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Playlist: Kendra Greene's Portfolio

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The Undreaming

From Kendra Greene | 09:58

A high school valedictorian owes the class on '97 a retraction: Don't follow your dreams. Seriously, it's a terrible idea.

Default-piece-image-1 Kendra Greene has had some time to think about her high school valedictory address, and she owes the class of 1997 an apology. It’s not that there was anything wrong with the self-consciously extended metaphor about cuttings and roses and thorn–she still believes all that–but she should have said something relevant. She’d like to say it now: Don’t follow your dreams. Really, it’s a terrible idea. Ubiquitous, well-intentioned, but completely terrible.

The Smashing Story

From Kendra Greene | 15:00

"The Elephant Who Liked To Smash Small Cars" enthralled me as a kid. As an adult, trying to track down a copy of the book took me across the country.

Lens2494902_123390380620090205_elephant_smash_smallcars_small In 1967 Pantheon published a 30 page children’s book. 452 words. 25 illustrations. One elephant. One car salesman. A lot of smashed cars. This is the story of what Jean Merrill's The Elephant Who Liked To Smash Small Cars has meant to my family, how hard it is to track down a beloved book once it's gone out of print, and why the pilgrimage to find it after we all grew up eventually took us to the author's country home in Vermont. With readings and interviews with the Jean Merrill, Ronni Solbert (the illustrator), my parents, and my siblings, plus theme and variations of the book's smashing song by Nancy Newkirk on piano.