April and May were full of rehearsals and concerts and periodic attempts to get into a routine of eating on the porch. Cold weather keeps popping back up in the northeast, but I am optimistic that June will finally have us enjoying the weather regularly! I didn’t do nearly enough reading this April and May, but will still link up with Leigh Kramer to share what I’m into.
Books
So You Want to Talk About Race
Ijeoma Oluo’s memoir/social commentary/guidebook if You Want to Talk About Race included history, personal examples, statistics, and cultural references. Each section begins with a question that the author has heard (“Why can’t white people use the n-word?”, “Can I touch your hair?” etc) and poses either an answer the question or an explanation of why the question itself is problematic. It arms the reader with tools to address racial issues. I can see this book being used in schools, book clubs, churches, and other groups.
I reviewed Chris Lowney’s book as part of it’s kickoff blog hop. Read more about listening to the still small voice and pick up a copy!
Music
Listening
Performing
Mid-April I did a school tour of La Boheme with Opera New Hampshire. I had never done a school tour before – preparing an abridged version and performing it twice a day at different schools, in gyms and auditoriums and classrooms and even conference rooms. The rest of the cast was wonderful, and I loved singing the role of Musetta. The daily drive to New Hampshire for a week was worth it!
I just closed a performance of Sweeney Todd as well, with a new company named Theater UnCorked. Their maiden voyage was a success (and there was lots of fun to be had with our vampire makeup!) We also did a preview performance at a local club including bits from the show and numbers by some of the performers.
Art
We caught the Fra Angelico exhibit at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum over Mother’s Day weekend. The rich colors and golds of his work were as striking close up as I had hoped (though some of the captions in the exhibit were theologically illiterate).
Everything else
The garden is coming together! We have all of our pots and containers filled with greens and other veggies and have already started harvesting.
A highlight of May was seeing my parents – not only because my dad bought be bunches of lilacs in plastic bags, so fresh from his trees that one still had a bumblebee on it. They only lasted a few days in a vase but the smell was delicious while it lasted.
The non-profit I run, Boston Singers’ Resource, launched a website rebuild campaign and are currently raising money for this exciting project. We also participated in the Classical Singer Convention, welcoming hundreds of singers to Boston. The conference weekend was both exhausting and invigorating!
Upcoming
I am very excited to travel this summer, first with my husband and then with a cohort from Boston College learning about the history of the Jesuits on an Ignatian Immersion Course in northern Spain and Rome. I’m fairly certain I will be posting more about that trip when the time comes.
I’m also working on lots of music for performances when I return. Visit my calendar page for more info.
Standard disclaimer that many of these links are Amazon Affiliate links, and purchases made through these links put some change in my piggy bank at no additional cost to you. I’m looking for suggestions for books to read on my travels, so leave those in the comments and let me know what you’re into!
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