Sing Stranger

Sing, Stranger is a comprehensive historical anthology of a century of American poetry written in Yiddish and now translated into English for the first time. This anthology reveals both an amazing achievement of Jewish creative work and an important body of American poetry.

From Out of a Dark Corner is a true story of the work I did in a halfway house for young people with major mental illness. I organized a musical group there and met a man with a severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, (O.C.D.), who had a beautiful voice and was living in the facility. He had been in and out of state hospitals for over twenty years, taking medication, which caused him to act very drugged. He was erroneously diagnosed with schizophrenia from several psychiatrists over the years and was destined to live a terrible, institutionalized life. I had just graduated Florida International University with a degree in psychology and applied whatever knowledge I had about mental illness in order to help him. At the time I was married to another man but later divorced him because I fell in love with Marty. After reading Dr. Leonard Cammers book, Freedom from Compulsion, I diagnosed Martys problem correctly and spent years helping him with his repetitive rituals and excessive hand washing. I was also able to help him relive his childhood with his mentally sick mother until he got much better. I chose the title, From Out of a Dark Corner because Marty spent day after day sitting in his bedroom, in a corner, not doing much of anything except attending the halfway house. He also helped me to leave my dark corner because of the fear I had that I, too, would suffer psychotic episodes like my poor mother did. Today Marty doesnt take any medication for O.C.D and lives a normal life, socializing with my friends and singing professionally.

"The story begins in Puritan New England, with its many repressions. Through its scenes wanders a fellow out of legend, one Barnaby Goodchild, who is imprisoned in the stocks in the first scene, and condemned by Parson Killjoy to go singing and dancing through the ages. Barnaby moves blithely with American music through history, bringing his singing ways to a Civil War campfire, to Texas of railroading days, to the Gay Nineties and the Roaring Twenties, and into the world of today. Only three performers appear throughout the show; the rest of the parts may be cast as desired" -- Publisher's description.