Let’s meet the storytellers for Saturday, March 3!

Amber Wood is an actor and devised theatre collaborator originally from the U.S. She has called Hamilton home for two years and is very slowly making her way through the waterfalls. She enjoys reading children’s books (on her own and out loud via Skype with various tiny humans), listening to stories, and encouraging others to tell their own. Ask Amber about the book she’s writing with her 6-year-old niece or her Current Big Idea Project: planning a 6,400 km road trip interview tour to chat about making hospitable spaces for artists and audiences.

Irene dives into life head first, and figures out how to deal with what’s lurking under the surface as she goes. Four years ago she jumped into living in Hamilton and home ownership; more recently she plunged into business as the owner of a local tea shop. Her personal theme song is, “Everything works if you let it.”

 

Cass Henry is a life-long reader, writer and poet. She began writing at the early age of 12 after falling in love with Acrostics in the 5th grade. In the intervening years, Cass has traveled most of North America and lived in many Southern Ontario cities, but has considered Hamilton home for the past 7. She is a self-employed IT worker and enjoys being able to work from home as she is a single mother to a 14 year old. Cass says the journey has been worth all the ups and the downs, and she’s excited to see what the future holds.

 

Anne Thompson is a mother and a grandma to five wonderful young children. She is a social activist, talent agent and laboratory technician…oh and an actress. She marches to the beat of a different drum. Her aim is to return to Jamaica, her homeland and start a production company dedicated to telling cultural stories focusing on cemeteries and their occupants. She believes she is funny even though her kids thinks she can mess up a simple joke… she is okay with that because she makes herself laugh!

 

Sarah Kam moved to Hamilton for her undergraduate degree in nursing and stayed put since. She lives in the North End where she is trying to grow a fig tree in her front yard. She recently acquired a folding bicycle and has a litany of places to travel, prioritized by how delicious of a place they are. She looks forward to the day where she has the time to understand how magnets work, commit her favourite recipes to memory, produce a podcast, and build a bicycle trailer for her part-time dog.

Carmen says that the older she gets the closer she comes to being more playful, content and awed. By far and away stories have been the primary vehicle to bring about this transformation.

Saturday night’s host is:

Edith Chavez was born and raised in Mexico City. She now lives in Hamilton where she is trying to adapt to the new culture. With a Master degree of Arts from McMaster University, she is interested in work, education and community. Storytelling has been part of her upbringing and she believes that sharing our experiences and points of view produces identity and creates community.

Photo credits:
Photo #1: Jesse Korgemaa
Photos # 2, 3, 4, 5, 6: Katharine Snider McNair
Photo #7: Dan Jelly