10 | MARCH 18 - 24, 2022 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
CITY VOICES LANDGREN WORCESTER FILLING CHIEF
WORCESTERIA
DIVERSITY OFFICER POST AGAIN
Worcester Telegram & Gazette Executive Editor David Nordman brings all fi ve storytellers to the stage during the Storytellers Project at The DCU Club at Polar Park on Tuesday. RICK CINCLAIR/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE
BAD ADVICE
Celebrate ‘parade activities’ all year long Shaun Connolly Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
DEAR SHAUN: I realize Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March 17, however Worcester tends to have their parade on the Sunday before. I was born and raised in Worcester. I have no intention of leaving. I want to ignore the actual holiday and only celebrate on Worcester’s Parade Day. Should I do this? DEAR WORCESTER IRISH: The Worcester parade’s already passed, but for next year, I say go for it. March to the beat of your own Bodhran drum and pennywhistle. The parade is a weird and wild time, you should enjoy it.
Whether it is publicly drinking with strangers, lifting your child up to catch frozen candy thrown by a man in a fez, or catching up with people you haven’t seen since high school, the parade is a time to connect. And yeah, that Sunday is a lot. If you’re marching in the parade they ask you to start to line up at 9 a.m. in Webster Square. If you’re really into the parade (which it seems you may just be) you’re at Breen’s or Leitrum’s pregaming and mumbling the Irish folks songs I’m convinced no one actually knows all the words to, they just get super loud when it gets to a part that says, “Wild Rover!” Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrating the See BAD ADVICE, Page 12
Storytellers Project puts everyday tales in perspective Victor D. Infante Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
There was a moment, perhaps a half hour before the start of the Worcester Storytellers Project event in the DCU Club at Polar Park, when it was clear the room was going to fi ll up. We knew it was going to – people had bought tickets, after all – but still, no matter how many shows you've worked on, you never quite believe things are going to happen until you can see physical bodies in front of you, especially these days, when 1 in 5 concert tickets reportedly go unused. Seeing is believing, now even more than usual. That, perhaps, was the key to the event's success
and power: People want to hear their own stories, and the Storytellers Project allowed us to present fi ve stories from diff erent corners of our community, in the words of the people who lived them. I'm not here to review or rehash the show, although our storytellers Dave McGrath, Arnold Pulda, Lou Ramos, Ashley Wonder & Shweta Bhatt knocked it out of the Polar Park. Rather, the show has me thinking about the nature of stories themselves, how they seem to echo across time, how they seem to repeat and rhyme at unexpected intervals. All fi ve of our tellers had unique experiences – from health See TALES, Page 12
