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Spoken Performance Celebrates and Unifies Motherhood

Listen To Your Mother
Milwaukee's 2015 Listen To Your Mother Cast
Credit Listen To Your Mother

Five years go, a Madison woman created a spoken word event to celebrate motherhood. That event, called Listen To Your Mother, drew such interest that it spawned events in cities around the country, and has also resulted in a book, bringing together some of the most compelling essays from the series.  

"We look for the beautiful unifying thread of motherhood. Under the umbrella of motherhood, we can all understand each other so much better," says coordinator Alexandra Rosas.

This weekend, Milwaukee will host its thirdListen to Your Mother event, featuring 11 essayists at Alverno College's Pitman Theater. Five years into the show, the event has not fundamentally changed, and that's a good thing according to Rosas.

"I think it stayed true to the roots because our growth is slow...and as we go slowly people are understanding the concept of it, which is just sharing our lives and building community through seeing what life is like for somebody else," she says. "I think that's what everyone wants - is this connection."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=H7ZG4dL6zRE

Essayist Anna Stone reads an excerpt  from her piece, "Mom, Coyotes, and Alzheimers" which you can hear in its entirety at the performance this weekend:

listen_to_your_mother_reading.mp3
Essayist Anna Stone

Bonnie North
Bonnie joined WUWM in March 2006 as the Arts Producer of the locally produced weekday magazine program Lake Effect.