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Continuing
Tom Wisner's Legacy
 Since
Tom's passing in early April of this year, a group of people close to
Tom have been working to carry on his legacy and make his work available
to others. There have been a number of performances by the people who
performed with Tom: Frank Schwarz, Teresa Whitaker, John Cronin and Mac
Walter, and other concerts are being planned. Tom wasn't done creating
music when it was his time, and another CD of his recordings and those
of others is being considered.
Folks are also working on
cataloging Tom's creative work; charting and publishing his music; and
displaying his children's collages and his own art work. An art show
called "The Art of Healing the Chesapeake - A Tribute to Tom Wisner" was
shown in May and June at the New Deal Cafe in Greenbelt, Maryland as
part of the Greenbelt Green Man Festival. The show will move to other
venues around the region. If you would like more information about this
show or know of other venues, contact
chestory@gmail.com.
Jeff Place from the
Smithsonian Folk Life Collection has developed a wonderful webpage and
video about Tom's life and work at:
http://www.folkways.si.edu/explore_folkways/tom_wisner.aspx. Other
films and multimedia products about Tom's life, his connection to place
and his approach to providing environmental education with children are
in the discussion phase as well as plans to create information sites
about Tom on My Space, Wikipedia, etc.
Tom's central vision was
to create a "virtual archive of Chesapeake story and song" -- including
not just Tom's work, but the work of many other area artists, musicians
and story tellers. A small group met with Tom in January of this year to
discuss a way to move forward with this vision. After his work has been
catalogued, the next step will be to bring this vision to reality.
Tom Wisner
CD Sales
Tom's last two CD's -"Follow
on the Water" (a two CD set completed by Tom in January 2010) and "Made
of Water" - are available at local venues (Annapolis
Maritime Museum,
Calvert
Marine Museum and Bay Books in California, MD) and on the Chestory
website www.chestory.org. If you know of other
local retailers who would like to sell Tom's CD's, please contact
chestory@gmail.com. Tom's first
two CD's, "Chesapeake
Born" and "Come
Full Circle" (songs for children) can be ordered through Smithsonian
Folkways Recordings at:
http://www.folkways.si.edu/. Eventually, Tom's last two CD's
will also be transferred to the Smithsonian.
Tom Wisner was an award
winning song writer, folk singer, story teller and educator, who spend
his life looking for ways to help people connect with the Chesapeake
Bay. He passed away on April 5, 2010 in Prince Frederick, MD. In 2000,
Tom created Chestory, the Center for the Chesapeake Story, to "bring the
artist in each of us into the story of our Chesapeake community of
life." Chestory recently became a project of
Chears, the
Chesapeake Education, Arts and Research Society, and its mission will
continue on their sponsorship.
Chestory - The
Center for the Chesapeake Story
(a project of Chears - the
Chesapeake Education, Arts and Research Society -
www.chears.org )
Joan Clement, Coordinator
506 Elm Ave
Takoma Park, MD 20912
www.chestory.org
chestory@gmail.com
301-775-5368
Chestory is bringing the
artist in each of us into the story of our Chesapeake community of life.
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