people-from-charleston

"All ages, classes, races, called her blessed."

"Our hospital work is entirely among the poor, ignorant, and superstitious class of colored people of Charleston and its counties,” consisting mostly of those “who believe in all kinds of signs and conjuration."

"That at all the times hereinafter mentioned said claimant was duly licensed as a pilot of the port of New York to pilot vessels in and out of said port by way of Sandy Hook; that said claimant is of the age of fifty-six years, and was born at Charleston, in the State of South Carolina, on the 9th day of September, 1826; that between the 13th day of April, 1861, and the 9th day of April, 1865, both inclusive, he resided in Brooklyn, in the county of Kings, and State of New York, and at present resides in said city of Brooklyn; that he has never been naturalized in any other country than the United States nor ever taken any steps towards being so naturalized; that at the time of the loss and injury hereinafter mentioned he was entitled to the protection of the United States in the premises, and did at all times during the war of the rebellion and at all other times bear true allegiance to the United States."

"Joseph Henderson, one of the oldest, wealthiest, and most widely known pilots in the New York Sandy Hook service, died yesterday of peritonitis at his home in Brooklyn."

"Porgy lived in the Golden Age. Not the Golden Age of a remote and legendary past; nor yet the chimerical era treasured by every man past middle life, that never existed except in the heart of youth; but an age when men, not yet old, were boys in an ancient, beautiful city that time had forgotten before it destroyed."

"You could not give me toys in those bleak days; So when my playmates proudly boasted theirs, You caught me to the shelter of your arms, And taught me how to laugh away my tears."

"Here lies a spendthrift who believed That only those who spend may keep; Who scattered seeds, yet never grieved Because a stranger came to reap."

"It is cruel for a woman with her man gone, An' the younguns allus hungry, an' winter comin' on."

"Compassionate the mountains rise Dim with the wistful dimness of old eyes That, having looked on life time out of mind, Know that the simple gift of being kind Is greater than all the wisdom of the wise."

"Uncertainty is even more stressful than the certainty of pain. Get clear on where you stand financially, and make that plan. That's financial self-care."

"If you’re not making some notable mistakes along the way, you’re certainly not taking enough business and career chances."

"I talk a lot about kindness and gratitude and how those two things can bring us into the present moment and how present moment awareness is key to being not only a good artist but a good person. And we don't just get hired because we have this tremendous talent, we get hired because we're the whole package. People can sense that throughout the day we are in the practice of taking care of others and certainly for a new work you know you're going to be in the room developing with this team, this family, for years and years and years so the energy that you bring into the room has to be something that you practice throughout the day."

"There's a lyric in our opening number where we sing, "I'm an islander." And they heard this and leapt to their feet and started clapping and crying. And the cast just started bawling. We didn't know what to do. It was so beautiful. They really - they gave us the OK to come to Broadway. They really kind of blessed the show."

"To play a living person is one thing, but then to have that person present so often, and I can see her, it's trickier than anything I've ever done…Her hands were over her face, and she was sobbing openly, she said. I'm not a robot -- I could feel something inside of me start to break. And yet, I have a job -- she remained stoic through those five days, and I'm in those five days."

"I actually went to visit her in her home in Florida, in her vacation home. I got to spend some time with her away from Come From Away, away from the theater, away from interviews, and it was very, very dear. We had long deep talks about our feelings, about our families, about how we move through the world. It really helped me come back into the role this time."

"Her off-the-cuff commentary was so incredibly relaxed and natural (and sometimes intimately personal) that one would think that Jenn Colella was performing to a room full of friends at her very own birthday party, as opposed to a room full of paying guests in a supper club."

"It was challenging. If you fail in standup you can’t blame anyone but yourself. But it definitely increased my confidence and now there’s really nothing that scares, frightens me in terms of performance."

"It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made. I did 1,180 performances, and I’ve fallen in love with the company. It was a career-defining moment that helped me become a more well-rounded artist. But I really enjoy travel, and I enjoy creating my own shows."

"The sight of Colella's onstage relationship with the band was something slightly resembling a dodo video of a houseful of puppies at play ... and speaking of puppies, the personal highlight for this dog-obsessed hooman was watching Ms. Colella's eyes tear up while singing about the importance of dogs in our lives."

"Colella has carried several short-lived Broadway shows on her back. It's fitting, then, that she earned her first Tony nomination for "Come From Away," in which she plays Beverley Bass, the real-life pilot who on Sept. 11, 2001, carried dozens to refuge."

"It's not just that Jenn Colella puts on a great show, that she is talented, that she is a hard worker, it's the commitment to bringing all the parts of herself to her storytelling, the willingness to lay bare her soul and humanity...It is, apparently, not part of Jenn Colella's genetic makeup to hide herself from the people, and that is where her success as a concert performer resoundingly resonates."

"Stand-up created a platform to weave a story together and trust my own ideas… it gave me a deep sense of bravery as a performer. To be on stage and have a joke fail miserably, and realizing that the world continues to spin. I can get them back in the next breath."

"Doing stand-up, for me, created a deep sense of courageousness. There’s no one else to blame if your screw up. The moments you’re failing are quite devastating. But you realize you can win the audience back with the next joke if you hold on and keep working."

"And you know. Jenn Colella. that we all think you are hella fine. You know I'm not alone in this belief."

"It isn't just that Jenn Colella's show deserves praise, it isn't just that Jenn Colella belongs on a list of the best, it's that she belongs on a list all her own. I don't believe I have ever seen an artist work a room the way that this singing actress does, and that's what had me gobsmacked."

"You will fall in love with Kiki, a little four-year-old...played marvelously by an adult, Jenna Colella, steals every scene she romps through in Kiki Baby...Ms. Colella is wonderful, a sensation. She is dressed like a little child, and acts like one, with a deep frown or effervescent glee on her face. She is so good at the impersonation that you really think she’s young, although she is about 5’7”."

"I'm honored that creators trust me to collaborate on their babies. It touches me deeply. Plus I get to start from a blank slate and play. Of all the characters I’ve ever played, Anne is the closest to who I am in the world. It makes me feel very vulnerable but I love it. I’m wide open to this experience."

"What it’s helped me remember is that it’s all a crapshoot — theater. All of the variables that have to be in place for it to be a success, it’s like an alchemy that has to happen. It’s rare that it does, and it’s a reminder to be grateful for each and every moment. So now, every rehearsal, every time I walk into my stage door, I say thank you three times. Because I know that it’s just for now. It’s fleeting."

"A hug is a tribute to connection between two humans."

"For audiences to discover that kindness is accessible at all times, not just in the wake of tragedy. That we all have the capacity to be kind, that it is a practice. That it is there just waiting for us whenever we choose to grab it."

"A captivating adult actor, Colella is utterly believable in the role of a four-year-old celebrity singer. Rather than bounding about with child-like abandon or producing high-pitched "little girl" speech, she talks very quietly, yet firmly, pauses a lot, stands still and tenses her fingers—this is a kid trying to be taken seriously...Colella is side-splittingly funny, never cloying, and incredibly lovable—even when Kiki turns into a monstrously spoiled brat."

"…When I was 47 I returned to modelling (Ed: for Revlon as well) and I asked that my photos shouldn’t be retouched. Women stopped me on the street and told me that for a long time they felt ignored and invisible and seeing me in magazines made them feel that they weren’t invisible anymore…"

"…I looked the word up in the dictionary – I have had little formal instruction, what I know I have learned by reading, travelling, picking the right friends and the right lovers – and I told myself that I have always persevered..."

"I was attracted to money. I was attracted to the idea of doing what I wanted to do, which was not being a little Southern girl like little Southern girls were for the last, you know, 300 years, but to instead see what it was like to go all over the world and what it was like to be with different people in different places and to see what their lives were like..."

"They have a lot of sayings in Charleston (Hutton's hometown), and one of them is, "beauty is as beauty does." And in order to stay alive and make a bunch of money, I had to hopefully do both. But I had to let the beauty thing go. Beauty is as beauty does."

"Fiction is something that I've always wanted to write. I think that I give myself a break when I write fiction. And that's not to take anything away from people that write fiction, because I know that it's just as taxing, and there's so much involved with that. But for me, I write poems because I have to, and I write stories because I want to. When I'm writing stories, I tend to write stories when, like right now, I'm writing a lot of stories because I'm trying to get away from this collection of poems. It's just killing me. But, that's kind of what it is for me."

"The setting, with all of its contradictions, is crucial. The land provides a deceptive promise of freedom, yet also presents itself as a burden. I’m drawn to these contradictions. They feed the emotional intensity of the novel…"

"Once I wrote poems, I found that I was able to piece together individual moments that would, I’d hoped, sometimes compound. The line was the most important thing to me—that and the music it produced."

"I think it’s relative to the story you’re writing. Some novels are filled with summary and some are filled with scenes. Others are a beautiful, confusing mix, of course. Ultimately, I wanted to write a novel that I’d want to read later."

"One of my only regrets is that I was never able to fall in love"

"I have no friends even though I am cool."

"Am I evil? I don't think I am. I'm no more evil than the black supremacist that killed 5 police officers in Dallas. You'll remember that Obama qualified/justified his actions in front of the ded's families directly afterwards."

"I would say that in this case the prosecution, along with anyone else who hates me, are the ones who have been misled."

"Throughout this whole trial you've heard a lot about hate and hatred, and how much hatred I’m filled with and how vast my hate was. Well I don't like what black people do. If I was really filled with how much hate I allegedly am, wouldn’t I just say yes? Why would I lie about that? It wouldn’t make any sense."

"I feel pity that I had to give up my life because of a situation that should never have existed."

"I have no choice. I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me."

"I say it is not, in my judgment, unconstitutional, for the following reasons, in which I mean briefly to answer to the call that has been made upon me: It appears by the Journal of the Convention that formed the Constitution of the United States, that I was the only member of that body that ever submitted the plan of a constitution completely drawn in articles and sections; and this having been done at a very early state of their proceedings, the article on which now so much stress is laid, and on the meaning of which the whole of this question is made to turn, and which is in these words: "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities in every State," having been made by me, it is supposed I must know, or perfectly recollect, what I meant by it. In answer, I say, that, at the time I drew that constitution, I perfectly knew that there did not then exist such a thing in the Union as a black or colored citizen, nor could I then have conceived it possible such a thing could have ever existed in it; nor, notwithstanding all that has been said on the subject, do I now believe one does exist in it."

"The legislature of the United States shall pass no law on the subject of religion nor touching or abridging the liberty of the press."

"No; no; not a sixpence."

"You shouldn't hear the guitar by itself. It should be part of the drums so it sounds like the drummer is playing chords -- like the snare is in A or the hi-hat in D minor. You only notice the guitar when it's not there."