The Memory Project: Storytelling through visual arts, theater & puppetry

  QUEENS PUBLIC LIBRARY "Creative Aging: Virtual Family Album Pop-Up Bookmaking" Tuesday April 18, 2023   We had another good roll of students this morning, some new faces and quite a few returning participants.  Sonia was so inspired by last week’s class that she researched more methods of making pop-ups and even bought a book on the subject!. She shared over 8 examples of different pop-up pages she made.    As our class is about how to make a “flap”, which opens to show what is underneath, our warm up was centered on “the reveal”. We placed our hands over our face then moved them apart horizontally, vertically, and diagonally each time revealing a different facial expression. Next, we gave ourselves a hug, closing our body, then opened our arms, stretching them in different directions. Finally, we opened our hands from closed fists into hand gestures.   I screen-shared our word of the day, FLAP and an example of a “turn-up” book popularized by medical stu...

                                                                   QUEENS PUBLIC LIBRARY "Creative Aging: Virtual Family Album Pop-Up Bookmaking" Tuesday April 25, 2023 This was our 3rd class, and it was great to see a lot of familiar faces. Sonia continues to inspire us with the pages she made during the week. She shared her pop-up home page which featured her apartment building and church. In the front she added footsteps to mark her path to and from her home.    The warmup asked participants to close their eyes and imagine what they might see outside their window. Upon opening their eyes, they showed an expression on their face and in their body, which demonstrated to others what they saw, such as fear, disgust, surprise, happiness and welcoming.   I shared my pop-up windo...

  QUEENS PUBLIC LIBRARY "Creative Aging: Virtual Family Album Pop-Up Bookmaking" Tuesday April 4, 2023 Spica and I are thrilled to be working again with Madlyn and her colleagues at Queens Public Library presenting a series of 8 virtual classes teaching older adults how to make a pop-up book inspired by their family photos. This virtual format fortunately allows me to log on from Sydney, Australia to join Spica in Manhattan, Madlyn in Queens, and students from their homes in the many boroughs of New York.     This was the first time Madlyn tried a “hands-on” project as a screening, inviting East Flushing Library to join so that anyone who was physically in the library during our class could use the materials provided there to work with us. We had 21 participants join our class today.    A physical warm up gets us focused and ready to begin. I led the group in “popping up our body”, stretching up our whole body then our necks, heads and arms and faces. Hands...