Mother’s Day Entertainment Bookends: The James Library’s “Cabaret Weekend” & “My Mother’s Legacy” Exhibit
McGRATHPR.com – Mother’s Day weekend entertainment soars to star factor status this year at The James Library & Center for the Arts, serving Boston’s greater South Shore. Two unique events converge – 13 celebrity artists offer an eclectic mix of music, art, storytelling, and poetry – spanning two special days honoring all moms and those with whom they celebrate.
A free-admission art exhibit “My Mother’s Legacy,” by nationally recognized Artist Sarah Hutt, offers a captivating mother-themed, thousand-line poem etched across 1,000 wooden bowls, tangible to the visitor’s sight and touch, opening May 12, on view in The James’ gallery through June 17. Bookending the exhibit is The James Library’s two-performance “Cabaret Weekend,” on Friday, May 12, and Saturday, May 13, 7:30 pm, transforming its hall into an intimate nightclub. Featured Emmy-winning composer, pianist, and producer Lenny Williams accompanies local celebrity talent throughout a night of musical and storytelling entertainment. Paired together, cabaret ticket holders may arrive up to an hour prior to performances for a special viewing of the exhibit, then attend the cabaret, creating a complete Mother’s Day celebration package or gift!
★ STAR FACTOR ★
Artist Sarah Hutt, “My Mother’s Legacy” touring exhibit
Illustrating the breadth of her reach, mixed-media sculptor and nationally-renowned Artist Sarah Hutt was featured in a sermon delivered by Rabbi Gerald M. Kane,* who wrote about his experience engaging with Hutt’s expansive work “My Mother’s Legacy.” The sermon, titled “The Art of Burning Memories,” channels the artist and her work, bringing light to the lesson Hutt teaches us on how to derive amplified rewards from the legacies of loved ones who have touched our lives.
Award-winning artist Sarah Hutt was 13 when her mother died of breast cancer. “As a mature artist, Ms. Hutt began to work through her grieving process by writing down a few specific memories …” shares Kane, “… She remembered that her mother gave her paper dolls .. chewed ice .. swept the driveway .. liked to look things up … But writing down these few details was not enough.” Hutt wrote and wrote. She compiled 1000 memories, resulting in her epic poem “My Mother’s Legacy”. Her mother liked to walk on crunchy snow, drank olive oil, used lots of garlic and embroidered pillowcases. Her mother liked strong tea in the afternoon, and always brought a chocolate cake – sound familiar?
Hutt published her 1,000-line poem as a book, prompting her to continue her quest to keep her mother’s memory alive. She recalled her mom holding fine china tableware in her hand, inverting it to discover their origin on the underside. This memory prompted her to burn every single line from her devotional poem onto the underside of wooden bowls, one line at a time, until the bowls numbered a thousand.
How many memories would it take to etch your own mother’s memory for all eternity?
What act could preserve the life of a loved one passed on,
to dignify, project and strengthen their memory for future generations?
The James Library’s showing is the 30th appearance of Hutt’s exhibit, having toured 12 states, dormant through the pandemic. Unlike many exhibits, Hutt welcomes attendees to pick up the little bowl treasures and therapeutically experience them in random order, through comforting touch, prompting recollection and sentiment as they take in the inscription underneath – like her mother curiously contemplating a teacup’s creator, somehow restoring her memory. Those engaged correlate introspectively to tap their own lives, jogging the memory of loved ones lost. Kane’s sermon’s reflection captures it in words “… Each detail we recall is like an individual dot of color which, when combined, comprise one magnificent masterpiece.”
★ STAR FACTOR ★
Lenny Williams, Grammy and Emmy Award winning composer,
National Geographic TV & Film; Cabaret Weekend accompanist
Lenny Williams has composed original music for over 600 documentary films, winning five Emmy Awards for “Outstanding Achievement in a Craft: Music and Sound.” He has worked extensively with National Geographic Television and Film, the Discovery Channel, Court TV, WNET, CNN, TLC, PBS, Animal Planet and The History Channel. He also won five BMI awards and has contributed music to two Grammy award-winning recordings, among other prestigious awards. In his early career, he served as a jazz pianist and composer in Washington, DC, consistently performing at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra, and for productions of nationally touring musicals. He was the pianist for the late Eva Cassidy, whose posthumous recordings have sold over eight million copies worldwide.
Williams serves as accompanist for a local star-studded roster of artists performing at The James Library’s Cabaret Weekend. Local talent includes performing artists Donna Byrne, a renowned jazz vocalist of Norwell, Tyler Cavanaugh of Quincy, a Hanover native, Cecelia Colucci of Marshfield, Stephen Davis of Norwell, Erin Henfy-Verina of Scituate, Caitlin Lubelczyk of Worcester, Niav Maher of Norwell, and The James Library’s Executive Director Megan Ward of Hingham, and as an ensemble, Andrew Bergsten of Scituate, Daniel Hannifin of Marshfield and Peter Moll of Hanover, performing as the Gents Trio.
*Note: Permission has been granted by Rabbi Gerald M. Kane, co-founder of the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education, to share excerpts of his sermon “The Art of Burning Memories,” delivered in 1999.
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