Dancers from American Travelling Morrice perform twice August 13th- once at St. Peter’s (2:30pm) and later Harbor Loop (6:15pm). They’re on their 41st tour which you’ll read on as you wander; this poster I snapped was displayed at Jalapenos. I wonder who created the woodcut? I also wondered if multi-talented Rose Sheehan, Cape Ann Contra Dance, was involved. Yes. And her son Colin de la Barre (another name befitting a pursuit!) Gloucester Daily Times has the story.
You might fill your Aug. 13th dance card. Whether audience or participant, one could make it a daylong celebration of beauty, sport and nature. Not 41 years, but pretty darn close, the Celebrate the Clean Harbor Swimis 38 years young and scheduled earlier that morning. Reminds me: check the GMG calendar for options. Every weekend in Gloucester is like First Night. A few of the other special events planned for August 13: Cape Ann Museum has a walking tour and White Ellery contemporary installation. Cape Ann Community Cinema features two films. Gloucester Stage has a live theater show for kids in the morning and 2 shows for Songs For A New World (one is pay what you wish).
I bet you can reel off a few of the chart topping rock groups circa late 1970s. Who knew that there was a 1979 American folk dance held in St. Ann’s parish hall? The dances were started by Patricia and Norris Marston who hoped to build interest for regular square dances in Gloucester and perhaps raise funds to hire bands. One night Roger Whynott was a featured caller. On another evening it was Charlie Webster calling out folk, square and contra. – Gloucester Daily Times
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While Rio welcomes the 2016 XXXI Olympics, Gloucester will host the “38th Annual Celebrate the Clean Harbor Swim” on August 13, 2016 at 9AM on Niles Beach. A 500 meter course for children ages 8-12 was added last year; any parent and child registering at the same time will receive a promotional discount. I find that incentive extra symbolic because a mother and daughter, Sarah Fraser Robbins and Sarah Robbins Evans, together with Philip Weld, Jr., got this all going! MassAudubon facilitated the annual swim the following year and many years after. More recently it’s been produced by the New England Ocean Water Swimming Association (NEOWSA). Many partners with the City of Gloucester continue to work hard for clean water. I’ll write more about the history of the swim in another post, but in this post I want to delve a bit into the biography of Sarah Fraser Robbins.
They swam for clean water because the Clean Water Act was not being enforced in the Harbor. Today participants swim to celebrate clean water.
There are 2.5 centuries of conservation efforts and notable naturalists in Gloucester. Sarah Fraser Robbins was one.
Sarah Fraser Robbins was 68 at the time of the first swim, a long time Gloucester resident, environmentalist, author, scholar and museum educator. She worked at the Peabody Essex Museum for 25 years. In 1961, she and others helped persuade the Raymond family to donate land to Mass Audubon, now Eastern Point Wildlife Sanctuary. Robbins was friends with Ivy LeMon who was active in banding monarchs to trace their migration wintering in Mexico–had to be with that wonderful name. I have heard that together they helped to secure habitat and urged people to garden using the plants butterflies liked. Kim Smith continues on that Gloucester path.
Robbins published articles in regional journals, the journal of the New England aquarium, and for close to 30 years a regular column- “The Curious Naturalist” -for Mass Audubon publications. The Sea Is All About Us: A Guide to Marine Environments of Cape Ann and Other Northern New England Waters, the 1973 book Robbins wrote with Clarice Yentsch, was an influential touchstone about wildlife at our shores. The lengthy title opens with a nod to the T.S. Eliot poem Four Quartets: The Dry Salvages. What other could it be? That glorious landmark seamark poem is all Water, art, legacy and nature. And the paradise that’s Cape Ann.
Read an excerpt with Robbin’s curator, scholar and naturalist’s eye in mind. (Her father was an amateur geologist.)
The river is within us, the sea is all about us; The sea is the land’s edge also, the granite Into which it reaches, the beaches where it tosses Its hints of earlier and other creation: The starfish, the horseshoe crab, the whale’s backbone; The pools where it offers to our curiosity The more delicate algae and the sea anemone. It tosses up our losses, the torn seine, The shattered lobsterpot, the broken oar And the gear of foreign dead men. The sea has many voices,
The ‘savage rocks’ are two groups of rocky ledge off our shores nearby Straightsmouth and Thacher Island. The bigger ‘Dry Salvages’ are a mile and a half out and the little salvages are a mile out. Growing up, including when he came home from Harvard, Eliot sailed from his family’s summer home on Eastern Point. He could clear the Dry Salvages or thread past Avery Ledge and Flat Ground and back home to Gloucester.
… the ragged rock in the restless waters, Waves wash over it, fogs conceal it; On a halcyon day it is merely a monument, In navigable weather it is always a seamark To lay a course by: but in the sombre season Or the sudden fury, is what it always was.
Check out who wrote the forward for the new edition of The Sea is All About Us:
None other than Deborah Cramer, author of The Narrow Edge, another Gloucester conservationist ( and still looking for horseshoe crab sightings)
The Peabody Essex Museum and Maritime Gloucester memorialized Sarah Fraser Robbins. Be inspired!
In 2003, Peabody Essex Museum established the Sarah Fraser Robbins Directorship for the Art & Nature Center, currently held by Jane Winchell.
In 2014 the Center was dedicated in memory of PEM honorary trustee, Dorothy “Dotty” Addams Brown, Sarah’s good friend and Eastern Point resident.
Maritime Gloucester’s education center was dedicated in 2008 as the Sarah Fraser Robbins Marine Science Center.
In 2014, Maritime Gloucester also established the Sarah Fraser Robbins Environmental Award.
Philip Weld’s father, Philip S. Weld Sr., was a newspaper publisher, editor, writer, environmentalist, veteran, and record breaking sailor. The year after the first harbor swim Phil Sr won a transatlantic race sailing “Moxie” and wrote about that crossing. He grew up in Manchester and raised his family in Gloucester.
You can see Sarah’s daughter, Sarah Robbins Evans, interviewed in a great 2010 GMG video by Manny Simoes. Make sure to watch his terrific mini doc overview of that 32nd Clean Harbor Swim run by Richie Martin. There are brief and peppy participant interviews. Swimmers came near and far- Tewksbury, Beverly, Boxford, Boston, Bedford NH, Essex, Portland ME, Falmouth ME, Swampscott…watch to find out more!
“Lucille Genovese gets into the spirit of the Chamber’s three-day sidewalk bazaar that started today.”
– Thursday, Aug 3, 1978, Gary Langer photo –above the fold– clipping from the Gloucester Daily Times.
Main Street’s 58th Annual Gloucester Sidewalk Bazaar opens today led by Gloucester Downtown Assoc. Sashay down Main Street while it’s closed to regular traffic for three special days.
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What seat should you pick at the HarborWalk Summer Cinema? Don’t worry–you’ll find a spot even though people stream into I4 C2 as early as 5:30PM to square away their seating, often novel. A family with an inflatable pool is a regular sight. Blankets are thrown down pell-mell. Kids zig zag a sea of boundaries as they might a sandy beach, which means your stuff is stepped on. It’s all good! There’s a happy community picnic vibe. Soon after 6PM Aurelia Nelson from North Shore Radio 104.9 hosts pre-screening festivities. Rob Newton, Cape Ann Community Cinema, presides; the movie line ups he’s selected have been big hits.
Gloucester = food.
Our family takes a break from cooking and buys dinner from the vendors and/or take out from a downtown business. Once house guests treated us to a lobster dinner AND movie al fresco at Blue Collar Lobster, Gloucester House. It can be done. Has anyone tried it with Topside Grill?
photograph from Rob Newton Cape Ann Community Cinema. Gulls land atop the screen randomly. Kids run behind the screen which is a NO NO
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Cape Ann Reads offers the chance for the 4 libraries to collaborate and work together on community, literacy, and art. They’ve partnered with beloved organizations to celebrate the art and writing of children’s picture books.
The four Directors and Kate La Chance from Cape Ann Museum confer, early gorgeous morning on the grounds of the Manchester Public Library. Seated left to right in the nice new outdoor furniture: Kate LaChance, Cape Ann Museum; Debbie French, Essex TOHP Burnham; Deborah Kelsey, Sawyer Free; Cindy Grove, Rockport; Sara Collins, Manchester by the Sea Public Library.
Every month features Cape Ann Reads events! Here arethe next 5 CAPE ANN READS EVENTS FOR AUGUST
ENDING SOON- August 4th, Where’s Gulliver at Manchester Public Library
Manchester Public Library visitors have until August 4th to play Where’s Gulliver for a scratch card.
Manchester gets creative with their t-shirt sales at pop up library events. I am told Benedict has made it to the beach! t-shirts are $15 for adults / $10 for kids, designed through Cape Ann Art Haven art center. They are for sale at the libraries, Cape Ann Art Haven and Cape Ann Museum. Proceeds will go towards the original picture book contest.
Rockport: August 11th (THU), 6pm. Children’s Book Publishing.
Damaris Curran Herlihy, a local resident and owner of a publishing firm will speak at theRockport Public Library. She will discuss how to prepare for publication and what to expect from the process. No registration required. FREE.
Essex: August 18th (THURS) 1:00PM. Does your boat float?
Assorted materials will be available to create your own distinctive vessel. Test it out in our pool. Ages four and up. Please sign up to calculate for materials @ mes.mvlc.org or 978-768-7410. TOHP Burnham Library, 245 Western Ave, Essex. FREE.
Director Debbie French
Essex: Teen Activity August 22nd (MON) 6:00PM
Experiment with modge podge using nautical charts. Cover books, boxes, frames or whatever to create your nautical decoration! Please sign up to calculate for materials @ mes.mvlc.org or 978-768-7410.TOHP Burnham Library, 245 Western Ave, Essex. FREE.
Gloucester: August 27 (SAT) Ed Emberley will be at Cape Ann Community Cinema & Stage!
Come to Cape Ann Community & Stage for an afternoon with acclaimed author illustrator Ed Emberley and his wife Barbara. Emberley has published close to 100 books. He collaborated with his wife on earlier works including the 1968 Caldecott winning Drummer Hoff, and more recent books with his daughter, Rebecca, such as Chicken Little and Red Hen. Please RSVP Cape Ann Community Cinema & Stage, 21 Main Street Gloucester, MA. ticket event $15 adults; $10 kids under
Sawyer Free Library connecting notable speakers and community since 1830.
We’re lucky when artists touch down in their hometown(s). Come meet Israel Horovitz and relish an opportunity to hear him speak about his latest book, My Old Lady: Complete Stage Play and Screenplay With An Essay on Adaptation. Horovitz has been coming to Gloucester since he was a boy, “brought here by my parents on special days. 70 years and 70 plays later, every day I spend in Gloucester is still very much a special day.” That’s a 2011 quote he gave me for the Rocky Neck marker on the HarborWalk.
Israel Horovitz on Thursday night, August 4th, 7pm, Sawyer Free Library.
I wonder why playwrights have the fancier spelling? The nomenclature of the writing world opted for screenwriter not screenwrighter, and the informal mash up of ‘screenplay’ over the dramatic double ‘Stage (what?) Play (what else?)’.
John Prybot is wonderful! Wearing the team colors and pointing to the poster for the Horovitz talk, front desk, Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Public Library
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Leonard Lopate welcomes poets, painters, politicians, novelists, dancers, Nobel and Pulitzer winners, filmmakers and actors to talk about their work each afternoon on WNYC’s acclaimed arts and culture interview program. The Leonard Lopate Show has been the proud recipient of three James Beard Awards and three Associated Press Awards.
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The online database collaboration of Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society compiles aggregate data from engaged birders. What a staggering quantity of volunteers taking the time to share and record data!
Although Cape Ann towns are not ‘hot spots’
it’s fun to sift through the information and peek at some public competition. The top 100 birders in MA are predominantly male. (We know Cape Ann is a birding hot spot though it may not be a recording hot spot.) There are plenty of reports from scenic North Shore sites: Cranes Beach, Plum Island, Chewbacco Woods, Coolidge Reservation, Eastern Point, and Halibut Point. Less traveled spots such as ‘Lanesville Community garden’ and local cemeteries have a diary entry feel to them and fun to peruse. Checklists indicate the distance and effort taken for any given outing, and the duration, often significant.
There are scores of reports from Gloucester whale watch trips –customers and staff. Look for ‘Stellwagen Bank’ as a listed location. I think I’d like the location column added to one default screen, and a category for whale watching.
eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance. eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Available: http://www.ebird.org. (Accessed: Date [July 30, 2016]).
Meet Ed Emberley! Cape Ann Cinema & Stage will feature the documentary Creative Inspirations: Ed Emberley, Children’s Book Illustrator on Saturday, August 27th at 2PM. That special showing benefits Cape Ann Reads.
Cape Ann Reads is a community wide initiative celebrating art and literacy of children’s books from the 4 Cape Ann libraries — Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Public Library, Rockport Public Library, Manchester-By-The-Sea Public Library, and TOHP Burnham Library Essex– and many wonderful partners. An original picture book contest is part of this initiative. Thanks to Rob Newton and Ed Emberley for their support!
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I saw the BIRD SIGHTINGS call out in the Sunday Boston Globe and noted the Plum Island list. (Under ‘Miscellaneous’ there is one bird listed from Gloucester.) I have no idea if that is the MassAudubon customary geographic selection, randomly culled, or all that’s available at the time of publication. I suppose I was looking for a ‘Gloucester’, ‘North Shore’, or ‘Cape Ann’ heading. I am confident the region is represented because folks like Chris Leahy, Dave Rimmer, Essex Greenbelt, other experts, citizen scientists, and fans report from our communities.
*This just in update: Dave Rimmer reports that the piping plover fencing at Good Harbor came down today.
GMG features many bird photographs, from FOBs and contributors especially Kim Smith and Donna Ardizzoni. Here’s an unofficial appreciator’s list with a few Gloucester sightings: ‘sandpipers’ on Long Beach last week. Piping plover (heard/saw),’plovers’ and ‘sandpipers’ on Good Harbor beach on July 25. One (dead) horseshoe crab and 1 sand dollar (alive) off Wingaersheek on July 26. Piping Plover (heard/saw) on Good Harbor this morning. What have you seen?
Apparently and not surprisingly Ringo helps Boston Fence set in the fences at Stage Fort for Gloucester’s first country fest, coming this Saturday noon -5 (gates open 11 AM). I didn’t stop to chat or take more photographs because we were in the middle of a Gloucester beaches challenge. What an unforgettable venue to listen to Cassadee Pope (big single out right now and Voice Season 3 winner. Who was her coach?) and Boston bands Houston Bernard Band and Southern City Band ! Cassadee Pope’s twitter photograph features beach/dune background. Wonder where it was taken? Everyone will have some good photos from Stage Fort. You can listen to Ringo and Emily talk to Joey about the Country fest on the podcast.
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Good Morning Gloucester 