Tomorrow, November 20, 2005, I will be a storyteller in 'Tellabration' a storytelling event here in Cleveland, Ohio.
The theme of the event is old and new. I'm going to tell the story of my mother. My mother got pregnant with me when she was seventeen, married my father and had seven children, actually eight, my brother Louis died immediately after birth. When I was eighteen and going to college, she finally came out and declared to us and the world that she was a lesbian! I can only imagine the circumstances that lead her to opening her legs to my father the day of my conception. It was the early 1950's and there was no word that my mother knew for lesbian, homosexual, or just being different. I'm positive, she thought she was just plain fuckin' weird and trying to exorcise an internal demon. She defined herself thru her pregnancies until the time came when she could proclaim it on her own!

She died at the age of 52 years old from metatstatic breast cancer. That same cancer wiped out the women on her side of her family. My grandmother (her mom), my grandmother's sister's, and my Mother's sister. My younger sister was diagnosed at age 26 and had a lumpectomy.

The 'new' part of my story contribution is the birth of my son, a complete and utter surprise! He has been a beacon of life, energy and creativity for me and my husband, and his really older sister! I have been so productive and creative since giving birth to him!

My Spoken Word piece that I composed called 'For Chance' received an 'Editor's Choice Award for Outstanding Achievement in Poetry by poetry.com and the International Library of Poetry, November 2005.' Woo Woo!


UBU (you be You!)
Stand up Comedian/Actor/Writer/Spoken Word Poet/Corporate Speaker/Mother/Wife.