Tag: Massachusetts

upcoming events: first memoir event 3/7

Tatnuck eventI’ve been furiously updating my Google calendar to add new book-related events to promote my memoir, Uncomfortably Numb (released on March 3).

Here’s a list of what I have scheduled thus far:

Book launch: March 7, 1-3 p.m., Tatnuck Bookseller, Westborough, MA

My first event for Uncomfortably Numb is a March 7 book talk and signing at Westborough, MA’s independent bookstore, 18 Lyman Street, Westborough.

The event runs from 1-3 p.m. Light refreshments will be available.

I’ll be collecting donations for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Book talk: March 26, Northborough, MA Lyceum

I have been invited to talk about the impact the Southborough middle school music program had on two of my children as chronicled in my 2017 nonfiction book, Mr. Clark’s Big Band: A Year of Laughter, Tears & Jazz in a Middle School Band Room.  

The book examined how a larger-than-life music teacher helped his grieving students in a small Massachusetts town find strength and peace through the creative expression in their music and the camaraderie of the band room.

The talk — whose details are still being worked out — will take place in Northborough, MA.

Screenshot 2020-03-05 12.40.53

Book talk/signing: March 28, 1 p.m., Barnes & Noble, Holyoke, MA

I will be heading back to western Massachusetts — where I grew up and went to college — to promote Uncomfortably Numb at the Barnes & Noble, 7 Holyoke Street, Holyoke, MA (near the Holyoke Mall).

The event begins at 1 p.m.

I will be collecting donations for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Southborough library event flyer

Book talk/signing: April 9, 7 p.m., Southborough Public Library, Southborough, MA

I will be discussing why I wrote Uncomfortably Numb and will read aloud from the memoir at the Southborough Public Library, 25 Main Street, Southborough.

The event starts at 7 p.m.

***

I’m working on scheduling other events and will post them when plans are nailed down.

‘mr. clark’s big band’ in ‘southborough living’ magazine

southborough living

Mr. Clark’s Big Band: A Year of Laughter, Tears and Jazz in a Middle School Band Room is featured in the second issue of the new publication Southborough Living.

The article includes a summary of the book, as well reviews of the award-winning work of creative nonfiction.

To view Southborough Living magazine, go here.

Image credit: Southborough Living.

POSTPONED: march 21 book reading: southborough library

Screenshot 2018-03-19 12.15.52UPDATE: The Southborough Library is postponing my book talk/signing due to the continued stormy weather. I will post new details when I have them.

A perfect storm of the flu and the second of three nasty nor’easters colluded to cancel my March 7 book talk/signing at the Southborough Library.

I am slated to appear at the Library (25 Main Street, Southborough) THIS Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the main floor.

The event will be filmed by Southborough Access Media and I’ll be selling and signing copies of Mr. Clark’s Big Band.

Fingers crossed that the new nor’easter the meteorologists are discussing for mid-week goes out to sea!

Image credit: Southborough Library.

westfield book talk: blue umbrella books

Thank you to Westfield (Mass.) independent bookstore Blue Umbrella Books for hosting my Mr. Clark’s Big Band book talk and signing on Veterans’ Day weekend.

It was great fun to visit my old stomping grounds and chat with friends from high school and college. Family members who live in western Massachusetts also came out to represent!

If you missed the event, signed copies of Mr. Clark’s Big Band are still for sale at Blue Umbrella.

The bookstore folks live-streamed my book talk on Facebook. You can watch a recording here: https://www.facebook.com/BlueUmbrellaBooks/videos/1717853861625507/?hc_ref=ARRMYMhOKjANxxnBv_mvKCKOtDfaIm-5jhlgofdxSk6DRpYONumGsFkb0ZTzh17MFWM

Image credits: Scott Weiss.

westfield, ma book signing: blue umbrella books

blue umbrella logo

I’ll be heading to western Massachusetts for a book signing on Nov. 11 from 1-3 p.m.

The independent bookstore, Blue Umbrella Books of Westfield, MA, will play host as I sign copies of Mr. Clark’s Big Band.

My ties to the city run deep. I lived in Westfield for my first six years, did my first journalism internship there (at The Westfield News) and covered the area as a young reporter for The Republican.

I’m looking forward to seeing friends from my hometown, the neighboring West Springfield. If you’re in the area, come join us!

Image credit: Blue Umbrella Books.

join me at bay path university’s writers’ day, oct. 15

writers day bpuCome join authors Patricia Reis, Charles Coe, Ellen Meeropol and me for lively conversations about writing about one’s personal life, reading one’s work aloud, and folding current events into your work at Bay Path University’s Writers’ Day on Sunday, Oct. 15 starting at 1 p.m. at the  D’Amour Hall for Business, Communications and Technology.

The first panel is slated to be led by author, visual artist, filmmaker, and therapist Patricia Reis: “Mining the Personal for your Nonfiction.” According to the itinerary: “Topics will include using personal elements and materials in nonfiction rather than fiction, how resources can be gathered, what it’s like to present a relative’s story–and your own–so candidly, and dealing with family reactions while a project is in progress and after it’s published.”

The second panel is scheduled to be anchored by award-winning poet and singer Charles Coe: “Standing Your Ground: Thoughts on Reading in Public.” Coe plans to “describe tools and techniques that can help in preparing and delivering a reading. He’ll also work with a few volunteers willing to read before the group and be coached on their presentations.”

The third and final panel–from 4:10 – 5:25 p.m.– will feature Ellen Meeropol, Joan Dempsey and me for, “Swimming with the Current.” Panelists will “discuss how current events in their hometowns and in the larger world have inspired their engrossing fiction and nonfiction. Incorporating topics including cults, racial diversity, the Boston marathon bombings, human trafficking, and a community in grief, the trio’s work will get you thinking about how to use current events as your own springboard.”

Sign up for the day’s events here.

Image credit: Bay Path University.

 

 

national music groups promote ‘mr. clark’s’ story

National music groups have been promoting Mr. Clark’s Big Band on social media.

Go #musiceducation!

boston globe tells the story behind the book

Screenshot 2017-05-15 10.20.27The Boston Globe’s Sunday, May 14 edition ran a “Story Behind the Book” feature on Mr. Clark’s Big Band.

Writer Kate Tuttle wrote of the book:

In Mr. Clark’s Big Band: A Year of Laughter, Tears and Jazz in a Middle School Band Room, O’Brien chronicles that first painful year after [Eric] Green’s death, as Jamie Clark and his musicians pulled together to remember Eric. “They wanted Eric Green to be memorialized,” she said. “I think it was very healing for them to be part of the process, and then for the kids who were in music to play the song that was written for Eric.”

Tuttle continued:

At a time when arts education is often threatened in public school budgets, O’Brien argues for its importance. “For these particular kids, the emotional outlet that the music provided them, I think it was very powerful,” she said. “To these kids the music was their way of saying ‘We care; we love you; we miss you.’ ”

southborough’s middle school celebrates ‘mr. clark’s big band’

book launch band.jpgParents, educators, students and friends converged on the Trottier Middle School in Southborough, Mass. on Sunday to celebrate the publication of Mr. Clark’s Big Band.

Trottier School Principal Keith Lavoie emceed the event, introducing me before I read several excerpts from the book–specifically a segment about members of the 2012-2013 Big Band debating, during a January 2013 rehearsal, which would curdle one’s stomach more: eating boneless chicken-in-a-can or “gas station sushi.” I also read excerpts including one which describes a student triumphing over her fears in order to play a solo, knowing that Mr. Clark had her back, and another about the pre-performance jitters that occur when band members learn that their lead trumpet player is heading to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy an hour before showtime.

book launch jamie meredithAfter thanking the nearly 150 people who crowded the cafeteria decorated with sunflowers, sheet music and enlarged copies of the book cover, Trottier music teacher Jamie Clark (THE Mr. Clark, see pictured on the left) led the current members of the Big Band in several pieces including Paul Clark’s swinging “A Band’s Gotta Do What a Band’s Gotta Do” and Doug Beach’s sassy “Late Night Diner.”

Big Band alumni, including many students who were profiled in Mr. Clark’s Big Band and are now in high school–therefore they towered over their middle school counterparts, joined the group for the hard-charging final number, “Groovin’ Hard,” the chart made famous by drummer Buddy Rich.

Suzy Green–Eric Green’s mother–was on hand, as were the Northborough-Southborough School Superintendent Christine Johnson, former Northborough-Southborough School Superintendent Charles Gobron and Mass. State Rep. Carolyn Dykema.

book launch keith meredith

Trottier Principal Keith Lavoie looks on as I read from Mr. Clark’s Big Band.

book launch jamie

Jamie Clark speaks in front of his current Big Band

book launch meredith jamie

Clark surprises me by pulling me up in front of the band after they finish “Groovin’ Hard.”

book launch suzy jamie meredith

Clark, Suzy Green and me celebrate the joyousness that is the Big Band.

jamie hugging meredith

Clark is a world-class bear-hugger.

Image credits: Sharon Shoemaker

telegram & gazette spotlights southborough big band book

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette published a long piece in advance of the book launch party at the Trottier Middle School in Southborough.telegram and gazette

The article, “Book charts Southboro school band, leader’s coping with member’s death,” began this way:

Today, parents, teachers and music students in Southboro will meet to honor a rather special story. It’s told in a book about kids who lose their fellow band member and experience the harshness of grief at a vulnerable age — poised on the brink of adolescence and not really equipped to figure out their feelings.

Writer Ann Connery Frantz continued:

Subtitled: “A Year of Laughter, Tears and Jazz in a Middle School Band Room,” the book contains a virtual text for grief management, made human by the kids’ stories (anonymously) and their difficulty in setting aside fear and grief over a buddy’s death to move forward as Clark melds individuals into a team, rocking their approach to life and music.