Dianne Tittle-de Laet
Dianne Tittle de Laet is an author, harpist, poet, sculptor, and Executive Director of The Arete Fund. As a writer, her theme is the hero. As a harpist and poet, she recreates the oral tradition of praise song at the harp by giving voice to women with recitation and song from the Greek, Biblical, Norse and Irish oral traditions. As a contemporary “praise singer,” her subjects are love and war and her original compositions include, whenever possible, surviving musical fragments. Dianne presented an annual lecture/performance on the Greek oral tradition at Stanford University for close to three decades. A memorable performance took place at Stanford Memorial Church during the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 when her chair was struck by a piece of mosaic falling from the 95-foot ceiling as she stood to take a bow. A performance highlight was her participation in the International Music Festival in Izmir, Turkey, in 2000, where she performed both in the Great Theatre of Ephesus as a guest artist under the direction of Ronald Konetchy, and her own story, “Mother Mary’s Secret Chest,” was read aloud at Meryem Ana Evi, The House of Mary, in Ephesus, on July 4.
Dianne is a published poet and author. She was a consultant for Scholastic Books on their Greek Myth Project for middle school children and gave programs of Greek myth, Sumerian verse and Irish poetry to elementary school children. She co-founded The Live Poets with poet, Ryland Kelley, and hosted a poetry hour on local TV for twelve years. In 1994, she initiated The Hero Project at the Redwood City Arts Center. In 2004, she participated in the cultural programming that attended the recreation of the Nemean Games in Nemea, Greece. Her presentation called: Voices: A Praise Song for Peace involved harp and drum and included ancient and contemporary verse. In 2005, she was invited to present her Praise Song for Earth in the ancient theatre of Argos, Greece. Again, in 2008, she performed in the ancient stadium in Nemea, Greece, under the auspices of the Society for the Revival of the Nemean Games. In 2012 and 2016, she competed in the Nemean Games and was victorious in her class. She also competed in five marathons, the Greek Marathon being her first race, and qualified for the USTA National Triathlon Championship (once upon a time.)
In 1996, Steerforth Press published a memoir entitled Giants & Heroes: A Daughter’s Memories of Y.A. Tittle. With the proceeds, she initiated The Arete Fund, an educational non-profit in 1996. The Arete Fund is a non-profit, charitable organization that supports education locally and acts globally to encourage greater understanding by means of humanitarian, educational and artistic projects. Arete makes annual contributions towards the first year of college or trade school on behalf of deserving high school seniors who exemplify Arete – an ancient Greek word for excellence and virtue – and in turn, seeks to rekindle its ancient meaning for the modern day as a means of fostering mutual respect and good will.
To date, Arete has done humanitarian work in Darfur, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Morocco, Bethlehem, Mongolia and Tibet and Guatemala . Educationally, the fund provides ongoing scholarships annually for deserving individuals who aspire to attend college or trade school at Menlo-Atherton High School, in Atherton, California. Arete annually supports 14-20 students who attend La Escuela de los Sordos (The School for the Deaf) in Quetalzenango, Guatemala. Arete also provided scholarships at Hopi High School in Polacca, Arizona, for seven years. Most recently, Arete has partnered with World Relief since 2016 to provide transitional housing for refugees from war torn countries, namely Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. Ta Mike’s Friendship House was formerly a rental property that belong to Dianne’s brother, now deceased. In memory of his curious and open mind, Ta Mike’s Friendship House was the work of many hands and generous hearts before it became a home to families fleeing the ravages of war and coming to America for the first time.
As the Executive Director of The Arete Fund, a portion of all proceeds from her creative work benefits the Arete mission. Her unpublished novel, Unmarked Grave, is an evocation of the life of her Cherokee great grandmother. This work inspired a performance piece that dramatizes the eye-witness account of a soldier who assisted in the Cherokee Removal in 1838 as well as an installation of sculptures, The Journey of Mothers, that recalls “The Trail of Tears” as a metaphor for the journeys to democracy taking place in our own time. Unmarked Grave is to be published in the fall of 2019. Dianne’s “Earth Icons” - sculptures assembled from natural elements – were featured as a permanent gallery installation for five years at Gallery 2611 in Redwood City, California, exhibited at the Gallery Tonatzin in San Juan Bautista, California, Speck Design in Palo Alto, California, and elsewhere.
Dianne and her husband, Steve, have two children and five grandchildren. They currently divide their time between Menlo Park, California, and Houni, Greece, where they restored an old farmhouse and turned a threshing floor into a theatre. This traditional stone house called ElaGaia is situated on a mountain between Mycenae and Argos, in close proximity to some of Greece’s most notable antiquities that include Nemea, Corinth, Tiryns, Epidauros, (and some lesser known antiquities that include Midea, and the Argive Heraean.) Since 2008, Arete has facilitated cultural exchange at ElaGaia and been privileged to host performances by Greek school children, evenings of hospitality and storytelling for visiting American students, a conference for the Green Political Party, and numerous performances by international artists that include Yuriko Doi of the Theatre of Yugen, the Acoustic Vortex, Red Desert Dance, and, among others, American jazz great, Howard Paul, and his Greek counterpart Christofis Lefteris. Arete hosted a talented 15-year- old jazz vocalist from the Music School in Prosymni, Greece, to come to the United States in 2013 and attend The Stanford Jazz Workshop. In support of educational projects, donations have also been made to The Accountability Counsel, Women for Afghan Women, and The Society for the Revival of the Nemean Games.
As of 2018, it has been Dianne de Laet’s priority as the Executive Director to support education locally and to defend our shared humanity in a time of religious strife with humanitarian projects and cultural outreach abroad. It remains her artistic goal to “praise” in all its forms with both the written word and with performance as a “contemporary praise-singer.” She presents her new creative work, “VOICE: A Call for Greater Religious Tolerance” in September, 2019, in Athens, Greece. Additionally, she is the Creative Director in the Revival of the Games of Hera in Argos, Greece, in April, 2019. This historic recreation of an ancient Greek religious and athletic festival is under the auspices of the Municipality of Argos/Mycenae. Going forward, Dianne and her husband, Steve, hope to deepen their commitment to the mission and good work of The Mycenaean Foundation and partner in their future projects that serve Greek culture and education worldwide.