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Home My WebLink About02022023 Agenda ARTS COMMISSION MEETING AGENDA February 2, 2023, | 3:00 p.m. | In-person and Remote Meeting • The meeting will be held in Council Chambers on the 2nd floor of Historic City Hall. The entrance is the first door on Madison Street, which opens to the elevator. Please seat yourself in any available pews. • Join virtually via computer or tablet at http://joinwebinar.com enter the 9-digit Webinar ID 729-067-131 • Join by phone in listen-only mode: (360) 390-5064 ext. 6 access code: 496-365-513# • Submit public comment emails to be included in the meeting record to: publiccomment@cityofpt.us I. Call to Order and Roll Call II. Approval of Agenda III. Approval of Minutes from the January 5, 2022, Meeting IV. Public Comment (3 minutes per person) V. Commission Business A. Poet Laureate program. 1. Establish program timeline 2. Select Panelists 3. Create an application B. Public Art Subcommittee update. VI. Correspondence VII. Set Agenda for Next Meeting VIII. Next Scheduled Meeting – March 2, 2023, at 3:00 p.m. IX. Adjourn Minutes of the Port Townsend Arts Commission Meeting of January 5, 2023 LOCATION: In-person at City Council Chambers and Remote MEMBERS PRESENT: Nhatt Nichols, Joe Gillard, Cosmo Rapaport, Lindsey Wayland, Sheila Long, Alexis Arrabito, Sally Kiely STAFF PRESENT: City Attorney Heidi Greenwood via go to meeting, Legal Assistant Lonnie Mickle Board Liaison: Community Members: Topic Motions/Recommendation/Action Call to Order Chair Nhatt Nichols called meeting to order 3:04pm Roll Call Cosmo Rapaport, Alexis Arrabito, Sally Kiely, Joe Gillard, Lindsey Wayland, Sheila Long, Nhatt Nichols Approval of Agenda Commissioner Sheila Long motioned to approve the agenda. Commissioner Cosmo Rapaport seconded. Agenda passed. Approval of Minutes for December 1, 2022, Meeting Meeting adjourned at 5:02pm. Changed. Commissioner Cosmo Rapaport motioned to approve minutes, Commissioner Shelia Long Seconded. Motion passed Elections Cosmo Rapaport nominated Chair Nhatt Nichols to another years as chair of the Arts Commission. Sheila Long seconded the nomination. Chair Nhatt Nichols will accept the position once City Council approves. Chair Nhatt Nichols nominated Commissioner Alexis Arrabito as vice chair to the commission. Commissioner Joe Gilliard seconded. Motion passed. Commissioner moved to PAC. Commissioner Cosmo Rapaport was appointed the new chair of the PAC and commissioner Sally Kiely was appointed to the PAC. Also, Commissioners Joe Gillard, Lindsey Wayland, Dan Groussman was reappointed to the committee. Public Comment No public comments Grant application Olympic Pride applied for a $500.00 grant for the project, “RainShadow Youth Collective’s Queer Expression Art Show” grant was given at a total of $600.00 Topic Motions/Recommendation/Action Review Application, FAQ sheet and Grant letter Application was approved. FAQ sheet and grant recipient letter was approved once revisions were completed. Set agenda for next meeting Talk about the Poet Laureate Next Meeting: Thursday, February 2, 2022, at 3:00 p.m. Adjourn: The meeting was adjourned at 4:25 p.m. Port Townsend Arts Commission Poet Laureate Program Proposal DRAFT Updated Poet Laureate Proposal (DRAFT) Port Townsend Poet Laureate, a service-contract position co-managed by the City of Port Townsend Culture and Society Committee and the Port Townsend Arts Commission and supported by the Port Townsend Public Library Program Background The City of Port Townsend is pleased to announce the inauguration of the City of Port Townsend Poet Laureate program, which is managed as a collaboration between the Culture and Society Committee (CSC) and the Port Townsend Arts Commission (PTAC), and supported by the Port Townsend Public Library. The Poet Laureate Program is established 2023. The ﬁrst Poet Laureate of Port Townsend will be announced in January of 2024. Program Goals and Objectives The City seeks to name one Poet Laureate to serve an honorary position as ambassador of Port Townsend’s active creative community, promoting the City’s robust literary arts and celebrating the written word. The objectives of the program include: •Enhance the creation and appreciation of poetry and the literary arts; •Illustrate the City’s honoring of the literary arts and welcome artists into civic discourse; •Create a focal point and an ofﬁcial voice for the expression of Port Townsend’s culture through the literary arts; •Contribute to the growth of the individual Poet Laureate; •Raise awareness of the power of poetry, written word, and the spoken word; •Inspire an emerging generation of critical thinkers, writers, storytellers; •Provide a forum for cross pollination of art forms; DRAFT, Page of 1 7 •Celebrate the cultural heritage, the spirit of the people, and the unique qualities of our region; •Create a unique program that will inspire other communities to celebrate poetry; •Collect new literary works that celebrate the diversity and vibrancy of east Jefferson County and Port Townsend for a growing body of work that commemorates the life of our region. Poet Laureate Eligibility •Must be at least 21 years of age at the time of nomination or application; •Have been a Port Townsend City or East Jefferson County resident for at least one year prior to the application/nomination deadline and remain a resident throughout the two-year term; •Must be committed to bringing poetry to a wide range of places and people; •Must be able and available to reach Port Townsend and East Jefferson County audiences through travel and other means; •Provide evidence of achievement in the art of poetry, including having a body of publicly accessible work (books, literary magazines, and/or digital media); •Poet must have demonstrated a previous commitment to promoting awareness of poetry; •Must be prepared to undertake the public role required of the laureate. Review Process The Port Townsend Poet Laureate Panel, as seated by an elected commissioner from the Port Townsend Arts Commission, and approved by the CSC, will be a small team of persons with a combined knowledge about: creative writing, public programs, and the City of Port Townsend, and will include a representative of the City Council and the Port Townsend Arts Commission. The Port Townsend Poet Laureate Panel will review and vet the applications and recommend the Poet Laureate to the Mayor. The selection process is coordinated by the PTAC and the Mayor’s Ofﬁce. Guiding principles for the program as follows: •An open call for poets; •Applicants for the contract-position of Poet Laureate will reside in east Jefferson County or Port Townsend; •A two-part review process will be enacted: •Stage One: open submissions will be reviewed. All eligible submissions will be considered. Applicants will submit the following DRAFT, Page of 2 7 •Full Curriculum Vitae; •Short biographical sketch; •Four to six recent poems (from the last three years); •Short narrative (no more than 2 pages) articulating how they will fulﬁll the position; •Stage Two: three to ﬁve ﬁnalists will be interviewed by the Port Townsend Poet Laureate Panel Appointment The Mayor will appoint the Port Townsend Poet Laureate in December of a calendar year, to announce in January, the beginning of Poet Laureate term. Poet Laureate Honorarium The Port Townsend Poet Laureate will be contracted by the City of Port Townsend and the Port Townsend Arts Commission and receive an honorarium of $1,200 made in three payments of $400 based on benchmarks established in the legal contract. Because the City operates with ﬁscal year budgets, at the end of the year, the PTAC and CSC will review the reﬂections and contract of the Poet Laureate to ensure all duties and responsibilities were fulﬁlled before issuing a second year contract for the full term. Port Townsend Poet Laureate Panel An honorarium for three panelists each to receive $300 for their service in support of interviewing and vetting application submissions for the Port Townsend Poet Laureate. City Council representative and Arts Commission representative will be offering their civic service as volunteers to the literary arts and the community in their standard operating practices with the City of Port Townsend appointment to advisory boards and committees. Scope of Work for Term DRAFT, Page of 3 7 The Poet Laureate will fulﬁll their scope of work during the calendar year. The scope of work is three fold: 1. The ﬁrst duty is a ceremonial, as voice of the city the Poet Laureate will: •Provide no less than four public, accessible events across east Jefferson County and Port Townsend (at various locations discussed by the CSC, PTAC, and Poet Laureate); •These might include: •Mayoral Inauguration •Public Art Dedications •Public Building Dedications •In addition, the Mayor’s ofﬁce may recommend 2 more optional activities; •Write one or more commemorative poem(s) each year of term relating to an integral theme to Port Townsend and east Jefferson County to be included in a potential anthology or a library of poetry for public installations. 2. The second duty of the Poet Laureate is educational. The Poet Laureate will: •Write quarterly social media/newsletter updates, work with Port Townsend Public Library and the City staff for educational communications that encourage excitement about poetry, literacy, and literary events in the city; •Participate and coordinate with the Port Townsend Public Library during National Poetry Month (April), while utilizing the PTPL’s Carnegie room as a residency for the month; •Engage Port Townsend and East Jefferson County residents, visitors, civic and elected leaders, youth, seniors, and students of all ages about the value of poetry, creative writing, narrative expression through two or more self-coordinated, community partnered activities there are reviewed and approved by the PTAC; 3. The third duty of the Poet Laureate is inspirational and offers poetic nourishment for years to come to celebrate the City of Port Townsend, the Poet Laureate will: •Create a special project proposed by the poet which will: •Nourish the poet’s own poetic growth and interests; •Inspire the community around literary arts and poetry and literacy; •Creatively engage community in poetry; •Offer a unique legacy for both poetry and the Poet Laureate in the city; •Be reviewed and approved by the Port Townsend Arts Commission. •Ideas for the Poet Laureate’s special project include: •A series of readings at unique sites; •A series of workshops at unique sites; DRAFT, Page of 4 7 •A collaboration with a community organization; •A library of poetry by residents via an open call to all regional poets (both emerging and masters living in Port Townsend and east Jefferson County) to submit poems for placement on sidewalks, streetlights, or related design-sites. Poet Laureate would collaborate with the Arts Commission to generate a poem library for the City of Port Townsend for integration into/onto public surfaces in the two years following their selection by the Poet Laureate and the PTAC. •Determine that the project does not conﬂict with existing programs or readings in the City. Review Criteria All submissions in stage one of review process will be reviewed and scored as follows: •The candidate’s prior experience on their resume and/or website •The quality of poetry submitted Submission Materials Each applicant shall prepare to provide the following: •Full name •Residence address (must be within east Jefferson County or Port Townsend) •Primary work address •Contact Phone Number •Website •Contact email address •Biography sketch (7-10 sentences) Materials •Four - Six poems from the last three years •Brief narrative (1-2 pages) outlining your intent with the Scope of Work •Professional resume or curriculum vitae as a PDF •Please curate your resume to highlight your literary accomplishments and service to the poetry ﬁeld so the Port Townsend Poet Laureate Panel can easily determine your relationship to the city of Port Townsend and east Jefferson County’s literary arts community. DRAFT, Page of 5 7 Proposed Poet Laureate Updates for Arts Commission Meeting February 2023 Proposed Timeline February — review and submit the panelist recommendations to the culture and society committee/mayor. Upon approval, notify panelists and issue contracts. March — gather panelists to discuss application April 1— Call for Applications (Port Townsend Public Library supports this process, and panelists will work with the library to call for applications). Once the Poet Laureate is established, the Poet Laureate will work out of the Carnegie Room at the Port Townsend Public Library and collaborate with the Library Director for National Poetry Month. May 31— Deadline for nominations to be received June-August— City Poet Laureate Panel meets to select 3-5 ﬁnalists September— Finalist interviews October 1— City Poet Laureate recommendations submitted to the Mayor’s Ofﬁce December— end of the month Mayor interviews City Poet Laureate January— City of Port Townsend Poet Laureate is appointed and public announcement planned Proposed Panelists for 2023 Review for 2024 Inaugural Port Townsend Poet Laureate Ellie Matthews Ellie Mathews takes pleasure in keeping a couple hundred fonts of metal type organized. She holds a degree in geography from the University of Washington with emphasis on cartography and graphic arts. She worked in design and software development. She is the author of four books: two nonﬁction, a middle grades novel and a memoir. She has won cooking and writing awards including the Milkweed Prize for Children's Literature, a grant from the Seattle Artists Program for Literary Artists, a Fishtrap Fellowship, and the Pillsbury Bake-Off grand prize. Ellie Matthews is on the Port Townsend Public Library Advisory Board and has spent time curating the poetry section. Lisbeth White Lisbeth White (she/her) is a lover of the earth, wanderer of lands, poet, expressive arts therapist, developmental editor, elemental energy healer, listener, and ancestor celebrant. DRAFT, Page of 6 7 She is certain our collective liberation is intricately tied to ancestral earth wisdom and ﬁrmly believes each of us has boundless capacity within to be our own wisest healers. She has received awards, fellowships, and residencies from VONA, Callaloo, Tin House, Writing By Writers, Corporeal Writing, Bread Loaf Environmental Writer's Conference, The Dickinson House, and Blue Mountain Center. She is a co-collaborator connecting Black artists and writers with social and healing justice organizations for mutual inspiration and support. Shin Yu Pai Shin Yu Pai is a Seattle-based writer and the author of 11 books, including most recently Virga (Empty Bowl, 2021). She is the recipient of awards from the City of Seattle’s Ofﬁce of Arts & Culture, 4Culture, and The Awesome Foundation. She is a 2022 Artist Trust Fellow and was shortlisted in 2014 for a Stranger Genius Award in Literature. From 2015 to 2017, Shin Yu served as Poet Laureate for The City of Redmond. Her writing has appeared in Atlas Obscura, Tricycle Magazine, YES! Magazine, NYTimes, Zocalo Public Square, Seattle Met, ParentMap, Seattle’s Child, International Examiner, and South Seattle Emerald. Her work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, the UK, and Canada. Shin Yu is the writer, host, and producer of The Blue Suit – a podcast on Asian American stories for KUOW Public Radio, Seattle’s NPR afﬁliate station. The Blue Suit launched in July 2022 and is currently in production for a second season, which will begin releasing episodes in May 2023. New books are forthcoming in 2023 from Empty Bowl Press and Blue Cactus Press. DRAFT, Page of 7 7 Grant Application Follow-up Report FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Year-End Celebration Community Event Contact: Judith-Kate Friedman Ashley Friend mythsingerlegacy@gmail.com 360-385-1160 Myth and Memory in Community: A Year-End Online Storytelling Celebration featuring Creation Stories from Many Lands and Re-Kindling Daniel Deardorff’s Olympic Peninsula Tradition for Entering the New Year with music by Judith-Kate Friedman and ASL interpretation by Annie Clark on Thursday December 29th at 7pm PST on Zoom. The event will be held on Zoom. Virtual doors open at 6:30. Tickets are available at Eventbrite: https://tinyurl.com/mythandmemory. Advanced registration is encouraged. All ages are welcome. Suggested donation is $20-$45 sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds. ABOUT THE EVENT Myths awaken memory and stir our senses with sound, rhythm, story, and image allowing us to recall the ancient resonances of Oral Tradition tales that have been gifted from generation to generation for tens of thousands of years. On Thursday, December 29th, 2022, at 7pm, the Mythsinger Legacy Project (MLP)re-kindles mythsinger and storyteller Daniel Deardorff’s annual year-end community custom of sharing three very different Creation myths: one Norse, one Sumerian, and one from the Toba of South America. Each story will unfold truths about need, renewal, loss, sacrifice, possibility, courage, beauty, and love. Each will open the imagination, showing us ways to re-member and re-store ourselves and our love and care for humankind and the Living World. The online magic of the Zoom platform will allow us to come together around the virtual hearth from near and far to hear Daniel Deardorff,albeit posthumously. Although he “flew out of this story into the next” in 2019, Deardorff’s music, his storytelling and his voice via a live recording will give all who are present an opportunity to hear the man who the poet Robert Bly called “a true inheritor of Joseph Campbell” and of whom the mythologist Martin Shaw said “Deardorff was the greatest storyteller I ever saw.” ABOUT THE ONLINE “VIRTUAL HEARTH” This event is the last in a series of 2022 Community Storynights in this online format. Judith-Kate Friedman, MLP’s Steward and Deardorff’s life partner and collaborator for his last 14 years, describes how this event differs from many online presentations: “It’s quite uncanny how we’ve been able to create a genuine community feeling as we gather online to listen to Danny drumming and telling around the virtual hearth. When we started this experiment combining live interactive conversation and performance with archival footage of Daniel himself, we had no idea if the balance of past and present would be successful. Yet ancient myths transcend boundaries of place and time and Daniel Deardorff also does this as a mythteller.” “Those who were present for his local Storynights (from 2005-2015), have shared with us that the pairing of high quality archival video and audio plus our live music and everyone’s collective online interaction truly bring Daniel and the Community Storynight experience into the virtual room,” Friedman notes. “Many younger generation tellers and listeners who didn’t have a chance to meet Daniel say that communal listening in this format awakens their sense of proximity to his presence far more than hearing his recordings or reading his book. It’s this spirit of community we wish to ignite, keeping Daniel’s voice as well as these ancient stories alive.” FEEDING THE STORY The online event will begin with a welcome from Judith-Kate Friedman and music from Daniel Deardorff (recorded) and Friedman (live). The virtual hearth will then be lit as Deardorff calls fire in the old manner with flint and steel, and sings about the relationship between myth and fire (on video). He’ll then tell three rarely heard Creation Myths, accompanying himself on drum (audio) while Friedman layers in her own live drumming and Annie Clark, known internationally for her ASL artistry, provides interpretation for the stories. Following the stories, everyone will be invited to “feed the story.” As Deardorff taught: “The stories carry medicine and food for us. They are alive and feed us; we must feed the stories in return and reciprocity for the nourishment we receive.” Once the story is “well-fed”, Friedman will close the evening with one of her own songs inspired by the Mythsinger experience. ABOUT THE ARTISTS Internationally recognized as an innovator in community building through music,Judith-Kate Friedman is an award-winning songwriter, performer,and producer, as well as author, poet, curator and founder/director of Songwriting Works Educational Foundation. As Deardorff’s life-partner since 2006, she now serves as Steward of the Mythsinger Legacy Project. She is representing his book The Other Within: The Genius of Deformity in Myth, Culture and Psyche (Inner Traditions, 2022) and narrated the audiobook (forthcoming in 2023). Her own multi-modal work increasingly addresses kinship with the Living World and the arts as a path to aliveness and transformation.https://judithkate.com/https://mandorlarising.net Renowned American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter Annie Clark has worked internationally giving people with auditory disabilities full access to enjoying and participating in music, arts, humanities, and science events. She has interpreted for a wide range of music festivals, conferences, and television, and for a variety of public figures including Deepak Chopra, Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D. (Discovery Channel’s "The Know Zone”), adventuress and international rowing record holder Victoria Murden, and musicians Ani DiFranco, Arlo Guthrie, and Cephas and Wiggins among many others. Of her ASL work,The Entertainer said “…(This) is a dimension to music you have never experienced before. You can't help but be moved by it.” In her lecture Music and the Arts, Accessible to All,Clark states: “I bring music [and spoken word] to a silent world. When I interpret… I see the power it has, the effect on all peoples lives (deaf and hearing)… to see the excitement of a deaf person discovering music; or the pleasure of those who thought they would never experience (it) again; even restoring the will to live for one who had a sudden, severe hearing loss. Everyone, including those with disabilities, should have the same opportunity for access and participation in the arts. Music, art, and the humanities are uplifting, powerful, and transcendent expressions of the human experience… (among) the purest expressions of a culture helping to define and unite people… These cultural expressions are a means by which we can all grow and evolve.” http://www.breskin.com/annie-clark/ ABOUT DANIEL DEARDORFF and the MYTHSINGER LEGACY PROJECT Daniel Deardorff (1952-2019)was a master storyteller,author, singer, beloved teacher, and carrier of ancient oral tradition stories. A lifelong performing musician whose five-decade career included songwriting, national touring (Seals and Crofts, Deardorff and Joseph), and producing (Tingstad and Rumbel, Michael Tomlinson, Jim Valley, Tickle Tune Typhoon). A survivor of paralytic polio and resulting paraplegia, he believed that one of the greatest oppressions is the suffering of meaningless wounds. When post-polio required him to retire from the music business, he became an independent scholar of myth, collaborating internationally with Robert Bly, Martin Shaw, and others. Throughout his career, Deardorff lived in Seattle, Bellingham, Vashon Island, Lummi Island, and Central Washington, with his last two decades based in Port Townsend, WA. In November 2022 Daniel Deardorff’s acclaimed book,The Other Within: The Genius of Deformity in Myth, Culture and Psyche was published in an expanded 3rd edition by Inner Traditions https://www.innertraditions.com/books/the-other-within.An initiatory journey through ancient myths, wisdom literature, and personal revelation, the book addresses oppressions of exclusion, outsiderhood, and the betrayals endured by all who are “othered.” Deardorff guides us to discover our own true identity and honor the “other” that lives within each of us and within society, the exiled part that carries wisdom so desperately needed for ourselves and the culture at large. Originally published in 2004, this 2022 edition includes an introduction by Robert Bly, and new commentaries by Martin Shaw, and Robert Simmons as well as words from Judith-Kate Friedman.https://mythsingerlegacy.org The Mythsinger Legacy Project (MLP)https://mythsingerlegacy.org/,a fiscally-sponsored project of Songwriting Works Educational Foundation, continues Daniel Deardorff’s work of restoring myth to culture and community. In 2019, when Deardorff “flew out of this story and into the next,” he left an archive of writings, three albums worth of music, and many live hearthside recordings of his mythtelling and other teachings. In early 2022, MLP began hosting Mythsinger Community StoryNight events online, welcoming an international community of all ages and cultures to gather with us around the virtual storyfire hearth to hear one of the 10,000 year old stories from one of the finest mythtellers of the 21st century. A PORT TOWNSEND COLLABORATION Annie Clark has lived in Port Townsend since 1994,and notes that she savored coming home to the quiet and beauty here from countless tours over the decades. In 1997,Deardorff found Port Townsend to be the ideal community to retire to when post-polio required he make a change from the intense schedule of the music business.Friedman met Deardorff on Orcas Island in 2003 (after he began his third career as a mythteller and teacher). When their friendship took a romantic turn she followed him to Port Townsend (as had his family members and several musicians before her) making Port Townsend her home since 2006. Although known to each other in the local community for many years, this will be the first time that Friedman and Clark are collaborating in a full performance. They share in common a love for the arts and a passionate commitment to access and inclusion of people with diverse physical, cognitive and emotional abilities, as did Deardorff. ASL interpretation of this pay-as-you-can event is supported by a grant from the Port Townsend Arts Commission along with generous support from the Human Family Unity Foundation, the Jubilation Foundation, a project of the Tides Foundation, the Lipmanowicz Family Fund,KPTZ.org 91.9FM (media sponsor)and the generosity of all who attend. All funds raised at this event will support the ongoing programs of the Mythsinger Legacy Project (MLP). Tickets are available at Eventbrite:https://tinyurl.com/mythandmemory. For more information visit:https://mythsinger legacy.org or phone Songwriting Works Educational Foundation (fiscal sponsor of MLP) at 360.385 1160 ### 1/23/23 Port Townsend Arts Commission c/o City Hall  250 Madison Street Port Townsend, WA 98368 Greetings Commissioners, On behalf of the Mythsinger Legacy Project, a ﬁscally-sponsored project of Songwriting Works Educational Foundation and the artists and community who participated in our November and December 2022 online events, a hearty thanks to the Port Townsend Arts Commission for granting $1,200 in support which made a local emphasis of our work more possible. Attached please ﬁnd our report summarizing the events and describing how City of Port Townsend grant funds were used, a printed copy of a feature story in the PT Leader, print outs of ﬂyers we circulated on social media, event press releases and select links to online media coverage we received in local/regional papers and radio station listings. Thank you again for your support. With warmth, gratitude, story and song, Judith-Kate Friedman Steward, the Mythsinger Legacy Project Founder and Director, Songwriting Works Educational Foundation   PORT TOWNSEND ARTS COMMISSION FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOLLOW-UP REPORT If you or your organization has been granted ﬁnancial support, we are asking you to complete this form within 30 days of the event or completion of the project you applied for. Your timely submission of this follow-up report will help us document future requests for budget allocations by the City. Organization/ Individual (s) Address: The Mythsinger Legacy Project (MLP)  A ﬁscally sponsored project of Songwriting Works Educational Foundation   2023 E. Sims Way #271  Port Townsend, WA 98368    Contact Person - Judith-Kate Friedman, Steward BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT  (If pertinent, compare the outcome with your own expectations)     Mythsinger Community StoryCircles renewed the life-giving, community-bonding StoryNight experience which Daniel Deardorff (1952-2019) led monthly for 10 years around an outdoor storyﬁre at his home in Port Townsend in two events: “The Gift of Story” on November 12, 2022 and “Myth and Memory in Community” on December 29, 2022. Both events were open to the public with particular outreach to Jefferson County audiences. Using an online format, each event brought together story-lovers from around the North Olympic Peninsula, Seattle and points east, north and across the oceans. They came to share in Deardorff’s master mythtelling (on archival audio and video) along with live musical performances, guest artists, and interactive audience discussion as we gathered around the “virtual storyﬁre hearth” and “fed the stories after they so generously fed us.”    As in all MLP events, these Community StoryNight events were facilitated in such a way as to be explicitly inclusive of all who attended. As Derek Firenze of the PT Leader and event facilitator Judith-Kate Friedman spoke about in his interview and article https:// www.ptleader.com/stories/a-year-end-celebration-with-departed-local- storyteller,97343, the “virtual hearth” format works well for this kind of cultural event as it makes the experience accessible to anyone with internet access, regardless of their physical, cognitive or emotional health capacities or their concerns about catching Covid-19, or other contagious pathogens now that social gatherings have re-opened up. The support of the PT Arts Commission enabled MLP to offer both events on a pay-as- you-can basis, further expanding accessibility ﬁnancially. ASL interpretation was provided for the December event. (Additionally, close captioning will be included on recorded highlights from the events which will be published on line in Spring 2023.)    The “zoom room” format is very well suited for conveying Deardorff’s artistry and his themes of trickster wisdom, liminality and holding paradox - as we gather in a place that is both-this-and-that - both contemporary, made possible by cutting edge technology and, as Friedman put it, timeless: “These ancient myths transcend boundaries of place and time, which is what Daniel Deardorff also does as a mythteller, and what we are doing now as well, by carrying his legacy forward in hybrid ﬁlm/audio and live performance events that transcends his lifetime yet keeps his work current and alive.” Participants experience additional simultaneous paradoxes: the intimacy of a small venue much like a house concert or campﬁre circle, the expansive reality of community gathered from near and far, the meeting of people with much in common yet most of whom could not otherwise attend in person and all this in the relaxed environs of their own homes. EVENT SPECIFICS  and ATTENDANCE    On November 12th, guest artist Quanita Roberson of Cincinnati, OH, an acclaimed teacher, workshop leader and author of The Inner Ground Railroad joined Friedman for an evening entitled: “The Gift of Story”, the ﬁrst of the two events supported by PTAC.   22 people and a crew of four attended this event.   50% of participants were from the Olympic Peninsula, half of these from Port Townsend.   LINKS:    https://www.ptleader.com/stories/the- gift-of-story-a-community-circle- celebrating-the-publication-of-daniel- deardorffs-the-other,91958    https://www.knkx.org/community- calendar/event/myth-and-renowned- local-teller-honored-at-online-port- townsend-based-book-launch- event-11-12-01-11-2022-20-37-39 https://www.ptleader.com/stories/ myth-and-memory-in-community-a- year-end-storytelling-celebration,97382     https://www.ptleader.com/stories/a-year-end-celebration-with-departed-local- storyteller,97343   On December 29th, at the second event of the two events, entitled “Myth+Memory,” guest artist Annie Clark of Port Townsend, WA, internationally acclaimed ASL interpreter (and local treasure), joined Friedman.   Through her ASL artistry Clark brought Deardorff’s telling of three creation myths (on a re-mastered audio ﬁeld recording) to new life (see comments). 31 people attended with an additional two purchasing tickets but not able to attend. 19 attendees (more than 50%) were from the Puget Sound /Salish Sea region; 14 of these were from Port Townsend, with two from Port Ludlow.     Bios of these ARTISTS are included on the accompanying press releases:  Judith-Kate Friedman (Port Townsend)  Quanita Roberson (Cincinnati, OH)  Annie Clark (Port Townsend)  Daniel Deardorff (of blessed memory)    All members of Mythsinger Legacy Project’s support crew are also music, dance and/or story artists. Including:  Ashley A. Friend (Port Townsend)  Jelena Oleami (Slovenia)  Audrey diMola (NYC)  April Butterﬂy (NYC)  Shawna Hett (BC Canada)  Chaise Rocco Levy (CA)     COMPARISON with PAST EVENTS. These were the ﬁrst events of the Mythsinger Legacy Project to receive support from PTAC. MLP is a ﬁscally sponsored project of Songwriting Works Educational Foundation (SW). The last SW event to receive PTAC funding was the 2/21/20 face to face Celebration of Life concert “Songs and Stories in 3D,” honoring Daniel Deardorff. MLP was launched following that concert.   While in our experience thus far there is no comparison in terms of numbers between attendance online and attendance at in-person events, for the two MLP events funded by PTAC, attendance at 11/12’s was comparable to other online events in 2022.   12/29’s was the strongest attendance we’ve had to date for a single online event, with the most collaboration with local media. In addition to cultural and community beneﬁt, our goal was to increase the participation of local Jefferson county and regional Western WA attendees. In addition to the events themselves, Port Townsend/Jefferson County and streaming audiences had an opportunity to hear Friedman perform live and one of Deardorff’s recorded stories on KPTZ’s “Cats on Our Laps” program on12/24/22. SUMMARY OF EXPENSES  (such categories as materials, royalties, technical production, location rental, professional services, publicity) : $ 2,200 artists honoraria including guest artists  $ 2,773 administrative personnel time  $ 127 publicity, printing, design  $ 600 volunteers  $ 800+ in-kind contributions incl. KPTZ media sponsorship  $ 6,500 total expenses for two events + one radio broadcast     SUMMARY OF REVENUES (sales, door receipts, awards etc.) :  $ 629 ticket sales/by donation  $ 1,200 Port Townsend Arts Commission grant  $ 3,000 Other grants  $ 271 Individual contributions  $ 600 volunteers  $ 800+ in-kind contributions incl. KPTZ media sponsorship  $ 6,500 total expenses for two events + one radio broadcast COMMENTS Here is a taste of how we Fed the Story after hearing Daniel’s telling of 3 Creation Stories from the Norse, the Sumerian and the Toba and Wici people of South America. JK: “I want to ask Annie [Clark], because we don’t get to ask [ASL] interpreters that often what most rings out to them. But what Danny would say when we begin this tradition of feeding the story is “What image spoke to you? That you can’t get out of your mind? It’s going to cause what we might, in music, call an “ear worm”? The thing that is just going to be titillating you for a while? Or - where did you ﬁnd yourself in the story? Where did you ﬁnd yourself upset? Delighted? Disturbed? Perturbed? Curious? Angry?” Annie: [laughs]    Annie: “I loved how the stories went ‘It was a long time ago, or a short time ago, or a longer time ago… It just pulled me into a timeless place, with time not being linear. And his voice and the drumming and the rhythm of it all was just so delightful for my whole body [as an interpreter] to get to express his words and his rhythm. I love that. Thank you for asking me. It was an honor.”     JK: “You’re so welcome. You brought [the stories and Daniel’s telling] to life in such a new way. There was a certain point when I was feeling the Little Vaya [reindeer in the Norse tale] so much in your hands (see photo, below), it was interesting to try and drum at the same time as seeing [your hands] with the little hooves tapping. I will never forget that moment.” Annie: “With signing either music or quantum mechanics and physics or whatever, it touches into people even if they don’t know what’s being said. Somehow they get to understand things at a much deeper level.”    Participant: “It added so much to watch the story go by with the emotions. Thank you.” LIVE PHOTOS from the EVENTS  Daniel Deardorff, Annie Clark (ASL Interpreting) and Judith-Kate Friedman (Drumming)   at Myth+Memory in Community 12/29/22    Quanita Roberson and Judith-Kate Friedman (reading from the newly published 3rd ed. of Daniel Deardorff’s book The Other Within: The Genius of Deformity in Myth, Culture and Psyche, Inner Traditions, 2022) at The Gift of Story 11/12/22.    