Big Yellow

It could be a play, one where the script changes every night, but the themes and lessons remain the same.

The Setting: The living room of a big, yellow, Victorian house in a quintessential New England college town. There are comfortable couches and wooden rocking chairs, family pictures and well-loved instruments tucked in the corners. Snacks are waiting on the table and tea is in the cupboard. It feels like home from the moment you arrive.

The Soundtrack: The tapping of laptop keys, the heavy thud of small feet, joyful squeals of delight, and the occasional wail...the hum of acoustic guitars bouncing off the bathroom walls, the stomp of a foot keeping time, the scratch of the pen against paper...the stroke of the hour, the occasional siren...lots of laughter and a few tears.

The Characters: A rotating cast of poets, songwriters, memoirists, and bloggers...all storytellers who create worlds and bring them to life.

The Story: There is a refrain in the great baseball movie Field of Dreams.

If you build it, he will come.

It started with the house and a vision. And so the house's residents (first only one, then two--plus dog, then three, and finally four--plus dog again) created the space. She built it and they came--the writers. The house fills up on various weeknights, and sometimes for whole weekends full of time. Time for the people to tell stories and share pieces of themselves. Time to build and maintain friendships and community. Time to heal deep wounds. There are stories of love and of loss, of the struggle to find oneself and of losing everything. Stories about coming of age, and stories of dragons and vampires.

Some of these storytellers come season after season, while others come and go. But each of them join the whispers in the walls and the muses in the shadows. They provide the inspiration and the encouragement for those who come next.