“The worms go in, the worms go out, they eat your guts and spit them out…”

“The Hearse Song”, New Jersey shore version

Hurricane Sandy cancelled many events the last few weeks, but she could not stop the storytelling duo of Bady and Estroff in The Green-Wood Cemetery on November 4, 2012.

Oh for so long I have wanted to tell stories in a graveyard.  It started with my falling in love with an old cemetery on a hill in the village of Chatham in upstate New York that I drove past each day. The stones were worn down, tablet style, and dated back to the founding of the town. The place called to me. I responded, “Yes!”.  I knew I needed to create a theater piece that would be performed in the graveyard.

Well, that was a long time ago.  That theater piece never happened in that cemetery, and I switched my love for performance to storytelling.  So of course, now I wanted to tell stories in a cemetery!  But until a few weeks ago I had only gone to cemeteries for the customary usage…to bury someone or visit a grave. 

Then, drum rolls, on November 4, despite the after effects of Hurricane Sandy, I co-led a storytelling tour of the fabulous, famous, historic Green-Wood Cemetery!

We weren’t sure if anyone would be there; we had had so many cancellations from people in Manhattan and Queens, and on Long Island, who could not navigate the mess of the subway system post-Sandy. Or drive without gas. But to my surprise, there were lots of walk-ins and the tour was almost completely filled!

My partner in this artistic endeavor was Steve Estroff, the Manager of Public Programs and an incredibly knowledgeable expert on Green-Wood.  He seems to know where everyone is buried, who they are and what their story is.  We spent many hours tramping up and down as I learned the stories of the different people and breathed in that magical atmosphere.  I mean, George Tilyou, who practically invented Coney Island, is buried there.  And more mobsters than you would imagine in such a beautiful and reverential place.

If you do not know anything about Green-Wood Cemetery:  It is huge!  It is almost as large as Prospect Park in Brooklyn, which is also enormous.  It was designed to be a rural cemetery, with hills and small lakes and winding paths.  Green-Wood has always been a destination to walk through, filled with beautiful statues and magnificent mausoleums along the hillsides.  It was a privilege to be there.

We had so much fun planning this!  We created a tour that combined ancient mythology with the true stories of the dead buried there, and took them deep into the cemetery, up on the highest point of Brooklyn overlooking the harbor and the Statue of Liberty, to the magnificent chapel by the small pond of water. 

The tour started at 4:00, and ended at 6:00; started in light and ended in darkness.  Sitting in the chapel drinking champagne and Martinelli, we drank a toast to the coming dark of winter.  My toast was also to that first long-ago cemetery, to the beautiful Green-Wood Cemetery and to the storytelling that Steve and I will make happen at Green-Wood in the Spring.

"We want bread, but roses too"

(Song from the Lawrence, MA Textile Workers' Strike of 1912)

Report from Brooklyn 
Five days after Hurricane Sandy

Yesterday, finally some action! My friend Dixie and i went to two shelters to volunteer as storytellers. The first had all seniors and at that time the staff did not want to do anything but check them all in and make them comfortable. The seniors were from three nursing homes in the Rockaways (a sandbar/island that hugs the coast of Queens/Brooklyn.) They had not been taken until very late, and were still agitated. 

The second shelter was at John Jay High School, in Park Slope, and had families. There were two playrooms, full of NYC workers not at their usual jobs, and kids unaccompanied by parents. It was a bit chaotic, but we went ahead and told 2 stories. With the older kids we told stories that could be acted out. In the younger kids playroom, I sang songs and led them in movement games. Not one of them could sit down to listen, or even listen while jumping!

In the middle of the singing, a woman stormed in complaining that there were kids roaming the halls and wanted to know who if anyone had vetted the volunteers. She was very upset, and worried that one of the volunteers might be a pedophile. 

The atmosphere is as organized as it can be (considering that shelters in schools will have to be relocated and no one knows where or when) and the children are unfocused and bumping off walls. It seems that there is an overflow of volunteers, including musicians and artist for the children, at least in Park Slope. I saw friends of mine, 2 clowns, and musicians entering and leaving the buildings!

However, the children and the staff appreciated the storytelling and songs and mostly our presence. One 9 year old little boy really ran with the acting, and then told a story of how his family escaped from the flooding in Rockaway.

I am going to call the office of emergency management today to see if there is any way to coordinate storytelling volunteers or find out what is needed where in terms of story. So far I have only the names and numbers of Brooklyn shelters. I will see if I can get more.

I do not know what can/or cannot/be organized since no one in the shelters really knows what is happening much in advance. But we NYers are hardy folks, and determined, so we will go where we can. After 9/11 we organized ourselves. We will do what we can now also.

And we do need bread, and we need roses too!