Tricia Vita

New Yorkers 60 and older are invited to join a free reminiscence and storytelling workshop I'm teaching at Greenwich House's Westbeth Older Adult Center in the West Village. My "Tell Us Your Stories!" workshop combines the oral traditions of reminiscence and storytelling in an interactive arts-based group activity. The program is part of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's 2026 SU-CASA Creative Aging Residency.

The workshop is on Thursdays from 10:15 AM – 11:45 AM from March 5 through mid-June. For more info or to sign up for "Tell Us Your Stories!" please phone Janet Cobeo of Westbeth OAC at 212-255-5191. If you have questions about the workshop, please email me at hello@triciavita.com. Here's a link to an article about my 2024 workshop at Goddard Riverside Older Adult Center on the Upper West Side.

LMCC's SU-CASA Creative Aging Residency is a community arts engagement program that matches artists with older adult centers in Manhattan. Through responsive collaborations, SU-CASA cultivates unique arts learning experiences and generative social exchange for participating older adults.

See ya in Gibtown! My latest history article about a century of socializing in the carnival capital of the world is in the February IISA trade show edition of Amusement Warehouse. It features stories of pioneering residents like cookhouse operators Eddie and Grace LeMay and sideshow performers Al and Jeanie Tomaini, and showfolk who live here today, and photos from International Independent Showmen's Association's Carnival World Museum. The magazine is the print counterpart of the amusement industry website carnivalwarehouse.com.

Some fun literary news: Money Apron Melody, a memoir of everything I learned about money as a carny kid was a finalist in the 3rd edition of Money Chronicles: A Short Story Initiative and will be published via Principal Foundation's "Story Dispensers" in Times Square and across the country. The dispensers are free vending machines that print out short stories on strips of paper. You can also read my story on Short Édition's website. 

Heads up, fans of the Loop-O-Plane, Roll-O-Plane, and Rock-O-Plane! My article about the history of Eyerly Aircraft's classic thrill rides is in the January issue of Amusement Warehouse, the print magazine companion to the amusement industry website carnivalwarehouse.com. Lee Eyerly was a barnstorming pilot who settled in Salem, Oregon in 1927, the year that Charles Lindbergh's solo transatlantic flight sparked public enthusiasm for aviation. During the Great Depression, Eyerly launched a career as an amusement ride manufacturer when a device that he built to train pilots became a popular attraction at fairs. The Acroplane – short for acrobatic plane – let single riders operate the controls to perform dips, dives, spins, and loops without going more than a dozen feet off the ground.

You're invited to an exhibit of shoe box dioramas from "Create Your Own Diorama Art Box," a workshop I've been co-teaching with Nancy Prusinowski at an older adult center in the Theater District. The exhibit is on Tuesday, December 30, 2:30 - 3:15 PM at Encore Aging for the Arts, 239 West 49 St NY, NY 10019. The older adult center is located in the basement of St. Malachy's Church. Many thanks to the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and New York State Council on the Arts for supporting the workshop.

A Spin Through History! My article about the park world's oldest operating amusement rides is published in the November IAAPA special edition of Amusement Warehouse, the print magazine companion to the amusement industry website carnivalwarehouse.com. It's available by subscription but you can pick up a copy at the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Expo in Orlando this week. Among the century-old rides featured in my story are Vienna's Giant Wheel (1897), Coney Island's Deno's Wonder Wheel (1920), Luna Park Melbourne's Great Scenic Railway (1912), Seabreeze Park's Jack Rabbit roller coaster (1920), Blackpool Pleasure Beach's Sir Hiram Maxim's Captive Flying Machine (1904), and the hand-carved, 19th century carousels at Lake Compounce and Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

New Yorkers 60 and older are invited to join Create Your Own Diorama Art Box, a free class I'm co-teaching at Encore Aging for the Arts in the Theater District. The workshop is on Tuesdays at 2:30 PM through December 23rd and we'll have a culminating event, an exhibit and party, on December 30. Shoe boxes and all art materials are provided at each session.

If you have any interesting "found objects" that would fit into a diorama shoe box, please consider donating them. Email details or leave a comment about your "found objects," and I can arrange drop off, pick up, or reimbursed flat rate mailing.

Many thanks to the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and NY State Council on the Arts for supporting the workshop.

A photo of my Tell Us Your Stories workshop at Encore Aging for the Arts is in the New York Times! The older adult center is in the basement of St. Malachy's Church in the Theater District and I'm told the Actors' Chapel was originally located there. I'll never look at this space in the same away after learning the stage where we're meeting was the altar, the walkway was the aisle, and the dining area with tables were the pews. Valentino's funeral was held here in 1926. My class just happened to be scheduled that afternoon in September when photographer Katherine Marks was shooting for an article on aging in place. Published this week, "To Stay or to Go? For Older New Yorkers, Either Option Is Fraught" features Encore Community Services, which provides housing, meals and social support to older adults. Many thanks to Katherine Marks for the photograph and to the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and NY State Council on the Arts for supporting the workshop.

I recently recorded an oral history interview with William Boyle, the author of eight books set in and around the Southern Brooklyn neighborhood of Gravesend, where he was born and raised. His first novel, Gravesend, was published in 2013 and his newest, Saint of the Narrows Street, was named one of the best books of 2025 by Publishers Weekly. His work is frequently described as character-driven, literary crime fiction and Brooklyn Noir.

As a boy, he loved listening to stories told by his Italian grandparents and their friends and would tape record and transcribe those conversations, which gave him an ear for dialogue. "I have and probably will continue to write about my block in various kind of ways," says Boyle, "I think a lot of times I'm writing about the same house, my grandparents' house, and I'm just dressing it up in different ways for different characters."

You can listen to the full interview in the Coney Island History Project oral history archive.

The Flash That Gets The Cash! My article about the history of carnival prizes is published in the September issue of Amusement Warehouse, the print magazine companion to the amusement industry website carnivalwarehouse.com. In the early 20th century, merchandise wheels operated with only one big prize and gave away teddy bears, poodles, kewpies, live canaries, pillows, blankets, lamps, glassware, silverware, aluminum pans, ham and roasters, baskets of fruit and groceries, and chocolates.