Hey Folks- its 2017 and I’m doing the TCPL Readathon AGAIN because it is so awesome and I am so grateful for my library’s services to our community. My reading is tonight,

SEPTEMBER 23RD AT 9PM IN FRONT OF TCPL ON THE CORNER OF GREEN AND CAYUGA (roughly)

Here is a link to the Facebook invite: http://tinyurl.com/y83upcq7

Here is a link to my fundraising page: https://www.givegab.com/p2p/2017-readathon-for-tcpl/nora-snyder

Everything else below is still true! Especially this bit,

“So you might think- with all of the atrocities in the world, all the division, all the inequality, all the horrifying rhetoric… is a library fundraiser really where my dollars would be best put to use? My answer is- absolutely YES.

Because stories will save us. Stories are our only hope, our salvation. Sharing and listening as human beings is the way home. This is the foundation of everything I believe and everything I create. I recently saw a storytelling performance called TMI Project: Changing the World One Story at a Time which was giving an award to Eve Ensler (activist, humanitarian, all around badass, and author of The Vagina Monologues). Eve said (I’m paraphrasing)-

“Healing is not going to come from above. We have everything we need. Right here. Amongst us. We just need to pause, listen, and tell our stories.”

So. Put your dollars where the stories are. Its an excellent investment. An investment in ourselves, our healing, and our future.”

Thank you for everything- your funds, your voice, your support, your reading eyes and your listening ears. xoxoxoxo

 

 

(2016) This Friday September 23 (tomorrow!!) at 9pm I am participating in the

Tompkins County Public Library’s Readathon of 2016!

Yay!!

This is directly from my fundraising page:

“Our marathon of reading encourages us all to take a stand for literacy, learning, and free and equal access to the world’s information. At TCPL, nearly a million items are circulated each year—a remarkably high level for a community of our size—and 100% of the funding for annual purchases comes from private support like yours. I believe in the Tompkins County Public Library and I’m inviting you to stand with me.”

I invite you to show your support for our library, any amount is welcome and appreciated. You can easily donate here:

https://www.givegab.com/p2p/2016-readathon-for-tcpl/nora-snyder or bring donations with you to the event.

It is fortuitous that Joseph Fink and Jeffery Cranor’s Welcome To Nightvale compendiums, volumes 1 and 2 (Mostly Void, Partially Stars and The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe respectively) came out just as I was considering getting involved in the Readathon. That coincidence pretty much sealed it.

I can think of no better way to honor the library and its many wonderful services for our community than by sharing tales from the podcast Welcome To Nightvale– where the Lovecraftian bloodthirsty librarians would be in slumber by 9pm and we would be free to tell tales of the horrifying Summer Reading Program, with its tagline “Catch the Flesheating Reading Bacterium!” and Nightvale’s Poetry Week where every citizen is required to write hundreds of poems. Nonstop poems. Enforced strictly by the Sheriff’s Secret Police.

Here is the Facebook invite to my reading:

 https://www.facebook.com/events/760442060765277/

Last year my husband volunteered to photograph the Readathon for the library and I ended up tagging along. I immediately felt a heart connection to what was happening. From noon on Friday until noon on Saturday, readers took the stuffed chair center stage, right on the sidewalk in front of the library. Readings continued all through the night, with the public’s faces changing over time as they stopped to listen in the folding chairs arranged in front. Each reader chose their own material. It was diverse and personal. It was about respect and love for literature, but it was also about community. About connecting as individuals, having an experience together, getting to know each other and uniting in support of one of our most loved institutions. And listening intently to someone’s voice as they weave a tale. Experiencing this level of intimacy and comfort in such a public venue is a beautiful exercise in vulnerability.

Here is the full roster of readers! http://www.tcplfoundation.org/readathon

So you might think- with all of the atrocities in the world, all the division, all the inequality, all the horrifying rhetoric… is a library fundraiser really where my dollars would be best put to use? My answer is- absolutely YES.

Because stories will save us. Stories are our only hope, our salvation. Sharing and listening as human beings is the way home. This is the foundation of everything I believe and everything I create. I recently saw a storytelling performance called TMI Project: Changing the World One Story at a Time which was giving an award to Eve Ensler (activist, humanitarian, all around badass, and author of The Vagina Monologues). Eve said (I’m paraphrasing)-

“Healing is not going to come from above. We have everything we need. Right here. Amongst us. We just need to pause, listen, and tell our stories.”

So. Put your dollars where the stories are. Its an excellent investment. An investment in ourselves, our healing, and our future.