RAWTalks
remembering and reckoning and revealing
In the early part of this month, I presented the first RAWTalk in Asheville. Matt Clare, my boss and our new owner at the Battery Park Book Exchange, invited me in, and even though there were only 27 seats, I still played to a sold-out gallery!
It was a first for another reason, too: it was my first-time out — first time onstage in this format in fact — in almost 40 years without my performance partner, Charlotte Mabrey.
If you’ve been to one of these events, you know that Charlotte was invaluable and irreplaceable. We did really beautiful things: movement pieces, poems, riffs, goofs, and more.
Here are a some links to a few of my favorite texts:
If you’ve been to one of these performances, then you know I take questions from the audience written and submitted on 3x5 cards. Charlotte was a perfect foil for me as the manager of this part of the program:
“Oh. He’s not going to want to talk about that!” she’d say as she tossed a card over her shoulder.
“You know, there is a really sick person in the room!” she’d snap as she ripped a card to shreds.
“Oh! This should be fun!” she’d exclaim over a vaguely mischievous question that struck her as adventuresome without being necessarily risky.
But mostly, she was curious and encouraging when asking someone else’s question. She always took good care of me.
Fortunately, one sweet soul at the latest show — the first show here — wrote on their card, “Tell us about Charlotte.”
As the principal percussionist for the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Charlotte was not just a legend in Northeast Florida, but also in the symphonic world where, let’s face it, there just weren’t/aren’t a whole lot of female percussionists working at that level.
Charlotte had big ideas. She wanted to be a well regarded performance artist. So she became one. She wanted to work in collaboration with people —partners — who would listen and challenge and give and tickle and take turns leading and following. So she did. And not just me. She wanted especially to do oddball things that were quirky, weird, and fun and challenging and uncomfortable…things that mattered. Always.
I got a chance to tell a few stories about Charlotte at this most recent performance — I got a million of ‘em — and I imagine I’ll keep telling them as long as people ask as she has left a very big whole which, near as I can tell, cannot be filled.
At the show, people who knew her — and people who were learning about her — got misty and teary and giggley and amazed.
I’ll do my second RAWTalk at the Book Exchange without Charlotte on Monday, July 27. I’d love for you to come and see.
Northeast Florida friends — I will see you in August. Lord have mercy, I am turning 70, and I’m coming home to tell you all about it.
Thanks for reading and coming out and helping with your encouraging words and support. Love y’all.
Some Guy Says is written by Robert Arleigh White and distributed via Substack twice a month…give or take.
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Hearing you describe how Char would talk and act brought her right back for me. Thank you.