The national Freya Project comes to Troutbeck to share poems of joy

AMENIA — Rather than be consumed by the fear brought on by recent headlines, The Freya Project offered the community an evening to reflect on happier moments at its Readings for Joy event held at Troutbeck in Amenia on Friday, May 6.

According to its website, www.freyaproject.com, The Freya Project stands as “an organization that uses storytelling to inspire community-based activism.”

As part of its mission, The Freya Project invites women and non-binary people — including authors, actors, teachers, doctors and activists — to read at its events; all proceeds raised go toward supporting small nonprofits working in their location communities.

Its recent reading raised funds to support the Roe Fund, which, according to the fund’s website at www.abortionfunds.org, annually provides direct financial help to Oklahoma women seeking family planning services who could otherwise not have afforded them.

With a light spring rainfall trickling down outside, the Troutbeck ballroom provided a nice, cozy space for the readings. By 5:30 p.m., there were more than a dozen people in the ballroom with more arriving as the evening progressed.

Although The Freya Project Co-Founder Nonie Brzyski was unable to attend the event, her sister Kate White shared how thrilled they were to hold it at Troutbeck. White gave an overview of how The Freya Project got started and of its overall mission.

In talking about the Roe Fund, White explained the project is funded entirely by donations. After a draft Supreme Court opinion leaked last week that could reverse the Roe v. Wade decision that has protected a woman’s right to safe and legal abortions, putting in jeopardy the future of women’s ability to access the procedure, she said the timing to gather in support of the Roe Fund couldn’t have been better.

White said the four presenters at Troutbeck were asked to describe a day in which they felt joy. Halimah Marcus was the first reader.

With a microphone in hand and words splayed on the podium, Marcus read an original piece she written for the occasion about a moment inspired by a trip to Coney Island. The audience let the words wash over them, laughing at Marcus’ gentle sense of humor.

The laughter continued throughout the night, though the delivery changed from prose to poetry to essays.

Though admitting her poetry tends to gravitate toward sadness, poet Rage Hezekiah  selected a few poems that captured joy.

“Thank you all for showing up for a very good cause at a very important time,” said author Marcia DeSanctis before reading aloud “Seven Drafts of Coffee,” an essay from her book “A Hard Place to Leave,” which captured the seven-stage cycle she’s experienced between leaving and returning home from assignments.

While she acknowledged the writing was about a day when she felt joy, Leigh Newman, the final author that evening, said she feels joy every day. She chose to write about “joy and terror,” a nickname given to her by her agent.

Newman  interlaced hilarity and relatability as she read about the subtle joys of home life and the terrors that have “burrowed like a tick” into every joy she’s experienced.

Thanking all the readers for filling the room with joy, White invited attendees to consider buying the signed books and make a donation to the Roe Fund.

Attendees of The Freya Project’s Readings for Joy lent author Marcia DeSanctis their undivided attention as she read aloud her essay at Troutbeck. Photo by Kaitlin Lyle

Turning to her first poetry collection, poet Rage Hezekiah read aloud a selection of poems that captured joy at The Freya Project’s Readings for Joy on Friday night, May 6. Photo by Kaitlin Lyle

  
Attendees of The Freya Project’s Readings for Joy lent author Marcia DeSanctis their undivided attention as she read aloud her essay at Troutbeck. Photo by Kaitlin Lyle

Latest News

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.

Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
history

A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

In the company of artists

In the company of artists

Curator Henry Klimowicz, left, with artists Brigitta Varadi and Amy Podmore at The Re Institute

Aida Laleian

For anyone who wants a deeper glimpse into how art comes about, an on-site artist talk is a rich experience worth the trip.On Saturday, June 14, Henry Klimowicz’s cavernous Re Institute — a vast, converted 1960’s barn north of Millerton — hosted Amy Podmore and Brigitta Varadi, who elucidated their process to a small but engaged crowd amid the installation of sculptures and two remarkable videos.

Though they were all there at different times, a common thread among Klimowicz, Podmore and Varadi is their experience of New Hampshire’s famed MacDowell Colony. The silence, the safety of being able to walk in the woods at night, and the camaraderie of other working artists are precious goads to hardworking creativity. For his part, for fifteen years, Klimowicz has promoted community among thousands of participating artists, in the hope that the pairs or groups he shows together will always be linked. “To be an artist,” he stressed, “is to be among other artists.”

Keep ReadingShow less
exhibit