High tide rollers just in time for lunch break
Author: Catherine
posted content / cell phone photos mine, unless otherwise credited
(thumbnail portrait of Catherine at MFA, Boston © David Cox photo)
https://www.cryanaid.com/
LIFE IS GOOD t-shirt drawn by your kid
April 15-22 join Art Haven and Life is Good Drawing What Makes Life Good? national t-shirt design competition for kids
- For kids ages 4 to 12 years old.
- April 15th and April 22nd at Art Haven, from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm. Drop in as you wish.
- Art and drawing supplies provided by Art Haven.
- Parent or guardian must accompany the young artist.
- Submission and Parental Consent forms provided by Art Haven.
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Public Art: Blooming Poetry. What are you doing this month to celebrate?
National Poetry month celebrates a milestone this year: 20 years. If you haven’t heard of this commemorative theme, a generation of children has grown up with this awareness from a parent, teacher, librarian or friend. Please let us know of local events and programs honoring poetry this April so we can collect them in one spot (write in comments below and add to James Eves calendar). I am toying with ‘Terse Verse Thursdays’ as a possible theme for a series, because I’d love to share your poems on GMG. They don’t have to be strictly ‘terse verse’ where a two word rhyme response solves a question or statement.
In the meantime, you have two weeks till National Poem in Your Pocket Day. Although the date skips around annually, this year it falls on April 21 as it did in 2002 the year it was established. PIYP Day (not sure this acronym will ever have legs) was inspired by the Favorite Poem Project founded by Robert Pinsky, former Poet Laureate of the United States in 1997. Write your own or carry a favorite to share with others throughout the day. What will you choose?
Gloucester children can submit their original poems to Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Public Library’s Poetry without Paper competition thanks to Christy Russo, John Ronan and volunteers who step up to serve on that jury panel. Gloucester students can send their original poems to the Office of the Mayor, 9 Dale Avenue, Gloucester, MA, any month. Mayor Theken promises to read them! Students should include their name, which Gloucester school, and their grade. Mention a teacher if they’ve helped.
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James Connolly First Medal Winner in the First 1896 Olympics has Gloucester Ma connection
Before he was a Harvard spurner, a Veteran, a Gloucester Master Mariner, a sea tales chronicler and beloved writer, James Connolly (1868-1957) was one of 14 American athletes (5 were Bostonians) to compete in the international Games of the I Olympiad in Athens, Greece, 1896.Twenty percent of the international competitors were from the United States.
Connolly medalled. Twice. On the first final of the opening day, Connolly won what is now the triple jump and came in 2nd in the high jump. He sailed home a champion, the first Olympic medal winner in 1500 years. This recognition no doubt helped his byline and he rapidly gained a reputation as a fantastic writer. The Boston Globe published his first war correspondence, “Letters from the Front in Cuba” where he served with the Irish 9th Infantry of Massachusetts. His career soars after writing about Gloucestermen from his days working in Gloucester. I’ll let Connolly take it from here, it’s so good:
“While still twenty-five pounds underweight from tropic fever, I took a job as physical director of the Gloucester Athletic Club. I played football on the Athletic Club cleven, spent the fall and winter (1899-1900) there, chucked that job in the spring, took a steerage trip to England…participated in second Olympics (second place)…returned to US again…My next move was to make fishing trips with the captains I had come to know while in Gloucester with the Athletic Club. I had no intention of writing them up, but at this stage of my development I was able to appraise men fairly well. Here were great men, and all the greater because they did not know that they were great. I began by writing of actual experiences with the Gloucestermen, continued with them as the heroic men they were in short stories. My first stories were sent to Scribner’s Magazine, and immediately accepted. And the first half dozen stories were brought out in the volume, Out of Gloucester, by Charles Scribner’s Sons.”
James Connolly
James Brendan Connolly’s parents were Irish immigrants and his dad was a fisherman. Connolly was born in 1868 in southie, Boston, one of 12 children. He died in 1957. You can see the first ever modern Olympic medal at Colby, which was donated by his daughter, Brenda. Several Gloucester writers and notables mention him. TS Eliot wrote the introduction to Connolly’s 1928 Fisherman of the Banks. NC Wyeth illustrated some of his books. His sailing chops were envied.
In Gloucester, MA:
Today is the first day of track and field at O’Maley Innovation Middle School. On this 120th anniversary of the first day of the modern Olympics (thanks Google Doodle), may our student athletes be inspired by James Brendan Connolly. Check out a Connolly book from Sawyer Free or look for vintage editions at Main Street Antiques and Dogtown Book Shop.
Read more about Connolly by Connolly
Read more about the Olympic anniversary celebrated by Google Doodle artist Olivia Huynh that prompted my post today and many others.
Read more about Connolly’s Southie ties in the Boston Globe (alas no Gloucester mention)
Photo caption: The memorial to Connolly, dedicated in 1987 and designed by artist Thomas Haxo. The memorial was paid for through a grant by the Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust Fund. Rosso/Boston Globe
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Help Name the new Cape Ann Reads mascot extended
The seagull with spectacles is a logo designed by Ashley Curcuru, member of the Teen Artist Guild (TAG) at The Hive Cape Ann Art Haven in downtown Gloucester. The bird needs a name! Have some fun, jot down a suggestion and give it to your local librarian. And please ask your kids to drop off their ideas, too. I see Paul Morrison has tossed in an entry on the Sawyer Free Facebook page…
Kudos to Valerie Marino for the library’s social media and that cute desk display.
Cape Ann Reads is a dynamite year of FREE programs designed around the world of children’s books. There’s something happening every month,thanks to the four public libraries and community partners. Upcoming for Cape Ann Reads is a major double-header on Saturday, April 16th, with Anita Silvey, a big force in the world of children’s publishing and promotion. Make your reservations soon as the programs are popular!
Continue reading “Help Name the new Cape Ann Reads mascot extended”
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Out in the street around the bend
Have you seen the custom sign designed for the Gloucester Writers Center on East Main Street? I sent a picture of the drive by view to Henry Ferrini. He sent back “an interior shot of the sign with an effigy of Vincent working at his typewriter” looking out their new-ish (2014) window thanks to another helpful grant of the Community Preservation Act.
The sign was made by Cheryl’s Signs in Gloucester and installed last fall. Ferrini added: “William Taylor who is on the board of the Gloucester Writers Center should get all the kudos. He came up with the idea and executed it.” Look out the window and listen: Henry plays a part in the captivating restoration of classical radio WCVA-FM www.wcva.com. Turn it on.
This week: poets Jay Featherstone reading with Carol Seitchik at the Gloucester Writers’ Center, Wed April 6, 7:30 pm.
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Boston Globe complimenting Gloucester’s gorgeous WPA era murals
Did you see? Wonderful John McElhenny’s My View article to the Gloucester Daily Times thanking great work by the CPA committee and residents? And more this week in the Boston Globe? Nice to be the successful model. “In Gloucester, residents have leveraged funding for 80 units of affordable elderly housing in an old grammar school, replaced historic lead glass windows at the Cape Ann Museum, and restored Depression-era WPA murals at City Hall.” Read more of the Boston Globe article here
Since April is National Poetry month it seems extra fitting to pause on the Charles Allan Winter mural–which by the way is notoriously difficult to photograph in that site. Nice job by photographer Pat Greenhouse / Boston Globe.
In 1931, he and his wife Alice Beach Winter, also a successful artist, came to live in Gloucester year round having spent summers since 1914 and building their Mt. Pleasant studio in 1922. Poetry was the third mural Winter completed in Gloucester.
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Jason Burroughs’ art will be featured in Montserrat’s Artrageous!30 in Gloucester this Saturday
His sculpture will be featured in the LIVE auction portion of Montserrat’s annual big wheel gig, ARTRAGEOUS including one that debuted at the Thanksgiving Pop Up Fair. This 2016 auction marks the 30th anniversary for the college of art’s annual fundraiser. Buy tickets now and note the night’s venue change…from Beverly to Gloucester. A portion of each sale goes to the school and directly to the artists.
- Saturday, April 2, 2016
- 6:00pm-9:00pm
- 11 Dory Road, Gloucester, MA 01930 (Off Blackburn circle)
Anyone know why the college’s founders selected the name ‘Montserrat’?
Good Morning Gloucester 