When Karen Collins, President of ABUW stepped in last minute for Christine Schuster, President and CEO of Emerson Hospital, during the
“Neighbors” themed Storytelling event organized by AB-United Way, she opened the show and her debut act with a reference to her friend Christine’s favorite pearls, and how the evening would string in the many pearls in the form of stories.
Though this was only the second storytelling show I was attending in the US, the concept wasn’t new to me, having grown up listening to many in my mother tongue Marathi. Storytelling was literally called “Katha Kathan” (Katha - Story; Kathan - Telling). And the pearls brought back memories of the storytelling maestro
Dr. P. L Deshpande (Pu La). That evening had started with a bang, slowly stringing in the pearls, with a variety of content and interpretations of “neighbors”.
Karen ended her story about overcoming her shyness and the confidence she mustered to approach a neighbor only after she saw a moving sign. She had secretly always found this family with small kids interesting, so it was lucky that the neighbor only moved a few streets down and they remained friends.
Elizabeth Li, a student at AB High School, talked about her experience going all alone for the New Years Eve ball drop in New York. The fourteen hours she spent waiting in line, and then cages, to watch her favorite Korean Pop group up close, allowed her to make friends with her neighbors in the line. It was an experience of a lifetime for the seventeen year old to be a few feet away from the band when they performed, and she was grateful to be surrounded by like minded “neighbors”.
Vivek Kadambi shared a lifetime of fascinating experiences. As a student, how he was introduced to the beer keg by his neighbors in student housing; how when his neighbors’ bathroom got a burst pipe, they were thoughtful to save his then fiancee’s wedding dress; and how his neighbor in Mumbai removed a fish bone stuck in this throat, with a ball of rice. He pulled the audience into a concept that race, religion, caste are dividers that he and his neighbors were oblivious of.
It was exciting to watch MSNBC political correspondent Steve Kornacki live on a zoom call, after recently watching him on TV, doing round the clock election updates. The Groton native shared a story of his first experience with a political campaign of Presidential Candidate Paul Tsongas in 1992, from the neighboring town Lowell. Even though Bill Clinton took a lead later, it was an exciting launch to young Kornacki’s “career” with Tsongas winning New Hampshire.
The brilliant performance of the four debut storytellers was followed by an even more outstanding line up of pros from
Fugitive Productions. Sara Sweet’s summer-before-high-school experience of a 14-year-old, taking care of babies whose mother recently passed away, touched a chord. From the teen’s displeasure at the job in a beach town, that she felt was thrust upon her, to feeling the grief and pain of her “neighbors” - the adult, as well as the babies. She ended the story of learning and growing, with her being ready for high school life back home.
Wes Hazard, in a lighthearted way, tackled the difficult topic of racial oppression that Black youth innately build their defenses against. Wes’s story describes the alarm bells that go off in his head, when his woke, white, intoxicated girlfriend starts to pass out. It would be “dangerous” for the Black Wes to carry this White girl, who neighbors didn’t know was his girlfriend, and bring her back to his apartment. His girlfriend understood and made a dash upstairs on her own two feet. Wes’s easy-going storytelling captured a powerful aspect of what Black youth live with, day in and day out.
“How do we know that everyone sees the same colors as us? How do color blind people know they see different colors than others?” Katie Leisener’s coming-of-age story portrayed how a young girl’s feelings blossomed from crushes to a love that was not defined in her environment. Trapped in a church closet with someone, her feelings of wanting to kiss this girl surfaced. Her story brought the struggles of the young girl, of feelings which have gained acceptance only recently, to the forefront. Katie’s unique storytelling style made use of her hands to emote and express the story, which brought the audience into her realm.
Finally, Matthew Dicks, the 41-time Moth StorySLAM champion took the stage and did not disappoint! In an amusing, captivating style, he brought the audience along in his “forced” parenting journey which had trapped him into spending the day with his kids. His story took an endearing turn when his little girl opened his eyes about his perceived parenting woes in comparison to the single mother who listened and paid attention to not only to her own, but his children also - that too with a smile! This last pearl was the perfect finish to one of the few superbly entertaining evenings we have had since covid started.
The evening left me with the memories of “Katha Kathan” from India. Especially one of my favorite stories, from the storytelling genius Pu. La. Deshpande, called “
Chitale Master”. This story is about a dedicated school teacher who poured his life in educating and building his students. In Pu La’s comedical, self deprecating style, his protagonist, speaking of his wife expresses that on a teacher’s salary all he could afford was to give her cataract (called “pearly eyes” or “Moti bindu” in Marathi) and not real pearls. And the storyteller subtly leaves the audience with an understanding of the teacher’s real pearls amongst his accomplished students. In the same way we were left with the pearls of each storyteller’s powerful stories that night.
Tellers pictures from ABUW and zoom event.
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