Thomas DeLapp
Wintertime in Eau Claire came hard and fast last week, tossing new snow and cold temperatures at us just two days after it was a balmy 65 degrees. Luckily for us, this signals that the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild’s favorite holiday event: Sound & Stories: Joy to the Word is less than a month away!
Combining spoken word stories with festive music from the Eau Claire UKE Klub, Joy to the Word is a cozy holiday get-together. Bundle up and trundle down to the Pablo Center on December 15 to share some cheer with the CVWG. This year’s readers are Allyson Loomis, Nicole Kronzer, Justin Patchin, and Ken Syzmanski — all ready to deliver some stellar seasonal stories.
Syzmanski, Eau Claire Writer-in-Residence, and Joy to the Word veteran will share a family story set to live music by Derick Black. Szymanski’s 81-year-old uncle, he explained, still owns and runs a Christmas tree farm. Customers pick out trees, and he will deliver them straight to their living rooms.
Kronzer, an Eau Claire native who now lives in Minneapolis, is returning to share a story about her love of historic homes.
“My best friend and I love going to historic homes whenever we visit a city,” Kronzer said. “She lives in Milwaukee, and I live in Minneapolis, which is way too far away. So sometimes we’ll meet in the middle, in some small town and then we’ll just have a long weekend in a town we’ve never been to.”
Historic home exploration ties in deeply to Kronzer’s forthcoming second novel, The Roof Over Our Heads, whose main character’s family lives in and takes care of a historic home (based on the James J. Hill house in St. Paul).
One of the reasons historic homes so engage Kronzer is the importance of understanding history itself, especially the overlooked roles of women during now-romanticized times like the Victorian era and the Gilded Age.
In comparison to Europe, Kronzer said, “where an Aldi could actually be a two-thousand-year-old castle,” American architecture and history are much more recent and quickly forgotten. Historic homes are one of our few places to connect with that history.
“These largely female spaces are some of the only actual [historical sites] we have in America, but because they are female spaces, we discount them,” Kronzer said. “But they’re vitally important.”
Maybe a trip through historic homes doesn’t sound particularly holiday-centric, but it’s all about connection and love — perfect for Joy to the Word.
“I can’t even begin to explain how happy making this is, coming back to Eau Claire and being involved in the CVWG. It has filled this hole in my heart that I didn’t know was there. They say you can’t go home again, but I’m coming home in a new way. ”
“I can’t even begin to explain how happy making this is, coming back to Eau Claire and being involved in the CVWG,” Kronzer said. “It has filled this hole in my heart that I didn’t know was there. They say you can’t go home again, but I’m coming home in a new way. This isn’t who I was when I left Eau Claire. Everyone has been so accepting and loving and generous. You look at Roof, you look at Unscripted [Kronzer’s first novel]: love and belonging are really the backbone of everything I write. It's just so special, being accepted and loved by your hometown.”
As Syzmanski sagely put it, there’s just something about the holidays that makes people crave stories. New ones, old ones, and even the same stories year after year. It’s being together and celebrating that makes the season.
“I just love the combination of music and the spoken word, “Syzmanski said. “They just elevate each other. As the universal language that music is, they’re just a natural fit together. If it’s all music, it can be one-dimensional. If it’s all story, it can be one-dimensional. Together, it’s magic.”
The CVWG Sound & Stories: Joy to the Word is at 7 pm on December 15th at the Pablo Center. Buy tickets online at the Pablo Center website.