Goodnight Moon - The Magical Musical

I'll bet this room looks familiar to many of you! It's the stage setting for the Hollins' Theater's upcoming performance of Goodnight Moon - The Magical Musical. I had to drop off something to the theater department the other day, and have been reading the biography of Margaret Wise Brown called The Great Green Room by Amy Gary, so imagine my shock when I walked around the corner and saw this! KISMET! Performances will be October 6-8th, 2023. CLICK HERE or the image below to learn more.

Cuba: Beyond Mambo and Rock n' Roll

Recently, we had three amazing artists share their work all the way from Cuba: Ernesto René Figueroa, Esterio Segura Mora, and Ernesto J. Garcia Nodarse. They displayed their artwork in a show called "Cuba: Beyond Mambo and Rock n' Roll" at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum. Their works were distinctly different, unavoidably political, and thought provoking without apology. I had the accidental good fortune to have lunch with them the day before the opening, where I showed off my very poor Spanish. They're hosted by Virginia Tech professor emeritus Dr. Joseph Scarpaci, who worked as translator during their visit... thank goodness!
     Opening night was a roaring success! Here are René and Esterio in front of René's drawings - blueprint like chalk drawings on oiled cement bags that I absolutely adored. There were imaginary machines, photographs, paintings, ceramic plates, and collaged sculptures - they used whatever it took to express their feelings about living in such a rich but restrained country all their lives. It was quite the honor that they were able to get visas to leave the country and travel the US with this tour, and an equally big deal that our Wilson Museum was their first stop. Everyone had a wonderful time, including the artists! (Click the image to see a short video of them doing a celebratory Mambo!)

It's official! I am now Director of Graduate Programs!

in Children's Literature and Illustration at Hollins University in gorgeous Roanoke, Virginia; and I'm so looking forward to helping drive exciting opportunities for everyone! Many, many thanks for all the love and well wishes on Facebook!! I love that Hollins made an actual webpage advertising my new position! (Click the image below to see the whole thing.)      I've moved into a newly renovated ground floor apartment in an old Victorian house in the historic district downtown, close to all sorts of fun stuff, and I even have one of our program students as an upstairs neighbor - it's "Hollins South"!
     It's taking a minute for me to get my feet under me in this new life chapter, but I have exciting things planned, which include getting my newsletter back up and running - so I hope you'll stay tuned! (And subscribe if you haven't already!)