Suggested donation, $5. All ages are welcome.

Manisha Shahane and Rebecca Joffrey blend music with real-life drama in Musical Book Reading #2, “Finding Your Voice.” Part voyeurism, part inspiration, the afternoon program will combine Shahane’s songs from her recent debut release Peace in Progress, as well as newer music, with excerpts from Joffrey’s THIS DAY: DIARIES FROM AMERICAN WOMEN (Beyond Words Publishing, 2003; Three Rivers Press, 2005). Both projects celebrate the intimate details of everyday life: Shahane’s album is a collage of compositions rooted in jazz, folk, and Indian traditions; Joffrey’s book is a collection of “day diaries” written by women across America on a single ‘ordinary’ Tuesday. One year ago on the same weekend, Shahane collaborated with London-based Tanuja Desai Hidier, author of Born Confused (Scholastic Press; USA 2002; UK, Australia 2003) for the first musical reading (and across-the-pond collaboration #1!). Given how much fun everyone had the first time around, Shahane approached Joffrey to see if she’d be interested in putting together a second afternoon in the same vein this April. While accompanying herself on piano, Shahane will be joined by Ippei Ichimaru (acoustic bass) and Jerry Leake (tabla/multipercussion). During the set, Joffrey and Shahane will intersperse readings from This Day. Afterwards, they will open the floor for discussion.

Featured in Family Circle magazine, on CNN, and in newspapers across the country, This Day is the culmination of a remarkable project to which over 500 American women from all walks of life have contributed. Joffrey and partners Joni B. Cole and B.K. Rakhra have skillfully framed this window to a double amputee’s wheelchair reality, Miss America’s hotel habits, musician Anoushka Shankar’s flirtation with Bharatanatyam dance, and an at-home mom’s frustration in seeking out suitable playdates, thereby giving us perspective on our own lives. Locally, Dorothy Thomas of Roxbury, MA shares her day’s trials and triumphs as she works towards earning her GED at the age of 60. Other local contributors include Lucille Magliozzi (sister of NPR’s “Car Talk” guys), spiritual leader Sharon Salzberg, the food program manager at Rosie’s Place homeless shelter, and a marketing executive at Gillette. This chorus of unique voices sings about the extraordinary in the ordinary—moments that, on any given day, illuminate who we really are as individuals, as women, as Americans. For more information, visit www.thisdayinthelife.com and www.manishamusic.com.