The House that Art Built
They say when a door closes, another one opens. Or that a window opens when a door closes. Or something about a door and a window, and there’s some kind of closing and opening. I don’t know. All I know is, somehow I built an entire house just to walk through the door, and in doing so, the rest of the House caught fire behind me.
It’ll all make sense in a moment, or maybe longer than a moment if you want the whole story, but that’ll cost you a coffee or a cocktail. But since the For Rent sign is officially up, here’s the Reader’s Digest version of the longer story, a couple of minutes to summarize the years that have brought me to take down something I worked so hard to build. I’ve usually taken the most difficult route to the most obvious destination, maybe from generational stubbornness or just always thinking I’m right. (Again, also generational.) I’m cursed with the need to leave a legacy, to make a footprint, to change a community. (Straight from my gene pool.) But what I’ve found is this: you have to do what is right for you in the moment you find yourself, and you have to be open to the opportunities that come out of it. And sometimes changing the world happens in much quieter spaces than the top-of-the-mountain shouting we imagined it would take. Sometimes you don’t need four walls to build a House. In fact, sometimes, as it turns out, you don’t need walls, at all.
I opened Storyteller House for the Arts at the end of a pandemic, at a time when live performance and art creation were struggling to breathe and looking for a home, when we were all struggling to breathe and looking for a home for our art. There was a space, and there was a vision, and then my people showed up to help make it happen. Really great folks came together to build it, and amazing artists exhibited and created there. And talented performers lit the stage on fire there. And I put an original work onstage, and it worked, and it was beautiful. And in the middle of all the clamor, the commotion, the lights; a door I didn’t even realize I had been building suddenly opened, and everything inside me said, walk through. And in walking through the door, I have to leave the House behind.
Thank you to everyone who helped build this funky performance and art space, and thank you to everyone who showed up for a workshop, a gallery opening, an art class, or an opening night. You made Storyteller House a success. And thanks to my family who encouraged the leap; I’m looking forward to having some time back for my boys. I’m excited for my plans and anxious to see who will step up next to create another home for performers, artists, and storytellers in our community. Storyteller House for the Arts will close on November 15th, so join us while you can for our last few happenings, including headshots with the amazing Abby Weeden Photography & Design, one last charcuterie workshop with the lovely Diego Alvarez of Royal House of Cheese, and I’m so, so happy to say, another original play, The Lounge, taking the stage in early November, just before the ghost light goes dim. Info and tickets coming soon.
I love Toni Morrison and now more than ever, with: "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."
