model for long-term care designed to look and feel like a real home. Over the last decade, Green House homes have provided an evidenced-based model that reinvents nursing homes across the United States. Conceived by Dr. Bill Thomas, Green House Homes have been replicated nationwide with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Capital Impact Partners, a community development financial institution, manages The Green House Project as part of their Community Solutions Group and provides financing for new Green House Homes nationwide. The Green House Project will be showcased by Capital Impact Partners on the tour.   

“The Green House Project allows us to reimagine how nursing homes should be and provides the setting and environment that all of us would prefer when we need long-term care,” explained Terry Simonette, President and CEO of Capital Impact Partners. “We are very excited to be a part of this extraordinary project and tour.” 

 Each tour stop will feature a local speaker selected by community sponsors and a number of regional performers will join the tour for a week at a time.