This is Episode 1, Season 1 of The TMI Project Podcast, Tragedy + Time = Comedy featuring Verna Gillis. It was produced in partnership with Radio Kingson with production assistance from Ida Hakkila, Nate Brogan, Marlan Barry and Manuel Blas.

Dr. Verna Gillis has a storied career recording and producing multicultural albums with famous world musicians like Daneile Ponce. She founded Soundcape, a jazz club in New York City, a musical home to nurture the careers of countless musicians. In this premiere episode of The TMI Project Podcast we take a deep dive into Verna’s life story and discover that through grief Verna found her voice as a writer and “sit down” comedian. 

Useful Links: 

• Verna’s Website
• Verna Gillis on Wikipedia
• Bradford Graves on Wikipedia
• Daniel Ponce on Wikipedia
• Roswell Rudd on Wikipedia
• Soundscape on Wikipedia
• Verna’s albums on Smithsonian Folkways
• The Muse of the Melting Pot, The New York Times, April 1990
• Awesome and Gruesome by the Olders
   

Today is March 14, 2020 and we’re scheduled to launch the TMI Project Podcast on April 1 – two weeks away. Just in time for the COVID 19 pandemic. The world has changed overnight. 

Right now, at the moment I’m recording this, there are more than 150 thousand cases worldwide. But that number will be higher by the time you hear this. Markets are crashing.

People are losing their jobs, kids can’t go to school. The psychic and economic toll –well, we don’t know yet how bad it can get because all of this is beyond what we’ve allowed ourselves to imagine, except in the movies. And at the moment when we really need to find each other. To come together and talk and share stories –we must isolate ourselves to keep those who are most vulnerable safe. That’s the most striking irony to me. When we most need each other, we have to shut ourselves away.

So this is my message in a bottle. During this time, TMI Project will remain dedicated to helping you tell your stories and we’ll help you stay connected even if we can’t be in the same room with each other right now. I don’t know what things will look like on April 1 when we officially launch. Like so many other organizations, we had to cancel our launch party.

Instead, we’re going to try an experiment and invite people to come together online. We’re going to do what we do best – offer a mini TMI Project workshop with spontaneous writing and then daring ourselves to read it in community. Warts and all. It’s scary, it’s exhilarating, it’s cathartic. And for the first time, we’re going to do it virtually.

So if you’re sick, or you’re a caretaker, or just bored from the drudgery of social distancing, check out the website for details and join us.

If you haven’t yet, subscribe to our podcast wherever you get your podcasts so you’ll get a notification on April 1 when our first series, Tragedy Plus Time Equals Comedy launches with an episode about the amazing Verna Gillis. 

Over the course of the series every storyteller manages to find some levity as they reflect on the most surreal and harrowing experiences of their lives. I think there is something to learn from each of them right now. 

In the meantime, stay safe, wash your hands, try not to panic, leave some toilet paper on the shelves for your neighbors and if you’ve got something on your mind, something that’s weighing you down – write about it. You’ll feel better. 

You can stay up to date on our new online offerings by following us on social media or visiting our website at TMIProject.org

Season 1 of The TMI Project Podcast, Tragedy + Time = Comedy, will be released on April 1, 2020 with eight episodes, including:

• An ethnomusicologist facing her grief through stand up comedy.
• A gas station clerk once consumed with rage finds her true voice.
• A fan-fiction writer who wakes up in Benedictine Hospital Psych Ward.

Over ten years, TMI Project has collected nearly 2,000 stories. And now, in The TMI Project Podcast, we’re releasing some of our favorites, along with profiles of the brave and fascinating people who got on stage and shared the stories they were most afraid to tell. It’s about the stories behind the secrets, and what happened next. Season one: Tragedy + Time = Comedy launches April 1, 2020.

Useful Links:

• Website: https://www.tmiproject.org/podcast/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tmiproject
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tmiproject
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tmiproject/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSe3UtpOEzhQG03PzwVRUqA
• Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/tmiproject

Episode Contributors:

Eva Tenuto, TMI Project Co-founder, Executive Director, & Podcast Co-host

Micah Blumenthal, TMI Project Workshop Leader & Podcast Co-host

Hayley Downs, TMI Project Podcast Producer

Anchor Episode: Verrna Gillis, Storyteller

Dusty Childress, Storyteller

Sam Osterhout, Storyteller

Erin Baretto, Storyteller

Erica Chase Salerno, Storyteller

Margarita Meyendorff, Storyteller

Maria Elena DeValle, Storyteller

Markel Mosley, Storyteller

Blake Pfeil, Operations Manager, TMI Project

Sara DeRose, External Affairs Director, TMI Project