Regional Women Writers to Be Showcased at Dewey Memorial Hall

Suzie Banks Baum (photo Christina Lane)

Suzie Banks Baum (photo Christina Lane)

(SHEFFIELD, Mass.) – The third annual “Out of the Mouths of Babes” event, part of the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers and featuring readings by a half-dozen female Berkshire writers, will take place on Saturday, March 1, 2014, at 7pm, at Dewey Memorial Hall. In addition to readings, the event will feature live music, video, and artwork.

Half a dozen writers will read from their work, including author/editor/blogger and organizer Suzi Banks Baum. The others include:

Nichole Dupont writes about “the snarkier side of rural, single parenting” and has been published in Newsday, Berkshire Magazine, and the Huffington Post.

Michelle Gillett is an award-winning poet, essayist, and cookbook author as well as op ed columnist for the Berkshire Eagle.

Jenny Laird blogs about caring for a child who has autism and epilepsy, and is currently collaborating on a series of musicals based on The Magic Tree House books .

Janet Reich Elsbach blogs about living on a farm and feeding a family of five at A Raisin & A Porpoise.

Leigh Strimbeck is artist in residence at Russell Sage College, a professor in the theater and WORLD programs; she co-founded the WAM Theatre, and has performed, toured, taught and directed around the world.

Michelle Gillett and Suzie Banks Baum (photo Christina Lane)

Michelle Gillett and Suzie Banks Baum (photo Christina Lane)

This year, several new voices will be included in a video presentation from Banks Baum’s Powder Keg Sessions students. These readings were filmed by Lynnette Najimy, and feature women from the Sessions who have spent the past several months learning to engage with, and actively tell, their stories. ”

The Circle of Fifths, a female band founded with the Music in Common program at Monument Mountain Regional High School, will open the event. There will also be an art exhibit featuring Berkshire County artists. Bedtime snacks and socializing will close the evening.

Suzi Banks Baum creates community wherever she goes. She’s the editor and publisher of An Anthology of Babes: 36 Women Give Motherhood a Voice; instigator of Rampant Sisterhood, which promotes engaging authentic presence online; creator of “Out of the Mouths of Babes: An Evening of Mothers Reading to Others” for the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers; and collaborator with FeMail, a snail-mail art exchange that’s in its seventh year. Being a full-time mother to two children stirred her passions to connect with herself creatively, leading to all the above activities as well as a blog at www.laundrylinedivine.com. Her next book, Laundry Line Divine: A Wild Soul Book for Mothers will be published in 2014.

The Berkshire Festival of Women Writers (BFWW) was created in honor of Women’s History Month. Throughout the month of March, BFWW hosts events at local libraries, bookstores, theaters and schools throughout Berkshire County, all of which are open to the public.  Major funding for the 2014 Berkshire Festival of Women Writers is made possible by the John A. Sellon Charitable Trust, the Massachusetts Council on the Arts, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, the Local Cultural Councils of many Berkshire towns, and generous support from many organizations, businesses and individuals.

 

 

 

 

 

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