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Cultural Achievement Award Yarnslingers

Ramona Jan

 

Ramona Jan epitomizes cultural achievement as a multi-media artist, writer, musician, art teacher, puppeteer, Callicoon historian, and storyteller as well as her colorful background as a 1970s New Wave punk rocker and a pioneering female audio engineer who still performs music today.

 

She was a 2006 finalist on HGTV’s “Design Star”, appeared on the TV show “Wife Swap” as Art Mom, has had at least one song written about her courtesy of The Ramones, and was the subject of numerous music publications seeking insight into her experiences. She is a published author and the Tuesday humor columnist for the award winning Sullivan County Democrat under the byline “Ramona’s Ramblings”.

 

Believing that a great way to hone her own writing skills was to hear how others craft their pieces, Ramona founded Yarnslingers in 2011 as a performing writers’ group. She remains its founding director.

 

Yarnslingers are defined as people who tell fantastic true stories. The fluid membership is open to both experienced and novice memoirists with no meetings, dues, or critiques. Participants are simply given a common theme to write about in the first person and the forum to read their stories in front of a live audience.

 

Yarnslingers continue to do free performances at venues all over the river valley and beyond, engaging and inspiring audiences while fostering self-expression and strengthening the empathic power of communities.