Covid has slowed me down but not stopped me. I’m almost myself. Lots of good things to report; I’m coming out and back into the world with a vengeance.

Good news this morning. Alys Culhane, Found of the Bright Lights Book Project in Palmer, Alaska, and the Guardian Book Angel for the Army Of Good, has agreed to send 100 art books to stock the new Art Class Library that Sue Silverstein is setting up in her eighth cubicle art program basement at Bishop Gibbons High School.

Sue is re-imaging art education as she and more than 40 refugees from Bishop Maginn move their magic relationship to Bishop Gibbons in Schenectady, N.Y., where I’ll be tomorrow. Maria and I are bringing a carload of fabrics and metal objects to the school that we and others have been gathering for her art projects – the first will be making wind chimes.

(People from all over the country are sending Sue wonderful boxes ( small, thanks) of lost metal objects, from parts of toys to old silverware and metal screws. Thanks so much; these will soon be part of very creative wind chimes, many of which will go to nursing homes and to people who love wind chimes but can’t afford to buy them. The school’s office staff is simply amazed at the packages arriving.)

We’ve already sent two truckloads of art supplies to the school, and I’m committed to supporting Sue’s creative and radically innovative ideas about teaching art to children as an innovative, educational, and spiritual tool.

She wants to make art education personal and interactive.

I’ll meet with Killian, a seventh grader who wants to be a writer and is already.

I hope to bring Zinnia; it will be a little cooler tomorrow. I’ve been asked to mentor Killian; I think it’s a beautiful and positive use of my experience as an author, blogger, and critic. School starts next week.

I can’t say enough about Alys Curlane, who had this brilliant idea of salvaging and recycling books that are often thrown away, stored in basements, or given away by libraries.

She is sending thousands of dollars worth of contemporary readers to the Bishop Gibbons library so they can upgrade their stock.

She has already sent a perfect box of books to the Mansion Library for the residents to read.

When I emailed her about the plans to stock an art library, she answered in minutes and said, “yes, I will send art books Yesterday, I cleared out the library of a woman who died – she had a huge art library.”

Alys, who lives, hikes, and rides horses in Alaska, says she has some beautiful art books in her Uhaul storage unit. She is at work assembling a first-class collection.

 

(Above, the one and only Alys Curlane, hiking in the Yukon in Canada.  Once again, she is a book angel and the founder of the Bright Lights Book Project in Palmer, Alaska, a non-profit that recycles discarded books and gets them into the hand of people who need them.)

Also, today, I’m finalizing my meeting with a tech expert who will help me set up my new Zoom “Talk To Me” project. Once a week,  I’ll meet with a dozen people – readers of the blog – on Zoom and talk to them, listen to them, and answer questions live, and also from people who aren’t Zooming but will still send me questions.

We will figure out exactly how this will work, how people can sign up, and how I can make the blog safe and civil – a safe zone. We are joining the struggle to make communications civil and meaningful again; something often lost on social media. I have a Zoom account, which is rarely used, and here’s a chance to put it to good. We can meet and talk to each other in a new and personal way—how people used to talk to each other.

Beyond that, I’d like to talk face to face with blog readers and humanize the process of reading and blogging online. This adds a human and community dimension to what I am trying to do with bedlamfarm.com, my creative home, and my digital memoir.

I’m meeting with Andrew, my tech advisor, on Wednesday morning, September 7th, and launching the Zoom project – I’m calling it “Talk To Me” – on September 14th, also a Wednesday.

I’m very much looking forward to this weekly project – an hour each session – and from my email, so are many of you. Thanks for your interest, and I look forward to talking with you in this new dimension, which sounds much like the old.

 

 

Sue Silverstein, art and community services teacher at Bishop Gibbons and a valued and precious friend.

Sue has been working with young people for 24 years and has become a godsend to them, a role model, and champion of countless children, especially refugees and those in the inner city. She is everything a teacher can be.

For four years, I’ve witnessed her bring about one miracle after another. She really cares, and the students know it, and she now has a dazzling and spacious new space to teach her art and make it interactive and more relevant to the students at the school, and the refugee children, to whom she is a hero.