BOSTON LANDMARKS ORCHESTRA
Summer Concert Series
Wednesday evenings, 7:00 pm, DCR Hat Shell
Edge of The River: Postcards From a New Front
This work, a collaboration with Jean Appolon Expressions and my company, Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion, originally began as Postcards From The Front, a series of short video dances that also engaged front line workers at the height of the pandemic. These nurses, doctors, and service industry people wrote postcards in response to how COVID was affecting their work and lives.
We are grateful to offer a next iteration of that work tonight Edge of The River: Postcards From a New Front, using excerpts of these and newly written postcards, and of course, Duke Ellington’s score, “The River”.
Excerpts from a postcard sent in by Courtney
April 26, 2020
I work in the ER…a place where most people never want to find themselves….but I feel I was made for it.
Boredom and monotony are never a part of my day.
I saw her today- a feisty but anxious 82 year old. I don all the gloves, and the suit and the plastic to tell her the results of her tests.
The Xray and the bloodwork don’t look good.
She says, “I don’t think I have that”.
She says, “I want to live”.
Her appearance seems at odds with her results.Treat the patient not the numbers, they tell us.
I never left a shift before so uncertain as to what will happen to a patient.
What will happen to her?
Are we prepared?
Am I good enough for this?
August 11, 2021
Dear Jean ,
Over the past years of COVID you have managed to find your truest self
and the lessons that you have learned will help your continuing paths for many years to come!!!
Stay focused and much love,
Me!
Brenton, a distillery owner, writes:
March 12, 2020
Toilet paper is like currency. So is hand sanitizer.
As someone who makes alcoholic beverages for a living,
one advantage is having a supply and access to alcohol.
That sanitizer gel they’re recommending? The active ingredient is ethanol
Also known as vodka.
We are producing hand sanitizer with our ethanol as a stopgap measure in these first days of the pandemic while the rest of the world catches up.
We are donating our sanitizer to organizations in need locally:
food banks, hospitals, EMS, elder care, etc – anyone requesting it.
The number of people and list of organizations calling for help is astonishing… humbling.
No one can stand alone against every storm. We need each other.
Excerpt from a postcard written by Gracie to herself:
April 12, 2 thousand and 20
Dear Gracie,
As a pediatric oncology nurse during a pandemic – you don’t know what to expect day to day:
Giving medications and chemo treatments still happen- but now you don masks, gloves, and attend a daily COVID-huddle on what new protocols need to be put in place.
Your patients, the tiny heroes- they’re the ones finding the joy amidst the sea of sorrows:
4 month old Isabel spending more time with grandparents while quarinting together;
5 year old with her special cape becomes “Captain Aline, fighting germs and cancer cells;
and you sing Disney songs with 2 year old Eric; he tells you that it made a difference.
You’ll remember these tiny heroes. And so you show up for them.
Love, Gracie