On the air again, and on the road again, too

Sound the trumpets! Here’s something I never dreamed would happen to me: I’ve been awarded a writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts! Mike, Whitney and I take off today for a couple days vacation in Canada, and on Sunday morning Mike will rent a car and drive Whitney and me from Montreal to Johnson, Vermont. Thanks to fellow writer Jeff Flodin, who encouraged me to apply for this fellowship, I’ll be spending the entire month of April with 50 other poets, visual artists and writers at the Vermont Studio Center, where I hope to make some progress on a manuscript I’ve been working on.

That manuscript is about all I’ve learned leading memoir-writing classes for senior citizens here in Chicago, and I got the perfect sendoff yesterday afternoon: Chicago Public Radio aired a piece on All Things Considered featuring the writers in my Wednesday class. WBEZ has been doing a special series on what was going on in people’s lives the year they turned 25: scientific studies have shown that the frontal cortex area—which governs judgment, decision-making and impulse control—doesn’t fully mature until around age 25, which can make that year a transitional one for many people. After hearing a few Chicago celebrities interviewed on WBEZ about their 25th year, I assigned “Being 25” as a topic for my own celebrities, the writers in my classes. From the WBEZ web site:

In this installment of the Year25 series, WBEZ Producer/Reporter Lauren Chooljian visits a memoir writing class for senior citizens at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Their assignment? To write 500 words about where they were at 25.

Lauren stopped by to hear their essays and talk to the students about their stories. She came to find out their teacher, writer Beth Finke, also had quite a story to tell about her 25th year. It was not only the year she was married, but it was the last year she could see. Finke has been completely blind since she was 26 years old.

Wedding day, July 28, 1984, photo by Rick Amodt

If you missed hearing the piece on the radio yesterday, never fear: you can still hear it online. Mike will fly home from Burlington this Sunday after dropping Whitney and me off in Vermont, and he has generously offered to keep up the Safe & Sound blog while I’m away. You’re in good hands.

All for now, folks: we gotta plane to catch!

Stay tuned

Seems like anytime an employer goes out of the way to thank you, you can bet on it: you’re being let go. Last week I got an email from WBEZ thanking me for the essays I’ve recorded for them over the years. The note went on to say WBEZ is reorganizing their local programming to emphasize live shows. They hope their new formatting will encourage listeners to comment on social media or phone in live and in person. Translation: they will no longer be airing pre-recorded essays like the ones I used to write for them.

Let’s be honest. I’m pretty lucky that WBEZ took me on to write essays in the first place. It sure felt cool to jump into a cab with Hanni or Harper and ask the driver to take me to Chicago Public Radio. So many times the driver was listening to WBEZ as we drove — one of them even asked for my autograph!

And what a kick it was to have someone call or stop me on the street after one of my essays aired. “I heard you on NPR!” they’d say. Or, “I thought the voice sounded familiar, and when I, like, waited until the end, they said it was. It was, like, you!” It was a very, very good run, and I’m sorry to seehear it come to an end.

The WBEZ arts editor did write to ask me to come and meet with her personally to see what this shift might mean for me, so I’m heading over to the WBEZ studio with Whitney tomorrow. Will it be my very last trip there? I hope not. Gee, guess we’ll all have to, ahem, stay tuned to find out.

Update on Harper

Dude has a new toy.

A few weeks ago I recorded an essay about Harper’s early retirement for Chicago Public Radio, and the piece aired last Tuesday onWBEZ.

Harper didn’t retire until a few days after I recorded the essay, so he was there in the studio sitting quietly at my feet while I sat at the microphone. I don’t cry during the recording, but if you listen closely you’ll hear me get a little choked up. I had assumed my terrific producer Joe DeCeault would cover up my stammers with music, but I guess he decided my verbal stumbles help tell Harper’s story. It’s all me. No sound effects.

Harper’s new family heard the piece, and Chris e-mailed Mike to send a review:

I heard Beth on the radio the other day – her and Harper’s story is always so moving and when I share it with others, they also seem touched by the two of them.

You know what? I find Harper’s new chapter with Larry and Chris very moving, too. I am touched by the three of them.

Chris updates Mike on Harper regularly, and they’ve found that taking him off leash and just walking alongside Harper makes him feel at ease. Soon as the leash goes back on, though, Harper shows anxiety again. Handsome Harper is charming all the neighbors, Chris says, and even George the cat comes out of his hiding place from time to time to say hello to Harper. The biggest news of all, as far as harper is concerned: Larry and Chris bought him a new squeak toy.

If you missed hearing the Harper essay on the radio last Tuesday, you can still check it out online. Listen closely, and maybe you’ll hear the little charmer jiggling at my feet!

Smiling dogs

Here's another of Mary Ivory's shots, from the jacket flap of our award-winning children's book.

While preparing my essay for Chicago Public Radio this week I decided to send something about Harper’s early retirement to Bark magazine, too. They liked what I wrote and published When a Seeing Eye Dog Gets Off-Track as a guest post on the Bark blog last Tuesday.

The post I wrote for Bark is similar to what I’ve been writing here, but you might want to link to it anyway just to admire the photograph they published along with it –it’s another photo taken by my friend Mary Ivory. Mary is a licensed clinical professional counselor, social worker, life coach, and from all accounts, a very talented photographer. She took the photograph on the book jacket flap of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound, and when I phoned her earlier this week to ask if she could take a last-minute photo of Harper and me for the Bark blog, she came in, ahem, a flash.

Having work published in Bark puts Mary and me in some darned good company: the magazine’s impeccable pedigree includes publishing many of today’s most acclaimed authors including Ann Patchett, Augusten Burroughs, Rick Bass, Amy Hempel, and Pulitzer Prize winning poet Mary Oliver. Bark has been honored with an Award of Merit from The Society of Publication Designers, and their photo book DogJoy features the magazine’s popular “Smiling Dogs” submissions. from their web site:

Bark is the magazine of modern dog culture—it speaks to the serious dog enthusiast. Bark is the indispensable guide to life with dogs, showing readers how to live smartly and rewardingly with their canine companions. Founded in 1997, as a newsletter to advocate for off-leash dog parks in Berkeley, California, the magazine quickly grew into a glossy, award-winning publication acclaimed for its timely commentary and rich literary offerings. Today, Bark has a nationwide readership of over 250,000.

In addition to regular guest Bark blog posts,I’ve had a few stories published in the four-color “glossy, award-winning” version of Bark, too. It’s always a thrill to be contacted by their staff — it gives me the opportunity to brag that I write for the same magazine Ann Patchett writes for. And now Mary Ivory can brag, too. Her photography has been published by the same folks who honor photographs of “Smiling Dogs” in every issue.

Saying goodbye to an old friend

Best. Dog. Ever.

Note: If you link to WBEZ to listen to the piece, it’s a little confusing. Use this link, and then just wait, don’t click anything–the right piece should start playing. Don’t pay attention to the playlist that may appear.

A longer version of this blog post aired on Chicago Public Radio November 24. I don’t cry during the reading, but if you listen closely you’ll hear me get a little choked up. Hanni has given me so, so much to be thankful for. I am really going to miss her.…

My Seeing Eye dog will be 11 years old in February. Walks to the Loop used to invigorate Hanni. Now they wear her out. She takes long naps after our excursions, and she doesn’t wake up from those naps as easily as she used to.

It’s time for Hanni to retire.

Back in 1990, it took two terrifying mishaps in traffic to convince me to switch from a white cane to a guide dog. Now, after ten years of side-by-side travel with Hanni, it’s going to take a lot to convince me I’ll ever love my next Seeing Eye dog as much as I do her.

Blindness dictates practicality, however. For Hanni’s and for my sake, I’ve signed up to return to the Seeing Eye this Saturday. I’ll be there three weeks, training with a new dog.

Dog-loving friends assumed I’d keep Hanni as a pet. Mike would like to keep her. I’m just not sure I can devote myself to a new Seeing Eye dog if Hanni is still around.

I can bring Hanni back with me to the Seeing Eye when I fly there Saturday to train with my new dog. They’ll find her a good home. I’m just afraid I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on my new dog knowing Hanni was in the nearby kennel, waiting. The new dog wouldn’t stand a chance!

And so, I’ve decided. I’m giving Hanni to a couple of friends. We visit these friends often, so when I get Hanni pangs, I can always head over there for a hug. These friends don’t have a dog now, so they’ll be able to give Hanni their undivided attention. That’s something she’s used to. Getting attention, I mean.

I’ll get to visit Hanni, but it’s hard to imagine traveling more than a couple feet to hug her. Or trusting a dog other than Hanni to lead me around the city and keep me safe. I can’t think about that now, though. It’s time to take one last walk. With good ol’ Hanni.

Back to school with my three blind boyfriends

That’s some of the Eastview kids, who all liked reading and learning about Hanni.
Photo by Andi Butler, http://www.mrsbillustrations.com.

After receiving so many positive comments to my post about our visit to Eastview Elementary School last June, I decided to write a radio essay about how much I learned –and continue to learn – from three special boys I befriended there.

Me with two of my new boyfriends. Photo by Andi Butler,

Chicago Public Radio titled the essay Writer Beth Finke Goes from Teacher to Student, and aired it as a back-to- school piece. If you missed hearing it on the radio, you can listen to it online here. A clue to those of you who are as much of a computer nincompoop as I am: in order to hear me reading the essay, you have to hit the “download” link after you get to the page. Enjoy!

The Cure & me on public radio

After reading that article about Braille in last week’s New York Times, a senior producer at Chicago Public radio asked if I’d be interested in writing an essay about Braille. I sent one their way, and while I was at it, I sent along another essay as well.

The second one was about that fifth grader I wrote about here, and the producer liked that one better. So did I. I recorded it last week, and it aired yesterday. If you listen to it online you’ll notice it sounds like I’m just talking, rather than reading. That’s because I am. Just talking, I mean.

I can read Braille. I’m just very slow at it. So when it comes time to record my radio essays, Joe DeCeault, one of my favorite producers at WBEZ, puts me in front of a microphone, asks what the first paragraph in my essay is about, then what the second paragraph is about, and I retell the story paragraph by paragraph in my own words.

Joe refers to my printed essay while we record, which was especially helpful for this particular piece. Juxtaposing the notion that blindness is a major drag with the fact that I am a happy, capable person who leads a pretty interesting life is not easy for me to do out loud. In the recording studio I felt like I was using Joe as a therapist, driveling on and on and on about my feelings. With my written piece in hand, though, Joe guided me through, kept the piece moving (rather than maudlin), and interrupted me when he found something I’d forgotten to mention.

Pictures of You, a haunting tune from The Cure’s Disintegration CD, weaves in and out of the finished piece. A perfect choice, if you ask me.

The End of “The Story”

The good news: My interview with Dick Gordon on NPR’s The Story aired all over the country last week. The bad news: It didn’t air here in Chicago.

Chicago Public Radio held its pledge drive last week; my interview was bumped so that WBEZ personalities like Ira Glass could cut in and ask listeners to call in and pledge to the station. The nerve! Seriously, Mike and I are members of WBEZ, and I understand why they have to do these pledge drives. But still, I gotta admit…I was disappointed friends and family members in Chicagoland didn’t get a chance to catch me on the radio.

I did hear from people in other parts of the country who heard it, though. A woman in Memphis wrote me to say she’d heard the interview on satellite radio and recognized some of my anecdotes. “I read them in your book!” she said. A man from Las Vegas wrote to tell me he, too, had modeled nude. No mention if he did this for art students, or on the strip.

Mike and I were able to hear the interview online, and I must say, those folks at North Carolina Public Radio did a fabulous job of editing. They took an hour’s worth of tape, condensed it, and came out with a nice little package that makes chronological sense. If you missed hearing the interview on the radio, you can hear it online. Listen to my voice, and to my laughter, and you’ll know what a great job Dick Gordon did setting me at ease in a studio that was halfway across the country from him.

Hear my Mustang Ride for Yourself

The great comments you left after reading my post about driving a Mustang convertible got me thinking. Maybe Chicago Public radio would be interested in airing a piece about my 80 mph experience.

Most commentators read their public radio essays.

But that doesn’t work for me. I can read Braille, but I’m very slow. So Joe DeCeault, one of my favorite producers, puts me in front of a microphone, asks me what my essay was about, and I retell the story. Joe refers to my printed essay while we record, which was especially helpful for this car-driving piece. Anyone who has been around me in the past month knows how I can go on and on and on about that Mustang I drove –using my written piece as a guide, Joe cut me off when I gushed over race car driver Tommy Kendall too much. He interrupted if he found something I’d forgotten to mention.

“Tell me about your sister’s 1967 Mustang,” he’d say. Or, “What did they tell you during the safety drill before your ride?”

The resulting radio piece is, in my humble opinion, a joy to listen to. The folks I worked with during my drive in Phoenix sent some sound clips from the event– Joe wove them into the piece. He used some priceless rock ‘n’ roll tunes in the background, too.

Joe’s sound-bit magic brought me right back behind the wheel again. In the driver’s seat. The piece aired this morning on Chicago Public Radio’s 848 show. If you missed it, you can take a listen online. Just be sure to buckle your seat belt first.

That's Tommy Kendall behind the wheel before we headed out and switched places. It was over 100 degrees in Arizona, but he was cool as a cucumber. Thanks to Tommy, at 80 mph, so was I. (Photo by Mike Maez, M2 Autophoto)

Hyde Park is the Wrong Neighborhood for Mr. Rogers

There I was, happily baking bread on Christmas Eve morning, listening to Chicago Public radio, when a “public service announcement” came on plugging this week’s Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood Sweater Drive & Storytelling Festival! Hanni and I will be giving a presentation at that fest at 1 pm on Wednesday, December 31 — it was a kick to hear about it on air.

I smiled and listened, kneading and turning the loaf, folding in the bits of rosemary and sundried tomatoes that kept slipping away from the dough. It was a happy Christmas Eve scene. But then came the end of the public service announcement, the part where the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago’s Hyde Park was touted as the host.

Dude! That’s the wrong hood! The Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood Sweater Drive & Storytelling Festival is actually taking place all this week at The Field Museum in Chicago. To be exact, it will be at the Field Museum’s Crown Family PlayLab.

The PlayLab is a special part of the Field Museum created especially for little kids. I had no idea the Field Museum had a special area for little ones – well, I mean not until Danny LaBrecque, the Coordinator of PlayLab Programs, contacted me last summer. He wanted to know if Hanni and I would be interested in participating in this year’s Sweater Drive. When he told me Mr. McFeely would be one of the other participating authors, I just had to say yes!

Every day on Mister Rogers’ neighborhood, Mister Rogers zips up his comfortable sweater, but not everyone has a sweater this winter. If you have an extra sweater, would you consider donating it to someone who might need it? This December 26th through the 31st The Field Museum’s Crown Family PlayLab will host the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood Sweater Drive & Storytelling Festival. During this week families are encouraged to donate new to slightly used sweaters which will be delivered to a variety of Chicago area charities. After dropping off sweaters families are invited to celebrate the spirit of neighborhood care with a variety of storytellers, authors, artists, dancers and musicians featuring a visit with Mr. McFeely on the 30th. This event is free with basic admission into The Field Museum

Danny gave Hanni and me a private tour of the PlayLab at the field Museum earlier this month — what a cool place! Real artifacts and specimens the kids can touch and play with; kids can dig up dinosaur bones, grind corn in a pueblo, make music, play scientist, stomp on dinosaur footprints. In one area, kids are encouraged to put on an animal costume and crawl, growl, hop around. Exhibitions in PlayLab often coordinate with those in the more “adult” part of the Field Museum. If kids come to PlayLab first, they might better appreciate the more sophisticated displays in other areas of the museum.

PlayLab makes for a great rest area for families with little ones, too – family bathrooms, stroller parking, infant zones, and a staffed reception desk make it a comfortable place for little kids who need a break. While Hanni and I were there on our tour, a little boy who was lost was brought to the receptionist so his family could find him. He seemed scared, and the staff was so nice they calmed him down.

If you’re in the Chicago area and looking for something to do with your kids during the break between Christmas and New Year’s Day, I highly recommend the Field Museum’s Crown Family PlayLab. Especially this Wednesday, December 31 at 1 pm!

Wednesday, December 31
Beth Finke Children’s Author
NPR commentator Beth Finke is an award-winning author, teacher and journalist. She also happens to be blind. “Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound,” is Beth’s award-winning book about the love and trust between guide dogs and people who are blind. Come meet Beth Finke and Hanni, her guide dog for a reading of “Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound.”

The public service announcement ran more than once on Wednesday, and Danny and I made many frustrating calls to Chicago Public Radio that day to encourage them to make a speedy correction about the location of the sweater drive. But alas, it was Christmas Eve, and Chicago Public Radio is no Scrooge! They’d done the right thing, airing pre-programmed shows all day to allow local staff to spend time at home with their loved ones. No one answered the phones.

So if you want to come see Hanni and me at the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood Sweater Drive & Storytelling Festival this year, make sure you go to the Field Museum. The Museum of Science and Industry is swell, but Hanni and I won’t be there!

PS: The “Savory Bread with Onion, Pancetta and Sundried Tomatoes” I brought to Flo’s yesterday was a hit. All that dough-slamming I did when the phone calls didn’t go through must have brought out the best of the yeast and gluten.