workshops : performances : creations : art & theater : workshops : performances : creations

Friday, December 31, 2010

This past autumn brought a merging, or a reuniting perhaps, of Mothers Moon & The Barefoot Storyteller. It was an understanding that the two parts of my life could actually exist together quite nicely after a few readjustments. (which are really still ongoing) What sense it made, as I am, as always, simply one person afterall... though my son has indeed been a wonderfull part of all I have done since his birth, and my greatest influence.

Most folks that know me, know of my doula practice & natural products business Mothers Moon. Time spent beneath the full moon by myself or with others has always been very centering, peaceful, renewing & inspiring for me…. especially as it reflects over the water here at Freedom Pond. Because of that, when we first moved here in 1996, the art that I was doing, the herbal blends I made, the beeswax candles I dipped, the women’s gatherings, and all that sprang forth from me, I half jokingly called “Freedom Pond Moon-works“... long before I had any ideas of having a business. (being anti-establishment, the idea of registering an actual business was something that I had avoided for many years) . Then it came that my women's circle honored a very special full moon here one May, called the “Mothers Moon”, which I simply thought was just so beautiful and inspiring... and Mothers Moon was born.

Some folks know that The Barefoot Storyteller is a name I was given much longer ago, in my traveling days...of gathering children for stories and daisy-chain making. It was as my son grew out of his early childhood, that my persona as The Barefoot Storyteller seemed to be growing as well, and it too became a business. Quite a few folks of more recent years assume there is a direct connection to the name and my association with Barefoot Books, but that was no more than a happy accident.

Now in coming full circle, it may be in 2011 that, with my son's serious involvement in creating more of the arts and products, there is a chance of a return to being Freedom Pond Moonworks, for it could prove to be a fitting title for all that we do, together. I'm proud to have my son working at my side, and continuing to inspire me....hopefully I inspire him too! I am looking forward to whatever projects we may collaborate on in the coming year, and hopefully beyond.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Creating Collaborative Communities


Syntiro will be having their annual Winter Retreat at Point Lookout in Northport on January 28th-29th, 2011. And I am so happy to be a part of it again! Please stop by The Barefoot Storyteller booth, and join us to learn about using arts integration and technology.
Many of the presenters are your arts education colleagues!
There is $3-4,000 available for each superintendents region in Maine for educators to attend. To learn more about this professional development opportunity click on www.syntiro.org/events/winter-retreat.html.

Monday, December 20, 2010

First Book

I'm still distributing free books across Waldo County to elementary, middle schools, high schools, homeschoolers, and community centers from my First Book* grant! So far in 2010, books were given out at Mt. View High School, Belfast High School, RSU#3 4th & 5th grades, Mt. View Middle School & Jr. High, Mt. View Elementary, Mt. View Elementary PTA, Unity Barn Raisers, Waterfall Arts, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Waldo County, Clifford Performing Arts Center, Twice Loved Boutique, Waldo County Broadreach, Belfast Area Adult Ed, Granny Goat Daycare, Michelle's Daycare, and the Unity College Performing Arts Center.

*First Book works through existing community programs and literacy efforts such as myself to provide a steady stream of new free or low cost books that elevate educational programming and improve access to reading materials. All books from this grant become the personal property of the children. I'm so glad to be a part of it! If you belong to an organization (or know of one) for kids in Waldo County, please get in touch with me.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Monday, December 6, 2010

Santa is bringing books!

Santa Claus is coming to town in Unity! And he's giving out free books! All good children please come by the Unity Community Center Holiday Party from 5pm to 7pm on Tuesday December 7th to visit with Santa and receive a free book! In addition there will be a coats for kids box, and they are accepting canned food to give to the Regional Food Pantry. The Unity Community Center is located at 32 School Street in Unity. You are also invited to the lighting of the three pergolas in Triplet Park before the Holiday Party, at 4:45pm. The trees will remain lit during the nighttime through January in memory of Joshua, Marcus, and Brydon and Jonesy.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

The Mitten

Working with the MSAD# 3 Elementary Afterschool Performing Arts Program on a Winter recital and decided to throw in a readers' theater of Jan Brett's "The Mitten"...really looking forward to it!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Monday, November 22, 2010

Wings of Love


Waldo County United Bikers of Maine is collecting toys for Wings of Love. Please help by donating a new unwrapped toy, or even a few dollars toward the purchase of some. The Barefoot Storyteller will be donating 20% of all it's proceeds from the craft fair at Mt. View High School on December 4th (9am - 3pm) AND you can also shop the Barefoot Books web-site and click on the link to give 20% of the cost of your shopping basket to this cause!

The holidays can be tough for everyone but as we all know it is a time for shaing, caring and loving everyone. We need to all do what we can to make sure each & every child in our community has a gift to open on Christmas morning. Please do what you can to help.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Storytelling Event

On Saturday October 30th, at 1:30pm and then again at 3pm, The Barefoot Storyteller (& company) will be sharing "Tales of Mystery and Magic" during Twice Loved Boutique's First Annual Fall Festival in Belfast!


See you then!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Mad Hatter Tea Party!

Come and join us for an evening of fun and refreshments as we collect hats for Maine children undergoing cancer treatment. Silly costumes are encouraged. There will be some prizes for those with the "Maddest" Costumes!

Admission: NEW UNUSED* hat to be donated to the Maine Children's Cancer Program. Hats for all ages are needed from Toddler to Teenager. All types of hats may be donated, from baseball hats to silly caps! Monetary donations will also be accepted in lieu of a hat.

*Hat donations must be BRAND-NEW due to the low immune systems of the children receiving hats.

Mt. View High School Cafeteria
577 Mt. View Rd
Thorndike, ME

Wednesday, October 6th · 6:30pm - 7:30pm

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Common Ground Fair


The Barefoot Storyteller will be performing on the Sunflower Stage in the children's area, Friday September 24th at 1pm. Come see me! :)

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Free books for kids!


The "Summer Shipment" of books from First Book has begun to arrive! I am so excited to be in the middle of taking delivery of more than *6,000* books (I'll give an acurate count when I'm done) to distribute for FREE to children ages pre-K to 10th grade across Waldo County. These books, made available by a grant through First Book are coming in case after case and I may still be sorting them in September! I will be delivering them to school districts, community centers, and home schoolers. Keep posted for more updates!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Maine Artisan Bread Fair

The Barefoot Storyteller will be at the Maine Artisan Bread Fair in Skowhegan, July 31st, with a small variety of books for sale... and 20% of all sales will be going to the Maine Farmland Trust! Come see me!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Upcoming event


The Barefoot Storyteller will be at the Skowhegan Nursery School, on July 27th from 9am - 11am as part of "Community Connections" camp week July 26th - 30th. Join people from the neighborhood to share gymnastics, dance, storytelling, arts & crafts, and music & movement; this camp week will end with a field trip to the L.C. Bates Museum where we will explore parts of our Native Maine and wrap up with a picnic.

This is a unique day camp opportunity for preschool children in the Skowhegan area. These 3, one-week day camps will provide an opportunity for children ages 3 to 5 years old to experience some summer-time fun. Program days run from 8:30-11:30 a.m. at $55 per week which includes a daily snack and a field trip relating to the camp week theme. Register early; space is limited!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

"Guardians" opens June 5th


Please join me for this amazing art opening on June 4th. The subject matter close enough to my heart, I am further elated that a number of Kelly Desrosier's elementary school students' works are to be part of the show. Any one who knows me is aware of the extensive advocating I do for arts in schools...Kelly is one of the amazing examples of how a good arts program, and moreover an involved art teacher, is such an importaint part of educating and enriching the lives of youth.



Friday evening June 4th (5-8pm), Maine Farmland Trust Gallery is welcoming the public to join the celebratory opening of a new group exhibit titled
Guardians, featuring paintings, sculptures, photographs, collagraph prints and multimedia books. Seven Maine artists from Portland to Eastport are participating in this show, as well as 13 students and their art teacher from the Mount View Elementary school in Thorndike.

The dictionary defines "guardian" as a keeper - a person who guards, protects or preserves.

"Guardians aims to create a visual statement about the real and imagined keepers of our land," says Anna Abaldo, Gallery Coordinator for Maine Farmland Trust. "It's been very exciting reigning in the different artists for this show, and picking the particular artworks to create a poetic suggestion about "guardians" of the land - the art in this exhibit represents both mythical, archetypal figures from folklore and our collective imagination, and every day farmers as being those incarnated "guardians" in this lifetime. Guardians is really an attempt to honor our farmers, the immensely important work they do which often goes unseen or gets taken for granted, and the intimate way they are connected to their land and the animals they care for."

Learning to be guardians are the students from Mount View Elementary. Under the wing of their art teacher Kelly Desrosiers, the students researched the interplay of sun, soil, water, air, plants and animals and created multimedia Earthbooks reflecting what they learned. Thirteen of these books will be on display as part of the exhibit at Maine Farmland Trust Gallery, as well as a digital video documenting this inspiring interdisciplinary project. Desrosiers firmly believes in teaching the joyful process of creation as a way of observing and understanding the magnificent natural world. She sees an analogy between the generative process of art and that of nature itself. She comments: "We are growing a new crop of stewards in our children, who will create our future, hopefully with deep appreciation for nature and their own role as co-creators."

Maine Farmland Trust Gallery is open weekdays from 9-4, and during July and August for Belfast Art Walks, Friday evenings from 5-8pm. The gallery is located in the front office of Maine Farmland Trust, 97 Main Street, Belfast.

Maine Farmland Trust is a statewide non-profit organization working to permanently preserve and protect Maine's agricultural lands, and to keep Maine's farms farming. Maine Farmland Trust created its gallery to celebrate agriculture through art, and to inspire and inform visitors regarding the vibrancy of farming in Maine.

For more information about Maine Farmland Trust and current events and programs, please visit www.mainefarmlandtrust.org, or call 338.6575.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Scot Cannon

Up before the rest of the house, herbal tea not yet fully steeped, I wanted to take a few moments to pass along a web-site I encourage everyone to visit (then I'll get back to trying to draft a grant letter of intent to submit to the Jim Henson Foundation for a childrens' program I'd like to do with the Friends of Unity Wetlands )

When you visit the site, I'd like you to especially look at the Songwriting Residency. I can never say it enough, please support the arts in schools. Okay, so here it is: Scot Cannon Music

You'll find this elsewhere there, but I wanted to mention it here as well, that Scot will be performing at the Belfast (Maine) Farmers Market on July 23rd, along with what I have read will be marvelous juggling by Morty Hanson... I plan to be stopping by, and hope you do too.

Scot's music link was listed on another web-site I have visited *several* times in the last six months...innocently listed on the left hand side, and I never clicked on it before. Sad. This other site is ScotCannon.com which everyone should also check out. It was one of his performances (Open the Door) that I saw at the Maine Arts Conference last October, which I then had been trying to schedule for the students at Mt. View Elementary School to see. And just this past Wednesday it happened. I should "blog" about that sometime too.


Monday, March 29, 2010

Etsy Shop


Added some items to my storyteller etsy shop today...

Friday, March 26, 2010

Roots

Everyone who knows me, knows I wear many hats...literally and metaphorically. It has happened before that I have arrived at a venue wearing the wrong "hat" so to speak. Rest assured though that I have never shown up while a woman was in labor thinking that I was there to do anything that didn't have to do with the birth of her child into the family.

It's mostly usually a retail faux pax. Having set up a display of childrens' books and crafts to find the organizers were thinking I was bringing my natural products. Or having brought handcrafts to places that were expecting music cds and instruments.

For a while I tried to separate everything, and regularly carried at least three different business cards with me, more often four. Then I realized that no matter how many hats I had, I really was indeed just one person, so I had business cards made up that pretty much listed what I offered professionally/retail-wise... more than twenty headings.

So it was just recently, that I was set up behind a display of books, and costume props, small toys, and a stack of cards advertising storytelling workshops that I give, when out of a hundred or more passers-by, two people struck a chord in me...looking for me to be wearing a different hat.

One was looking for those natural handmade products of mine...from my garden grown herbs, and local wool. The other had this magnificently brilliant idea about a children's circus...that reminded me the kinds of things I used to do in my "traveling" days before I became a *professional* storyteller. Both of these people made me wonder what I was doing sitting inside on a beautiful Spring day. I felt encouraged, understood, revitalized. I am hoping to keep that feeling going.

It reminded me of a project I began a few years ago, from a dream I first had a few decades ago.. that I seemingly abandoned. Maybe it's time to give it another look. I haven't updated the web-site in a couple of years, but you are welcome to please visit Mother Moon Music

I've also been one to talk at length upon the adage of there being a differenace between making a life and making a living...maybe I need to listen to myself a little more.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Good Life Fest

The Barefoot Storyteller (and Mothers Moon) will be appearing at The Good Life Fest in Belfast on May 8th. The fest is "a celebration of healthy green living" and will showcase over 40 exhibitors and vendors bringing their food, wares, and services to the Belfast Armory on Route 1 Belfast. This event celebrates the best of the good life - local foods, good health, and the green home - for an exciting day of samples, workshops, demos, music, and shopping. 10am - 5pm Admission is $5 per person with no cost for children 12 and under. Hope to see you there!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Music in Our Schools

This afternoon my son was part of "The World's Largest Concert", a project of the National Association of Music Education's Music in Our Schools Month.... if you missed it, you can view videos on-line order a DVD, find songs and sheet music, and think about getting your school to join in next year

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Mother of a Craft Fair

The Barefoot Storyteller, mostly under the guise of Mothers Moon, will be part of A Mother of a Craft Fair being held at Stone Mountain Arts Center on May 9th. Many folks know what a big fan & supporter I am of Carol, and SMAC... I always enjoy my visits and all the performances I've seen, so I'm very excited to be more than just an audience member, even if not actually on stage! (yet?)

This Mother of a Craft Fair will feature some of the best of New England's artisans...lots of great gifts from that special Mom in your life. In addition there will be lots of other fun stuff available to treat Mom like:

* Neighborhood carriage rides with Donna the Wonder Horse
* Tarot card readings
* A Strolling Accordion Player!!!
* Neck and shoulder massages
* Yummy lunch will be served all day from the SMAC kitchen.
* The bar will be open for all kinds of libations.
* The SMAC Box office will be open for tickets, gift certificates and more,

So come for lunch, a glass of wine, a carriage ride in the country, a neck massage and finally.... LET MOM PICK OUT HER OWN GIFT!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Kids' Garden

Kids' Garden is a new "deck" filled with 40 fun indoor and outdoor activities and games along with an eight page booklet that contains information on gardening tools, year round plant care, and garden safety. Step-by-step directions are enhanced by colorful artwork on each double sided card. I will be using this kit for many of my gardening, planting, and "green" storytelling activities in the coming months! This will include when you see me at the Coastal Maine Bontanical Gardens' Garden Fair on June 18th, 19th, & 20th in Boothbay! Please join me, or buy your own copy on-line

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Childrens' Discovery Museum

The Barefoot Storyteller will be at the Children's Discovery Museum in Augusta on March 5th for a special storytime, 3pm. In celebration of Eric Carle's birthday in March, I will be reading "A House for Hermit Crab" and then asking the children to take part in performing the story as a play! Afterwards there will also be a paper arts craft of decorating your own hermit crab shell, and a visit to the museum's own touch tank to visit the hermit crabs who live there.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Tri-District Health and Wellness Fair

The Barefoot Storyteller will have a booth at the Tri-District Health and Wellness Fair to be held March 26th at the Mt. View High School in Thorndike. At my booth you can purchase a small selection of Barefoot Books, a variety of my handmade storytelling props such as silly hats, puppets, and merry makers...ask me about my storytelling, and learn more about how reading and the arts in schools bring wellness to the kids, families, teachers and whole communities!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

The StoryBox Project


Are You:

A student whose teacher told you that you should publish that story.
A writer who is looking for new audiences for your work.
A storyteller who knows the value of sharing stories.
A parent who wants to let people know about your favorite aunt or uncle
A social activist who wants to share a narrative about change
A dreamer who just wants to tell us about the worlds you create
A person who is proud of their country’s tradition and wants others in the world to know about it:

Then:

Share your stories by sending them to us so that we can place them in the international/national Story Boxes. These Story Boxes are shared with new audiences in places in and around the world. Hundreds and thousands of people will read them. A teacher may use the story to help their classroom. A storyteller may perform your story to a group of kids. We have had people published as a result of reading their story in the Story Box. A community organizer may share their story to help others value their community. A child may create their own world based on your imagination. We guarantee the story will travel and with each new place, new readers will discover your story.

The Story Box is designed to help share the global world of stories. The narrative either we make up or we live is worth sharing with others. No story is edited. We do ask that you mark it for kids /adults or both. It is simply placed in the Story Box. However, when you fill out the story form,(see below) people are encouraged to let you know where the story travels and what they did with it. Don’t be surprised to hear from others around the world about your story. Kids write the authors. Other writers share ideas. Your writing is part of the Global sharing experiences.

Drop Off Box

Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy New Year!


I'm looking forward to more storytelling, music making, art creating, imagination stirring... performances, workshops...and sharing more whimiscal costumes and toys with everyone in 2010! Happy New Year!