Dave Farbrook
Much of my success I can attribute to the personal vision that my parents introduced to me and to this day I am not sure that their parents would have understood them or the changes they made in their lives following their hunger for knowing themselves during the self-discovery movement that started during the “60s’ and the drop out generation.
My father, Carl Fernbach-Flarsheim, a college professor at Temple University at Tylor and a brilliant artist contributed to the vibrancy of concrete poetry and my mother, Sarai Saporta shined with her wonderful paintings and insights.
In reading through my mother’s old journal – really her journey through life written down in a way that she hoped many might benefit – she writes:
There is a river that goes past my house, coming down from the mountains – frozen, reflecting sun and shadow of the plants along its banks. My reflection is misty- hard to see clearly, between glare and dark, shadowy reflections it shows the path the river has taken, now frozen in time.
My feelings of present time are the heat to dissolve these old images and let them flow on, releasing old memories and habits that have me frozen in the past. To release my former self-image and attitudes to reflect the now of who I have become, I need a springtime river, with fresh water flowing by. So I can catch my reflection in a pure way.
– Sarai Saporta
I moved to New Orleans July 2013 and married my long time sweetheart Catherine Vesey, a retired professor at Tulane University and Co-Director of Tutor New Orleans. Later, after she had died unexpectedly, I came to realize I could remake myself into something I really had a desire to do. I wanted to be a Storyteller of individuals’ personal stories that come from a variety of sources, backgrounds, traditional histories and community. I realized that this could be used to promote concepts for grants when supported with data.
- Education: My parents went to great lengths to put my brother and I in schools that emphasized free and “new” education styles (more).
- Accomplishments: From 1994 – 2013, I worked for the state government where I invested a lot of my time learning about how I could contribute to the common good and public interest. (more)
- Awards and Honorable Citation