Silent Sunday
Anyone lose a hairbrush?
Thursday evening in Millvale, Amy McCall, owner of McWalker Yarns hosted poets Sheryl St. Germain and her former MFA student at Chatham U, Michael Bennett.
The yarn store was a wonderful backdrop for Sheryl St. Germain’s reading. Surrounded by skeins and skeins of colorful yarn, Sheryl read her powerful essay (from Stitching Resistance: Women, Creativity and Fiber Arts edited by Marjorie Agosin). She told of the role crochet has played in her life since childhood, but focusing on how crocheting with yarn helped her cope while parenting a son who was in trouble with alcohol, drugs and the law. She also read poems about her son’s dying of a heroin overdose from her book The Small Door of Your Death. Her words touched the audience as she described the helplessness and grief, her numbness, as she centered herself every evening after a long day- crocheting an afghan for her son. The repetition of hook into yarn loops as a meditation, an ease from depression and the stress of hopelessness. A healing.
Pittsburgh native Michael Bennett read his poetry first and opened for Ms. St. Germain. Michael has worked for three years with Words Without Walls program, teaching incarcerated Juvenile offenders, teenagers being tried as adults.
Cellist David Bennett and McWalker Yarns supporter introduces the poet and provided delicious desserts by Millvale Baker Jean-Marc Chatelier
New Orleans native Sheryl St. Germain has published six poetry books, two collections of essays, and co-edited two anthologies. The Small Door of Your Death, a collection of poems about the death of her son from a heroin overdose, appeared in 2018 with Autumn House Press. A forthcoming book, Fifty Miles, is a collection of essays about healing that include a couple of essays about working with yarn. Sheryl directs the MFA program in Creative Writing at Chatham University where she also teaches poetry and creative nonfiction, and is co-founder of the Words Without Walls Program . She was named Louisiana Writer of the year in 2018. Sheryl is an avid and accomplished crocheter, and a much less accomplished knitter. See: www.sheryl-stgermain.com/ for more information.
Desserts created by Jean-Marc Chatellier French Bakery
A six word Saturday.
I’ve not seen one of these before but they make a lot of sense.
This one in front of the police station.
Thanks for all the good wishes in accomplishing nine years of blogging and starting year ten. I’ve posted 3,235 times which averages 359 times a year.
More family came to Millvale to see the People at Work show today which was really nice. They drove in from Virginia, Ohio and West Mifflin. We gathered back at my house for dinner.
And a photography classmate of mine came with his wife to Panza Gallery at the same time. Andrew Wagner and I took a few classes together at Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild. He’s a loyal blog follower, too, having photographed many similar subjects throughout his career- in FILM!
Andrew once said my blog was like a Kodak Carousel slide show and you never knew what the next slide would be. He offered to take a photo of the family at the gallery this afternoon and he took it on my camera so I have the photos right away. Thank you for coming and always being so supportive to me in my photography efforts.
Here are the photos Andrew took today.
Uncle Frank and Maura look at Vintage Car Restorer storyboard featuring Uncle Frank.
Photo credit to all three photos –Andrew Wagner
Jen H at WordPress has created the weekly Photo Challenge: Local.
What feels familiar, home. The places you know by heart. Local diner, local playground, local neighborhood, local church,local streets-I live in the city by a park.
I notice I shoot a lot of local coffee, too.
Here’s my iPhone local gallery. Pittsburgh.
Just across the river, home of two of my favorite places-Panza Gallery where Mark Panza frames my pictures and makes them shine and Jean-Marc Chatellier’s Bakery, whose excellent brioche melts in your mouth (not to mention the cakes, the shortbread, the tarts, the cookies, the baguettes, the anything
he bakes). Saturday night was the Big Love Art Show at Panza’s and as we left to get into the parked car, I saw this scene outside the Millvale Borough Building. Several of the buildings have water line marks from the years the town has flooded.
Driving back from Murrysville I saw the lights on the porch at Clayton, the home of Henry Clay Frick. Evergreen swags dangling from the portico. Drove around the block to come back and use the driver’s side window as my makeshift tripod. Lots of photos in the dark lately, it’s dark so early! Wednesday night Steve and I ate dinner a Grant Avenue Bar & Grill and when I pulled down the alley I saw the Candy Cane/ Snowflake house. Scroll down to see the Millvale House.
