Our Mission and History
First Person Arts transforms the drama of real life into memoir and documentary art to foster appreciation for our unique and shared experiences. We believe that everyone has a story to tell, and that sharing our stories connects us with each other and the world.
Our History:
First Person Arts was founded in 2000 as Blue Sky by Vicki Solot, in response to the burgeoning interest in memoir and documentary art forms. Solot appreciated the resonance of real stories and recognized their value as a means of bridging cultural and ethnic divides. With the involvement of a visionary board, First Person Arts set out to support the development of new memoir and documentary work and to create opportunities for it to be seen and appreciated. We have reached across cultures and communities to attract a broad and diverse audience; and have played an important role in exploring and celebrating the richness of the mixed heritage and shared history of everyday Americans.
Hi — I am the Philadelphia author of an autobiographical fiction novel, Hitching To Nirvana, just published by Cycladic Press. I am also a poet (winner of the first City Paper poetry prize and memoirist).
I’m looking for ways to promote my novel — readings, panels, etc. and thought I would contact you. The brief description of my novel is below. Many thanks. Janet
Hitching To Nirvana is a novel of midlife and adolescence. Adrianne, a 45 year old photographer, has been running from her past all of her adult life. When time calls for her to care for her elderly father and she returns to the working class tract house neighborhood where she grew up, the news that her old high school best friend has died resurrects the ghosts from her adolescence in the 70s. The girls are modern Maenads – shining, wild and doomed, trying to escape their soul deadening lives with alcohol, sex, and drugs. When Adrianne hits turbulence in midlife – her long-term relationship hanging by a thread, a new love interest beckoning, her job soon to be nonexistent – she finds that she must return to the past before she can go on.
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