Apr 11
April Salon: Essence of Creativity
Eth-Noh-Tec's April Salon! You're On! was another great success.
It's always a blessing to hear a chorus of men singing and GAPA did not disappoint. Their songs were varied and always melodic and harmonized. Some beautiful voices in that chorus! My favorite was a piece using Chief Seattle's letter to the US President: "This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself... This we know." Lots of tears flowed in the audience.
And, what a pleasure to see young Asians on stage free of self-consciousness and playing in improvisation! Very funny group - and some still in school - graduate school! Go Hobo Fish!
Our 'pretend screen' of cloth from Home Depot served well the slide show of Naomi Kubota-Lee's fiber art. She mixed slides of her art work with slides of her nature photos. It was very enlightening to not only see how her art is inspired by nature, but it gave all of us a new way of looking at nature - a tree, a branch, leaves... It was a lovely spacious 15 minutes for us all to deep breathe.
Then we were uplifted by 3 hilarious and nostalgic 8 mm. short films by Gwendolyn Barr. Will never see a UPS man the same way! You
had to be here!
Michael Katz, old friend and storyteller, told a beautifully crafted and endearing personal story about his 5th break up with a previous girlfriend, his move from Santa Barbara to Berkeley, and a woodpecker and a warrior statue whose value became priceless... Had to be here!
Robert told his 'Big Liar' story from Vietnam - funny as usual - and I, Nancy, told my 'Donkey Story'. Great little story from India with a great punch line at the end. Not going to tell it here - Had to be here!
As always, the dialogue following our performances just made the community here even more obvious. Man, you just had to be here!!!
Well, you have a chance to be here! The next salon on May 15th has another amazing arts line up! Each of our salons presents different artists of varied art forms, always including storytelling - well that's what Eth-Noh-Tec does, yes? Check out the line up and check out our website: www.ethnohtec.org
