It has been a very good week so far for women in Baltimore.
On Monday night, I attended the "Stoop Storytellers" a program presented by the Creative Alliance at the Center Stage. This week the theme was "jobs."
One of the noteworthy seven story tellers was Adriana Byrne, the Curly hair specialist at M Salon in Federal Hill. I have been to the salon, but I didn't realize they have a curly hair specialist. Good to know, maybe for the next event I won't need to go the great lengths in straightening. She didn't elaborate on the trials of dealing with frustrated curly haired clients, such as myself. Her story was much more amusing, and inspiring. How many lives a hair stylist touches . . .
Tuesday night continued with the story telling theme. I was invited at the last minute to see Jane Goodall at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. I had never been to the venue before and I thought it was somewhat impressive, but missing some of that Baltimore charm flavor.
Dr. Goodall was just an amazing storyteller. There were so many moments when I was near tears or just riveted by the pure kindness and brilliance of this woman. It was her 75th birthday, and the audience sang "Happy Birthday" to her when she came out to the stage. At one point she responded in the song of the Chimpanzee.
On the way out of the crowded house, I heard a man behind me waxing poetic about he wished she would have shown images (really? do we really need yet another power point presentation?). And I am a person who of course loves images, yet it was relaxing and refreshing to be entirely auditory and imagine her life unfold as she told it, in the old fashion oral tradition, descriptive and emphatic. This was the only way she could warmly and appropriately emphasize the softer side of our humanity, in contrast to the technological advancements leading to our damaging and detrimental dissociation with animals and our environment.
What is most outstanding is that even after such a powerful and engaging discourse but one of the most empassioned women on the planet, and some fools can only think about power point. Yikes, no wonder . . . So, by then I had just about enough of the crowd. Maria wanted to purchase a couple of books and was willing to fight the line. This was after I convinced her she didn't want to stand in the long line for a book signing. Shweew! I needed to ruminate on the things I just heard. I needed pen and paper!
Thankfully, Maria did push through the lines and I was rewarded for my patience with Reason For Hope; A Spiritual Journey. Dr. Goodall mentioned several reasons for HOPE in this day and age, and the last and clearly most significant on her list; "the indomitable human spirit." Needless to say, this talk caught me off guard. I was beyond inspired.
On my way to see Dr. Goodall, I listened to a voicemail by an allegiance regarding being quoted in an article for local newspater, Northeast Boosters.
The journalist Linda Weimer did a very poor tribute to the LEED efforts at the Perry Hall Library and quoted me as seemingly uncaring or uninterested to the inquiries of the public. She made a joke out fuel-efficient vehicles, which frankly makes her look like the moron. I emailed Linda first thing this morning to make her aware of my disappointment at her failure to take the opportunity to educate the public. Her excuses were revealingly lame. I am working on developing a proper response.
Tonight is Ms. Ann Beha- see my previous post! I will need to remember to reflect more on the outcome of the lecture and report on the committee dinner.
Also, fellow Baltimore bloggers have been noted in Urbanite's Green Guide. It is Earth Month and these ladies are outstanding contributors to a generation of ambitious green minded women.
