Christa Avampato's Blog, page 84
March 10, 2018
A Year of Yes: Supporting Central Park
Central Park after this week’s storm. Photo by me!
Central Park staff were out early this week cleaning up the park after the storm. Phineas and I spend a lot of time in this park, and we really appreciate everything that the staff does to keep this park the jewel of the city that it is. To thank and support them, . They are a big part of making this city such a wonderful place to call home.
March 7, 2018
A Year of Yes: The gift of helping others find their groove
“We’re all just walking each other home.” ~Ram Dass
This week I spent time with graduate students at Cornell Tech, helping them with their product development portfolio projects, and with a friend who needed some advice about how to move forward in a difficult professional situation. In both these instances, I felt alive being able to offer help, support, and advice. These circumstances reminded me of this quote by Ram Dass. If we aren’t helping each other through this life, then what’s the point, right?
March 6, 2018
A Year of Yes: I’m as much a rewriter as a writer
“A good book isn’t written; it’s rewritten.” ~Phyllis A. Whitney
There is an excitement in crafting something from a blank page, but I will tell you that I’m much more excited to add the layers of revision once the bones are set. To me there is something very special about the furthering of a vision that makes me love rewriting more than I love writing. I work very hard to get through that first phase quickly. With the track laid and the outline in front of me, that’s when my creativity really takes off. I’ve learned to see revision not as a necessary evil but as an old, dear friend who helps me put the pieces together so that my stories can be shared and heard.
March 5, 2018
A Year of Yes: Never stop reading fairy tales
“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” ~C.S. Lewis
I never outgrew reading fairy tales. I became a writer and an author because of them. They’ve helped me to make sense of life, to have hope in times that seemed so bleak. I don’t believe in happily ever after; I believe in stronger and braver ever after. And that has made all the difference.
March 4, 2018
A Year of Yes: Writers, just tell yourself a story
“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” ~Terry Pratchett
As I begin to add more layers to the skeleton of my second novel, I keep coming back to this quote by the iconic novelist, Terry Pratchett. Every time I get stuck and I don’t know what happens next, I close my eyes and I say these words out loud. It works for every part of the writing, editing, and revising process. I’m just telling myself the story, the richest, most inspiring, and truest story that I can create.
March 2, 2018
A Year of Yes: How to find your tribe
This. This is how you find your tribe:
some people
when they hear
your story.
contract.
others
upon hearing
your story.
expand.
and
this is how
you
know.
~Nayyirah Waheed, poet
March 1, 2018
A Year of Yes: The power of Wonder Woman pose – a lesson from Shonda Rhimes
Stand up straight, legs slightly more than hip’s width apart, hands on hips. This Wonder Woman pose is so powerful that if you do this for 5 minutes, it not only boosts your confidence but has been found to boost the confidence others have in your for as long as 3 hours later. I read about this in the book Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes. I’ve been giving it a try for the last week, and I have to say I’ve seen a drastic difference in myself and others. Give it a try. Let me know what you find.
February 28, 2018
A Year of Yes: My childhood dream of digging for fossils is about to come true
[image error]When I was a kid, I wanted to be a paleontologist and dig for dinosaurs. Life didn’t work out that way for me, but I’m about to get the next best thing. On what I’m sure will be a sunny Friday, I’m going to visit the Edelman Fossil Park outside of Philly (my old stomping grounds) and spend time with Dr. Ken Lacovara, a scientist and author whose work I greatly admire. And along with a whole lot of kids, I’m going to roll up my sleeves and get down in the dirt in search of that glorious gateway drug to science: fossils. I can’t wait!
February 27, 2018
A Year of Yes: My live storytelling show New York City’s Secrets and Lies is now a monthly show for a year at Caveat
[image error]I’m so excited to tell you that my first storytelling show New York City’s Secrets and Lies was so successful in January (a sold out show!) that it’s now going to be a monthly show for a year at Caveat starting in April.
The next show will be on Tuesday, April 17th at 7pm. Tickets are now on sale for $12 so get ’em while they’re hot and spread the word! Hope to see you there.
Link to buy tickets: http://caveat.nyc/event/new-york-citys-secrets-and-lies-2/
More details about the show:
Can you tell the difference between a secret and a lie? Five expert storytellers spin incredible tales about the secret pasts of NYC locations you walk by every day. All the stories are true except for one. If you can identify the lie, you’ll be in the running to win a pair of tickets to a secret NYC event.
Stories Include:
“When a secret nature versus nurture experiment is exposed, a delicious New York City restaurant is born.”
“New York City nearly became its own country, but not for the reasons you’d expect or hope for.”
Doors: 6:30pm
Show: 7:00pm
Tickets: $12 in advance, $15 at the door
STORYTELLERS:
Adam Wade
Adam is an inimitable fixture in both the New York City storytelling and comedy scenes. He is the winner of 20 SLAMS at The Moth (18 StorySLAM victories and 2 GrandSLAM Championships) with 20 different winning stories. He has toured across North America with The Moth Main Stage. His stories have appeared on The Moth Radio Hour and The Moth Podcast.
Adam has been performing his New York Times and Time Out New York’s critic’s pick monthly solo show The Adam Wade from NH Show since January 2010. He is also a regular performer on Nights of Our Lives at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, and has made several appearances on Asssscat 3000 (guest monologist), Whiplash and Night Train with Wyatt Cenac.
Adam recently released his debut storytelling/comedy album Adam Wade: The Human Comedy, with Comedy Dynamics. The album was enthusiastically lauded in Sarah Larson’s profile of Adam in The New Yorker. He has been seen on HBO’s GIRLS Season 5 finale and on Season 2 and 3 of Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer.
In 2017, Adam began hosting a tech web series for Bloomberg called Conversations with Coders as well as a series he created called Wade on the Bench in Hoboken.
A seasoned teacher of his craft, since 2010, Adam has been teaching a variety of 6-week Storytelling Classes at NYC’s Magnet Theater. In December 2017, Adam teamed up with Airbnb to create his very own NYC Storytelling Experience.
He also conducts one-on-ones meet ups and workshops for businesses and organizations. Find him online at AdamWade.com, on Twitter at @adamwade, and on Instagram at@adamwadestoryteller, and Facebook at @adamwadestoryteller.
[image error]Carla Katz
Carla is Jersey born and bred storyteller and now lives in Hoboken. She debuted her solo show “Body Parts” at this year’s SOLOCOM 2017 at the Peoples Improv Theater. She has performed at numerous Moth StorySlams, at the Magnet Theatre, in “Adam Wade’s Storytelling Series”, and in front of her dog Finn. Carla likes to get emotionally naked and she tells stories that expose the small dramas that make us laugh or cringe. By day, she is a labor union leader, lawyer, and political animal. By night, she gets naked and howls at the moon over Manhattan. Carla learned storytelling craft from fellow Hobokenite Adam Wade, a 20-time Moth winner and comic extraordinaire.
[image error]Jane Cooke
Jane is a stage, film, and television actress originally from Canada. She has worked at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada, and has been in the touring company of Broadway shows including Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and Mamma Mia!. She comes from a large family with six siblings so she’s been telling “stories” her whole life. Jane loves a big red wine from Napa, and hates soft cheese.
[image error]Suzanne Reisman
Suzanne lives in Manhattan with her husband and teddy bear, but, unwilling to fully abandon her Chicago-area upbringing, insists on calling soda “pop,” and sneakers “gym shoes.”
Her first book is Off the (Beaten) Subway Track: New York City’s Best Unusual Places, a travelogue about/guide to unusual places and things to do in NYC. She is also the author of 1.87 yet-to-be published novels. Her essays and fiction have appeared in New York Nonprofit Press, Metro New York, City Limits Magazine, Bookanista, Flash Fiction Magazine, and The Sunlight Press.
In addition to writing, Suzanne is the founder of TwentyTwenty Books, a nonprofit organization that connects marginalized voices in literature to community-based book clubs. She has MFA in creative writing from the New School and an MPA from Columbia University.
She likes eating, running, House Hunters International, wandering around cities, and sleeping.
Vicki Eastus
Vicki is a storyteller, an improviser, and a law professor. She grew up in Dallas, Texas, the land of tall tales and tall hair.
She left Texas for Harvard, where she spent most of her time as an activist on feminist issues but also studied obscure 19th century Russian novels. Years of law school and lawyering led Vicki to need more joy in her life, so she studied improv at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade and storytelling with Adam Wade.
Vicki performs with the indie team “Improvisers of a Certain Age” and can be seen at Sunday Night Improv at Stand Up NY. Vicki has spun her tales at Moth StorySlams, in Adam Wade’s Storytelling Series, and in numerous shows at the Magnet Theater. She is developing a solo show of her stories, “Can Feminists Wear Tiaras?”
For fans of slide decks, Vicki has presented “Using Techniques from Improvisational Comedy and Storytelling to Help Students Find Their Legal Voices” at academic conferences in New York and Verona, Italy.
February 26, 2018
A Year of Yes: Be a firestarter
“If the world is cold, make it your business to build fires.” ~Horace Traubel, author and leader of the Arts and Crafts movement
The world is in need of people who can bring their best selves to it, who can see what’s needed and then have the fortitude to make it happen. Before I jump to the conclusion that this or that could never happen, I’ve lately found myself looking at challenging situations that I’d like to see come to fruition and asking, “What would it take to make it so?” And then I get to work.
