Dive into “REARRANGED: An Opera Singer’s Facial Cancer and Life Transposed by author Kathleen Watt. Our discussion will include author Kathleen Watt, and the afternoon will be moderated by SVI trained vocologist and musician Beth Falcone. Bring a cup of your favorite beverage and settle in for an informal discussion. Scroll down for more information about Kathleen.

REARRANGED is available for purchase on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

2D Location (via Zoom): Cafe D, Holidayopolis.

Sponsored by the Human Compatible Learning Center, founder Dr. Leon Thurman

In lyrical prose, with musical allusions, clinical references, and a bit of comic relief, REARRANGED: An Opera Singer’s Facial Cancer And Life Transposed follows Kathleen Watt’s plunge from the operatic stage into the netherworld of hospital life—its indigenous creatures, its peculiar language, its signposts of the mysterious human condition—through the devastation of cancer, and out the other side. Kathleen was a New York opera singer at mid-career, with a steady, lucrative chorus job at the Metropolitan Opera and solo gigs elsewhere, anticipating her best year ever. Instead, a vicious bone cancer (a tumor in her sinus above the jaw) blew her plans to smithereens, along with her face. She had to let everything go. Bit by bit, through a brutal alchemy of lethal toxins, titanium screws, and infinite kindness, she discovered new arrangements for old pieces, in a life catastrophically transposed. Not only a heart-wrenching medical odyssey, but an ultimately joyous personal journey of transformation.

About the Author

Kathleen Watt performed principal roles with Boston Lyric Opera, Sarasota Opera Theater, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Works NY, Springfield Regional Opera, and Utah Opera. She sang with New York’s Metropolitan Opera Extra Chorus until her career was derailed in 1997 by osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) in her face.

­­Kathleen has published performing arts features and essays for New York Newsday, Deutsche Gramophone (liner notes), NYCO Season Journal, Playbill Magazine, Stagebill, The Arts Council, and on LGBTQ life for Echelon Magazine. Writing as a cancer survivor, Kathleen was an editorial contributor to the London-based Saving Faces charity, and has collaborated with doctors and artists on a range of projects, including an on-camera segment for a BBC special about facial disfigurement.

Formerly a graphic designer and illustrator for major publications, her rich, varied experience also includes a teaching stint in the Navajo Nation. Kathleen has a BFA from Brigham Young University, and a professional certificate in vocal arts from Boston University, with additional studies at Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University.

Kathleen now resides on a windswept hay farm in the Catskills of upstate New York, where she writes and lives with her partner, seven chickens, three dogs, and occasionally two grown children.