Month: November 2017

LETTERS READ: Veterans Day

Benjamin

Saturday, November 11th, 2017
6:30 to 8:30pm
Bastion
1901 Mirabeau Avenue, New Orleans
Admission is free and open to the public.
Listen to a recording of the performance here.

LETTERS READ: Veterans Day strives to find the little moments where lives of military service members and civilians intersect.

Readings focus on love letters from The National World War II Museum, letters from United States Army Air Force officer Francis I. Cervantes (courtesy of THNOC Williams Research Center) to his mother while training for and serving in WWII and courting his new bride, and correspondence between the all-woman World War I initiative that organized, administrated, and served in the Newcomb Relief Unit overseas.

The evening features emcee Chris Kaminstein, Co-Artistic Director of Goat in the Road Productions (GRP), with original music composed and presented by Peter J. Bowling, also ensemble member of GRP. Readers include Ashton Akridge, thespian and burlesque historian, and former GRP ensemble member, Mack Guillory III.

LETTERS READ gratefully presents the Veterans Day event at Bastion, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the intentionally designed community for returning warriors and families in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans.

The above image was used as an illustration for 2017 LETTERS READ: Veterans Day. It shows a child’s miniature replication of  U.S. Army wool, roll collar overcoat similar to the original “olive drab” outer garment first issued 1927, revised 1939 and 1942, and issued to every soldier along with their service uniform through and after World War II. This coat, and accessories, were made in approximately 1945 by the wife of an army officer during WWII for their young son in a time when patriotism was a strong American sentiment.