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Attention Book Clubs:
Select The Same Smile for your book club and invite Susan as a guest speaker.
Contact Susan for available dates.
Grandezza Country Club
Estero, Florida 33928
Grandezza Book Club
Monday, March 15, 2010
3:00 pm
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Events:
 The Mothers Project
Written & performed by Celeste Billhartz
www.themothersproject.com
The Mothers Project was presented at the:
Heart2Heart Retreat
Milwaukee, WI
September 14-16 2007
The Mothers Project is a one-woman show of poems, stories, songs and images in PowerPoint that tells the stories of mostly middle class unwed mothers from past and present generations who were forced to surrender their babies for adoption.
"I want the world to know that most of these girl/mothers never had a choice, never had anyone offer to help them, and not one of them got over the loss of her child," says Celeste Billhartz, singer/songwriter ... and adoptee ... from Kent, Ohio, who also wrote and produced the show.
The show also introduces the audience to several reunion stories. Susan Souza and her daughter, Joanne, wrote about their experiences in The Same Smile ... a wonderful book about the courage, compassion and commitment needed to sustain a reunion between a firstmother and her child taken for adoption. Susan credits their positive reunion experience on the safe and stable relationship her daughter Joanne has with her adoptive mother.
My hope for The Mothers Project is that middle class families welcome all their grandchildren and that adoptees understand that they owe their natural mothers four things: Courage, compassion, courtesy, and commitment...
"I love Susan's book, The Same Smile, because it tells Susan's story and it provides insight, from Joanne's perspective, about being an adoptee who is both curious about and wary of reunion. It tells their truths and it offers hope to families who are just coming to grips with the need … and the right ... for mother and daughter or son to be part of each other's life." Celeste Bilhartz
Lina Eve ... Australian artist and mother painted the "wounded sunflower" logo designed by Celeste.
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Susan's & Joanne's interview in:
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8/14/2006
Day of People Magazine Interview |
People Magazine
September 18, 2006 Issue
Pg. 159-164
Cover features Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter
Headline:
"In 1968, they were teenage girls, unwed and pregnant. Shunned by family and society at large, like countless women of their generation, they were...FORCED TO GIVE UP THEIR BABIES"
This 4 page article features 3 (long-story) women from the book, "The Girls Who Went Away" by Ann Fessler: Nancy Horgan, Lydia Manderson, and Susan Souza. The article focuses on surrender and reunion. Each mom is pictured along with her son or daughter.
See below for more information about Ann's book...
Look for Susan's story, "Susan lll", as recorded by Ann Fessler in:
 "The Girls Who Went Away"
The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade
by Ann Fessler
Professor - Rhode Island School of Design
True stories that will make you better understand what we (teenage moms) were put through in the unforgiving 50's, 60's & early 70's..
Susan read excerpts of her story from Ann Fessler's book, "The Girls Who Went Away," along with other "girls" who were interviewed for the book during Ann Fessler's booksignings:
Harvard University Bookstore
1256 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
6:30 p.m.
Books on the Square
471 Angell Street
Providence, RI
June 26, 2007
7:00PM
Available thru Amazon.com
There were also audio sequence clips played between the live readings.
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I was also fortunate enough to have been chosen to be one of the "girls" interviewed for author, Ann Fessler's, "Everlasting" exhibit (see below), which was the impetus for "The Girls Who Went Away"
"The Girls Who Went Away" is as powerful as it is profound. Read on...
NOTE: During a four hour interview with the artist, Ann Fessler, Susan's true story was audio taped and then recorded in the Women's History Archives at Harvard. You can hear Susan's voice, telling bits and pieces of her emotional story, as part of this historic and extraordinary exhibit.
Exhibition Opened - Thursday, May 13, 2004
Concluded - Wednesday, June 2, 2004
Locations of future exhibits to be announced.
Description of the New England "Everlasting" Exhibition.
Viewers entered "Everlasting"through a dark corridor illuminated by a video projection at the end of the hallway. The image depicted a never-ending stream of newborn babies being wheeled by nurses though a hospital doorway. As viewers walked to the end of the corridor they came upon a large room that contained a circle of chairs and an invitation to sit and listen to the surround sound audio composition created from oral history interviews conducted with women from the New England area who had surrendered a child for adoption. The five channel audio piece, structured like a musical score, created a "conversation" that at times included one or two voices and in other instances a cacophony of voices intended to raise the emotional and auditory pitch to a level that drowns out the individual experiences to represent the hundreds of thousands of women who found themselves
in similar circumstances between the end of WW II and the passage of Roe v. Wade. What was visible/knowable or invisible is addressed metaphorically through the use of lighting. As viewers sat in the chairs they had the option of sitting forward, making their faces visible to others in the circle, or leaning back until their faces fall outside of the light and disappear.
Listen to Ann Fessler's radio interview about "The Women Who Went Away."
Everlasting - Baltimore
The first "Everlasting" exhibition premiered February/March 2003 at the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore. This new installation, exhibited with Ann's earlier autobiographical installation "Close to Home," featured the voices/stories of seven women from the Baltimore/Washington area. www.mica.edu/everlasting
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Susan's story was also audio taped & photo taken for the following event:
"Faces of Teen Pregnancy," a multimedia exhibit presented by the Southcoast Hospitals' RAPPP program (Responsible Attitudes toward Pregnancy, Parenting & Prevention)
The Exhibit opened with a wine & cheese reception on May 2 at Gallery X and will run through June 1, 2007. The gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Thursday, May 10, until 9 p.m. during AHA! Night.
Location:
Gallery X
169 William Street
New Bedford, MA.
"The Faces of Teen Pregnancy exhibit personalizes the trials and triumphs of teen pregnancy through the photos and voices of 24 individuals," said Cindy Guilbeault, Director of Southcoast Hospitals' RAPPP program. "The exhibit is meant to raise awareness about the challenges and effects that teen pregnancy has on all ages and multiple generations."
Using striking black-and-white images accompanied by moving audio narratives, this documentary style exhibit outlines the challenges and effects teen pregnancy has on all generations. The exhibit is produced by Southcoast Hospitals' RAPPP Program and is free to the public. The photographs were taken by Kara J. Gauvin and the audio produced by Paul Martin of Fire City Productions
In relation to the above mentioned exhibit, Susan was the opening speaker at:
RAPPP's Teen Pregnancy Conference
Taunton Holiday Inn
Thursday, June 7, 2007
9 a.m.
Booksigning followed.
This one day conference was designed to help providers and youth participants understand the challenges adolescents face in both the past and in the twenty-first century. Once understood, the conference endeavored to explore ways to meet the needs of present day adolescents as best we can both individually, as organizations and as collaborative unions of adolescent service providers. This conference reflected the Southcoast Hospitals Group's RAPPP Program's commitment to providing professional development opportunities for staff, educators, nurses, social workers and youth leaders by sharing strategies and facilitating discussion around ways in which adolescents can be best served in our communities.
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"Susan Mello Souza's story is nothing short of inspirational. A professional speaker and published memoirist, the Acushnet woman never fails to elicit an emotional response in her audience when she shares it. Published in 2002, The Same Smile recounts the heart-wrenching events surrounding a painful teenage adoption experience, subsequent reunion, and the loss of a second child to a fatal illness. Drawing on the wisdom and strength she gained from living through these painful experiences, Ms. Mello Souza has made it her life's work to spread a message of hope and empowerment to women everywhere." South Coast Learning Network Center
"Susan is a wonderful speaker. Her story is inspiring to women and families alike. I found Susan's presentation of The Same Smile very much like the book itself. When sharing her story, she brings you into her world. Listening to her will undoubtedly open your heart to the understanding of the variety of emotions a mother goes through when she is separated from her child. You can feel her strength as the story progresses and she begins her search." Vi Bobola, Reiki Master
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