my image for CD cover from spoken word /original music performance
‘Me & Melville’ was a one woman show created for the Berkshire Festival of Women Artists in 1997. The title came from my desire to make this classic more accessible for you and me. A Massachusetts Cultural Council grant was received for a CD of the same name. I performed ‘Me & Melville’ in Melville’s barn at his home Arrowhead in Pittsfield, MA, as well as ‘Melville, Mumbet and Mohicans’ by the large oak tree on the property. Other venues for performances included Dixon Place in NYC and Williams College Faculty Club. Since then I’ve written an ‘Ahab Rap’, and created collage images for the characters in ‘Moby Dick’ for another festival honoring Melville in the Berkshires where he wrote this masterpiece.
The cards hung in the ‘Get Lit’ gallery in a show curated by Jim Youngerman at The Bookstore in Lenox, MA.
Moby Dick Fortune Cards © 2012 Moby Dick Deck
The cards were used for readings I gave at Arrowhead, Mission and the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts. Quotes from the characters are on the back of each card. The iconic characters offer new perspectives on qualities we may want to strengthen, or tendencies we may want to curb. It’s a fun way to learn more about Moby Dick, as well as yourself. The booklet is underway, and if you want your very own deck, just email me at: spiesarts@gmail.com to pre-order.
more info: Elizabeth Schultz, “Feminizing Moby-Dick: Contemporary Women Perform the Whale” (pp. 305–20), focuses on performance works of the 1990s by Bill Peters, JoAnne Spies, Ellen Driscoll, Laurie Anderson, and Rinde Eckert.