“Folks are encouraged to read, listen, or watch—and they are also welcomed to just show up and be part of the conversation,” said an organizer. “There’s no test, no requirements, other than a sincere desire to be engaged in the work of antiracism.”
In his stunning new memoir The Trouble with Kim: On Transcending Despair and Approaching Joy, the New Paltz writer, musician, and restaurateur Seth David Branitz goes deep into a troubled personal past. It is the story of a wildly dysfunctional New York City family from the 1970s through the end of the century, a family mired in poverty, violence, mental illness, and deepening cycles of futility and struggle. From these antecedents, the youngest child traces his own descent into addiction and inexpressible despair and longing, describing a circuitous route toward — not to — redemption, stability, forgiveness and something like happiness.
If you’re in a bunker, with limited light and few possessions, and the world outside feels threatening, why not turn to the written page, that world between two ends, the jumping-off place: the plunge into page one?
Surprisingly, it turns out that the operative word here is not so much “fixed” or “free” as “fun.” Repair Cafés are interactive social events, designed to heal divisions in communities as much as to fix beloved-but-broken possessions.
Printed in hardcover format, Ledge Lake Leaf Labyrinth includes 188 full-color photographs on 168 pages.
This choice of book is in many ways perfect for the time and circumstances in which we find ourselves.
Last weekend, the 115 Partition Street storefront in Saugerties that used to house Lucky Chocolates and its accompanying café – before founder Rae Stang sold the business and its new owners moved it around to the back of the building – became a pop-up gallery. The occasion was an art show titled “Images from The Daily Mouse: Tails from the Crisis,” and the painter whose works were on display was Stang herself.
Mention Carole and Steve Ford to Paltzonians of a certain vintage – those who attended the Campus School, the New Paltz Middle School and/or High School between the mid-1970s and early 1990s – and you’ll see eyes light up and hear fond memories recalled of the Arts Community Youth Theater. The Fords created a nurturing backstage family for many a creatively inclined youngster, introduced more than a few future thespians and theater professionals to the stage, and provided the community with years of high-quality live entertainment.
“Small Happenings,” a collection of aphorisms, thoughts, observations, witty thoughts, and short poems all presented as a guide of sorts to better living, will be the subject of a virtual book launch and reading with Woodstock’s Golden Notebook on Monday, October 5. Also being printed this year: “The Princeton Diary,” a novella about a Greek writer filling in for a famous writer who’s canceled his four-year stint at the noted Ivy League school, and “Trump Verse,” a collection of short poems that mix up the witty and the outraged and outrageous.
Sometimes, the most interesting parts of a town can be found in slightly out-of-the-way corners the locals know best. It’s easy to see how Parlor, a recently opened shop that’s “a place to meet, see, buy or sell books and other artifacts,” might quickly become such a prize in the Village of New Paltz.