by Nuria Chantre

A local writer, storyteller, teacher and on-air personality spoke at The Somerville News contributors meeting held Jan. 18 at the Mr. Crepe shop.

“Everyone has their own way of writing. For me, what draws me in is
authenticity. It gives a sense of reality,”said Judah Leblang.

Born Bruce C. Leblang in Cleveland, Ohio, Leblang, said he writes
about personal struggles such as letting go of youth, adopting a new
name and dealing with skin cancer. “People seem to relate. They may
have different personalities, but they can relate,”said Leblang of the
creative process.

Before he made Somerville his home, Leblang, who holds a bachelor’s
degree in deaf education and a master’s degree in administration, lived
in Columbus, Ohio, he said.

As a regular contributor to Northern Ohio Live magazine, WKSU radio and NPR, Leblang has released two spoken-word albums, ‚ÄúFinding My Place‚Äù and ‚ÄúSnapshots‚Äù, a collection of personal stories, he said. ‚ÄúThey say I have a good voice for radio.  It ‚Äòs better than saying I have a good face for radio.‚Äù

Robert Smyth, director of The Yellow Moon Press, who recorded Leblang’s CDs, said Leblang is “a man who expresses his insights into the world around him with humor and eloquence.

“I had a piece about my grandfather who was a pharmacist in Cleveland for 50 years. He ran this drug store that was kind of like a working museum with dusty wood floors and an old phone booth in the back and a ceiling fan that never worked. My grandfather ran the store for 50 years. And, in those 50 years the store was never closed one day. He probably took a total of about a week off in those 50 years. So I had a piece about his life. And that was picked up by this show and was broadcast on 169 stations around the country,” he said.

Leblang said his work is a mix of the humorous and the serious. His own reality translates to both radio and paper through a process he refers to as natural circularity, in which everything ties together at the very end, he said.

Leblang said he will lead a workshop titled  ‚ÄúSpontaneous Combustion: Artists and Writers Come Together to Create Art,‚Äù March 17 and 19 at the Out of the Blue Gallery, where he will be joined by friend and visual artist, Yani Batteau.

“The focus of the workshop is really about noticing, about stimulating creativity and noticing what is around you. So having us based in an art gallery is perfect, because one of the ways we practice this exercise of going out into the neighborhood is just get an object or look at a picture and say, ‘Ok tell us the story of this,” said Leblang.

The idea to gather artists and writers emerged from the Somerville Arts Council last September, said Leblang, where writers and artists also teamed up to create art ñ said he chose Batteau, an official illustrator of the 2005 Somerville Artbeat Festival to co-host the two workshops.