Livable Futures

Biography

Noreen lived in 22 houses and went to 13 schools by the time she was 14. This was due to her father’s PTSD, following physical and emotional injuries he sustained during WWII. While her family had no money for dance lessons, early on Noreen loved to dance. Her mother once said, “If you were on your death-bed and heard dance music, you would get up and dance.”  After settling in Chicago, she became friends with and learned from dancers and choreographers in Chicago who were part of Mordine & Company Dance Theater, Moming Dance and Arts Center, and Links Hall. Back in Lima, Ohio, her hometown, Noreen drove to Fort Wayne, Indiana to learn Contact Improvisation.  Noreen was introduced to the work of choreographer Liz Lerman whom she then studied with. Lerman included older people alongside more traditional performers to create opportunities for connection and making dances. Noreen, also, studied Theater of the Oppressed with Augusto Boal. She brought these ideas to her work as a community organizer on social justice issues from peace and conflict, to environmental pollution, to food insecurity.  In 2008, she co-founded Local Matters, a central Ohio-based nonprofit, whose mission is to create healthy communities through food education, access, and advocacy. Many community engagement efforts Noreen has led at Local Matters have included ideas gained from Liz Lerman and Augusto Boal.  In 2018, Noreen had the good fortune to work with choreographer Ann Carlson and participated in Symphonic Bodies/Food at the Wexner Center created by Ann in collaboration with food system workers in the Columbus area. 

She brings together her love of dance/movement and community building. She is pleased to be part of a collaboration that encourages anyone, no matter whether trained in dance/movement or not, to explore creative solutions to the daily joys and sorrows of life in these times.  

Q & A

What makes more livable futures for you? 

Building on relationships with family and friends I have been fortunate to have in my life for many years, and being open to new relationships are crucial to sustaining me day-to-day in my personal and professional lives. I have often said, “It is too bad any of us need to do the justice work we are part of, yet, the people in my family, and whom I work with are amazing, and inspire me to want to keep doing this work.” They are intelligent, fun, funny, caring, and creative people. These are characteristics I find necessary. Beauty in all forms - my granddaughter’s sweet, “hullo”, trees, trees, trees!, dancing in the living room with women friends, playing with my silly dog, eating amazing raw honey from a friend’s farm near Columbus, and on and on – gives me gratitude for the world I am fortunate to live in and makes my life more than livable now and in the future.   

What are you reading, viewing, listening to right now?  

I am reading Twyla Tharp’s new book, “Keep it Moving”, suggestions from journalist and essayist, Ann Friedman, articles that come my way via Civil Eats, and a myriad of stories and essays suggested by friends, such as Silence of the Lambs: Unspoken Narrative of Ukrainians As Warning For Americans” by Olha Onyshko, and “James McBride: Historian and Archaeologist of the Miami Valley”. I find much of interest in Brain Pickings, “a cross-disciplinary library of interestingness culling ideas that shed light on what it means to live a good life.” I recently watched a documentary about Linda Ronstadt, “The Sound of My Voice”, and loved it. The PBS airing of the Mark Twain Award given to Dave Chappelle was delightful and moving. I watch a lot of basketball. Sometimes I turn off the sound and play my own music while the game is progressing. It can be like beautiful choreography. I listen regularly to Keith Jarett, and Eric Ahlteen & other local singer-songwriters, otherwise, I go from one singer or songwriter to another – Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Ry Cooder, Youssou N'dour, Tracy Nelson, Ella Fitzgerald, Townes Van Zandt, Steven Halpern, Johnny and Rosanne Cash, etc.  

What practices are sustaining you? 

I am sustained by the love and companionship of family and close friends. Ongoing conversations with them are necessary for me. Having old friends is one of my favorite parts of getting older. My work and colleagues at Local Matters bring me joy every day. Music, art, and dance - the more of it the better for my soul. I listen to music every day. I paint and it makes me happy. Visiting my daughter and her partner in Norway brings me great joy. I love photographs and take or look at them every day. Healthy yummy food and super good chocolate fortify me. Recollections of meals prepared by my friend Colleen and her partner Patrick are easily called up. The birds outside my bedroom window, rain falling, and the wind blowing, heard through that same open window 365 days a year, make my mornings and evenings something I relish. Babies and children, especially my granddaughter Violet’s observations ~ all sustain me daily. Living my life “for the children” gives me more than enough reason to carry on.