Meet The Authors

WIM’S Third Annual Catskills Book Festival

Sunday, April 24, 2016

12 Noon to 4 PM

Union Grove Distillery

43311 State Hwy 28, Arkville, NY

Writers in the Mountains (WIM) invites you to a literary arts and community event and celebration we call “Meet the Authors,” the third in our series of annual book festivals. This year the event takes place on Sunday, April 24, from 12 noon to 4 p.m. at the Union Grove Distillery in Arkville, NY, an exciting new enterprise in the area. Union Grove is housed in a big old barnlike building featuring comfortable spaces fitted with stainless steel and copper and wood, a roaring fireplace, and the percolation of fine spirits—all making for a perfect environment in which to listen to, talk about, and think about books and writing.

The daylong event welcomes all writers and readers, artists and audience, and community members from every walk to brave the mud and chill of early spring and enjoy a warm gathering of successful and fascinating writers, illustrators, editors, educators, booksellers, and publishers from Syracuse to New York City and points between and beyond. This year’s keynote speaker is Rosie Schaap, author of the celebrated memoir Drinking with Menas well as the “Drink” column for The New York Times magazine.

Come by to shop for books directly from their authors, hear readings and peer-to-peer discussions, join in an enticing raffle (books are the prize, of course), and vote in the Best Book Cover contest.

Writers In The Mountains

 Ann, Jayne Anne, Eloise and Mary Lou Harris were interviewed on camera recently by Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker David France and his amazing crew. France and company traveled to the family’s Catskill Mountain home to capture the interviews. 

His film, Sylvia & Marsha (working title), documents the life and times of transsexual rights pioneers, Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson. The Harris family members are big fans of David France and his previous film, How to Survive a Plague. David’s films tell stories about unsung heroes who changed the world – for all of us and for the better. A big thank you goes to Mark Blane, an associate producer at Public Square Films, for pre-interviewing the family and for creating such a relaxed, yet professional setting. 

Sylvia & Marsha, still in production, will be edited this spring.

There was a disturbance in the Force early on January 18, 2016 when artist and iconoclast Susan Joyce Harris Weimer (“Biba”) died in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the age of 93.

Born in Bronxville, NY in 1922, Biba was the daughter of George Edgerly Harris and Ruth Colony Harris SoRelle, both also artists and iconoclasts. Biba completed high school in Margaretville, where her family has lived for generations, before joining the Navy, serving as a gunnery instructor and a very young platoon leader.

Marriage to Flying Yeoman Don Robert Weimer took her to Wooster and Cleveland, Ohio, where Biba earned a BFA from Wooster College and Ohio University, an MA and MEd from Case Western Reserve and the Cleveland Institute of Art, and an MFA from Kent State University. A single mother, Biba raised her three children at the Cleveland Museum of Art and Karamu House, giving them not only food and shelter, but also a world where the spirit can grow. And always she painted and drew, producing a prolific and powerful lifetime of work which was featured in the 2012 book Unbowed: the Paintings of Susan Joyce Weimer.

In 1969 Biba joined the faculty at Edinboro University of PA, where she was a professor of painting, drawing and printmaking until her retirement. She traveled and showed her work extensively, visiting West Africa, Europe, Hong Kong, the UK and Bahrain. Missing the sea, she moved to Ocean Springs, MS in 2001. She had exhibitions at the George Orr Museum in Biloxi and elsewhere until Hurricane Katrina drove her north to Brandon, MS. She lived in Brandon until 2013, when she moved to Albuquerque, NM to be near granddaughters Sarah Rose (Billy Browne) and Tessa Rose (Pete Salas Jr). Here she continued to grow as an artist even as her life force began to burn out.

Biba spent her last days in the loving company of family and friends – and of course her cherished dog, Winkle, and cat, Sam. She is survived by three children, Dale (John) Rose of Corona, NM; Don (Christine Linder) Weimer of Milwaukee, WI, and Christopher (Connie) Weimer of Denver, CO. She also leaves five grandchildren – Sarah, Tessa, Nicole (Greg Busch) Weimer of Ellicott City, MD; Jonathan Weimer of Milwaukee; and Dévon Weimer of Denver. She loved being a great-grandmother to Kestrel Rose Browne of Albuquerque and Josephine and Charles Busch of Ellicott City.

She is also survived by sister-in-law, Ann M. Harris of Margaretville; nieces, Jayne Anne Harris of Delhi, Eloise Harris Damone of NY and Mary Lou Harris of NY; and nephews, Walter Michael Harris, Frederic Harris, and their families. She was predeceased by her brother, George Edgerly Harris II in 2005; and nephew, George Edgerly Harris III in 1982. She also leaves behind beloved friend Julie Tucker of Cleveland, Ohio; and a loving circle of people in Albuquerque, including JoAnn Smith, Sarah Montoya, Rachael England, Seth Hoffman, Debbie Good, Pam Maples, Octavio Alcantar, John Van Dyke, and everyone at Java Joes. Special thanks also to Visiting Angels, Hospice of New Mexico, Jennifer Fiordelisi, Presbyterian House Calls and the wonderful staff at The Retreat Gardens.

Life with Biba was never dull. Life without her will never be the same.

A celebration of her life is planned for January 24, 2016 at her home. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Karamu House (Tony Sias, 216-795-7070). Please visit our online guest book for Biba at www.FrenchFunerals.com.  

Susan’s book:

Unbowed

Each year the family tries to top itself at this popular Halloween costume contest in the Catskill Mountain town of Andes, New York. This year was no exception. Here are your “Best Group” winners, The Presidential Candidates, from left to right: Donald Trump (Jayne Anne), Hillary Clinton (Mary Lou) and Jeb Bush (Eloise). Wow!

This weekend, a new production of HAIR opened at Bainbridge Performing Arts, just a ferry ride away from my home in Seattle.  Michael Moore, theater critic for The Kitsap Sun, was won over by the energy and vibrancy of the cast, the fine work of the creative team, and by the irresistible theatrical alchemy of HAIR. Here is his review, in PDF:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0152/6355/files/Review_-_Kitsap_Sun.pdf?16823330995522112269

If you live near Seattle, this is a HAIR you should see. Its anti-war message is as relevant today as it was almost 50 years ago. But don’t procrastinate – its three-week run ends Sunday, October 25. Below are director Teresa Thurman’s excellent program notes, and photos shared with me by BPA’s public relations director, Sally Jo Martine.

DIRECTOR’S NOTES by Teresa Thuman

What happens when two opposing forces collide, such as when a writer of college musical revues (James Rado) meets an experimental ritualistic theatre artist of the Open Theatre (Gerome Ragni) in the middle of an era of radical social change (1960’s)? You get the cosmic explosion and unique cultural fusion that is HAIR, the Broadway hit musical. HAIR was honest, raw, organic, iconoclastic, non-linear, and spoke to a generation rejecting their parents’ rigid and conventional social norms.

HAIR is primarily an anti-war story, created at a time of unapologetic experimentation with every conceivable means of altering reality: psychedelic drugs, sexual freedom, revolutionary politics, a search for identity, self-examination, and, under the shadow of potential induction into the draft, questioning existence itself. Within this environment, a brave, intimate and idealistic tribe is forged, and tested, on their path to celebrate the gift of life.

HAIR is now almost 50 years old, and in 2015 our concepts of radicalism have changed. The pendulum of social change swings through the decades, and HAIR now holds outdated views of racial equity, cultural and gender identity, sexual orientation, politics and drugs (addiction is never explored). We look back knowing much of this hippie utopia was naïve and unsustainable. However, I am forever grateful to this vanguard of courageous idealists, because without their radical acts in the 1960s, this world would be a very different place. Perhaps the Age of Aquarius is indeed upon us and the endurance of this musical is proof enough for me.

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One of the original Cockettes Fayette Hauser (photo – Roger Arvid Anderson) is publishing a photo book about The Cockettes. Please consider donating to her Kickstarter campaign to publish this Limited Edition Photo Book about pioneering, influential San Francisco theater troupe – The Cockettes 1969 – 1972.

THE COCKETTES PHOTO BOOK, Too Much Is Never Enough