Jefferson Jay has earned a number of titles during his lifetime: musician, songwriter,historian, teacher and even scholar.
But now Jay, who’s perhaps best known as the founder and driving force behind the San Diego Music Hall of Fame, is adding another title to his resume: author.
He has written a children’s book that recognizes and celebrates the differences amongpeople, particularly those who have physical disabilities or are neurodivergent.
His new book, The Hunt for the Holiday Spirit, is based on a stage performance of the samename that Jay created and has been performed by a cast of developmentally disabled peoplefor years.
Characters in the book, in addition to four young children, include The Great Christmas Tree – a tree that doesn’t want to be cut down – The Magic Snowwoman, who uses a wheelchair,and Snow Angel, who uses crutches.
The concept came to Jay as a result of his work with those who have special needs. He was in the process of earning his master’s degree in history at San Diego State University when he began working as a substitute teacher in the San Diego Unified School District. As a substitute, he often wound up teaching special education students.
“I got comfortable pretty quickly in that environment and discovered that I could makemeaningful connections with some of the students through music,” he said.
He was so successful at it that he later started to perform music therapy for adults withdisabilities at a center in El Cajon. Like the young students, he was quickly able toform connections and develop bonds. His work at the center eventually led to him being asked to write and direct a holiday show for the day center.
Jay, who has a background in high school theater, agreed. He came up with a plot and script,and cast neurodivergent people in all the roles for the performance.
“I expected it to be perfectly fine and nice, but it way exceeded my expectations,” he said,explaining that not only did the performers’ talents blossom, but that friends and family members were happy for them.
“I was super amped up, and I went home and wrote seven more episodes,” he said,explaining that in the scripted saga, the seven main characters go on a journey together, muchlike if Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz had stayed friends with the Tin Man and other characters and they kept having adventures.
After writing and directing a number of performances between 2014 and 2018, Jay started acompany, The Good Vibe, to expand and further develop his concept as a series of animatedepisodes.
Over time, he learned that it would probably take millions of dollars to complete and launchan animated series, so in June he decided that for now, the best way to pursue his goal was to write a children’s book based on the first adventure that he crafted back in 2014.
The result is a 32-page rhyming children’s book illustrated by Hillcrest-based animation artistAndres Cortes, a longtime friend of Jay who helped design the visuals for the proposedanimated series.
“It’s taken our intellectual property and expanded the universe, given us a product, somethingI can put in peoples’ hands,” Jay said of the book. “I’m very humbled and moved by this wholeprocess.”
Cortes, the illustrator, said that he was thrilled to work on the project.
“It really focuses on people who are disabled and not appreciated in the world,” Cortes said. “It’s pretty amazing.”
Cortes said it took about a month and a half to illustrate the book, and that he’s excited forthe world to see the final product.
“I’m revved up for this book to promote the animation process, because there’s going to be abig animated production and we want to make this into an animated series, and everyoneshould look forward to some awesome stuff,” he said.
The book is available for pre-sale via the website huntfortheholidayspirit.com and Jay said that anyone who pre-orders by Sunday is guaranteed to receive a copy before Christmas.
Jay also expects to make the book available for purchase on Amazon and elsewhere.
“I’m a little new to the book publishing game, so I’ve got a lot to learn about the ins and outsand ups and downs, but hopefully we’ll be in bookstores and all the different places, libraries,(everywhere) people get their books from, before too long.”
“I think we have the potential to be the outreach arm for the equality and disability justicemovement,” Jay added. “I think a key thing is to get authentic representation in the media likenever before for the 1.2 billion people worldwide with disabilities and show people who might not know that just because you may have autism or Down syndrome or whatever else, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have a valuable voice in the discussion of society.”
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