Meryl Murman
Slightly Askew

Meryl Murman may have grown up in Lakewood, but her work has taken her far afield. After graduating from Magnificat High, she has performed and studied Zulu in South Africa, she has served as assistant to the artistic director at NYC's legendary performance art venue P.S. 122, and now, as artistic director of NYC's Slighty Askew, she is producing multi-city educational community work in Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Austin and the Birdtown neighborhood of Lakewood. Working with up to 25 high school students from all around NEO, Murman and her group have conducted monthly workshops teaching film, sound, graphic arts, animation, photography and movement. In the Birdtown neighborhood, they interviewed residents, drawing from them their oral histories and family stories, using taped interviews as departure points to create improvs, poetry, dance and performance. They'll be back in June studying music, then creating a documentary film in July, and individual film shorts in August. Cool Cleveland's Thomas Mulready tagged onto one of their workshops in Birdtown and spoke with Meryl about the genesis of her art, the multidisciplinary nature of her work, and the crazy travel schedule they maintain. http://www.SlightlyAskew.org (:divend:)