Talker participates in the Wishbones Project

Posted by [email protected] | Aug 28, 2022 | Talker of the Town | 0 |

[One of Susan Begy’s sculptures. Images provided by Susan]

Last Spring, Susan Begy was the Writer’s & Books artist in residence. There she began the Wishbones Project. For the project, Susan solicited texts in any genre from community members. The texts became inspiration for alabaster sculptures. Susan wrote:

I’m so glad you shared your poem “A Period of Mutually Agreed Upon Reflection” with the Wishbones Project. I am sending you some photos of the piece that your words inspired, as well as some of the other “wishbones.” I genuinely enjoyed creating an alabaster sculpture from your narrative.

I read your poem several times prior to and during carving, and the first line really grabbed me. I decided to begin by drilling 3 holes into the center of the stone, which was originally a rectangular shape and pretty translucent. The holes represented the memory path for the 3 men she had to forget. The rest of the carving process seemed to give form to the drama and indelible life events. In the end it looks a bit like a shell.

All the sculptures will be on display in my studio above the Rochester Contemporary Art Center (RoCo) on First Fridays this fall. RoCo will be open for First Friday in September, October, and December from 6-9 pm at 137 East Avenue.

There will also be a documentary video of the Wishbones Project on my website in September—susanbegy.com.

Thank you so much for participating

My submission:

David Kramer, Summer 2015

The Mystic from the poem holding out a Caribbean sea shell, Summer 2015, Photo: André Spenard

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About The Author

[email protected]

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones. So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.