Dear Kids & Parents,
Welcome again to ShooflyAudio.
Our Shoofly journey began in the early 1990s. We remember one particular moment, when we were driving with our young son, Harry, to visit his grandparents in New Jersey. During that long car ride (which began in Carrboro, North Carolina), we were continually fumbling with the radio dial, trying to find some fun programming or music. At one point, we happened upon a poet reading from her own work. It was magic! We all quieted down and found ourselves drawn into the poet’s world, created with her words, her images, her voice. Later that day, we couldn’t stop talking excitedly about how we might be able to share that experience with children — our own and others. Thus, Shoofly: An Audiomagazine for Children was born!
In 1994 we published our first issue on cassette, featuring stories, poems, and songs from authors and musicians from across the country. Our audiomagazine was published four times a year, and was mailed to subscribers, some as far away as Australia. And although Shoofly soon gathered multiple national awards and critical acclaim, our most important critics always remained our son, Harry, and later his little sister, Hayley.
In the spring of 1999, however, our lives were changed forever when Arlene suffered a devastating illness, one that would leave her not only physically challenged at the time, but also permanently blind. We redirected our focus on Arlene’s recovery and our family’s adjustment to a different way of life. Although it was impossible for us to continue with Shoofly at that point (we suspended publication in the summer of 1999), we were continually buoyed and inspired by the remarkably kind letters we received from subscribers and friends of Shoofly.
Happily, Arlene got well and, just as importantly, she successfully met the difficult and life-altering challenge of her vision loss. But as our friend the storyteller Joel ben Izzy often claims, “Curses can be blessings,” and Arlene found that her blindness redirected and renewed her attention to the spoken word, to music, to sound itself… and again to Shoofly.
Over the past few years we have heard from so many folks requesting Shoofly tapes that we decided it just might be a good idea to reissue these recordings.
So we present you here what we began so many years ago — our labor of love, Shoofly.
Arlene & Jack |
