Episode 045 - Christina Stanton

In today's episode, I welcome Christina Stanton! Christina is an award-winning author, professional singer, and licensed New York City tour guide. She shares her incredibly powerful story of how watching a musical was the catalyst to start healing after experiencing the 9/11 attacks firsthand changed her life forever. (Fun fact: the cover image of this week's episode is the cover of Christina's book about her experience on 9/11 and its aftermath.)

 

Get in touch with Christina Stanton: https://christinaraystanton.com/

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Episode 45 - Christina Stanton

Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art.

[00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life.

[00:00:12]Roman:  All I can do is put my part in to the world.

[00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough.

[00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful. 

[00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome back to Artfully Told. I'm your host post Lindsey, and I am so excited to introduce as my guest today, Christina Stanton. She is a licensed New York City tour guide, the owner of a nonprofit, and the author of a book about 9/11. And currently she's also working on a book about her experiences as a tour guide. And I am so very thrilled to have you here today. Thank you for being here, Christina.

[00:01:00] Christina Stanton: Hey, good morning!

[00:01:03]Lindsey Dinneen: And I would love if you would just share a little bit maybe about your background and how you got started into all the cool things that you're doing, if you don't mind sharing a little bit.

[00:01:15] Christina Stanton: So I'm from Tallahassee, Florida, and born and raised. And I moved to New York city when I was 23 in 1993. So that tells you how old I am, but I moved there to be an actress. And I got a degree in music. I was a singer and my voice really fit fast on like the Broadway stage. And so I moved to New York to try my luck in becoming a Broadway actress and I loved it from the get-go. Just, I love the, the artistic community. I loved fellow actors. I love the whole process of auditioning and rehearsing and performing, and I love New York City. So it was such a great fit for me. I think actually, if I weren't a performer, I would have never moved to New York City and I would've, I would have missed out because that place is pretty much perfect from me and my, and my temperament and my personality.

[00:02:06] So moved there, 1993, and I did that for about 10 years. And after I got married in 2000, actually I started kind of transitioning out of that and exploring some other parts of myself, which was-- I was exploring my faith, to tell you the truth. And I, we, we got very very involved in a house of worship. I also became a licensed New York City tour guide and I, I did that actually in 1995 kind of as a-- to help pay the bills, right? Between acting gigs, which is what we all do up there, right? So I decided I'm a New York City tour guide. And I ended up, when I was transitioning out of acting, becoming top heavy in that industry, because I love tourism.

[00:02:50] And mainly it's because I'd fallen in love with New York. So I myself wanted to be kinda like roll out the red carpet for tourists in a way that I felt like when I moved up to New York, because I was still seeing New York as a tourist myself since I wasn't born and raised there. And so I still do that to this day and still love it. And I kind of went from performing to seeing every show and concert that I could. And I've, I think I've seen up to 500 shows and live theater events in New York City ever since I moved there. So I'm a big aficionado of, of live theater. And I spend a lot of time going to see shows.

[00:03:32] So yeah, that's, that's kind of me, my husband and I live in the financial district and we've lived in the same apartment for 20 years, which is kind of unheard of in the city. And yeah, we just, we just enjoy our lives and just kind of do our thing. And I have a lot of friends and yeah, the, the pandemic was a blip on the screen and that's what I'm hoping it will be is-- it's, it's changed us all. It's, it's been awful, but I'm hoping that, you know, soon there's a light at the end of the tunnel that we can all just kind of put this behind us, and, and go back to, to our lives. But I have to say, I think probably everybody noticed the, the lack of, of art or maybe they have a new appreciation for art because it was so lacking this past year. So I bet, I bet a lot of people have been thinking about the role art plays in their lives because we were so challenged to get that in our daily lives, you know, this past year in the pandemic. So it's taken on definitely a new, a new meaning.

[00:04:27]Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, I absolutely agree. I think that it's, it's so interesting how, how much art plays a daily role in our lives. And sometimes it kind of goes unnoticed a little bit. We, we don't think about the fact that, you know, everything that we're surrounded by was designed by artists, right? I mean, even a piece of furniture was designed by an artist. I mean, it's, that's that thought it's all art and it's so fun to kind of see those moments and realize, oh, yeah, our whole world is art. I love it.

[00:05:03] Christina Stanton: It really is. So I guess we've had to find it in different ways and this past year, but I, I, myself am, am excited about seeing live theater again, even though, I mean, I love seeing "Hamilton" and, and "The Prom" and other things that, that were available to us this past year, or just live theater is, is kind of my thing.

[00:05:22] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh yeah. There's nothing like it. I mean, it's fantastic that there are now very cool, you know, movie adaptations of musicals and things like that. But the thrill of being there and hearing the music and, "Oh man, I can't wait."

[00:05:37] Christina Stanton: Audience, you know, having people around you who appreciate art, like you do, it's almost like this, this built-in camaraderie, this built-in kind of community. You don't even know who's sitting next to you, but you have that in common. So it's very relational.

[00:05:52] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Well, Christina, I know you have a really, really specific story that you had in mind as far as sharing with us about the impact that art has had on your life. I would love if you want to dive in.

[00:06:07] Christina Stanton: Sure, sure. Well, I have to back up a little bit because my story does revolve around 9/11 and I, I won't go too much into, let's say our firsthand account, I'll just-- highlights would, would be that essentially my husband and I lived right next to the World Trade Center complex during the, right before the attacks. And we actually just moved in July the seventh, but we live six blocks away from the World Trade Center complex. And I was very familiar with the Twin Towers and the Observatory and the buildings and the shops, mainly because I'm a tour guide. I would have been a tour guide and was taking tourists on walking tours around the World Trade Center comp complex for years, you know, before the attack.

[00:06:49] So I already had kind of my own relationship with with the complex as a tour guide. And that was double because we lived right next to it. So during the attacks, and we lived on the 24th floor and we lived so close to the buildings that when, when the second plane went in, we were so close that the shock waves from that plane going into that building actually blew us back into our apartment. We had this wonderful 300 square foot terrace that overlooked the complex. So literally it blew us back into our apartment, knocked us out on the floor. I talk more about that in my book, if it sounds so spectacular to hear, hear these things, but but yeah, so blew us back, yeah, knocked us out. My hearing's never been the same. It, it just, it really, really affected us. We had to evacuate our building and we sought refuge in nearby Battery Park. But as it turns out that area, it wasn't safe at all. When the Twin Towers came down, they covered us with the dust and debris and there was actually very thick smoke from the towers that threatened to fixate us.

[00:07:58] It was, it was a horrible, life-threatening, very scary morning, so to speak. We were evacuated by a boat to New Jersey in the largest boat evacuation in history. I'm not sure if you've heard of that, but, but all these people started pooling by the coastline because we all felt trapped down there in Battery Park and the Coast Guard issued a radio call saying, "Hey, if anybody owns a boat that can hold anybody, go onto the coastline, pick people up. And drop them off at different places. We've got to get people away from, from the destruction and the danger." So we were evacuated to New Jersey and essentially we didn't get back into our apartment until the next January. So at any rate, so it was this, it was this crazy --I mean, the story that I, you know, for us, it kind of 9/11 went on and on, right?

[00:08:52] So for instance, my husband lost a very good Clemson fraternity brother in the attacks and that put him in just a real depression. Our dog clung to life for weeks after that, because he, he was covered with the dust of the buildings. He was trying to lick himself clean. There was ground up glass in that dust, which shredded his insides. So we took him to the vet and literally clung to life for, for a while after that. So our dog was sick. We were homeless. My husband's friend had died and, you know, we just have, to tell the truth, we had PTSD. So  it just kind of went on it, you know, like I said, being homeless was its own trauma. We've never had that experience before. And so by the time like May of the next year rolled around, we were back in our apartment and we were kind of navigating, you know, life and the new normal. I still wasn't working because I'm in tourism and, you know, no tourists were coming because there were still worries about the attacks.

[00:09:57] The United States had entered Operation Enduring Freedom at war. So people were staying away. I was still out of work. My husband was still, we were still struggling, right? Even the next May. And so I had read about, you know, I love live theater, go to live theater all the time. I had read about my favorite show, one of my favorite shows it's called "On on the Island." A nonprofit called Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS was putting on a one day event of the show. It was two shows in one day, May the 12th, 2002. And it was the original cast from when it was on Broadway in 1990. And I was like, " I'm going, you know, I, I need to see live theater. It's my favorite show." I don't know if it's coming back to Broadway anytime soon. I need a break. I need a mental break. I need to get out of my head. I need to be around things that I love and remind me that there's good in the world because I was still struggling to think that, "wow. I felt like somebody had tried to kill me."

[00:10:59] My whole worldview was so shaken at that point. And so we went to see this, this show that was really a fundraiser is what it was. And it was a staged reading. There was no set or costumes or anything like that, but it was the original cast. I just wanted a mental break and it just really changed me seeing the show. It had a huge impact and effect on me. I mean it achieved what I wanted it to do, but in a bigger way than I even expected.

[00:11:29]Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. Yeah, that is a tremendously powerful story. Thank you so much for sharing that. And, wow. So, you know, you said that it, it changed you. Was that kind of a catalyst for being able to, to move forward, so to speak?

[00:11:50] Christina Stanton: Well, it really was because, if you know, or if any of your listeners know anything about the show "Once on this Island," it's a very basic and simple tale of a peasant girl who falls in love with a guy outside of her class. And, it actually has a beautiful ending and it's, it's just a simple-- there's, there's no flying chandeliers or helicopters within the show. It's, it's just one simple set and it's just beautiful singing. And it's a sweet story set on a Caribbean Island, which makes you feel like you're transported far away. One of the main reasons why it was effective and healing me from, from that cesspool, that turmoil I was on at the time is because the lead girl is an actress, she's still performing now, named LaChanze. So LaChanze was one of these, you know, when I moved to New York, I was all into the theater scene and I knew who was starring on Broadway. And LaChanze was a major star, still is, but she was at, you know, the height and the early mid -nineties when I moved to New York.

[00:12:59] So everything was about LaChanze and she was, she was starring in it. And so I was a huge fan, already huge fan of hers, but unfortunately had a terrible story of 9/11. She was one of these people who got married a little later in life. She had a baby and she was pregnant with her second child during September 11th attacks and her husband died in 9/11. New husband had waited a long time to be married to him, I think. And he died. And one of the towers he actually was working for Cantor Fitzgerald, which was the company that lost the most people in 9/11. I think they lost 658 employees and Calvin Gooding was one of them. And I knew that the whole theater community knew that, that LaChanze, his husband died, leaving her pregnant with her second child.

[00:13:53] And, I remember, we all thought it was just horrifying, just awful. It's the worst circumstances because, you know what? The theater community is small and we all care about each other and it's, it's a real, it's a real community. So she had starred in this show and when it came out on Broadway and 1990, 1991, and she was starring again at this two- performance only show. It was a fundraiser in 2002. So I wanted to go and hear this. Love the music, love the show, but I wanted to see LaChanze, you know, I wanted to support her. It was my way of supporting her, but also I just kind of felt like, even though she doesn't know me, that in a way we kind of had somewhat of a shared experience-- I mean hers in such a bigger way than myself, I could never relate to the loss that she has suffered, but I definitely felt like my heart blood for her. And so I went to see her and, and against the other show and to watch those actors go through the show and try to get through it, because essentially there's some very sad moments in the show. They cried their way through it, which made the whole audience go crazy.

[00:15:06] Everybody there knew what had happened. Everybody there in the audience knew what had happened to LaChanze and her husband, because people who go to these kinds of fundraisers, it's kind of like an insider thing to do. You know what I'm saying? So it was really an audience filled with actors or like extreme theater lovers, and everyone knew what had happened. So literally people were on their feet the entire performance because everybody's heart was bleeding for LaChanze, bleeding for the city, bleeding for the actors who were on the verge of tears throughout the entire show. And it just created an electric atmosphere because everybody was in on it. Everybody knew what this was and everybody was upset. And also everybody was so encouraging , to the cast.

[00:15:54]Lindsey Dinneen: Well, that sounds like an incredible experience and yeah, the comradery, like you were saying of sitting next to people who understand and have similar experiences or even just, they can be empathic with what's happening and the way that things are being portrayed. That sounds really like, you kind of said, sort of life-transforming. Wow.

[00:16:21]Christina Stanton: You knew you were seeing something special once in a lifetime, that this would never be repeated because of this very special circumstances. So everybody was just electric. And there was nobody in that theater that had a dry eye, nobody.  At the end, there was a standing ovation for 10 minutes. I am imagining how long the show at the end of the day took. And just because, you know, and people would be yelling, "you got this," or "we love you," as the actors would go down during the show, meaning they would start crying, then people would be screaming. I mean, you never hear that during a normal performance. You don't, you don't hear people say, " we love you," you know, so this isn't a spectator.  But people really felt honestly with them and instead of, let's say us being entertained or taken away from our lives for a moment, we were literally with them, journeying with them too, to make it through, right? But also, because there's a lot of sad moments. Whenever there was a very poignant line in a song, everybody would be crying. We'd be crying because it took on a whole different meaning in the context of you know, the nation just, just had the worst terrorism on American soil, you know apart from Pearl Harbor.

[00:17:44] I remember there was one point, I was crying so hard. My husband was to the left of me. I remember there was a guy, some random guy to the right of me. He was freaking out a little bit because I was crying so hard. I mean, everybody was crying, but I, I had another level to it and he was looking at me like, are you going to survive this show, those releases, you know, just have like it was just one of the few times that I broke down because I'm not much, I'm not too much of a crier. I don't wear my heart on my sleeve all the time, but I was really breaking down because it was, it was a release, you know, it was this shared communal experience of mourning at the show, and it just really caused me to break down and, and there was something very comforting being in the midst of these beautiful people in this beautiful show. And it was like we were collectively mourning and it was just,  it was a game changer for me.  It was something I needed and I kinda needed to have that breakdown. And, you know, I felt different after I left that show, I felt that life is going to go on. My worldview doesn't need to completely change because of the attacks, but there's a lot of love and a lot of support and a lot of care in this world from a lot of people.

[00:19:00]Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. That is a perfect example of the power of art and the way that it, it doesn't just transform or, or work in the lives of those who are performing the art or doing the art. It can literally change somebody's life through an experience in just watching it or participating in some way, reading it, whatever. That is amazing. The power of the arts to heal and to inspire and to provoke is, I mean, I don't think I've heard a better example of that in my life because that's just perfect. Yeah. Wow. Well, goodness. Thank you for sharing that. And yeah, I'm so glad that you were able to have that experience and all of those people were able to have that, like you said, once in a lifetime experience, that's transformative.

[00:19:57] Christina Stanton: Yeah. I think I said earlier that I think I've seen up to about 500 different live theater events and there's three or four that stick out, that was super special and never will be repeated. And I'm so glad I went. And, that's definitely at the top and I've often wanted to tell LaChanze that how much that meant to me and I did a little article about it and it has made the rounds and I'm glad. I'm just hoping that maybe she'll stumble on it and, and realize that it did it, did people good to see that? I know that was hard to go through. It did a lot of good, I have seen her perform since then. And I've seen "Once on this Island" again, it actually came to Broadway again in 2017 and I saw two performances of that and I still loved it for sure. But nothing will top that particular night.

[00:20:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, of course that well, and kudos to you also for, for sharing that experience too, and encouraging the \actors involved because I'm sure you've experienced this too sometimes-- you're not quite sure how much what you do might matter, or that it does matter to other people as well. And so I think that's really special that you were able to share that experience and say, you know, essentially "thank you" because we acknowledged that that was hard, but thank you. So, yeah. Okay. So then, you know, since then, you've obviously also written and published a book about your experience, how was it writing that? I mean, that must have been just-- digging through all those memories.

[00:21:39]Christina Stanton:  It was hard to plow through and relive those things until I-- this is ironic-- and so I caught COVID. We're almost exactly a year ago. I believe I caught COVID on March 14th in New York City and it almost killed me. As a matter of fact, I was hospitalized twice. It was, it was bad. And I wrote a book about that too. So I'm guessing there that there's clearly a theme going on that writing is cathartic for me and helps me to process, but I did, it was painful to write about 9/11. But I had a a real drive and motivation to write about it because, you know, there's been like over 700 books written about 9/11, but a lot of them, when I was going down the list, I've read most of them. So a lot of them are terrorist or terrorism. Or maybe about the World Trade Center complex and the Twin Towers, or maybe the planes.

[00:22:31] And certainly those are, those are important stories to tell for sure. But I haven't heard many from a voice perspective of somebody who lived in the neighborhood and experienced it from from a resident's perspective of living through that and going back to the neighborhood and trying to resume and the new normal that it has had its own challenges. I'd seen articles about it. So I just thought to tell you truth that I wanted to add, add my voice to that. And it was a fresh perspective, so yeah, and also wanted to highlight what I learned personally through it, you know, but you know, the, the pre 9/11 was a different person than the post 9/11, and I can and I really drew on a lot of what I learned during the COVID time.  It really affected how I dealt with that tragedy and  what I learned through 9/11. So yeah, so the pre- pandemic was kind of the same as the post- pandemic because of what I had learned from 9/11.

[00:23:28] So I talk about just yeah, life lessons that I learned through it. And, you know, we, we were new in our marriage. I was, I think, 32 years old, 31 or, oh, I turned 32, September 22nd, which was, you know, just a few days after the attacks. But so we were, we were newly weds. We were, we were married only a year and a half. And so we were having such a hard time navigating a new marriage, but also, you know, seeing each other in that kind of extreme circumstance. And so by the time, you know, the "Once on this Island" rolled around the next May. We were still kind of locked in our own battle and our own internal battle that we were fighting. And you know, we emerged from that much stronger and that's one of the, the good aspects to come out of 9/11 for us. But yeah, so wasn't easy writing that book, but  it was cathartic and, and I'm kinda glad that I get, again, that perspective, because it was a story that wasn't out there, so, yeah.

[00:24:28] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And then now you're writing another book, but I hear this one is going to be a little bit of a different theme.

[00:24:38] Christina Stanton: No more. We're done with this. Yeah. So I've been a tour guide for so many years, just when you're dealing with tourist and large groups and groups of all demographics and age ranges. And just New York being New York, lots of crazy stuff has happened. And I have one of these people that have this, this memory. I remember everything. And if you're-- I'm a freelancer, if you freelance and let's say an incident happens, like the company really wants to know, what happened? So if, if like the tourists complain, they have a heads- up of what the situation happened? So, so I have incident reports.  Crazy things happen all the time. It's a crazy city, New York City. And so I wanted to protect myself by writing out, you know, my version of abundance. And so I barely have to write. It's pretty much already written. I was going to call it "A Collection of Incident Reports," but instead I think I'll do "Confessions of a New York City Guide." It's funny. It's funny shenanigans. It's a fun romp through New York City and crazy tour guiding stories.

[00:25:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh my gosh. I love it. I cannot wait to read that. Well, and on that note if our listeners want to connect with you or purchase your books and things like that, is there a way for them to be able to do that?

[00:26:02] Christina Stanton: Yeah, my website is christinaraystanton.com.  And that's all my information  of the books and my upcoming book and articles I've written and, yeah.

[00:26:13]Lindsey Dinneen: Perfect. Thank you. Woo. So excited. Well, and then I have three questions that I always like to ask my guests, if you're okay with that.

[00:26:23] Christina Stanton: Yeah.

[00:26:24] Lindsey Dinneen: Perfect. Okay. So the first one is, how do you personally define art or what is art to you?

[00:26:32]Christina Stanton: All right. So I think art helps us understand and appreciate and navigate life. I mean, it is life, but art bleeds over into every section of our lives and it just helps us through life. And you know, personally ,the most joy and love and sadness, the strongest emotions I feel, is through art. I'm pretty straight as an arrow and and other places in my life. But nothing makes me feel the human experience more than art does.

[00:27:11]Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. And then what do you think is the most important role of an artist?

[00:27:18]Christina Stanton: It's to tell their truth, because we all are having such different experiences in this world that what you want is that somebody is expressing your experience somewhere in art, doing something. And you just want to connect with art that's expressing your particular experience that you're having on this planet and is sharing your human experience. And so I just think artists should be telling their truth of how they're viewing the world and their experience, because there's going to be people out there that can relate and want to relate and want that comradery, and wants somebody to quote unquote, "understand them," but I just feel like it's a shared experience. So it's a story that, that can be shared with several people.  We're not all having the same experience, but there are people out there who are having, you know, the same struggles, and the same highs and lows and joys. And they're looking at life in the world and God, and in the same way, do you want to connect  to art that is speaking to you personally.

[00:28:28]Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. Yup. I love that perspective. And then my final question, and I'll define my terms a little bit, but do you think that art should be inclusive or exclusive? And what I mean by that -- inclusive, referring to an artist who puts their work out there and includes some context behind that, whether it's a title or program notes or the inspiration behind it, something, so you kind of know a little bit about what the artist had in mind. Versus exclusive referring to an artist who puts their work out there and doesn't share context behind it, so it's left entirely up to the viewer to interpret.

[00:29:06] Christina Stanton: Hm, actually I appreciate inclusive because I think I need a little help sometimes understanding the inspiration behind a piece of art, and I may not be able to relate to it or even agree with it. But I, I feel like I, I like to understand the artist's  intent and the message, and then I can, if I want to peel off and create my own narrative around it, I'll do that. But no, I like to, I want to know what their inspiration is. I want to know what sparked the piece of art.

[00:29:43]Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. Makes complete sense. Well, perfect Christina, thank you so very much for being my guest today. Your story is so fantastic and inspirational, and I'm so honored that you shared it with us and that you're sharing it with the world and, and expressing this moment that was transformative, and I just really appreciate you being here and sharing. So thank you so much and being on the show. I really appreciate it. And definitely if you're listening to this episode, please go check out her website, go buy those books and continue following her journey because obviously Christina is a marvelous person with lots of stories to share and somebody definitely to be inspired by because, gosh, you've been through some things and you're just coming out so strong and so resilient. And so just kudos to you and I can't wait to continue to see what you do and to follow your journey too. So thank you again so much. And thank you so much to everyone who's listened to this episode. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love if you'd share this episode with a friend or two and we will catch you next time.

[00:31:11] Do you have a story to share with us? We would love that so much. And I hope your day has been Artfully Told.

[00:31:20]Hey, Artfully Told listeners, Lindsey here. And I just want to share with you a little bit more about the SpeakEasy Method. Now, if you've had a chance to listen to Gregg Gonzalez' interview on Artfully Told, you're already a little familiar with the process that is so unique, so cool that is the SpeakEasy Method is for people who are ready to write their books, but maybe aren't super confident about their own writing ability, or just want a more streamlined way of doing it. Gregg and his team at SpeakEasy are experts at these amazing questions that help your authentic voice to shine through. So what they do is they go through recorded audio interviews with you and these recordings are then transcribed and put into manuscript format ready to go. So what's cool about that is instead of months and months, or years and years of you writing a book, they will actually take you from concept to published and it can be as little as nine months. That is one of the most recent success stories that they have accomplished. And it is just a really innovative method that I am personally so excited to help represent and help share the word about because what Gregg and his team are doing is absolutely life-changing for prospective authors. And I highly encourage you to book a discovery call with Gregg  or another member of his team to learn more and see if this could be the perfect fit for you. It's a hundred percent complimentary and you can do so easily by going to his website and that's www.joy-ful-iving.com/speakeasy. And again, that spelled out is J O Y dash F U L living.com/speakeasy.