Welcome to Safari’s World. It’s a place where dreams and visions come to life. It’s a place where potential meets destiny. It’s a place where majesty and magic live and prove that if you believe in them, you can soar beyond your environment. It’s a place where brilliant colors and amazing music fill the air.
It’s a world created by the mind and mastery of one resourceful woman. Welcome to the world of Catherine Owens-Herrmann.
Catherine is a classically trained, gifted musician, composer and writer, who dreamt a world that she lived, one where your surroundings don’t dictate your possibilities. She has lived in the mountains of New York and in the Bayou of Louisiana. Catherine was an inquisitive young girl with a penchant for the piano, which later helped to shape her gifts as an accomplished musician. Then, along came Safari.
First born as a series of whimsical and witty songs and later a series of books (Safari’s Song and Safari’s Dream), the journey of Safari has birthed such creativity in Catherine that, in partnership with her technically-gifted husband and fellow animal lover Bill, they have formed Owens-Herrmann Entertainment. The general purpose of this creatively diverse arts-based company is to take the message of Safari—one of determination, self-worth and hope—to kids, young adults and even parents around the world. Once you read the story of Safari, you will see why they are so committed to Catherine’s magnificent story:
Safari's Song begins with a shipwreck in the Caribbean off the coast of Costa Rica. A monarch butterfly, captured by the captain as a gift for his daughter, is set adrift in the ocean swells and the storm separates her from her baby caterpillar, Safari. The baby finds her way to the bayous of Louisiana where she takes refuge among the monarchs there, and grows up. But she grows into a moth rather than a butterfly. She is treated like a moth and shunned by the butterflies; but all the while she believes in herself. When the queen of these monarchs, Queen Papillon, is struck down, Safari, disguised in monarch wings, is asked to lead the migration. The journey covers the east coast from Louisiana all the way to Canada, and is fraught with danger and filled with adventure and colorful characters.
Safari's friend, Jeanfrancois French Frog, remains back home in the pond, where he runs a tour business. One of his clients is an evil weasel politician who poisons the pond in order to sell clean water for money and votes. When this terrible thing happens, the animals take charge to solve the crime and make things right.
While they are apart, the frog and the moth communicate with each other through the moon, prefacing each conversation with the words: “Hello, moon.” In their duets such as “SWEET FACE” and consultations, they even seem to fall in love. In the final irony, an inability to communicate face to face challenges them.
The tale is an entertaining environmental myth with wonderful characters and music, all original and delightful.
This brilliant concept, which not only tells a timely story, one dealing with self-esteem, friendship and the environment, also allows parents and children to have bonding time as they read. Not your “traditional children’s book,” the Safari series is for the learning child, who can read along with their parents with illustrations to guide them, but not lead the story. This is a reading tool and, as a young girl who was expected to be smart, Catherine believes, and has seen first-hand, that when young minds are challenged, they always step up. “This story isn’t simple, but it’s clear. It's a time for parents to read with their children. The parents must be involved, but I have found that both parents and children love the story, for different reasons. The parents love it because their children are challenged and the children love it because they are nurtured,” says Catherine. That’s not just Safari’s story. That’s true of all young people. That’s also why Catherine and Bill see so much more for Safari than just the series of books.
After witnessing extraordinary productions in Washington, DC and on Broadway, Catherine and Bill began to envision the idea of “Safari’s Song” on stage. Bill says, “With the amazing success of ‘The Lion King’ and the way it was brought to the stage, we can see ‘Safari’ taking on that same visual majesty onstage.” Encouraged by family friend and tv/stage/film star Antonio Fargas (known to the world as “Huggy Bear” on the TV land classic “Starsky and Hutch,” which later became a feature film starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson and classic films like Car Wash”; he also appears in several TV series including "Everybody Hates Chris"), Catherine and Bill are preparing for that stage. With Catherine’s dynamic gifts as a composer (a full CD of Safari’s songs is already available on iTunes and several other sites, and includes such wonderful songs as “WATER AND AIR”, "BUCKET BRIGADE" and “SAFE PASSAGE”) and their mutual love for all things nature and visually stunning, they have formed a not-for-profit organization that encourages the same theme that is present in the story and the music; and which bears the same name as the song: “IT HELPS TO HAVE A DREAM (Check Youtube).” This lyrical melody wakes up the courage in young people to believe that they can believe! The story of Safari is about empowerment and encouragement and who couldn’t use a lot more of those during these trying times.
Catherine says, “We did a couple of readings for these ‘too-cool-for-school’ 8th graders and afterwards, they asked for our autographs! It was because the story spoke to them and in so many ways, Safari speaks for them! It’s about realizing your dreams and living your best life. That message is all over TV and in books and adults are receiving it. Imagine what our children will be when they receive that message as well!”
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