performances

"Legendary" Club Passim - Harvard Square Harvard University Three Apples Storytelling Festival - Featuring the "Turkey Story" Lesley College - Featuring the "Buddha on the Bus series" University of Massachusetts at Amherst Natick Center for the Arts Royal Bookstore Bestsellers Cafe Acton Bookstore Andover Bookstore Somerville Library Medford Library Foozles Bookstore Wild Harvest Somerville Community Access Television Cambridge Community Television Boston Community Television Tufts University Radio Red Bones Poetry and Story Cafe The Somerville Growing Center Cambridge Free Radio Allston Free Radio

Finding The Courage To Create Workshop Series The University of Massachusetts Simmons Collge - "Sharing The Fire" The Enterprise Entrepreneurial Center '97,'98,'99,'00 The Commonwealth Coporation - for Entrepreneurs Somerville Community Access Televisoin The Somerville Library The Medford Library Tufts University - Ongoing

Featured Stories Spirit of Change Magazine Cooks Source Magazine The Boston Globe '98,'99 The Somerville Journal The Somerville News Medford Transcript Revere Record Advocate Newspapers Arlington Advocate The Marshfield Mariner SCAT LANES and others

Leader of The "Finding The Courage To Create Workshop series, Peggy Melanson (Chef Nostalgia) specializes in transforming difficulties into humor. Her workshops teach "You really can do it!" Her credentials are, Workshop presenter, author, professional columnist, photojournalist, television producer and performing artist. She wrote, produced and hosted Cable TV shows, "Food For Thought and "Points To Ponder." She also produced and directed the acclaimed "Attainable Goals-The Sunsetters" documentary about a group of teenage street performers from the '70 and '80's. Peggy writes for several newspapers, Spirit of Change and Cook's Source magazines. She was chosen to present "Finding The Courage To Create" at the prestigious 18th annual "Sharing The Fire" Storytelling Conference at Simmons College in March 1999 and at the UMass Pioneer Valley Enterprise Center. She has taught at Somerville Community Access Television and local libraries. A grant from The Massachusetts Council for The Arts gave her another opportunity to present this inspiring course to fledgling writers at the Somerville Library. Peggy has performed as "Chef Nostalgia" Storyteller from Boston at The legendary Club Passim, the Three Apples Storytelling Festival, and the Natick Center for the Arts. Her ongoing workshops are available at Tufts University Administration Building in Somerville, Massachusetts

"You enabled me to experiment with telling stories, to write regularly with confidence and to develop a new vocation." from workshop graduate and newspaper columnist, Bruce Leblang. "Your natural style... engages the audience immediately.... Your interplay of humor and humanity was as beautifully integrated as was your sense of timing," from Master Storyteller for Young Audiences, Jo-Ann Wangh. "You had us not only believing in our abilities, but introducing ourselves as writers. As the workshop came to an end, we walked away equipped with the tools of our new trade as "writers." from Columnist, Barbara Piazza