What are you looking forward to in 2025?
Dušan Týnek, ceramicist: Surviving perhaps? Yeah, we’re all trying to survive and make sense of the madness that’s happening.
Helen Stubblefield, knitter, crocheter, et. al.: I’m working on a new venture I’m selling handmade hats and hand-dyed scarves. Right now it’s called the Helen Shop. I’ve been renovating this house in Stone Ridge for the last 12 years. Hopefully by the springtime, summertime, it will be open as an artist retreat for hand-dyeing, mending, all these wonderful things.
Summer Wick, chandler, aka candle-maker: I’ve been in Kingston now for a little over three years. I’m looking forward to a little relaxation in the beginning of the year, but then focusing my business on building more community — finding ways to get involved in my community where I can make an impact at a local level and just focusing on that.
Things like figuring out about how to help with the housing crisis, volunteering somewhere, donating time and my skills and things like that, finding ways to be around other like-minded people too that want to lift each other up. It’s a scary time that we’re sort of living in, but we need each other. So that’s kind of a big goal for me this year
What is the best thing about the community you live in?
Jordan Katz, apothecary herbalist: I was born and raised here. I’m really loving all the new small businesses that are popping up around town and I love the small-town feel of it. But there’s also a lot of new life and art and food being infused into the community from outside. People are just moving in from the West Coast, the Pacific Northwest …
Torin Murphy, apothecary herbalist: I moved back to this side of the river two and a half, almost three years ago. I was in Beacon. We just talked to an older couple that just moved here from North Carolina today.
Candida Monteith, bringing glamor wherever she goes: I’ve been coming [to Kingston] since 1951. I bought my great-uncle’s house this year. I love the fact that there’s so many people who are, how can I say, ‘free-thinking’. So many young people dressed like they want to be. Tattoos everywhere and all that kind of free fun. And I love the craft thing that goes on. And how people are so passionate about bread.
What are the issues we need to deal with in this community?
Jordan Katz: For a while it felt really positive and exciting having everyone coming, as someone who was born and raised here. But it’s getting to that kind of point where I’m like, okay, we’re good. It’s starting to reach that tipping point, starting to get a bit much. We want to figure out a way to balance it out.
Torin Murphy: We need more housing. I left Beacon because I got priced out, during Covid. It just exponentially blew up. Also, we need more Thai food.
Candida Monteith: Well, I am told that affordable housing is a problem. But I have to say that affordable housing is an issue in every town in the United States. And it’s a systemic problem. And it isn’t unique to this area at all.
What changes would you like to see made in the community you live in?
Jordan Katz: I wish there was a discount for locals or something. I always want to do these little staycations in the Catskills and stuff, and it’s just crazy expensive.
Torin Murphy: How many years do you have to be here before you qualify? I think there’s this tendency where, like, everybody wants to close the door behind them. You know, this isn’t our land. And every group that comes wants to be the last. I don’t know how to solve the problem because I feel like I’m inherently part of it.
Candida Monteith: Pay people more so they don’t have trouble affording housing. My honest feeling is that the people who control things with money are underpaying other people. I think that we have our own robber barons right now. They’re stealing from people who should be paid better.
If you could be anywhere else, where would you go?
Jordan Katz: We love it here.
Torin Murphy: Nowhere. I’ve lived in a lot of different countries, and this is literally my favorite place in the world. I got to a point where I wanted to try to grow roots and be a part of a community. And I decided it was the Hudson Valley. And then I was like so where in the Hudson Valley is my favorite place? And that’s Kingston. But can there also be Korean food available?
Helen Stubblefield: I was just in Reykjavik this summer. That’s where I got this sweater (the one she is wearing in her picture). This is from the Icelandic Knitting Society.
Candida Monteith: I’m an art history major. I would be probably in Florence for a month going to all the art galleries every day. I’d be in the Uffizi every other day and the Bargello the other, so there you go.
What do you like about the community here?
Dušan Týnek: First of all, it’s very artistic. There are people from all over the world because everyone kind of goes via New York City and ends up here. We all like put our time in the city, I think, and then we get overwhelmed or we outgrow it and then we want a little bit more space and more time to ourselves.
Helen Stubblefield: It’s a little interesting. I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, which has an amazing community and heritage. I’ve spent the last couple of years halfway there and halfway here. I’m mostly here because of my children. And because I’m in a period where my children are leaving home and I’m now the orphan matriarch — my mom died last year — that grieving is a huge part of my life. I’m trying to wait and remember what I love about the Hudson Valley. New eyes. I was a teacher and parent at Mountain Laurel Waldorf School in New Paltz for 14 years. I loved the Waldorf community and the emphasis, I think, on the handmade and the kind of homesteadiness of people there.
Summer Wick: It sort of feels a little like Portland, Oregon, just in terms of the nature, the outdoor experiences, the food scene, culturally, you know. There’s so much creativity here.
And I’m originally from the east coast. I really wanted to move back to the East Coast. There’s a lot of candle makers (in thi town). Everybody has their own thing going on. Whether it’s the scents are different or aesthetics are different or, you know, but I think there’s room for everybody.
What can we do to improve our community?
Dušan Týnek: Definitely housing is a problem. We moved up nine years ago, in 2016. We lived in the city for 20 years. Kingston was just up and becoming. It was more affordable. I think part if it was the pandemic, where everything became unaffordable everyone wanted to escape the city and no-one knew what was happening. The city is for the young and the rich. You’re young, you’re naïve. You’re ready… It’s perfect for that. I don’t miss the energy, the constant struggle. It’s very wearing. I’m past that. I don’t need it. You know, this change in careers is perfect. It’s very satisfying.
Helen Stubblefield: I don’t know at large, but my focus is on sharing my gifts. And maybe if we all do that, then it will be a better place.
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