Red, Red Robin
This 9-minute film about my work
is my directorial debut.
Thanks to fabulous crew:
CTSB and Nick Ring,
Steve Borns and Leo Mahoney;
community television at its best.
Rodelinde Albrecht, editor
and videographer;
Erica Spizz, videographer;
Keith Emerling, lighting;
Will Curtiss, sound engineer
at Youth Alive setting;
producers Emily Rechnitz
and John Paladino,
CATA and Chelsea DeSantis
for uploading video to Vimeo.

Upcoming Gigs Summer/ Fall 2009

Saturday, July 25
The Sandisfield Arts Center
5 Hammertown Road
Sandisfield, MA / 413-258-4100
http://www.sandisfieldartscenter.org/
In Words Out Words Variety Show
8:00pm

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Word x Word Festival
http://www.missionbarandtapas.com/
438 North Street
Pittsfield, MA

Mission Bar is celebrating the power of the word in their newly launched Word X Word Festival August 17 - August 22.

JoAnne Spies Two Different Nights:
at Mission Bar & Tapas: Thursday, August 20, 7pm - Folk Showcase w/ Roger Salloom, Bernice Lewis and Cliff Eberhardt
at Lichtenstein Center, 28 Renne Avenue, Pittsfield, MA, Saturday, August 22, 7pm - spoken word w/ CT Funkhouser, and George Watsky

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Wednesday, October 21 Mt. Greylock: Source of Inspiration
JoAnne Spies at Bascom Lodge with Vicky Richards on fiddle
Melville, Emerson, Ahab Rap and songs about the check-out line
Performance begins at 6:00pm
Dinner @ 7:00pm
Call 413-743-1591 for dinner reservations.
http://bascomlodge.net/
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Wednesday, October 28
Village Players
Oak Park, Illinois
FODfest
http://www.fodfest.org/
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SOUNDING OUT THE PATHWAYS: Honoring the Mohican Presence with JoAnne Spies

Saturday November 7

10:30am-12noon, rain or shine

The Mission House, 19 Main Street, Stockbridge

413.298.3239 x3000 (weekdays) or www.thetrustees.org

The Trustees of Reservations will host a program to honor the Mohican presence in Stockbridge, led by singer and educator JoAnne Spies and Trustees educator Tammis Coffin. From the Mission House on Main Street, the group will walk former Mohican paths to sites that help tell the tribe’s story: the Housatonic River, burial ground, meeting house, and Friends of our Father’s marker. JoAnne will guide the group on an interactive exploration of these sites with songs, sounds and rhythms to honor the Mohicans, sharing what she has learned as a friend to the tribe. All ages are welcome and the program is free to the public. Afterwards, refreshments will be served.

By Water I Am Led

A global experiment for harmony and peace utilizing the tremendous power of water and music taking place June 19- 21:

http://www.liveh2o.org/

438 North Street Pittsfield, MA
missionbarandtapas@gmail

Poetry Slam
It was an honor to win last night's slam and be in the company of so many fine poetic voices.
You can hear a lot of different voices from the community all in one night in a poetry slam. You can hear your own work in a new way as you speed up or slow down the rhythm of the spoken word.
Thank you to Mission Bar and Tapas on North Street in Pittsfield for keeping the word alive.

Thank you to Matt McFadden, poet extraordinaire, for his hosting of the event.

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Ahab Rap
After doing my "Me & Melville " show awhile, I taught music improvisation to teachers (How to Make Herman Melville Come Alive in the Classroom.) When I spoke to the then-head of curriculum in Pittsfield, MA about teaching Melville he said:
'He's a dead white male, with a dead white whale." And he liked Melville! So I wrote an Ahab Rap and give credit to Bill Irwin for the first few lines.


Ahab Rap
He's a dead white male, with a dead white whale
Why should I care? Why should I care?
I never saw a whale, I never saw a ship
I never saw a spirit spout, what's so hip
about a guy with a headhunter for a friend
who builds his own coffin for a watery end
what's it to me, if there's a guy named Ahab
He should have been doin' his meds in rehab
Ahab, rehab, Ahab, rehab
It's a guy thing, revenge and such
Get off of it, Ahab, get a new crutch
Get a job at a desk, get a job sellin' blubber
Get off of that ocean, you be a landlubber
You made them die with your crazy obsession
Forget about it, man, learn your lesson
Ishmail, bishmail, tish-mo-ya
Melville and the classics, rah, rah, rah

c 2009 JoAnne Spies

Another song from 'Me & Melville' called 'Check-Out Line' has become a favorite in my work with Alzheimers groups. Originally the song was about what I might say to Herman if I met him in the Big Y supermarket (Le Grande Porque.) Now it's an invitation to make a shopping list for your favorite dinner and then remember what everybody ordered. Using boomwhackers and shakers, we have a lot of fun with this song.

Mission: Imagination - Annual Performance & Gala

The Founders' Theater, Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, MA

Community Access to the Arts presents “Mission Imagination” at the Founders’ Theatre in Lenox on Saturday, May 2nd at 6pm and Sunday, May 3rd at 1pm. From uproarious improv and cheeky modern dance, to joyful jazz and techno-tap, the show will amaze, inspire and celebrate the creativity of people with disabilities.

The show includes a music video produced by singer, JoAnne Spies featuring residents of six Berkshire Health Systems facilities, Youth Alive, and Berkshire County students, “Perpetual Dialects,” a collaboration between Tap artist, Stefanie Weber, and James Daher using technology to turn a dance floor into a multi-faceted canvas, scenes from Shakespeare’s “A Winter’s Tale” directed by Barby Cardillo and Diane Prusha, and “you who,” a new work by award-winning choreographer, Dawn Lane. Juggler and mime artist, Roger Reed, performs with CATA participant, Pam Tuliebitz, in a duet of improvisational foolery with a cast of props. Singer, Vikki True, collaborates with longtime accompanist, Peter Schneider, and guitarist, Sam Rosen, in a new arrangement of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley’s ‘Pure Imagination.’”

For information, please call CATA at 413-528-5485.

reflections on making the 'red red robin' video:
Video means 'I see' and the medium allowed me to look with new sight at people I've been visiting for years.

By focusing frame by frame, connections between people are re-framed and become larger.

What is going on in any particular moment defies capture.

I learned patience and the malleability of time.

I appreciate more the beauty in a face.

International Women's Day

Kristin Jones' work with rivers and light and community is large in scope and inspiring:
http://www.tevereterno.it/index2.html

The First Annual Berkshire Festival of Women in the Arts

The First Annual Berkshire Festival of Women in the Arts http://www.thewomenstimes.com./
which will kick off March 1, 2009 and run throughout the entire month, now boasts more than 60 events at 30-plus venues throughout Berkshire County. Presented by The Women’s Times, the festival will feature exhibits, film, music, performance, talk and more, and will include diverse programming that ranges from historical to contemporary, traditional to radical, political to apolitical. Venues run the spectrum from the Berkshires’ most established cultural organizations to new and improvised locations. There are opportunities for festival-goers to examine the role of women in the arts, celebrate the achievements of women artists or simply enjoy a diverse cross-section of artistic work. Two signature events will mark the Festival: The Power of Women in the Arts, the Eighth Annual International Women’s Day conference will be held on March 6-7 at Bard College at Simon’s Rock College; and She’s Got Moxie!, the First Annual Festival Awards to be presented at a March 13 gala at Shakespeare & Company

The Women's Interfaith Institute in the Berkshires http://wiiberkshires.blogspot.com/

is a co-sponsor of "Power of Women in the Arts" March 6-7 at Bard College at Simon's Rock.

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JoAnne Spies performing at Berkshire Art Kitchen Thursday, March 5, 7:30pm

http://www.thewomenstimes.com/events-detail.php?record=41

JoAnne Spies at Norman Rockwell March 10 at 1:30pm

I'm honored to be a part of the celebration and will be presenting a performance and talk at the Norman Rockwell Museum on Tuesday, March 10 at 1:30pm
http://www.thewomenstimes.com/events-detail.php?record=55

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