I moved to New York City when I was 21. Although it seems like I have had several different lifetimes since then, it also feels like it was not very long ago, but recently when I began a new project with a young man who is 23 I was reminded of those days and what I was like then and I realized that there are many years and life experiences between his time of life and my own. He's a very mature person, so it's not anything that he is doing that makes me think of the time gone by. I am reminded of my own history because when we talk about music and art and even things like technology there are things that he might have heard of but that he didn't experience first hand and the first time around.
In writing this blog, from time to time I have mentioned things from the past and occasionally in the last few years I have begun to write a bit about my own personal history and people and places I've known that might not be around any more. Today for some reason as I was thinking about what I would write this week it occurred to me that I've never really given an overview of my life and work in any depth. In August I will be celebrating the anniversary of the beginning of my New York artist's life and I'll also be starting a very big new project and continuing work on another, so it seems that it might be time to add a little bit of description of my history and lead it up to this time of a new chapter and new beginnings.
I am an actress, writer, designer, curator, and collaborative artist. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College, I spent my first year in New York working with the Circle Repertory Company (now New Circle Theatre Company) and became a member of that company’s LAB the following year. Since then I have appeared in over 40 plays and independent films in New York and have had my work published and produced by various organizations including Circle East, ChaShaMa, La Mama Etc., HERE Theater, Evolving Arts, the American Theatre of Actors, and HOME For Contemporary Theatre. My voice can currently be heard at the Cloisters Museum describing the permanent collection. Reaching out to the community is an important part of my mission. From 1997-2006 I produced evenings of new theater, music and art in downtown locations such as the Knitting Factory, the Bell Caffé, the Orange Bear, South’s, the Tilton Gallery and The DEKK.
In the fall of 2001, I developed the concept of the Downtown Revitalization Project. In response to economic concerns, the project brought Artists, Designers and Artisans together with restaurants and retailers for evenings designed to promote art and commerce throughout Manhattan. My photographs and poetry are part of the September 11 Photo Project and were published as part of a collection from that exhibit in April of 2002; my work is also featured in the spring 2002 issue of the literary journal How2 as part of a section on women writers’ responses to September 11. In August of 2002, a collaboration with a photographer and interior designer resulted in a show at the Belmont Lounge, “New York: Through My Friend’s Eye,” a personalized look at people and places throughout Manhattan and the five boroughs, told through poetry and photography. An article about a sailing adventure aboard an historic ship which highlighted the need for working together was published in the June 2005 issue of the boating magazine Offshore. My short story, A Woman’s Back, was published in the inaugural art and design issue of Void Magazine in July 2005, along with an illustrative photograph by playwright and photographer Ty Adams.
In 2006 I began working in the areas of community and youth development, bringing arts education and enrichment programs including a community garden and access to healthier food to Manhattan’s lower east side while working as the Director of an after school program on Avenue D and as a fund raiser, grant writer and volunteer coordinator for that program and a local Soup Kitchen. From June of 2009 through July of 2016 I worked with Cornell University Cooperative Extension as a community educator in the Nutrition and Health Program with outreach to all five boroughs. I am part of the downtown Neighborhood Network Coalition and the Community Partnership Initiative which works to combine forces of community services agencies to support neighborhood residents, families and children.
I continue to produce evenings of new theater, music and art, helping performing and visual artists and writers launch new work and have their voices heard. My lifestyle blog "Notes From The City: An Abundant Life" highlights artists, designers, entrepreneurs and small business owners who contribute to the life of communities. I also work in the areas of community and youth development, sustainability, holistic health and wellness, and towards alleviating the effects of food insecurity, hunger and homelessness. Through my company The Good News Foundation I connect individuals and organizations with services, funding, and opportunities for outreach and growth through community-based collaborations. My recent project, Love And Plenty, is designed to address community health and economic concerns on the local level by bringing Artists, Designers and small business owners together with community residents for events online and off to raise awareness, market goods and services, and help restaurants to receive funding to hire and train staff and provide meals for people in need.
Love & Plenty was accepted into the Food Systems Game Changers Lab and is part of Cohort 21, which presented the solution “Education = Power In Choice (EPIC): Empowering Communities Through Food System Education” at the UN Food Systems Summit 2021 and is currently developing a sustainable local program model in collaboration with organizations in New Jersey and New York that will be replicated globally. The collaborative project “What Is Revealed” "Leak" that was developed with visual artist Alberte Bernier and dancer and choreographer Kara Jhalak Miller and the Jhalak Dance Company was presented in a ChaShaMa art space in New York City in June 2022.
The new projects I'm working on will be highlighted in future posts, but for now this is a small glimpse of these years that have passed and the people and places who have been a part of my ongoing journey. In 2019 I created a collage art piece at the request of an arts foundation for one of their annual fundraisers. There is a poem that was central to the piece that goes like this:
I realized that, though I was thinking when I wrote it how it can be hard to open ourselves up to love again when we have been heartbroken, that same challenge of opening ourselves up to the unknown can arise even in the day to day experience of having a new opportunity presented to us that is a reflection of something that once was near and dear to our hearts. Today as I was walking on this lovely summer afternoon I heard someone crying in such a heartbroken way that it began to affect me deeply. I was reminded of times in my life, when I was 21 and before, when I had cried in that way and when it was over I never wanted to feel that way again. In the years after that some part of myself was shut off, and in more recent years as slowly that part of myself was carefully unfolded by the loving hands of God I began to do the work again that I am passionate about. These new projects are a culmination of so many hopes and dreams, and as I learn how to sing again, in spite of and with all uncertainty, with trust and hope I am breathing new life.
No comments:
Post a Comment