Renegade Writers: Our reading expanded into a series incorporating music, visual

Videos

In 2019, I launched "Renegade Writers," a reading with colleagues from Portland, Maine's African-American and immigrant communities. We were "renegade" because we were unconventional, stealth artists in a sense -- each of us known for other work, each from a different cultural background, each devoted to stories, poetry, lyrics, or comedy.

Our reading expanded into a series incorporating music, visual arts, and dance. COVID intervened. To allow us to complete our series virtually, I produced a full-length video with cinematographer Chek Wingo.

Click on one of the clips here to catch scenes from my reading in that video. Meet the Peruvian women who gave my son life. Meet my Greek grandmothers who tormented and cherished me. Watch this space for more.

Prelude and Part 1: New England to the Andes on the Blue Train

Part 2: Yiayia Vaso

Part 3: The Blue Train and an Absent Mother

Part 4: Yiayia Photini

Part 5: Surviving the Soroche and a Mother Still Absent

Part 6: Last Leg on the Blue Train

All still images in these videos were available royalty-free at Unsplash, but I would like to acknowledge the photographers: Nuno Alberto, Cesar Carlevarino Aragon, Adele Beausoleil, Paolo Bendandi, Adrian Dascal, Charlles Furtado, Bill Hamway, Glen Hodson, Pamela Huber, Mikolaj Idziak, Tehzeeb Kazmi, Cristian Newman, Persnickety Prints, Bernardo Ramonfaur, Ritika S, Pablo Sanchez, Thiago Sanchez, Anton Darius Thesollers, Francesco Ungaro, Jeremy Wong.