- [Stephfond] Tonight on WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories, the Repair Cafe in Kingston, Ontario saves residents time and money.

We take you inside to see what this unique organization is all about.

And meet Oswego County author Ann Callaghan Allen.

Her historic book introduces readers to a powerful 19th century independent businesswoman who had it all and lost it all.

Also, poet Chris Citro joins us in the WPBS studios with his quirky and colorful stanzas.

Your stories, your region.

Coming up right now on WPBS Weekly, Inside the Stories.

(exciting music) - [Host] WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories is brought to you by the Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, Carthage Savings, the JM McDonald Foundation and the Badenhausen Legacy Fund at the Northern New York Community Foundation.

- Good Tuesday evening everyone, and welcome to this edition of WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories, I'm Stephfond Brunson.

We kick off tonight with a story of goodness.

What started out as a green initiative by the Unitarian Fellowship Church has grown into a full-blown public repair center.

The results is an organization filled with volunteers that can fix, repair and make new the important things in your life.

Take a look.

(audience claps) (drill whirs) - [Gail] In the global North people throw away vast amounts of stuff.

Some items may be nearly perfect, able to be brought back to life with a simple repair.

Unfortunately, many people do not have the knowledge and skills to do it themselves, nor the finances.

This is where repair cafes come in.

- A few years ago, a couple of friends of mine and I were in sort of a dinner club and one of the ladies in it saw an article about repair cafes in Amsterdam where they started.

They brought this knowledge and some of it to a Kingston Unitarian Fellowship service about being green.

The Unitarian Fellowship was keen to do this, to be of service to the community and I thought, well I love to fix things and I love to create things with people, those are my two favorite things in life and there it was.

- [Gail] Starting out as a green initiative in 2017, Repair Cafe Kingston recently partnered with the Kingston Frontenac Library's Repair It program.

The library's new creative space encourages community members to share their knowledge with others.

- Yeah, so we started Repair It here at the library based on other repairing type programs around the world.

And we partnered with Repair Cafe Kingston, which is a group of volunteers that help out in the community.

Brian here, he's one of the volunteers.

We contacted him and he's really interested in collaborating with us.

People actually appreciate the fact that the volunteers can assess the item, they can give second opinion about the item.

And I think that's really important 'cause a lot of times you're not sure if to toss it or if you can fix it.

- [Gail] At a repair cafe, you'll find tools and materials to help you make any repairs you need on clothing, furniture, bicycles, small appliances and more.

You'll also find expert volunteers with the repair skills.

Repair Cafe Kingston helps people keep their valued items in service and gives them great satisfaction by not having to throw out that fixable item.

- It's important to fix things, to reuse things.

A lot of older things are actually made better and the older it is generally the more fixable it is.

My initiative for it was that we're not gonna fix things for people, we're gonna get them involved.

So we showed a lady today how to use a hand drill, very simple, but it empowered her.

It gave her more of a feeling of what she could do about saving the world.

- I'm sure there's lots of other things that I could do that I don't.

There's so much, right?

And I think that's the thing is people get overwhelmed.

There's so many things that are wrong that need to be fixed in the world.

Not just the fixing fixing, but so much wrong with the world that needs to be fixed.

That we have this duty, this responsibility as stewards of the environment to care just that little bit more and to try and, okay, so I can't do everything or I don't even know everything that's possible.

It will take a lifetime for me to figure it out all the things that I could do and revamp my whole life.

But I can do this.

You know, I can do this one thing so that this doesn't wind up in the landfill.

- [Gail] With more than 2,000 repair cafes in over 35 countries, Repair Cafe International calculates that the more than 420,000 successful repairs have prevented up to 10 million kilos of CO2 emissions.

- I think it really does help the environment because again it goes back to the idea of more and more you see like disposable items, one time used products, and to be able to offer this service, it really helps people rethink about how you can fix things and it really kind of empowers people to learn about these new skills.

- [Gail] Repair cafes are not only about repairing broken items, they are also about sharing the tools, spaces, knowledge and skills.

The individuals or fixers who join the Repair Cafe workshops are happy to help others to repair their broken items.

- Initially we found a lot of fixers through the Unitarian Fellowship and through friends of the Unitarian Fellowship.

And then as we kept it going and it became better known in the community, people would actually contact us through our Facebook page called Repair Cafe Kingston.

And it just naturally went through the community where mostly retired people said I'd like to help.

- I know how to fix things that are sewn.

So sometimes somebody would come in with something simple that their kid's snowsuit was a bit ripped at the seams and we could sew it up again.

I love to volunteer, I want to make a difference.

And this is a chance to help people that need help that might otherwise throw things out.

You know, say, well, I'll just get a new dress, you know like this one, the hems come out, what can I do?

- [Gail] Repair Cafe Kingston is free with the option to make a small donation.

This helps make repairs accessible for those who couldn't otherwise afford to pay and saves the cost of buying a brand new item.

- For me, there's been so many things over the years that I wish that this had been a program.

I wish we had a repair cafe in Kingston all the time and that more people knew about it.

- If we can have just one thing kept out of the landfill for five more years, sure why not.

And through Repair Cafe we let that person feel good about helping to save it.

- [Gail] For WPBS Weekly, I'm Gail Paquet.

- In this next segment, we go inside the studio with producer Jolene DeRosier, who sat down with a Oswego County author Ann Callaghan Allen to discuss her book "The Madame's Business."

Allen stumbled across this forgotten historical Oswego County icon who had it all and lost it all after financial and physical abuse by her third husband.

Allen's mission now after bringing this historic 19th century figure to the forefront is to restore the monument where Madame Guimares is laid to rest.

Joleene?

- Yes, that's right.

Once again, I am in the studio with a local author.

Tonight it happens to be Ann Callaghan Allen, the author of this amazing book, this historic book, "The Madame's Business".

First of all, hello to you and thank you so much for joining us.

- Hello, and thank you for having me.

- Tell me who the madame is.

- Okay, I will tell you her whole name.

- [Joleene] Yes.

- And it's kind of like her whole history.

Her name is Malvina Dean Besse Guimares Seabra.

But she is most often known as Madame Guimares.

- So we're gonna go with Madame Guimares, - We're gonna go with that.

- from this moment on.

And for viewers that are watching this historic book is about a woman, an historic figure that a lot of people aren't familiar with.

But thanks to your work our community has learned about her.

Tell me what this book is about.

- This book is about a young woman who was ambitious, resourceful, smart and business savvy.

And who decided that she was gonna defy the conventions, really that confined women in the 19th century and she was going to seek her own fortune and that's exactly what she did.

- Tell me a little bit about that fortune.

How and why did she do this?

- So she seized on an opportunity that she saw when she was living in New York City.

She had escaped upstate New York and rural farm life, and she became aware of a brand new technological invention called the Sewing Machine which modern day people say, who wants a sewing machine?

But I have to tell you that in the mid 1800s, the sewing machine which was actually the first home appliance was absolutely transformational in the lives of women.

And she could see that.

And she connected with a company that was selling sewing machines and she convinced them to give her six sample machines.

And she took them to the then newly emerging market of South America and she started selling machines and that was where she began to build her fortune.

- How did you come across this character?

How did you meet her?

- Well, I had heard rumors about her.

The most interesting one to me was that she was the mistress of Isaac Singer.

And that in return, he gifted her the South American franchise for Singer sewing machines.

And that's where her fortune came from.

As I came to find out, that wasn't true at all but I thought that was kind of interesting.

I said, well, that sounds like a great story but it was really a chance conversation about this elaborate monument site that she had built for herself in a historic cemetery outside of Oswego that got me really digging deeper into her story.

So I had never seen the Monument site, but a couple of years ago after this conversation, I said, "I think I need to go see what this looks like."

And it is awe-inspiring.

The centerpiece is a full size bow relief marble sculpture of Malvina.

And I looked at that sculpture and at her face in particular and I said, "Who is this woman?

I need to know more about her."

And that's really what started me on the road to find out more about her story.

- And this is Riverside Cemetery?

- This is Riverside Cemetery which is a historic cemetery just outside the city of Oswego.

- And it's interesting because before we wrap it up, we're gonna talk about what you're doing with this particular monument.

So you're at this monument, you see her face, you're inspired, when and how did you start digging to find out more about her?

- Well, I did what any 21st century person would do.

I googled her and I didn't find a thing.

- [Joleene] Right.

- And I thought how could you have an elaborate monument site like this?

It was almost like a chapel kind of mecca type site and no one knows anything about you.

So I started looking for information about her in historic newspapers.

And one of the stories that I read said that the probate of her estate, which was vast took nearly 13 years and had accumulated the most paperwork to that time in a New York courtroom.

And my husband's a lawyer and I said, "Why would that be?"

And as it turned out, she died in Oswego.

And he said, well, we should go look at her will.

So we went over to the Oswego County Courthouse into Surrogate's Court and looked for the will.

When we opened the will safe, there was a document there, but no will.

So we went over to the court clerk and she took a look at it and this document said something about a box and she said, I'm not sure what this is.

And then she went, oh, wait a minute.

There's some boxes in this closet.

I don't know when this closet was ever opened but she walked over to this closet, walked in and came out with a box that was like this and this deep.

And she said, here you go.

So we took the box and over to the reading area and I opened it up and it was like these papers from the 19th century just kind of, it wasn't her ghost but they just sort of floated up because they'd been squished for so long.

And my husband was pretty intent on finding the will.

But I just picked up the first document which turned out to be testimony early on in this almost 13 year long court case.

And I'm reading testimony from a young man who was clearly her nephew and had been with her and she was clearly a victim of domestic abuse and in fact tortured with a wild monkey.

And I just looked at this and I said I can't believe what I'm reading.

- Well, that would prompt me to keep reading.

- I kept reading.

- One thing that I wanna make sure we touch on and the reason why this is such a powerful story, this is a woman who had it all and lost it all.

And you know, it's very relevant today especially coming on the heels of the Me Too Movement.

- [Ann] Absolutely.

- Would you agree?

- I would agree.

In fact, I say I really believe she's probably one of the first hashtag Me Too women.

And in fact, had she been living in the 20th, 21st centuries, she would've had far more resources than she did in the 19th century.

- [Joleene] It wouldn't have taken 13 years.

- It would not have taken 13 years.

And actually she wouldn't have lost so much of her fortune to this unscrupulous third husband of hers who had the law on his side and who had convention about women staying in their lane, a woman's place on his side.

And there was no support for anyone at that point in time.

- Yet, as you go through the documents and as you write about in the book, there were people well after her death that were on her side and kept fighting for her.

- Oh my.

There were such heroes in her story.

So probably the most heroic was her business manager, a man named Orson Brown, who I wish I could talk to now.

And in fact, he was the one who kept that box of documents that I found until his death.

And he really stayed with the fight to preserve her fortune on the US side.

So it was a pretty complicated situation.

She had business and real estate holdings in South America, in Portugal and in New York and he worked tirelessly to try to preserve at least the portion of the fortune that she had in the US.

So he was absolutely the hero of her story.

- I feel like you're the hero now because your mission aside from writing her story and sharing it, is you are working on a project to restore that monument.

Will you tell us a little bit about that?

- So when I saw the monument, it was really in disrepair.

And as a matter of fact, the book cover, I took that picture the first time I went to see the monument, it was her, the sculpture of her was wrapped almost completely in this gigantic swath of grapevine.

It was eerie, it really was.

So I decided I'm going to try to do some publicity about this and talk about her story, learn more about her story and see if we can get some people in the community interested in restoring the monument site.

And so my initial, I guess, goal was to try to put a story in the Historic Society newspaper, newsletter, see if we could get somebody to make a donation, a mason to come and fix some of the crumbling parts of the monument.

But the more I learned about her story, the more avenues I went down and it went from, I think I'll do a story for the Historic Society Newsletter to 159 page book.

And so I decided I'm going to use this book pretty much as a PR tool.

I've done a whole bunch of presentations about her and her story in the book, and the proceeds from the sale of the book go to a special fund that the Riverside Cemetery has established to get the monument restoration underway.

- So if any folks are interested in learning about this story, learning about the monument restoration, you're still looking, where can they find this book to purchase to contribute?

And then we'll wrap things up.

- Okay.

So in addition to the Oswego having wonderful history and wonderful characters like Malvina, we have a wonderful independent bookstore called The River's End Bookstore.

Bill Riley, his wife Mindy's son, Emil, they are so supportive of local authors.

That's where the book is being sold.

- Brilliant.

Well, I want to thank you for coming by, telling us the story, sharing the story for folks watching, and this way they can contribute to the monument being restored.

And of course we're gonna keep you apprised of this as well.

So thank you so much for joining us and sharing the story.

We really appreciate it.

- Thank you.

- We wrap up the evening with a bit of local poetry.

Allow us to introduce you to Christopher Citro, a central New York resident with a different poetic edge.

Here he is with "It's Something People In Love Do."

(drum intro music) (cymbals crash) - Hi, my name's Christopher Citro and I'd like to read you a poem.

This is from my second book, which is titled, "If We Had a Lemon, We'd Throw It and Call That the Sun."

This poem begins with an epigraph by the poet Heather Crystal from her poem "Taxonomy of That November" and the epigraph reads, "We were happy and wretched and cloudy and setting fire to everything for warmth."

And the title of this poem is "It's Something People in Love Do."

It's a late film, not one of their best clogged with a love interest that never really makes your pants itch.

But when the Marx Brothers keep the train moving so the hero can make it to town to record the deed and afford to marry the girl of his dreams, they chop the whole damn train up to feed the fire.

Frightened passengers in bustles and waistcoats watch their seats axed from beneath them as women cradle their children and men stand around looking affronted.

Then they hack up the walls and the roofs carrying armfuls of train forward to turn into steam to keep things moving.

And I'm not saying we should watch fewer old movies.

What I am saying is maybe everything's not a metaphor for trying to pay the bills on time.

I love your credit score.

It could pin my credit score to the late summer soil and pee on its head.

My credit score would roll over and take it.

But what do you think of that chicken dinner I made last night?

How caramelized the thighs, the bourbon from a plastic jug?

How beautiful that farmhouse looks passing by in the distance.

If we could get off this train, we could go get it and tear it to pieces with our teeth, tossing hallways and lentils to the flames then we could clean each other's face with our tongues.

It's called kissing, people in love do it.

- That does it for us this Tuesday evening.

Join us next week for a fresh look Inside the Stories.

Baby, it's cold outside.

We brave the winter to take you out on the ice for best ice fishing tips and practices.

And more resume and job finding tips from Canadian business coach Michelle Native.

Also Potsdam Fiddler Gretchen Koehler composes music to North country artisans.

You won't wanna miss this unique talent.

Meantime, we wanna tell your story.

If you or someone in your community has something meaningful, historic, inspirational, or educational to share, please email us at WPBSweekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region.

That's it for now, everyone.

We'll see you again next week.

Good night.

(classical music) - I'm not afraid to say it.

I want to spend the rest of my life with you.

- Now it's the two of us.

You and me and the world before us.

- [Dancer] You were writing what you said because our emotions get the better of us.

- Thank you for making your feelings so clear.

- [Village Member] This place, those hills, the people, it's my home now.

- [Village Member #2] The world's changing.

(horse neighs) - Oh, Mr. Jones.

- Miss Wesley.

I have a duty to use my freedom wisely.

- [Aunt] My niece's honor is now suddenly lost.

- Fearfully romantic though.

- [Village Member #3] Ha, ha.

- Whew.

- [Village Member #4] What is it that you were frightened of?

That we might finally be happy.

- [Village Member #5] The wait is here.

This is where you belong.

- [Village Member #6] Long story, come I'll tell it all.

(violin music) - [Host] WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories is brought to you by the Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, a free resource offering confidential business advice for those interested in starting or expanding their small business.

Serving Jefferson, Lewis and Oswego counties since 1986.

Online at watertown.nysbdc.org.

Carthage Savings has been here for generations, donating time and resources to this community.

They're proud to support WPBSTV online at carthagesavings.com.

Carthage Savings Mortgage Solutions since 1888.

The JM McDonald Foundation and the Badenhausen Legacy Fund at the Northern New York Community Foundation.

- Ground looking affronted then they hack up the walls and the roofs carrying armfuls of train forward to turn into steam to keep things moving and I'm not saying we should watch fewer old movies.

(upbeat music)