Odyssey Storytelling Presents: Only in Tucson
A fundraising event for the Thornhill Lopez Center on 4th – A SAAF Place for Youth
Curated by Adam Hostetter and Penelope Starr
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Doors at 6:30, show at 7
The Screening Room 127 E. Congress St
$8 Adults, $6 Students
From saguaros to snake bridges. Chimichangas to cholla bud salsa. Mounts Lemmon and Wrightson. Wasson and Rincon peaks! And everything in between that smells like creosote when it rains. The Old Pueblo has stories, and these folks are telling them:
Ethan Smith Cox is a near-Tucson native having been dragged here by his crazy, hippy parents in 1979. Cox is proud to call Tucson “home” and has spent the past 15 years making our community a better place to live through his professional and volunteer work in the non-profit sector. For the past 6+ years, he has served as Director of Development with the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation (SAAF) where he oversees all aspects of marketing and community fundraising for the organization. A graduate of the University of Arizona with a Bachelors degree in English Literature and Composition, Cox is a natural storyteller who counts his sense of humor as one of his strong suits. Cox shares his life with husband Michael Bilharz and their 3 dogs and a cat.
A few years after (con) artist Simon Donovan moved to the Old Pueblo, he noted that a disproportionate number of America’s Most wanted seemed to be found in Tucson…. thus it might not be the best place for him to hide after all….
Connie “Big Mama” Brannock is a Tucson based singer and songwriter creating sounds both soulful and energizing. She has been making music since her growing up years on the Delmarva peninsula, in Maryland, and life travels in Utah, xx and xx. She took a hiatus from that rambling life and joined the Army nineteen days shy of her 35th birthday. She is a retired Command Sergeant Major and served in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, 2006 and 2007. Almost every night “Big Mama” can be seen around town making music with Mama Sings Jazz, Little House of Funk and Swingset. She sings, write songs, plays cajon, a bit of piano, baritone ukulele, and can shout out a few stabs on the trombone in a worst case scenario. Connie is never happier than when she sees her audience jumping up to dance or enjoying the vibes.
Ted Springer has called Tucson home for 28 years. He grew up on a farm in Illinois raising corn, soybeans and hogs. He came to Tucson as a Mennonite Volunteer and was bit by the desert. He never went back to the farm. Since his first arrival to Tucson he started cultivating Art, both his own sculpture and that of others. He now spends his time running The Land With No Name Sanctuary for Homeless Sculpture just outside of the Old Pueblo with his wife Kate Hodges. He also spends about 1/3 of the year assisting sculptor Ursula von Rydingsvard as her main cutter in Brooklyn NY.
Dena Cowan is from Tucson. She earned a BFA from New York University in writing and film and worked as a film editor in NYC before moving to Spain, where she went to study Spanish and photography and stayed for 23 years, working as a writer, photographer, editor and translator. She lived in rural ranching and farming communities in the mountains north of Madrid, where she became interested in traditional agro-ecological practices, eventually moving to a tiny hamlet in northwestern Spain to raise children, vegetables and berries, fruit and nut trees, sheep and a horse, and clear a meandering path through the forest on their 7-acre homestead. In 2010 she returned to Tucson, made a documentary called Tasting History (El Sabor de la Historia), and has since been affiliated with Mission Garden, Tucson’s living agricultural heritage museum, as Community Outreach Coordinator. In 2016 the Southwest Folklife Alliance commissioned her to curate the Tucson UNESCO City of Gastronomy exhibition presented at Tucson Meet Yourself. She now enjoys learning to play the violin.
Bridgitte Thum is a fifth generation native Tucsonan with lots of stories. Growing up working on movie sets as a child actress (mostly background) and on makeshift department store runways (modeling for kids clothes) Bridgitte soaks up attention like a quilted paper towel. That’s mostly why she does everything she does. As a stand-up comic, she started performing at Laffs in 2009. Eight years later, she has since performed all around town, opening for Tig Notaro and Tom Green at the Rialto. Performing as a radio actress in the old Pueblo Radio Show on AZPM/NPR 89.1FM and mixing music on the air every Friday from 1-3 at 91.3 FM KXCI community radio. Bridgitte likes fancy lady stuff. She’s a big fan of Tucson, she just loves this dusty burg, and all it’s creative characters.
The Curators:
Adam Hostetter is Quantum Mennonite. An avid food fermenter, Reiki practitioner and Tarot reader, he believes that with the energy of love and peace, we create change, and we heal, not just ourselves, but the entire universe. You can find info on Reiki, Tarot and his essays on his website QuantumMennonite.com.
Nothing in Penelope Starr’s background prepared her for her thirteen-year adventure in community storytelling. She is a lifelong learner and loves to complete projects. At seventy-one, she published her first book, The Radical Act of Community Storytelling: Empowering Voices in Uncensored Events. Next up, consulting with groups who want to start their own community storytelling and writing a novel. See more at www.penelopestarr.com.
As if that weren’t enough to get you there, this month’s show will benefit the Thornhill Lopez Center on 4th – A SAAF Place for Youth (click the name to view their website).
