Dear Friends,
I hope the season finds you well. My thoughts are with many of my friends in the southeast coping with the hurricane and its aftermath. I have deep connections with the people and places of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee and my heart breaks for the disaster there.
If you’ve been meaning to make a donation to help those folks but haven’t done it yet, here are a couple of links:
In Tennessee:
United Way of East TN Highlands
P.O. Box 4039
Johnson City, TN 37602
In North Carolina:
North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund
20312 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699
I’ve got three things I want to tell you about in this brief newsletter: a play, a story, and a song!
A Play - an iliad
First, I want to let all my southeastern New England friends know that I’ll be doing a three week run of “An Iliad” by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare at the Burbage Theater in Pawtucket, RI from November 7 to 24.
I am very excited about the piece. I mean: VERY EXCITED!!! My longtime friend and master musician Cathy Clasper-Torch will be joining me as “The Muse” providing musical accompaniment. (My role is “The Poet”!) While it is a retelling of the ancient epic, it is very much about the world today – a really moving meditation on humans and conflict.
I would LOVE to see you there.
A Story - The Bogman
Hey! It’s October! Halloween is at the end of the month.
WHY NOT A SCARY STORY?
Or kind of scary.
Several years ago I wrote a bunch of ghost stories for young people and have finally gotten around to recording them. I’ll make all of them available soon, but for the time being, for the Halloween season, you can take a listen to one of them: “The Bogman”.
I am presently releasing it only on Bandcamp. While you’re welcome to listen for free, you can download and own it for $1.00!
A Song! - Jericho Road
Also, I’ve been recording a bunch of songs and want to offer a new one to you. I wrote it after I read this quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.:
“I think the Good Samaritan is a great individual. I of course, like and respect the Good Samaritan….but I don’t want to be a Good Samaritan. I am tired of picking up people along the Jericho Road. I am tired of seeing people battered and bruised and bloody, injured and jumped on, along the Jericho Roads of life. This road is dangerous. I don’t want to pick up anyone else, along this Jericho Road; I want to fix… the Jericho Road. I want to pave the Jericho Road, add street lights to the Jericho Road; make the Jericho Road safe (for passage) by everybody….”
It’s on Bandcamp, too. Hope you like it!
What we're reading
I recently finished reading King, the recent biography of Martin Luther King by Jonathan Eig. It’s a compelling, really well-written account of this amazing, imperfect, brave person. As well as I know the story of King and the Civil Rights Movement, I was brought up short time and again, thinking about the challenges he and others faced and how he dealt with the hatred he faced, both from the larger society and the government.
Also, just finished reading James by Percival Everett – if you haven’t heard of it, it’s Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s perspective, and it’s just genius.
Let us know what you’re up to, reading-wise. We love to hear. Email Michele@billharley.com with your recommendations.
Best to you all,
