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Friday,
April 4th, 2025, 6:45pm
at Chestnut
Hill Friends Meetinghouse
20 E. Mermaid Lane, Chestnut Hill, PA 19118
(Suggested
Donation - $20 - of which 100% goes to the
Performers)
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Featured
Musicians
Phyllis Chapell
and Ken Ulansey
Featured
Actors
Emma
Gibson and Marcia Saunders
Theme for the Salon Evening:
The Artists Task
in Perilous Times:
Duty
of the Artist to Humanity - to the Planet
-
to Illuminate the Power of Community
The precise role of the artist, then,
is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads
through that vast forest, so that we will
not, in all our doing, lose sight of its
purpose, which is, after all, to make the
world a more human dwelling place.
~ James
Baldwin
This
is precisely the time when artists go to
work.
~ Toni Morrison
Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world;
indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
~ Margaret Mead
Henry
Beston points to the power of community
as our greatest saving grace in the face
of meaninglessness and destruction.
~ Maria Popova
They
want you to feel powerless and to surrender
and to let them trample everything and you
are not going to let them. You are not giving
up, and neither am I.
~ Rebecca Solnit
Im
so tired of waiting, arent you, for
the world to become good and beautiful and
kind?
~ Langston Hughes
When
day comes we ask ourselves, where can we
find light in this never-ending
shade?
for there is always light
if only were brave enough to see it,
if only were brave enough to be it.
~ Amanda Gorman
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Ken
Ulansey & Phyllis Chapell
Ken Ulansey
and Phyllis Chapell have been blending their
instruments and voices together for over
15 years, recording in each others many
projects, mixing influences, and broadening
each others musical outlooks. As a duo,
they draw from traditions as diverse as
the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Brazil,
Ireland, India and, of course, the American
songbook. Their travels through most of
these cultures lend an authenticity to their
music that's wonderful and rare!
Phyllis
Chapell plays and sings songs from around
the world. Her repertoire features songs
in 13 languages from Brazil, Latin America,
Europe, the Middle East, and the U.S. Her
3-octave vocals are supported and complemented
by her acoustic guitar, capturing the essence
of musical styles from percussive
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Brazilian
sambas and explosive flamenco to elegant
folk, jazz, contemporary, and original ballads.
She has been named one of the top 500 jazz
vocalists of all time and has won awards
for her original songs.
Ken
Ulansey, Penn Council for the Arts winner,
plays alto and soprano sax and pennywhistle.
He is a musical chameleon, having played
contemporary classical music with Relache,
jazz with his own award-winning band, Latin
and folk music with most of the areas--and
even the nations--leading songwriters.
Besides leading his own wedding band (Philadelphia
Magazine's Best of Philly!) that specializes
in Swing, Motown, Klezmer, Latin, Pop, Zydeco
and Oldies, Ken has toured extensively in
Europe, Asia and the States, played on nearly
200 recordings, and worked in collaboration
with dancers, film-makers, poets and storytellers.
Websites:
www.kenulansey.com
and www.phyllischapell.com
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Emma
Gibson
Emma Gibson
is a writer, director, actor and producer,
originally from the UK but now living in
Philadelphia. In the UK she worked as an
actress in London, Edinburgh, on tour and
regionally around the UK in both new writing
and classical theatre, for BBC radio drama,
and film.
In
Philadelphia she has worked with many local
companies, and most recently performed in
the Barrymore nominated production of Perfect
Blue. She has also directed multiple
classical theatre productions at The Shipley
School. As the founding producing artistic
director of Tiny Dynamite she has produced
over 20 productions ranging from Scottish
one acts, to full length plays that integrate
complex technology in performance.
She
is also the proud Mom to Oscar and Willow.
Thanks to Susan for this wonderful opportunity.
www.britishemma.com
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Marcia
Saunders
Peoples
Light: Over 85 productions including Cora
in Mornings at Seven, Ethel
in Moon Over Buffalo, Mrs. Jennings
in Sense and Sensibility, Stella
in Stella and Lou, Mrs. Bennet in
Pride & Prejudice, Dotty in Noises
Off, Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over
The Cuckoos Nest, Amanda in The
Glass Menagerie, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth,
Skin of our Teeth, My Mother Said I Never
Should, A Room Of Ones Own, Heartbreak
House, Abelard & Heloise, Toys in the
Attic, Memory of Water, The Stonehouse,
Hamlet, The Misanthrope, The Taming of the
Shrew.
Theatre
Includes: Recently Paige in HIR at
Simpatico Theatre, made her directorial
debut at Candlelight Theater in Delaware
directing Steel Magnolias. Off Broadway:
The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow
(Atlantic Theatre Co.) Regional: The Wilma,
Arden Theatre, Two River Theater, Quintessence
Theater. Playing Claire in A Delicate
Balance garnered Marcia a Best Supporting
Actress award and she has received numerous
Barrymore nominations including Best Actress
for Stella and Lou and A Man from
Nebraska.
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Selected
Authors - April 4, 2025
Ashini
J. Desai (What We Learned)
is a co-founder/editor of Dandelion
Revolution Press and while she does not
write for a living, she writes to live.
Her poems have been published in four
poetry collections, as well as in journals
like River Poets, Philadelphia Poets,
and Thema. Her short stories have been
published in the Dandelion Revolution
Press anthologies Not Quite As You Were
Told, The Secrets We Keep and Every Breath
Alight.
Lisa
DeVuono (Poetry Magnets) is
the current Montgomery County Poet Laureate.
She has produced multi-media shows incorporating
song, music, poetry, and dance, including
Rumi in Song at the Sedgwick Theater;
and Whole Heart Home, and Breaking
Open, Breaking Free, part of the IceHouse
Tonight series. She has three publications:
This Time Roots, Next Time Wings,
Poems from the Playground of Risk, and
Poetry as a Tool for Recovery: An Easy-to-Use
Guide in Eight Sessions.
Fran
Gilmore (In Lakota tradition)
is a sometime poet and painter, an
activist for social justice and a retired
teacher and industrial hygienist. She
has taught anti-racism in community settings,
emotional healing in a prison, yoga, health
and safety to blue- and white-collar workers,
and high school biology.
Jane
Edna Mohler (Rare Beasts)
is the 2020 Bucks County Poet Laureate
(PA), winner of the 2016 Main Street Voices,
and second place in the 2023 Crossroads
Contest. Recent publications include Gargoyle,
One Art, and Verse Virtual.
Her collection, Broken Umbrellas,
was published by Kelsay Books. Her second,
Autumn Clears is forthcoming in 2025.
She is Poetry Editor of the Schuylkill
Valley Journal. www.janeednamohler.com.
Steve
Nolan (The Artist Will Save Us)
spent 30 years in the military and
25 years as a mental health professional.
He has published in numerous journals
and his poetry was featured on National
Public Radio, Morning Edition, upon his
return from Afghanistan in 2007. He is
the author of "Go Deep," "Base
Camp," and "American Carnage,
An Officer's Duty to Warn," and "A
Palace of Ruins." His work reflects
his commitment to social justice.
Faith
Paulsen (Poem Inspired by a Bloomingdales
Ad "Beauty Lovers! Take 25% off on
almost all beauty."-Bloomingdales
ad) author of three chapbooks
and mother of three sons, Faith Paulsen's
day job is in insurance, Her work appears
or is upcoming in Scientific American,
Poetica Review, Poetry Breakfast, Milk
art journal, Philadelphia Stories, Book
of Matches, One Art, Panoply, Thimble,
Evansville Review, Mantis and others.
Steve
Pollack (Infinite Faculty) rode
the El to Drexel University, advised local
governments, directed a housing co-op,
built hospitals, science labs and public
schools. Poetry found him later. His work
has appeared on print and web pages. His
chapbook, L'dor Vador-From Generation
to Generation, was published by Finishing
Line Press. His poem, "December
26, 1960", was accepted for the
forthcoming anthology, Keystone: Contemporary
Poets on Pennsylvania. He sings bass
with Nashirah-the Jewish Chorale of Greater
Philadelphia.
Drs.
Susan Schaefer, APR, (Light Saber and
Dark Star) is a creative
thinker, writer, poet, workshop leader,
consultant, and spoken word performer.
She taught writing and poetry at Temple
University, Drexel University and Philadelphia
Community College. Her book of poetry,
Ride the New Morning, is available
online and in select area bookstores such
as Big Blue Marble in Mt. Airy. Schaefer
co-published and edited Philadelphia's
South Street Star bi-weekly and
is a widely published independent journalist.
Her essays and columns appear in PBS'
online magazine, Next Avenue, Philadelphia's
Broad Street Review and East
Falls Now, and have been published
in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia
Daily News, Minneapolis Star Tribune,
Minnesota Southwest Journal and Minnesota
Good Age Magazine and the Netherlands'
Crossroad Magazine.
Julie
Standig, (A Deer on Cold Spring Creamery
Road) writer of The Forsaken
Little Black Book, (Kelsay Books)
and her chapbook, Memsahib Memoirs
(Plan B Press). Her poems have appeared
in Schuylkill Journal Review, Gyroscope
Review, Sadie Girl Press, Macqueen's Quinterly,
One Art as well as online. A lifetime
New Yorker, she now resides in Bucks County
with her husband and their springer spaniel.
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