Romance, Jingles, and Dreams
This first iteration in our November Story/Arts residency program featuring Meta Commerse will involve a weaving of monologue, music, images, movement and selected story readings from "Womaning, a memoir."
Meta Commerse Presents: "Romance, Jingles and Dreams."
Doors at 7:00pm | Show at 7:30pm
Parking and Policies
Please pay what you can! Your generosity goes to underwrite our Story/Arts residency program which champions BIPOC, LGTBQIA+, and individuals from other historically marginalized communities by providing a platform for their work, an artist stipend, coaching opportunities, community support, and more.
Using a variety of techniques, tools and approaches, artist-in-residence Meta Commerse will demonstrate her own example of how "the personal is political," traversing vulnerable spaces in her coming-of-age story. Meta Commerse was born and raised in Chicago during the time of the Civil Rights and Black Arts Movements. Yet, as her people fought, struggled and sacrificed everything to gain access to the American Dream, she herself grew up harmed, silenced and invisible. This performance of selections from ”Womaning, a memoir,” sheds light on a common complexity. That is, how possible it is for a Baby Boomer black girl to grow up amidst social unrest/change while experiencing gender oppression imposed through layers of family secrecy, then through determination and resistance, learning to heal and find voice through the power of story to ultimately become a woman. Learning, simultaneously working through pain, and helping others to heal.
Meta’s Story/Arts Residency Offerings:
Thursday, November 3 | “Romance, Jingles, and Dreams” performance at Story Parlor
Thursday, November 10 | Writing Out of Pain: Memoirs by WNC Authors Lecture and Book Discussion Series at West Asheville Library
Thursday, November 17 | “Story as Legacy” workshop at Story Parlor
-
Meta Commerse is a word medicine woman black boomer whose spiritual/artistic home is rooted in stories and poems. As a girl, she began writing poems seeking an expressive outlet, emulating her grandmother and mother. Meta is author of five books and founder and CEO of Story Medicine Worldwide, based here in Asheville. She earned her graduate education at Goddard College in Vermont. She taught school from K-12, then in higher ed for a total of 20 years. For the past 30 years, she has planted her story medicine in communities through healing experiences designed to awaken and inspire her students. She is the mother of three children and grandmother to three grandsons.
-
Story Parlor’s residencies exist to champion the creative work of locally-based artists and art groups hailing from BIPOC, LGTBQIA+, and other historically marginalized communities in the quest to amplify and bridge together the diverse fabric of voices in Asheville.
Specifically, the Story/Arts residency aims to provide a platform that showcases the transformative and healing powers of storytelling through all art mediums, while tending to the core values of Story Parlor’s mission, which include:
• Connecting audiences and artists from varying creative backgrounds and interests
• Informing, inspiring, and invigorating through the arts
• Promoting and fostering self-inquiry and mindfulness
• Cultivating creative exchange and cultural insight
• Fostering authenticity and inclusiveness
In addition to public performances and/or workshops, artists-in-residence receive dedicated rehearsal time in the space; an artist stipend; creativity coaching sessions; marketing and promotion; and more.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, with preference given to applicants who cross disciplines, embrace collaboration, and present a residency proposal that embodies the core elements of storytelling through all art forms. More info can be found here.
-
Story Parlor is a cooperative arts venue featuring storytelling and the exploration of the human condition through community-driven programming. Committed to impacting positive change through the transformative power of storytelling through all art mediums, Story Parlor champions the narrative artists of Western North Carolina through events, classes, community building, and advocacy.
We are all creative, and we all have a story to tell, and Story Parlor exists to bridge these two universal truths together. Dedicated to cultivating an environment that nurtures expression, experience, and mindfulness, Story Parlor is unwavering in its investigation of identity, culture, and humanity.