Lau­rie Rubin is a young, Jew­ish opera singer who lives in Hawaii with her part­ner. She boasts her own jew­el­ry line, the LR Look, and has both a post­grad­u­ate degree and a remark­able oper­at­ic port­fo­lio. Oh, and she hap­pens to be blind.

The author of Do You Dream in Col­or?, Rubin has penned a mem­oir that describes her life, her deter­mi­na­tion to suc­ceed and the dis­cov­ery of her oper­at­ic tal­ent. This is a woman who has refused to allow her blind­ness to inter­fere with her goal. It’s also meant work­ing that much hard­er than every­one else to trans­form those goals into real­i­ty. Her book is riv­et­ing and read­ers will find them­selves cheer­ing for her vic­to­ries and feel­ing her pain when peers and instruc­tors dis­miss her or treat her as if she is invis­i­ble or ​‘less-than’ her sight­ed contemporaries.

“My biggest goal for this book was to share with peo­ple how I do every­thing from navigat­ing New York city inde­pen­dent­ly, to mak­ing jew­el­ry, to fol­low­ing a con­duc­tor on the great con­cert stages, as a way of show­ing that a great many things can be achieved with­out the use of sight,” she reflects. ​“I’ve sensed over the years that peo­ple real­ly do want to under­stand what my life is like, but they are afraid to ask ques­tions. The book is a way to open people’s minds to the vast array of abili­ties that peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties do have, thus mak­ing peo­ple like me valu­able, employ­able and sig­nif­i­cant con­trib­u­tors to society.”

Rubin’s achieve­ments are noth­ing short of inspir­ing, but so are her tal­ent and her sheer zest for life. She became a bat mitz­vah, learn­ing her Torah por­tion in Braille and she learned to cook. She has per­formed on stage with oth­er oper­at­ic stars and honed and trained her exquis­ite voice, win­ning many awards along the way. Do You Dream in Col­or? reveals Rubin’s strong per­son­al­i­ty, an hon­esty that is refresh­ing and beau­ti­ful and her adamant refusal to slip into the shad­ows and be ignored.

“I’d love to be known for being an artist who works hard to cre­ate mean­ing­ful inter­pre­ta­tions of pieces and as some­one who can open the doors for oth­er blind peo­ple where they might have been closed in soci­ety before,” she says. ​“I want to be known for the mark I’ve made on the world, not for any sup­posed courage I have for just fac­ing the world.”