This summer I mark my 15th year with the Read Boston Storymobile program. We will tell stories all over the city from July 8-August 16, 2013. Storytellers provide the stories and the Storymobile program provides the books, logistics and oganization, plus? They bring a brand new and free book for every child in attendance. All sites are open to the public. Here is what a day on the road with Read Boston looks like... Typically we are scheduled in three sites in one of the many Boston Neighborhoods and the sites are accessible to one another by public transport. The van will have dropped off books for the expected audience and when I arrive someone at the facility or venue will have boxes of books ready. Sometimes everyone knows where I will perform and which way the audience will be seated. The outdoor venues can be super challenging with rain, traffic noise, other camp groups and many environmental challenges as well. I wrote the following in 2007 about a day in the Summer of 2000 -
My work sends me to some funky venues. This one was a park along side a highway where the planes are low overhead in their approach to Logan. It was about 90ยบ F. It was also before lunch and maybe after nap. About 20 kids about 3 years old each, walking like somnambulists, holding on to clothesline were brought out to me and we were all led to a huge tree. How primal - how essential ! Me, a tree and a group of children. This is storytelling. This is what it is all about! The disaffected teen staff were sullen and glum. Who could blame them? It was so damn hot, humid and smelly. But when I pointed out that the broken glass mixed in the wet with dew*grass as unsuitable for tender toddler bottoms of my audience they became even unhappier. We moved around the tree and finally to another tree.And I started at last.
A plane roared overhead. I pushed on. Traffic flowed and growled in the background. I engaged and cavorted. Then a bright and perspicacious little boy noticed a huge dog turd about 18" inches away from my foot. God I wished I had seen that first. "Wow. Look Dog POOP!" 20 little heads were snapped around and riveted in attention on the brown, perfectly formed canine offering by my foot. The teen counselors perked up. This became a moment of intense interest. My audience could not get enough - Then it evolved into group participation... more here
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| Theresa Lynn and Mayor Menino at the Tadpole Pond |
ReadBoston's
Anna Adler has been working with parents at Boston Public Schools'
Newcomers Assessment and Counseling Center in the Madison Park Education
Complex. Participants in this nine hour training have been working hard
and having fun. With only one session remaining, they are well on their
way to becoming "Early Literacy Parent Leaders".
After Schools in Boston are invited to apply for ReadBoston's After School Reading Initiative. Created in 2000, ReadBoston's After School Reading Initiative has worked with over 90 after school programs throughout the city of Boston promoting reading, literature, and literacy. To accomplish this, ReadBoston works closely with after school directors and staff, coaching staff to lead engaging
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| Back in the day, the Storymobile was a huge RV with bookshelves |
Two years ago I wrote this post on my last day... It is my last day of Read Boston. I will be in Charlestown all day. Yesterday was a great day. I worked in the South End Settlement House in their lovely walled garden, the Tadpole playground on the Boston Common, at a school in Chinatown and then at the zebra gate of Franklin Park Zoo in the evening. Hard to express fully how joyful and satisfying it is to tell stories all day. Biking from place to place, on a gorgeous day, telling stories. My idea of heaven.
Today I wrote this on the way to Charlestown. What I especially enjoy about bicycling to the venues are the little things I get to see in the city. A meditation on some black details while riding on the Charles River to work.
black starling bathes in a tiny puddle on asphalt path
what a yellow beak!
kingfisher is a black question mark on top a
round white buoy.
A long shadow behind as I peddle by on a
black bike in early morning sun.
what a yellow beak!
kingfisher is a black question mark on top a
round white buoy.
A long shadow behind as I peddle by on a
black bike in early morning sun.
Here is my schedule for summer 2013:
· 7/15 Roxbury
11:15 AM 12TH BAPTIST CHURCH PRESCHOOL
- 160 WARREN STREET 1:15 PM VINE STREET COMMUNITY CENTER-
339 DUDLEY STREET
· 7/16 South Boston
· 7/17 West Roxbury
10:00 AM ROCHE CENTER
- 1716 CENTRE STREET
11:15 AM BILLINGS FIELD
CENTRE STREET & LAGRANGE STREET
1:15 PM OHRENBERGER COMMUNITY CENTER
175 WEST BOUNDARY ROAD
· 7/23 Dorchester
10:00 AM ROCKWOOD EARLY EDUCATION ACADEMY- 995 BLUE HILL AVENUE
11:15 AM CODMAN SQUARE LIBRARY - 690 WASHINGTON STREET 1:15 PM ELMHURST PARK 31 ELMHURST STREET
· 7/24 Jamaica Plain
CORNER OF MARCELLA & HIGHLAND STREET
· 7/25 Boston, South End, Chinatown
10:00 AM TADPOLE PLAYGROUND/ BOSTON COMMON 11:15 AM ESCUELITA BORIKEN 85 WEST NEWTON STREET 1:15 PM BOSTON CHINATOWN NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER 885 WASHINGTON STREET
· 7/26 Roslindale
10:00 AM FALLON FIELD ON THE CORNER OF SOUTH WALTER & SOUTH FAIRVIEW ST. 11:15 AM SOUTH SIDE HEAD START 19 CORINTH STREET 1:15 PM ROSLINDALE COMMUNITY CENTER 6 CUMMINGS HIGHWAY
· 7/31 Dorchester
10:00 AM PROJECT HOPE CHILDREN’S CENTER -45 MAGNOLIA STREET 11:15 AM GROVE HALL LIBRARY 41 GENEVA AVENUE 1:15 PM KROC CENTER 650 DUDLEY STREET
· 8/1 Allston
10:00 AM FAIRY TALE CHILDREN’S CENTER 14/20 LINDEN STREET 11:15 AM JACKSON MANN COMMUNITY CENTER 500 CAMBRIDGE STREET 1:15 PM HONAN-ALLSTON LIBRARY 300 NORTH HARVARD STREET
· 8/2 Dorchester
10:00 AM THE CRISPUS ATTUCKS CHILDREN’S CENTER - 105 CRAWFORD STREET 11:15 AM HOLLAND SCHOOL 85 OLNEY STREET 1:15 PM CLEVELAND COMMUNITY CENTER 11 CHARLES STREET
· 8/14 Dorchester
15 TALBOT AVE
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