Happy October! I’m writing with some new album news, and new offering news. Lots of news.
Mia and I are deep into editing and mixing our album. It has a name. We are finalizing art. We are brewing new ideas for how to engage more with all of you and create community around, well, creativity.
Soon we will be transferring our email list over to Substack and offering monthly newsletters there. These will include glimpses into how we write our music, ruminations on creativity, and more. We'll suggest prompts for mining your regular old daily life and turning it into art of any kind and there will be opportunity for sharing in the comments section. We're working on some online course offerings as well.
In the meantime, here's a video of my song "In Charge of Birds" performed with string quartet at a concert called Songs for the Earth I got to be a part of this past June. You can read the poem this song is based on, originally published in Pangyrus and also in my chapbook.
Both poem and song are based on a small moment with my kid and a bird. You can turn a kid and a bird into a piece of art, too! If this sparks your curiosity, join our newsletter for a monthly prompt.
Hello! Updates and recommendations!
1) Mia and I are heading into the studio this June for the first time in seven years. We’ll have a new album in your hands/ears in 2026.
2) This poem of mine is featured in Pangyrus Magazine’s brand new anthology all about choices, especially in relation to our bodies in light of the Dobbs decision. Each poem, essay, and story is worth reading. Highly recommend picking up a copy.
3) So many good books are coming out right now, including this gorgeous climate justice picture book by my sister Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman. I’m also quite excited about these three books I just pre-ordered:
Happy spring, happy writing and creating!
CHAPBOOK OUT NOW!
Big news! I wrote a book! A chapbook, specifically, of poetry! It’s out now and you can order it here. Local Boston-area book launch will be on Saturday, June 8, 4-5pm at The Centerpiece Flower Shop.
“This chapbook offers an intimate look into the cosmos of family and motherhood. It moves symphonically across generations, charting how we are shaped by the losses, calamities, and tender daily realities of past and future generations. Many poems exist in the space between mother and child: the mother tries to narrativize the world for the child or enters transformative windows of play, where the world is remade because of the child’s perspective and presence. A spoon becomes a satellite, a truck becomes a god, a hand becomes a rotating planet, reality becomes a dream.” —Sara Daniele Rivera, author of The Blue Mimes
Some piano music made by me and performed by phenom Miki Sawada
On the heels of the pandemic, Miki Sawada asked me to write a piece for Gather Hear MA based on Candy Chang’s global art project, Before I Die. At every concert, Miki handed out sheets of paper with the “Before I die” prompt and would read a select few during the piece.
New poem: Scrolling headlines from a hospital bed
Thanks to Literary Mama for being home to one of the shortest poems I’ve written, “Scrolling headlines from a hospital bed”—out today in their December poetry issue. Read it here.
New poem: Happy ending
I wrote this poem after seeing Hadestown a few years ago and I’m happy it found a home at Bodega Magazine in their current November issue. Read the whole thing here.
Boston Mayor's Poetry Program
I’m honored to have been selected as one of fifteen poets for the Boston Mayor’s Poetry Program this year. I got to read my poem, “On a walk in the neighborhood without my son” at a lovely reading (pictured above) and my poem will be featured at City Hall for the next year. You can read mine and the other selected poems here.
New poem: Highland Park, Illinois, 1952 to 2020
Here is a poem I wrote, out today in Pangyrus, exactly a year from when they published another poem of mine, “In Charge of Birds.” Thank you, Pangyrus, for being a home to some of my work.
Pushcart Prize Nomination
I’m so truly thrilled to have been nominated for a 2022 Pushcart Prize for my poem “i’d never heard of a cello.” Thank you to december magazine for the nomination.
You do not have to walk on your knees
Here’s a poem I wrote recently published in Lucky Jefferson. Read the whole thing here.
Fall festival this weekend + 2 new poems
Hey Northeastern locals—
Mia and I are playing THIS Saturday, September 24 at 2pm at a fall festival at Stevens-Coolidge House and Gardens which, in my humble opinion, is one of the most beautiful places in Massachusetts. I’ve been a few times for their glorious spring Bloomfest and am thrilled we get to play music in their gardens. Come early for the food trucks, petting zoo, and scenery, and stay for the music. Reserve your tickets here.
I’m also excited to have had two poems recently published by december magazine. You can’t read my poems online but you CAN buy a copy of the issue or follow me on instagram to see some snippets.
New poem: If I could measure myself
New poem out in the latest print issue of Soundings East: Volume 44, Spring 2022
New poem: In charge of birds
New poem alert! You can read it at Pangyrus Literary Magazine.
New video out
Check out Craft Ensemble’s performance of my piece “Out of the Flowers” which they performed as part of the 2021 Women Composers Festival of Hartford. Feeling all the H words (humbled, honored, happy, hooray) that they chose and played my piece so beautifully.
Gather Hear Massachusetts
I am beyond excited to be local composer-in-residence for piano-phenom Miki Sawada’s amazing project, Gather Hear, the Massachusetts edition. And it’s coming to a MA city (maybe near you?) in May!
Miki is traveling the 50 states with a piano to perform in community gathering spaces instead of concert halls, to find a shared humanity across political and socioeconomic lines in this divided country. This time she is touring her home state—and mine—of Massachusetts.
I wrote a piece exclusively for Gather Hear Massachusetts. It was inspired by artist Candy Chang’s “Before I Die” public art project, where murals are put up in public spaces with the phrase “Before I die, I want to…” and passers-by complete the sentence in chalk. It is about spontaneous community making through public art, and gently invites us to ponder our death and mortality - something we as a society are not very comfortable doing. My composition will involve audience participation, and is a moment for collectively contemplating death, which has pervaded our lives in the last year.
This tour is funded by grants from New Music USA and various Massachusetts Cultural Council programs. The tour also relies heavily on individual donors; please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to the fundraiser here.
My latest song
Not long before Covid changed the face of the performing industry (let alone the world), I was asked by a dear friend, Casper ter Kuile, to write a song based on a chapter from his brand new book, The Power of Ritual. The song is based on the final chapter of the book which is all about transcendence. I ruminated on motherhood, transience, and the bigger picture, and managed to finish the song just before Mia and I went on tour with Lucy Wise in late February, 2020. The melody for the verses is based partially on the third movement from Charles Ives's Concord Sonata, called "The Alcotts." My song is called "Illuminated" and in a brief moment of downtime, Mia, Lucy, and I managed to record it. You can listen here. The recording quality isn't the best, but hopefully it'll get you excited for a day when we can get back into a studio.
New videos
I had such a wonderful time playing Bach with and beside McKinley James and Benjamin Fryxell this past April. We've finally got some videos up.
Created by McKinley James, the Bach Project is a group of cellists bringing together the old traditions of music into new venues for classical music. Performing three of the Bach Suites, the cellists divide up the movements of each suite to show different approaches to how one can play Bach.
All Is Well
Piano phenom Miki Sawada recently performed and recorded my piece, All Is Well, for solo piano. Listen here (or below) and learn more about Miki—and hear more of her incredible playing— here.
Featured on the Music Post
I'm so honored to have been featured on The Music Post, a superb podcast by my friend and collaborator, Sam Post. Check out my episode here, and then subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you can hear the other thoughtful and inspiring episodes!
premiere on Saturday 3/18
I'm thrilled that my new piece for string orchestra, In Question, will be premiered by the wonderful Palaver Strings in collaboration with my own Cardamom Quartet this Saturday! The evening will feature all new music by local composers and I'm really honored to be a part of it. **8pm at Watertown's First Parish Church**
