STORIES OF HOPE
Caffè Lena project provides opportunity to share experiences of overcoming challenges
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> Caffè Lena is creating a bridge between the arts and social services with its latest program TrueSongs, which will soon debut to the public with a special upcoming show.
TrueSongs is a new project, spearheaded by Caffè Lena, that offers a chance for community members to share their stories of overcoming tough challenges such as homelessness, addiction, chronic illness, hopelessness and isolation.
Area storytellers and songwriters such as Michael Jerling, Judy Kass, MaryLeigh Roohan, Angelina Valente and Bob Warren have worked together to show lives changed for the better by local nonprofits including AIM Services; Healing Springs; HOPE — Homes For Orphaned Pets Exist; Pitney Meadows Community Farm; and Shelters of Saratoga.
An evening called TrueSongs: Lyrics of Life, scheduled for 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 20 at Caffè Lena, will serve as the culmination of this new program’s first run. The event will feature the songs and stories written through TrueSongs over the past couple months.
TrueSongs began in March when applications were first gathered from regional social service providers. After selecting
five, each organization was tasked with selecting a client whose life was positively impacted by the nonprofit.
Designed to be collaborative, cathartic and compelling, each client participating in TrueSongs was matched with a local songwriter who could fashion that story into a new song capable of breaking through stereotypes and boundaries.
For many of the storytellers it will be the first time to share their experience in public.
Pitney Meadows Community Farm member Martel Catalano said she was honored to be a part of the first TrueSongs, because telling her story is a central part of her life. “My story of vision-loss spans my whole life, but just two years ago I began immersing myself in the community at Pitney Meadows Community Farm as a means of managing the day-to-day stress of my incurable disease,” she shared. “As someone who can’t drive, it was so special the farm was in the city of Saratoga, so I could walk or bike there on my own. I’d been struggling with losing my independence at the time. It came full circle when some people at the farm found out about a non-profit I was starting and helped me get it off the ground.”
Catalano continued, “My story is one of loss, transformation, and growth across all aspects of my life – health, career, hobby – and TrueSongs allows me to bring it all together.”
Doing this with the voice of local songwriter Bob Warren was a nice bonus, Catalano said, adding that the song they made is titled “Wouldn’t that be everything?”
Beyond this personal experience, Catalano envisions TrueSongs having a larger impact. “My hope is that by telling our stories at TrueSongs, others will feel more empowered to tell theirs,” she said. “Even if it helps one person speak to one other person about a challenge in their life, that’s huge. Telling any story takes a level of vulnerability, and I feel strongly that by letting that vulnerability in we become more resilient.”
For the songwriters, singing TrueSongs is opening a new window of expression. Local musician Angelina Valente assisted a nonverbal client of AIM Services in writing “Parnell’s Song.”
“The chance to be a part of TrueSongs has been such a unique and fulfilling experience,” Valente said. “Meeting Parnell, learning her journey and interpreting that into song is an honor. All she has been through and what she goes through on a daily basis is incredibly inspiring and I can only hope to do her story justice.”
The two talked through an iPad, and Valente spoke with others in Parnell’s life to get a sense of her story. “But a big part of it really lies in meeting her,” Valente explained. “Meeting her changes you and inspires you in a way you almost can’t communicate in words. She has a presence about her. So a lot of the song has been me trying to portray that presence in the music.”
With TrueSongs, it is Caffè Lena’s desire to create a bridge between the arts and social services, to demonstrate how each contributes to a healthy, whole community.
Caffè Lena’s executive director Sarah Craig found the concept in Canada and decided to bring it back home to the Spa City. “Saratoga seemed like such a great place for it, because we do have a lot of really strong local nonprofits that play a prominent role in the community, and a lot of wonderful musicians,” she said.
The purpose of the TrueSongs program is not only to show the good work being done by the nonprofits, but “to make you feel it in your heart through the power of art,” Craig said.
Among the five pairs of storytellers and songwriters, “Each relationship is producing something unique that could never otherwise have happened,” Craig explained, “and one thing that is unequivocally true for all of them is the validation of having your story turned into a work of art, and being heard by a room full of people is a once in a lifetime validating experience.”
Caffè Lena plans to make TrueSongs an annual program in the future, Craig said.
Ahead of the first-ever TrueSongs: Lyrics of Life show, Craig said this performance is a chance for eventgoers “to hear a true story and to see another layer of life in the community that might otherwise be invisible to you.”
Tickets to TrueSongs: Lyrics of Life are on sale now at $18 for members, $20 for the general public and $10 for students. At the door, prices will be $20 for members and $22 for the general public, and $5 student rush tickets will be sold at the door with valid ID.