“My mother, my late mother, was an artist, a painter, a sculptor, and I can’t do any of that. So I feel like every time an artist is here, a piece of my mother is here.”
That sense of legacy, of honoring creativity as something inherited, is at the center of the Montclair Story Salon, a gathering dreamed up by Liz Samuel after the pandemic. It’s part open mic, part community fundraiser, and part love letter to the town she calls home.
An actor by trade and a natural storyteller, Samuel has spent much of her life performing. But she says the salon brings together everything she loves: performing, writing, and gathering. “I felt that there was a need for a community and creativity connection, like together, where artists could try out some work in a setting where people just felt like they wanted to be supportive and listen to things where it was an audience, but you were hearing raw new original work.”
The idea began simply: Provide a space where writers, poets, and performers could test new material without judgment. Then one night, a few years back, Samuel decided to tie the art to a cause. “Around June 2022, I was like, something was going on with the world, and I said, let’s do one for Planned Parenthood. And it turned out to be a huge turnout. And I said, I think we have something here.”
She really did. What began as an experiment has grown into a recurring series that supports a different nonprofit each time, pairing creative themes with social purpose. “And we have just a plethora of nonprofits. And my calendar is so full with the next nonprofit and we do it with the theme that will support the nonprofit as well as bring in good ideas for the storytellers or the singer songwriters. And we have an artist painting live. So it was all just a way to get art, creativity and community together.”
Montclair, she says, makes it easy. “The well is so deep. I never stop meeting people who are either a writer, an artist, a singer-songwriter, a poet. Everybody has a talent.”
Tonight’s salon is called What I Wish You Knew. Samuel and I are chatting just before the event begins inside the First Congregational Church, where a live painter sets up in the corner as guests filter in. “The storytellers are parents of kids with disabilities so that it will involve that in some way. And sometimes the theme is a little bit loose, so we’ll see. There’s gonna be some levity as well.”
Proceeds from this night will go to Mission Kids Success and One in Six Support. But the real reward, Samuel says, is what happens in the room — the laughter, the tears, and the courage it takes to tell a story out loud. “It’s a community event. It feels good and we’re giving back, but we’re also inspiring people to go home and pick up the paintbrush, pick up the pen, write, create, keep going. ’Cause it’ll make the world better.”
Photo credit: Montclair Story Salon
