Bleached by sun, arms touching,
Commiserate, await, relief for parched planks.
Trees sway, dip and bend in ancient dance,
Nature’s Code Talkers, communicating warning
To all who listen and see.
Bleached by sun, arms touching,
Commiserate, await, relief for parched planks.
Trees sway, dip and bend in ancient dance,
Nature’s Code Talkers, communicating warning
To all who listen and see.
The Adirondack Region is being featured in two episodes of the PBS television docu-series “Fly Brother With Ernest White II.” One episode is currently airing nationally; the other will be airing later this year.
The Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST) worked with the show’s producers to bring the show’s host and his team to the region. The ROOST team provided location scouting, background information, and made arrangements for the crew to meet, interview, and learn about the region from those directly involved in the tourism industry.
Now in its second season, PBS’s “Fly Brother” is an award-winning travel series, hosted by Ernest White II, that focuses on friendship and connection in some of the most intriguing destinations around the world.
The Old Forge Library will host a free, live, online performance with an evening learning about female jazz musicians. On Thursday, March 31 at 7 p.m., lecturer and master flutist Galen Abdur-Razzaq will highlight the influence women have had on the evolution of jazz and their significant contributions to the art form.
Women have been involved in jazz since the early 1920s, not just as vocalists, but as instrumentalists, composers and arrangers. An understanding of jazz would not be complete without highlighting the influence and contributions of women such as Bessie Smith, Valaida Snow, Mildred Bailey, Mary Lou Williams, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughn. The goal is to provide an understanding particularly of their personal lives, their ability to read music, perform and survive in a time when jazz was considered “a man’s world.”
Abdur-Razzaq is a riveting speaker with an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of jazz. He will help attendees gain a deeper appreciation for women’s contributions to this music genre through a combination of lecture and musical pieces performed by him as he displays his talents on the flute.
Abdur-Razzaq studied at the Berklee College of Music. He holds a master’s degree in education and performing arts from Rutgers University and has collaborated with some of the greatest jazz musicians.
Those who wish to obtain the free Zoom link can call (315) 369-6008 or e-mail oldforge@midyork.org.
For more information on upcoming library events and programs please visit https://www.oldforgelibrary.org/.
Photo at top: Lecturer and master flutist Galen Abdur-Razzaq. Photo provided by the Old Forge Library.
We are blessed to have quality news outlets in the Adirondacks – local newspapers and magazines, social media, and including, of course, the Adirondack Almanack and Explorer. These resources are place-based and provide us with the current news and events. They also serve as archival records for future generations.
Since 2014, I’ve shared a number of my stories on the Adirondack Almanack. There are more avenues for telling one’s stories now, eight years later, primarily through the perfection of online resources because of the Covid-19 pandemic and our resultant isolation.
I want to introduce readers of the Almanack to a project for recording audio stories which began a few years ago through the Keene Valley Library. To date, this Adirondack Community Story Project has collected over 250 three-to-five-minute audio stories on the historical and social cultural history of the Town of Keene.
Join local artists and organizations at Pendragon Theatre in Saranac Lake in an event to benefit the artists of Ukraine. Taking place on Wednesday, March 30 @ 7pm, the evening of music, stories, theatre and poetry is presented by: Adirondack Center for Writing, Adirondack Stage Rats, Chris Kowanko, Drew Sprague, Esther Baker, John Brown Lives!, Joseph Szwed, Historic Saranac Lake, Pendragon Theatre, Roger Mitchell, Upper Jay Arts, Center & Recovery Lounge and further support by Depot Theatre
All proceeds raised that evening will go directly towards the non-profit, Artists at Risk (AR): a non-profit organization at the intersection of human rights and the arts working to provide artists from Ukraine with emergency resources, travel aid, and residencies at host institutions across Europe.
Tannery Pond Center (TPC), the arts organization in North Creek, NY is on a path of major rebirth and transformation. The Town of Johnsburg has agreed to lease the Tannery Pond building, with its fine theater, gallery spaces, offices and community meeting rooms, to the nonprofit Tannery Pond Center which will assume responsibility and control of this valuable regional asset. The Town and TPC are working to finalize the lease documents in early 2022.
Tannery Pond Center is excited to announce a generous $75,000 matching gift challenge from local philanthropist Glenn Pearsall to support this transformative endeavor. The vision for the future is to be the premier venue for arts and community gathering in the southern Adirondacks, humming with creativity, learning, diverse arts programming, opportunities for community gatherings and a welcoming visitor center. As of March 2022, the Board and supporters of the Tannery Pond Center have almost matched the Pearsall gift and are on track to far exceed it in order to secure the future. This outpouring of support demonstrates a confidence in the future as well as excitement about the potential of Tannery Pond.
In order to achieve these ambitious goals, Tannery Pond Center is adding a second full-time staff person, and is starting a search for a dynamic Executive Director who can lead the organization into the next stage of its growth. A job description and information about how to apply is posted on the Tannery Pond website, www.tannerypond.org/jobs
For more information about the Tannery Pond Center visit https://www.tannerypond.org/or call (518) 251-2505, ext. 128.
Photo at top courtesy of Donna Welch.
“That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics.” – Aldo Leopold
Guests are invited to kick off the arrival of spring by celebrating Aldo Leopold Day on Saturday, March 19 at the Adirondack Interpretive Center (AIC) in Newcomb. Leopold was considered by many as the father of wildlife conservation. Participants have the opportunity to attend an individual program or spend the entire day at the AIC to take part in the whole slate of events which includes a seminar, a bench building workshop, and a film. Pre-registration is required, as space is limited. Interested parties should register by emailing aic@esf.edu or Click here to register. Location: Adirondack Interpretive Center, 5922 State Route 28N, Newcomb, NY 12852.
The Northern Forest Canoe Trail (NFCT) is hosting virtual screenings of the World Tour Paddling Film Festival. The annual festival showcases the very best paddling films of the year and is now screening in living rooms everywhere. A portion of proceeds from ticket sales benefits NFCT stewardship and programming.
“We’re excited to once again offer the year’s best selection of paddling films to the NFCT community,” said Karrie Thomas, NFCT’s executive director. “Whether you’re in it for the exploration of secluded quiet waters, or the adrenaline rush of big wave whitewater, the film fest has something for everyone.”
The Adirondack Center for Writing (ACW) is pleased to announce the return of PoemVillage, a beloved community-centered program celebrating local poetry from neighbors and friends annually since it was established in 2016. The program is only open to poets with ties to the North Country region in New York State. This year, ACW will be hanging poems in windows all around Saranac Lake during National Poetry Month (April). Also, bundles of locally-harvested poems will be safely delivered to inboxes and to the ACW website daily from April 15 – May 15.
“Hornbeck Boats: the Lightest Boats in the Deep Woods” opened February 19, 2022 at The TAUNY Center in downtown Canton, NY, and will remain on display through May 8, 2022. The exhibit traces the history and impact of the company Hornbeck Boats in Olmstedville, NY, through a selection of boats made by the company, documentary photographs, and video. Curators are folklorist and TAUNY Executive Director Jill Breit, historian and boat curator Hallie E. Bond, and photographer Nancie Battaglia. The video in the exhibit was produced by Gus Geraci, TAUNY’s Director of Digital Content.
Those with the Adirondack Folk School, located in Lake Luzerne, NY, said they were pleased to announce the opening of the Alfred Z. Solomon Lake George Annex, adding that the school intends to launch a record number of brand new classes and workshops this year.
Have you ever wanted to try your hand at making a basket or a canoe? Would you like to learn to weave or try blacksmithing? The Adirondack Folk School, the only nonprofit organization of its kind in the region, is offering a record-setting 280 hands-on classes and workshops for everyone interested in learning the crafts and traditions that make our region unique. Expanded opportunities are made possible through generous support from the Moore family, allowing the Adirondack Folk School to announce that it has opened a new space in the Lake George Outlets. Further support from the Alfred Z. Solomon Foundation has allowed AFS to equip the space for an array of classes. The new space—The Alfred Z. Solomon Lake George Annex—is located in the Log Jam Outlets directly behind the Log Jam Restaurant on Route 9 in Lake George.
The Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake,(ADKX) has received a $500,000 grant from the Challenge Grants program of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), a federal agency. The funds will help support the $2.25M construction cost of the Artists & Inspiration in the Wild project. As part of the Challenge Grant requirements, ADKX must match the funds 3:1. ADKX is in the final phase of fundraising for this project during which they will be seeking funds to match the NEH Challenge Grant. Currently ADKX has raised $3M of the $4.5M overall cost of the project. This grant was secured following a highly competitive application and review process. NEH receives funding requests from across the U.S. and makes grants to a select few. Just eight Challenge Grants were made at the $500,000 level or more in the current round of NEH funding. In addition to ADKX, other recipients included the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, a Carnegie library in Braddock, Pennsylvania, and WETA, which serves Washington, DC.
This funding will support the renovation of a 6,200-square-foot exhibition space dedicated to the museum’s fine and decorative art collection. Planned upgrades to an existing building will make possible the first permanent home with appropriate climate controls and gallery spaces for this collection. Once completed in 2023, the building will provide permanent galleries dedicated to the most comprehensive showing of the ADKX collection of art in the museum’s 60-plus-year history. Artists & Inspiration in the Wild will include masterpieces from the museum’s painting, decorative arts, furniture, print, drawing, and photograph collections placed in the context of the landscape that inspired their creation. As noted by environmentalist Bill McKibben, on view will be what were, in all probability, the first photographs that brought the wholesale destruction of forestland to Americans’ attention.
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