Audience Experience

Last night, I attended a marvelous reading and discussion with the author Anthony De Sa and Wilfried N'Sonde. Both authors were amazing, and revealed the excellent approaches they took about research and their backgrounds and how they contributed to their work. Both were WRITERS first, their backgrounds were just pieces which informed their writings-not characteristics by which they needed to be pigeonholed. I admit, that I came because De Sa had grown up in the Portuguese neighborhood of Toronto, and I had read Barnacle Love while in the Azores. There aren't enough children of Portuguese immigrants writing fiction today and I loved what I had encountered-feeling as if I was not alone in the experience. De Sa's new book is about Mozambique, Children of the Moon.  In an aside, he revealed that even though his uncles had fought in the wars (including Angola and Guinea), he had never gotten a fuller story out of them.  When I probed further, he mentioned how difficult ...

I was walking to my flight at the Jetblue Terminal and saw a tiny art studio in the lobby area. I stopped and chatted a bit, but was rushing to my flight.  What a funny place for a popup art location, I thought. And then I came through again, and my plane was delayed. Finally I had the proper time. I stayed and spoke to Davi Leventhal, and enchanting man who told me about being raised Brazilian in NYC, something I related to, being raised Azorean in Boston. His art was based on fuxicos-simple circles of fabric, which when combined, make a giant tapestry of color and energy.  Visitors are invited to make one and leave one. I made 3, but one fell apart.  He gifted me one-which I will attach to a blanket my grandmother made me. For more info: https://www.davileventhal.com/about.html https://www.aviationpros.com/airports/buildings-maintenance/press-release/21076449/the-port-authority-of-new-york-new-jersey-local-artist-residency-program-returns-to-laguardia-ai...

Linda Ronstadt, 1974 https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidalm/2019/08/30/review-linda-ronstadt-the-sound-of-my-voice/#13cf14c948c4

I'm happy to report that the performance of Thoreau/Twain: Brothers in the River for the Thoreau Society was a tremendous success. Brent Rinalli, Tammy Rose and Joel Hersh The main performers were Brent Rinalli, who has been in and around Concord giving lectures and historical interpreting as Thoreau for the past few years and Joel Hersh, a local actor known for his varied musical ability-played Twain. The main conceit of the show is that an Academic is trying to summon the spirits of the authors, to have them discuss a major, and underexplored parallel of their lives.  Both of them had a deep relationship with a brother on the river of their childhood, and both of them lost that brother to a sudden event. This happened before either of them began to write-but both found inspiration in their brothers and documented the influences strongly in their writings. The authors -who had never met in real life- get deep into conversation, about their lives, commonaliti...

Thoreau/Twain: Brothers on the River Masonic Hall,  58 Monument Sq,  Concord, MA Wednesday, July 10, 2019 7pm (immediately after the performance of "HDT's Heroic Journey") https://www.thoreausociety.org/annual-gathering#Wed "Be thou my Muse, my Brother--," A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers Both Henry David Thoreau and Samuel Clemens were by the deathbeds of their beloved brothers.  What happens when one brother is left on the river, and the other has to complete the rest of the journey in life alone? Come see Henry David Thoreau and Mark Twain meet under new and unusual circumstances; a meeting that never happened in history. Finally, both have a chance to recognize and reconcile their parallel journeys.  Primary texts of the play are taken directly from primary sources, including A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers & Life on the Mississippi, as well as from journals & letters from the authors themselv...

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