Welcome to the Parsons Memorial Lodge summer series.
This year we celebrate 29 years of summer series programs within
this building, the Parsons Memorial Lodge. I'd like to welcome you, to invite you
to picture yourself standing in this room
with me. My name is Karen Amstutz. I'm the supervising ranger here in
Tuolumne Meadows for the interpretive program which includes
fortunately for me the Parsons Memorial Lodge summer series
and I'm standing here in this beautiful building
built of johnson peak porphyry, a granite that is from just up the
mountain, and the lodgepole pine beams and this building was built in 1915
by the architects Maybeck and White
made to look like it belongs in
this place and it does. Right beside the soda springs
within Tuolumne Meadows noon attacks or unglaciated sharp peaks all around
the meadow the river flowing through and this building holding so many
stories. This is the 29th annual as I mentioned
and we are celebrating the last program today which I will announce in a minute
and i want to help you to understand why this building is here
on a national park site. Well this was once sierra club property
and in 1971 the sierra club after having this building which was
made to house ideas to give birth to
conversations about conservation and about the
importance of wilderness many monumental conversations were had
by many people within these walls. It was meant to be a gathering place, a reading
room, a a place where ideas could hatch and
move on into the world and hopefully change
things for the better and in 1971 the sierra club sold this
building and the property the soda springs
property which included a campground some other historic buildings to
the park service the National Park Service
has kept it open intermittently through these years not in winter of course when
we might have many feet of snow on the ground but now since 1992
when Margaret Eissler who was a child here
on this property with her parents who were caretakers of the campground
Margaret Eissler thought we should have a summer series a series of speakers
of artists and musicians so that we can bring to life these conversations once
again. And so I am humbly taking over
from where Margaret left off four years ago and
we've had many voices within this room. [sigh] and we are celebrating stories today.
Inside of a story today we are feeling all of the things we're missing I'm
missing a room full of people that I would be talking to
at this point a room full of people that would be invited in
for all to be invited in to a program as we do every weekend for the summer
series and enjoying the speakers, the music
the poetry, that happened here. Today though
I'm thinking about all the people I want to thank
so that we can be here even in this virtual way.
I'd like to thank the National Park Service especially my staff
and the social media people who get the programs from here on to the
networks that you are sitting and enjoying the
programs through today. Lots of work is done to take things from
here to those places far beyond these walls.
I also want to thank
um all of the presenters that have come
here the videographer, who's not here today but
um Ryan Christensen and Bristlecone Media who
did the work to get the programs that we recorded live here
today to i would like to thank Jim Kocus who's doing the broadsides for the
poetry festival and helped me out with a lot of the
media. I'd like to thank all of the people who
have come to the programs over the years and the donors especially
the donors of the Yosemite Conservancy who are absolutely integral to all of
the programs we do here in the park many of the programs we do here in the park
so with that i would like to introduce today's presenter Jay Leeming.
Jay is a storyteller. What does that mean? Storytellers take stories from
the moment they're in or stories from long long ago stories we have
been privy to and stories we don't even know that have
influenced us in some way along down the lines.
Storytellers our channels through which we can understand
the cultures we live in and the times we're living in.
So storytelling is is an art, it's as ancient as humans.
I want to ask you if any of you out there are storytellers.
Thinking about that for a moment have any of you talked on the phone today
and told about an event maybe you told a story even with your thumbs
somehow to people that aren't there and you shared
something that happened to you that is storytelling.
Storytelling is an art that has been curated
through the years thousands and thousands of years.
I love to imagine the stories that were told right here
that were shared among the peoples who thousands of years ago
came up to these meadows to escape the heat
to maybe get away from fires and smoke and to share camaraderie and family
among among the meadows here. Storytelling
is a way that we keep alive lessons that we learn keep alive ideas
and I'm really counting on us as humans today
to take stories to heart to take what we are learning
from these times whether it's from a pandemic
or from how we wish the world was how we hope the world can be
and relating that on down through generations
so the stories Jay is about to relate to us today
i really hope that some of you are sitting with others that you can share
these stories with and that you can think about the context
they were made in which was many hundreds of years ago in
a land far far away. But what are the lessons hidden
deep in these about love about equity
about forests and wilderness about relationships and so many other
things. so i'd like to introduce Jay Leeming who
will be talking to us telling us stories in his storyteller
magical way and Jay is also a poet
you can find his stories and poetry if you do a little search for Jay Leeming.
He's coming to us today all the way from Ithaca, New York where he lives with his
incredibly enchanting family. And Jay has spent five summers here in
Tuolumne Meadows as a naturalist as a poet and as an artist so i'd like
to welcome Jay Leeming and thank you all friends of
Parsons Memorial Lodge for joining us today.
Sit back and enjoy the stories.