This is the Moth Radio Hour. I'm your host, Jennifer Hickson.

In this hour, we'll be hearing stories by and about mothers, the matriarch, your most insightful

critic, or your greatest defender, often both at once.

Consider the archetype, Mama Bear, fiercely protective, running on instincts, able to fend

off your worst enemies and soften your darkest hours.

Sometimes the Mama Bears in her lives are our grandmas,

or our sisters, our neighbors.

There was a crossing guard in the town I grew up in.

I pity the impatient driver who'd hunk or inch up

while us kids were crossing.

Nah-uh, not on her watch.

We met our first storyteller, Donald Harrison, in Philadelphia.

Here he is at St. Anne's Church in New York City.

The year I turned 30, I decided it was about damn time I got a job playing the piano and singing in a gay bar.

Sometimes you just reached that phase of your life, you know.

But it wasn't any gay bar. It was a Philadelphia institution called Tavern on Kamak.

I had always loved Tavern. It is a medium-sized gay piano bar. Back then, every wall and surface was covered in mirrors.

There's a baby grand piano off in the corner,

and piano players every night accompanying themselves.

There's also a guest microphone next to them,

and customers can come up and do a solo with the piano player.

It's great.

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