NER is excited to announce Episode 7 of the NER Out Loud podcast. This episode features Vermont authors Phoebe Stone and François Clemmons reading excerpts from their memoirs.
NER summer interns Rahat Huda and Leila Markosian are the hosts for this episode, which features a brief portion of the Q&A session from a live event at Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater earlier in the year.
“Teapot in Turquoise,” Phoebe Stone’s recollection of a tragic childhood event, transports the listener to the coldly glittering landscape of England in the wintertime. This story is forthcoming in her book, Tree Full of Sky. Stone captivates us with her story, and equally so with the questions of why we retain the memories that we do, how they change us, and why it is that we long to share those stories.
François Clemmons, widely recognized as Officer Clemmons of Mister Rogers Neighborhood, is an actor, activist, and writer who had a long career as an opera singer. In this podcast, he shares his unforgettable first memories in “From the Beginning” (NER 39.2), an excerpt from his memoir, taking us to the Southern plantation that his family called home. The power of his telling captures the power of plantation owners over the families who worked the land. As Clemmons says, “Nobody else can tell your story”—and few can tell a story like François.