The Michigan Maritime Museum will be hosting writer and performer Kamryn Marck Friday, June 20th from 6:30-7:30pm as she shares her passion for the history of female lighthouse keepers in her performance, Women of the Watch, Keepers of the Light.
“Women of the Watch, Keepers of the Light,” written and performed by Kamryn Marck and directed by D.B. Schroeder, is an uplifting 45-minutes of music, laughter, and simple honest storytelling. The play follows Kamryn as she relives family trips to lighthouses in Michigan, which ignites a passion to share the spectacular stories of various female lighthouse keepers of the Great Lakes. She details the lives of four particular keepers by donning voice and movement. As she steps into these brave women’s shoes, she discovers the tragedy of the hardships they faced and the beauty of their spirits. The show was commissioned by The Lorenzo Cultural Center in Macomb, MI.
Kamryn is a performer, writer, and ecological gardener based in Royal Oak, Michigan. She studied Musical Theatre at Oakland University and spent time in Chicago writing and performing sketch comedy and working as an actress and teaching artist with theater companies in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and New York. In 2019, she co-founded Cayuga Climate Action in Auburn, NY: a group of concerned community members working to educate, advocate, and act on the climate crisis. While there, she cultivated her passions for holistic health and permaculture by working at Silver Tree Forest Farm. She has also worked with Garden Juju Collective: installing ambitious regenerative spaces dedicated to healing land and people. She’s passionate about using storytelling and music to facilitate the collective imagining of a world where we heal the land, undo our broken systems, and rebuild ecosystems that work for every living thing. She believes wholeheartedly in grassroots movements that create more fairness for everyone, especially those who have been historically oppressed and excluded. She actively pursues thoughtfulness, hope, and joy in herself and her projects.
This performance is part of the Museum’s year-long programmatic series Whispers Across the Water that showcases and celebrates the invaluable contributions of minority communities to Great Lakes maritime history and heritage. Through a dynamic collection of programs and events, this series amplifies the often-overlooked narratives of Indigenous peoples, African Americans, women, and other minority groups who have molded the region’s maritime legacy. This series will continue monthly through November.
