Programs
JUDY GAIL'S HISTORICAL PORTRAYALS Include:
Rachel Carson (1907-1964): Rachel Carson followed her two callings: to write and to research nature. Her poetic use of language and thorough knowledge about the interdependence of sea, land, and all living creatures shook a complacent world into action. Her legacy continues today through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), established at the urging of John F. Kennedy after hearing Carson testify before Congress about the harmful effects of DDT, depicted in her book Silent Spring. This book gave birth to worldwide Summits on how to move forward with new technologies without harming or destroying the ecological systems of the planet, and to treaties such as the Kyoto Treaty, which focuses on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Carson fulfilled her longing, through the written word, to convey to readers everywhere the beauty and importance of the unmistakable interconnectedness of land and sea.
Sarah Emma Edmonds alias Private Frank Thompson (1841-1898): Sarah Emma Edmonds fled her abusive father's home and farm in Canada, coming to Michigan disguising herself as a man. Working for a Detroit bookseller, she traveled around the state selling Encyclopedia's and Bibles. In Flint at the start of the Civil War, the sound of the fifes and drums called to her antislavery heart, and she enlisted in Michigan's 2nd Volunteer Regiment. Fighting in all the major battles of the Potomac, she served as a male field nurse, messenger for generals, and donned four different disguises as a Union spy. One of these was as a male African American camp guard and another as a black female camp cook. She died her skin with silver nitrate and prayed that it wouldn't rain and wash away her color. When it did rain, she cleverly succeeded in escaping and brought back major secrets to the Union generals. Fearing the discovery of her gender in a hospital where Malaria sent her, she ran away and was dishonorably discharged as a deserter. In later years she contested this, admitted her disguise as a male, was reinstated honorably and became the first female to become a member of the Grand Army of The Republic. She was buried in the GAR cemetery in Texas.
Carry A. Nation (1846-1911): Carry A. Nation became an American icon as she fought for Temperance, smashing illegal saloons with her hatchet, which she claimed would have to serve as the voice for women until they got the vote. She lived in an era when 50% of those dead and buried in graveyards across the nation had died of alcohol-related diseases or incidents. Her faith in her mission and her compassion for wives and children beaten and left homeless by alcoholic husbands and fathers enabled her to carry on in the wild, woolly, and corrupt times in which she lived while enduring repeated arrests, torturous jail stays, threats and beatings by enemies of her cause, barrages of rotten eggs, a hectic schedule of travel, speeches, and huge crowds both hostile and adoring.
Mary Lily Kenan Flagler (1868-1918): Mary Lily Kenan Flagler was the third and last wife of Henry Flagler who founded Standard Oil with John D. Rockefeller. Later, Flagler transformed Florida from a swampland into the tourist Mecca it is today. Mary Lily tells of being raised in North Carolina as part of the extremely patriarchal and well-to-do Kenan family who founded the University of North Carolina. She reveals both the expectations and limitations of the life of a wealthy woman of her time. She relates stories of her life with Henry Flagler in the Gilded Age, living in their Palm Beach mansion, Whitehall. She describes visionary Henry Flagler and his amazing achievements including the Key West Extension, called “the eighth wonder of the world.”
Mary Barr Munroe (1852-1922): Mary Barr Munroe moved from New York City to Coconut Grove in 1886, when the Grove was a mangrove swamp with one small Inn and thirteen wooden shacks made from the boards of shipwrecks. She taught children of color how to read in spite of protests so soon after the Civil War, and she established the Coconut Grove Library with books donated to her by Mrs. Andrew Carnegie. She fell in love with Florida's exotic nature and developed a reputation as an ardent and feisty activist working to preserve the environment, establishing the Southern Tropical Audubon Society, and fighting for the preservation of the egrets. She was mentor to Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Her crowning achievement was the establishment of Royal Palm Park, later renamed Everglades National Park.
Ivy Stranahan (1881-1971): Ivy Stranahan served as mediator for the Seminoles with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She persuaded the Seminoles to move to the land designated for them by President William McKinley in 1898, and founded Friends of The Seminoles to help them to establish a decent life living side-by-side with white society while retaining their own language and customs. To this day, she is called “Watchie Esta Hutrie: Little White Mother to The Seminoles.” She was elected president of the Florida Equal Suffrage Association and made speeches with orator William Jennings Bryan. After the Great Depression of 1929, she badgered the state legislature until they passed the Homestead Exemption Act. Establishing hospitals, libraries, and schools, she was often called “The Battling Belle of Broward.”
JUDY GAIL'S HISTORY TALES include the following:
From The Stone Age to The Information Age—Work & Labor in Story & Song: From cave dwellers, miners, railroad workers, sailors, child laborers to robots and computer technology, find out how work has changed and what it takes to succeed at work today.
Women of Valor: Through story and song, hear about women pioneers to engineers, suffragettes to scientists, who paved the way for women to be free, vote, be educated and work. (You may also request an historic portrayal.)
Of Languages & Troubadours: From Medieval times to the present, hear songs and stories from the French, German, and Hispanic cultures. (Ideal for those who love languages and students studying them.)
From Mackinac to Pontiac -- Michigan Tales & Tunes: Journey into Michigan history through legends, stories of Voyageurs, Native Americans, riddles and songs.
We Have Overcome: Take a journey in story and song from slavery, the Underground Railroad, Civil War, segregation and the Civil Rights Movement to the election of America's first African-American President.
This Land Is Your Land: Songs and Stories True, Tall, and Brave tell of Native Americans, Sailors, Pilgrims, Colonists, the American Revolution, Abolitionists, and the Civil War.
Special Programs Developed for Curriculum/Museum/Other Requests: Judy Gail is masterful at creating programs, portrayals, and speeches on specific topics and for particular venues.
OTHER PROGRAMS Include:
Maidel the Dreidel and Other Jewish Tales and Tunes: From the Old Testament to the Fools of Helm, this program of folktales, holiday stories, and songs from the Jewish tradition is chicken soup for the imagination, heart, and soul.
Tales and Tunes from Around the World: Take a multicultural, international journey to other lands and cultures through their folktales, myths, stories and songs.
Tales With Ancient Answers to Scientific Questions: Based upon Judy's book, Day of the Moon Shadow, this program contrasts how specific questions about nature and the universe are answered scientifically today and how anciently, they were answered through the stories of a variety of cultures.
Ghastly, Beastly Tales: From the Terrible Nungwama to the Yucky Boogie Woman, hear stories and songs that will stick, make you sick, make you cry until you laugh and laugh until you cry.