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lightbulbheart creativity, Easybake, workshop

Attention Campers:

CAMP AGH
Kelly Wolf, ladies and germs. She’s the best.

If you have never played Human Rock Paper Scissors, you are missing out. Trust me.

When I agreed to meet Kelly Wolf for “crafts” before a dusk viewing of Moonrise Kingdom on Wednesday, I had very little idea of what to expect. Well, EMERGE Camp AGH was a treasure trove of easybakeheart goodness and I was game for all of it.  There were craft tables for making felt merit badges, animal hats, and masks; camp games (I died a glorious slo-mo death on the wet lawn); very high-end s’mores courtesy of the always delightful Sweet and Simple Co.; a tour of the gorgeous Vivian Maier photography exhibit; and campfire singing.

I knew three people. Three. I consider myself an introvert and large groups can be intimidating. But, it was marvelous to be in rooms with a bunch of like-minded weirdos I’d never met and to feel right at home.

img_1065Of course the merit badges I made were random – a dead goldfish in honor of the fish funeral scene from Draft 1 of There’s an Easy-Bake Oven Where My Heart Should Be, and Oscar the Grouch for soooo many reasons. Merit badges are going straight into the easybakeheart workshop idea vault. I found during the Memphis workshop that semi-silently crafting kid things is one of the quickest ways to unlock larger conversations about why we stop playing and what we need in order to start again.

The morning of EMERGE Camp began with an unprompted conversation about how to create spaces for adults to just play – silent or impromptu dance parties, craft stations, reading circles, etc. I went to a Laughter Yoga session later that afternoon that feels like it belongs in the same realm. I’m thinking more and more this is just something our world needs. The Living Arts Collective in Durham, NC hosts The After Wave (adult dance and art party) every Friday night and AGH will have another EMERGE event on December 7.  Go Out and Play!

How are you playing these days? Would it help to have a common space where the materials were already laid out for you? If you’re an introvert, what would make something like this feel less threatening?

lightbulbheart childhood, Easybake, mental health advocacy, roadtrip, workshop

Easy-Bake Draft 1 – Durham, NC

27 JULY 2018

Danielle Chelles, Emily Hill, Jessica Flemming and I were joined by 23 audience members for the first draft of There’s An Easy-Bake Oven Where My Heart Should Be. We presented 30 minutes of material exploring how and why children play (playing at being adults, learning to jump rope, self-soothing), why they stop (shame, grief), and Emily threw a whopper of a tantrum that makes me grin whenever I think about it.  I took feedback on construction paper while everyone partook of childhood snacks (goldfish crackers, string cheese, fruit snacks, and juice pouches).  I’m so thankful to those 3 and those 23, and to fellow Summer Sisters Cheryl Chamblee and Sharon Eisner who contributed writing and Rachel Klem who helped shape the group scenes. I’m really proud of what we developed in such a short amount of time! Some of the material will go back to the drawing board, other things will be lovingly scrapped in favor of Ontario-based stories, and some bits were really magical and you’ll have to pry them from my easy-bake heart with tweezers before they leave the piece.

I am notorious for being too present in the moment and not taking enough photographs. Draft 1 was no exception. I have video for review purposes, but completely spaced grabbing a pic with my amazing artists! Please enjoy this freeze-frame…

Easy-Bake Draft 1 - Durham, NC
From the section “Skipping” in Draft 1: Jessica Flemming, Amber Wood, Danielle Chelles, Emily Hill

Now that I’m back in Ontario, next comes unpacking the emotional parts from which the piece derives its name. I received my 1978 Easy-Bake Oven while I was still in NC and to say I was underwhelmed would be an understatement. So light, so small, so insubstantial. Not at all the thing I remember from my childhood. A to-scale-with-adult-sized-Amber papier-mâché recreation may be in order.

And it should talk. 

lightbulbheart Easybake, picture book resources, roadtrip, storylady

What’s in the Book Bin?

Several people have asked for a list of the books in my easybakeheart roadtrip book bin, so here it is! I chose tales of compassion for self or others, of imagination, and of knowing/finding one’s own self. (*indicates a book purchased on the road)

Title Author Illustrator
Across the Alley* Michelson, Richard Lewis, E.B.
After the Fall Santat, Dan
Baabwaa & Wooliam Elliot, David Sweet, Melissa
Bats at the Library Lies, Brian
Billy’s Booger Joyce, William
Book of Mistakes, The Luyken, Corinna
Crysanthemum* Henkes, Kevin
Dog Loves Books Yates, Louise
Feeling.* Johnson, Dylan
Freedom Summer Wiles, Deborah Lagarrigue, Jerome
Giggle, Giggle, Quack* Cronin, Doreen Lewin, Betsy
Giraffes Can’t Dance Andreae, Giles Parker-Rees, Guy
Golden Rule, The Cooper, Ilene Swiatkowska, Gabi
Gossie Dunrea, Olivia
Happy Birthday, Madame Chapeau Beaty, Andrea Roberts, Dan
Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans* Nelson, Kadir
Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad Levine, Ellen Nelson, Kadir
I Like Myself!* Beaumont, Karen Catrow, David
I Will Never Get a Star on Mrs. Benson’s Blackboard* Mann, Jennifer K.
If You Plant a Seed* Nelson, Kadir
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings Witek, Jo Roussey, Christine
Let the Children March Clark-Robinson, Monica Morrison, Frank
Little Blue Truck Leads the Way Schertle, Alice McElmurry, Jill
Miss Rumphius Cooney, Barbara
Not a Box* Portis, Antoinette
Quiet Place, The Stewart, Sarah Small, David
Rabbit’s Wedding, The Williams, Garth
Rainbow Fish, The Pfister, Marcus
Rufus Goes to Sea* Griswell, Kim T. Gorbachev, Valeri
Ruth and the Green Book Ramsey, Calvin Alexander (with Gwen Strauss) Cooper, Floyd
Story Book Knight, The Docherty, Hellen and Docherty, Thomas
Story of Ferdinand, The Leaf, Munro Lawson, Robert
The Thing Lou Couldn’t Do Spires, Ashley
These Hands* Mason, Margaret H. Cooper, Floyd
This is the Rope: A Story from the Great Migration Woodson, Jacqueline Ransome, James
What Do You Do With An Idea?* Yamada, Kobi Besom, Mae
Whistle for Willie Keats, Ezra Jack

Want to know what other books are in my collection? My full Storylady Library is available on LibraryCat!

lightbulbheart Easybake, roadtrip, workshop

Of Workshops and Redeyes

13 JULY

Working dinner with collaborator-in-chief Emily Hill!

14 – 15 JULY

Workshop days with Emily at the Living Arts Collective (hello, sprung dance floor 😍). We followed up our rehearsal on the 14th with a viewing of the Dana Ruttenberg Dance Group at the American Dance Festival. So playful! So clever!

16 JULY

Writing, writing, writing

17 – 19 JULY

Denver! The darling Julie Morris flew out with me to visit Kathryn Oliver and Brian Cox.

  • Denver Botanic Gardens (gorgeous outdoor Chihuly).
  • Rooftop dinner with new friends (bat sightings!).
  • Vintage and local shops on Broadway (I’m looking at you, Hope Tank, Decade and Sewn…).
  • SOLD OUT SYLVAN ESSO CONCERT AT REDROCKS! The most perfect of nights up in the Rockies. SE was super, super dreamy.
  • I walked into Talulah Jones and immediately felt at home (hello, children’s section!).  If I can’t be buried at Red Rocks, pretty please put me in a potted plant outside this most charming store.
  • Denver Art Museum – I highly recommend the Jeffrey Gibson exhibit running through August 12.
  • Acorn. Beautiful sunset and excellent food before Julie and I hitched the redeye home. Verdicts: Acorn Monkfish – yes, please and thank you. Redeye: never, never, never again.

20 JULY

I forced myself to stay awake after the redeye (did I mention never again?) and was deeply rewarded by lunch with Akiva Fox and Annie Zipper, followed by You Are Here: Light, Color, and Sound Experiences at the NC Museum of Art. Now closed, this series of exquisite installations was home to very long lines (27 minutes for a 45 second viewing of Yayoi Kusama’s Light of Life – totally worth it, by the way) and visual and auditory stunners. Especially powerful for me were Do I Look Like a Lady? (Mickalene Thomas’ exploration of black female entertainers and their influence on black female identity),  Intersections (challenging religious and gender barriers by Anila Quayyum Agha), Photo-kinetic Grid (a glorious questioning of fences by Soo Sunny Park), and Forty Part Motet (sonic experience by Janet Cardiff of a 40 part choir made possible by 40 separate speakers – one set of listeners held each other and wept).

21 – 22 JULY

Workshops with Emily Hill, joined on 22 July by Danielle Chelles, Jessica Flemming, and Rachel Klem! Rachel helped us shape some of the group pieces and Danielle and Jessica will come play with us for the workshop presentation on the 27th. I am incredibly grateful to these women who are flinging themselves so wholeheartedly into my weird little world.

23 – 24 JULY

Short working lunch with Emily and then back to Fayetteville to see family and play with my 7-yr-old niece.

I came back on the 24th for acupuncture and dinner/big conversation about hospitality with local badass Shea Broussard. Healing followed by healing, my dears. Truth.

25 JULY

EDWARD HUNT AND JEFF STORER! When I started compiling my list of folks to talk to about art and hospitality, these two were at the top. I was giddy to get to spend some time with them as they start on their new adventure helping other artists to realize their goals. Our conversation definitely helped me as I think about accessible and affordable rehearsal and performance spaces, the formation of a board, “casting” the various roles of theatre personnel, and about the circles of people I want to gather ’round for the ongoing life of whatever this project of mine eventually becomes.  Thank you, Ed and Jeff, for being so open, transparent, and funny, and for letting me christen your office with bagels! ❤️

Babysitting for a 3 month old should not be as easy as it was for the little darling I kept yesterday afternoon. So good to get my hands on Olivia Griego’s baby and to play princess with and read to her eldest. Swoon! (Oh, and she’s not so bad, herself…)

26 JULY

Ahmagerd, y’all. Today? Tamara Kissane.

Tomorrow? Workshop performance presentation of There’s An Easybake Oven Where My Heart Should Be (Draft 1). I am not at all trepidatious…

lightbulbheart childhood, Easybake, roadtrip, writing

XOXO from NC

04 – 07 JULY

Charlotte, NC with my college roommate and her family!  I got some real sleep and introduced a wee one to some books and watched her she started to really walk. Did you know that Mister Rogers Neighborhood is available on PBS Kids? This episode about the death of a goldfish led to a scene about sadness I’m working on for the easybakeheart project.  ❤

08 JULY

Goodyear Arts is an incredible multi-artist space that is a dream of both I want to go to there AND if you build it they will come (and I want to build that) proportions. I caught up with Matt Cosper and Kadey Ballard of XOXO to talk a bit about process and training before observing a generative workshop (Matt, Kadey, Jon Prichard and Will Rudolph). It was deeply good and normalizing to be among folks who approach collaborative art-making in a similar way.  If you are even remotely Charlotte-adjacent, go check out a workshop performance of the deeply cool All Our Little Innocence (the children’s crusade) on August 25 at Goodyear Arts. You can find more information on their website or by liking them on Facebook or following their Instagram.  (Can you tell I like them a lot?)

While you’re at Goodyear Arts for the workshop performance, please check out Holly Keogh’s First Day. She’s a massive oil on panel and quite possibly the spirit guide for the easybakeheart project. I’m in love with her and with Holly’s body of work.

09 – 12 JULY

Fayetteville, NC with Naaman and our family: lots of reading time with my newly 7-year-old niece and starting book 2 of our co-authored series. (For interested parties, book 2 is about a monkey and a butterfly who run a race; both characters have small parts in book 1).  I’m still drooling over the scrumptious meal we siblings ate at Chef & the Farmer.

Durham, NC: Last night, Naaman and I bid adieu to the marvelous Nancy Hanks (moving to WI today), and then ate dinner and talked children’s books with Lauren Rachel Greenspan and Will Flowers.

AND NOW IT BEGINS IN EARNEST

I’m now bunked down in Elisabeth Lewis Corley and Joseph Megel’s amazing house in Pittsboro, NC. My companion for the day is Touchstone, a charming cat who, in Elisabeth’s words, “has her yes and no about people.” I believe Touchstone is currently  leaning towards “meh.”

I submitted a site-specific theatre festival proposal this morning (non-easybake) and have been working on some materials in advance of a working dinner tonight for easybakeheart. Emily Hill and I begin generative workshops in earnest tomorrow afternoon! Barring major hurdles, we’ll have something to show in a workshop performance here in Durham, NC on July 27.

Today’s inspiration: We are Built to be Kind