Kettle Pond presents Master Storyteller, Marc Levitt's, Soup and Stories, on October 16th

2008-10-08T15:13:00.001-04:00

As green visions artist at Kettle Pond Visitor Center, Marc Levitt, master storyteller, writer and film maker, has been busy collecting and sifting through stories regarding the Ninigret

Wildlife Refuge in Charlestown, Rhode Island. On Thursday, October 16th, at Kettle Pond Visitor Center, Levitt will weave together selections from the oral histories he collected during the summers months from Navy pilots, South County farmers, fishermen, Narragansett, archeologists and biologists. The evening event, Soup and Stories, which begins at 6:30 p.m., is a fundraiser and an opportunity for the public to hear his work in progress. Delicious soups and salads made from the local harvest will accompany Levitt’s rich palette of local history. Tickets are 35.00 and can be obtained by registering at Kettle Pond Visitor Center or calling, Ana Flores, Green Visions Director, at the center, 401 364-9124 ex 42. All funds raised will go towards the project which is scheduled to be completed by August of 2009.

Levitt’s project will become a sound portrait of the National Refuge’s rich human, and natural history,which the public can use on self guided walks,This is the second project by the Rhode Island U.S. and Wildlife Service which uses the arts to interpret the history of a Rhode Island refuge. Ana Flores, who came to Kettle Pond Visitor Center as artist in residence in 2006 funded by the Rhode Island Foundation, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the The Friends of the RI National Wildlife Refuges, created the first sculptural installation, “Punctuating Place,” along the trails near the center. That project which addressed different eras of human history at the site, increased audience visitation at the center by thirty percent. Since that project’s success Flores has gone on to create “Green Visions” at the center which provides more opportunities for community collaboration on environmental issues and invites artists to learn from, listen and respond to the stories in the surrounding refuges. Levitt is the first artist in this new initiative, his research over the summer was made possible by the RI Humanities Council and US Fish and Wildlife Service.

One of Levitt’s recent projects was the making of the film,”Stories in Stone,” based on the Narrangansett stone building tradition. The poetic and insightful film about a tradition that has been sustained by the Narragansett people for centuries was featured on PBS. Levitt is also heard frequently on WRNI, Rhode Island’s NPR station, as host of “Action Speaks.” For more on Levitt’s work visit: www.marclevitt.org