You can down load the audio file of the Books of Hope interview/poetry reading here You can find a complete description of the Books of Hope interview/poetry reading here
Find more information on the Books of Hope writing program for Boston youth here
Author Archives: Janet Gillespie
Books of Hope audio link
Upload Audio | Listen to Audio | two fierce & creative artists | YourListen
If you missed my interview with Valerie Stephens and Helen Elaine Lee, you can listen to it here:
Upload Audio | Listen to Audio | two fierce & creative artists | YourListen.
September 28 (Friday) on the Bridge: Two Fierce & Courageous Artists
Guests today on The Bridge are Valerie Stephens and Helen Elaine Lee who travel into some of today’s most troubling issues and transform what they find into art.
First we’re going to hear from Valerie Stephens, who will talk with us about her one woman show, The Mammy Diaries, where 
she explores the reality, the myth, the caricature of the complex and multidimensional stereotype of Mammy, whose presence is still threaded through our society today. Valerie will perform The Mammy Diaries on October 4 at the Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge. Go to www.multiculturalartscenter.org and click on events for more information. To learn more about Valerie and her work as a vocalist/bandleader, story teller, educator, and performance artist, visit her website at www.valeriestephens.com
Helen Elaine Lee is going to speak with us about her novel, Life Without, which tells the stories of ten people who are incarc
erated in two neighboring prisons in the United States.
Through her early career as a lawyer and currently as a novelist and educator, social justice has been a central part of her life from her childhood on. “Justice” she says, “is a fiction for some of us.”
She has written two novels from the points of view of those inside. She will discuss and read from Life Without on our 9/28 show on The Bridge, and we will hear about the second of these novels, The Hard Loss, in a later show. Check back on this blog for dates & details.
Helen says she had to “earn the stories” she tells, so she has spent many years as a volunteer in medium security prisons, teaching storytelling and creative writing. Listening to the voices and the stories of those inside, she was often struck by the “survival of dignity, generosity, and self interrogation” of her incarcerated students.
She is currently Associate Professor of Fiction Writing in MIT’s Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, and she is a member of the Board of Directors of PEN New England and directs its Prison Creative Writing Program
You can read three of the stories from Life Without online at:
“Alphabet,” in Prairie Schooner, http://prairieschooner.unl.edu/?q=alphabet
“Pomegranate,” in Solstice Literary Magazine, http://solsticelitmag.org/pomegranate/
“Back in the Day,” in Callaloo: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/callaloo/summary/v031/31.2.lee.html
Upload Audio | Listen to Audio | Interview: Mammy Diaries | YourListen
Upload Audio | Listen to Audio | Interview: Mammy Diaries | YourListen.
Dear Friends of The Bridge: Arts for the 99 % — I’m having technical difficulties uploading the 9/29 show featuring two fierce and courageous artists Valerie Stephens and Helen Elaine Lee. Because Valerie Stephens will perform her one woman show The Mammy Diaries on October 4 (Thursday) I want to make sure you have a chance to hear her discuss this compelling and challenging theater piece. So I’ve uploaded that section of the interview here.
In The Mammy Diaries, Valerie explores the reality, the myth, the caricature of the complex and multidimensional stereotype of Mammy, whose presence is still threaded through our society today. Valerie will perform The Mammy Diaries on October 4 at the Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge. Go to www.multiculturalartscenter.org and click on events for more information. To learn more about Valerie and her work as a vocalist/bandleader, story teller, educator, and performance artist, visit her website at www.valeriestephens.com
And check back soon for the full program on THE BRIDGE as soon as I get the technical stuff figured out! AND I hope to see you at THE MAMMY DIARIES on October 4!
The Bridge: Arts for the 99% — July 27 — Lou Jones discusses his photo essay FINAL EXPOSURE: PORTRAITS FROM DEATH ROW
If you’ve ever wondered about the power of art to change minds and hearts, join us on The Bridge on Friday July 27 as Lou Jones, renowned Boston photographer, discusses his photo essay Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row. For six years, Lou navigated the multiple complexities of the prison system to photograph death row inmates without barriers, without restraints, each in his or her own special environment. With his camera, Lou got closer to these individuals than their lawyers, and even their families. These intimate portraits capture each inmate’s distinct humanity, exposing the death penalty, in ways that words cannot, as a cruel and inhumane punishment. Final Exposure has changed viewers’ understanding of the death penalty, compelling many to believe, as Lou says, “murder, to address murder, is not a solution.”
Listen as Lou Jones describes the political agenda of the death penalty, the unfairness of the criminal (in)justice system regarding the death penalty, and ultimately how his photo essay Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row, leads viewers to revise their thoughts and feelings about the death penalty.
View these photographs for yourself by clicking on “Final Exposure” at www.fotojones.com.
Friday June 22, On The Bridge: Arts for the 99% – Be inspired by the young poets of Books of Hope….
In his essay Artists in Times of War, Howard Zinn writes “…it is the job of the artist …to think outside the boundaries of permissible thought and dare to say things that no one else will say.” * Yes, of course, but where in our current world of standardized testing and limited access to opportunity do our urban youth get the space and encouragement they need to become the artists Howard Zinn envisions? One place is Books of Hope (http://booksofhope-ma.org), a writing and literacy empowerment program located in the Somerville Housing Project that encourages urban and immigrant youth to develop their own voices through writing poetry. The young artists of Books of Hope do more than creative writing however; in addition to writing and performing their poetry, they also publish their own work and sell their books on the Mystic Ink Book Tour, inspiring other young people to read and to write their own poetry.
Listen to Soul Brown, Director of Books of Hope, describe this inspiring project, hear readings of four dynamic and vibrant poems, read by their youthful authors, and listen to a discussion of poetry, life, and art by these four young poets, moderated by Janet Gillespie. The work of these youth is ferociously honest and imaginative, full of life, and yes, hope. Their voices may inspire you to “…think outside the boundaries of permissible thought and dare to say things that no one else will say.”
Let us know what you think!
This program was previously broadcast on The Bridge on May 25, 2012.
*Zinn, Howard. “Artists in Times of War.” Artists in Times of War, New York: Seven Stories Press, 2003. 14. Print.
Listen to Books of Hope on The Bridge here:
Upload Audio | Listen to Audio | The Bridge Books of Hope | YourListen.
Friday 6/15 on The Bridge: Political Performance and the Occupy Movement
When we’re “talking politics” we’re talking about power, specifically the power of individuals and structures to make decisions that affect the lives of all of us, often without our input or consent. When we “talk politics” we’re talking about who has this power and benefits from it, and who doesn’t have it this power and is oppressed by it.
What I learned from interviewing our guests for this program on The Bridge is that political performance happens when people go beyond just talking politics and instead gather together in public spaces for the common purpose of focusing on structures and uses of power – whether to solidify power for social change, or to challenge oppressive power structures. People coming together to demand changes in who holds power and often to challenge the power structure itself, perform the idea of resistance in order to achieve social justice.
So the Occupy Movement is basically political performance – groups of people gathering in a public space, performing with our bodily presence the idea that “We are the 99%. We belong here. Pay attention to us. We refuse to be left out. The one percent can’t have it all.”
Of course political performance manifests itself in many ways. Some very effective and exciting ways are discussed on the June 15 broadcast of The Bridge. While both our guests place the Occupy Movement in the long and honorable history of political performance, both men also give us alternative ways of thinking about performance that are unique to Occupy. Traditionally, when we think of performance, we divide people into two groups: the performers, who are active, talking, singing, dancing, and the audience, who just sit there quietly and passively absorb the message of the performers. Both Theater Offensive, with the guerrilla musical 99% Stone, currently on tour in Boston neighborhoods, and John Bell’s examples of political performance in the Occupy Movement, dissolve the barriers between audiences and performers and actively involve all people in the performance of democracy.
Listen to our guests describe political performance and its ability to engage people in enacting democracy in ways that reach beyond just “talking politics.”
You can listen here:
http://yourlisten.com/Player.swf?id=133100
Listen to the voices of urban and immigrant youth on THE BRIDGE: Arts for the 99%, May 25, 2:30 p.m.
Join us on THE BRIDGE tomorrow, 5/25, at 2:30 p.m. to hear the voices of the BOOKS OF HOPE (BOH) poets, urban and immigrant youth ages 13-25, a segment of the 99% we don’t often hear from. We do hear a lot ABOUT these young people, much of it from an outsider perspective, and much of it negative, but we are rarely exposed to their voices, their ideas, their stories, and we don’t have a very good idea of what the world looks like from their points of view. Books of Hope gives us the chance to hear from them directly, as they read their own poetry, and give us their thoughts and feelings on life and art in a round table discussion. Join us tomorrow on THE BRIDGE where we will also hear from Soul Brown, the inspiring Director of BOOKS OF HOPE.
Under the direction of Soul Brown, the poets of BOH not only write poetry, they publish their own books and sell them on the upcoming Mystic Ink tour – go to their website for info on BOH and venues on the Mystic Ink Tour:
http://www.booksofhope-ma.org
And join BOH for Teen Open Mic night.
Arts at the Armory
191 Highland Ave
Somerville Ma
6-8 pm
Join four remarkable young poets on THE BRIDGE:
Next on The Bridge: Arts for the 99%, May 25, 2:30 p.m. Books of Hope, “a dynamic youth literacy empowerment program inspiring the next generation of young authors through writing, publishing, performing, and entrepreneurship.” This program features Soul Brown, Director of Books of Hope, and four young writers reading their poems and discussing their work in a round-table format moderated by host Janet Gillespie.
Most of us are aware of the importance of the arts in expressing and sharing experience and ideas, and showing us new perspectives on the worlds we live in, and we understand the value of arts activities for young people. The young artists of Books of Hope do more than creative writing however; in addition to writing and performing their poetry, they also publish their own work and sell their books.
Without the publishing/entrepreneurship components of their project, I would have never known about Books of Hope.
I first became aware of Books of Hope in 2009 when I attended the Mass Poetry Festival in Lowell MA. There, among the crowd of adult, mostly white poets and their shiny books, I found three vibrant young women of color at a table displaying an impressive number of slim books of poetry. They told me about their project, which involves not just writing poetry, transforming their experiences and ideas into art, but also publishing their work, creating and selling the books I was holding in my hands. As I leafed through their books, I was caught up in their vision and their voices, their imagery, their ferocious honesty and, yes, their hope. I bought three books and used them in a writing class I was teaching at the Boston Campus of Springfield College. My students loved the poems and stories and clearly resonated with them as art and as social commentary.
Join us on The Bridge: Arts for the 99 % on May 25, 2:30 p.m. to meet Soul Brown and the remarkable young poets of Books of Hope.
To learn more about Books of Hope, visit http://booksofhope-ma.org
THE BRIDGE - Arts for the 99% 