{"id":21680,"date":"2015-04-25T13:25:10","date_gmt":"2015-04-25T20:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=21680"},"modified":"2015-04-25T13:25:10","modified_gmt":"2015-04-25T20:25:10","slug":"listen-to-your-mom-moms-across-the-country-get-the-mic-for-mothers-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/listen-to-your-mom-moms-across-the-country-get-the-mic-for-mothers-day\/","title":{"rendered":"“Listen to Your Mother” — Moms Across the Country Get the Mic for Mother’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nancy<\/a>
Nancy Davis Kho read “In Praise of Other Mothers” at \u00a0A Great Good Place for Books. \u00a0Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

It was a fun night at A Great Good Place for Books in the Montclair district of Oakland. Some very funny ladies gathered to celebrate the publication of\u00a0Listen to Your Mother: What She Said Then, What We’re Saying Now, <\/em>an Erma Bombeck style collection of\u00a0personal essays for, by, about, and at the expense of mothers and motherhood.<\/p>\n

\"Oakland<\/a>
Oakland writer Risa Nye read\u00a0her”A Letter to My Grown Up Daughter and Her Baby Who Will Not Sleep.”\u00a0Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You can buy the book and have some laughs, or you can get your mother, daughter, best friend — or maybe even that guy in your life — to celebrate Mother’s Day with you at the annual “Listen to Your Mother” show nearest you.<\/p>\n

Originally inspired by blogging\u00a0mothers, the “Listen to Your Mother” shows feature local writers reading from their sometimes humorous, often touching, stories of\u00a0motherhood and mothers. Subjects have ranged\u00a0from “Waiting for My Kids to Wish Me Happy Mother’s Day” to “Prepare to Be Judged, and Possibly Stabbed” to “The Children Ate My Gratitude.”<\/p>\n

The project\u00a0began as\u00a0a single show produced by blogger and “stay-at-home humorist”\u00a0Ann Imig\u00a0at the Barrymore Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin. Since its beginnings in 2010, “Listen to Your Mother” has grown into\u00a0a\u00a0national live storytelling movement\u00a0with thirty-nine local\u00a0productions across the US.<\/p>\n

Timed to coincide with the run-up to Mother’s Day, the shows are directed, produced, and performed by local people in communities from Bangor to Oklahoma City, to San Francisco.<\/p>\n

The dozens of folks, mostly women, who showed up last night for the author readings at A Great Good Place for Books were treated to Nancy Davis Kho’s “in Praise of the Other Mother,” Michelle Cruz Gonzales’ “Does Your Mom Play Drums?” and Risa Nye’s<\/a> “A Letter to My Grown-Up Daughter and Her Baby Who Will Not Sleep.”<\/p>\n

“Listen to Your Mother: What She Said Then, What We’re Saying Now<\/em>,” Ann Imig, ed, Putnam, 2015, $25.95, hardcover.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A Great Good Place for Books<\/a>, my favorite bookstore, will be hosting an author event for my own book, Wrestling with God<\/a>: Stories of Doubt and Faith, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 13,\u00a06120 La Salle Ave, Oakland, Calif. There will be wine, cheese and\u00a0maybe even some funny stories.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Michelle<\/a>
Michelle Cruz Gonzales read her story, “Does Your Mom Play Drums?” which was published in Listen to Your Mother: What She Said Then, What We’re Saying Now. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Nancy<\/a><\/p>\n

It was a fun night at A Great Good Place for Books when three funny ladies celebrated “Listen to Your Mother” an Erma Bombeck style collection of mom stories. Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,52],"tags":[822,1443,1444,1445,1446,432,55,1447,82,1448,488],"class_list":["post-21680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-writing-reading","category-the-writing-room","tag-a-great-good-place-for-books","tag-ann-imig","tag-erma-bombeck","tag-listen-to-your-mom","tag-michelle-cruz-gonzales","tag-mothers-day","tag-family-stories","tag-nancy-davis-kho","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-risa-nye","tag-the-writing-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}