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Sophie-girl
ready to go sledding |
My most important
Upcoming Event ...
My Granddaughter, Sophia's, 1st Birthday! February 4, 2008
Did you notice Sophie
has "The Same Smile?"
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Spaghetti Face! |
Sophie is an absolute
beacon of love & light for our family. Everyday, she brings
us joy & laughter with with her various funny faces and
contagious giggles.
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Sophia Jacqueline visiting
Grandma in Florida
October 2007 |
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Now booking radio interviews, personal appearances, speaking
engagements and interviews for 2008.
Attention Book Clubs:
Select The Same Smile for your book club and invite
Susan as a guest speaker.
Contact Susan for available dates.
To Be Announced...
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Books on the Square
471 Angell Street
Providence, RI
June 26, 2007
7:00PM
Susan read excerpts of her story from Ann Fessler's book, "The Girls Who Went Away," along with
2 other "girls" who were interviewed for the book.
There were also audio sequence clips played between the live
readings.
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Events:
The Mothers Project
Written & performed by Celeste
Billhartz
www.themothersproject.com
The Mothers Project was presented at the:
Heart2Heart Retreat
Milwaukee, WI
September 14-16 2007
The Mothers Project is a one-woman show of poems, stories,
songs and images in PowerPoint that tells the stories of mostly
middle class unwed mothers from past and present generations
who were forced to surrender their babies for adoption.
"I want the world to know that most of these girl/mothers
never had a choice, never had anyone offer to help them, and
not one of them got over the loss of her child," says
Celeste Billhartz, singer/songwriter ... and adoptee ... from
Kent, Ohio, who also wrote and produced the show.
The show also introduces the audience to several reunion
stories. Susan Souza and her daughter, Joanne,
wrote about their experiences in The Same Smile ...
a wonderful book about the courage, compassion and commitment
needed to sustain a reunion between a firstmother and her
child taken for adoption. Susan credits their positive reunion
experience on the safe and stable relationship her daughter
Joanne has with her adoptive mother.
"My hope for The Mothers Project is that middle class
families welcome all their grandchildren and that adoptees
understand that they owe their natural mothers four things:
Courage, compassion, courtesy, and commitment...
"I love Susan's book, The Same Smile, because it
tells Susan's story and it provides insight, from Joanne's
perspective, about being an adoptee who is both curious about
and wary of reunion. It tells their truths and it offers hope
to families who are just coming to grips with the need …
and the right ... for mother and daughter or son to be part
of each other's life."
Lina
Eve ... Australian artist and mother painted the "wounded
sunflower" logo designed by Celeste.
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Susan's story was audio taped & photo taken for
the following event:
"Faces of Teen Pregnancy," a multimedia exhibit
presented by the Southcoast
Hospitals' RAPPP program (Responsible Attitudes toward Pregnancy,
Parenting & Prevention)
The Exhibit opened with a wine & cheese reception
on May 2 at Gallery X and will run through June 1,
2007. The gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11
a.m. to 3 p.m. and Thursday, May 10, until 9 p.m. during AHA!
Night.
Location:
Gallery X
169 William Street
New Bedford, MA.
"The Faces of Teen Pregnancy exhibit personalizes
the trials and triumphs of teen pregnancy through the photos
and voices of 24 individuals," said Cindy Guilbeault,
Director of Southcoast Hospitals' RAPPP program. "The
exhibit is meant to raise awareness about the challenges and
effects that teen pregnancy has on all ages and multiple generations."
Using striking black-and-white images accompanied by moving
audio narratives, this documentary style exhibit outlines
the challenges and effects teen pregnancy has on all generations.
The exhibit is produced by Southcoast Hospitals' RAPPP
Program and is free to the public. The photographs were
taken by Kara
J. Gauvin and the audio produced by Paul Martin of Fire
City Productions
In relation to the above mentioned exhibit, Susan was the
opening speaker at:
RAPPP's Teen Pregnancy Conference
Taunton Holiday Inn
Thursday, June 7, 2007
9 a.m.
Booksigning to follow.
This one day conference is designed to help providers and
youth participants understand the challenges adolescents face
in both the past and in the twenty-first century. Once understood,
the conference endeavors to explore ways to meet the needs
of present day adolescents as best we can both individually,
as organizations and as collaborative unions of adolescent
service providers. This conference reflects the Southcoast
Hospitals Group's RAPPP Program's commitment to providing
professional development opportunities for staff, educators,
nurses, social workers and youth leaders by sharing strategies
and facilitating discussion around ways in which adolescents
can be best served in our communities.
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Susan's & Joanne's interview in:
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8/14/2006
Day of People Magazine Interview |
People Magazine
September 18, 2006 Issue
Pg. 159-164
Cover features Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter
Headline:
"In 1968, they were teenage girls, unwed and pregnant. Shunned by family and society at large, like countless women of their generation, they were...FORCED TO GIVE UP THEIR BABIES"
This 4 page article features 3 (long-story) women from the book, "The Girls Who Went Away" by Ann Fessler: Nancy Horgan, Lydia Manderson, and Susan Souza. The article focuses on surrender
and reunion. Each mom is pictured along with her son or daughter.
See below for more information about Ann's book...
Look for Susan's story, "Susan lll", as recorded by Ann Fessler in:
"The Girls Who Went Away"
The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade
by Ann Fessler
Professor - Rhode Island School of Design
True stories that will make you better understand what we (teenage moms) were put through in the unforgiving 50's, 60's & early 70's..
Susan read an excerpt of her story during Ann Fessler's booksigning:
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
6:30 p.m.
Harvard University Bookstore
1256 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA
Available thru Amazon.com
I was fortunate enough to have been chosen to be one of the "girls" interviewed for author, Ann Fessler's, "Everlasting" exhibit (see below), which was the impetus for "The Girls Who Went Away"
"The Girls Who Went Away" is as powerful as it is profound. Read on...
NOTE: During a four hour interview with the artist, Ann Fessler, Susan's true story was audio taped and then recorded in the Women's History Archives at Harvard. You can hear Susan's voice, telling bits and pieces of her emotional story, as part of this historic and extraordinary
exhibit.
Exhibition Opened - Thursday, May 13, 2004
Concluded - Wednesday, June 2, 2004
Locations of future exhibits to be announced.
Description of the New England "Everlasting" Exhibition.
Viewers entered "Everlasting"through a dark corridor illuminated by a video projection at the end of the hallway. The image depicted a never-ending stream of newborn babies being wheeled by nurses though a hospital doorway. As viewers walked to the end of the corridor they
came upon a large room that contained a circle of chairs and an invitation to sit and listen to the surround sound audio composition created from oral history interviews conducted with women from the New England area who had surrendered a child for adoption. The five channel audio
piece, structured like a musical score, created a "conversation" that at times included one or two voices and in other instances a cacophony of voices intended to raise the emotional and auditory pitch to a level that drowns out the individual experiences to represent the hundreds
of thousands of women who found themselves in similar circumstances between the end of WW II and the passage of Roe v. Wade. What was visible/knowable or invisible is addressed metaphorically through the use of lighting. As viewers sat in the chairs they had the option of sitting forward,
making their faces visible to others in the circle, or leaning back until their faces fall outside of the light and disappear.
Listen to Ann Fessler's radio interview about "The Women Who Went Away."
Everlasting - Baltimore
The first "Everlasting" exhibition premiered February/March
2003 at the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore.
This new installation, exhibited with Ann's earlier autobiographical
installation "Close to Home," featured the voices/stories
of seven women from the Baltimore/Washington area. www.mica.edu/everlasting
.
"Susan Mello Souza's story is nothing short of inspirational.
A professional speaker and published memoirist, the Acushnet
woman never fails to elicit an emotional response in her audience
when she shares it. Published in 2002, The Same Smile recounts
the heart-wrenching events surrounding a painful teenage adoption
experience, subsequent reunion, and the loss of a second child
to a fatal illness. Drawing on the wisdom and strength she
gained from living through these painful experiences, Ms.
Mello Souza has made it her life's work to spread a message
of hope and empowerment to women everywhere." South
Coast Learning Network Center
"Susan is a wonderful speaker. Her story is inspiring
to women and families alike. I found Susan's presentation
of The Same Smile very much like the book itself. When
sharing her story, she brings you into her world. Listening
to her will undoubtedly open your heart to the understanding
of the variety of emotions a mother goes through when she
is separated from her child. You can feel her strength as
the story progresses and she begins her search." Vi
Bobola, Reiki Master
Acushnet, MA
Boston, MA
Baltimore, MD
Barrington, RI
Dartmouth, MA
Dorchester, MA
Easton, MA
E. Providence, RI
Fairhaven, MA
Kansas City, MO
Las Vegas, NV
Monteray, CA
Memphis, TN
Milford, MA
New Bedford, MA
Newport, RI
New York, NY
Oakland, CA
Providence, RI
Tampa Bay, FL
Taunton, MA
Williamsburg, VA
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