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Conversation With Author Laura Sibson

Sometimes speaking up for what is right is scary, even to your own family. Author Laura Sibson’s debut novel The Art of Breaking Things deals with just this – speaking up about assault to protect those who are vulnerable. Laura visited today for a Conversation With with the students, who have been reading the novel for the past several weeks. Laura has an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and published The Art of Breaking Things this summer. 

The novel’s main character, Skye, has been using partying as a way to deal with trauma from long ago.The book follows Skye processing her trauma in a way that feels very real, and ultimately shows the reader that there are better ways to heal from trauma than turning to substances, and that speaking up for what’s right is the most important thing, even if it has consequences.

The students responded very positively to the novel and the discussion, despite the difficult subject matter. Senior Olivia told Laura that The Art of Breaking things is her favorite book that she’s read at TCS! “After reading the book, the talk gave me more insight in the book, and it raised a lot more questions. She said a lot of things that will stick with me, like how people will turn to unhealthy behaviors when they don’t know how to cope,” Olivia said. Sophomore Joshua responded that he enjoyed the discussion because “she gave a good perspective on the book. I like how she related it to events in her own life.” Destiny, also a sophomore, said “she knows how to write- she added a lot of emotions. She knows how to make a reader interested.” 

We appreciate The Ivy Bookshop for arranging this visit to our school and we are very grateful to Laura Sibson for coming to share insights on the book the students have been reading. We enjoyed being able to discuss the difficult subject matter in a mature way. Laura has given us a lot to think about- thank you Laura for your great discussion!

Conversation With Fleesie Hubbard

This Friday’s Conversation With featured Fleesie Hubbard, a professional in the public health field. Fleesie holds an undergraduate degree from Morgan State University and a Master of Science from University of Baltimore. Although she now lives and works in California, Fleesie has been a part of the TCS community her whole life, having been born in Remington.

Fleesie is part of an organization called Maryland ENT Abroad that organizes a “medical mission trip” to different countries in need of support for head and neck surgeries. Ear, nose, and throat doctors/surgeons, also known as ENTs, anesthesiologists, and nurses sign up to attend the trips. The group chooses countries that are deficient in iodine. Iodine deficiencies can cause goiters, growths that cause difficulties eating and swallowing as well as low self esteem and sometimes ostracization. In addition to goiter surgeries, the team does cancer related surgeries and hundreds of physicals and ear exams. 

Fleesie’s job during the mission trips is to coordinate the sometimes complex aspects of traveling and practicing medicine abroad. A lot of planning goes into the trips, from arranging who will attend, to getting equipment through Customs, to finding a hospital to operate in. Fleesie emphasized that when contacting hospitals to work with, she makes it clear that they want to work with the hospital staff and learn from them too; the service is a reciprocal relationship. Fleesie says working in these countries makes her appreciate her circumstances. “It puts your reality into perspective and makes me appreciate my life.” Thank you Fleesie for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come back and visit the TCS students! 

Young Playwrights Festival Seminar Series Begins

This morning we kicked off the first session of our Young Playwrights seminar series, sponsored by Baltimore Center Stage. The Young Playwrights Festival is a yearly event hosted by Center Stage in which hundreds of students grades K-12 write and submit a 10-minute play for review. Finalists whose plays are chosen get to revise their plays with a playwright mentor, and the plays are performed professionally. This year, the theme that the student plays must include is “Seize the Day”. The plays must also incorporate a ball, a wall, and a fall. These criteria may be incorporated literally or metaphorically into the story/props. 

As participants in the Young Playwrights seminar, TCS students will be reading their scripts out loud at the end of the seminar series in addition to submitting their work to the competition. To prepare the TCS students to read and submit their original plays, our instructor Parker Matthews will lead 9 seminar sessions focusing on creative writing, self expression, and storytelling. Using a combination of acting exercises and lectures/brainstorming activities, Mr. Parker will teach the students about the elements of a good play to help them get started writing their own. Mr. Parker, originally from Oregon, is a teacher, actor, storyteller, and mime. His training is very physically engaged and he will be incorporating many physical activities into the seminar classes. 

The class today started with a gesture game to learn names. The students went around a circle saying their name in combination with a gesture, and the rest of the students would copy the gesture and say the name. Then, they did an activity called “this is not”. The students passed around an object, like a tennis racket, and declared, “this is not a tennis racket, this is a ___” while acting out whatever object they pretended to have. Next, Mr. Parker reviewed the seminar guidelines- everyone has the right to be free from emotional and physical harm, everyone has the right to express their opinions, and everyone has a responsibility to participate. These guidelines are very in line with the TCS honor code, placing importance on participation and respect. 

To start thinking about writing plays the students discussed what they think a play is and what makes up a play. The students threw out ideas including emotions, acting, story, live performance, script, sound, characters, costumes, props, and sets. They also discussed the differences between characters and story. At the end of class, they played a free-association word game in which they tossed a ball around the circle and said a word that came to mind based on the last word spoken. To wrap up, the students created a three sentence story from some of the words they thought of in their brainstorming session. The first session of this unique nine week seminar really started to get our creativity flowing, and we are very excited to hear the students’ original plays in December. Thank you so much, Mr. Parker and Baltimore Center Stage for making this opportunity possible!