Firelight welcomes you to participate in our Tiny Stories Project
“We are all living in the pandemic liminal space, the time between the ‘what was’ and the ‘next.’ It is a place of transition, a season of waiting, and not knowing. ”
opens December 18, 2020
Following Firelight’s Tiny Stories community events in 2019, we continue our tradition of engaging our community as contributors in our third installment: a virtual exhibit of stories and art.
Twenty-nine writers contributed short stories (100 words or less) on the theme Liminal Space. Artists were then invited to create a piece inspired by the stories. Fifteen artists feature a wide range of work -- from shadow puppets in purgatory to a crankie about George Floyd to a lithograph of changing seasons.
Visitors are encouraged to explore the project like a museum exhibit -- to discover the “rooms,” get a little lost, and stumble upon something new. Designers Corwin Levi, Michelle Aldredge, Eddie Suchocki-Sulborski, Jason Lambert, and Nora Fiffer have shaped a virtual experience that is both independent and intimate for the visitor.
Firelight’s intention with the Tiny Story community projects remains to extend the invitation to gather and create in our communities. This round we are thrilled to keep the project ongoing as a living document: we will keep the call open for artists to respond to one of these Tiny Stories. The yield of art to text is so engaging we are excited to see what other stories inspire the artists in our Firelight community.
So while this is introduction is about the project and the process, it is also an invitation to find a story that makes you want to add your art to the work that is here.
We thank Linda Claff, Firelight Member and artist whose theme set all this in motion. We are grateful for the nearly sixty people who have supported Tiny Stories 3, and we’re thrilled for you to experience this installment. The Tiny Stories project, as always, is free and open to the public. Visit the exhibit anytime after December 18 at 7pm. Take me to Tiny Stories 3 —>
Thank you for participating in Tiny Stories in 2019
“One evening I opened the door and there was a giant change jar on the porch. Someone saved their change for years to fill that jar. It topped off the savings we had so my husband could make the trip home for Christmas”
thank you for coming to hunger & homelessness: Stories of hope
Following Firelight’s TINY FRIENDSHIP STORIES as part of The Thing in the Spring this past June, we continued this tradition of community collaboration in support of Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week November 16th-24th. We asked our community, near and far, for stories of 100 words or less inspired by the prompt “Hunger & Homelessness: Stories of Hope.”
Selected stories were read by actors from Firelight and ConVal High School at an art opening by ConVal High School students held at the Peterborough Library on November 15th titled “What Does it mean to Feel at Home?” Stories were recorded by Echo Finch, so the community will have an archive. The privacy of all writers is completely upheld. Learn more about the week’s events here.
“The coolest, illegal act I committed on the back porch of Hinton house with my roomie Mariah was smoking black Sobranie cigarettes. These were the ones with the thin gold band near the filter. It was 1969 and Mariah tore off the covers of her mother’s New Yorkers and taped them to the walls of the high school dorm...”
THANK YOU FOR COMING TO TINY FRIENDSHIP STORIES!
PERFORMED AT THE THING IN THE SPRING, PETERBOROUGH NH
SUNDAY JUNE 9, 1PM ON THE TOADSTOOL LAWN, FREE
Firelight’s pop-up community project, TINY FRIENDSHIP STORIES, performed at The Thing in the Spring. Firelight called on our community, near and far, to submit a tiny story about Friendship -- 100 words or less. Thirty stories were selected for performance and 21 performers embodied the pieces. This project, inspired by the NY Times' Tiny Love Stories Project, echoes the themes of our second season.
Thank you to our writers: Steph Latini, Kath Allen, Christine Wolf, Claudia Chang, Marylou DiPietro, Loree Sandler, Sara Marberry, Susan MacNeil, Bill Chatfield, Christine Destrempes, Susie Spikol, Melissa Lamothe, Melissa Stephenson, Alix Woodford, Bill Horton, Corinne Chronopoulos, Kathy Boss, Allen Bush, Heidi Mack, Haylie Ellis, Marie Michaels, Isaiah Lapierre, Jazimina MacNeil, Rodger Martin, Steven Bloomfield, Tim & May Clark, Jason Lambert, Pat Hitchens Bow, Becky Karush, Corwin Levi.
Thank you to our performers: Paulee Mekdeci, Harold Thomas McCarthy, Karen Hatcher, Molly McDowell, Angie Carter, Melissa Stephenson, Alix Woodford, Terry Landis, Kathy Boss, Isaiah Lapierre, Michael Havey, Marilyn Simons, Kay Kinderman, Laura Carden, Tori Haring-Smith, Jason Lambert, Nora Fiffer, Henry Siegl.