Audacious with Chion Wolf: Transcript for 'Audacious Live! Show & Tell in Stamford'
Audacious with Chion Wolf
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Chion Wolf 00:12
From Connecticut Public Radio in Hartford, this is Audacious. I'm Chion Wolf, and welcome to the first-ever Audacious Live! Show & Tell. That's right, on March 13, about 70 people gathered at Third Place by Half Full Brewery in Stamford, and many of the attendees brought objects that had very interesting stories. We heard from 20 people. Some of them were pre-planned guests, and others just showed up with an object. Now you won't hear all of the stories in this episode. We only have 49 minutes after all, but trust me, they were all so special. Now I have no idea what anyone brought except for the violin you're hearing in the background right now. Elaine Braithwaite brought her electric violin. And she played while folks were mingling. You'll hear from her first and then from Faisal Saleh of Palestine Museum US. So how did this electric violin get in Elaine's hands in the first place?
Elaine Braithwaite 01:10
I bought this one probably about seven years ago, I decided to venture into the whole world of electric violins. And this was my second violin actually. I bought a used violin from Sam Ash just to try it out. I was so nervous. And then I eventually bought this violin.
Chion Wolf 01:27
Now may I say that when I first laid eyes on that violin when you came in earlier, and you did your soundcheck, and you were setting up the first thing I thought was, 'That is sexy!'
Elaine Braithwaite 01:35
Oh, thank you.
Chion Wolf 01:38
Was that part of the appeal?
Elaine Braithwaite 01:40
No, not really, I think it was, I liked the body. It's a bridge, the manufacturer's bridge and I just liked the violin and the different other, other instruments that they have. They have cellos, they have, this is a traditional four string, but you can get five string, you can get six string, if you want it to sound like a cello, you know, have a deeper sound. There's so much you can do with electric instruments, which is I think what attracts me to that, to the potential.
Chion Wolf 02:05
So when you see other electric instruments or even just other electric violins, do you covet them? Or do you think, 'No, I got the right one'?
Elaine Braithwaite 02:13
No, I love all violins. You know, one of the things about me, like you'd come to my house, you look in my dining room, in my living room, anytime I see a painting with a violin in it, it can have grapes and like, I'm buying it. It can be a violin by its, I just love the violin. I've always loved the violin.
Chion Wolf 02:28
Now tonight, you played a bunch of songs that we recognize. But I imagine there are also a few songs that you saved for maybe other kinds of performances. What if you could only play one song on this violin? What would that song be?
Elaine Braithwaite 02:41
If I can only play one song? Oh, that's that's a hard one. It's really hard. But I've been studying Jean-Luc Ponty lately. Jean-Luc Ponty, he's a violinist. I'm sure a lot of you are fans of his. And I revisit his music a lot. And I've been kind of trying to play, trying to learn some of his licks, you know, and what he plays.
Chion Wolf 03:01
So it feels like you know this violin, like you've become friends with this violin. Do you feel like it has a soul?
Elaine Braithwaite 03:09
Yeah, it definitely does. You know, I treat all of my instruments that way, you know, because they're like friends, really. They're friends.
Chion Wolf 03:18
When you hear a little kid playing a violin with all their might, but it's also a little kid playing the violin, how does that feel for you?
Elaine Braithwaite 03:26
I get excited because I love to teach. I love to share. And I love just that potential. Because I remember when I was a child, and I was in elementary school in New York, and we, in the auditorium, we got to pick the instrument we wanted to play, and I knew I wanted to play the violin. And I tried the flute also, but it was like the violin. But it's just that thing of discovery. There's, so whether it's the violin, music, sports, ballet, anything, I just love the discovery that a child has of discovering something for the first time and realizing, 'I want to do this for the rest of my life.' So when I see a child, that's what I think, and if they want to play you know, I'm there to help them.
Chion Wolf 04:08
Well, thank you so much, a round of applause, Elaine Braithwaite! Thank you so very much. All right. Let's see, next on our list to be coming up here is Faisal Saleh, come on up, Faisal! So perhaps when you sit down you can introduce yourself and tell us what we should know about you.
Faisal Saleh 04:29
Okay, my name is Faisal Saleh. I'm a Palestinian, American, of course. I've been a US citizen for a long time and I paid more taxes than Donald Trump. Of course, that's not saying much really. Anyway, I'm originally from Palestine. My family lived in a village called Salamah, just outside of Jaffa. And In 1948, they were refugees, ended up in the West Bank where I was born three years later. I came to the US to finish the last year of my high school in 1969. Those of you who are old enough, you know what happened that year was Woodstock, and the landing on the moon, and maybe a Grateful Dead concert at the Yale Bowl. Anyway, I went to school here, and I worked in business for 45 years. And after that, I started the Palestine Museum US in Woodbridge, Connecticut. We actually put Woodbridge on the world map, literally. Because a couple of days ago, I got a Google notification from some world atlas organization that says, 'eight places you didn't know about in Connecticut to visit,' and Woodbridge was one of them. It said 'Woodbridge, the home of the Palestine Museum US'.
Chion Wolf 06:00
That's right.
Faisal Saleh 06:02
And we do have people from all around the world want to know where Woodbridge is, and what it is. So what I have here is my father's passport from the 1940s. On the back of it, it says passport in Arabic and in Hebrew, and also says Government of Palestine. And it has my father's name in the bottom here, handwritten. Now this is the page where the photo is and
Chion Wolf 06:32
Handsome.
Faisal Saleh 06:36
That's the style from back then, people had mustaches that went like that. And, but they wore ties and suits and, and the passport is full of stamps. These are visas and border crossing, and it's all full of those. In 1947 and early 48, my father was involved in a number of missions to go to the Arab countries surrounding Palestine and trying to get help for the Palestinians to defend themselves. But none of those Arab countries really came through. And they let the Palestinians fend for themselves, just like what's going on in Gaza right now. You think things changed? From 1948 to 2024, not a thing has changed. We got all these rich Arab countries that have a lot of money, and a lot of resources. And they're letting the Israeli trucks come all the way from Kuwait to drive through Iraq through Jordan and deliver goods to Israel. Meanwhile, the Israelis are destroying Gaza and killing people by the 1000s. So what's significant about this, it was issued by the British government in 1917. The League of Nation gave Britain a mandate to govern Palestine, and to prepare it for independence. And in reality, Britain was a colonial power. They just treated it just like any other colony. And they prepared it for dispossession. They did everything they can to make sure the Jewish emigration comes from outside and built a state within a state. And in 1948, the Palestinians were dispossessed and pushed out of Palestine, three quarters of a million, and 500 villages and towns were destroyed and depopulated. And my family was one of those villages. Anyway. So that's the, that's what happened. That's when the Palestinian issue started. It did not start on October 7, it started in 1948. And now, everybody's beginning to gradually understand what happened to the Palestinians and what the story is about. At any rate, thank you so much. Appreciate your time.
Chion Wolf 09:00
Thank you. First of all, before I let you go, how does it feel to hold it? What does it mean to you to hold it?
Faisal Saleh 09:07
Well, my father held it for many years and traveled with it. I mean, it is it is part of our heritage. And the fact it says Palestine on it, you may not, some of you may not appreciate what that means. But Palestine is a name that's facing erasure by a lot of places. And Israel says there is no such thing as Palestine, there never was a Palestine, and there are no such thing as Palestinians. We're just a bunch of Arabs, you know. So this passport is proof that we exist, and we existed, and we continue to exist. So it's more than just a document. It has a lot of meaning. It shows like I belong someplace. I mean, we're all American here, but every one of us came from someplace except for the indigenous people who were here, when, when we all came, and when we kicked them out of their land and killed most of them, and we did to them what Israel is doing to the Palestinians now. So one thing I want to say is that this is a great country, the American people have been very supportive and very helpful. And there is a huge gap between the American people and the government, and particularly the representatives in Congress. There's like 500 people in Congress, not a single one of them would say a word, worried about all these people that are being killed and slaughtered. What's wrong with these people? What planet are they living on? You should see the demonstrations in Washington and New York and all that, the hundreds of 1000s of people, these are not Palestinians that are demonstrating. Some are, of course, but these are Americans, true blooded Americans. They don't like this, what's happening. This country was based on democracy. It was based on justice for all and all this stuff. And now, when you find out what the government is doing with your money, and all this stuff is scary, like this being done in our name, and we don't want people doing that kind of stuff in our name.
Chion Wolf 11:38
That was Faisal Saleh, founder and executive director of Palestine Museum US in Woodbridge, Connecticut. And you heard from Elaine Braithwaite, Bridgeport City Librarian. Next up, Paul Bluestein of Bridgeport. You've heard his voice on Audacious before. He's the husband of Lynda Shannon Bluestein. Lynda died earlier this year on January 4, in Vermont, surrounded by her family. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2021. And she wanted the option to die in her own home in Bridgeport. So she advocated hard for medical aid in dying, or MAID, to be passed in Connecticut. Now it has yet to pass in the state, but she did successfully sue the state of Vermont to drop their residency requirements for MAID. I'm gonna let Paul take it from here.
Dr. Paul Bluestein 12:29
When she learned of her diagnosis, she and I knew that she wasn't going to survive that. And she decided that she wanted to leave a legacy. And one of the projects that she undertook was a wind phone. It's very common, as I'm sure you know, for people to, in their grieving, try and find a place and a way to talk to people that they loved. To sometimes say things that never were said, that apologies were needed for, or just to tell someone how the day had been. The first wind phone ever was created by a Japanese landscape designer named Itaru Sasaki, who had a garden in his house that he had tended with his cousin who died, and he missed his cousin very much. And in order to stay in touch with his cousin, he built an old-fashioned phone booth and put in it a telephone. A rotary dial telephone connected to nothing but the wind and said that that his thoughts would be carried on the wind to his cousin. A year later, an earthquake and tsunami struck Japan and the town where Itaru lived was nearly obliterated. In that tsunami and earthquake 90,000 people died. And he opened his garden to people in Japan thinking that a few people might want to speak with their loved ones who they had lost. 1000s came. Lynda, thought that this would be a way for me to stay in touch with her, that I could talk with her because she was going to be cremated. And there wasn't going to be a headstone or a cemetery to go to. So she created this idea and had installed the first wind phone in Fairfield County. There are three in Connecticut right now. Two of them are installations that she arranged. One is at the Westport Library. And one is it the Ridgebury congregational meeting house. This one is almost certainly going to go at the Greenfield Hills Congregational Church. It turns out that, that people were very interested in this idea and have been calling my son and me who founded a 501c3 corporation, Lynda's phones. And he's in the process of managing the installation of wind phones throughout the United States. And it's been a tribute to Lynda's memory. And a way for me to never lose her voice in my ear.
Chion Wolf 17:00
You've used this.
Dr. Paul Bluestein 17:01
I, I go and talk with her. And you know, the funny part is not surprising. I can hear her answer, I can. And there's something about dialing a rotary phone. That's a, that's, that's, it sounds dumb. It sounds like it would be meaningless. But the experience of it is, is indescribable. There's something about it, that, that's mystical. It's not the same as just picking up a phone. So that I don't know how to explain it, or why that happens to me, but it does.
Chion Wolf 17:46
I can feel her here.
Dr. Paul Bluestein 17:49
Yeah.
Chion Wolf 17:51
Thank you so much, Paul. You're welcome. That was Dr. Paul Bluestein Bridgeport. All right, now I want to tell you what I brought for show and tell. It's a small, beautiful piece of gravel. See, when I was a teenager in the 1990s I was inspired to learn to play the guitar because of singer songwriter Ani DiFranco. Her percussive intense playing always hypnotized me and her lyrics, she could express in two lines, a deeply complex and nuanced idea or feeling that it would take me like two whole albums to say. In fact, I did write two albums, inspired by a few very juicy heartbreaks and her music. So Ani DiFranco is kind of a big deal to me. A couple of years ago, she was playing at Infinity Hall in Norfolk. And I took a picture of the marquee that said Ani DiFranco and I posted it on Facebook, and I wrote a caption that said, 'On a hot date with Ani DiFranco!' So my friend Roxanna says, 'You were at Ani? You should have told me. She's my cousin. I would have introduced you.' And then I lost all feeling in my knees. Everything went black. Flash forward a couple of years later, and I'm telling Roxanna, you know, I really want to travel more. I was thinking about going to New Orleans. I've never been to New Orleans before. She goes, you know, Ani lives in New Orleans. So Roxanna says, 'I'm about to turn 55. And it would be really cool. Maybe we can go down to New Orleans, and I can celebrate my 55th birthday with you and Ani.' I said, 'That would be great!' Flash forward again. We are getting out of a cab at Ani DiFranco's house, and her driveway is made out of gravel. Now I have to tell you, there's a song of hers called Gravel, and it goes like this: 'I heard the sound of your bike as your wheels hit the gravel, and then your engine in the driveway cutting off, and I pushed through the screen door. And I stood out on the porch thinking, fight, fight, fight at all costs. But instead I let you in, just like I'd always done. I sat you down and offered you a beer across the kitchen table. I fired several rounds. But you were still sitting there when the smoke cleared. And you came crawling back to say you want to make good in the end. But aha, let me count the ways I abhor you, and you were never a good lay. And you were never a good friend. But aha, oh, what can I say? I adore you.' And so I picked up a piece of gravel from Ani DiFranco's driveway. You're hearing stories from Audacious Live! Show & Tell tape just last week at Third Place by Half Full Brewery in Stamford. To see photos from the event, visit ctpublic.org/audacious. When we get back, more showing and telling from the staff members of Connecticut Public, I'm Chion Wolf, this is Audacious. Stay with me. This is Audacious. I'm Chion Wolf, and we are back at Third place by Half Full Brewery in Stamford, Connecticut. Last week, we had a live event there where people brought objects that meant a lot to them, and they share their stories. Now I didn't know what anyone was bringing, including members of Connecticut Public staff. So I started off with the two people Audacious listeners know best but maybe you've never heard their voices. Producers Khaleel Rahman, and Jessica Severin de Martinez.
Jessica Severin de Martinez 22:35
I brought a doily, a round ornamental placemat around nine or 10 inches in diameter. It's very soft. It's made of wool. And colors are mainly blue, green, some red.
Chion Wolf 22:52
So what's the deal?
Jessica Severin de Martinez 22:53
Well, it's a story. I got it, well, actually, my family got it. We got it from Jose, my husband's, grandma. So they live in Argentina. All of all his family live in Argentina. And one year, we decided to travel there for Christmas. And Jose's grandma was 96 years old at the time, and the family thought it would upset her too much, she would worry, she would be really anxious to know that we're traveling with two very young children, she wouldn't sleep, she wouldn't eat if she knew that we were coming all the way from the US. It's a 28-hour trip from door to door because they, of course, live far away from the International Airport. So they decided not to tell her that we were coming. And we arrived. It was the night before Christmas, and knocked on her door. And she, that face I will never forget, that face of excitement, disbelief, shock, surprise. And just, she was thrilled, she hugged us all. But the next thing she said is, 'I don't have a Christmas gift for you.' And it was late at night, and Christmas was the next morning. No shops are open. So what do you do when you're 96 years old and want to show that you love them? You spend the night, stay up and knit this. So yeah.
Chion Wolf 24:34
Thank you, Jessica. Next, I would love you to meet Khaleel Rahman. Khaleel, come on up.
Khaleel Rahman 24:46
Yeah, so this is a little booklet of Islamic supplications. I'm Muslim, and I got this little booklet at the funeral of a teacher I had in middle school. At her funeral, they decided to pass these out to all of the students and attendees. And this is kind of one of the only objects I've kept for over 10 years. It has supplications for every kind of mundane situations, which was really meaningful to me, kind of any situation you can think of.
Chion Wolf 25:12
Can you read an example?
Khaleel Rahman 25:13
Oh, yeah, for sure. So you know, if you're before you eat, after you eat, if you forget to save the one before you eat, there's one if you, if you make that mistake. When you're entering the home, when you're entering the market, if you're trying on new clothes, there, before you enter the bathroom, and after you leave the bathroom, when after you leave the bathroom. In Arabic, it's "Ghufranak", which means God forgive me, which I think we've all been there. But yeah, this is an item that's kind of stuck with me for a while. And I think the influence it had on me has been really profound. I don't really think a lot about the idea of legacy. But I would hope that my life and work has a positive impact on people. And I think this was such a great way that this teacher, Roua Taha, who passed away when she was very young, I think she was close to my age, 27, I think, and I think when you're a kid, you don't realize how young, you know, the adults in your life are. But, but looking at her, you know, and where she was in her life, and she was recently engaged. And she passed very suddenly. But you know, seeing how she was able to have such a deep impact with me and, and everybody else in attendance who got one of these. You know, and I think the idea, you know, whether you're religious or not, the idea of having perspective and gratitude, not just going through the motions of life, and trying to take that perspective in these mundane aspects of life, I think has been really profound and really helpful to me.
Chion Wolf 26:43
Khaleel Rahman, thank you so much. All right. Next up, a familiar voice to Connecticut residents, Lucy Nalpathanchil. She was a reporter at Connecticut Public for a long time and former host of our daily talk show, Where We Live. Now, she's the Vice President of Community Engagement, which means she makes events like this one happen. Thanks, Lucy. Here's where her story begins.
Lucy Nalpathanchil 27:11
How many of you listen to Weezer growing up? How many of you listened to Weezer now? Go ahead, you can admit it. So this is the album Raditude. And this was my dog, Sidney. So the opposite of the question always is, 'Well, how in the world did your dog end up on the cover of Ratitude?' So before I had children, Sidney was our first child. And we had gone out, my husband and I, and thinking that our dog missed us, we were gone doing errands, we wanted to reward him. And so we went out and got a pig ear. And my husband was an amateur photographer. And so he took this picture of Sidney, jumping for the pig ear. Again, how in the world did this end up on the cover of Ratitude? So because my husband, Jason Neely, is an amateur photographer, he submitted this photo to the Your Shots section of National Geographic. Has anyone seen that? Where it's people taking pictures, they're not professional photographers. And National Geographic chose this picture because it is pretty amazing, or right.
Chion Wolf 28:25
He's just, for those who can't see, he's fly, this dog is flying through the air in a living room.
Lucy Nalpathanchil 28:31
And now you know the backstory because he had a pig ear being dangled in front of him. So the picture was put in National Geographic, we thought that's so cool, right? So one day, my husband was reading his email before work, and I was getting ready for work. And he's like, 'Lucy, I just got an email from Interscope Records.' And being the cynical journalist, 'Oh, that's a scam! Why would Interscope Records be emailing you?' Well, it was the manager of Weezer. And the email went, 'We were sitting at an airport. And Rivers Cuomo saw the picture of your dog, Sidney, and he thought: Ratitude!' And you're probably wondering, well, how in the world did they, how were they able to get your contact info? So, remember Flickr?
Chion Wolf 29:30
Yeah, the photo-sharing website.
Lucy Nalpathanchil 29:30
Your photographs on Flickr. So that's where Jason, my husband, put this picture of Sidney. And they were able to look into, who took this photograph. It's Jason Neely, National Geographic, and that's how they found his email. And fast forward, we agreed to have our dog Sidney on the cover of Ratitude. So MTV wanted him to come to New York City so that Rivers Cuomo could interview him, and we're like, 'You know, Sidney's a country dog. I don't think he would like Manhattan.' So they came to us, and at the time at the time, we were living in Middletown. And so these two hipsters from Brooklyn show up at our house. And this was before Zoom, this is 2009. And so they recorded Sidney doing dog things like sitting there, panting, drinking water, barking, and they were able to edit this video, and you can look it up. Rivers Cuomo interviews Sidney from Ratitude. And they were able to edit it where it looks like Rivers Cuomo is interviewing Sidney.
Rivers Cuomo 29:33
Oh, yo, Sidney, what's up? Good to see you, my man. Let's have a chat. (dog barking) Well, we saw that picture of you jumping through the air and we were like, 'Whoa, that's exactly how we feel when we're on stage every night.' We get midway through the set. We've got all this blood flowing. Suddenly, we're able to pull off these amazing stunts just like you, Sidney. (dog barking)
Lucy Nalpathanchil 31:14
So, you know Sidney left us in 2019, he was the best dog. But this is what we remember is that he was the greatest dog and he's now on an album cover - considered one of the most famous dog covers.
Chion Wolf 31:34
Lucy, thank you! We are going out with 'I'm your Daddy' by Weezer. Who's in the music video for this song? It's Sidney, of course. We'll link to it and have photos from the show at ctpublic.org/audacious. After the break, how many whiskers do you think is in there?
Cjet Raymond 32:01
I have no idea.
Chion Wolf 32:02
A lot of whiskers.
Cjet Raymond 32:03
Three years worth of whiskers.
Chion Wolf 32:05
I'm Chion Wolf. This is Audacious Live! Show & Tell at Third Place by Half Full Brewery in Stamford. This is Audacious. I'm Chion Wolf, and welcome back to Audacious Live! Show & Tell. It was recorded just last week in Stamford, and about 70 people showed up. Many of them brought objects they wanted to show and tell us about. We had a vase at check-in where people could drop their names. During the event. I pulled them out at random and they joined me on stage. Jennifer Reilly, and her mom, Stephanie Convey, came all the way to Stamford from Wethersfield, Connecticut.
Stephanie Convey 33:06
This is bronze. It is a boa constrictor who swallowed an elephant. And if anybody read 'The Little Prince,' they know it comes from Little Prince. Yes. And Jennifer made it for me. She made it in college, bronze. And it's just absolutely delightful. And I loved it and saved it ever since.
Chion Wolf 33:30
And for those who don't know the story, maybe give us a little context.
Jennifer Reilly 33:33
So in the story, the, the young character, The Little Prince, is interacting with an adult and wants to test and see if he still thinks like a kid or he's stuck in the singular focus of the adult world. And so he made, he had a drawing that in profile, most adults would say it looks like a hat. And then the other character was certain that it was a hat. But The Little Prince said, 'No. If you look at it differently, it's a snake that has swallowed an elephant.' And so my mother loved the story. And she gave me the book in French when I was little, and I couldn't read any of it at all. But I loved the pictures and so one of my first bronze pieces in college was making the snake that ate the elephant.
Chion Wolf 34:22
Stephanie, when you hold this in your hands what does it feel like?
Stephanie Convey 34:29
It's warm, it's quite warm. It just, I just think of Jennifer every time I touch it. Yeah.
Chion Wolf 34:38
What do you love so much about her?
Stephanie Convey 34:44
She's very funny. She's got a marvelous sense of humor, and she's good at everything that she does. She's a wonderful teacher, and a wonderful mother and husband, wife, and she's, well, I've got I've got three other children too. So I can't say that she's... but she is, she's very close to me. And she always has been.
Chion Wolf 35:11
Jennifer, what do you love so much about your mom?
Jennifer Reilly 35:14
She always sees the elephant
Chion Wolf 35:16
A round of applause, Jennifer and Stephanie, thank you so much. All right, the next wildcards: Cjet Raymond from West Haven, and Cynthia Bowser from Stamford. I asked Cjet, before she tells us about the thing that she brought, what should we know about her?
Cjet Raymond 35:43
There's a million things you can know about me. But the cats are the most important thing. And my cat people here. Yeah. laughs Yeah. Okay. And I actually was thinking my cat sort of represents my second life, post-divorce, post kids not caring about me anymore. So my cats have become my family, my housemates, my everything. And so I got two girl cats. And then two years later, two boy cats, and approximately three years ago, I started collecting their whiskers.
Chion Wolf 36:12
So whiskers, it's a jar of whiskers?
Cjet Raymond 36:15
I brought a jar of whiskers. Because there's so many times when...
Chion Wolf 36:20
Can I touch it?
Cjet Raymond 36:20
Yes, there's so many times when, you know, you're you're just walking around the house and you see a little whisker and it's like, it's a part of them. And it's just yeah,
Chion Wolf 36:27
Yeah, and if you find a whisker of your cat, like to throw it away feels sacrilegious.
Cjet Raymond 36:31
Yes, I actually found one this morning. I had already sealed this up. So I didn't put it in. I put it on the white sink thinking it's a black whisker, special. I'll see it. I'll get it later. I think my cat ate it. Because I have a cat that eats things he shouldn't and...
Chion Wolf 36:46
How many whiskers do you think is in there?
Cjet Raymond 36:48
I have no idea.
Chion Wolf 36:48
A lot of whiskers.
Cjet Raymond 36:49
Three years worth of whiskers. I have four cats so it's, they lose a whisker every six to eight weeks.
Chion Wolf 36:55
Have you heard about how if you have a cat and you have a bowl, they may get whisker fatigue? Yes, right because their whiskers are rubbing against the bowl.
Cjet Raymond 37:04
My friend made me some bowls so that they don't get whisker fatigue.
Chion Wolf 37:07
Low bowls, perhaps plates.
Cjet Raymond 37:10
Low bowls. Yeah, stackable plates, so they can go in the Tupperware so that they can, you know, eat the food when they're not supposed to.
Chion Wolf 37:16
So if you were at my house, your own cats are your people. They're your family. So if you were at my house, my cat's name is Whiskey. And if you found one of Whiskey's whiskers, would you take it for yourself? Or would you give it to me?
Cjet Raymond 37:30
I actually almost brought the black whisker today, but he ate it. I was gonna give it to you.
Chion Wolf 37:35
Oh, for me?
Cjet Raymond 37:35
Yeah, I was gonna bring it to you.
Chion Wolf 37:37
What would you like me to have done with it?
Cjet Raymond 37:39
Start your own collection. I would inspire anybody start your own collection and be that weird Cat Lady or Cat Dad or whatever, and be the one that collects whiskers.
Chion Wolf 37:49
Is there any other part of your cat that you collect?
Cjet Raymond 37:53
Okay, so some of my co-workers and I, we felt things out of wool, you know, and I have at times collected a ball of navy. And I have thought I should bring this into work and felt it but I haven't yet. I always throw that away, but I could easily swipe twice and get a fluff.
Chion Wolf 38:09
My best friend Michelle has a large cat named Norman. And she, when she, she gets the fur off of him, she makes him tiny hats of his own fur. Consider it. Thank you, Chet, everybody, thank you so much. The next wildcard is Cynthia, let's hear it for Cynthia. What did you bring?
Cynthia Bowser 38:40
I brought my hat. I originally was supposed to bring James Brown. But I was running late and I left him on the counter. So James is very important in terms of my development as a young person on the West Side, because he just sang great music. And he started off the Black Revolution with 'I'm Black and I'm Proud'. And so as I sit here tonight, I'm wearing a hat, which is really my mom's symbol. My mom passed away in 2016 at the age of 96 years old. She was a woman full of grace and pride and delicacy and everybody wants to know what happened to me you. See got knocked down. I have to curse and say I'm just like my dad. But he was a great person too. But he didn't have the delicacy of my mom. And my mom really was an exceptional woman because she really was a symbol, a symbol of kindness. A symbol of hope. A symbol of tenacity. A symbol of resilience, no matter what you faced, and for me today, it kind of keeps me lit. Children on my street, Rose Park, when they were young, they remember my mom, my mom swept that street from end to end, every morning and every afternoon to make sure those children would have a clean street to come to. Because people had such negative ideas and feelings about people who live on the West Side of Stamford. As I sit here tonight, I want to say that we have wonderful people in the West Side, that we're a changing community. We are no longer Black, Italian and Irish. We are now many people from Central and South America, people from Bangladesh, and we have pride. But we also have some income issues. And today, it's very ironic that I sit here because this was the place I came when Mayor Simmons was elected, when she was celebrated. And today was the day that there was a hearing at the state in regard to issues dealing with zoning. I happen to serve on the Charter Revision Commission. And it was just so astounding to see the lack of citizen participation. I come from a time where the West Side had a lot of citizen participation. Politicians walked the stoop and they talked to people to find out what they wanted. And then they went to do what the people asked them to do. So I sit here with this hat, emulate my mom, and her style, and I sit here to say that we're all resilient, and that we're all wonderful people. But we need to make sure that we get mutually beneficial outcomes for everyone. This is a city and a country of immigrants. Let us not forget that. Let us not forget that people came here fleeing harm, seeking better, that it's become more difficult to get here. And the world's becoming a more cruel place to be. It's hard to accept the kinds of I hate I can't even look at TV. Thank God for 88.5. They're my 24-hour station, and I thank you for what you do. But I'm here today, representing my mom with her hat because I left James at home.
Chion Wolf 42:25
Cynthia, thank you so much. That was Cynthia Bowser from Stamford, and Cjet Raymond from West Haven. Our final wildcard is Kristin Cusato from Fairfield. When she joined me on stage, she asked me to put out my hand. When I did, she pantomimed putting something in my palm and closed my fingers around it, but nothing was there.
Kristen Cusato 43:00
That's really important.
Chion Wolf 43:02
What did you put in there?
Kristen Cusato 43:04
I'll tell you. My mother, every day and every year on my birthday at 2:10pm would call me and say, 'Happy birthday! This is the time when I met my best friend!' Mom and I were best friends. She was 21 so she had me kind of young so we grew up together. We weren't like Gilmore Girls, which was like 15 when she, wasn't like Gilmore Girls young, but 21 young. She sewed my Halloween costumes, Holly Hobbie and Peter Pan. She did my hair for my eighth grade dinner dance. I think it was like a braid right here. She held my hand when I gushed over my crushes that didn't put the note back in my locker, yes or no? Did you like me? She just was everything to me. She and I were best friends. I supported her through her divorce. She supported me through my divorce. So it was no surprise that when she was diagnosed with dementia at the age of 61, I turned my world upside down and left California and came back to the East Coast to help care for her. And those of you who've been on this journey, I know there are several actually in the room, it is ugly, and it is hard. And it is challenging. But it is beautiful. And it has lots of beautiful moments, and it is happy. And sometimes it's even funny. And it's inspirational. So, Mom was amazing. Mom was a mother of two, and she was a just a strong woman. She was the second female president of her Rotary Club. Very exciting. But as you may know, with this disease, you mourn the loss of function. So when she couldn't feed herself anymore, you mourn that when she could no longer walk, you mourn that. When she could no longer talk, you mourn that. And I think the last time that she brushed her hair, she was using a toothbrush, because she knew she was doing something in front of a mirror with a brush, didn't know where it went. So the toothbrush and toothpaste went in the hair. It wasn't very long after that kind of thing where she just was rendered not able to speak. And we were sitting together, and she was sitting in her chair. And she had something, and just to let you know, Lewy Body Dementia, which was the type of dementia she had, shows some hallucinations early on. So she had some of these hallucinations. And she took something and she handed it to me, I put my hand out, and she put it in there. And there was nothing there. And what I learned was that you need to go into their reality and validate what they have. So I took it and put it my pocket. I said, 'Thank you, mom. Thank you very much.' Probably about a year later, she passed away at the age of 65. I was with her, we were holding hands. And I realized she gave me so many gifts. But what she gave me at that moment, the woman who no longer had a voice, was the empowerment and me to use my voice to tell her story. I now work for the Alzheimer's Association. And I share people's voices, and I help them craft their story so they can help other caregivers, so they can speak to lawmakers and make change so they can talk to healthcare workers so that they understand what it's like to live with this disease, from people who live with it, from caregivers, all the rest. So even though you don't know what I put in there, it's empty. And it was empty when she put it here. It's not, it's everything. It's her essence and her goodness. And I use it every day, and I'm grateful.
Chion Wolf 46:47
Me too. Kristen, thanks. I'll hold on to that. That was Kristen Cusato. She's the Director of Communications for the Alzheimer's Association of Connecticut. And she's the host of the podcast Speaking of Alzheimer's. This special episode of Audacious was the result of the loving and meticulous work of Jessica Severin de Martinez, Khaleel Rahman, Meg Fitzgerald, Meg Dalton and Catie Talarski at Connecticut Public Radio in Hartford. Special thanks to Vice President of Community Engagement, Lucy Nalpathanchil, for being the force behind all of these amazing live events. Let us know where you'd like us to bring show until next Audacious@ctpublic.org. Or you can find me on the socials at Chion Wolf. So many people helped this event run like a well-oiled public radio machine. All parts of our organization contributed with special thanks to these colleagues who supported us in Stamford with their talent and expertise: Johnnie Malloy, Maegn Boone, Bradley O'Connor, Jess Gonnella, Sabrina Herrera, Janae Spinato, Dave Wurtzel, Deidre Tavera, Corey Boutilier, Zach Ciampi, Lauren Komrosky, Julianne Varacchi, Joe Coss, and Connecticut Public President and CEO, Mark Contreras. Special thanks to everybody who came out to show and tell with us and to PJ Kennedy from HeyStamford.com That's a lifestyle guide for anybody living in or visiting Stamford. You can see photos at ctpublic.org. And you can see the sweetest videos our social media team made by following at CT Public on Instagram and Tiktok. And of course enormous thanks to the super friendly and helpful staff at Third Place by Half Full Brewery in Stamford, and thanks to you for listening.