On Friday night at Wordsprouts, the literary reading series at the Park Slope Food Coop run by Paula Bernstein (author of Identical Strangers) and John Donohue (author of Man with a Pan), three writers shared work that touched on love, romance, and personal responsibility.
First up was Barbara Agosin, who began writing as a means of therapy after her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. An essayist and poet, her work focuses on everyday events as well as life within the circle of love and loss that is Alzheimer’s:
“The man continues to eat, seemingly oblivious to the difference between knife, fork and spoon. Soon morsels of chicken, tiny rectangles of rice and damp cake crumbs mix together on table, floor and the cuffs of his robe.
“The man is my husband. If he were not 77 years old I would put him in a high chair and teach him how to use a knife and fork. He is completely concentrated on the business of eating and unworried about the mess around and beneath him, which less than a year ago would have sent him running for the broom and dustpan.”
Next was Fran Hawthorne, the award-winning author of the new book, ETHICAL CHIC: an investigation of Starbucks, Apple, Trader Joe’s, American Apparel, Timberland, and Tom’s of Maine. Ms. Hawthorne has spent more than 25 years covering healthcare, politics, finance, and the nexus of business and social issues:
“Like people we meet, we fall in love with sexy, charismatic companies that ultimately break out hearts…we think we can have it all, but we close our eyes to faults and project [onto these companies] what we want them to be.”
Ethical Chic has been named one of the best books of 2012 by Library Journal. Hawthorne writes regularly for The New York Times, Newsday,The Scientist, and other publications.
Finishing up the event was Robin Bady an award-winning storyteller. Ms Bady has been called “gutsy, big hearted, and street smart,” and “a force of nature.” She draws from world tales, current events, oral histories, literature, ghostly experiences and her own life to create a repertoire shaped by her commitment to justice:
“At my thirty year high school reunion, because of all the pettitness involved in growing up, I realized that I couldn’t recognize people who came up to me independently— only when they were standing with the cliques that had defined who they were— way back when— could I put piece them together.”
Ms. Bady is the recipient of the 2012 JJ Reneaux Emerging Artist Grant Awary given by the National Story Telling Network.
Like all Wordsprouts readings, a Park Slope Food Co-Op Membership is not required to attend, and admission is free. For more information about upcoming Wordsprouts events, Ms. Bernstein can be contacted at wordsproutspsfc@gmail.com.
Matthew Taub is a writer and lawyer in Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of “Death of the Dying City,” a novel.