My View of Life on the Dock
Beautiful colorful banners on Dale Avenue announce GPS 10th anniversary annual ARTS festival, Saturday May 12th 11-4pm, at City Hall, Cape Ann Museum, and Sawyer Free Library! Sponsored by Gloucester Education Foundation; what a milestone!
The Grounds of the Annisquam Exchange, 32 Leonard Street, Gloucester MA 01930
Due to the very cold weather this Spring and other Village events the Annual ASC Spring Plant & Gourmet Food Sale will be held on SUNDAY on the grounds of the Annisquam Exchange…This event will feature a wide array of annuals and perennials from leading garden centers– including hanging plants, bedding plants and rose bushes. Go on the hunt for the perfect plants for your garden – sunny or shady. The Plant Sale also includes perennial plant treasures dug from our member’s gardens and sold at bargain prices!
Select from:
In addition to your quest for the perfect plants and not to be missed is our Gourmet Food Table with delicious pies, cakes, and savory treats. Many items will be prepared from recipes in our award-winning Annisquam Sewing Circle Cookbook, ” A Circle of Recipes,” which celebrated the 175th Anniversary of the Sewing Circle.
Come early for the best selection at this always popular event! The Plant and Gourmet Food Sale is held in the Village of Annisquam in Gloucester, off Rt. 127A. Turn down Leonard Street at the Annisquam Village Church and on to the Annisquam Exchange.
All profits are donated to Cape Ann community programs and given as scholarships
Web site: AnnisquamSewingCircle.org
Blog: http://www.annisquamsewingcircle.net
LITERARY CAPE ANN shares a press release for the impressive May 6 panel discussion they’re presenting at Rockport Public Library
ROCKPORT, MASS— Even the experts can’t always tell fake news when they see it. Technology, politics and shifts in reader habits all play a role in a worrying trend that many say is only going to get worse. The antidote to fake news? Information.
All are invited, free of charge, to take part in what promises to be a fascinating and illuminating discussion. Find out more about fake news, how to spot it and what it means for our democracy long-term. Come prepared with questions and concerns.
Journalism in the age of fake news and truth telling — a panel discussion featuring some of the Boston area’s leading journalists and scholars — is at the Rockport Public Library on Sunday, May 6, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Refreshments and a book signing (“The Return of the Moguls: How Jeff Bezos and John Henry are Remaking Newspapers in the Twenty-First Century” by Dan Kennedy) follow the discussion.
The panel of experts includes:
Dan Kennedy: WGBH commentator, Northeastern University journalism professor, reporter and author
Sean Murphy: Boston Globe editor, columnist and journalist
Jane Enos: Gatehouse Media editor and reporter
Caroline Enos: Gloucester High School Gillnetter editor and activist
Kyle Moody: Fitchburg State University communications professor and fake news expert
hosted by Literary Cape Ann – Together we celebrate and support our abundant literary arts Rae Padilla Francoeur • Diana Brown McCloy • Mary Riotte
Literary Cape Ann provides the community of Cape Ann with information and events that support and reinforce the value and importance of the literary arts.
“If you could post this to Good Morning Gloucester that would be greatly appreciated!”
BankGloucester will be giving away $20,000 through it’s “Banking for the Community” Program. This is the 11th year the bank has run this program through which they have donated a total of $170,000 to community organizations on Cape Ann.
The Bank will donate a total of $20,000 to 19 organizations. Recipients will be determined by the highest number of votes cast. We are asking the community to vote for the recipients.
Voting takes place from May 1 to May 31, 2018
https://bankgloucester.com/ballot
press release shared with GMG:
Upcoming symposium hosted by Gloucester Meetinghouse foundation at historic Gloucester UU Church (Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church) May 19, 2018 FINDING COMMON GROUND: A SYMPOSIUM ON AMERICAN CULTURE, GUN VIOLENCE AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT
SATURDAY, MAY 19, FROM 2 TO 6 P.M., AT THE GLOUCESTER MEETINGHOUSE
Spurred by national concern about mass shootings, a symposium in Gloucester on Saturday, May 19, will put a fresh focus on gun violence, examining both the intent and application of the Second Amendment and the differences among us that led to an impasse in addressing the problem. The afternoon program, at the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church, is sponsored by the Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation. It will include:
The keynote speaker is Colin Woodard, author of “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.” The Washington Post described this book as “a compelling and informative attempt to make sense of the regional divides in North America in general and this country in particular.” MaineBusiness.com said it “explodes the red state-blue state myth” and describes how conflicts between cultures “have shaped our country’s past and mold its future.”
This symposium is occurring as our country experiences outrage over the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting and a powerful new youth movement is taking shape with the intent to make sure it never happens again. Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation vice president Sandra Ronan describes it as “an event to help restore civic dialogue by seeking common ground on an emotional and difficult subject.” Richard Prouty, a lifelong educator and former director of Project Adventure in Beverly, will be moderator.
The program begins at 2 p.m., is separated into four segments with 15-minute breaks, and will conclude at 6 p.m. with a ceremonial ringing of the church’s Paul Revere bell, for freedom. The community is welcome to attend all, or only some, of the segments. Written questions will be welcomed and reviewed for replies from the panel in the final segment.
The program is free with voluntary donations invited. Refreshments will be available. The event is part of the Meetinghouse Foundation’s 2017-18 Concert & Lecture Series. The nonprofit, IRS-recognized Foundation was founded to help preserve and increase public use of the 212-year-old Meetinghouse. The structure is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and the church founders are recognized for their role in establishing religious freedom in Massachusetts, well before that guarantee was made in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The Meetinghouse is located at the corner of Middle and Church Streets in downtown Gloucester and has easy access for persons with disabilities at the side entrance at 10 Church Street. Parking is available on the Meetinghouse Green, in lots nearby in the Central Gloucester Historic District, and at St. Peter’s Square.
continue to read fact sheet schedule
“This program, presented by the Friends of Dogtown, offers an opportunity to remember the past and imagine the future of Dogtown. Free and open to the public.
Starting off with a presentation by local artists recalling Thoreau’s 1858 visit to Dogtown, Dogtown Days will present a collection of newly discovered historical photographs of the early 20th century landscape and will debut new poetry inspired by the “ghosts” of the old settlement. Members of the Gloucester Historical Commission will review the history of archaeological investigations, including the recent survey of Dogtown, and will explain the process and implications of its inclusion in the National Register of Historical Places. The City of Gloucester’s Dogtown Advisory Committee and privately-supported Cape Ann Trail Stewards will describe ongoing projects including site cleanup, trail maintenance, and the construction of a new footbridge at the site of Gloucester’s first mill. The program will conclude with a presentation by members of the Friends of Dogtown on a new project that is underway to restore key historical, ecological, and art landscapes in Dogtown.”
“celebrating the new footbridge constructed by Gloucester High School students followed by tours of the art, ecological and historical landscapes described on Saturday.”
2016 PDF vision for dogtown (maybe visitor center)
Three years ago (!) almost to the day, Deborah Cramer’s NY Times op ed , “Silent Seashores” was published and her horseshoe crab and Red Knot poetic missive “The Narrow Edge: A Tiny Bird, an Ancient Crab, and an Epic Journey” advanced a global ecological message to the masses. “I hope I never walk beaches empty of sandpipers and plovers. But it is possible that may happen. In the case of some shorebirds, it is increasingly likely. This is why we must commit the money and muscle needed to give these birds safe harbor. If we do, we just might keep our shores teeming with shorebirds.” Deborah Cramer is a visiting scholar at M.I.T., and resides in Gloucester.
The New York Times, published another mighty call to arms making use of today’s improved visual storytelling tools. “Shorebirds the world’s greatest travelers, face extinction” is breathtaking and devasting digitial photojournalism about shorebird extinction by John W. Fitzpatrick (Director Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology) and Nathan R. Senner (scientist University of Montana). Stuart A Thompson designed the superb interactive graphic element. The indeliable header pulses with a bird on a wire, a “common snipe” it’s captioned, peering, chest beating, and then a sickening struggle. The bird’s caught, and we’re its snipers. Do. Not. Look. Away.
While you’re checking out this NY Times must read on line, think about Gloucester, Deborah Cramer, and Kim Smith. How one person can and continues to make a difference. Among many other projects, Smith is leading the effort to protect piping plovers at Good Harbor Beach. Let’s support the laws in place to safeguard the natural world. No dogs year round may be easier to remember. Honor system, volunteers, and enforcement (without “teeth” and more funding) are not working. If compassion, art, rules, and legacy aren’t persuasive, there’s always the bottom line. Natural culture all about us is a strategic resource.
Harvard Magazine, May-June 2018, “Gloucester’s Beauport Mansion” by Nell Porter Brown is well done, sprinkled with quotes from site manager Martha Van Koevering, and with special upcoming tour announcements for the season at this Historic New England property, 75 Eastern Point Blvd, Gloucester, Mass., open May 26-October 13. Beauport was designed by Henry Davis Sleeper and executed by and with architect Halfdan Hanson. One must go and go again to Beauport!
excerpt:
“Sleeper’s brother inherited Beauport, but couldn’t afford to keep it. In 1935, the conservation-minded Helena Woolworth McCann, heir to the Woolworth department store chain, bought the mansion and preserved it virtually as Sleeper had left it. The McCann family spent several years summering there, but by 1941 both she and her husband had died. Their children, knowing their mother’s wish that Beauport be preserved as a house museum, donated it to Historic New England with the caveat that they could stay there whenever they wanted. One of them often did, into the 1970s, amicably closing the door to her quarters in the “Red Indian” room when tours came through. And therein lies much of Beauport’s appeal. It’s not…”
Read more – Download PDF
It’s free and simple to participate in National Poem in Your Pocket Day. From Mayor Romeo-Theken:
“I’ve selected a poem by former poet laureate, Ruthanne “Rufus” Collinson, “Jumping In”. The view from my City Hall office is the building Collinson writes about, and the poem’s span of time and special moments –celebrating kids, seniors, connections and kindness– are music to read.”- Mayor Romeo-Theken, Gloucester, MA
JUMPING IN
I was 12 years old
dreaming already
of the life within life,
writing plays and poems,
clumsy beyond description
when I arrived at Central Grammar School,
to a daily journey over the bridge,
learning about the universe of Gloucester
from my new friends,
learning art and history and language
from my new teachers.
What I will never forget
is the lesson I learned from the kind eighth grade girls
on the playground.
In elementary school, I fell down everyday at recess,
playing jump rope, trying to jump in.
My new friends at Central Grammar
taught me to look up,
to wait until the rope swung high,
to wait for the thin shimmering line
to reach its highest arc,
to enter then
and begin to keep the rhythm.
And here I am today.
The school has become a residence for the elders
and, once again,
I am learning to jump in
-RUTHANNE “RUFUS” COLLINSON
Reminder- kids poetry contest is closing soon. Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Libraray childrens services Poetry Without Paper 2018 contest And send them to the Mayor’s office– she promises to read them!
It’s free and simple to participate. Carry a Poem. Share a Poem.
John Ronan, a poet, playwright, journalist and a National Endowment for the
Arts Fellow in Literature, shares two sonnets: “The Parlor” and “The Lesson.” And the very short, “Arrowhead.”
Arrowhead
The bifacial point, found in a potato
field in Maine, is still sharp,
a Micmac weapon or crafted heart
knapped from the whole cloth of stone.
Flint’s a slap in the face, elegist
relic only as long as you look.
Says: crow shadow and opaque.
Adds: I will exist without witness.
-John J. Ronan
John Ronan served as Gloucester’s Poet Laureate 2008-2010, maintaining the website resource dedicated to Gloucester poets, Gloucester Poet Laureate, and producing Salt and Light: An Anthology of Gloucester Poetry, published spring 2010. He is the host of the Cape Ann TV (now 1623 studios) program, The Writer’s Block. His most recent anthology is Taking the Train of Singularity South from Midtown. He read “We, Helsmen” at Mayor Romeo Theken’s 2018 Inauguration. Ronan helped to establish Poetry without Paper; the 12th annual deadline for this beloved annual tradition is approaching. Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Libraray childrens services Poetry Without Paper 2018 contest
Paul Burton National Walk Out Day report WBZ evening news from March 26, 2018
and links to GHS Gillnetter articles: March 15, 2018 and March 26, 2018
GHS Gillnetter student newspaper is a must read and fully digitized-accessible
Another great event in Gloucester, Mass. tomorrow: Dr. Jung Lin Lee to present and discuss “Women in STEM” April 26 O’Maley Innovation Middle School
“Spring is Here! We are so excited we wet our plants!” Wolf Hill’s clever sign is a hit with a few boys I know! Also a nice new store sign and the fleet’s out — Wolf Hill’s colorful stock of Adirondack chairs are lined up and ready.
Reminder about the USAF “Airmen of Note” Jazz Band free concert at Gloucester High School 7-9PM tonight. What a great name and special event for any high school, especially Gloucester, home of the Docksiders, great high school and middle school bands, and such rich music talent throughout the community! On this gorgeous spring day, enjoy a past video of the USAF band playing It Might As Well Be Spring (Rodgers and Hammerstein). Read more about the band below. Hope someone takes a picture like that one on the steps here in Gloucester by the Man at the Wheel and on the High School steps 🙂
More information:
Join the Airmen of Note live as they tour New England! These concerts are sure to thrill, featuring brand-new selections from the Airmen of Note’s upcoming album which will be recorded later this year! Continue reading “LIVE from Gloucester High School tonight- USAF “Airmen of Note” Jazz Band”
Black box theater at New England Conservancy “Edward Hopper paintings come to life”
Artists: Chelsea Baccay, Rush Dorsett, Julia Dwyer, Alexandra Saori Erickson,Jeongmin Kim, Kaitlin Loeb, Emily Siar, Ana Mora, Whitney Robinson, Corey Dalton Hart, Christopher Remkus, Gregory Sliskovich, Kyle Bejnerowicz, Grant Braider, Corey Gaudreau, Taehwan Kim, Matthew O’Donnell, Seung Yun Kim, Seiyoung Kim, Erin McMullen, Kristen Murdaugh, Yoonjeong Yoo
One more matinee tomorrow-22
Mark your calendars. Kathy O’Neil shares Cape Ann Forum‘s press release for their next (local) lectures on international issues.
WHY CORRUPTION THREATENS GLOBAL SECURITY: A Cape Ann Forum with Sarah Chayes
In dozens of countries, corruption can no longer be understood as merely the bad deeds of individuals. Rather, it is the operating system of sophisticated networks that cross national boundaries in their drive to maximize returns, and it has gotten to a level that it threatens global security, according to Sarah Chayes, who is speaking at the next Cape Ann Forum at Gloucester City Hall on Sunday, May 6 at 7 pm.
Chayes, author, a former reporter for National Public Radio in Afghanistan and a senior associate in the Democracy and Rule of Law program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is not only exposing the extent of this problem—she’s advising policymakers on how to combat it. One of her recent studies focused on Honduras, the source of many of the refugees now seeking asylum in the United States.
“The strands of the Honduran kleptocratic network overlap, and personnel is shared among public, private, and criminal network elements. But the three sectors do retain some autonomy, interacting via exchanges of revenues and services,” writes Chayes.
“Revenues are captured at the expense of the environment as well as the people of Honduras, and some of the most resilient opponents of the network’s business model are community groups defending the land. These groups are largely ignored by international donor institutions, the bulk of whose assistance benefits the network.”
Sarah Chayes’s work explores how severe corruption can help prompt such crises as terrorism, revolutions and their violent aftermaths, and environmental degradation. She recently left her position at Carnegie to work on her next book, which will apply this framing to the United States.
Before joining the Carnegie Endowment, Chayes served as special assistant to the top-ranked American military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen. She focused on governance issues, participating in cabinet-level decision-making on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Arab Spring, building on the years she reported on the region for NPR.
Chayes says it was “a sense of historic opportunity” that prompted her to end her journalism career in early 2002 and to remain in Afghanistan to help rebuild the country. She chose to settle in the former Taliban heartland, Kandahar where she founded Arghand, a start-up manufacturing cooperative, where men and women working together produce fine skin-care products.
Her first book, The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban, was published in 2006. Her most recent book is Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security (2014), Winner of the 2015 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest. “I can’t imagine a more important book for our time.” ―Sebastian Junger
This is the Cape Ann Forum’s last major event of the 2017/2018 season, as the organization closes in its 100th presentation since it was formed in 2001, which will be commemorated next September. The May 6 forum will also feature the announcement of the organization’s annual international awareness award to a graduating Gloucester High School senior, which comes with a $500 scholarship.
The Cape Ann Forum is also co-sponsoring a presentation by Andrew Bacevich, a West Point graduate and Vietnam War veteran, at the Gloucester Stage Company, 267 East Main Street, on Sunday, May 20, at 6 p.m. The talk is part of a month-long program on Combat Art—“In War and Afterwards”—curated by Gloucester artist Ken Hruby and organized by the Rocky Neck Cultural Center, which will exhibit the work of combat veterans.
Bacevich is a two-time Forum speaker and a nationally known commentator on international affairs, a professor emeritus at Boston University, and the author of nine books, including The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism and America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History.
“Gloucester nature photographer Kim Smith, the keynote speaker at Salem State University’s Earth Days Week, used vivid images of monarch butterflies to describe their lifecycle, importance in ecosystems, and imperiled future due to habitat loss and agricultural chemicals. Smith, who spoke on campus Thursday, April 12, 2018, makes nature films and contibutes to the daily blog Good Morning Gloucester. She also helps communities and individuals build gardens specifically aimed at attracting butterflies, bees and beneficial bugs…”I think compassion for all living creatures is really important,” said Smith. “Right here in our own backyards and beaches we have small winged creatures like monarchs and piping plovers that are struggling to survive…”
Pick up your paper. Lovely to see front page article for Kim, and with a Dawn Upshaw coming to Shalin Liu (tomorrow) notice same day!
Virginia Demetrios is Virginia Lee Burton’s married name and author credit she used for her work as Folly Cove Designer and founder. Her linocut was curated for the MASSterpiece trail 🙂 from Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism (MOTT): https://www.flipsnack.com/eohed/massachusetts-masterpiece-trail.html
All are invited to have fun, join in, share ideas for Gloucester’s 400th Anniversary possible celebrations in 2023. A public meeting will be held at City Hall on Saturday, April 28, 2018 from 1-3pm. Can’t attend? Email your input to the 400th steering committee: email gloucester400@gmail.com and check out the 400th Anniversary Facebook page For More Info
“Although Gloucester’s 400th Anniversary is five years away, we know that those years will go by quickly. 400 years deserves a year long celebration in 2023 and a steering committee has been meeting for the last six or seven months to get the process started. Three Captains have been chosen to lead the group: Bruce Tobey, Bob Gillis and Ruth Pino. The Committee is sponsoring a public meeting on Saturday April 28, 2018 in City Hall Auditorium…What should happen during 2023? What would you participate in? What would you miss if it didn’t happen?”
With so much advance notice, it’s fun to ruminate. Three words come quickly to mind for one idea: Virginia Lee Burton. Burton was one of the most influential children’s book author-illustrators of the 20th century and Folly Cove textile designer and founder. She received the Caldecott medal in 1943 for The Little House. Whether for the 400th Anniversary or not, I hope one day that there are tribute commissions for Virginia Lee Burton’s beloved characters Katy from Katy and the Big Snow and Mary Ann from Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel at Stage Fort playground. Life Story and Song of Robin Hood were also informed by landscape and her life in Gloucester. (The Burton tributes could be massive, interactive and accessible bronze sculptures. Tom Otterness commissions were completed at this scale. Why not Burton? They don’t have to be. Also bring back the monumental sea serpent and the big truck. These memorable imaginative expressions were wood in the past and maintained for years. Perhaps they could be recreated with modern decking materials. And add in Burton’s Little House! )
Gloucester has a history of producing major anniversary celebrations which makes looking back through archives* inspiring for future plans. Here are a few I’ve pulled:
*digitizing Gloucester Daily Times and Gloucester’s municipal archives is another oft repeated plea of mine and others–am sending that one along to a 400th dream wish list…
Link to Gloucester’s 250th memorial celebration BOOK: https://archive.org/stream/memorialofcelebr00glou
August 16, 1942– the city’s second (!) Tercentenary Celebration.
On May 21, 1923, the Gloucester Daily Times published an article about the appropriations and planning for the city’s 300th Anniversary which is remarkable in content and its late date–the celebration was just months away! The idea itself and related costs concerning a public art commission –the one that would become Gloucester’s renowned Fisherman at the Wheel Memorial– were hammered out at a heated City Council meeting. Here’s the nearly complete transcription:
COUNCIL RECONSIDERS AND VOTES $5000 TO CELEBRATION: Equal Amount Will Be Reserved for Permanent Memorial Fund–Executive Committee Held Prolonged and Animated Session Saturday Evening. May 21, 1923 (*note ______ indicates illegible copy)
After three hours of discussion and a conference of the municipal council behind closed doors lasting about three-quarters of an hour on Saturday evening, it was voted to reconsider their action whereby the $10,000 appropriated for the anniversary committee should be alloted for a permanent memorial and voted for _____ committee to expend a sum not exceeding $5000 for the celebration, and the other $5000 to be used for the creation of a permanent memorial.
The agreement as finally reached is ______________ provide for the dedication in whole or in part of a permanent memorial to be erected and paid for jointly by the _______ city of Gloucester. “The municipal council agrees that a sum of $5000 of the amount appropriated by the city for the celebration will be for the general purposes of the committee if necessary, with the understanding that all expensea for additional police protection incurred by the committee on public safety will be paid for by the anniversary committee. And with the further understanding that the anniversary committee will do all possible to have this sum of money applied to the permanent memorial in addition to the sum reserved ____ by the municipal _____ surplus after the celebration is over, this surplus also to be for the purpose of a permanent memorial.” The meeting opened at 8.15 o’clock, with a reading of the records by Secretary Harold H. Parsons, and following this there came without hesitation_____ ing of the celebration from those present, and for a time, one was reminded of the old town meeting days. ___________ A Piatt Andrew ___________ carnival parade by members of the art colony of the city were accepted and adopted.
Plain Talk by Chairman Barrett- Chairman Barrett then arose and addressed the members present and said: “I sent a communication to the municipal council some time ago to find out just what standing this celebration had with them. The letter I received was not
Continue reading “Join in planning now for #GloucesterMA 400th Anniversary in 2023!”
Action Inc fun fundraiser! More pix coming
Megan Merlin prepping the crowd.
Erin George, Johanna McEvoy, Joe McEvoy, Caryn Clifford, Sophia Douglas, and Allison Lex are the members of the Action trivia team. John and Patty McCarthy and Jen Beloff were cheering them on.
