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“SHARED MEMOIR: commissions, readings, residencies”
Verandah offers a variety of programs around the theme of “Shared Memoirs:”
COMMISSIONS: POETRY HONORING OUR CULTURAL LEGACY - Verandah creates an original poem which celebrates a community organization, incorporating the voices and heritage of its constituents. The process includes interviewing key people, reflection, refinement and presentation.
COMMUNITY READINGS: THE MUSIC OF TALK - Verandah reads narrative and poetry she has gathered and edited with neighbors and strangers around New England. For twenty years, the poet has worked as a tender facilitator, listening, encouraging and writing with others, finding the “verse” in conversation, the pulse in each place. Verandah has served as poet in residence in rural nursing homes, senior centers, literacy and crisis centers, hospitals, factories, a 200 year-old tavern and on the streets of Hartford, CT. This reading honors the creativity of “ordinary” people. It reminds us that we share a rich cultural heritage in language and that their own voices are part of it.
PLACE-BASED RESIDENCIES: NEIGHBORS AND STORIES - Verandah works as a facilitator and writing partner with local groups to design and conduct unique community-building residencies drawing on the power of the human voice. Projects may involve schools and community groups.
Commissions: Adults, young people may participate in interview process
Readings: program can be tailored from high school students to elders
Residencies: program can be tailored to engage participants from elementary students to elders
Commissions: $375 to $1000 (negotiable depending on the time required the complexity of the process) plus mileage and hospitality
Readings & Residencies: $375 to $500 plus mileage and hospitality
Cultural memory gives meaning to a place, for old timers and newcomers. Stories explore and shape our evolving identities. Each Vermont town abounds with outstanding individuals and important, treasured stories. Sadly, many of our elders, as well as the friends who remember their words and deeds, are vanishing before our eyes and ears. Creating a shared memoir is one way to stop the erosion. The process builds trust and friendship and the product is artistically valid work which evokes the narrator's passion and brings it into the telling.
Verandah Porche
45 Old County Road
Guilford, VT 05301
802-254-2442
verandahporche@verizon.net
Verandah Porche's Arts Directory listing