NEW
Library Project
Volume 1, Number 3 - Winter 2003
Artist Helps Group
Explore Moods, Textures of Texts
Interview with Nury
Vicens
Nury Vicens likes to bring props that help make stories tangible. Perhaps
because she is a painter who cherishes shape and texture and color;
perhaps because she often leads Gente y Cuentos groups in hectic, noisy
places. "I try to create a little ambiance, give it a little drama,"
she says.
She adds texture with her voice as well, making it thin and tremulous to
voice the dialogue of a lonely child, then sharpening her tone when she
speaks the words of two exacting aunts in a story by Argentinian writer
Poldy Bird.
Her first criterion in choosing stories for Gente y Cuentos, which she's
facilitated for about three years, is that "I have to like them. But
I also have to feel that the group would be interested in the story."
Referring to Bird's story, "Mama de Niebla," she says, "I
have read this story to every group because the more you do it, the more
you are with the story."
Nury, born in Chile, has led Gente y Cuentos with adult GED students at
The Lighthouse, a community center; at Grupo Motivos, a Latina women's
group in North Philadelphia; and at the Norris Square Senior Center.
There, participants were from Puerto Rico, San Salvador, Cuba and
Mexico--mostly retired, mostly in the United States because a sister or
brother was already here and persuaded them to come. Some spoke little
English. They live in the neighborhood, where community gardens and bright
murals alternate with boarded-up rowhouses and litter-strewn lots.
While their backgrounds held much in common, participants' opinions often
differed sharply, Nury says. Two women from Puerto Rico frequently took
opposite sides of an issue, with one maintaining an unforgiving approach
to human nature and the other arguing for compassion and flexibility.
While the senior center draws numerous men who play gin rummy at the long
tables and tell jokes over a hot lunch, the Gente y Cuentos groups were
dominated by women. "The one man who came said that men don't come
because to listen to stories is not 'manly,' " Nury says. "It
would be great if I could have a group only for men, then get together
with the women and compare reactions to the same stories."
When not leading Gente y Cuentos, Nury teaches painting at the Main Line
Art Center and works on her own art. She likes the challenge of engaging
listeners in stories that matter to her. "These people have lived,"
Nury says. "They are here for entertainment, but I want them to feel
more than entertained. I want them to feel that they participate, that
they have their own voice."
She recalled her first session at Norris Square. She brought a tense,
suspenseful story about an underground guerrilla fighter and a general who
meet at a barbershop. It's not clear if either, or both, will emerge from
the encounter alive. One woman in the group began to sob because her
husband had been killed. Another woman said, "Why do we have to come
here and listen to stories that make us cry?"
Nury frowns, remembering the woman's indignation. Then her mouth settles
into a smile, and she nods toward the chair where the angry woman sat.
"She kept coming back," she says.