Launch Of "Out With It: How Stuttering Helped Me Find My Voice" At BookCourt

On Tuesday April 16th, BookCourt on Court Street will be hosting a book launch for Out With It: How Stuttering Helped Me Find My Voice. It is a memoir written by my friend and fellow Carroll Gardener Katherine Preston, who 5 years ago, set off on a journey of self discovery that led her from her native England to the United States and ultimately to Brooklyn. Along the way, she came to terms with her stuttering and gained acceptance of her "imperfection".

I recently sat down with Katherine to discuss the book and the circumstances which led her to share her experience.
In 2008, Katherine walked away from a career in finance in order to face her greatest fear and change her life. Searching for answers, she decided to immerse herself in stuttering and set off to meet hundreds of others who suffered from the same condition across America. Originally, her plan was to write down their stories and weave her own into the background, but she decided that she had to be honest about her own journey if she was to write a compelling book. So, she began anew and started writing a memoir about her struggle with her stutter, drawing on the stories she heard on her year traveling across America.

Katherine started stuttering when she was 7 years old. She explains that it is tempting to couplestuttering to a traumatic event or an illness. Her own family equated the beginning of her stuttering to her grandmother's passing. However, Katherine now realizes that she was born with a stutter deep within her system. "I have learned to separate these events. I bumbled my words when I was younger, but only became aware of my stuttering at 7." She adds: "It's easy to pinpoint a trauma. Everyone wants to have an answer to why it began. What is difficult about stuttering is that there are no good answers."

When creating language becomes such a challenge, it is difficult not to retreat into silence. "You become worried as you become aware of the fact that you are different," Katherine told me. But silence is "sad and isolating."

Instead, she gradually came to accept her difference. "Today I have learned to make peace with it. Stuttering can be a challenge but also an asset. "Stuttering becomes a filter on how you see the world." she explains.

Katherine encourages others to "see beyond the mask of stuttering." She smiles and adds. "it is more about what I say than how I say it."

Please help celebrate the launch of Out With It: How Stuttering Helped Me Find My Voice on April 16th at BookCourt bookstore, 7pm.

The book is available at all bookstore and on Amazon.



Read more

Helping The Community And The Planet: A Young Carroll Gardens Couple Wants To Reward You For Doing Something Good

Jeremy Cohen and Katherine Preston of Exchange My Phone

2011 has already proven to be a very busy year for both Jeremy Cohen and Katherine Preston. The young couple moved to New York City on January 1, settled in an apartment in Carroll Gardens shortly afterwards, and started their own business in early May. All within six months.

I met the Carroll Gardens newcomers a few days ago over a cup of coffee to find out what brought them to the neighborhood and to ask them about their business venture.

Their story is an inspiring one and proves that wonderful things can happen in life when one takes a few risks.

Katherine Preston is originally from London, England. Unhappy with her job as a financial writer, she gave up her career to to write her own book and to travel around the United States for a few months. She met Jeremy Cohen, fell in love and spontaneously asked him to accompany her on the rest of her trip. Just as spontaneously, he said 'yes'. It was during those days on the road that Katherine and Jeremy planned their future together in New York City and laid the foundation for Exchange My Phone, a responsible cell phone recycling business.

One could say that recycling comes easily to Jeremy Cohen. At an early age, he formed an awareness of re-use and re-purposing. After all, his family owns a used-book store in Chicago, one of the last hold-outs of its kind. It is still run by his father today. However, any thought of taking the store over were set aside. These days, used book stores are closing everywhere and Jeremy saw the handwriting on the wall.

Recycling used and broken phones, on the other hand, is very much an ecologically sound solution to a very modern and growing problem. And Exchange My Phone makes this process very easy.

If a phone still has value, the company will give a quote, send a postage-paid envelope, followed by a check. The mid-range and high end phones are then refurbished, stripped of their data and re-sold either in the United States or in emerging markets.

Even if a phone has no value, it can be sent for free to Exchange My Phone. The metals and plastic parts are separated and recycled by WeRecycle!, a New York-based electronics-recycling plant, which is certified by the Basel Action Network (BAN). They pledge to process e-waste in a globally responsible way.

Most importantly, as Jeremy and Katherine point out, the goal is to extend the life of cell phones and to give them a second or third life. If that is not possible, the aim is to keep the highly toxic parts out of landfills.

The young couple is so committed to recycling that they are helping businesses, schools and non-profits by organizing phone drives. (They are currently partnering with the Brooklyn New School)

And if that isn't enough, they donate one book to a local literary initiative for every phone they buy.

Jeremy and Katherine think Brooklyn is the right place to built their hyper-local business into, hopefully, a national one. It is evident that they have fallen in love with the borough, but more importantly, with Carroll Gardens. The appreciate the sense of community they feel here.

Let's all support their worthwhile efforts. Check their web site here and send them your old phones so that they can be recycled responsibly.

Jeremy and Katherine,

It was a great pleasure meeting you and learning about your business. I'll be sure to stay in touch.

Read more