Chalking it up to age and...

Chalking it up to age and... love of our civil rights.

Sira meets Julia, 1984

It could all just be chalked up to my age, a love of democracy and an infatuation with civil rights. Our constitutional  rights exist to make our lives, culture and neighborhoods, civil. Gotta love that!  Yet, it was more.  I felt compelled to do my crazy and ill-timed ( for my  schedule) project for many reasons. One was to mark many decades of trying to find an effective way to be an artist and add something to the ongoing struggle for human dignity, justice and peace. Another reason was purely sentimental. My first ever Arts Grant was a teaching project in 1984, where I took a group of kids out on the sidewalks of Central Square Cambridge and taught them some drawing basics as we moved through the neighborhood, creating art in unexpected places. At some point during the 4 week project, WGBH covered our proceedings and the clip of us working in early July, 1984 was aired (or repeated?) on September 8th. This also was the day our 2nd daughter, Julia was born. A maternity ward nurse recognized me and said, "Who would have thought you'd be out drawing on the sidewalk and having a baby the same day?" I was confused but she explained and we sorted it out. Back in the day, we did not have a TV and I was too busy before and right after Julia was born to be able to track down and see that video.

4:15 am Jul 18, 2013

Through the years I have marked my birthday by asking my family to cut me some slack and take care of business so I would have the time to do something nutty like chalk drawing from dawn to dusk. I find the process of chalk drawing delightfully ephemeral, completely impracticable, a bit challenging and totally enjoyable. I am not even very good at  it at this point - so woefully out of shape am I. Not only is squatting difficult but I have not been drawing regularly for over 8 years. When you were never very gifted to begin with (like me) you'll find that your rendering chops fall away like a towel at a pool side. Still, it seemed like it would be too much fun not to at least try.

But in my 60th year, chalking had a new element; First Amendment Rights. A few weeks ago,  I had read about the then pending case of a young man being charged with 13 counts of "disorderly conduct" for chalking the following message "Corbett [Gov of PA] has health care and we should too." [see above] His fines could be as high as $13K and his sentence as long as 13 years. I was amazed. I was incredulous. Mostly, I was deeply affronted by this attack on our civil rights.

5:00 am Jul 18, 2013

A friend showed me several instances of similar cases and this moved me to include a political statement in my artsy-fartsy birthday plans. Here is one of the cases that especially piqued my interest: "A jury Monday acquitted a 40-year-old man of all charges connected with writing protest messages in chalk on the sidewalk outside branches of the Bank of America.  Deliberating for only a few hours, the jury...declared Jeff Olson not guilty on all 13 misdemeanor counts filed by Goldsmith’s office. Olson never denied writing the slogans.
One slogan said, “No thanks, big banks.” Another, “Shame on Bank of America.” And in yet another, the bank was portrayed as an octopus grabbing at cash with its tentacles. “It’s chalk,” Filner told reporters last week in an exasperated tone. “It’s water-soluble chalk. They were political slogans.”But courts have held that graffiti remains illegal even if it can be easily washed off, Goldsmith said. That the Bank of America contacted the city attorney’s office to reportedly urge prosecution has become part of the dispute. 

6:35 am Jul 18, 2013

Really? Corporations telling a DA who to prosecute? Faster than you can say "David and Goliath" I had chalk in hand and a full head of steam. I was pissed. BUT... instead of rushing headlong into this contested arena I decided to check my natural rash impulses and read the Town By-Laws. Finding no explicit rule against chalking on sidewalks,  I found a copy of a Brookline Rec Department flyer that invited citizens to participate in sidewalk chalk art. Then I also dug up a 9 year old article about me drawing in chalk on my birthday.  Thus prepared I called Town Hall the next day to see if drawing in chalk, in Brookline,  required permission. My first encounter was with the Building Department, which seemed like the wrong town agency but in fact, all signage and public space in Coolidge Corner are under the Building Inspector's jurisdiction.  Mike Yanovitch said that as long as my work was not "political or offensive" it should be fine. I bristled and my sub-clinical Tourette's kicked in and I blurted that I was not asking for a critical opinion on my art, just the legal stance of the Town of B on chalking sidewalks. Mr. Yanovitch immediately changed tacks and so did I. Within hours I had sent him an email thanking him and giving him tons of "background" information. And I waited.

6:55 am Jul 18, 2013

After 5 days I wrote again asking if Mr. Y had received my information. He had and said he was fine with the project and, he freely offered, without any prompt from me, that permission is not based  a "content thing" but that I did need to talk to Department of Public Works. So, I journeyed on.

I called Peter Ditto at the DPW. Mr. Ditto said the main issues were about space - I must not block traffic and I must leave a 4' wide for handicap access. I explained that I had taken some pictures of where I wanted to work and would send them. I added that I try to work before rush hour, 5AM - 8AM and likely would need more than one day due to my day job schedule.

7:00 am Jul 18, 2013

Mr. Ditto asked me to send the info I sent to Mr. Yanovitch and add to it locations of the sidewalks I was interested in, which I did in a neat pdf proposal. He said I should check in with the Police Department too. Only too happy to, said I BUT suggested that someone might issue a letter of permission just in case. What if not everyone on the BPD force gets the word of mouth that my actions have been authorized? In the past I have been stopped and challenged by officers of the law and always found it useful to have a document on my person. Mr.Ditto promised he would get back to me.

So, I waited. And waited.  On July 10, I received this email [below]… denying me permission.  This is where my story may have taken a very different turn if not for my fortune to count as a friend and colleague an ace, 1st amendment lawyer.  Enter (stage left) Michael Anderson.

A civilized exchange

Michael Anderson is a prestigious attorney, a wonderful storyteller and a fabulous Shakespearean actor as well. Michael's bio and tagline, which I have typed into many a program note ends with:

8:01 am Jul 18, 2013

"There is no such thing as free speech if you do not use it." It seemed like I was getting no where, fast, so  I wrote to him for advice on finding a pro-bono lawyer. He offered his service, a winning strategy and we hit the sidewalk - um, road, running. In no time Michael had cases, examples of chalk art on Town sidewalks and a very comprehensive letter formulated. When permission was officially denied, my lawyer ( sounds impressive, no? ) sent the letter to the Town Counsel. I believe there was a quick response by phone and after a conference between Michael and Jennifer Dopazo Gilbert, verbal permission was granted. And we waited some more. Finally, on July 15th I received my permit for 4 hours on July 18th of chalking in the areas I requested.

It is a victory. I know. But seriously folks? I thought that the Bill of Rights protected us average citizens who normally cannot afford a consigliere. Did I really need to explain myself so extensively, then lawyer-up and persist just to do a few chalk drawings? Apparently, the answer is yes. But my lingering questions are, should this be? And, if so, what are we going to do about it ?

Rosie takes a snap for me @ 6:55 am Jul 18, 2013

Birthday Art Project - July 18th - dawn

Photo by: Jacqueline Biggs

"Chalking is a spontaneous act of beauty."  - sidewalk artist, Norah Dooley

To celebrate her 60th birthday, on Thursday July 18 from 4-8am, Brookline artist Norah Dooley will execute an  art project in chalk on the sidewalks of Coolidge Corner. She says her work will be " A poor girl's Jenny Holzer."  Holzer is an American conceptual artist who is mostly known for her large-scale public displays of provocative words, mantras and ideas. Dooley's work is much smaller in scale and will feature small colorful mandalas and the sayings of dead and live presidents on the sidewalk. Dooley has executed similar works in the past in Central Square, Cambridge and Athol, MA.

"Like sand paintings, sunsets and other natural ancient forms, the art is meant to be temporary and, like life itself, fleeting" said Dooley.

The Town of Brookline initially refused Dooley permission. But with the help of ace First Amendment lawyer Michael Anderson, Dooley eventually convinced Town officials that she has a right to peaceful expression on the sidewalk. “The Town of Brookline allows commercial newspapers to put large newsracks on the Coolidge Corner sidewalks. If the Boston Herald gets to occupy public space to sell its point of view, then the Town cannot constitutionally prohibit me from expressing mine in washable chalk,” said Dooley. There has been much civil rights litigation over protest chalk drawing in the wake of the Occupy movement, from San Diego (where a jury acquitted a chalk artist of thirteen criminal counts) to Flint, Michigan to Orlando. “I am glad that the Town officials acted responsibly to recognize my free speech rights, rather than requiring us to go to court.”  

Below are the words she chose. They will be bracketed with mandalas - one will have in a circle of words  around it  -  "If you see something, say something." The other mandala will have just one  word : either " racism" or "poverty" or "injustice" or  "violence "

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.
Abraham Lincoln

A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

"A society's soul is most  keenly revealed in the way it treats its children."
Nelson Mandela

She says she is not sure about this last one.... "I may just add it as my signature!"

"...if I did not laugh, I should die."
Abraham Lincoln

What is this all about, really? The artist shrugged and said... " I like to add  beauty to disused public spaces and I have a friend who says 'Free speech isn't free if you do not use it.' Two birds with one stone?"

ReadBoston 2013 - storytelling all over the city

by Norah Dooley

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 90º 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

Theresa Lynn and Mayor Menino at the Tadpole Pond

But this not all Read Boston does... At their Facebook page I found:  (6 photos) of

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".

In February they set up this deal. Throw on your jammies and tuck into a good tale during the Hotel Commonwealth’s pajama party and storytelling event Feb. 22-23. The Bedtime Stories package features professional storytellers and performers from ReadBoston. Meet and get your photo taken with George, and make your own hot chocolate. Pay $20 to attend the event each night, 7-8:30 p.m. Or book the Hotel for Kids package for Feb. 22 or 23 at a starting rate of $229, based on availability, which includes a four-person suite, a kids’ backpack with L.L. Bean slippers, free valet parking, and a morning pancake-making class for kids. Stay the second night for $169. 866-784-4000,Parent Training at BPS Newcomers Assessment and Counseling Center or    www.hotelcommonwealth.com

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

Back in the day, the Storymobile was a huge RV with bookshelves

literacy activities. These activities include reading aloud with groups of students, creating independent reading times, and promoting book-related activities. ReadBoston also purchases and develops diverse book collections in after school programs, creating inviting spaces for reading. Both school-based and community-based programs are invited to apply. Organizations may choose to apply for more than one site, but must submit separate applications for each site.

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.

Here is my schedule for  summer  2013:

·         7/15  Roxbury

10:00 AM  HATTIE B. COOPER COMMUNITY CENTER -1891 WASHINGTON STREET

11:15 AM 12TH BAPTIST CHURCH PRESCHOOL
- 160 WARREN STREET  1:15 PM VINE STREET COMMUNITY CENTER- 
339 DUDLEY STREET

·         7/16  South Boston

10:00 AM  LABOURE CENTER
 -275 WEST BROADWAY  11:15 AM TIERNEY LEARNING CENTER
 125 MERCER STREET  * 12:45 PM *  SOUTH BOSTON BOYS & GIRLS CLUB
      -230 WEST 6TH STREET

·         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 

10:00 AM JAMAICA PLAIN HEAD START 315 CENTRE STREET – REAR  11:15 AM HENNIGAN COMMUNITY CENTER - 200 HEATH STREET 1:15 PM  MARCELLA PARK
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

10:00 AM YAWKEY CENTER 185 COLUMBIA ROAD 11:15 AM GERTRUDE TOWNSEND HEAD START  198 GENEVA AVENUE  1:15 PM BLUE HILL BOYS & GIRLS CLUB
15 TALBOT AVE

Reflections on the Creative Leadership Award

Introducing Maria Tatar at our first "Grimm and Twisted" fairytale slam - also the 200th anniversary of the Grimms

Reflections on a Creative Leadership Award

by Norah Dooley
Photos by: Paula H. Junn
This Tuesday, June 4th, 2013  I am honored to receive a Creative Leadership Award at Puppet Showplace Theatre at the Garden Party Gala, celebrating the occasion of their 39th birthday. See details at their website and let me know if you would like to come.

When we first approached Puppet Showplace, in 2010, with the idea of a collaboration, massmouth was just over one year old. We had long known and respected Puppet Showplace Theatre as a venue that supported the art form of puppetry which,  much like storytelling,  it is an art form with ancient roots that evokes rather than replaces imagination. We also knew that Puppet Showplace Theatre were successful. They had a history that showed grit and commitment that we could admire and aspire to; they had survived as artists and had maintained a continuously operating theater right in the heart of Greater Boston for over 3 decades.

Three years ago,  we were whippersnappers, who had just finished our first season of story slams and believed we had a some social capital to share. And if leadership is boldly asking for what one needs, whether  appropriate or not, then I have earned some part of this honor -  although Cheeky Monkey Award would be a name better fitted to my style. We were beggars at the Puppet Theatre gate and  very seriously in need of inexpensive or free office space because our operations had outgrown bedroom/living room arrangement. I suggested a collaboration based on our needs. Ultimately and not surprisingly, the first date between massmouth and Puppet Showplace Theatre did not lead to a relationship.

Skip ahead to this spring.  I am reading ( more precisely, skimming)  the email announcing I was being honored with this award. At first glance I thought that I was being asked to write a recommendation for Roxie Myrhum.  She was the one who helped us find a way to work together.  How perfect, I thought. Roxie is someone with vision, passion and drive. She really deserves this kind of award. I was so delighted to be able to do a small favor for Artistic Director of the Puppet Showplace Theatre that I started to read the email, just to be sure I knew when the deadline for my recommendation might be.

This closer reading revealed a mind-blowing truth - The Creative Leadership Award was being given to me and Roxie had been my nominator. I know. It was crazy!  Immediately I was on the phone asking Maria Finison if the award could be expanded to include the other organizers and founders of massmouth who are still active in Boston. Specifically, Doria Hughes who co-hosted and planned the series at Puppet Showplace Theatre with me and Andrea Lovett, who is always actively promoting the art of storytelling.  They both are leaders in the very best in contemporary performance of traditional material. But, no dice. This is an award for one person and Puppet Showplace Theatre wanted me. They cited the other areas of my work as fitting their criteria; my picture books, workshops, curricula etc. and so, although it is awkward to be so honored, I realized that I had to man-up and take one for the team.  So I accept this award for me as a representative of the art of  storytelling.

Last summer after a different kind of overture we shared a proposal with Puppet Showplace Theatre and created a project that worked. It had been a dream at massmouth,inc. that we would one day be able to entice a theater or another arts group to support traditional storytelling.  This was an area of storytelling that we had mastered and worked in for decades. When we saw all storytelling on the wane, we started massmouth. When we saw the new energy slams brought to the art form we came up with an idea to mimic our successful 1st person story slams only using traditional content.

Doria Hughes, storyteller fabulosa,  traditional storytellers from Greater Boston and the region and I presented a monthly series of folk & fairy tale slams events right here. Our Slamming the Tradition: Six traditional storytelling events for adults were part open slam, where tellers presented stories no longer than 7 minutes, that were fiction and in some traditional form and part featured performer. Unlike our other story slams, tellers could include props, costumes and music BUT no notes. We secured the prizes and the audience chose winners: A bag of magic beans, magic wishing stone and a small bale of hay were award each month along with a gift card, donated by the Brookline Booksmith. Our first event was written up in ArtsFuse OCT 21 2012.

Performing with Susan Miron on February 14th, 2013

Audiences and performers enjoyed the project and you can read more about specific nights here. One of the highlights of our series for me was that I was able to create a program and present a feature on Feb 14th,  2013, telling longer stories from Boccaccio's 14th century collection of tales, The Decameron. Giovanni Boccaccio, a favorite of mine. He was an Italian author and poet, and an important Renaissance humanist. Boccaccio is particularly noted for his natural, his skewering of hypocrites in high places, witty dialogue and his sympathetic female characters.

My stories ranged from naughty to lusty, and included romantic tales that came from ancient story traditions of India and the bards of the Holy Roman Empire. Susan Miron accompanied me on the harp. She drew on various ancient folk melodies and dances from Southern Italy. The music comes from authentic folk songs of Campagnia, Calabria, Puglia & Napoli as transcribed by John LaBarbera, mandolinist.

Some traditional stories 'back story below and more at this link: Folk tales: the TV of preliterate culture Folk tales: entertainment for adults & the TV of preliterate culture

Since we announced our Folk and Fairy Tale Slams, all sorts of people I thought would know better, have been perplexed. "Traditional stories? Huh? What is a traditional story?"  In the paragraphs below I have tortured and twisted a wikipedia article into illustrating a Miller Analogy Test type statement. My main intent was to explore and hopefully explain the difference between traditional storytelling and contemporary 1st person narrative in performance. Secondly, I hoped to save time by lifting lots of the material for my explanation. This process is sometimes called slapdash, and, when less transparent, also known as plagiarism or "lack of artistic integrity". The statement I am working with is: traditional stories are to contemporary 1st person narrative stories as traditional folk songs are to singer-songwriter's songs. Imagine an acoustic performance of Arrow, by Cheryl Wheeler next to a performance by Simon And Garfunkel "Scarborough Fair"  or any other traditional ballad of Great Britain. 

From a historical perspective, traditional/folk storytelling has these characteristics:
    •    Traditional stories were transmitted through the oral tradition. Before the twentieth century, most people were illiterate. They acquired stories by listening and memorizing them. Primarily, this was not mediated by books, recorded or transmitted by any media. Contemporary yet traditional storytellers may extend their repertoire using picture books or CDs, but these are secondary enhancements when they are of the same character as the primary stories experienced in live performance.

• Storytelling is typically culturally particular; from a geographic region or culture. In the context of an immigrant group, storytelling acquires an extra dimension for social cohesion. It is particularly conspicuous in the United States, where immigrants and  oppressed minorities strive to emphasize their differences from the mainstream. They may learn stories that originate in the countries their grandparents came from.
• Stories may commemorate historical and/or personal events. Religions, spiritual traditions, and religious festivals may have a storytelling component especially a set of teaching stories. 
• Stories at communal events bring children and non-professional storytellers to participate in a public arena, giving an emotional bonding that is unrelated to the aesthetic qualities of the  performance.
• Traditional stories have been performed, by custom, over a long period of time, over many generations. 

Other characteristics sometimes present:    •    Fusion of cultures: In the same way that people can have a mixed background, with parents originating in different continents, so too, storytelling is often a blend of influences. A digital element can be added to an old  story creating a new genre for the art form of storytelling.
    •    Traditional storytelling is non-commercial in that no one can own a traditional story and we are within our rights to say, "Back off, Disney! Put the law suits away, and the folktale collection down and no one gets hurt."

All the performers at "Love, sex and heads may roll."

Thank you so much to Andrea, Doria and Stu, the co-founders of massmouth, to Paula Junn and Hannah Lapuh the staff, the Board of Directors and all the volunteers at massmouth. Thanks to all my friends and supporters especially Sheila Leavitt and Susan Miron. Thanks to all the storytellers and listeners. Thanks so much to all at Puppet Showplace Theatre. You are our artistic cousins and have treated us like family -and you all have been delightfully collegial and fun to work with besides.  And, saving the most important for last, thanks to my family for their support my art and endurance of my absences, rants and excesses as I follow a quixotic quest for a path that leads to right livelihood through work as an artist. Thank you, all.

Meanwhile...six months later, a post.

Robert, with ice on his knee and staff by his side.

It has been a very long six months and I am happy to say that I have loads of good news to share! Here is some personal and organizational news all in a jumble.  First, our new massmouth, inc. board of directors helped us launch an Annual Appeal which raised nearly $3,000. This helped us meet the challenge of Mass Humanities our main funder. They had asked us to raise over ten thousand dollars more than we had raised last year to be able to run the StoriesLive® high school project for a 3rd year.  In order to demonstrate that our organization is worth supporting ( they loved the program) and that we had the infrastructure to be able to go on after our last $10,000 grant we had to really put the pedal to the metal. Our appeal was timely and really appealed to the Three Apples Storytelling Festival which was dissolving and as a nonprofit had to bestow it's remaining assets on some other nonprofit. Susan Harris, the treasurer and 'keeper of the flame' chose us and we received our first $5,000 outright gift on Dec 31st, 2012.

During the holidays my husband and I locked knees while dancing and I tore the meniscus of his right knee. This was just before we would leave to see our eldest daughter graduate from her PhD. program at Durham University in the UK.  So proud! She is a scholar, a gentlewoman and now, a Doctor of Philosophy. Despite hurting him so badly that he needed a wheel- chair for part of our travels, he managed to forgive me and recover enough to use a cane and have some fun in Merry Olde England. It was a lovely and brief trip. The man is an animal. I would still be on crutches but Robert heals quickly. And credits PT with his near complete recovery.

We both returned from our 5 whirlwind days in the UK to a load of
work. At massmouth we had sold out shows and the teaching of over 1,200 high school students in 9 weeks to pull together. Then it started to snow - a lot! And while it was snowing and everyone was home during the main blizzard in February and our schedule for StoriesLive® was taking a pounding from the weather... both massmouth and my personal bank cards were "skimmed"  and $2,500 was taken from our accounts before we realized what was happening. Think of this kind of theft is the gift that "keeps on giving." The disorganization and disruption of your daily life goes on for quite long time. I still get bills or cancellation notices from accounts that bill every every quarter, 6 months or yearly and were connected to those two cards. We are so thankful that the bank give us back the money that was stolen. Phew! We would've been in deep deep trouble without it!

We managed to complete a hugely busy season IV of story slams, sell out the Coolidge Corner Theater for a third year in a row and raise over $5,000 for the StoriesLive® program which, in its 3rd year, taught over 2,000 high school students to tell their stories. 

It was a near thing since the terrorist attack on April 15th made it hard for live events  that week - ours was on April 17th yet we filled the theater. But the high school regional slam was at the Boston Library and all of Boylston Street was closed, including the Library right up until a three days before the high school event. Luckily enough of the students still came and even though it was half the number expected the nearly 30 who performed were enough to make it an event to remember.

This spring I managed to remember to complete a syllabus for a course proposal in storytelling at Tufts University, my alma mater. I was delighted to learn last week that the course will accepted and will be listed and if enough students enroll, I will be teaching EXP-0003-F: Performance Art, Podcasts, and Slams: Storytelling in Theory and Practice to undergraduates at Tuft's Ex-College on Tues nights this fall.

This summer I will again be telling stories all over the city, three public sites a day, for Read Boston in late July and early August.  And in early July,  I will be leading a storytelling workshop for activists as part of the Camp Commons Week - Building Community Resilience at the World Fellowship Center in Albany, New Hampshire and the week will end with my new friends Mary Hannon and Chuck Collins leading a story slam, using the knowledge they have gained from massmouth story slams. This makes me very happy. Our inclusive, spread the joy,  each-one-teach-one is working and there are more  and more places where storytelling is known and respected.

One more bit of good news, this June I am being honored with a Creative Leadership Award at Puppet Showplace Theatre and will write about that in my next blog.

But the best news of all is that I finally have the time to write some of it down! Enjoy your summer!

Storytelling everywhere...ReadBoston summer, 2012

Reading and engaging,  Bob Sheridan was into it! Photo: Bill Brett  The Boston Globe

"Savings Bank Life Insurance president Bob Sheridan had the audience transfixed at Labouré Center in South Boston, where he read the Eric Carle classic “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” to about 200 children as part of a ReadBoston event." I was up next and I had a blast riding on the energy of 200 little souls who were lapping up every image and turn of phrase in the traditional tales we told, together.

About my job...

Some days and in certain circles, I get a lot of negative feed back about my "job".  True,  I am not making any money. I work many long hours. Um, check.  Sorry, it is true; I do think and talk about little else.  So, sometimes I feel pretty lowdown particularly days where I need to spend money to keep things afloat. Yet, when I was asked to make a pitch about our organization I found it easy to make some pretty bold statements about what we are doing.  Below is a video and some of the written thoughts I sent to the newly formed Board of Directors.

1. While most people acknowledge that storytelling is  a human universal,  in our work we regularly make storytelling universally available to all.  This year we will teach all the juniors in Newburyport, Watertown, Everett and ALL the seniors of Lynn Classical High School.  Not just the, honors or AP or theater students. 3,000 students so far and in 10 schools this year. We teach in mostly Title 1 schools and we have included ELL classes as well.

“I teach literature to students who have many talents, but writing can be a major challenge to bilingual learners who are often immigrants or first generation Americans. To have Norah and the other storytellers come into our classroom ... was like unlocking a vault in my high schoolers. Every one of them, from the most boisterous to the shyest, took their moment in front of an audience to speak. For some, this was the first time they published themselves.” • Sondra Longo, AP Literature and Composition Journalism - Lawrence High School

2. We bring out the unique "voices" of students from truly diverse backgrounds...

Students like Maho (Lynn Classical High), known for being shy and stuttering, get up and present a vivid world of a war-torn 3rd world village that their classmates  never knew.  Students like Sandy (Boston Latin Academy), an award winning slam poet and practiced performer, get up and challenge themselves to take it a step further.  She told how watching her 4 year-old nephew die changed her life. Today, Sandy is at Simmons College and intends to become a pediatrician.

When students who live in a virtual “war zone” of poverty, violence and crime, heard Maho's (Lynn,MA) story about growing up in an actual war zone of Bosnia, their world and world view became much wider. When Sandy (Boston,MA) told her story of how a pleasant family birthday gathering devolved into the shooting of her 4 year-old nephew, students with more stable lives were able to connect a face and a voice to a story of human suffering that may have been every bit as exotic to them as Maho’s Bosnia. The students listen to each other with an intensity and respect that is beautiful to see. They are thirsty for this kind of connection and self-expression.

3. We are unique.  And have a proven track record. Our programs and organization, massmouth,inc.,  were created by storytellers and educators - steeped and versed in the timeless art form. Other storytelling organizations that are more famous and successful were started by writers, comics and theater people. This is not bad but it is not connected to the richer and noncommercial art form.  We all exploit the phenomenon of storytelling.  Meaning all story slams depend on the innate human ability to tell a story - with a little focus and direction.  We at massmouth go deeper. We explore and share the "art" of storytelling.

At the moment, massmouth,inc. is the only group that reaches a contemporary audience in clubs, cafés and even larger theater venues AND promotes traditional form of stories ( folk, fairy, myth, parable etc.)  AND  teaches, during school time, in the high school ELA curriculum. We run the only in-school, during instructional time, storytelling program and organize the only regional high school story slam in the country - if not the world.