TORN PAGE
Tony and LeeAnn Torn invited us to stay at their house, Torn Page, where Tony grew up with his parents the actor Rip Torn and his wife the stage and academy award winning actress Geraldine Page. Their house is very lived in with all kinds of art objects and paintings scattered through the narrow four story brownstone with books piled everywhere.
LeeAnn is a poet and publisher of a series of poetry books at her press, Tender Buttons, as well as a teacher of poetry at St. John’s University.
Tony has had dramatic roles in a number of films and is a teacher and director. There is a room in their house which is an event space where we saw five short plays put on by a Philadelphia troupe of actors. LeeAnn and Tony also have a home in Marshall, North Carolina where my daughter Susie got to know them. I met them once before in Paris last year when LeeAnn was giving a poetry reading. They were marvelous hosts.
We went out to a Chinese dinner the night after the plays where we met Louise Landes Levi a very interesting woman and master of the Sarangi, an Indian instrument who had flown from Europe to give a concert. I was able to buy from her a copy of her book, Rasa: Or Knowledge of Self by Rene Daumal about Indian poetry which she had translated from French into English. Our stay at Torn Page was fascinating and fun.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 