Memoir Festivals

The first Woodstock Memoir Festival in February of ’09 held in Woodstock, New York, celebrated hard-hitting memoir as it is expressed through all the art forms -- writing, painting, dance, theater and music.

Fred Poole and Marta Szabo, the co-directors of Authentic Writing, worked with Barry Samuels, co-proprietor of The Golden Notebook, to create this first-time event.

In collaboration with the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, this three-day
festival brought together the memoirist McCourt brothers -- Frank, Malachy and Alphie – all three of them major American writers – and many other artists from near and far to showcase how inspiring and life-giving true memoir can be. We offered theater and song and vital visual art – somewhat like what was presented on a larger scale eight months later for Frank’s memorial at Symphony Space in New York City.

We are proud to be associated with the McCourt brothers in this way, and very sad that their momentous show in Woodstock turned out to be Frank’s last public appearance.

Malachy also joined us in the summer of ’09 for our next Memoir Festival at the Omega Institute. And he and Alphie – and other distinguished writers of memoir -- will be joining us again for another weekend celebration of memoir at Omega,
July 16-18, 2010.
Don’t miss it!

 2010 Schedule
 July 16-18 at Omega Institute
Rhinebeck, New York
 
All photos courtesy of Trish Lease Photography!


Malachy, Frank and Alphie McCourt at the
Bearsville Theater, Woodstock, NY


Fred Poole, founder and co-director of Authentic Writing,
at the art show that opened the Festival

 
Barry Samuels, co-proprietor of The Golden Notebook,
and Marta Szabo, co-director of Authentic Writing and
author of The Guru Looked Good
 

The crowds gather at the Kleinert/James Art Center
 
 
Carl Matteo, singing it like it is

Bob Brader, performing Spitting in the Face of the Devil,
a full-length one-person autobiographical show.