Larry Crist - "I have to hear what I’m writing off the ears of others."

There’s a “take me as I am” quality about Larry Crist that’s reinforced when he reads his poetry. Although a little young to be a child of the 60’s, he personifies that era of questioning authority, challenging everyman to stand up and do his part.

 Born in Palo Alto, CA., Larry’s lived in London, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and for the last twenty years, Seattle. His worldly perspective is focused on what an individual can do through activism to make a difference

  

Larry Crist

I began school already knowing how to read and found school dull. I was a disruptive kid. My parent’s broke up early. We moved a lot. She was a teacher. I got in trouble with the law in my teens and spent a year in jail without finishing high school.

     The only thing (aside from drugs and alcohol) I found interesting was theatre. I spent my late teens and most of my twenties doing plays and appeared in a number of films as well. After receiving a BA at HSU I earned my MFA at Temple University. Halfway through this program, I bought a typewriter and began writing stories, poems, whatnot. I was 27.

     This was thirty years ago, I’ve been writing ever since. I began getting things published in my mid-thirties after I moved to Seattle in 1992.

     I do a lot of readings: open mics, bars, features. It has become an integral part of my writing process. I have to hear what I’m writing off the ears of others.

    

     1. Who are you? List 5 words that best describe you.

    

     Curious – Defiant – Blunt – Impatient – Inquisitive

2. What have you done that you’re most proud of?

Depends on when asked. At this moment it is getting my first book—Undertow Overtures—published. Last year it would have been something else, a publication perhaps. When I was 12 it would have been a ball I hit for a homerun or a fish I caught. Pride, is highly transitory.

3. If you could change one thing in your past, what would it be?

I wish I wouldn’t have been such a fuck-up as a kid. I’m sorry I didn’t try out for football in high school. I have a great throwing arm and can kick a football better than any one I know, only I didn’t discover this until I was in my late thirties.

4. On a personal level, what drives you crazy? What gives you joy?

Pompous certainty. The self-centeredness of homo-sapiens, thinking this is their planet and they can treat it and other animal species like trash. God, religion, war, politics; it’s all a racket.

5. Given no restrictions (i.e. money/physical capabilities) – what would you most like to do?

I might learn to sail—be a sea bum. I’d continue to write at about the same output but would work/hustle less. I’d take more train trips, attend more weddings, go to baseball games and attend spring training. I’d partake in more activism with regards to planet saving efforts, as well as helping to defeat the rise of fascism here in the United States.

Contact Larry at    Larrycrist13@gmail.com

Undertow Overtures is available through Amazon.

• Two short Films Tidal Wave, Everybody I have Ever Known, writer and narration, by Salise Hughes, Northwest Film Forum.
• Jack Straw 2013  
• Three Pushcart nominations.

Reading at Elliott Bay Book Store - Seattle

Contact Larry at:    Larrycrist13@gmail.com

Undertow Overtures is available through Amazon.

• Two short Films Tidal Wave, Everybody I have Ever Known, writer and narration, by Salise Hughes, Northwest Film Forum.
• Jack Straw 2013  
• Three Pushcart nominations.

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Rachel Buker - Surviving and Thriving

          Rachel Buker led an all day seminar for the Artist Trust EDGE Literary Grant program on copyright law that I attended. Sounds boring, but it wasn’t. An attorney having a background in the arts is an asset for young (and seasoned) artists on the rise.

          One of my joys in profiling folks for Taking the Plunge is learning other facets of their personalities and, ultimately, liking them even better!

Rachel Buker

Spring gives me an itch like no other season.  I have at least a half-dozen half-finished projects around the house right now. In the midst of a downpour today I decided it was high time to clean up the patio and adjoining garden area. The patio is a favorite spot on summer evenings, but it was definitely in need of a little TLC after a soggy winter. I found multiple wine corks swollen with rain in the garden. These corks provide me with some certainty that I am living right.

When I am not excavating wine corks from the garden or otherwise turning my condo upside down, I am an intellectual property lawyer, writer, traveler, knitter, and friend to animals.

  

Photo by Lydia Goolia

         

1. Who are you? List 5 words that define you!

Runner – Attorney – Confidante – Creative – Adventurer

  

2. What have you done that you’re most proud of?

There’re a lot of different things in my life that I am proud of, all the various facets of my education, playing musical instruments, having a very diverse array of wonderful, talented friends, being a Vermont native, becoming a long distance runner, and accumulating some really interesting stamps in my passport.

But, I think what I’m truly most proud of is surviving and thriving (although it certainly did not feel like thriving at the time) during some serious adversity—the kind of adversity that you do not choose, but that chooses you.  These are the events that prove the true force of your own character. I have confidence and pride in that now.

3. If you could change one thing in your past, what would it be?

I honestly wish I had done more wild crazy things when I was younger.  There really is no going back.  I was far too serious and hardworking as a teenager.

4. On a personal level, what drives you crazy? What gives you joy?

     What drives me crazy (in no particular order):negativity, entitlement,and sexism.

So very many things bring me joy (in no particular order): spending time with friends and family, raising my puppy and taking her on adventures, my cat purring in my ear when I fall asleep at night, traveling, pretty much everything about the Pacific Northwest, going to Sounders games (and watching EPL games on Saturday mornings), running (especially trail running), cooking pasta meals, discovering fantastic local wines, yoga, spending time on Vashon Island, great conversations, buying flowers for no particular reason, laughing until I cry, and desserts.

  

5. Given no restrictions (i.e. money/physical capabilities) – what would you most like to do?   

I would devote a lot more productive energy to my creative endeavors and be far more prolific as an artist and a writer.  I still feel a lot of anxiety hanging about my creative process, and I really wish it would just let me be.

I would also travel more and run at least ten more marathons.

Can't resist a photo op!

Reading Sunday, May 18, 2014

Playing  with my dog!

Enjoying the sunset

Links for Rachel:

A&A – www.artandartifice.net

LinkedIn

Twitter

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Charlotte McElroy - Determined to be "Normal"

          You think you know someone and then you realize you don’t. Charlotte McElroy has performed in my plays almost since the day we met ten years ago. Her career on the stage goes back much further. A sharp wit with impeccable timing, one can only imagine her years ago at a school assembly commanding the attention of hundreds of teenagers with ease. Until I read her words for Taking the Plunge, I had no idea the number of obstacles she overcame to become a respected educator, supporter of the arts, and community activist.

          Whether tap dancing to the beat or tackling the challenge of piano lessons, Charlotte wasn't (and isn’t) afraid to meet adversity head on.

Charlotte McElroy

I was born at home on a small Texas panhandle farm in 1939 to older uneducated parents living in two rooms of an old drafty farmhouse. My sister, born four years later, was deemed the most beautiful baby in Castro County. I was a disappointment. On my twelfth birthday my mother expressed her feelings in words that still hurt.

“I knew you were different when you came out.”

I started to have nightmares and in my dreams I was dressed in a white gown made by my mother, walking down the Baptist church aisle to be joined to a rich farmer I would be expected to wash, iron, clean, cook and meet him at the door with a kiss no matter how he smelled after a long day of plowing.

I was determined to be “normal.” I managed to get elected cheerleader, fire-baton twirler, Miss Personality, Girls’ State representative, Student Senate Representative, and I went to state three times as an outstanding baritone horn player.   

          I received a music scholarship to West Texas State University and a drama scholarship to Eastern New Mexico University. Mother said “No money” for a worthless college education.

I got a job, gave up music and drama, graduated from WTSU in three years with a BS in Education and got a job teaching third grade in Amarillo, Texas. I completed my MA in Education and moved to Ojai Ca and stayed for thirty years.

I received a Teacher of the Year award in 1974 and Principal of the Year in 1991, plus being chosen as one of the 100 Best Principals in the US.

I retired in 1995 to Sequim, WA and pursued my interests.  On Feb 1^s 2013 I married my partner of 20 years.

I’m now normal. It only took 74 years.

1              1.      Who are you? List 5 words that define you!

Teacher – Friend - Tap Dancer – Principal – Advocate

                         2.  What have you done that you’re most proud of?

My courage to face and fight adversity, discrimination, and gender

Inequality, even if it meant losing my job.

                                     3.  If you could change one thing in your past, what would it be?

I’m ashamed to say, I didn’t reach out to gay and transgender students

because of my fear of being “outed”. I would need a lot of time to make

up for this mistake.

4.   On a personal level, what drives you crazy? What gives you joy?

Indecisive, loud-mouthed people make me crazy.

All the years I spent with so many wonderful kids of all ages gives me great joy.

                 5. Given no restrictions, what would you most like to do?

    Build a school for all impoverished, abused, hungry and “different” kids.  

         It would be free and open all year.

      

In Hennessey Street with fellow thespian, Marianne Trowbridge

Rehearsing Hazel Speaks! with Elizabeth Kelly

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