First Person Arts

In 2005, Liso, a teacher in South Africa and mother of teenage twins, hears about an opening for a “missionary” for a Houston church. Any South African will jump at the chance to go to America, she claims, even if it’s “to wash someone’s pig.” Liso knew she wouldn’t be paid much, but she hoped that it would lead to better paying jobs that would help her support her family back home. When the “teaching” job she had been promised was taken away, and she was given menial labor day after day, and not fed properly, she began to realize she’d been had. Now here she was, with an expired visa, for all intents and purposes a slave in America.

Too often we see immigration as an “issue,” without knowing anything about immigrants themselves and their own stories about their experiences here.  Liso is just one example of the stories that Peter Orner has collected in Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives. At the First Person Festival, stories from the book will be presented in a dramatic reading.

No doubt you will be affected by these stories, many of which are harrowing. But these people can’t just be seen as victims. Says Orner in a Salon interview, “It’s a vulnerable population, but they’re not 100 percent victims at the hands of our society. It’s more complicated than that. It’s a relationship that’s navigated by them and by us, to sometimes very bad and violent effect.”   Orner names some of the myths about immigrants that can hold sway, like how they want to steal jobs and take our money.  He asserts, “I didn’t personally find any success stories.”

You are invited to learn more at a panel discussion afterward led by Pete Orner and other immigration experts.

Tickets for this event may be purchased at Brown Paper Tickets.

Underground America
Wednesday, November 12th
Time: 8:30-10:30PM
Location: Painted Bride

Cost: $15

Regular Salon-goer, friend of First Person Arts, and owner of the storytelling site Philastories.org, Michael Feagans attended a Digital Storytelling Workshop (at the Philadelphia Center for Digital Storytelling) recently and produced the following moving account of his relationship to his father and his father’s life as a black firefighter in Philadelphia at Engine 11:

You can hear more from some of Philadelphia’s black firefighters at philastories.org.  If you’d like to try your hand at creating your own Digital Story, the First Person Festival offers an introduction to the form in Storysmithing 101 (other options during the session include writing and oral storytelling).

We are surrounded by unique people that care for us, inspire us, and even perplex us.
Think about the people in your life…
First Person Arts is giving you the chance to celebrate someone special or important to you by creating a video tribute in our new class “Celebration of Life” this fall!

The class, focusing on creativity and content, will give you a chance to explore your senses, feelings, memories, fantasies and other perceptions about this person when making your video tribute. You will also participate in creating a sculpture tribute from found objects that will create instant curiosity. The final gala will conclude with a sculpture welcome area and a video screening. This is a chance to meet others, learn about others and to break out of the documentary rut.

The class will be held on Wednesdays, 6 -9 PM, from Sept. 10th through Nov. 19th at the Painted Bride Arts Center. The cost is $350. Participants should have access to and understanding of video and editing equipment. Sign up and fulfill your artistic potential this fall!

Leading the course will be Leslie Birch and Richard Gretzinger of Human+Nature.
Human +Nature is a production company geared to the non-profit, arts and education communities. Leslie has spent many years as a producer for public television and she has an interest in technology art and virtual worlds. Richard is a Director of Photography with many film and commercial credits. His downtime is spent experimenting with photography.

The subject of memoir is not experience but the revelation of consciousness:  In the middle of my life, I found myself in a dark wood, for the straight way was lost.

Dante

First Person Arts is offering an excellent new writing class this fall on memoir-writing! The class will involve reading various memoirists and essayists, in-class writing exercises, and participant workshops on a personal essay or chapter from a memoir. The class will tackle the questions of how consciousness is constructed and the role of memory, as well as the legitimacy of self-life-writing: what are the fundamental tenets of constructing an authentic self on the page? How can we be authorized to tell the truth?

The class will be held on Mondays, 6 - 9 PM, from Sept. 8th through Nov. 10th at the Painted Bride Arts Center. The cost is $350. Sign up here to grab your spot and find your voice in this class before spaces run out!

Instructor: August Tarrier

August Tarrier is a writer, editor and publisher. She is the Editor in Chief of New City Press and Professional Writer in Residence at the University of Baltimore. She has recently completed a short story collection and a memoir.

If you have some time, an imagination, and an empty suitcase… sign up for Beth Nixon’s, puppeteer extraordinaire, Suitcase Puppet Theater workshop coming this fall!

Suitcases contain vast possibilities for metaphor and imagination, not to mention making snazzy self-contained theater spaces. Whether unpacking personal history, sharing tales of adventure, homecoming or escape, or illustrating what we carry- this old school theatrical device is rife with story-telling potential.

In this workshop, you’ll learn everything you need to put on a show-stopping performance in your suitcase-turned-puppet stage! You might even get the chance to present your work at the First Person Festival of Memoir and Documentary Art on Nov. 13th.

Sound fun? Classes are Thursdays 7 - 9pm at the Painted Bride Arts Center this fall, Sept. 11th - Nov. 20th. The cost is $360, and sign up here ASAP, since there are only 12 spots available!

Before you start the workshop, take a few minutes to watch Beth Nixon’s video about the work she does and see her “teach people how to make real what they imagine.”

Beth is also hosting our monthly Story Slam next Tuesday, August 26th at L’Etage. Audience members will tell their best ever “worst ever” stories!

Thursdays, September 11 - November 20 from 7-9 PM at the Painted Bride Arts Center.

Suitcases contain vast possibilities for metaphor and imagination, not to mention making snazzy self-contained theater spaces. Whether unpacking personal history, sharing tales of adventure, homecoming or escape, or illustrating what we carry- this old school theatrical device is rife with story-telling potential. Participants will learn several methods for transforming a suitcase into a puppet stage, including shadow puppetry, hand-and-rod puppets and cardboard/papiermache sculpting techniques. With support from Beth Nixon, participants will create a narrative, sound-scape or script, design and build sets and puppets inside their own suitcases, and receive coaching on the performance of their pieces.

Selected participants will have the opportunity to share their finished work with an audience either as part of The First Person Festival of Memoir and Documentary Art on Nov. 13th.

No previous theater or sculpture experience required.

Participants must provide their own suitcases, all other materials and tools provided.

Cost: $360 Enroll here!

Class size limited to 12

Beth Nixon is a puppeteer and the founder of Ramshackle Enterprises (www.ramshackleenterprises.net) She writes, builds, and performs her own puppet shows, ranging from suitcase theaters to massive spectacles. She lives in West Philly but travels frequently to work with groups of children and adults toward the creation of parades, pageants, and community performances. She is a 2008 recipient of the Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts Award and is a First Person Arts Artist-in-Residence.

First Person Arts is offering two delightful workshops starting this Spring:

One Day Memoir Workshop:
May 3rd, 2008
10:00 am-6:00 pm
$125

For this intensive day of workshopping, each student will bring in multiple copies of a complete memoir piece (five pages double-spaced) or a self-contained excerpt from a larger project. We will spend the day workshopping this writing. With guidance from the instructor, the class will discuss the pieces, exploring their meanings, praising their successes, and offering constructive suggestions for improvement.

About the professor: Nadine Kavanaugh received her MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia University. She is a Staff Writer for the University of Pennsylvania, a film reviewer for the Philadelphia Weekly, and she is hard at work on her first novel. She has taught numerous writing courses most recently “The Essential Elements of Memoir Writing.”

And to get you ready for your StorySlamming best:

Storytelling on Stage
June 7th, 2008
10:00am-4:00pm
$125

Good storytelling should feel intimate, off-the-cuff and passionate. In this workshop, you will learn the difference between a story and monologue. You will learn how to pick and structure your stories, how to find your authentic voice and how to captivate an audience. Please bring in a story you have either told on stage or at a dinner party, and this class will help you polish it for professional use… story slams, alternative comedy slots or first person theater showcases.

About the professor: Kimberlee Auerbach is a former breaking news producer who now writes and performs fulltime. She has performed her comedic monologues throughout New York City at venues such as The Original Improv, The Kraine Theater, and The Bitter End. Her one-woman show played to sold-out houses at the New York International Fringe Festival, and she has competed in several Moth GrandSLAM Championships. Her memoir, The Devil, The Lovers & Me: My Life in Tarot, was released by Dutton in August 2007. For more information about Kimberlee check out www.kimmiland.com.