Resident Reflections: Amplifying the Hidden Gems of Our Community by Carol Anthony
As we were new seniors with growing medical challenges and no children to look after us (or tell us what to do), we embarked on a serious search for a more supportive “retirement” home.
After a year of exhaustive (and exhausting) research and traveling to visit senior living communities in New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, we discovered and embraced St. John’s in Rochester. We moved here in June 2024 and are grateful to be part of such a welcoming and vibrant community!
We’ve met so many special people at St. John’s. Some have had impressive or “high stakes” careers or have traveled all over the world and made a difference in remarkable ways. Others just have fascinating stories or ideas to share. There are many talented visual artists here at St. John’s Meadows, as well as next door at Brickstone by St. John’s, another independent living community. However, what I discovered among the truly hidden gems of our community were its writers.
I also discovered that although we have a wonderful social recreation program at St. John’s, there really was not a program that focused on presenting the work of our resident writers. Social Recreation Manager Kim Bidleman started a “Writers Circle” group facilitated by Brickstone resident and published author Denise Thompson-Slaughter, which still meets informally to discuss and critique one another’s work. These gatherings were the catalyst and inspiration for what was to become the ‘Sage and Lantern’ Literary Magazine at St. John’s.
I wanted to develop this initiative by creating two things:
(1) A way to showcase original creative writing by and for residents
(2) An ongoing resident-run entertainment program that could be accessible (e.g., on Sunday afternoons or evenings) when there were fewer other activities or programs available.
The idea was to get the community excited about literature—listening to literature, reading literature, and ‘living’ it in their own lives. Having worked professionally in various music and arts event production and promotion roles, I was intrigued by the possibility of a fresh approach to the literary magazine concept and how to best present it.
At first, creating a website/digital blog/ezine that would serve this purpose seemed like the logical direction, but Social Recreation suggested using our internal TV Channel 2494 technology as a platform for the magazine. So, essentially, the literary magazine would be a “movie zine” and would be experienced just as you might watch a movie on YouTube or even in the theatre.
The movie format would also give the zine more flexibility than a website. We could incorporate more dynamic visual and audio content beyond just having printed words on a page and static digital images.
I am excited to announce that we’ll be launching our first issue of the Sage-and-Lantern Movie Zine by mid-September. The plan is to release a new movie zine on a quarterly basis, including a special winter holiday edition for December-January.
And, in case you’re wondering how we chose “Sage and Lantern” for the name of the zine, the words have relevant meaning. Sage is symbolic of wisdom through reflection and experience and as “mature” writers, we believe we have enough sage in us that is worth sharing! “Lantern” is a light source that you can carry with you anywhere; hence, it can illuminate different ways of seeing, thinking, and being. So, our tagline is: “Words that light all walks of life.”