Appearances and Activities
For the last few years, since I stepped away from my role as a university educator, I've been working on several other large projects. That means my own creative projects, my role as Founding Director of Hidden River Arts, my activist/education projects, Guerilla U and 'Junct (which includes finally working to finish the documentary.) I also returned, after many years, to singing. I joined my friend and singing partner, Jean Brooks, in a project we called Cabaret Divas. We designed, wrote and performed cabarets: "Love Sucks. Let's Sing!" and "Bawdy and Soul" are the two we've performed so far, and we're working on several more. We are currently on a hiatus that began against our will with the pandemic lockdowns. Since, we've both gotten busy with other projects - me with work on the documentary and Jean to work on her new company, Retire to Life. But on this hiatus, we are still in the concept stage of a new cabaret as well as creating a collection of American songbook sets. We're hoping that we will be able to perform together soon.
A new collection of short stories is one of my current creative projects. The collection will be called Crossing the Line, and each story will explore a person who has gone WAY too far over the line of what is acceptable human behavior. The first of these stories, "Do It Yourself Finishing School", was published in Adelaide this past fall. Another, "Beverly at the Fair" was published by Stoneboat Literary Journal. A third story, "Party of One" was just published in Unlikely Stories, a really exciting journal that combines art and activism.
My film partner, Chris LaBree, and I finished a one-hour rough cut of our documentary as we work on the final full-length cut. We've screened it for adjuncts in Alberta, and have also shown it in Philadelphia, will probably be screening for others as we continue completion of the final version. But then, as with so many other things, the film project got shut down by the pandemic. We are hoping to get back to work this summer.
Hidden River Arts is growing. Our internship program is expanding. We've increased the number of books our indy press will be publishing. Of course, the years of COVID lockdowns and the ways in which those of us in the arts have been impacted has been part of our experience at Hidden River, and of my personal experience as well. We had to shut down live arts activities, gallery events, in person workshops.
So.....it must be clear that, for now at least, as we come out of this pandemic, I'm most frequently found at home in Philadelphia, working to shepherd all these activities back into being. But I remember fondly the days of traveling, and long to get back to that. In December and January of 2018, I was in Italy with my daughter, visiting Florence, Orvieto and Rome. In May, 2018, we headed to Prague, Budapest and Vienna. In November and December of 2019, we were in Spain and Portugal, visiting Madrid, Salamanca, Porto and Lisbon. These travels were wonderful for making connections with fellow artists and gathering ideas for ways to network and grow our international relationships. Of course, COVID created lots of difficulty, stopped our activities entirely. That is what we hope to get back to doing -- expanding our artistic reach and growing our creative family into a truly global one. As travel here in the U.S. became more possible, I visited D.C., NYC and Nashville. We look to attend more conferences and offer more screenings while the documentary is in development. (If any of you all have interest in inviting us to your town, by all means, reach out! Contact me here.) We'll be going to Italy again in November and December of 2023 - this time visiting Verona and then returning to Rome.
That's the update for now, fellow sojourners. If you want to contact me about any of these projects, or about having me work with you, screen our film, give a workshop or a speaking engagement, simply email me, and we'll talk!
A new collection of short stories is one of my current creative projects. The collection will be called Crossing the Line, and each story will explore a person who has gone WAY too far over the line of what is acceptable human behavior. The first of these stories, "Do It Yourself Finishing School", was published in Adelaide this past fall. Another, "Beverly at the Fair" was published by Stoneboat Literary Journal. A third story, "Party of One" was just published in Unlikely Stories, a really exciting journal that combines art and activism.
My film partner, Chris LaBree, and I finished a one-hour rough cut of our documentary as we work on the final full-length cut. We've screened it for adjuncts in Alberta, and have also shown it in Philadelphia, will probably be screening for others as we continue completion of the final version. But then, as with so many other things, the film project got shut down by the pandemic. We are hoping to get back to work this summer.
Hidden River Arts is growing. Our internship program is expanding. We've increased the number of books our indy press will be publishing. Of course, the years of COVID lockdowns and the ways in which those of us in the arts have been impacted has been part of our experience at Hidden River, and of my personal experience as well. We had to shut down live arts activities, gallery events, in person workshops.
So.....it must be clear that, for now at least, as we come out of this pandemic, I'm most frequently found at home in Philadelphia, working to shepherd all these activities back into being. But I remember fondly the days of traveling, and long to get back to that. In December and January of 2018, I was in Italy with my daughter, visiting Florence, Orvieto and Rome. In May, 2018, we headed to Prague, Budapest and Vienna. In November and December of 2019, we were in Spain and Portugal, visiting Madrid, Salamanca, Porto and Lisbon. These travels were wonderful for making connections with fellow artists and gathering ideas for ways to network and grow our international relationships. Of course, COVID created lots of difficulty, stopped our activities entirely. That is what we hope to get back to doing -- expanding our artistic reach and growing our creative family into a truly global one. As travel here in the U.S. became more possible, I visited D.C., NYC and Nashville. We look to attend more conferences and offer more screenings while the documentary is in development. (If any of you all have interest in inviting us to your town, by all means, reach out! Contact me here.) We'll be going to Italy again in November and December of 2023 - this time visiting Verona and then returning to Rome.
That's the update for now, fellow sojourners. If you want to contact me about any of these projects, or about having me work with you, screen our film, give a workshop or a speaking engagement, simply email me, and we'll talk!
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