First, a little background...
Back when I was a blushing college coed, seesawing between the English Department (take me seriously, I’m a poet) and the Theatre Department (look at me! look at me!), I was given an ultimatum by my then-writing mentor: It’s us or them. You can do one or the other – be a writer or be a performer – but you can’t do both. The gist was I was breaking the rules, and I wasn’t going to get away with it. On my part, the decision was easy. If you were going to make me choose, I choose them. Besides, the theater people were more fun.
Fast forward 30 years, and here I am today, proud to say that every one of those years has been spent integrating my love of both the written and spoken word. In addition to my long career as a print journalist and a celebrated author, I have taught public speaking at the university level for nearly 20 years. I have competed on a national stage as a slam poet, performed my work in venues spanning from New York to Montreal and have served as a keynote speaker at corporate and educational events – all the while supplementing my income as an award-winning copywriter. I have coached writers and other professionals to feel comfortable and confident in front of an audience. I have done the same with a group of resettlement refugees and immigrants (none of whom spoke English as a first language), as well as a classroom full of prepubescent boys. I’ve been a guest lecturer at Master of Fine Arts programs and have taught writing to library groups, seniors, kids and women inmates. Last year, I coauthored and appeared in a two-woman show, “Finding ME,” and I am currently about to launch my first one-woman show, “My Mother’s Clothes Are Not My Mother” (which I both wrote and will perform) at the St. Lawrence Arts Center in Portland on September 15.
I guess you could say I’ve made a career of breaking rules. As I like to tell my students, sometimes the best way to get something done is to be told that you can’t.
So, thanks for stopping by. Bye for now.