- [Host] Tonight on WPBS Weekly, "Inside the Stories."

The Q Center at ACR Health offers support and guidance for LGBTQ+ community members.

We'll tell you how.

We also sit down with local children's author, Laura Lavoie.

Discover how her ideas are born and how puns are a big part of her work.

Also, Improv Kingston has been teaching the art of improvisational theater to people of all ages.

Discover if you might have a talent for spontaneous dialogue.

Your stories, your region, coming up right now on WPBS Weekly, "Inside the Stories."

(bright music) (bright music continues) - [Announcer] WPBS Weekly "Inside the Stories," is brought to you by... - [Narrator 1] When you're unable to see your primary care provider, the Carthage Walk-In Clinic is here for you.

Located off Route 26, across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and healing close to home, when you need it most.

- [Narrator 2] North Country Orthopaedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports-related injuries.

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- Good Tuesday evening, everyone.

And welcome to this edition of WPBS Weekly, "Inside the Stories."

I'm Michael Riecke.

We begin tonight by recognizing LGBTQ+ Pride Month.

Celebrated every June, this month is a time to recognize the ongoing struggles and triumphs, promote equality, and celebrate diversity to create a safe and inclusive community for all.

The Q Center at ACR Health here in Watertown aims to do just that.

(bright music) - I've known them all since they were like 15 or 16, so... - [Luke] For Hillary Avallone, fostering a sense of belonging and support is one of the reasons she helped to start the Q Center in Watertown.

A program within ACR Health, dedicated to providing a safe and nurturing environment for LGBTQ+ youth and beyond.

- We didn't have any LGBTQ programming in northern New York.

The Q Center in Syracuse had already been around for about 20 years.

There wasn't really any social support looking to provide skills or connection to young people in St. Orange, Jefferson, or Lewis counties.

- We offer a variety of services, whether it's groups, care management, or cultural competencies.

Ultimately, we're here to increase the social support and decrease the isolation for LGBTQ folks in the northern New York region.

- [Luke] And for members of this community, these services have had a lasting impact.

- Having that safe space really changed me for a lot of ways because it helped me come outta my shell.

Before, school, I was primarily just very withdrawn, but at the Q Center, I got to be a lot more open and free and just be able to learn how to express myself and speak confidently.

- Growing up, I didn't get to see successful, happy, queer people.

Growing up as a hetero person, you get to see successful hetero people everywhere.

So it was nice to get a feeling for having a bright future.

I knew that there was a chance for me and that I had people who were like me, I had peers who were like me.

It wasn't just me by myself.

Nobody likes to feel alone.

- Being able to find people who have similar experiences in you and you can lean on and find friendship, even chosen family, I think can have one of the biggest impacts on whether or not someone can make it through high school.

We know that there are very high rates of anxiety, depression, and even suicidal ideation.

So if there are people that come through our door feeling hopeless or like they're not going to be accepted, like we can be that for them.

- [Luke] Since it's integration in the North Country, the Q Center has helped provide support for dozens of LGBTQ+ identifying people, whether that be through one-on-one counseling, support groups, or even lending a helping hand in a time of need.

- I've worked with a lot of youth to sort of make opportunities for figuring out their authentic selves and being able to sort of see the burden lift off when someone is in this space and being able to be themselves can really, is one of my favorite parts of the job.

Like being able to be there for someone who truly needs it and helping them find additional support, because it can be really tough out there if you're someone who doesn't have a lot of support, can't see themselves reflected in the community in which they live in.

- [Luke] That's why it's important for the community to recognize LGBTQ+ values.

As part of the mission of the Q Center, they work both inside and outside of the group to educate people on how they can get involved.

- The Q Center likes to be involved as much as we can.

We partner with Encompass Recreation, Planned Parenthood, other organizations to offer other types of events that are not necessarily just groups.

So whether it's a movie night or a drag queen story hour, just more chances for community members to get together and interact with the LGBTQ community.

- We're all a part of this community.

I'm sure all of us kind of agree with the sentiment that like Northern New Yorkers are kind of the first people to like take the shirt off their back and give it to you if you need it.

And I think that the LGBTQ community's the same, and I think that we should do our best to put that in all parts of our lives, not just our friends.

I think it's important to make everybody feel welcomed.

- If someone's struggling to accept themselves or feel open in their community, I think the Q Center offers a great stepping stone to start that journey.

And you don't have to widely participate, you don't have to jump completely into it if you don't want to.

It's, we're here and we're gonna help you no matter where you're at in your journey.

- The Q Center is a staple for LGBTQ youth and young adults in this community.

And we work hard to make sure that LGBTQ community in not just Northern New York, but all of the areas we serve are met with affirming and kindness and that their resilience skills are being built so that we can ensure that there are LGBTQ adults in the generations to come.

- [Luke] In Watertown for WPBS Weekly, I'm Luke Smith.

- To learn more about the Q Center, visit acrhealth.org.

Well, if you're looking for a children's book to get your child, we have an author for you, and she's local.

St. Lawrence County Children's book author Laura Lavoie stopped by our studio to discuss her book, "Monster Baker."

For more, we go to WPBS producer Luke Smith.

- Good evening, Michael.

Yes, thank you and welcome to the studio this evening.

We have a very special guest with us in the studio today.

This is Laura Lavoie, a children's book author based out of St. Lawrence County.

I'm super excited to have you in the studio.

Welcome to the studio today.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- And I want to get right into talking about "Monster Baker," but before I get ahead of myself, I wanna get to know a little bit about you.

Could you tell me and the viewers, who is Laura Lavoie, for those who don't know?

- Yeah, so I'm a children's book author.

I also work in the wellness office at St. Lawrence University.

I'm a mom.

I've got two young kids who are in elementary school and I think one of the biggest things is I love books.

I've been into reading since I was a really young age and I'm really excited that now I get to create books for people to enjoy too.

- What's something you like most about books and what inspired you to become a writer?

Was it based off the books that made you wanna, your love for books that made you want to get into writing?

- Yeah, so I really developed a love for books from a young age.

I was an only child until I was 12 and I lived in a pretty rural area, didn't have a lot of neighbors close by, and so I just got really into reading.

That was kind of my way of traveling, of you know, meeting characters and I really love in children's book, there's this kind of magic that's there and that's what really sparked my love of reading.

And so as I got older, I started trying to kind of keep up with writing with the age that I was.

So when I was in my 20s, I was trying to write for adults and then when I was gonna become a mom in 2015, I started reading kids' books again, as I was trying to build a library for my daughter and just kind of fell in love with that magic that's in kids' books all over again and thought, "I really wanna try my hand at writing for kids," 'cause it's so fun.

You can do just so many things that you can't really do in adult books, outside of fantasy.

And that's what's gotten me into, it's just the creative possibilities that you can do for kids.

- And you started writing your books and started making your books during the pandemic, is that correct?

- So I started writing a little bit earlier than that, but I sold my first book in 2019, but then it didn't come out until 2022.

During the pandemic, a lot of people's books got delayed and that was kind of a slow time where things were taking a little bit longer.

But I wrote a lot during the pandemic, because I was home a lot more.

And so actually, one of my upcoming books, I wrote during the summer of 2020.

- And I wanna get talking about your upcoming book, but I wanna talk about your past three releases, starting with, there were two that have come out in the past, "Vampire Vacation," and the one we have here today, "Monster Baker."

Can you tell me a little bit about your books?

- Yeah, so "Vampire Vacation" is the story of this little vampire who isn't into typical vampire kinds of things.

And he really, really wants to go to the beach so badly, just wants to surf, build sandcastles, and do things like that.

And so his family takes a trip to Transylvania every year and he decides that he needs to convince them that they have to go to the beach.

This is his dream.

And so kind of comes up with all these elaborate schemes for how to convince his parents that this is a good idea, despite the fact that they're vampires.

- Who doesn't wanna go to the beach right now, am I right?

(laughs) And tell me, talk to me a little bit about "Monster Baker" here.

This is what originally sparked my interest and what made me wanna get you in the studio.

Tell me a little bit about "Monster Baker."

- Yeah, so this book was really inspired by watching cooking shows with my great-grandmother when I was growing up.

Sometimes I would go and stay with her during the day and we would watch kind of those old cooking and baking shows together.

And I think that's an experience that a lot of people kind of my age and older have had.

And when you're writing a picture book, I always like to put something in there too for the adult who's reading it.

So "Monster Baker's" about a little monster who watches cooking shows with her grandmonster and her grandmonster teaches her how to bake.

And she develops this love of baking through that relationship.

So when Grandmonster's 247th birthday is coming up, Tilly the little monster decides that she wants to bake her a birthday cake.

But of course, as anyone baking for the first time, or maybe even the hundredth time can experience, stuff can go wrong.

And so that's what happens and she kinda has to come up with some creative solutions for how to pull off this cake in time.

- Is there going to be a recipe book coming out for monster book in the near future?

- Oh gosh, I would love that.

There is a recipe in the back of the book for a cookie called Chocolate Cherry Scaries that is my kids' favorite cookie that I make.

And I've heard from lots of people that have baked it that they've come out pretty good.

So it seems like people are enjoying it.

- I need to look into this recipe, 'cause now I wanna make that.

But before I start thinking about that, I wanna ask you about your new book.

You just recently released a book, called "Duck, Duck, Taco Truck."

Talk to me a little bit about what this book is going to be about.

- Yeah, so this book is my first rhyming picture book, which I think makes it extra special.

I had never really thought that I would write a book in rhyme, because there's just a lot of extra things to think about and it kind of gets complicated.

You're a little bit more limited in terms of how you can tell the story, but I actually found that challenge really fun.

So it's a story of these two ducks who have a taco truck on the beach and then this goose comes in with this competing food truck that steals all of their business.

And so it's kind of them working through that and you know, trying to figure out if there can be some teamwork there to work together.

But as a part of that, there's a lot of fun mashups between kid favorite foods as these birds try to figure out how to do this food truck thing together.

And so it's a lot of fun and I hope that the rhyme and the mention of all the different really fun food kind of helps it to feel extra special.

- And I remember reading on your website that you really love punny related thing.

Will we see a lot of puns in this book?

- This one, there's some, like there's kind of some funny references to like, instead of needing an extra hand, needing an extra wing, you know, there's jokes about ruffled feathers and things like that.

Like when the ducks get upset.

It's not quite as pun heavy as I would say "Monster Baker" and "Vampire Vacation" have been, but there's still some in there.

- What inspires you when you write your stories the most?

- Well, so I loved reading so much as a kid, and I really like the idea of creating lifelong readers, which is something that really only children's authors can do, which is neat, to be able to inspire a love of reading in a kid and then have them read all the way up through.

So that's definitely something that I'm thinking about.

But I also just love making people laugh and you know, when I read my books to kids and I can kind of hear those giggles at the parts that are supposed to be funny, that's always a good feeling.

And I think sometimes, you know, things can feel really serious and anytime that you can be a little bit goofy and have a little bit of fun, that's always a good thing.

So that's always something that I'm trying to do when I'm writing a story too.

- And now I know for aspiring authors and aspiring writers out there, they're always looking for that edge and there's always that feeling of writer's block.

I know I get it when I'm writing stories.

What's something you could say to aspiring artists who wanna get started in becoming an author, becoming a published artist, like yourself?

- Yeah, so I think one of the things is that inspiration can come from all sorts of different places.

And so I keep a notebook of ideas and anything, even if it's just a little spark of something, something funny that one of my kids said or something I notice if I'm kind of down on the floor or seeing things from their eye level, I write that down and you never know what random thing you heard or experienced or just something that pops into your head is gonna spark an idea.

And sometimes I try to do creative exercises around that too.

Like "Monster Baker," I was making lists of things that were a little bit scary and things that were a little bit sweet and trying to pair them together.

And I had monster and cupcake written down and that sparked this idea of how funny would that be to have this monster baking these kind of semi gross but sweet creations.

And that could be a really fun thing that kids might find funny and interesting.

- And they even look a little bit like a cupcake, if you look closely.

You've got the frosting on top here, you've got the whole thing there.

- Yeah, interesting you should mention that, the illustrator, Vanessa, when she created the character of Tilly, that's one of the things that she said was that she wanted her to have this kind of meringue-style hair that moved with her emotions.

So you can see in the book when Tilly's sad, her hair droops down, when she's happy, it perks back up.

So that's really fun element that the illustrator added in.

- I love that.

That's super creative.

And you've worked with other illustrators too, is that correct?

- Yeah, so the illustrator for "Monster Baker" is Vanessa Morales.

It's Micah Player for "Vampire Vacation."

And then "Duck, Duck, Taco Truck" is Teresa Martinez.

So typically the larger publishing houses will pick an illustrator for the book based on their team's vision of what it's gonna look like.

And it's actually really exciting, because it's so fun to write a story and then see how the illustrators envision your characters and what they come up with for what they're going to look like.

So it's kind of like a fun surprise to see first sketches and see what they're gonna look like.

- Well folks, keep your eyes peeled because "Duck, Duck, Taco Truck" just came out today, as a matter of fact, June 11th.

And where can people go to purchase this book or learn more about you?

- Yeah, so as far as purchasing the book, people can typically get it from just about anywhere, any independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, anything like that.

If they don't have it in stock, they'd be able to order it or you know, it could be ordered online.

Indie Bound's, a great place to go to order from local independent bookstores or it's available on Amazon or any place like that where you would buy books.

And as far as learning more about me, I have a website, it's just my name, lauralavoieauthor.com or I'm also on a lot of social media platforms as llavoieauthor.

So that's a good place to connect to see what books I have, you know, coming out soon as more books get announced and just kind of keep an eye on my work.

- Well Laura, thank you so much for coming to the studio today.

It was a pleasure having you and a pleasure talking with you today.

- Thank you so much for having me.

This has been great and I really appreciate it.

- If improv theater is your muse, we've got just the story for you.

With the mission to use improvisational theater to empower, inspire, and entertain, Improv Kingston has been teaching the art to people of all ages and backgrounds since 2011.

Whether you are sharpening your acting skills or just wanna boost your self confidence and public speaking skills, classes at improv may be just what you need.

(group shouting) - [Gail] When Dan Walmsely moved to Kingston, he quickly found out that there was nowhere to play improv.

So he created that space.

Improv Kingston was born.

Dan has been doing improv over 20 years and teaching for over 14.

- I've always been like a theater guy and always enjoyed being in plays and just the story of theater and ended up taking some classes with Second City and then theater sports and the Bad Dog Theater in Toronto.

And that's how things got rolling.

And it really intrigued me, this idea that you can create a story right from thin air.

So it was very, very, I was hooked right away.

- [Gail] Any profession that requires quick thinking, effective communication, and the ability to adapt to unexpected situations can benefit from taking improv classes.

The skills learned in improv can be applied across various professional contexts to enhance performance, creativity, and collaboration.

- It's very rare that anybody wants to be a better improviser.

It's that they are looking for an outlet, they wanna do something fun every week, it's for their mental health, they wanna build their confidence.

A professor wants to be less boring when they're giving their lecture.

That's a big one, as well.

So there's all kinds of different reasons, but I'd say, you know, confidence building and having that weekly outlet and dose of fun is probably the biggest reason.

The number one rule I always tell students is, your job is to make the other people on stage with you look good.

So forget about yourself and make your teammates look brilliant.

So it really tends to foster a lot of empathy in people.

It really helps to build that muscle and that teamwork.

You know, orientation really tends to thrive when you do a lot of improv.

- [Gail] As well as supporting scene partners, one of the fundamental principles of improv is the "Yes, and" rule.

This means accepting whatever is offered by your scene partner, yes, and then building upon it.

Other techniques that are valuable include active listening, embracing mistakes, creating characters and building scenes.

- Probably the biggest challenge is thinking.

Thinking ruins improv, just like it ruins your life.

I mean, that is one thing that improv has in common with a lot of pursuits is that thinking is not good for it.

So that's the biggest trick is to turn off that rational mind that's trying to solve problems that's always trying to get in there.

That's probably the biggest challenge.

The other one would be trying to be funny, because if you're trying to be funny, you're probably not gonna be funny and it's gonna be a little cringey, so don't try to be funny.

That's the other big challenge, I think, for students.

- [Gail] Overall, improv offers a wide range of benefits that can positively impact your daily life.

From improved communication and problem solving skills to increased confidence and resilience in the face of challenges.

- I look at it as a way to sort of reset myself over the course of a week, because you know, you get up and it's kinda like an exercise program, where you got nothing else to think about except what you're doing when you're on stage and listening to the person.

So it really shuts the rest of the noise out from your work week.

Yeah, and it's a great way to really just recenter and then you're here really just for fun and to have a good time and enjoy each other's company.

It sort of makes you sharp, you know, when you have that witty comeback that you want to say with some friends, you know, and sometimes it doesn't quite come, but now it now it comes all the time, you know, and in fact, too often sometimes, so, yeah, no, it's great.

A lot of positive things have come out of it for me for sure.

By the nature of what I do for a living, I have to be sort of social.

I mean, I sell things to people and the, but to do it outside of a business context is completely different, right?

And so getting out there and yeah, I've noticed lots of positive things like, you know, sometimes I'll just jump into a conversation with people, you know, just because I can.

And for me, and again, everyone's got their own story, but for me, you know, my natural personality setting is to be introverted, you know?

And so I have learned to be extroverted for my work, and now I'm learning to become even more extroverted by doing improv and exercising those skills, for sure, yeah.

- [Gail] Engaging in improv can evoke a sense of childlike wonder, playfulness and spontaneity, reminding participants of the joy and freedom of uninhibited creativity that is often associated with childhood.

- It's like a playground, and I think as adults, we don't really play that much and we get in our lanes and we stay in our lanes and we develop our habits and routines and it's somewhere where you can come and take risks and it's safe, right?

So you get that chance to, you know, be a kid again and experience a little bit of wonder, and what's gonna happen, knowing that you're in a safe place.

- [Gail] In a post-COVID world, our effective communication and empathy are crucial for rebuilding relationships and communities.

Improv is proving invaluable.

- During the pandemic, people were at their computer screens and being on Zoom is not the same as being in person.

There's a lot of communication that's not happening if you're sitting there on a web camera and also just being alone in your house.

I mean, it creates a certain bubble that has an effect on people.

So yes, absolutely.

People were being, were socially isolated and a lot of people have to learn how to be around other people again.

And there's no more powerful elixir than doing improv.

I mean, this will beat that problem, absolutely.

- [Gail] For WPBS Weekly, I'm Gail Paquette.

- That does it for this Tuesday night.

Join us next time for a fresh look "Inside the Stories."

We take you to the Star Clark Tin Shop Museum in Mexico.

Discover how this tin smith shop played an important role in the Underground Railroad.

And the Memorial Center Farmer's Market provides fresh produce to the local community.

We'll tell you how.

Also meet Jim Farfaglia, a retired teacher turned poet as he shares his poem, "Anytown, USA."

Meantime, if you have a story idea you'd like us to explore, we'd love to learn more.

Drop us an email at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region.

That's it for tonight, everyone.

We'll see you soon.

Have a great night and take care.

- [Announcer] WPBS Weekly "Inside the Stories" is brought to you by.

- [Narrator] When you're unable to see your primary care provider, the Carthage Walk-In Clinic is here for you.

Located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and healing close to home when you need it most.

- [Narrator 2] North Country Orthopaedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us.

North Country Orthopaedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- [Narrator 3] We are the North Country.

Where protecting one another like family is who we are.

And where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North Country strong at claxtonhepburn.org today.

(dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) (mellow music)