Thank YOU, thank YOU, thank YOU. Hello Again! Welcome to another wonderful collaboration between East Side Story and The Post. Let me be the first to officially, whole-heartedly welcome you to the 76th epic edition of East Side Storytellin’! Like the 75, I repeat … 75, previous shows East Side Story has put together, we all decided to take a break from our busy schedules all over town in order to sit back and relax and get everyone cultured up just right in the form of a Nashville writer reading from original prose, followed by an amazing local musician performing and talking about their original music, and then a round-up creative conversation with all featured guests of this event to talk about their individual journeys and personal ties to Nashville. Without further ado, fulfilling the entertainment portion of your day, this is the recap and recording of East Side Storytellin’ 76. Let us begin, again.
Welcome to the 2nd ever, not so annual, Down from the Mountain show involving personal ties to Sewanee, the University of the South. People who attended the 1st in February of 2013 may remember us sharing a lovely night of literature by Kevin Wilson and music by the talented Amanda Shires (sharing the stage with then fiancé Jason Isbell. You can check out that show recap and recording to refresh your memory right here – http://eastsidestorytn.com/east-side-storytellin-8-when-sewanee-left-the-mountain-for-the-city/). Coming back to February 2016, we’ve decided to celebrate the Sewanee School of Letters in a most appropriate blue valentine inspired show with current students, and the talent and heart of the show was just as inspiring. The pending tornado warning and constant rain outside of the show set the mood of the show just as much as the packed crowd filling every seat in the house.
The first featured guest of the night is a dear friend and MFA candidate at the Sewanee School of Letters. This scribe is specializing in nonfiction while also keeping herself busy as a freelancer for publications such as Teen Vogue and Nashville Lifestyles, to name a few. As if that wasn’t enough, she blogs at the very inspiring www.aimingforokay.com. A native Nashvillian, born and raised, you will see her promoting writing and local authors as much as anyone I know. She is a regular at The Porch Writers’ Collective and also helps right the ship that is the Rivendell Writers’ Colony as well. It was an honor to introduce the person was first thought of this special blue valentine idea, the wonderful Miss Kate Parrish.
Kate grabbed the microphone and the attention of the crowd by thanking all who braved the storms to attend the show. She thanked everyone from Sewanee and The Porch. Then she thanked all of her ex-boyfriends who have continued to give her material and fuel her fire to write nonfiction stories that help her creativity and story grow. When she started in on her first story, I immediately crowned her the Taylor Swift of creative memoirs.
Kate had a command of the language and a delightful poetic way of twisting memories and moments into relatable and yet transcendent scenes for any who has ever experienced love and heartache to relate with. Her first story, Lean Cuisine, was set in the middle of sad times for all involved amidst the backdrop of a grocery store check-out line. As the reading progressed, I could feel the deteriorating light above the cashier dim and flicker with the solid line and fact that in the end we eat our meals alone.
In her second essay, Gone Like That, she had me at the first line of Do you know how to a kill a man with your bare hands? She captivated a room full of people with talk about baby birds, canoes, combat training, and deaths that are slow and quick. You know, just like any relationship you’ve had in the past but written and read in a way you’ve never heard before. Kate has a gift for taking her experiences and relaying them to people in a way that they feel déjà vu at the same time they are learning something new about themselves and those around them. I was not the only one moved by her performance.
The featured musician of the night is someone who is a very close friend of our featured author and is also fellow student at the prestigious Sewanee School of Letters program striving for an MFA degree, specializing in non-fiction. Keeping it real here, this lady is a high school English teacher who currently lives in Lebanon, TN. She is an autoharpist and aspiring folklorist. A self-described audiophile and lover of Appalachian ballads, she applies her Virginia roots to her performances of tradition song and her creative writing. She spends most of her free time writing inspirational phrases for found hair on her Instagram project called @braidisms of which we discussed during the interview portion of the show, but, again, it was an absolute privilege for me to welcome another SOL’er into the East Side Storytellin’ fold with the lovely Sarah Carter.
Sarah, if you’ve never met her before, is no stranger to anyone. She has the ability to break the ice and make you feel like you’ve been close friends with her since grade school. She has an immense love for research and everything Appalachian and the prepared set list she unraveled to the attentive crowd was one for the ages. Not only did she explain the stories and names and people behind every single track, but this was honestly the first time anyone had ever played traditional songs and mentioned what modern hip hop song that each track resembled. Like I said, Sarah broke the ice and made everyone feel right at home for the night.
There were tracks where she strummed her harp and others where she went full acapella on us, original Opry style. Both deliveries were breathtaking and took me beyond The Post and threw me in some sort of Appalachian back porch setting surrounded by family and friends on a sunny summer day, which was very fitting since I was spending the evening around dearly beloved summertime friends from Sewanee (not that we aren’t friends all the year round, but we have spent summers in classrooms together getting all educated and what not).
Now, before I forget, I must remind everyone who wasn’t fortunate enough to attend this event in person that all of these songs (save one where she admitted beforehand with a smile that nobody died in that one) Sarah performed were classics and absolute heartbreakers. She probably could have gotten a pretty good sponsorship from Kleenex if she wanted to try before hand. The songs were sad, but the singing and performing was anything but. Sarah, like Kate, has a real gift for conveying meanings behind stories, whether they are hers or her translation.
As always, I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to have the feature guests back on stage to share more stories behind their art and their creativity. Both Kate and Sarah were such a delight. I thought it was appropriate to throw some curveballs their way in terms of asking personal preferences and insights into their passion for hip hop artistry and how that matched with their dreams and craft. They aced with flying colors and if one person smiled and laughed and enjoyed themselves while listening to Kate and Sarah then over a 100 did as well.
Oh, and one more thing, Sarah surprised us all with an extra track at the end of the show that was totally all her, an original like few I’ve ever heard while combining the style of her favorites and then childhood terms like punk and Zelda and other things. It is called Bravery and it is, like Sarah, AWEsome! You can hear it in the link below.
Again, as always, I’m just going to let the recording of the show speak for itself because I tend to ramble and gush over these wonderful human beings once I get going on here. Don’t be a judge. Just listen and enjoy.
So here is the edited recording of East Side Stoytellin’ 76 that featured the words of Kate Parrish and the music from Sarah Carter and the wit and humor and heart of both at The Post on Tuesday, February 2nd in the middle of a tornado watch while celebrating a Sewanee reunion and a blue Valentine all in one. Now if this doesn’t get your heart beating than I don’t know what will. Enjoy and feel free to like and share and listen over and over again!
Before I say goodbye for this round of fun, I’d like to give a big round of thanks for Kate and Sarah for sharing their stories, talents, and time with us.
You can read more about Kate’s writing here- aimingforokay.com
You can listen to more of Sarah’s musings here – www.instagram.com/braidisms
You can listen to this show, edited, soon, alongside the previous shows too, on our website, www.eastsidestorytn.com, at our In Our Own WordsTab – see here – www.eastsidestorytn.com/in-our-own-words
I’ll keep the gratitude going for Tom Eizonas, my lovely wife and most talented artist in Emily Harper Beard (efharper), and everyone that came out live to support the show … and to everyone who has helped continue to spread the word and support the show online afterwards.
I’d also like to show much love to Clay Brunton for the beautiful artwork online to promote the show.
One addition on the fly, I’d love to give a very special shout out to all of the Sewanee family mates who came out to the show to support our fellow Tigers, and also Carmen and Michael Thompson at the Rivendell Writers Colony, AND April Alvarez and John Grammer for accepting all of us and helping make us better writers and people in general.
Last, but certainly not least, I’d like to give one last shout out to Tonya and Chris for making The Post so welcoming and positively life-changing for the East Nashville community at large.
The next round of East Side Storytellin’ will be …
East Side Storytellin’ 77
Tuesday, February 16th
at The Post (1701 Fatherland Street) at 7pm
reading- Bill Brown (www.stilljournal.net/bill-brown-poetry.php)
singing- Darrin Bradbury (www.darrinbradbury.com)
That said- that’s all for East Side Storytellin’ 76 and another fabulous event at The Post with East Side Story at the helm. Thanks for coming out and sharing the good word and giving some love to all of these great Nashville artists and our creative ideas. Please remember to be nice to one another out there.
much love,
mE
