How this man with one arm is using tech-based music to bring communities together.
There are so many ways and reasons to make music.
Emman "Small Eyez" Twe loves music, but an obstacle has gotten in the way of him playing traditional instruments — he only has one arm.
Twe was born prematurely and never fully developed a left arm. It made a lot of things more difficult for him to accomplish, but that didn't mean his mother stopped pushing him to succeed.
"My mom always told me that you have to work 20 times harder than everybody else," Twe recalls.

He often turned to the music world to escape his frustrations and connect with his inner spirit, but he felt he couldn't contribute as much as he'd like to because of his disability.
That all changed when he discovered how technology made music totally accessible to him.
Twe playing a keyboard. Photo via State Farm.
Thanks to software advancements, Twe found he could do almost anything he wanted to in the music world. At the age of 14, he put his writing and freestyling skills to work and made his first eight-track CD demo. At age 22, he founded the label Mind Musik Records and was performing with artists like Talib Kweli and Dead Prez.
"When I was making music, that’s when I became me," Twe says.
Today, he's taking all his music tech know-how and sharing it with other underserved people via his podcast, "Digital Good Times."
He started the show with friends Jack Preston and Tristan Khavari, who also believe in the importance of bringing the power of music technology to disadvantaged communities.
Preston on the podcast. Photo via State Farm.
"We know the sacrifices that others made for us to have the opportunities that we have, so it only seems fair that we extend those resources to those who may not have that same opportunity," Preston explains.
But it's not just about empowering others through technology and music on-air. Digital Good Times brings communities together IRL too.
They host regular music-centric events that they hope are bridging the gap between communities while inspiring people using cutting-edge technology.
Fans at a Digital Good Times event. Photo via State Farm.
These events usually highlight major players in the music and tech industries that have something new and exciting to share.
"[They're] real-life examples of what it means to be the real deal," Twe says.
Through tech, community, and collaboration, Twe is helping to show struggling creatives there is a world of opportunity waiting for them.
Of course his dad, who was a professor by day and a staple of community support at night, is brimming with pride.
Twe's dad. Photo via State Farm.
"If I can live up to half of [what he's done], then I’ll feel complete," Twe says.
Check out Twe's whole story here:



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An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
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Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.