Good Morning Gloucester

Another Damn Project…

The fog settled in at Buswell Pond recently and made for some interesting images.

Off Duty…

Chabad Jewish Center of Cape Ann will have the honor to host Mrs. Janet Applefield as she shares her story of survival, hope, and resilience at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, MA. The lecture will be accompanied by a musical performance featuring the New England Klezmer, which includes Yaeko Miranda, Jim Prendergast & Sonny Barbato.
Janet feels it is her mission to spread messages of how to live one’s life, overcoming hatred with resilience, grace, dignity, love and forgiveness by sharing her personal story of survival. Janet feels strongly about letting people know the horrors she went through so that future generations will make sure it will never happen again. 

We will unite to send a clear message against hate and intolerance.

“To create a better future, it is important to be aware of our past. Rabbi Avremi Raichik, co-director of Chabad of Cape Ann, revealed that 66% of American millennials either do not know or cannot remember what “Auschwitz” is. He further added that within the tragic stories of the Holocaust, there are profound, uplifting messages of hope and the strength of the human spirit. The event aims to help participants gain a deeper understanding of the disastrous effects of prejudice, racism, and hatred and how we can work together to prevent such things from happening in the future.”

For more details and to purchase tickets, please visit www.capeannsurvivor.com
Partnership and corporate sponsorship opportunities are available for this event. Reach out to Rabbi Avremi Raichik at Rabbi@Chabadcapeann.com for more details.

About Janet

Born Gustawa Singer in 1935 in Nowy Targ, Poland, Janet and her family enjoyed a comfortable and stable life until the Nazi invasion in 1939. A clinical social worker, Janet will recount how at just seven years old, she witnessed her mother being transported to the death camp at Belzec and her father being assigned to forced labor. Janet witnessed unimaginable danger and the love, courage, and dedication of a few extraordinarily righteous citizens who saved her life.

When Janet first arrived in the U.S. in 1947, her father asked her to write everything she could remember since they were separated in August of 1942. During his life, they never spoke about their collective torture. There is a lot of guilt in survivors whose stories didn’t include concentration camps, so Janet considered herself someone not worthy of discussing. Her notes from her arrival were rediscovered by her family in 1984 and became a blueprint for self-discovery. Her written account, originally in Polish, is now recognized as “righteous among nations” at Yad Vashem in Israel and Janet can share her trauma and the traumas experienced by her family through this memoir, interviews, and speaking engagements. 

 

Janet speaks openly about her experiences as a child survivor of the Holocaust with thousands of people each year through regular speaking engagements with libraries, schools, houses of worship, and government agencies. Her talks raise awareness and understanding of the dangers of prejudice and encourage audiences to stand up to any kind of discrimination and injustice. In 2021, she was invited to tell her story before the Massachusetts State Legislature, on the occasion of the passage of Bill H.692, an act mandating statewide genocide education in all secondary schools.

Janet documented her story in her forthcoming memoir, Becoming Janet: Finding Myself in the Holocaust. You can read more about Janet on her website.

# # #

EVENT RECAP:
What: Hidden Child of the Holocaust – An Historic Evening with Survivor Janet Applefield
Where: Shalin Liu Performance Center
When: April 7th

Please email DECA advisor, Scott Larsen, if you are interested or would like more details. slarsen@rpk12.org— 

Thank You,

Scott Larsen

We noticed this signage on Main St at the former location of Sugar Magnolias. Looks like we’ll have a new dining option on Main Street!

Strata…

This Years St. Peter’s Fiesta runs from June 26th – June 30th with the Novena to St. Peter

Starting on Monday the 17th.

Ma Che Siamu Tutti Mutti!!

VIVA SAN PIETRO

Who: The New England Experimental Art Group www.experimentalartgroup.com                                             

What: A Timely Talk: An evening with Robin Colidzin

Where:  ZOOM

When:  March 20,2024 7:00pm

The New England Experimental Art Group presents Robin Colodzin

Please join us as we listen to artist Robin Colodzin. This exciting talk is free and open to the public!  All are welcome!

Robin Colodzin’s work is inspired by the ocean, poetry, philosophy, and feminism. She is an artist, a software engineer, a swimmer, and an avid reader.

Her latest solo show (fall 20223) entitled ‘Embodied’ was a month-long exhibit at The Copley Society for Art in Boston. She has recently published a monograph of the same title, including artwork and writing. 

DESCRIPTION OF TALK:

My studio of safe uncertainty: An exploration of the gap between pure expression and communication in art-making.  I find the practices that get me most fully embodied and expressive sometimes conflict with those that would allow me to shape a painting into something that would say something to others. This talk will explore those tensions. 

 www.colodzin.com

The New England Experimental Art Group is a creative forum, its main mission is to increase public awareness and to foster self-expression by bringing artists together to explore and share ideas that cultivate creative freedom. 

If you would like a zoom invite to the event, please contact: Nella Lush, The New England Experimental Art Group Chair, via email at experimentalartgroupraa@gmail.com.

                                                                                    ###

We took a 3 hour ride to the Shepaug Bald Eagle Observatory in Southbury CT one rainy gloomy day last week seeking out eagles. It’s a well designed observation area near the Shepaug Hydroelectric Power Station manned by knowledgeable and friendly volunteers. There are opportunities for bird watching above and beyond the majestic eagles too. That was a good distraction because it was gloomy and rainy so the eagles were deterred from visiting. We did observe one eagle flying in to hunt, feeding at waterside and in a tree but it was from a pretty good distance as you can see here. Can you see the eagle in flight?? (It’s there I promise you)

Anyhow, 6 hours round trip and only one distant eagle. We returned to Gloucester and immediately located the pair we’ve been following near Little River as if they wondered where we had been. Up close and personal right in our hometown. Lesson learned.