Listen & Be Heard

If I’m not careful it is easy for me to become overwhelmed by the mediocrity that seems to keep us all in constant danger of succumbing to it’s hypnotic siren song. Yeah it’s easy to switch on my television and flop down on my couch, getting up to visit the refrigerator every time one of… Read more

Ever since Richard Pryor?s three classic films ?Live In Concert,? ?Live on the Sunset Strip? and ?Here and Now?, stand-up comedy left behind its late night dive image to become part of mainstream American culture and entertainment. People paid good money to see just Richard Pryor standing onstage, larger than life, with no special effects,… Read more

In the world of the unspoken, the place where the heart speaks in your voice, or touch, or perception of what is really going on, motivation is the last word, the sum of all that has happened, and is destined to happen. What motivates you is complicated. What motivates you, you may not be conscious… Read more

Anyone choosing to work in almost any area of arts and entertainment will inevitably be forced to recognize certain truths, and make choices based on their motivation for getting involved in the first place. Some of the forces that operate before our eyes and behind the scenes are on a national and even international level,… Read more

I was thinking about our upcoming Women’s History Celebration this Saturday at Listen & Be Heard Poetry Caf?, and some of the challenges presented by putting together a program of women. The dynamics of bringing together particular groups of people led me to ask myself why it is that we designate days or months to… Read more

When I was a little girl I used to watch my mother knit sweaters for my dad and for each of her children. Some of them were pretty simple, but there was one I remember, that I think was based on an Irish Fisherman’s pattern, that was more complicated and looked really beautiful in its… Read more