Remembering Grace Paley in Boston

With the holiday season fast approaching the Joiner Center will once again celebrate the life and work of writer and activist Grace Paley. The Grace Paley Birthday Reading, which will be held at Friends Meeting at Cambridge on Thursday, December 10th, 7-9 pm, will feature local activists reading from Grace’s work. This year we are pleased to welcome students from UMass Boston who received special recognition through the 2009 Grace Paley Award for their community involvement. They are Son-ca Lam, Stephanie Fail and Heather Turner. Joining them will be Bob Nicols, Bob Glassman, Bob Zevon, Tom Goodkind, Michael Ansara, Wayne Smith, Michael Romanyshyn, and many other activists, teachers and community organizers.
This is a video of the Center's Grace Paley celebration in December, 2008:

At the Joiner Center this year there will be a potluck reception following the reading – please let us know if you’d like to contribute! You can email us at joinercenter@umb.edu. Copies of Grace’s books will be available at the reception.

This year the Joiner Center welcomes MFA graduate students Crystal Koe and Molly McGuire to our program staff. They will be working with Cat Parnell on the Grace Paley Tribute and the Grace Paley Award. Both Molly and Crystal bring extensive experience and good spirits to the center. We at the Joiner look forward to working with Crystal and Molly, and we hope you will welcome them when you meet them at the Grace Paley Tribute Reading in December.

The Joiner Center is also pleased to announce Tru Grace: Holiday Memoirs, a special production of Grace Paley’s short story “The Loudest Voice” by the Underground Railway Theater. Adapted by Wes Savick of Suffolk University’s Theatre Department, the play premieres on Thursday, November 19th and runs through Sunday, December 27th along with Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory.” These whimsical tales will be playing at Central Square Theater.

The Underground Railway Theater is offering the Joiner Center community discounted tickets ($17.50, regularly $35) to the production. To take advantage of this offer quote the discount code TRUGRACE either online at
www.centralsquaretheater.org, or by calling the box office at 866-811-4111.

The Underground Railway Theater would also like to extend an invitation the Joiner Center community to participate in the sharing of anecdotes and/or the reading of a piece by Grace on December 6th, directly after the 2 pm matinee, when they will be hosting a celebration of Grace's life.