Grammy nominated songwriter Terry Radigan mixes her gritty Brooklyn girl sensibility with a deep respect for classic American roots, country and soul. Her solo releases have been oft played and well-received. She has had her songs covered by a wide variety of artists and her songs can be heard on big and small screens alike. She is also a member of the musical group Vickikristinabarcelona.

So, I started the program called Shelter Songs. I'm in two shelters now and expanding to 4 or 5 throughout the city. It's a nice thing to just look at them and say, "I'm with you for an hour. I'm here to serve you. Whatever you want. I have no agenda on what we're going to write. And it's incredible how generous everybody who walks into the sessions are because they show up. They don't know me. They just see a woman in a room with a guitar, and they show up and they've got some faith in it. And when they hear their words come back to them, they light up because they're like, "Oh, wait, that's like a real song. That sounds good.”

And they get excited by it. And then what I do is, I tell them, “Okay, so we finish with our session,” and then I go away, but I give them a download card and I say to them, in 48 hours your song is going to be on this website, and you can download it and you can share it.”

And all of sudden, “Oh, my gosh, I did this, and there's something tangible from it and I can share. And maybe I can reach out to some people I know and let them hear what I've been about.”

This is an excerpt of a 5,000 word interview which will be published and podcasted across a network of participating university journals and national arts/literary magazines.

Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process.