Welcome Home to Endless Possibilities!
WILLIAMS
Lumber & Home Centers
Rhinebeck • Hudson • Hopewell Junction • Tannersville • Red Hook • Pleasant Valley • High Falls
www.williamslumber.com
845-876-WOOD
Rhinebeck Village Luxe Colonial $3,000,000
Uniquely renovated historic 5 BR/3.5 bath Colonial with rose-arched entry lined with mature boxwoods. Private village home with 20’ high evergreens and 6’ privacy fence around a 65’ heated gunite saltwater pool & greenhouse. Wrap around porch, restored carriage house for multiple cars, and space for entertaining upstairs & downstairs. Outdoor shower, dry flush outhouse & restored chicken coop for storage.
❚ Rachel Hyman-Rouse 917.686.4906
Linden Farm Second Empire
Craving new surroundings? Fantasies become realities on garydimauro.com.
$869,000
Eccentric 4 BR/2 BA Second Empire on 3.8 acres in Red Hook, amid 1200+ acres of multi-generational crop farms and a preserved landscape. 3-story, circa 1856, 4875 sf, driveway lined with century-old trees. Columned porch with decorative brackets & cornices, carved doors & generous foyer. Sunlit parlor & dining room have fireplaces, elaborate period moldings & French doors. Sweeping staircase, large landings & tower with bright bedrooms. Third story with steep mansard roof, pedimented windows & 6 dramatic rooms, each with original porcelain sinks. Cupola w/ endless views. Well-maintained with much new infrastructure. Perfect as a private home or as a venue for elaborate occasions.
❚ Eliane M. Abramoff 917.608.2680
Twin Lake Houses
$1,450,000
Two 2-story 3BR/3BA homes in Pine Plains perched on a private 5 acre peninsula extending into 50 acre private Twin Island Lake. Perfect for multi-generational living and/or the requisite home office. Inviting and comfortable with brick fireplaces, country kitchens & cozy dens. Beamed lake rooms with windows on three sides connect you to ever-changing nature. Private porches & decks. Swim, kayak & fish. A remote sanctuary minutes from community, these homes deliver the much-needed good life. Available fully furnished to simplify your transition.
❚ Eliane M. Abramoff 917.608.2680
LaGrangeville Modern
$975,000
Brand-new 3 BR/2 BA modern home on 3+ acres. Energy efficient minimalist interior w/ concrete floors w/ 4 zoned radiant heat. Hearthstone woodstove & fresh air ventilation system. Chef’s kitchen w/ Viking appliances & quartz counter, master w/ marble bath. Wall of sliding glass doors, covered patio, 3-car garage, 1400 sf basement.
❚ Lillian Lin 917.270.9336 ❚ Juan Villarreal 202.821.7447
Gracious Rhinebeck Village
$1,750,000
Renovated 4 BR/3.5 BA w/ preserved architectural features, high ceilings, big windows, oak floors, moldings & oak staircase. Main floor center hall, chef’s kitchen, dining room shares double-sided fireplace with living room. Music room, lower level family room, second floor master. Large open top floor with soaring ceiling. Carriage house with guest quarters. Walk to village.
❚ Alison Vaccarino 845.233.1433 ❚ Cynthia Fennell 914.409.5144
Stately Stuyvesant Manor
$674,900
Perfect combination of restored 1830 original details & modern conveniences in historic hamlet of Stuyvesant, w/ breathtaking views of Hudson River & Catskill Mountains. Modern gourmet kitchen w/ stainless steel appliances, formal dining room, living room w/ woodburning fireplace. Deck faces the river & English garden. Original wood staircase, 3 BR, 2.5 beautiful BAs.
❚ Martin Salerno 917.734.8161
Croff House
$1,095,000
One-of-a-kind 1870s home, modern touches w/ historic character. Walk to all Hudson has to offer. 5 BR/5.5 BA w/ mahogany pocket doors, inlaid hardwood floor & sweeping staircase. Living room & library with wood-burning FPs, 11’ high ceilings. 2008 renovation, multi-jet spa showers, gas FPs in 2 BRs & on-demand hot water. Front & rear porches, bluestone patio with fountain & gardens.
❚ Pamela Belfor 917.734.7142
Tivoli NY • Hudson NY • Catskill NY Rhinebeck NY • Kingston NY
garydimauro.com
CMH IS OPEN
AND WE ARE HERE FOR YOU! CMH wants our community to stay healthy this winter season.
We are encouraging all of our patients to contact their primary care providers to schedule their annual wellness visit. And most importantly receive a flu shot! Receiving the flu vaccine every year is the best way to prevent infection with influenza, a virus that can cause fever, cough and difficulty breathing. If you are new to our community and looking for a primary care provider, we have offices in multiple locations throughout Columbia and Greene Counties. For a referral please call: 518-828-8216
www.ColumbiaMemorialHealth.org
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february
The Mid-Hudson Bridge from the Poughkeepsie waterfront. Photo by David McIntyre COMMUNITY PAGES, PAGE 42
DEPARTMENTS 6 On the Cover: Aaron Hauck The paintings of Aaron Hauck bring the techniques of multiple-exposure photography to painting.
8 Esteemed Reader Jason Stern ponders his death from the quiet of a cave in the Sierra Madre.
9 Editor’s Note Brian K. Mahoney has a vision of the Trump Presidential library.
10 Big Idea: Women & Children First MacKenzie Scott has given $1 million to the Ulster County YWCA, the only Hudson Valley nonprofit to receive the Amazon billionaire’s largesse.
11 COVID Watch with The River Newsroom Governor Cuomo keeps telling us: Follow the data. Follow the science. Follow the metrics. But both vaccines and vaccine data continue to be in short supply. When will the state level with us and provide public access to vaccine data?
FOOD & DRINK 12 Spice of Life Local Indian food entrepreneurs Aditi Goswamy (Calcutta Kitchen) and Maya Kaimal (Maya Kaimal Foods) breathe new life into pandemic-weary home kitchens with the authentic flavors of their sauces and dishes.
17 Sips & Bites Food and beverage notes from around the region: KorPot, Truss and Trestle, Pearl Moon, Giobatta, Ram’s Valley, and Bistro Mashriq.
EDUCATION 18 College During COVID A conversation with Donald P. Christian, president of SUNY New Paltz.
HOME 20 Split-Level Satisfaction The Woodstock home of interior designer Megan Oldenburger showcases her considerable renovation savvy, her eye for design, and the artful aesthetic she’s honed as both designer and artist.
HEALTH & WELLNESS 28 The Power of Being Plant-Based In her new book Yoga & Veganism: The Diet of Enlightenment, Sharon Gannon updates and adds (faux) meat to her 2008 manifesto Yoga & Vegetarianism, bolstering the argument that a vegan diet is the true path to yogic bliss.
WEDDINGS 32 Honey, Let’s Get Small Despite the pandemic, over 1 million weddings were held in the US in 2020. The weddings themselves were necessarily more intimate than usual.
THE MARIJUANA CHRONICLES 38 Legal Weed Is Coming Cuomo is on board, the legislature is on board, neighboring states already have recreational cannabis. It looks like 2021 is New York’s year to legalize weed. 2/21 CHRONOGRAM 3
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partner ChronogramMedia 2021
Celebrate Local Business Now more than ever it’s important to celebrate and support local organizations benefiting the Hudson Valley community. Last year, Chronogram Media opened applications for our Community Grants Program offering discounted and complimentary advertising for non-profit organizations and BIPOC and Women-Owned businesses. Each month we’ll be highlighting some of our partners in our pages and we invite you to join us in supporting them!
BREATHE STUDIO Has a vision to provide high-quality, small group classes in a beautiful space with the opportunity for members to become part of a growing community. Breatherhinebeck.com
LIBERI SCHOOL A holistic, contemporary one-room schoolhouse model with a mission to liberate children and teachers to think freely, embrace creativity, be themselves, and imagine their lives in the context of humanity. Liberischool.org
PUTNAM ARTS COUNCIL Promotes, fosters, and encourages the arts in all forms in and around Putnam County and provides leadership in the development of arts organizations in the region. Putnamartscouncil.com
REBELBASE, INC. Now more than ever, our schools and organizations need to foster 21st century skills, and RebelBase injects experiential learning directly into project collaboration. Rebelbase.co
ROCKLAND CENTER FOR THE ARTS Dedicated to inspiring, educating, and enriching the community through the arts and providing opportunities to experience and participate in the cultural life of our region. Rocklandartcenter.org
TRAJECTUP Developing the creative mind of youth and empowering the wise senior. Our business serves the New York metropolitan area. Trajectup.com
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR UPDATES ABOUT OUR COMMUNITY GRANT PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS. 4 CHRONOGRAM 2/21
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february
Marina Abramovic with Counting the Rice from Open Studio, a new DIY art book from Phaidon. PORTFOLIO, PAGE 52
COMMUNITY PAGES
58 Poetry Poems by John Blandly, Daniel Brown, Jason Gabari, Bob Grawi, Randy C. A. Grimshaw, Michael Hargrove, Glenn Ingersoll, Kate Levin, James Lichtenburg, Cody McAvey, Livington Rossmoor, JR Solonche, and Patrick Walsh. Edited by Philip X Levine.
42 Poughkeepsie: Strong at Heart The pandemic has slowed but not stopped the Queen City’s economic resurgence.
PROFILES IN MUTUAL AID 49 Call BlackLine As established systems of public safety failed them, one group of organizers took matters into their own hands, establishing a hotline for the Black community.
THE GUIDE 60
Mixed Media: Cultural news from around the region, including Nick Cave moving his artwork Truth Be Told from The School in Kinderhook to the Broolyn Museum; Upstate Film Founders Steve and DeDe Leiber are stepping aside after almost 50 years; Bridge Street Theatre holds winter dance residencies; Congress passes aid for concert venues; two local musicians recently died: Kali Z. Fasteau and Howard Johnson.
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Sarah Pirozek’s feminist indie thriller #Like is streaming on AppleTV+.
PORTFOLIO 52 Try This At Home More than a dozen well-known contemporary artists created DIY art projects for Open Studio (Phaidon), which features photos by Casey Kelbaugh.
ARTS 56 Music Album reviews of Creation Myths by Elvis Perkins; Satsuma by Life in a Blender; The Plague Garden by Dust Bowl Faeries; and Double Celled Organism by Double Celled Organism.
57 Books Seth Rogovoy reviews The Blade Between, Sam J. Miller’s paranormal novel set in a rapidly gentrifying city called Hudson. Plus short reviews of Seth David Branitz’s The Trouble with Kim; The Hudson: An Illustrated Guide to the Living River; Mary Beth Hughes’s The Ocean House; Nava Atlas’s Plant-Powered Protein; and Elizabeth Kolbert’s Under a White Sky.
A conversation with veteran Poughkeepsie Journal cultural reporter John Barry. The paintings of Lily Morris are part of a group show at Lightforms in Hudson. Gallery listings plus highlights from standout exhibitions around the region, including Lewis Hine at the Dorsky Museum, Mison Kim at Garrison Art Center, and Susan Copich at Windham Fine Arts.
HOROSCOPES 68 Shake Your Booty, Rattle Your Jewelery, Roll With the Punches Snatch moments of personal joy while you can this month.
PARTING SHOT 72 October 20, 2019 A photograph from Ion Zupcu’s Etudes on Glass series.
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on the cover
Clockwise from top left: Marshall Portrait, oil on panel, 36" x 48", 2019 Self Portrait Red Socks, oil on canvas, 30" x 40", 2020 Visiting, oil on canvas, 36" x 72", 2020
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iewing Aaron Hauck’s paintings is like seeing images captured in strobe—faces flashing frozen in time. Like multiple exposure photography, he layers images to create a dynamic sense of movement. About the development of his technique Hauck says, “The doubling in my work really started in my sketchbooks. I fill pages with random people, objects, things I see, and if the initial attempt didn’t look right or I wanted to try again, I draw directly over previous work. It has an energy that my paintings lacked. The repeating and repainting lends itself to ideas about time elapsing but also has an interior dialogue.” Gallery depicts the kinetic vitality of an exhibit in Manhattan, something that during times of COVID almost seems like a throwback to another era. In a similar fashion, New Year’s Eve captures friends seated around a dinner table; a man stands at the far end making a toast, while a half-eaten pizza lies in the foreground. A dog
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underneath completes the homey scene. Hauck’s punctilious use of color adds vivaciousness. In contrast, some of Hauck’s portraiture focuses on single frames and employs a muted, austere palette conveying a sense of stillness that allows the viewer to more carefully consider the features and character of his subjects. House Fire achieves both calm and chaos with blazing orange flames and thick black smoke, like a snapshot of disaster in progress. Though Hauck usually paints on canvas, he has also done large-scale murals on buildings in Kingston and Bushwick. Hauck relocated to the New Paltz area a few years ago and says his style has evolved since he moved upstate. “My work has become more relationship centered. With current circumstances, I spend a lot of time alone and have really been able to focus on painting. The pace has slowed down, and that has been very beneficial. I have self-reflection time, and that has led me to really ask myself what kind of
paintings I want to make. The longer I am here, the more I appreciate the area. I loved living in New York City, but it’s nice to have a yard.” Consistent throughout Hauck’s work is evidence of the physicality of painting. The viewer cannot help but notice the weight of his line, the thickness of his brush strokes, the almost sculptural layers of paint. “I have always liked the idea in painting that the process is important,” he says. “Those things tell more of a story and remind you that it’s a learning process, visually.” As to how he wants his paintings to be perceived, Hauck says, “As long as people are curious about my work, I feel like that’s successful. I find it best to let the viewer decide. It has always seemed like other artists have liked my work more than it has mass appeal. I am pretty happy with that.” Portfolio: Aaron-hauck.squarespace.com —Michael Cobb
EDITORIAL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Brian K. Mahoney bmahoney@chronogram.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR David C. Perry dperry@chronogram.com DIGITAL EDITOR Marie Doyon mdoyon@chronogram.com ARTS EDITOR Peter Aaron music@chronogram.com HEALTH & WELLNESS EDITOR Wendy Kagan health@chronogram.com HOME EDITOR Mary Angeles Armstrong home@chronogram.com POETRY EDITOR Phillip X Levine poetry@chronogram.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Anne Pyburn Craig apcraig@chronogram.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Phillip Pantuso ppantuso@chronogram.com
contributors Winona Barton-Ballentine, Jason Broome, Michael Cobb, Rhea Dhanbhoora, Amadeus Finlay, Dan Fisher, Lissa Harris, Tiana Headley, Lisa Ianucci, James Keepnews, Lorelai Kude, Jamie Larson, Kim Marshall, David McIntyre, Katie Navarra, Haviland S Nichols, Seth Rogovoy, Sparrow
PUBLISHING FOUNDERS Jason Stern & Amara Projansky CEO Amara Projansky aprojansky@chronogram.com BOARD CHAIR David Dell
media specialists Kelin Long-Gaye kelin.long-gaye@chronogram.com Kris Schneider kschneider@chronogram.com Jen Powlison jen.powlison@chronogram.com DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Lisa Montanaro lmontanaro@chronogram.com
marketing DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS Samantha Liotta sliotta@chronogram.com SPONSORED CONTENT EDITOR Ashleigh Lovelace alovelace@chronogram.com
interns MARKETING & SALES Zeynep Bastas, Alexandra Francis, Madalyn Mallow, Anastazja Winnick SOCIAL MEDIA Sierra Flach, Diana Testa
administration FINANCE MANAGER
A TIMELESS ESCAPE AT THE HUDSON VALLEY’S MOST ICONIC RESORT An unforgettable getaway to nature is our specialty. And this year, we’re taking every precaution to keep our employees and guests safe, so you can relax and reconnect with the ones you love. Snuggle up beside a wood-burning fireplace, ice skate in our grand open-air pavilion, hike on miles of trails with our new MICROspikes® and enjoy farm-to-table cuisine from award-winning chefs—all included in your overnight rate. Join us on the mountaintop and feel your stresses melt away.
Nicole Clanahan accounting@chronogram.com; (845) 334-8600
production PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Kerry Tinger ktinger@chronogram.com; (845) 334-8600x108 PRODUCTION DESIGNERS
ENJOY A DAY SPA VISIT OR BOOK THE ULTIMATE WINTER STAYCATION
Kate Brodowska kbrodowska@chronogram.com Amy Dooley adooley@chronogram.com
office 45 Pine Grove Ave., Suite 303, Kingston, NY 12401 • (845) 334-8600
mission
844.859.6716 | mohonk.com | New Paltz, NY
Chronogram is a regional magazine dedicated to stimulating and supporting the creative and cultural life of the Hudson Valley. All contents © Chronogram Media 2021. 2/21 CHRONOGRAM 7
esteemed reader by Jason Stern
“In a world where death is the hunter, my friend, there is no time for regrets or doubts. There is only time for decisions.” —Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan
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White Collar Carpenter Wanted
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Esteemed Reader, Wishing for a respite from the cold of the Hudson Valley, I set out by car to visit the mountains of the Sierra Madre in northern Mexico. Arriving today in this rich and austere landscape I am reminded of the Yaqui Indian magus, don Juan Matus, who lived in this area. This teacher is described in books by Carlos Castaneda, who began as a doctoral student collecting field notes, became an apprentice in shamanic sorcery, and finally initiated others into a tradition dating back to the Toltecs of ancient Mexico. Though I read all the books many years ago, the teachings I recalled were with me as I hiked through the hills of northern Mexico and into the mountains today. The trail was indistinct and easy to lose as I hiked ever upward toward a place high in a limestone canyon I had seen from far below. The first of don Juan’s teachings that came to mind was to attempt to “see” the energetic pattern of the path when no pathway is defined. The technique is to sense one’s body and slightly blur and open the vision. Even lacking clear delineation, the pattern appeared as I stepped through the unforgiving brush, lacerating cacti and yucca, and I could discern the path, as though perceiving its traces prepared by past and future travelers. Each step led closer to the goal at the top of the canyon. Sweat drenched my body and my legs ached with the strain of constant climbing. Some magnetic force pulled my body upward. The canyon’s terminus was a cul-de-sac surrounded by overhanging white limestone walls and overlooked several thousand feet of elevation and a view of distant mountains and the valley below. The tufa rock of the cliff was ribbed with calcified veins running down the face. I looked up as a pair of falcons circled toward their nest with legs and talons outstretched. In the symbolic vocabulary of Don Juan this was a friendly omen of welcome. Traversing the base of the cliff I came to a cave stretching 50 feet into the mountain. It opened outward, allowing dim light to penetrate to its deepest recess. Bulging stalactites descended from the ceiling, with nubs of stalagmites reaching up from the floor. The texture of the walls gave the impression of entering an internal organ. Walking on the smooth floor to the back of the cave, I felt a growing sense of wellbeing and comfort. Moving to a place along the side I began to feel ill at ease, and quickly removed myself, returning to the back where a sense of wellbeing returned. I was reminded of don Juan’s teachings about “power spots”—physical locations that are beneficial or maleficent for one’s nature. I sat in the quiet of the cave for several hours, listening to the sounds outside, watching my breath and the sun moving across the segment of sky I could see through the opening. An ancient tree stood sentry squarely in the center. I recalled don Juan’s injunction: Stop the world and erase your personal history. He said: If you have no personal history, no explanations are needed; nobody is angry or disillusioned with your acts. And above all no one pins you down with their thoughts. It is best to erase all personal history because that makes us free from the encumbering thoughts of other people. In the moment, I knew that this did not require a rejection or judgement of anyone or anything. It is simply being present, without judgement and thought, without a resume of accomplishments and excuses for failure. It means leaving off telling one’s story and promoting one’s attitudes and opinions about anything. It means letting go of attachment to affiliations— with family, nation, parties, genders—and being free to simply be. Sitting quietly, a show of light flickered in the corner of the right side of my vision. Thinking of don Juan, I realized it was my death come to remind me of the immediacy of the moment at hand. He said: Death is our eternal companion. It is always to our left, an arm’s length behind us. Death is the only wise adviser that a warrior has. Whenever he feels that everything is going wrong and he’s about to be annihilated, he can turn to his death and ask if that is so. His death will tell him that he is wrong, that nothing really matters outside its touch. His death will tell him, “I haven’t touched you yet.” —Jason Stern
editor’s note
by Brian K. Mahoney
A Visit to the Museum
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hank you for coming and welcome to the Donald J. Trump Freedom Museum and Patriot Theme ParkTM! My name is Natasha and I’ll be your guide. Here we tell the triumphal story of a humble man of modest means, a self-made man, who battled skeptics, doubters, haters, socialists, those with pre-existing conditions, Crooked Hilary, fake news, that POW loser John McCain, Antifa, world leaders who laughed behind his back, and the Deep State on his way to making America great again! And fantastic ratings! Not to mention sparking a heroic patriot uprising on January 6, 2021 in protest of a rigged election, stolen from our dear leader by Sleepy Creepy Joe. This second American Revolution, destined to restore real democracy, is being violently suppressed by the Deep State to this very day. Redblooded Americans have been censored and driven underground—into little spider holes, like terrorists. Won’t you help a patriot move out of his mother’s basement by donating to our Freedom Fighters Fund today? Just look for @TrumpCorporation on Venmo! Before we begin the tour, I’d like to remind everyone…Yes, a question from the back? No, this is not a presidential library. While the tradition of presidents donating their papers to the federal government dates back to Herbert Hoover and the Presidential Records Act of 1978 enshrined into law that presidential records are the property of the US government, this is not a presidential library. The Donald J. Trump Freedom Museum and Patriot Theme ParkTM is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Trump Corporation. We are grateful to our patrons, the Russian government, for allowing us to build this monument to the greatest US president of all on the outskirts of Moscow, in Mother Russia, a country Trump loved second only to America. Maybe even more at times! Just don’t tell that to Robert Mueller! I joke, I joke. Let’s commence our tour. One note of caution: Those sensitive to Axe body spray may want to take precautions as Eric Trump was in the building just a little while ago. On your left, you see a replica of the log cabin President Trump grew up in in the wilds of Jamaica Estates, Queens, a land at the frontier between New York City and suburbia. When President Trump left home to strike out on his own and make
his fortune, his father packed a measly $1 million in a satchel and sent his son off to strike it rich! Again! The photograph on your right is of a very important man in President’s Trump’s life, Dr. Larry Braunstein. This podiatrist thankfully diagnosed the bone spurs in President Trump’s heels that had been bedeviling him so and led to his medical exemption from the military during Vietnam. A question? Yes, I believe Dr. Braunstein was Jewish. No, they don’t all have visible horns. Some of them choose to shave them down or wear a hat. In this small glass case are the written records of the Trump Administration. Yes, that’s correct, there are only two documents. We were hoping to print out the 34,000 @realDonaldTrump tweets issued from the start of his candidacy until he was deplatformed by the evil Jack Dorsey just days before he was forced out of office. We even created a taxonomy for them. Categories included: Late-Night Ranting, Score Settling, Firings, Petty Grievance Airing, Calls to Sedition…The gentleman in the Camp Auschwitz hoodie: Please lower your gun, I’m only joking. All President Trump Tweets were perfect, like the call to Ukraine. This is probably a good time to remind you that while the Donald J. Trump Freedom Museum and Patriot Theme ParkTM is an open-carry museum, we ask that no firearms be discharged in the museum proper. Please hold your fire until the end of the tour when you can vent your frustration on the LibTard Firing Range, featuring a variety of classic President Trump targets, including Rosie O’Donnell, James Comey, the traitor Mike Pence, and the media. But back to the documents: The first is the Kenyan birth certificate of Barack Hussein Obama. Just take a look at how legit that is. Yes, White-Out was commonly used by bureaucrats in Nairobi in the early `60s. The other paper is the helpful memo on the Insurrection Act and declaring martial law that patriot and My Pillow founder Mike Lindell brought to the president after the popular uprising on January 6, 2021. Note that the papers are slightly burned at the edges. In the chaotic last week of the presidency, many staffers took the sarcastic president’s directive to “burn it all
before Pelosi gets it” as literal, much like some Americans didn’t get the joke when President Trump told them to inject bleach as a coronavirus treatment. Americans can be so gullible, amirite? Up ahead is one of our interactive exhibits, commemorating the visit President Trump made to save Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Join in the fun as an animatronic Trump throws rolls of paper towels into the crowd. This is a really fun one for the kids! A new ride we’ve just opened here on the left is the Ivanka & Donald Tunnel of Love Ride. While President Trump loved all his children (maybe not Tiffany), he loved his daughter Ivanka best. As he told the assembled hosts on “The View” in 2006: “She does have a very nice figure. I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.” This way please for all the fathers and daughters who want to deepen their relationship. This alcove on the right contains a collection of the spines of mainstream Republicans who tried to use President Trump’s connection to his base for their own political ends. It’s a wonderfully diverse group of vertebrae, from moderates like Susan Collins to fawning lickspittles like Lindsey Graham to people who should have known better like William Barr. This gallery brings together the largest display of prisoner skeletons since the “Bodies” exhibition. That’s the end of my tour, but there’s loads more to discover here at Donald J. Trump Freedom Museum and Patriot Theme ParkTM. I encourage you all to visit the Charlottesville diorama commemorating the Day of Khaki Solidarity. And don’t forget to see some of the actual cages that were used to house migrant children on the Mexican border. While these chain-link enclosures were built by Obama, I think we can all agree that President Trump put them to better use. I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour, please exit through the gift shop. Our featured product this week is a model of Mount Rushmore, with President Trump featured alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt. And there’s also a sale on mittens for the small-handed. Dasvidaniya! 2/21 CHRONOGRAM 9
big idea
Women & Children First
Children at play at the YWCA of Ulster County in Kingston.
MacKenzie Scott Donates $1M to the Ulster County YWCA
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ast March, at the beginning of the quarantine, the YWCA of Ulster County hoped to stay open and promised to continue their programs and services to the community for as long as they could. They kept that promise and never closed, but unfortunately many people who were now working from home didn’t need their early childhood programs. Lack of attendance seriously impacted the YWCA’s bottom line. “It was an enormous financial hit, with the programs being reduced by 75 percent,” says Susan Mack, executive director of the YWCA of Ulster County. Worried a little about the future of the YWCA, Mack then received a series of phone calls in December that changed everything. “It was about an anonymous donor who was considering us as a recipient of an undisclosed donation amount,” she says. “The donor wanted her privacy protected, but when I found out we were definitely a recipient and the amount of the gift I was speechless.” The YWCA received a $1 million donation. The donor was MacKenzie Scott, an author, advocate, philanthropist, and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Scott is the 18th wealthiest person on the planet, with a net worth of nearly $60 billion. Scott’s commitment was part of the Giving Pledge, created by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett, which was
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an open invitation for billionaires, or those who would be if not for their giving, to publicly commit to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. In 2020, Scott gave over $4 billion in gifts to 384 organizations across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC, to support organizations filling basic needs like food banks and some nonprofits addressing long-term systemic inequities deepened by the crisis. The YWCA of Ulster County was the only organization in the Hudson Valley to receive a gift from Scott. “I was very, very grateful,” says Mack, who calls it an “unprecedented donation.” “I know that Mackenzie Scott is supporting YWCAs in general, and we were one of several that received a gift.” To help the community before receiving the donation, the YWCA offered tuition forgiveness to the members who couldn’t attend and received a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program that helped to keep their doors open for a bit. During this time, Mack says, the Families Now program was busier than ever. “The program provides home visits and phone visits to families who are in imminent danger of losing custody of their kids due to poor parenting skills, abuse, or neglect, and that program was phenomenally busy during the county closures,” says Mack. “Our home visitors continue to do in-person
visits outside of the home, so that they could physically see the children and the families. The number of phone calls probably tripled. So our staff provided many services during the closures and we’ve had to come up with creative options to provide our other services.” Mack explains that some of the donation will be set aside as a reserve. “We need to be responsible and sustainable and to be able to continue to serve our communities and our mission is to empower women and fight racism, so all of our decisions will be driven by that mission,” she says. “It’s an unexpected windfall, and we are going to use it mindfully, likely to support the growth of existing programs and, possibly, to pilot sustainable mission driven programs.” In 2023, the YWCA Ulster County will celebrate its 100th anniversary and Mack is certain they will be strong. “We’re going to be completing our mission,” says Mack. “Let’s work together. Let’s build on what we have.” Mack also recognizes the importance of listening to the community’s wants and needs. “It’s essential to our mission to hear the voices of our community when we are planning our paths forward,” she said. “I welcome emails to tell me your ideas.” Mack can be contacted at info@ywcaulstercounty.org. —Lisa Iannucci
covid watch by Lissa Harris
A collaboration with
A Shot in the Dark
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accines are our best hope for a collective return to a less brutal world. But right now, in many local communities, hope is very much in the dark. The rollout of vaccination in New York State began more than a month ago. It has been a chaotic affair, and as more people have become eligible, the confusion has only increased. By now, New Yorkers should be able to find solid information on where vaccines are being sent, who is being vaccinated, and where they can go for a shot if they are eligible. But so far, whether you’re looking for a vaccine appointment or just trying to gauge how well the rollout is going, the state system is confusing, frustrating, and dauntingly opaque. Shortly before this magazine went to press, the state launched a dashboard of vaccine data, showing how many doses have been received in each of the state’s 10 regions, and how much progress has been made at getting them into arms. It’s a start. But there are many questions that the state’s limited public data won’t address—and the people of New York deserve to have answers. A Recipe for Despair Here is some of the information you won’t find on the state website: Where are the local distribution points? How many doses have been allocated to pharmacies, state sites, hospitals, and local health departments? How many people in each priority group have been vaccinated? Are there racial or geographic inequities in who is being vaccinated? How many doses have been wasted? These are questions the state has answers to—and so would we, if the state’s notoriously secretive Department of Health cared to share that information with the people whose tax dollars keep it running. So far, New York’s vaccine effort is unfolding like something out of a Terry Gilliam movie. Millions of newly eligible elderly people and essential workers are now jostling for a few hundred thousand doses in a state signup system riddled with bad tech, wrong information, and dead ends. Vaccine providers—which include the hospitals and public health departments that have been battling the pandemic for nearly a year, without much help from the state—are being swamped with calls from people at their wits’ end in frustration. People in every community across New York State have been trapped in their homes and estranged from their loved ones for almost a year. For those who see vaccination as a ticket to freedom, having to wait weeks or months for a vaccine is rough. But sacrifice can be endured, if people can see the reason for it. For New Yorkers in deep isolation, the lack of any coherent
information from the state on where vaccines are going, or whether efforts are being made to bring their communities on board, is beyond frustrating. It’s not just a public information failure, it’s a recipe for despair. Like every other aspect of the pandemic, vaccine distribution is showing the cracks in the foundation of public health. Deep geographic inequalities that already plague healthcare access are emerging in the vaccine rollout.
Amid the din of general frustration over the chaotic rollout of the vaccination effort, a quieter tragedy is unfolding: Rural places are being left behind. Counties with more resources, especially those led by county executives, are emerging as leaders in the vaccination effort. They are setting up public clinics, deploying long-practiced plans, and pushing New York State to give them more of a role in mass vaccination. Ulster County’s vaccine sites are already set up, and briskly moving hundreds of people a day through the process. It will be a long time before everyone who wants to be vaccinated can get an appointment, but there’s a line, and the line is moving. A County Left Behind Next door in poorer, more rural Delaware County, the county’s overworked and underfunded health department has announced no plans for vaccination at all. Since the state has given the task of vaccinating many essential workers to health departments, this means that people on the front lines of the pandemic— bagging groceries, or caring for other people’s children on minimum wage—are currently shut out of any opportunities to be vaccinated, unless they are able to travel hours to a state-run site without the aid of public transportation. Nor can they easily get tested for COVID-19, with no
state testing sites, walk-in clinics, or pharmacies offering tests in the county. Vast stretches of the county have no access to broadband internet, and little local news coverage, making even the task of finding information on vaccines a challenge. Governor Andrew Cuomo has promised over and over again, in the televised briefings that won him an Emmy last November, to make special efforts to make vaccines available in communities that have always had poor access to healthcare. But in upstate New York, there’s little evidence of that happening on the ground. Amid the din of general frustration over the chaotic rollout of the vaccination effort, a quieter tragedy is unfolding: Rural places are being left behind. Towns with aging populations, communities of color and undocumented workers outside of the state’s largest urban centers, upstate prison towns where bars and razor wire can’t keep the virus in or out—all are woefully vulnerable to COVID-19, and so far, the state hasn’t shown much inclination to make sure they’re included. “Depending on the county you live in, there might not be any scheduled clinics for Phase 1B,” reads a recent update on the vaccine effort from Bassett Healthcare, a small healthcare network that runs several critical-access hospitals in the rural Catskills. (Phase 1B is for people over 75, first responders, and some essential workers.) It’s a bland line, but it’s revealing: In places where public health has been left to deteriorate for decades, essential workers are being shut out of the vaccination effort entirely. And without clear, accessible data on where vaccines are going, it’s hard to say how deep the problem goes. More Light Public access to data on where vaccines are being sent in New York State, and how well vaccine providers are doing at getting them into people’s arms, won’t be a miracle cure for the state’s many intersecting vaccine access problems, any more than the vaccine will be a miracle cure for the pandemic. To put vaccination within reach for the vulnerable we will need a lot more of the things we have always needed in public health: lowering of the many barriers to medical care, robust support for public health efforts at the local and state level, and resources that help people and communities to thrive. But without good data, the problem of unequal access isn’t just intractable, it’s invisible. If Cuomo is truly committed to making vaccines available to the most vulnerable, he needs to face a little sunlight. Lissa Harris covers the pandemic for The River Newsroom. Sign up at Therivernewsroom.com for COVID-19 news and policy across the Hudson Valley and Catskills region via TRN’s email newsletter. 2/21 CHRONOGRAM 11
food & drink Masala Squash Galette: Flaky pastry topped with seasonal squash, fresh herbs, and Maya Kaimal’s Butter Masala.
SPICE OF LIFE
Authentic Indian fare breathes new life into pandemic-weary home kitchens By Kim Marshall
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s we venture out less and cook at home more, even the most experienced athome chefs are striving to add new flavors into their meal rotation. While most Americans don’t typically incorporate Indian spices and dishes to the mix—often swayed by the preconception that traditional Indian cuisine’s bold and colorful flavors aren’t pleasurable for the American palate—two local entrepreneurs are challenging this culinary hurdle by presenting authentic Indian food in an approachable way. Aditi Goswami, founder of Calcutta Kitchens in Accord, and Maya Kaimal, of Maya Kaimal Foods in Rhinebeck, both pride themselves on bridging the gap between American and Indian cooking for those unfamiliar with authentic Indian flavors. And they are doing it with an unlikely lockdown food hero: simmering sauces that can be used to infuse Indian flair into just about any home-cooked meal. “[My sauces] make life a little more convenient and a little more exciting,” says Goswami. “People can easily get into a rut and get tired of eating the same food every day, and sometimes having these sauces handy is a good way to make something different.”
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Food Communities and Fresh Ingredients Goswami has fostered a lifelong love for food that she has since passed on to her two boys (Rohan, 20, and Nikhil, 19). She recalls the excitement of being in the kitchen at her home in Eastern India where she watched her mom, dad, and aunts prepare, cook, and talk about food. “It was very clear to me that food was a primary way of expressing your love and care for your family and friends,” says Goswami. “Every occasion, every celebration centered around food.” Inspired by memories of her and her family’s daily journey to the market, Goswami centers her life and business around the Indian traditions she learned early. “We had to go to the market in the morning to get the day’s vegetables, and it was usually local farmers who brought whatever they grew—eggs, produce, fish—so everything was very fresh. I remember the joy in seeing it. It was like a little treasure hunt for me as a child. What would I find in the market that day? That was the only way of life.” She finds the same sense of community and high-quality ingredients at the farmers’ markets in Westchester County and New York City, where she still sells her sauces alongside a small sampling of prepared frozen foods and spice
mixes. It’s also where her business initially started: One of the farm stands was throwing away a bushel of overripe tomatoes, so she took it home and made tomato chutney (a traditional Bengali dish). Two weeks later, she was selling her chutney at that same market, and customers requested sauces they could take home and cook with. Since then, her business has grown organically, centering around four Indian simmering sauces she’s developed over the course of 12 years: Makhani Tikka, a tangy tomato sauce with honey; Bengali Coconut Cardamom, with cardamom, coconut milk, and turmeric; Coconut and Fresh Coriander, a green sauce with coriander (cilantro), coconut milk, and raw almonds; and Parsi Cashew Ginger, a creamy cashew sauce enhanced with ginger. As Goswami grew her line of sauces, mostly by taking requests from her customers, she vowed to never compromise on the quality of ingredients or homemade experience of her foods, which she still makes in small batches. To keep up with demand, she also works with a family-owned copacker in New Haven, Connecticut, (and is looking for one in the Hudson Valley) who uses her recipes to make the sauces. Goswami sources
much of the raw ingredients herself and personally supervises each batch while it is being made, ensuring all her products preserve the tradition of flavors she grew up with, which varies widely in India depending on region. “I grew up in Eastern India,” Goswami explains, “which is considered Bengali, and the cooking is similar to Bangladeshi cuisine. There’s a common thread through all of Indian cooking, in the methods and ingredients, and the results can be pretty different from region to region.” While Goswami grew up cooking Bengali, she has also lived in other areas of the country and has developed recipes from each. The Makhani Tikka sauce, for example, represents more of a North Indian style of cooking, which is heavily influenced by the Mughal Empire and Persians, who introduced rich spices and meat dishes to the region; and the Coconut and Fresh Coriander sauce is a southern style of cooking, which is the type of Indian cooking Kaimal does best. “There are certain things, like green chilies and curry leaves, that are growing fresh all year in Southern India instead of in the north, where there is more seasonality to the chiligrowing season,” says Kaimal. “It’s more tropical, too, so, the food tends to have lots of hot, tangy flavors like fresh chilies, lime, and tamarinds, and hot and sour coconutty curries that are served over big piles of rice.” Big Flavors, Strong Connection As a little girl raised in Boston by her French Canadian mother and Indian father, Kaimal remembers her parents taking her on trips to India and always cooking and enjoying food—her father recreating meals from memory, conjuring flavors that reminded him of home. “Being half Indian was a positive thing for me,” she says. “There was more to experience in the world. I had this connection to another place that represented beautiful things, where food tasted good and people loved me.” Kaimal would go on to earn her liberal arts degree and work in the magazine industry in New York as a photo editor for publications like Saveur. She noticed many of the Indian restaurants in New York City didn’t represent the high-quality, flavorful South Indian cuisine she’d grown up with, and she saw an opportunity to fill the gap. “There was this whole different side of the cuisine that was unfamiliar to people, unless they actually traveled to South India or knew somebody from there. Getting to turn people on to that was kind of a thrill.” Inspired by the lack of South Indian cuisine and her coworkers’ reaction to her home-cooked lunches (which they often paid her to cook and bring in for them), Kaimal wrote her first of two cookbooks, Curried Favors: Family Recipes from South India (Abbeville Press, rev. ed., 2000), winner of the Julia Child Cookbook Award. After 9/11 and the subsequent hit to the publishing industry, Kaimal lost her magazine job—while raising twin girls with her husband, writer Guy Lawson—and launched her food business through the natural, specialty food channel Gourmet Garage, breaking immediately into some of the bigger gourmet grocery stores like Balducci’s and Zabar’s. Maya Kaimal Foods has since expanded to include a range of precooked, ready-made Indian dishes, as well as condiments, refrigerated sauces, seasoned rice, and simmering sauces, which Kaimal describes as “speed scratch” because they offer a shortcut to home cooks looking for authentic Indian flavor. “With all the spices, the onions, and garlic, and all the things that take time to chop, caramelize, and toast—that part is done,” she says. “And you’re getting a really flavorful result.” For a home cook like Kaimal, it was challenging to oversee food production at a larger scale. Working with manufacturers all over the country, Kaimal develops all product recipes in a test kitchen, which she then sends to her manufacturers to “batch up.”
Maya Kaimal of Maya Kaimal Foods
Aditi Goswami of Calcutta Kitchens
2/21 CHRONOGRAM FOOD & DRINK 13
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A Promising Future It seems the pandemic has opened the door to the new customer base both women were hoping for. Goswami, who plans to add some spice mixes and pantry kits to her offerings, is seeing her sales double in the last year, which were boosted by an increase in online and outdoor shopping. She attributes much of her success, too, to farmers’ markets doing a great job keeping people safe. Kaimal is thinking of developing a line of marinades and salad dressings in the near future and she too has noticed a jump in sales with people cooking more at home and working to keep their pantry stocked. But the biggest thing for both businesswomen has been bringing all the love and tradition and family recipes to a new and (hopefully) receptive audience—changing minds about Indian cuisine. “I always get surprised at how my customers are surprised by how good Indian food is—and how different it is from what they have known it be,” says Goswami. “I still do it because it makes me happy to see how much people enjoy it. And at the end of the day, that’s really what matters.” To purchase products from Calcutta Kitchens, you can shop their website (Calcuttakitchens.com), where you can also sign up for a subscription box and receive their sauces on a regular basis, or find them at a few local specialty food stores, like the Damn Good Honey Farm in Kerhonkson. Maya Kaimal Foods has an online shop (Mayakaimal.com), where you can purchase all her products, including Kaimal’s cookbooks. Her products can also be found in major grocery stores, like Hannaford and Price Chopper.
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A WOMAN-OWNED, LOCAL BUSINESS
Gobi (cauliflower) Roast with Calcutta Kitchen’s Makhani Tikka Sauce
“It has been an interesting learning curve for me. Making Indian food is not like making pasta sauce or chili,” she says. “You can’t throw everything into a pot and bring it to a boil. You have to cook the onions until they’re brown, then toast spices, and do everything in stages. We’ve had to compromise because it can’t be time consuming to the point it’s unaffordable. But what matters to me is the flavor. I completely insist upon doing it right.” Above all, Kaimal hopes to introduce to a new flavors to a delighted audience, especially with those of her offerings that are unfamiliar to the American consumer. For example, her Everyday Dal line presents five different dals—a staple in the Indian diet made from lentils, peas, or beans— with ingredients that Indians would use but are easily acquired, like butternut squash, cumin, and tomatoes. Her hope is that once people try her products, they will be surprised at how easy Indian cuisine can be to prepare at home.
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(845) 876 - 2555 24 Garden St. Rhinebeck, NY 2/21 CHRONOGRAM FOOD & DRINK 15
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A curated guide to Hudson Valley homes
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FAMILY
sips & bites
Giobatta
It was a sad day when chef Francesco Buitoni hung up his apron and closed the doors of his beloved Red Hook eatery. For nearly 15 years, Mercato showcased the fresh, bright flavors of Buitoni’s native Rome in delicious, deceptively simple dishes. But the seventhgeneration pasta maker and two-time James Beard nominee is not done in the kitchen. Days before lockdown, he opened Giobatta Alimentari in Tivoli, an Italian restaurant and provisions market. The menu features warming soups, delightfully dressed salads, antipasto, half a dozen handmade pastas, and two to three fish and meat mains. In a refreshing break from avant-garde experimentalists, Buitoni’s strength is not in breaking the mold but in perfecting the classics. Recognizable menu items will comfort you—a Genovese basil pesto over linguine, a traditional meat ragu bolognese served with pappardelle—while the unfamiliar depth of flavor rouses you from your culinary slumber. 69 Broadway, Tivoli; Giobatta.com
Truss and Trestle
Fann’s Plaza on 32 in Rosendale is functional—but sleepy. Anchored by the supermarket, with a Dollar General, and takeout pizza and Chinese food, it is an underwhelming cornerstone of quotidian life. But the strip mall got fresh life in mid-December, with the opening of Truss and Trestle in the former location of 32 Lunch. Following suit with the previous occupants, T&T has styled itself as a diner, open daily, serving up hearty American fare. Breakfast, served most of the day, includes eggs and home fries, breakfast sammies, challah French toast, or, if you’re feeling spendy, steak and eggs. Lunch and dinner are anchored by deli classics a la tuna melt, reuben, burger, turkey club, and cheesesteak. Gyro meat is a fun addition to the standard sides of bacon and sausage patty. 1157 Route 32, Rosendale; Facebook.com/chefGerard77
Ram’s Valley
In September, Uptown Kingston got a lil’ spicier with the opening of new hot sauce purveyor Ram’s Valley. Trinidad-born owner Richard “Ram” Rajkumar uses fresh local produce to bring the flavor of the Caribbean to the Hudson Valley with his line of sauces and spices. Rajkumar’s budding brand, manufactured in Kingston, currently boasts nine flavors ranging from mild to hot, including lime, habanero, roasted red pepper, Green Hulk, Flavor Me Mama (a mix of seven hot peppers), and the daunting Too Hot to Handle (you were warned). The North Front Street outpost also sells three proprietary flavors of fermented garlic paste—original, cilantro habanero, and ginger—jerk pepper and pineapple barbeque sauces, and bottled tropical fruit juices. Rajkumar has also teamed up with ARC of Ulster Greene to provide employment opportunities for people living with disabilities.
Mandu twigum, fried dumplings from KorPot in Poughkeepsie
Bistro Mashriq
Pearl Moon
Korpot brings authentic Korean cuisine to the southern end of Poughkeepsie, close to the IBM building. With eight mains, the concise menu leans on familiar favorites like bibimbap ($14), bulgogi ($18), spicy stir-fried pork ($18), and grilled, marinated short ribs ($30)—executed at a high level. Start your meal off with the richly umami seafood and scallion pancakes ($9) or an order of mandu twigim (fried dumplings, $8). The desserts go beyond your standard-issue green tea and red bean ice creams to offer up delightful Korean pastries like kkwa bae gi, twisted cinnamon sugar doughnuts, and Hotteok, sweet pancakes filled with brown sugar syrup (both $8).
A lifelong luxury hospitality career, which started humbly enough as a dishwasher, has taken Christopher Knable all over the world from his native Texas to New York City first, then everywhere from Uruguay to Dubai. Owner of Chatham favorites Pieconic and Main Street Goodness, Knable’s latest endeavor is to bring the flavors he fell in love with in the Middle East to Hudson’s Warren Street. The culinary corridor, though impressive, has lacked an Arab flavor presence, which Knable now provides in Bistro Mashriq, which opened for takeout in December. The kitchen is headed up by Chef Keouth, who honors the traditional spices and recipes of the restaurant’s namesake region, while also authoring playful spinoffs. From the ruby-toned beet hummus ($8) to the lamb meatballs, infused with fresh mint and served with feta and poached tomatoes ($14), there is plenty for both vegetarians and meat eaters to love here.
2494 South Road, Poughkeepsie; Korpot.com
Warren Street, Hudson; Bistromashriq.com
52 Mill Hill Road, Woodstock; Pearlmoonwoodstock.com
45 North Front Street, Kingston; Ramsvalleyfood.com
KorPot
In mid-January, Woodstock saw the opening of its latest breakfast and lunch spot, Pearl Moon, which opened in the former location of longstanding Chinese restaurant and music venue Wok & Roll. Honoring the history of the town, Pearl Moon hopes to be a lively venue for local and touring musicians, DJ dance parties, karaoke, and stand-up comedy in the future. But, amid the pandemic, all efforts are centered around perfecting the food menu, which is built on solid American diner classics executed by chef Michael Brooks. This promises to be a future favorite brunch spot, with hearty dishes both sweet and savory, like eggs benedict, huevos rancheros, short or tall-stack pancakes, and housemade biscuits slathered in maple-honey butter. (Is it Sunday yet?) Pearl Moon is open for limited indoor seating and takeout.
2/21 CHRONOGRAM FOOD & DRINK 17
LEARNING BY DOING Life Skills – Self-Motivation – Exploration – Achievement
A Unique Montessori School on an 85 Acre Campus • Preschool to 9th Grade • Expansive Academic Program • Farm Animals • Gardens • Environmental Stewardship
Photo: Randy Harris
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At Hawthorne Valley, we aim to give our students a sense that there is beauty, truth and goodness in the world. Engagement in practical arts—handwork, farming, forging, weaving, building and orienteering, supports a sense that their choices and actions matter.
Believe in the child. DR. MARIA MONTESSORI
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18 EDUCATION CHRONOGRAM 2/21
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DURING COVID
Q&A with SUNY New Paltz President Donald P. Christian
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t’s been almost a year since COVID-19 forced college leaders to shut down on-campus classes. At SUNY New Paltz, that meant figuring out how to bring study abroad students home, move 3,400 students out of residence halls, and transitioning to a virtual learning model. Spring break was extended by a week to give professors time to prepare to teach online. There was no playbook for making such sweeping changes. Through guidance from SUNY central, other institutions, and adaptation on the go, New Paltz brought just about half its students back to campus in the fall and relied on a mix of remote and inperson instruction. In January, I caught up with Donald P. Christian, the president at SUNY New Paltz. We recapped how the last year has played out and the promise of the coming semester. —Katie Navarra
There are some additional stipulations in the spring beyond what we did in the fall. Before students come to campus, they have to produce a negative test result three days before they return or within the first five days afterward. Students can move back to campus on January 17 and the first day of classes is January 19. SUNY mandated all classes be held remotely until February 1, but we received special dispensation to start in-person classes for some upper-level laboratory, studio, and equipment courses a week earlier.
Looking back, what stands out about the early days of the pandemic? Donald Christian: I remember going into a meeting in early March and when somebody extended their hand to shake, we bumped elbows instead. On March 4, 2020, we hosted two journalism leaders, Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. and James H. Ottaway Jr. They were part of the SUNY New Paltz Distinguished Speaker Series and that was the last week of anything resembling normalcy. The school’s emergency management plan includes a pandemic section, but it was pretty general. We were scrambling hard with the many unknowns. Our study abroad students were the first group we needed to address as we were learning about the coronavirus. We asked ourselves, “Do we mandate them to return? Or do we encourage them to return?”
How have students responded to the stipulations and changes in the overall college experience? I have been so impressed with our students’ compliance with testing, mask-wearing, and social distancing. We have zero indication of any in-person transmission of COVID-19 in any of our classes. We had a couple of instances of transmission in residence halls, and we got on top of that quickly. We are hearing that some students are deciding not to return to campus because of health fears. We’re trying to help people understand that in many cases, being on campus in the fall was safer than being out in their communities. Students have mixed responses to what it feels like being in college now. Some are saying the remote coursework is just not the same as being in a classroom on campus. Others are saying that having faculty in masks and sitting six feet apart with everyone in masks is just not an environment they want to be in. Then there are still others who say that yes, it’s different, but I know I’m a college student on campus.
The fall semester went fairly well, all things considered. What will the spring semester look like at New Paltz? There is cause for optimism for the spring semester based on the success in the fall. We are planning for the same mix of face-to-face and online classes, with about 25 being inperson. Our normal residency capacity is 3,400 students. We made the decision that we could safely house about 1,900 at reduced density by eliminating all triples. It ended up that we had 1,600 students who wanted to live in the residence halls, and we anticipate similar capacity in the spring.
Colleges and universities were facing enrollment challenges pre-COVID. How do you think the pandemic will impact higher education in general? We are finding a number of students opting out for a semester or perhaps longer. We’re trying to help students and families understand the risks of not continuing their education if they drop out. As a public university, we service a diverse array of students from lower, lower-middle, and middle-class incomes. The financial impact of the pandemic has made cost a further challenge. Generous donations from alumni have made crisis funds available to students. For some
students, $1,000 may mean the difference between staying in or dropping out. We are hoping Congress passes a further stimulus bill to help our campus finances and student who have been impacted by the pandemic. The pandemic has brought a few positive developments for education. What does that look like at New Paltz? At the grocery store, I saw a faculty member who talked about how they had found a way to create small group discussions while students were doing asynchronous learning. When the students came into larger class discussions they brought the results of those earlier conversations into class and it has dramatically improved discussions. The faculty member plans to build that into their class even when we return to face-to-face classes. Educational institutions have had to address the pandemic and social movements at the same time. How are you bringing all of that into the college experience? Racial violence and increasing visibility of racial inequities have spurred some marvelous creativity on part of faculty. One faculty member incorporated sickle cell disease into their curriculum. Students of color have said it has meant a lot seeing course content directly relevant to their lives. It made the feel included in the curriculum. Across the campus, we are focusing on how we integrate a focus on racial inequality or racial dynamics into courses across the curriculum, so that it is not just covered in Black studies, political sciences, Latin American and Caribbean studies. 2/21 CHRONOGRAM EDUCATION 19
the house
20 HOME & GARDEN CHRONOGRAM 2/21
Sun floods into Oldenburger and Smykowski’s kitchen, even on winter days. The thriving wall garden adds layers of green to the beige-on-white design. Oldenburger found two of the Vernor Panton chairs by Vitra at a vintage shop and matched them with a round table and pillar pedestal base. The wall pots and hanging lamp are both by West Elm. “I do love plants,” she says. “I try to have live plants throughout the house and encourage my clients to also.”
Oldenburger loves to cook. “I love all types of cuisine— Indian, Thai, French—and I try to cook everything,” she says. “In this regard, the pandemic wasn’t a huge change for me because I’m pretty much always cooking at home.” Originally, she considered opening the space between the breakfast nook and kitchen, and then installing an island. “But the fact is, I like it when people stay out of my way in the kitchen,” she says. “With the U-shaped counter, we can still hang out while I work.” The kitchen features white Carrara marble counters, a custom range hood by Tom Mayone, and walls of handmade Moroccan tiles.
M
egan Oldenburger has mastered the art of not breaking the mold— rather, instead, redesigning it. The founder of Dichotomy Interiors, Oldenburger has spent a decade taking the Hudson Valley’s outdated Colonials, worn-out farmhouses, and funky, falling apart hand-built homes, as well as myriad other vernaculars, and transforming them into livable, flowing, thoroughly modern spaces. “Most places up here haven’t really been updated and still have `70s-, `80s-, or `90s-style interiors. I basically go in and completely gut them,” she explains. “But some of my favorite compliments come from clients who thought their homes were beyond saving and then ended up falling in love with them when we were done.”
SPLIT-LEVEL SATISFACTION
DESIGNER MEGAN OLDENBURGER’S SEVEN-YEAR PASSION PROJECT IN WOODSTOCK By Mary Angeles Armstrong Photos by Winona Barton Ballentine
The 3,400-square-foot split-level home she shares with husband Richard Smykowski, a graphic designer, superbly showcases Oldenburger’s considerable renovation savvy, her eye for design, and the artful aesthetic she’s honed as both designer and artist. Flowing between three staggered levels as well as a fourth sunken living area, the home manages to blend myriad elements into one harmonious composition. “I like to curate a space more than decorate it,” says Oldenburger, who attended the San Francisco Art Institute as a painting and drawing major. “I like furniture, art, architecture, and objects to create an overall composition. Each individual piece and decision becomes a singular expression.” It’s a home characterized by lovely contradictions.
A sitting area with soaring ceilings remains cozy. An elegant chef ’s kitchen is comprised of handmade, earthy ingredients. In a neighborhood where the homes were built for a singular purpose, it’s distinct. On a cold winter day, art and objects make summer seem right around the corner. This masterwork was no overnight sensation. “It was a long, seven-year process,” explains Oldenburger of the home’s design. “We did things a little bit at a time because both I and my team had to work around our schedules. If we were working on my job, we weren’t working on another job. I’m always last.” But being last in line had its upside. “The good thing was that I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I found the time to do it.” 2/21 CHRONOGRAM HOME & GARDEN 21
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In the dining area, Oldenburger rescued a table from the old Hudson Library. “We bought it with the etchings from years past still engraved into it and refinished it,” says Oldenburger. “But we left just enough visible that you can trace some of the scars with people’s names and hearts with arrows on it.” She paired the table with Hans Werner wishbone chairs and a replica antler chandelier from Restoration Hardware. The painting on the wall is one of Oldenburger’s own pieces.
The Smarter Cookie Like many before them and many more to come, Oldenburger and Smykowski originally moved to Woodstock in 2009 to escape “the craziness of city life.” “We loved the landscape, the food, and the spirit of Woodstock,” says Oldenburger, an Illinois native. Smykowski is originally from South Dakota. “We were both used to solitude and quiet,” she explains. “The chance to create our own businesses and opportunities was also a large draw—we both have an entrepreneurial spirit.” In 2014, they found a five-bedroom, 3.5-bath house in a mixed enclave of Mediterranean- and Colonial-style homes just outside of Woodstock. Part of one of the IBM executive neighborhoods that was built in the late 1970s, the home stood out for its classic shed-style architecture, with steeply pitched roof lines and gray-painted wood siding. “It was the last house that was built in the loop, and was designed by a different architect, from outside the area, than the rest of the neighborhood,” says Oldenburger. It was that mix of interior and exterior spaces that entranced the couple. “We loved a lot of things about the house,” remembers Oldenburger. “But what initially drew us was the layout. It had just the right amount of openness, effortlessly flowing from the entry in and out of entertaining spaces and out to the deck and pool.” Like many of Oldenburger’s projects, however, it hadn’t been
updated since its IBM days and needed a total overhaul. “We had to completely renovate pretty much every part of this house,” she says. Some Guts, All Glory Both the kitchen and master bathroom were in need of immediate attention. “The kitchen was original to the house and hadn’t been cared for,” says Oldenburger. “And the appliances were really old as well.” Oldenburger is an accomplished cook, and both she and Smykowski love to entertain. “Having entertaining areas and a large kitchen was very important.” In the master bathroom, both the shower and tub had been similarly neglected, and were no longer functional. Working with long-time colleague and local builder Tom Mayone, she set to work making both spaces that they could love. Oldenburger approached the kitchen remodel in stages. Its footprint was already generous, with an ample sunny breakfast nook at one end of the room separated from the kitchen’s working space by a large U-shaped counter. Vaulted ceilings added height to the ample length. Not wanting to change that footprint, Oldenburger evened out the frames of the room’s three entrances, then widened an opening between the kitchen and a formal dining area in the home’s main living space, centering it on a bay window on the opposite dining room wall. To accentuate the high vaulted ceilings and add a distinctive 2/21 CHRONOGRAM HOME & GARDEN 23
backsplash, Oldenburger lined the kitchen’s back wall with handcrafted Moroccan Delije tiles of varying texture and shades of white. She replaced the home’s appliances with modern stainless steel varieties and then initially installed IKEA cabinetry and counters. “But I decided it just wasn’t me,” she says. Two years ago, she updated her update—keeping the IKEA guts, but replacing the cabinetry doors and handles with locally crafted door and drawer fronts and black metal handles bought on Amazon. She also added a custom-made oven hood and marble countertops, as well as custom shelving with a second refrigerator in the breakfast area, to serve as a small butler’s pantry. “It’s a classic mix of high and low,” Oldenburger explains of the kitchen’s elegant yet functional design. In the bathroom, she installed a new shower and tub, and then used a combination of white subway and gray hex tiles to brighten the space. The Fire Element To transform the home’s rectangular, open concept dining and living room into a space that was warm and inviting, Oldenburger had to muster all her decorator’s acumen. “It was a really, really hard room,” explains Oldenburger. “It is really long, tall, and narrow so it was super cavernous when we moved in.” Oldenburger began by refinishing the heart pine floors (she also matched the planks and extended the pine flooring throughout the kitchen) then sourced rough-cut pine from Rothe lumber and created a custom floor-to-ceiling bookshelf along one wall. “That really helped,” she explains. The formal dining area and sunken living room were divided by two steps running the width of the room— Oldenburger deepened the steps to create extra ad-hoc seating. With its 15-foot-high vaulted ceilings, the space still felt a bit vast.
Like the rest of the house, the master bedroom showcases Oldenburger’s design influences. “I have always been attracted to Midcentury Modern design and Modern architecture,” she says. “I am really influenced by contemporary design movements in California, Australia, and Mexico that focus on minimalist design and incorporate their respective environments.” The 1968 painting above the bed was bought from an antique dealer. “We are on the hunt for the artist because the signature is nothing we recognize. It’s one of our great mysteries.” The home’s media room features a massive fireplace. The painting is by New Paltz-based painter Aaron Hauck (who's work appears on the cover this month). “After renovating the staircase and the rest of the house, we felt we finally had a space worthy of art,” says Oldenburger. Along with another piece by Hauck, the couple has collected paintings from Samantha French, Lauren Lombardo, and Guy Madden, as well as ceramic pieces by Re Jin Le and Leah Kaplan. “Art definitely influences our decorating style.” The master bathroom required a total gut renovation as soon as the couple moved in. Oldenburger chose a mix of subway and hex tiles for the walls and then installed a tub and sink from Signature Hardware. She found the chandelier at the Chicago-based Etsy shop Hangout Lighting. “Our house is a mix of high and low.” 24 HOME & GARDEN CHRONOGRAM 2/21
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Oldenburger painted the home’s front double door entrance a striking yellow to contrast with the dark gray siding. White concrete planters match the vintage globe lights above. Oldenburger relied on contractor Tom Mayone for the majority of the home’s seven-year renovation. “We’ve worked together for the last 10 years on most of my projects,” she says. “And we’ve developed a vernacular and friendship that continues to make creating and renovating fun.”
She finally came up with the solution a year and a half ago. “Adding the fireplace was a real game changer for the room,” says Oldenburger. “I spent a while trying to work out the proportions of it.” Oldenburger began by tearing out a rock wall and then designing a fireplace for the bottom portion. Framed by Mayone, the actual built-in fireplace was installed by Fireside Warmth. Above the dark frame, Oldenburger painted the remaining wall white. “We are huge movie buffs, and I designed the fireplace facade to double as a giant viewing space to project movies on.” Low white cabinets in the dining area serve both as banquet and projector stand. The fireplace-movie screen combo helped to cozy-fy the room. “Breaking up that space really created a less cavernous kind of look because you don’t look from top to bottom anymore,” says Oldenburger. Oldenburger took the opposite approach to other areas of the home— opening them up, rather than closing them in. She tore out the enclosed, carpeted, split staircase. In its place, she designed and installed an open concept staircase with custom wooden treads again from Rothe Lumber, then had custom railings and stringers made by local metal worker Steve Cross. Downstairs, “a really weird long, skinny room” lead to two small bedrooms. Oldenburger removed multiple walls and widened doorways to create one large guest bedroom suite, ultimately turning the five bedrooms into four. Even though she clearly has a talent for it, lately Oldenburger has been feeling like gut remodeling isn’t enough. She is now turning her talents to designing homes from scratch. The project, called “The Homes at Live Edge” will feature modern homes and begin construction this year. “We hope they will be reflective of what clients typically love and ask for, and yet are unique to the majority of the houses on the market,” she says. “When finished we will be offering them as turn-key furnished residences, ready to move right into.” 2/21 CHRONOGRAM HOME & GARDEN 27
health & wellness
THE POWER OF BEING PLANT-BASED THE MOST EVOLVED DIET FOR A PEACEFUL, BALANCED EARTH? FOR SHARON GANNON, THE HANDS-DOWN ANSWER IS VEGANISM. By Wendy Kagan
Y
oga luminary Sharon Gannon may mince a lot of vegetables, but she doesn’t mince words when she talks about vegan diets. Since well before she and her partner David Life created the Jivamukti Yoga method in 1984, Gannon has been standing up for animal rights and espousing the virtues of a vegan diet in clear, forthright words. These days, she has more of an audience than ever for that message, as plantbased (aka vegan) diets are moving from fringe to fashionable at a steady clip. In the ‘70s, yoga was that weird thing from India that Western hippies did, and now it’s everywhere. Veganism isn’t so far behind. Whether you chalk it up to the realities of our disease-causing and pandemic-spawning standard American diet (SAD), or to a deepening understanding of the fragility of our environment, the vegan wave is gathering strength. In her new book Yoga & Veganism: The Diet of Enlightenment (2020), Gannon updates and adds (faux) meat to her 2008 manifesto Yoga & Vegetarianism, bolstering the argument that 28 HEALTH & WELLNESS CHRONOGRAM 2/21
a vegan diet is the true path to yogic bliss. Both versions draw inspiration from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali—the philosophical text from about 2,200 years ago that offers a practical blueprint toward self-realization—though the new book expands to include some of our current mindset shifts, as well as a few recipes from Gannon’s home kitchen in the Lake Hill hamlet of Woodstock. I connected recently with Gannon—a self-professed “spiritual activist,” musician, poet, and animal lover—to talk about the evolution of veganism, which just might be inspiring an evolution of human consciousness. Plant-based diets are having a moment. Why do you think the culture is waking up to them? Sharon Gannon: Most people adopt a plantbased diet for health reasons. Recently, there has been a lot of media coverage focused on scientific, medical evidence from doctors supporting a plant-based diet to improve health and even cure diseases like heart disease,
diabetes, and cancer. Many younger people are becoming vegan because they are concerned for the environment—the world they and their children will have to live in. The facts linking meat and dairy to global warming and the overall destruction of the planet are undeniable. When a young spokesperson like Greta Thunberg bravely and eloquently speaks out about veganism and the environment, she is heard by many young people. The general public tends to follow trends set by celebrities—and Ingrid Newkirk and PETA [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals] have provided a platform for celebrities to speak about the importance of veganism and its impact on health, the environment, and animals. In the music world, multi-Grammy winner Billie Eilish is outspoken about her veganism, as is Paul McCartney, Beyoncé, and Moby. In his Academy Award acceptance speech last year, Joaquin Phoenix used his celebrity moment to direct the spotlight on the horrific plight of dairy
cows, asking us all to consider veganism. And filmmaker James Cameron recently produced The Game Changers, a documentary focusing on champion athletes who are vegan, to dispel myths propagated by the meat and dairy industries that tell us we need to eat animals to get enough protein, calcium, [and other nutrients]. You changed your book title from Yoga & Vegetarianism (2008) to Yoga & Veganism (2020). Why? Over time, certain words tend to lose their meaning. Vegetarianism is one such word. Originally, it meant eating vegetables. But it had been co-opted to mean eating vegetables and milk products and eggs and fish and chicken and white meat. It became acceptable to say you were a vegetarian if you just took beef out of your diet or even limited it to once a week! So, a new word was created to mean vegetarianism and that word is vegan—for now. Who knows, it might become corrupted as well and a newer word will have to be invented. We live in a culture where the art of speaking and expanding one’s vocabulary are not skills to be encouraged. Telling the truth is not highly regarded either. Lies are an acceptable form of communication—look at the advertising industry. It is common not to say what you mean or to mean what you say. Like it or not, yoga and veganism are often tied to socioeconomic and racial privilege in America. How can the movement be more inclusive? Cheap food now equals expensive medical bills later. Most people tend to eat what they are used to eating. They don’t think much further than a preference to satisfy an appetite and what’s cheap. They aren’t making conscious food choices. Eating meat is not hardwired in us—it is a learned behavior that has become a psychological habit and a biological addiction. It has been promoted as a status symbol, a sign of success. Americans, like most human beings in the world, have been eating animals for thousands of years. It is wrapped up with our cultural identity. To have a “chicken in the pot on Sunday” was touted as a sign of success for poor people. America was and still represents for many the “Land of the Free,” where a person can achieve success and be free to do what they want, which usually means having the money to buy what you want. Freedom has also come to be associated with power; to be in a position of power means controlling others. A successful person is respected as well as feared because of their ability to exercise power over others. Many people crave power, money, and material things and see these as the ultimate goals of life. The hierarchal model is very much a part of most people’s perception of life. And because of that, most want to be on top because there’s the promise of having a lot of power over others. We are taught to practice how to climb up the ladder to the top from an early age, no matter what our socioeconomic or racial situation may be. We are taught that self-confidence and self-esteem are acquired for competing against and dominating others. We are not taught humility, empathy, or
compassion. These are signs of weakness and may be exhibited in small doses but only in a charitable way, when you can still maintain your sense of superiority over the poor and suffering. Our global culture and its economy are rooted in the enslavement, exploitation, and commodification of animals. In other words, exercising power over the defenseless. Animals are at the lowest rung on the ladder. The mission statement of our culture can be summed up as “The Earth Belongs to Us.” This underlying sense of privilege is present everywhere, regardless of race or socioeconomic status. It is this false sense of superiority that has corrupted the soul of humanity and has fostered a society of fear. If we are to survive as a species on this planet, we must learn how to live in harmony with the Earth and all other beings, human as well as animal—all of life. And that means discovering ways to live alongside others that are mutually
If we are to survive as a species on this planet, we must learn how to live in harmony with the Earth and all other beings, human as well as animal— all of life. beneficial. Eating meat is a learned behavior, and what is learned can be unlearned. The solution lies in education, but that education must come from unbiased sources—not from advertisers hired by the animal-user industries to promote their products. I believe that veganism is an important first step in this evolution. How can plant-based diets help us prevent the next pandemic? What we do to others, we eventually but inevitably do to ourselves. We are experiencing a global pandemic that has resulted in restricting our mobility. Many people are in lockdown— quarantined. But our lockdown is light compared to what billions of animals experience every day, being locked-down, tethered, and confined into small cages, awaiting their death. This is not the first pandemic and will not be the last. The coronavirus is a zoonotic disease, meaning the virus jumped from animals to humans. The stress of confinement suffered
by trapped and enslaved animals is known to bring about pathologies. We know this from past pandemics. Mutations allow diseases to jump species: trichinosis, tuberculosis, and swine flu were originally diseases found in pigs; influenza came from avian (bird) flu; horsepox mutated into smallpox; bovine rinderpest became measles; and Creutzfeldt-Jakobs disease is the human equivalent of mad cow disease. The 2003 SARS pandemic, like today’s [SARSCoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19], is thought to have been transmitted by bats. Many scientists think that HIV [the virus that causes AIDS] spread to humans through bushmeat. The 2014 Ebola outbreak originating in Africa was believed to be caused by eating bushmeat. Bushmeat refers to many species of wild animals including bats, antelopes, monkeys, snakes, and rats. We may have a vaccination that will protect us from the current COVID-19 pandemic, but it is only a matter of time before the next pandemic will appear. We can prevent future pandemics by rooting out the cause of the present one. When we start to see how interrelated we are with others and the world around us, we will stop making animals sick and we will stop enslaving, confining, torturing, and abusing them. We will stop seeing their bodies as commodities to be bought and sold. When we start to see other animals as the people they are, worthy of our respect and consideration, then we will discover respect for ourselves. The reasons that many of us have for going vegan are heavy: violence toward animals, global warming, deforestation. How can eating vegan let us live with a lighter heart? There is so much violence and suffering in the world today, but by going vegan you know in your heart that you are not contributing to it. Eating vegan is the kinder choice. The yogic teachings say that joy is our true nature and that kindness is the key to the heart. Consciously choosing not to cause pain in others will instigate an awakening of joy in our hearts. A vegan diet is a simple recipe for joy. What has quarantine been like for you? For the past five years or so, I have been moving towards living a more hermetic lifestyle, focused on writing, music, and spiritual practices, so the quarantine hasn’t affected me much. I am grateful to have a break from traveling. This past year I have published two books—Yoga & Veganism and Magic Is a Shift in Perception, Poems 1972–2019, a memoir of sorts—and recorded audiobook versions of both. How can we best nourish ourselves during this uncertain time? All times are uncertain. Life is uncertain. No matter what we may tell ourselves, we are not in control and do not know what the future holds. The best nourishment is to nourish our souls, resist the temptation to blame and complain, and replace it with a focus on remembering God and exploring new ways to be kind and uplifting to others. 2/21 CHRONOGRAM HEALTH & WELLNESS 29
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edical marijuana has an exclusive reputation, but Hillary Peckham thinks it’s “high” time to send it packing. “There’s such a large population that could benefit from cannabis,” says Peckham, who is the COO of Etain, the Westchester-based medical marijuana company she founded with her mother Amy and sister Keeley. “They just don’t know how accessible it actually is,” she says. While Peckham acknowledges New York State’s medical marijuana program was pretty restrictive when it launched in 2015, it now includes broader categories like chronic pain, which covers symptoms like constant knee or low back pain and migraines. “Marijuana is also an alternative for those who are turned off to more standard pharmaceuticals that might have negative impacts on their health,” she says. For Peckham and her family, the negative impacts of traditional pharmaceuticals are what brought them to the medical marijuana industry in the first place. When her grandmother Frances was diagnosed with ALS, a doctor suggested that marijuana’s palliative effects could help manage the symptoms. “She was put on over 20 medications, which all had side effects and some that were worsening her condition,” Peckham
says. Since medical marijuana wasn’t legal in New York at the time, her grandmother was never able to experience its potential benefits. After her death, the Peckhams kept researching marijuana, gathering inspiration from the stories of other families in states where medical programs were already in place. When New York passed the Compassionate Care Act in 2014, they decided to apply for the program and earned one of the state’s coveted first five medical marijuana licenses. In 2016, the family launched the state’s only vertically integrated, women-owned and familyoperated dispensary, Etain (a reference to a heroine of Irish mythology) in Frances’s honor, on Route 28 in Kingston. Today, the company has four dispensary locations—Kingston, Syracuse, Yonkers, and Manhattan—plus a facility in Chestertown where the cannabis for all its products is cultivated and processed. The Kingston dispensary currently sees patients by both appointment and walk-ins. Over the past five years, the Peckhams have dedicated themselves to increasing access to medical marijuana. Thanks to the education they provide, the process to enroll in the state’s program is easier than ever. According to
Peckham, after a prospective patient has had an initial appointment with a state-licensed prescriber, enrollment and certification to purchase can happen in as little as one day. In addition to familiar consumption methods like vaporizers and tinctures, Etain also has products tailor-made for newbies like a honeybased lozenge and a water-soluble powder that can be baked with or mixed into drinks. To celebrate its fifth anniversary this year, the company is reintroducing its entire product line with new educational-driven packaging and dropping prices to continue increasing the products’ affordability. Etain is also in the process of introducing a line of CBD products that will be available to non-medical card holders and collaborating with other female-owned brands, including BWFW (Buy Weed from Women), whose signature items you’ll find on everything from totes to tee shirts at Etain’s dispensaries. Along with the legalization of recreational marijuana on the horizon in New York, all signs point to cannabis’s revamped reputation as an increasingly important part of our wellness routines. Etainhealth.com 2/21 CHRONOGRAM HEALTH & WELLNESS 31
weddings Kevin and Kimberly tied the knot at Elm Rock Inn in the fall. Photo by Christine Ashburn
LET’S GET SMALL THE SHIFT TO INTIMATE WEDDINGS By Anne Pyburn Craig
T
o call 2020 tough for the wedding business is an obvious understatement. According to Wedding Report, there were 2.13 million weddings in the US in 2019. In 2020, there were 1.1 million, with slashed budgets and drastically reduced guest lists. It was the safe, right, and loving path, but it’s been an uphill one for those whose livelihoods depend on bringing people together to celebrate. When the pandemic abates, wedding vendors still standing can expect a flood of pent-up demand, which may create something of a bottleneck as it collides with postponements. “In the spring [of 2020], 80 percent of our events rescheduled to 2021,” says Charlotte Guernsey, co-owner at Lambs Hill, an intimate venue in Beacon with sweeping views of the river. “A couple of them downsized and kept their dates. Seeing what was going on in the industry, we then created a new package called the ‘MiniMicro’ to accommodate those who still wanted to get married but really just wanted a ceremony and a dinner party with close family and friends.” The Mini-Micro package, accommodating up to 24 guests for up to three-and-a-half hours,
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was a hit. “Once we were able to reopen, we were flooded with couples wanting a small venue with outdoor space,” says Guernsey. “Many had their original venue cancel on them. What we found interesting was that these couples ended up so happy to actually have a smaller, more intimate event. It was a magical surprise.” The downsized ceremonies at Lambs Hill were held outside on the deck under the new timber-frame pavilion, featured optional smaller “sweetheart” tables that exceeded normal distancing for at-risk couples. Sanitation stations featured clever sayings and favors. And in between wiping down every possible common surface every few minutes, the Lambs Hill team made a discovery. “It actually brought us such pleasure to see what started as a distraught situation blossom into something absolutely amazing for so many couples,” says Guernsey. “We were booked solid from the beginning of August through the end of our season at the end of October, and I think the Mini-Micro is here to stay. Many of our couples livestreamed their entire events, which worked out really well; I see that trend sticking too.”
Dancing Not on the Dance Card Kingston’s Senate Garage held two microweddings in 2020 and saw 25 of 28 couples reschedule to 2021. Manager April Tiberio says there is one simple thing the state could change to help struggling venues—and it’s a tactic that might help stop the spread as well. “If they would just allow socially distanced dancing,” she says, cringing at the memory of having to tell celebrants to sit down. “If you can work out in a gym for two hours, we can let 50 people dance at their tables in an 8,000-square-foot venue. In a Facebook poll, 75 out of 100 brides who responded said they’d cut their guest lists and go ahead if they could dance. Without venues, more weddings get pushed into backyards, and those private events can be disastrous.” The state hasn’t provided wedding-specific guidance; venues such as Senate Garage have pieced together best practices from those for caterers and restaurants and general advice. “And we’ve done a bang-up job,” says Tiberio. “Everyone else, outside of Broadway, has found safe ways to reopen. We are ready as an industry to go above and beyond to keep couples and staff
Megan and Bradley tied the knot at the Senate Garage in 2020. Photo by Kamp Weddings
safe, I just wish someone in Albany would listen, because we have a viable plan. Our hope is to save June weddings.” Don’t Elope on Weekends Photographer Christine Ashburn spent last summer photographing outdoor elopements with her mask and zoom lens, donning an N95 when she needed to get an indoor shot. Hudson Valley elopements, she says, can be glorious. “Couples and their officiant and photographer can hike into the park and exchange vows in front of a large gorgeous waterfall or venture to the top of a spectacular cliff with panoramic views,” she says. “I would suggest that couples reach out to their photographer before planning an intimate elopement, adventure or otherwise, in the Hudson Valley; we know local restrictions, permit requirements, and availability. You might think that you and your fiancé will just be able to show up, take a hike and exchange vows. However, most parks have started to restrict access once their parking lots have become full, so showing up at a specific time in hopes of catching the sunset may not be possible.” Couples, she
says, should scout locations out in advance and “try and elope during the week during the peak outdoor season.” Ashburn, like many vendors and couples, has found that less can be more. “Most couples are really finding the shift to simpler, intimate weddings more meaningful,” she says. “A fullblown wedding can be overwhelming and stressful, with so many moving parts to consider and guests and family to take care of. Many of my couples who downsized their wedding, with the intention of having a larger wedding when it is safer, are so satisfied with their intimate wedding that have decided to forgo the large wedding altogether.” A Make-or-Break Year If elopements are the coming thing, a sort of ultimate elopement probably describes GlampStar, which provides tents complete with deluxe mattresses, bedding, and more. (You can even add a deluxe pet bed or a bar set.) Owner Nicole Friedman says 2020 was tough, but she hasn’t even come close to losing faith in her concept. “What I do is, I have a bunch of tents,
mattresses, chairs, jewelry, dishes—all kinds of things that create a luxury camp—and I will set up at any event.” Friedman got the idea for her business while working as a bartender and observing weddings. “I’d go to barn weddings and see guests in fancy clothes having to go back to the hotel late, and knew there had to be a better way,” says Friedman. “During the pandemic, I had one wedding that went from 25 to four tents, and the rest moved to 2021, but what I do has enormous potential to provide incredible, safe gatherings. You have your own private tent—no hallways or doors or busses or Ubers; your own space right on location that no one else is going in. You’re outdoors—with your luxury shelter right there.” The underlying, undying, and irresistible energy of people joining their lives together is like water. It finds a way. And though some will undoubtedly re-emerge to hold festival-sized bonanzas with a million moving parts, even they may find themselves touched by the pandemic’s re-focusing effect. Brian Donahoe, co-owner of Kingston jewelry store Facets of Earth, says he’s among the fortunate. “Since we are a business 2/21 CHRONOGRAM WEDDINGS 33
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To accommodate the desire for smaller weddings, Lambs Hill in Beacon created a "Mini-Micro" wedding package for very intimate weddings. Photo by Pioneer Media
that doesn’t depend on the size of the wedding, we feel fortunate that we haven’t been affected the way event-based businesses have,” he says. “Given the unknowns in the world with politics and COVID, I think people have been looking for a source of hope and something positive to look forward to. This past year certainly had the ability to make or break relationships. For those that endured, it seems that helped cement peoples’ relationships.” Many, he says, chose to make rings part of that cementing process whether they were postponing, eloping, or marrying small—but the pandemic has only accelerated a pre-existing trend. “A lot of people are moving away from big expensive center stone diamonds,” he says, “and going with alternative stones as the focus point. We’ve noticed a lot of redesigns using the customer’s heirloom gold and stones. If anything, there has been a rise in the sentimentality of using a loved one’s materials.” Uphill climbs lead to whole new vistas. Amid the pain, which has been bad, gifted vendors have made masterful pivots, and elopements, smaller in-person parties fostering deeper intimacy (ever look into the agonized eyes of a bride who’s been tablehopping for two hours straight?) that can include multitudes in cyberspace, and outdoor everything, are trends that aren’t going away. (Simplicity, industry experts point out, means budgets can be repurposed to indulge in more “wow” factor per guest.) The chance to refocus on intimate connection has reinvigorated everyone’s joy in the entire enterprise in ways that transcend any fashion, decor, or catering trend ever, and the art of wedding will benefit forevermore. But for pity’s sake, Guv, let ‘em dance.
GlampStar glamping tent at Mount Tremper Arts. Photo by Alicia King Photo
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LEGAL WEED IS COMING CANNABIS AND THE EMPIRE STATE By Amadeus Finlay
P
ersistence pays off in politics, and as Governor Cuomo prepares to present a recreational cannabis bill in the upcoming legislative session for the third time in his tenure, the feeling in Albany is that it will happen this time around. Approximately 1.3 million people across the state consume THC-based products (the stuff that gets you high—think Cheech and Chong; big, stinky buds). A poll conducted by Spectrum News of Albany and IPSOS Global in October found that 61 percent of respondents favored the legalization of recreational cannabis. In 2018, residents of New York City consumed an estimated 77 tons of cannabis flower—more than any other city on the planet according to a 2018 study from Seedo. The state’s medical cannabis program, launched in 2014, has 133,362 “certified patients,” with over 3,000 medical practitioners across New York registered to prescribe medical cannabis (albeit in some derivative form, not flower). Hemp is also big business, with approximately 18,000 acres of the crop being produced by more than 400 licensed growers. But there is a gap. While New York decriminalized recreational marijuana use in 2019—possession of small amounts of the drug are punished with fines rather than jail time—it’s still not legal.
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Recreational Cannabis: The View from Albany The financial downturn caused by the pandemic will cost the state a shortfall of almost $63 billion over the next four years, and recreational cannabis would generate an estimated $300 million in additional annual tax revenue—an attractive argument for legalization. (Even if lawmakers legalized marijuana tomorrow, however, it would be years before revenue from the marijuana industry hit the $300 million level.) Consumer demand remains strong, and with neighboring Massachusetts selling legal weed and New Jersey voters approving recreational marijuana at the polls, New York is late to join the party. Add a Democrat supermajority in both chambers, and the deal seems all but done. But not everyone at the Capitol is convinced. Senator Pete Harckham (D) serves as Chairman of the Committee on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse and co-chair of the Joint Senate Task Force on Opioids, Addiction & Overdose Prevention, and feels the proposed legislation does not go far enough to address substance abuse, treatment, and education. “The governor’s bill is just treated as general tax revenue that goes in the general fund,” says
Harckham, whose district includes parts of Dutchess, Putnam, and Westchester counties. “We desperately need the money to go toward substance abuse disorder. New York State is woefully underfunded, and during the pandemic the overdose rate has doubled. Treatment providers are hanging on by a thread. This is a real crisis.” But Harckham is not opposed to recreational cannabis. Instead, he points to an alternative bill, S1527B sponsored by Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D) and Senator Liz Krueger (D), that directs 25 percent of recreational cannabis revenue toward substance abuse, treatment, and education. “It’s all covered,” continues Harckham. “There is money in the bill for local police who don’t have the resources to address DUIs, money for school districts to address risky behavior, and provisions for opt-out and local zoning.” Another advocate is Melissa Moore, state director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “We solidly support the Krueger bill because it learns lessons. From an advocacy perspective, the areas that stand out still with the Governor’s bill are what we would do with cannabis tax toward social equity and diversity components.” However it shakes out in Albany, change is
most certainly needed. Under current legislation, cannabis growers in New York State (whether medical or hemp producers) are not permitted to sell flower, meaning consumers and patients can only attain cannabis byproducts rather than organic plant material. “It is a public policy failure,” says Jason Minard, attorney to Hempire State Growers. “Vapes, which are full of toxins, are in, while natural flower, which farmers can grow and quality control, is out. The ban on flower products has been a major blow to Governor Cuomo’s promise to protect the farmer. It is an injustice and doesn’t add up.” The New York Small Farm Alliance of Cannabis Growers and Supporters (NY Small Farma) is a nonprofit founded to “ensure social and environmental justice for cannabis in New York State,” and as vice president Donna Burns, says, “the ability of ordinary people to enter this industry must be recognized. Farm co-ops and sustainability must be embraced as part of the solution. If industrial grow warehouses become the norm, we could see the state’s progressive climate goals nullified. The tax scheme needs to expressly incentivize outdoor growing. Leaders should think big and enact small.” The Medical Opinion Cannabis remains under close scientific scrutiny, having only been made available for legal study within recent years. But a consensus on patient use is already forming within the medical community, and it is overwhelmingly positive. Dr. Richard Carlton, a specialist in integrative psychiatry based in Port Washington, has been practicing medicine in New York for over 20 years, and began prescribing medical cannabis for his patients in 2013. Inspired by his successes, Carlton has studied the plant ever since. “Cannabis is the most effective pain reliever, bar opioids, on the planet,” states Carlton. “But unlike opioids, you cannot overdose on cannabis because there are no receptors in the respiratory and cardiac system of the brain.” Carlton continues: “There are two main cannabis receptors in the brain—and I am oversimplifying—CB1 and CB2. These cannabinoid receptors [part of the endocannabinoid system that regulates and balances processes such as immune response, metabolism, and communication between cells] are hit by the cannabis in the plant.” “Cannabis receptors are presynaptic, meaning they transmit signals in the brain,” details Carlton. “When pain is overfiring, postsynaptic neurons are bombarded with pain messages. Cannabinoids hit the presynaptic neuron, causing them to blunt the pain.” Dr. Rachel Kramer, an oncologist at Mt. Sinai Hospital and Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, echoes Carlton’s convictions, prescribing both THC and CBD as solutions for pain relief, appetite stimulation, and nausea management. “Narcotics and regular antinausea medications are limited because they cause constipation,” explains Kramer, “and chemo patients are frequently constipated due to the side effects of their treatment. Medical marijuana is a way of managing the nausea, appetite, and pain.” Kramer also reassures her patients against historic misconceptions. “There is zero medical basis to suggest that cannabis is a gateway drug. Those who prescribe Percocet— there is no greater gateway drug.” Carlton agrees: “It’s why oxycodone makers are so opposed to cannabis and fund groups who are opposed to it. Cannabis is the exit to serious addiction; it gets them off the opioid.” This page, scenes from Hempire State Growers' Hudson Valley farm: Amy Hepworth, lead farmer, directing farm crew; air drying freshly harvested hemp. Hempire is poised to enter the recreational cannabis market if marijuana is leaglized in New York. Opposite: Marijuana flower at Etain's growing facility in Chestertown. Currently licensed in New York to grow and sell medical marijuana, Etain is well positioned to enter the recreational cannabis market. 2/21 CHRONOGRAM THE MARIJUANA CHRONICLES 39
The Canna Provisions dispensary in Holyoke, Massachusetts. If recreational marijuana is legalized in New York, consumers might be able to shop in weed in swank boutiques like this one. Photo by Melissa Ostrow
“It isn’t enough to simply turn the page. There have been generational socioeconomic impacts as a result of marijuana prohibition and targeted policing, disproportionately in Black communities.” —Melissa Moore, Drug Policy Alliance
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However, there are institutional limitations to who can benefit from the medicine. One of Kramer’s patients was a police officer, yet he was ineligible for a medical cannabis prescription due to the laws surrounding his employment. “If the plant didn’t have THC,” explains Carlton, “it would be the most widely prescribed herbal medication. If it were just the other cannabinoids and terpenes, it would be the most widely used drug on the planet. It has been proven in scores of medical conditions—ALS, migraines, Crohn’s disease, arthritis, cancer, the list goes on.” The People’s Voice There is more to cannabis and its social impact than bureaucratic posturing and the focusing of microscopes. For over 100 years, the plant has been used as a tool of racial oppression, and the legacy of that mistreatment will take more to unravel than the signing of a bill. In June 2017, Assembly Member PeoplesStokes (D) reported that, “Black people are almost four times more likely to be arrested for pot. This criminal record follows them and they’re essentially locked into a second-class status for life.” Moore of the Drug Policy Alliance agrees. “It isn’t enough to simply turn the page. There have been generational socioeconomic impacts as a result of marijuana prohibition and targeted policing, disproportionately in Black communities.”
“People may not be aware how much cannabis, race, and drug policy have wound their way around each other. Cannabis possession is the second most stated reason for the preponderance of what immigration officials are using as basis to deport people and destroy families.” Moore relates that prohibition was never founded on pharmacology, but through a desire to control and criminalize populations. “In the nightclubs of the 1920s, white people were freely mixing with people of color. It is then you see a ramping up of legalization campaigns as a way of keeping these populations apart.” “Demonization of this ancient and useful crop was very misguided,” says Burns. “This plant has been part of human history for thousands of years. As the 100-year prohibition lifts, we need to create a sustainable path for those who have been harmed by the war on drugs and practices of exclusion.” The path toward recreational cannabis in New York has laid its first stones, its pioneers taking their first steps on what will be a journey of endurance. A stage, if it can be called that, has been set, and the directions from those on the wings call for small, community practices founded in quality, sustainability, and local development. Governor Cuomo knows what needs to be done, the voices around him are loud, clear, and uncompromising: New York could be a model for the rest of the world.
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Strong at Heart POUGHKEEPSIE By Jamie Larson Photos by David McIntyre
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his time last year, Poughkeepsie was at an inflection point. Just before the COVID-19 pandemic descended, the city was buzzing with development, new businesses, and growth. The community was also bolstered by the civic and social support of a cadre of dynamic nonprofits, and it seemed that a long period of economic struggle was at last subsiding. Then, you know, COVID. Progress in Poughkeepsie, however, has not been derailed, thanks to the people who have pushed too long and hard to let the city backslide. The past year has been emotional and exhausting, but Poughkeepsie’s stakeholders have found a way to fight through. They just work harder. City of Healers Poughkeepsie is a hospital town, with Vassar Brothers Medical Center (VBMC) in its center and Mid-Hudson Hospital just outside the city limits. The city is slung with banners honoring healthcare workers and a popular statue of a masked nurse standing resolute, sculpted
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by artist Nestor Madalengoitia, guarded the entrance of VBMC, before relocating to the Dutchess County Office Building. “I think, as a community, we feel comforted by the fact we have two amazing hospitals centered in our community,” says Poughkeepsie Mayor Rob Rolison. “On a personal level, I’m concerned for healthcare workers and the stress they’re under. I came down with COVID-19 the Monday before Thanksgiving. My experience was certainly not as bad as others. I was very lucky. It showed me the fragility of life. We need to take the time to thank one another.” In the midst of the pandemic, and after years of construction, on January 9, VBMC opened their massive new Patient Pavilion building complex. The $500-million project brings new space and resources to the hospital at a vital time as COVID case numbers continue to rise. “It’s an amazing facility with all private rooms, so that immediately addresses needs for isolation and capacity,” said Dr. William Begg, vice president of medical affairs at VBMC. “The new
Ira Lee, owner of Twisted Soul, a fusion restaurant located near Vassar College on Raymond Avenue. Twisted Soul is only offering pick-up service during the pandemic. Opposite, top: A view of the Mount Carmel neighborhood and the Mid-Hudson Bridge in the distance from the eastern end of the Walkway Over the Hudson. Middle: The Vassar College campus in Poughkeepsie. For the spring semester, Vassar will pursue its “island” model for students once they begin returning this month. Once on campus, students are expected to remain on campus for the duration of the semester. Bottom: God’s Grace Too!! is located on a stretch of Main Street with many Mexican, Caribbean, and soul food restaurants.
patient pavilion just adds an advanced location that will help us provide the level of healthcare our community deserves.” Begg says the staff at VBMC have faced many challenges over the past year with consummate professionalism and the community of the greater Poughkeepsie area has been continually supportive. “When the pandemic began, they came out in droves, donating food, masks—even coming by the medical center in impromptu drive-by salutes to our healthcare workers. It’s an incredible feeling to get that kind of support, and it really energized all of us,” Begg said. “I feel like we’re closer in many ways. Despite many challenges, we’ve developed relationships with local public officials and we’ve ventured out into the community with educational seminars. We’ve done two virtual town halls about COVID-19 featuring members of our medical staff as panelists, and we plan to do more this year, beginning with some education about vaccines.” COVID Curbs a Comeback Major economic development projects like the hospital expansion, the creation of a hotel and conference center on the Vassar College campus, Queen City Lofts, One Dutchess, Poughkeepsie Landing, and others saw their build-outs slowed but not stopped by COVID restrictions. In January, the Academy mixeduse development got underway in earnest. That project will establish a coworking space, coffee shop, food hall, brewery, fresh foods market, teaching kitchen, and event space, with apartments on the upper floors on Academy Street. The continuation of these projects signals investor confidence in Poughkeepsie, in spite of current circumstances. Other hospitality-based projects that opened in the beginning of last year have struggled, however. In early 2020, a new go-kart and arcade facility, RPM, opened at the Galleria Mall. Jim and Gina Sullivan, developers of the 40 Cannon complex, opened the Revel 32 nightclub and events space. Legendary sandwich shop Rossi’s Deli opened a second location in the Eastdale Village development. The brewing industry was also roaring with the success Mill House Brewing Company, Blue Collar Brewery, and Plan Bee Farm Brewery, and the recently opened Zeus Brewing Company. Most businesses in the city continue to limp along, waiting for more Payroll Protection Plan stimulus from the government, but some, like the Bowtie Cinema project, are on hold, as the state of the movie theater industry is dire. Restaurants are in a particularly mercurial quagmire, with those who have robust takeout options doing okay while fine dining establishments that are more experiential, like Brasserie 292, are losing more and more footing by the day. Brasserie owner and chef Charles Fells is frustrated by the way the narrative around COVID’s spread has focused so much on restaurants. “It seems like we’ve pigeonholed restaurants as the source of COVID, and that’s really sad,” says Fells. “No one in our business wants to get people sick. I don’t know how people think it’s so much worse than the grocery store. Ninety percent of our menu doesn’t travel well. We are still doing 2/21 CHRONOGRAM COMMUNITY PAGES 43
Cottage Street in Poughkeepsie is home to a number of manufacturing businesses, like 4th State Metals, a fabrication facility that works with architects and artists. Left to right: Ben Kane, Isaac Zal, Blake Burba, Dave Markusen Weiss, and Lauren Fix.
limited-capacity seating with spacing. We put up Plexiglas around the booths and got a whole new HVAC system. We’ve followed every guideline. It’s nuts.” Fells says if there is another total shutdown, without Payroll Protection or substantial government stimulus, he won’t be able to keep the restaurant open. He added that he’s already done everything possible to stay open and keep his employees paid, including remortgaging his house. “Aid gets tied up in Washington because it’s too political. It’s not about what’s best for the country, it’s about what’s best for political careers,” Fells says. “If the shutdown and regulations were handled federally from the beginning I wouldn’t be in this position.” A Housing Boom with Pros and Cons While existing Poughkeepsie businesses are struggling, it is proving to be a good time to start a new venture in the city, as entrepreneurs see a post-pandemic clientele eager to get back out and socialize. Industrial and commercial real estate agent Don Minichino of Houlihan Lawrence has years of professional experience in economic development and says he still approaches his work from that perspective. Minichino says that the hot residential real estate—fueled by New York City exiles—is the basis for future opportunities on the commercial front. 44 COMMUNITY PAGES CHRONOGRAM 2/21
“I live in downtown Poughkeepsie and it’s where my heart is,” he says. “There are two sides to the story right now. I’m seeing food businesses sell to recoup some value back from all their hard work. On the other side of the coin, I have restaurant spaces I have been able to lease to people who want to rehab them now, for new eateries when this is over. There are a lot of people sitting at home looking to turn their dreams into reality.” The robust real estate market, however, means higher rents and fewer options for the housing insecure. Lack of work and opportunities has only seen that community’s numbers grow. Along with managing scores of low-income housing units and a portfolio of community aid programs, Hudson River Housing runs the only homeless shelter in Dutchess County. Unsurprisingly, the pandemic has made that difficult endeavor even more challenging. “We didn’t want to be in a position to have to turn anyone away, and we realized our existing facility was not the best site,” says Hudson River Housing Executive Director Crista Hines, of the early days of COVID-19. The county made a vacant facility on the grounds of the Dutchess County Jail available, and while the organization was initially concerned about the connotations and image the location would send to their clientele, Hines says it has been a major upgrade for the folks they serve.
Hygiene and food service accommodations are greatly improved and capacity increased so the organization could safely shelter 150 people. Sadly, the larger capacity has been needed as they are regularly housing 110 individuals a night, up from 60 this time last year. “The challenges our clients are facing have been exacerbated by the pandemic,” Hines says. “Those with serious drug issues have had a more difficult time accessing counseling. There have been more overdoses than we have seen in forever. Services are available, but they are harder to access remotely.” Hudson River Housing also does a lot for those struggling to keep up with the cost of their apartments and homes. In April, the organization opened 78 new low-income housing units in Poughkeepsie and are working every day to develop more in a city currently with a one-percent vacancy rate. While the work they’ve accomplished has been a great value for the community they serve, looming is the ever-present, growing need. Hines says they receive over 100 applications for housing a month. “We were in a housing crisis before the pandemic and this has pushed it over the edge. Any available housing is getting gobbled up,” Hines says. “I think things are going okay, but we are kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop with the economic impact of COVID.”
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Selected from the rich holdings of the Loeb Art Center and featuring works dating from the 17th century to the 1960s by such artists as Angelica Kauffman, Berthe Morisot, Hilda Belcher, Jesse Tarbox Beals, Alice Neel, Sylvia Sleigh, and others, this fascinating exhibition explores the common themes and complex visions that emerge when women depict women. Organized by the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.
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Hilda Belcher, The Checkered Dress (Portrait of O’Keeffe) (detail), 1907. Bequest of Mary S. Bedell, class of 1873
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Carmen is a self-described “panhandler” who is so well known for sitting at the corner of Main and Catherine Streets that the mayor had a sign put up declaring the spot to be “Carmen’s Corner.” Opposite: Top: The Dove, a mural by Nestor Madalengoitia on Main Street. Bottom: Queen City 15 is a member-run art gallery on Main Street. The sculpture in the window is Gnome Lisa by Lisa Winika.
The situation has driven the fair market value of a one-bedroom apartment in Poughkeepsie to an untenable $1,200 a month, she adds. To combat this, Hudson River Housing is working on increasing their rent relief programs and those in need are encouraged to visit the organization’s website to learn more about that and many other programs servicing vulnerable citizens. A Republican’s Pride for a Protest and the Shame of a Coup Through the summer, Poughkeepsie also became a regional epicenter for protests demanding remedy for racial inequality. Thousands marched peacefully through the city in June, lending their voices to the national outrage over the shooting of George Floyd and all people of color unfairly and unequally targeted, harassed, and killed by police. Black Lives Matter rallies focused the public lens on the city’s own police reform efforts. Mayor Rolison says the Poughkeepsie Police Department has embraced procedural justice reform and implicit bias training for their officers. “We understand how important this is and we know we have more to do,” says Rolison. In contrast to the positive power of the BLM protests, I happened to speak with the mayor less than 48 hours after Trump extremists stormed the Capitol building in Washington on January 6. The deadly, shambolic coup attempt was still very much front of mind and had Rolison thinking about the local impact of inflammatory partisanship. “This event at the Capitol was four years in the making and shame on [President Trump] for keeping it going and having this ill-advised rally. When you belittle people and call them names, it accomplishes nothing. We’ve been way beyond the breaking point for a while,” Rolison says, emotion rising in his usually even-toned voice. “Unfortunately, with the dysfunction in Washington, it trickles down to the local level and the partisanship becomes normalized. I’m a Republican, elected mayor twice in a Democratic city. I don’t care about political party anymore. As mayor, it does not matter. It only matters what you do. We need to find a way to disagree without being angry. Personally, I’m recommitting myself to doing a better job.”
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Dominique Manfrede is a hula hoop influencer (@hoopsy_domo) with a large following who practices daily at Upper Landing Park. The Elting Building, on Main Street, houses Brasserie 292, owned by Charles Fells, who’s frustrated by the way the narrative around COVID’s spread has focused so much on restaurants. “It seems like we’ve pigeonholed restaurants as the source of COVID, and that’s really sad,” says Fells.
Saving the Culture Poughkeepsie’s civic identity and cultural vibrancy is bolstered by art venues and organizations that have been hit hard. The Art Effect is an organization that works with young people to express themselves, impact their community, and find tangible pathways to careers, through art. At the beginning of lockdown in March, that mission was initially hampered by not being able to meet in person, but they have persisted and found new pathways to success. “We were, like so many, hit pretty hard because our programing primarily reaches youth through the schools,” says Art Effect Executive Director Nicole Fenichel-Hewitt. “I felt right away the lack of engagement opportunities for youth. We did a lot we haven’t done before. Every [artbased] business and agency has a different story. It’s heartbreaking to see institutions, like the Bardavon, shuttered for so long. There are fewer and much different opportunities for art right now, but the community in general has been so supportive.” Fenichel-Hewitt says public art like Madalengoitia’s nurse sculpture and street art created during the BLM demonstrations helped bring people together. Art Effect emphasizes creating pathways to employment in the arts, and while the pandemic stifled many opportunities for program participants, the organization’s paid apprenticeship 48 COMMUNITY PAGES CHRONOGRAM 2/21
program with local video production house Forge Media presented an avenue for youth to work on media content for local businesses and organizations who needed content and virtual events as they themselves shifted online. Before the pandemic, Art Effect had just opened their new Trolley Barn Gallery in the restored historic city building on Main Street. While COVID threw a spanner in the works, the Trolley Barn has proven an asset for instruction, as it was large enough for youth to spread out and have 12 young people working in their own art in socially distanced studio areas. Youth have also been working with Mary-Kay Lombino, deputy director and curator at Vassar’s Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, to curate and run the Art Effect’s first international juried art show, which will include art from around the world selected by the kids, as well as some of their own powerful pieces. The show is titled “Homesick” and addresses the raw experience of the pandemic. Fenichel-Hewitt says the artists have created powerful works inspired by these unprecedented times. The exhibition will be on display from February 25 through April 1. Perhaps the only thing that hasn’t changed during the pandemic is the natural beauty that surrounds the city. Scenic Hudson’s projects to protect, rehabilitate, and restore natural resources throughout the city, especially in disadvantaged
neighborhoods, continued through 2020 and provided outdoor spaces for residents to safely escape lockdown. “Scenic Hudson is committed to helping create healthy, livable, and sustainable communities that reflect the visions of people living in them,” says Zoraida Lopez-Diago, the director of Scenic Hudson’s River Cities Program. “This is so incredibly important on Poughkeepsie’s Northside, long plagued by racial, economic, and environmental inequality. Many Northside residents expressed the need to restore local Pershing Avenue and Malcolm X parks, making them safer and more inviting. At Pershing Avenue, construction is underway on a neighborhood farm that will increase access to fresh food—by providing plots for residents to grow produce and through an educational farm whose output will be shared with thousands of families via Dutchess Outreach.” With so many people, businesses, and organizations working so hard to adapt to a COVID world, Poughkeepsie appears to be winning its war with the pandemic. It hasn’t been easy. There have been many losses—and there will still be more—but this is a city that’s use to fighting and accustomed to setbacks. While some of Poughkeepsie’s plans for the future have been delayed, it’s clear the community will not be denied.
feature Vanessa Green at the 2018 Black Women’s March: Continuing the Legacy of Harriet Tubman at the Tappan Zee/Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge in Tarrytown.
Call BlackLine T
Community Care and Liberation on Speed Dial
BY TIANA HEADLEY
A collaboration with
he summer of 2020 jolted America out of a complacent slumber. George Floyd didn’t walk into a Minneapolis convenience store foreseeing his death, but his lynching reminded many Americans of the precarity of Black life when confronted with maximum-force policing. It only took a 911 call over Floyd’s alleged counterfeit $20 bill to seal his death by Minneapolis police. Grotesque public killings like Floyd’s disturb the conscience of many. But for Black people, they’re also routine reminders of what often happens when they encounter police: harassment, or worse, death. 2020 saw newfound enthusiasm for mutual aid networks and community-based public safety systems amid the twin threats of the pandemic and law enforcement. But communities adversely impacted by American institutions have used this model for years, with an awareness that working together better ensures their survival. Existing systems will not meet their needs; instead, they often create and exacerbate them. Police are more likely to shoot and kill unarmed Black men presenting signs of mental illness, compared to white men showing similar behavior, according to a UC Berkeley School of Public Health study. (2020 provided a harrowing example in Rochester, where Daniel Purdue died by asphyxiation in late March after police pressed his head and naked body into the ground. The 41-yearold was suffering a mental breakdown intensified by drug abuse. Purdue’s brother had made the 911 call.) Six years ago, the litany of police killings catalyzed Vanessa Green and other Black Lives Matter Hudson Valley organizers to brainstorm ways to reduce Black people’s contact with the police. What if they were their own first responders? “We asked, what would a hotline for Black people look like?” Green says. “What would it look 2/21 CHRONOGRAM THE RIVER NEWSROOM 49
like for us to respond in our own community that we know and love?” Green and other organizers began by tackling mental health crises in the Black community, starting a rapid response team to reduce such deaths in their neighborhoods. “We knew that if you called the police on somebody in a mental health crisis and they’re Black, they could die,” says Green. At first, they focused on Newburgh, where 24.5 percent of residents are Black. Green and others she’d trained in crisis intervention made house calls to de-escalate situations. Sometimes they got callers from outside the city and state. When they couldn’t make those housecalls, they’d steer callers to other resources. But it soon became clear that they should nationalize their work. In 2016, they shifted gears, retiring their in-person response initiative to focus solely on phone calls and texts nationally. That’s when they became Call BlackLine, a 24/7 hotline that helps BIPOC navigate the struggles, abuse, and harassment they face in America. Bearing Witness to Black Pain Call BlackLine is part crisis line, part warmline. While some callers need immediate counseling, others just need a friendly ear to share dayto-day highs and lows. Still others might need emotional support in their distress or may be on the brink of crisis. The organization answered 1,016 calls between January and August last year, ranging from Black students facing racism at school to people living with schizophrenia searching for a daily constant in their lives. Green says more people are calling about COVID-related stressors amid the pandemic. “I’ve got moms with kids at home who just need to talk to anybody because they’ve been isolated,” she says. January has been another recent major flashpoint for the hotline, after Congress certified Joe Biden’s election victory and a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol. “All day the phone’s ringing off the hook,” Green says. Through an LGBTQ+ Black femme lens, the hotline embraces and affirms even the most marginalized within BIPOC communities. Green and the team of 10 volunteers, most Black, queer, and/or differently abled themselves, connect with callers through their shared experiences with racism, violence, and other forms of oppression. Transphobia and other bigotry aren’t tolerated by callers either. “Our philosophy is, that’s how we get free—when we start lifting up our trans sisters,” Green says. Those lived experiences also inform the training volunteers undergo and the protocols they employ with suicidal ideation and mental health crises. Major hotlines like the US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline have come under fire for tracing and routing callers’ locations to local police departments without their consent. Some are harassed by police and forcibly hospitalized. For BIPOC, LGBTQ folks, and sex workers, these interactions can be fatal. For that reason, Call BlackLine doesn’t call the police. Instead, the team connects callers to regional therapists, psychiatrists, homeless shelters, and other resources as needed. Many are Black or Black-led, and all are vetted by Green and a 50 THE RIVER NEWSROOM CHRONOGRAM 2/21
national network of other racial justice and Black Lives Matter organizers, with approval based on Black women and femmes’ past experiences with the resource. Green herself does not have a therapist’s license, and she says that the hotline’s legitimacy has been criticized since Call BlackLine was founded. But neither she nor other team members present themselves as therapists, and callers in acute need are connected to help. She addressed that criticism in a prior interview: “We don’t need licensing because we’ve been doing counseling in our communities since you trafficked us here.”
“What would it look like for us to respond in our own community that we know and love?” —Vanessa Green, Call BlackLine founder A Solution for a Pervasive Problem The hotline fills another niche in BIPOC community care: It’s a place to report brushes with consumer discrimination, negative police interactions, and racist vigilantism. “In the hopes of changing the way our communities are policed, we hope to speak to people who have had negative experiences with law enforcement or vigilantes,” Call BlackLine’s website states. “We want to help build a new network of support that our community can rely on.” For many Black folks, reporting police harassment to the local department can be daunting because of the fear of retaliation. Raising red flags about white racist vigilantism to local law enforcement can also be futile, as they often fumble their response, enable the activity, or even cheer it on. Police departments have failed to crack down on this activity despite the Department of Homeland Security naming white supremacist extremists “the most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland” in a 2020 report, and warning about the current rise of right-wing extremism as far back as 2009. The threat is not foreign to the Hudson Valley, even if it hasn’t risen to widespread ideological violence. According to the Hudson Valley AntiFascist Network (HVAN), Patriot Front is the main white nationalist group recruiting in the region, primarily through flyering and stickering. John, an organizer with HVAN who prefers to remain anonymous, says Patriot Front’s activity has declined after HVAN doxxed its regional
director, who fled Poughkeepsie soon after. But that hasn’t stopped other local white supremacist groups from attempting to make their presence felt: In December, the neo-fascist group Proud Boys threatened a Putnam for Black Lives food drive led by BIPOC high schoolers. As for vigilantism, John says individual activity that HVAN has monitored pales in comparison to last summer’s counterprotest against a Rally for Black Lives in Pleasant Valley, when “Back the Blue” counterprotesters hurled slurs, punches, slaps, and spit at rally attendees. “It was so shocking because it was so unprecedented for this area. It seemed almost like Charlottesville that day,” John says. Only one arrest for disorderly conduct was made by New York State Police, after two months of public pressure. An early analysis of the event by the Dutchess County Sheriff ’s Office found that “a small group on both sides” were violent. Since those preliminary findings, Captain John Watterson of the Dutchess County Sheriff ’s Office says, “No new information has surfaced, no evidence of misconduct has been discovered, and no charges have been filed.” Green says Call BlackLine doesn’t receive many calls about vigilantism, but that isn’t to say it’s not happening. Most of the calls they do get are about activity that feels threatening but doesn’t quite cross the line: White neighbors looking through a Black neighbor’s window or trailing them by car. And long after Black codes and Jim Crow, national store chains and small business retailers still perpetuate the “Shopping While Black” phenomenon. Green hopes to help BIPOC navigate this reality by developing an app to document these experiences. This isn’t criminal behavior per se, so police might chalk it up to unfounded paranoia. But in a country known for gaslighting Black people about their pain and trauma, the hotline is an alternative safe place where these experiences are affirmed. Cataloguing those experiences can also provide a clearer picture of the problem, and help Call BlackLine quantify its impact. A Vassar College student is creating a database of these reported incidents and other call data that, when complete, Call BlackLine will draw from to bolster grant applications that will allow the organization to pay volunteers. The Road to a Social Justice Framework Despite Call BlackLine’s social justice mission, Green hasn’t always had a social justice worldview. Her 31-year career in the social work, human services, and nonprofit sectors slowly but surely radicalized her. Green can attest to how social services— particularly foster care—can be inherently oppressive for communities of color and the poor. During her 11-year stint at Pius XII Youth and Family Services in Orange County, the overflow of Black and Latinx families in her caseloads disturbed her. “‘Why are there so many Black and brown people in the system?’” she remembers thinking. “And then I realized it’s because they’re Black, they’re brown, and they’re poor.” Green says that the foster care system—or family policing, as she calls it—holds Black and brown families to oppressive standards.
Instead of helping families in hard times, the system punishes them. “We know that poverty is one of the root causes of kids being hungry, moms being on the streets, moms prostituting themselves, [and] doing whatever they need to do to survive,” she says. Green did everything in her power to keep families together. But if that wasn’t possible, she made sure they kept in touch. “There’s no such thing as adoption being private with a Black child. These kids need to know where they come from,” she says. A year after Pius XII’s office closed in 2000, Green joined the Mental Health Association of Orange County to direct rape crisis services, where she witnessed more failures by local government to protect victims. For one thing, Green says police involvement often did more harm than good. At one point, St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital had a policy of calling Newburgh police when they admitted rape victims. Green believes this policy ultimately got one person killed by her attacker, who thought the woman had snitched to police. Through meetings and relationship-building with staff, Green got the hospital to retract its policy. “‘You just killed her,’” she remembers telling St. Luke’s staff. “It’s about giving a woman autonomy. You let the victim decide if they want to report their rape.” Year after year, Green’s supervisors at the Mental Health Association couldn’t keep up with her visions for reform. “They told me, ‘You’re moving too fast. I’m scared,’” she says. Green was also working part-time for the mental health, family counseling, and advocacy nonprofit VCS, gaining the social justice acumen she’d use to attempt to reform mental health response in Orange County. Black women and girls are at disproportionate risk of sexual violence, but are less likely to report rape
compared to white women. When Green did targeted outreach for Black women and other women of color, she was met with resistance from her supervisors. Feeling unsupported, she left the Mental Health Association in 2006 to work full-time for VCS. Green had her ups and downs with the trailblazing social justice nonprofit, as well. On one hand, she gained invaluable knowledge of institutional oppression through her mentor, Phyllis B. Frank, a longtime social justice advocate. On the other, Green says the organization mirrored many other nonprofits in its day-to-day dehumanizing treatment of people of color. “You can ask any Black person working at a nonprofit organization: We experience that on the daily. That’s just par for the course,” she says. But it was anonymous death threats that ultimately ended her time at VCS, after she and other BLM Hudson Valley organizers filed a lawsuit alleging illegal surveillance by Clarkstown police. Green says that put a target on her back. She left her post as a racial justice organizer for VCS in 2018, sought cover from the public eye, and threw herself into the work of Call BlackLine. Bucking the Status Quo Green is dubious of the United States’ willingness to address the institutional and societal oppression driving the calls to Call BlackLine. “This is a country that has never atoned or acknowledged the abuse, terror, and genocide that they have perpetuated on every marginalized peoples since they began their system of colonization hundreds of years ago,” she says. According to Green, social services, human services, and the nonprofit industrial complex aren’t the answers either. Three decades in
these sectors has taught her that much. White supremacy, homophobia, sexism, and patriarchy are all embedded in the institutions and structures that purport to serve the public. Some within these systems have pure intentions. But with the exception of some policy changes, Green says, transformation isn’t possible for innately oppressive structures. Reform, as witnessed in policing, doesn’t eradicate inherent anti-Blackness. “If we’re working on providing services for marginalized communities, we can’t continue to use structures and institutions steeped in maintaining the status quo, that work in hand in hand with police and systems that continue to cause harm within our community,” she says. As an abolitionist and community organizer, Green also believes strongly in divesting funds from police department budgets and investing in education, youth programs, housing, mental health, and restorative justice initiatives. Poverty and poorly funded public infrastructure should be considered public health crises, Green says. Above all, communities should get to shape their futures, unfettered by paternalistic governments and nonprofits. “When we say defund, we want to create different programs for our communities where we’re working as a unit together,” Green says. There is power in self-determinism—that is, there is power in marginalized communities deciding what their freedom looks like. That often doesn’t look like what the government wants it to be. But until that’s realized for all marginalized peoples, Call BlackLine helps BIPOC—from single Black mothers to sex workers—navigate present-day America. Call BlackLine can be reached 24 hours a day at (800) 604-5841.
Vanessa Green at a Trans Remembrance Day event hosted by the Rockland Pride Center in Nyack in 2018.
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portfolio
George Condo in his studio working on Fashion Model, his DIY art project for Open Studio.
Try This At Home The DIY Art Projects of Open Studio Photos by Casey Kelbaugh
I
t’s remarkable that the idea for the generous and inviting Open Studio: Do-It-Yourself Art Projects by Contemporary Artists, published in October by Phaidon, was not born out of the pandemic. Describing the book’s concept in its introduction, coauthors Amanda Benchley, a freelance filmmaker and journalist, and Sharon Coplan Hurowitz, an independent curator and print publisher, write, “We invited 17 of the most celebrated contemporary artists working today to contribute art projects for you to make at home or wherever you define your creative space. Each chapter takes you into the private realm of the studio and walks you through a project step-by-step with the artist as your guide.” Its timing, however, was purely coincidental—Open Studio was fiveplus years in the making and completed before COVID-19 drove everyone indoors. I spoke to the book’s photographer, Casey Kelbaugh, who moved up to his house in Lanesville, a hamlet in Hunter, from New York City in early March. “It’s bizarre,” he notes of
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the book’s timing. “Everyone’s at home with their kids, running out of projects to keep them occupied. It landed right when we needed it.” Kelbaugh was a natural fit for Open Studio. He’d been shooting portraits of artists and covering the arts beat for the New York Times, ARTnews, Frieze, Artsy, and other publications for over a decade. Despite his experience, the 46-yearold Seattle native was still awestruck by the group of artists who signed on, including Julie Mehretu, Mickalene Thomas, KAWS, William Wegman, Marina Abramovic, John Currin, Maya Lin, George Condo, and Sarah Sze, to name a few. “I can’t stress how large they loom in the contemporary art world,” says Kelbaugh. While some of the artists planned their projects in advance, others came up with them on the spot. “We all flew in for this project and they’re like, ‘What’s going on here? What are we going to do?’” Thomas Demand’s contribution, for example, was conceived in the moment, and it ended up being one of Kelbaugh’s favorites. “He draws whimsical,
totally spontaneous, exquisitely rendered little stories on hard-boiled eggs every morning with Sharpies and colored pencils for his kids, like, ‘We’re going to grandma’s house later, and we are driving there in a shark car—here’s a picture of that.’ There were lot of fun moments like that, where we just kinda came to it while in the studio sharing the space with them.” Open Studio is endlessly fascinating, and the insights it offers into these artists’ processes are illuminating and invaluable. The combination of the studio portraits, the accompanying text, and the projects grants the reader an extraordinarily comprehensive, multilayered snapshot of these brilliant minds. Each chapter is akin to an intimate, one-on-one tutorial with a master. While some of the projects are more challenging than others and require materials that might not be readily found in the house, they are all doable. One could think of worse ways to spend a few hours than collaborating on a work of art with a world-famous artist. —Dan Fisher
Marina Abramovic’s project, Counting the Rice; comes with an insert to help make the artwork.
Lawrence Weiner’s Long Division is Sensual, Short Division is Visceral includes a stencil.
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Top: Julie Mehretu, with a print from a carved potato and sweet potato printing project. Maya Lin in her studio. Middle: Materials for KAWS’s Companion: Infinite Holiday project. Bottom: John Currin in his studio. Mickalene Thomas in her studio with materials from her project Love is a Shape Untitled.
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Will Cotton in his studio, wearing The Royal Crown of Candyland.
Materials for making Will Cotton’s The Royal Crown of Candyland.
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music Elvis Perkins
Creation Myths
(Petaluma Records) ElvisPerkinsSound.net Creation Myths embraces the frolic of British-influenced ’60s psychedelia replete with front-seat, McCartney-like bass lines and the languid darkness of a Lennonesque voice and imagery. The production by Sam Cohen (White Denim, Danger Mouse, Rhett Miller) is sublime, bestowing some old-time country to the gentle hallucinogenic drift with his contributions on pedal steel. Delving into familiar themes of loss and life, Elvis Perkins’s prose is provocative, but relatable. Accentuated by prominent horn and nimble piano interplay throughout, his voice belies a soothing affect to the dynamic arrangements. Becoming delightfully untethered at times, the vocals afford a human frailty to music already swaddled in flesh and bone. The resulting vibe leaves us somewhere near the corner of Donovan and A Clockwork Orange. A person’s past may not always imbibe the precarious nature of creativity, but in this case it is hard not to imagine the effect of one’s parents, their art and souls. The Germantownbased singer-songwriter is the son of actor Anthony Perkins, best known for his role in Psycho, and his mother, notable photographer and actress Berry Berenson, perished in the tragic flames of 9/11. If life is suffering, as the recent past informs us, our reaction to it is instrumental in determining the fate of our future lives. Elvis Perkins has directed these intense energies into an artful collage of mood and movement that simultaneously welcomes the listener to just lose themselves and enjoy. From “See Through”: “Leave me alone with my headphones, I’ll be alright.” —Jason Broome
Double Celled Organism
Double Celled Organism (Team Love Records) The members of Double Celled Organism—Hudson Valley multi-instrumentalists Richard Carr and Bill Brovold—are talented and enormously accomplished musicians whose melodic gifts receive an extensive showcase on this new recording. The two cells are appealingly expanded by occasional percussion and—to these ears, regrettably—by a pitch-shifting technology that imparts an artificial, candy-coated timbre to much the artists’ first-rate playing; it becomes so pervasive, it almost deserves its own credit in the liner notes. Initially, on early tracks like “Cranial Space” and “17 Years,” its sensitive use imparts an otherworldly sensibility—by the conclusion, its overuse skirts the parodic. Unprocessed moments like Carr’s rich piano work on “Shadow Puppets” and Brovold’s delicate acoustic guitar on “Simon’s Dream” become, accordingly, rare treats. I sincerely treasure the creative use of digital effects but, in the case of DCO, I hope they have a series of unplugged recordings planned. —James Keepnews 56 MUSIC CHRONOGRAM 2/21
Dust Bowl Faeries The Plague Garden
Life in a Blender Satsuma
Akin to a vampiric villain, 2020 seemed like a parasite out for blood. But just as leech venom is used medicinally, surreal events of a perplexing year can beget healing if approached so. Ryder Cooley is a fearless folklorist, publicly exploring the alchemic connection between human and wearable worm in her “Leech House” act. But she’s also head mistress of the gypsy-folky Dust Bowl Faeries—stroking a warbling saw, squeezing an accordion, strumming a uke, and bleeding out curious poetry in goth attire with girlish vox, a taxidermied ram’s head worn on her back. Her quirky Catskill-based quintet brings uptempo carnival cabaret to The Plague Garden for some funereal fun: a Yiddish vibe permeates a comical poke at cheerful folk in “Dustbowl Caravan”; “Vampire Tango” slinks through polka territory; a promenade up a long road leads to the “Cyanide Hotel”; and a sweet serenade lulls another beloved beast in “Ibex.” Purge your poison, circus-style, when they visit Club Helsinki Hudson’s virtual performance series. —Haviland S Nichols
Life in a Blender’s new EP, Satsuma, raises the stakes of its highly literate songwriting—basing four of its six songs on works by Kurt Vonnegut, Jonathan Ames, Dean Haspiel, and the like—and its dizzying fusion of Beatle-esque power-pop, new wave riffage, and Zappa/ Beefheart-derived musical anarcho-syndicalism. That may sound heavy, but even with lead singer-songwriter Don Rauf’s focus on environmental destruction and human mortality, the Poughkeepsie-by-way-of Brooklynbased outfit turns in a psychedelic blast of a listening party, where Exile-era Rolling Stones meet the B-52s and Lou Reed fronts NRBQ. Rauf’s usual crew is on hand, including cofounder Dave Moody, to deliver the dazzling arrangements captured impeccably by producer/guitarist Al Houghton at his Dubway Studios. Satsuma comes packaged with a limited-edition booklet with custom art and a cocktail recipe for each song fittingly contributed by their “drunkest friends.” —Seth Rogovoy
(Independent) Dustbowlfaeries.com
(Fang Records) Fangrecords.com
books The Hudson: An Illustrated Guide to the Living River, Updated 3rd Edition By Stephen P. Stanne, Roger G. Panetta, Brian E. Forist, Maija Liisa Niemisto RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS, $29.95, 2021
First published in 1996, The Hudson: An Illustrated Guide to the Living River is an essential resource for understanding the full sweep of the great river’s natural history and human heritage. The revised volume gives a detailed account of the Hudson River’s history, including the geological forces that created it, the species that inhabit it, the various peoples who have lived on its banks, and the great works of art it has inspired. Combining both scientific and historical perspectives, this book demonstrates why the Hudson and its valley have been so central to the environmental movement. Royalties from the sale of the book benefit environmental advocacy group Hudson River Sloop Clearwater.
The Ocean House Mary Beth Hughes GROVE PRESS, $26, 2021
Part-time Rhinebeck resident Hughes’s latest book of stories weaves an exquisite world of complicated family tales on the Jersey Shore. In tender and elegant prose, Hughes explores the saving graces of love and the consequences of loss passed through generations while characters trip connections between stories in unexpected ways, prompting the question: Is the past ever really behind us? Hughes is the author of the bestselling novel Wavemaker II, a New York Times Notable Book, and the acclaimed collection Double Happiness, which earned a Pushcart Prize. Her latest book, The Loved Ones, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice.
Plant-Powered Protein: 125 Recipes for Using Today’s Amazing Meat Alternatives Nava Atlas GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING, $28, 2020
Based in Ulster County, Atlas is a vegan cooking expert and the author of many bestselling cookbooks, including 5-Ingredient Vegan, Vegan on a Budget, Wild About Greens, and Vegan Holiday Kitchen. Her latest collection of recipes maps out the possibilities of cooking with meat substitutes like Impossible Burger and Beyond Burger. For those with a DIY spirit, Atlas provides from-scratch recipes for plant-powered ground, meatballs, sausage, and bacon-style strips. Recipes include New England Clamless Chowder; Beefy Barley and Bean Stew; Classic Meat Loaf; Italian-Style Sausage & Peppers; Biscuits with Sausage Gravy; Spicy Chorizo Tofu Scramble; Mongolian-ish Beef; and much more.
Under a White Sky Elizabeth Kolbert CROWN, $28, 2021
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction (and Williamstown resident) returns to the topic of humanity’s transformative impact on the environment, asking: Can we change nature in order to save it? Kolbert takes a hard look at the new world we are creating. Along the way, she meets biologists who are trying to preserve the world’s rarest fish; engineers who are turning carbon emissions to stone in Iceland; Australian researchers who are trying to develop a “super coral” that can survive on a hotter globe; and physicists who are contemplating shooting tiny diamonds into the stratosphere to cool the Earth.
The Trouble with Kim Seth David Branitz INTERSECTION PRESS, $21.99, 2020
The subtitle of Branitz’s memoir—“On Transcending Despair and Approaching Joy”—gives a sense of the narrative arc of his life, from growing up in and unstable household in various projects in Queens to drug use, bad choices, worse luck, familial tragedy, full-blown addiction, and, eventually, a new start. This is not the redemptive pabulum of a neat and tidy AA recovery story. Branitz, co-owner of vegetarian cafe Karma Road in New Paltz and a musician who records under the name Seth Davis, looks the pain of the world straight in the eye and sees intense suffering. Toward the end of the book he writes: “Addicts are like zombies. Not bad. Just starving.”
The Blade Between Sam J. Miller ECCO, 2020, $26.99
Not much more than a dozen pages into The Blade Between, the protagonist, Ronan Szepessy, thinks to himself, “What the hell happened to Hudson?” What the hell happened to Hudson, indeed. That could well be an alternative title for Sam J. Miller’s terrific new novel. Substitute the name of any large town or small city (or big city?) in America for “Hudson” in that sentence, and much (but certainly not all) in Miller’s gripping story will ring true. The question remains, just who is besieging Hudson? Hipster invaders? Greedy developers? Fancy shop owners? Or perhaps the disturbed, tortured souls of the whales that were processed there 250 years ago? Or is Ronan simply having an off week? He is, after all, experiencing withdrawal symptoms, having sworn off crystal meth. He has, after all, just seen his father for the first time in two decades and found an old man drifting in and out of consciousness and delirium, knockin’ on heaven’s door. Plus, Ronan is back in Hudson, the town to which he forswore ever returning, having been traumatized as a teenager by his mother’s suicide and the relentless homophobic bullying and violence inflicted upon him by his hateful, bigoted peers. So what the hell did happen to Hudson? Ronan knew all along about the changes that transformed Hudson from a depressed, decaying, post-Rust Belt landscape into a revitalized river town whose art galleries, antiques stores, restaurants, performance venues, and chic boutiques have made it a destination for day-tripping visitors from the Big Apple. But he’d never seen it firsthand. Now, when he looks through the window into his father’s former butcher shop (named “Sam’s,” the same name borne by the real-life shop owned by Hudson native Sam J. Miller’s father) and sees the precious, expensive tchotchkes on sale, he literally gets ill. While on the one hand, Ronan had to get out of Hudson because there was no place for him there—not as a gay, creative, stylish, aspiring photographer—still, he is astounded by the displacement and destruction caused by the town’s transformation into a culinary, cultural, and commercial playground for the rich. Then again, Ronan’s father has been offered millions for the Warren Street building he’s owned for decades. The property is the final link in a proposed mixed-use development that will forever alter the character of Hudson’s downtown. Most of that money can and will devolve to Ronan, if he can convince his dead-set-against-it father to sell or come up with some other way to sell it to Jark Trowse—the gay internet billionaire behind the Pequod Arms development, who owns an Etsy-type online marketplace headquartered in Hudson and who is running for mayor. This leaves Ronan in a tight spot emotionally and spiritually. He very much embodies both the old and the new in Hudson. Now a successful fashion photographer known for his edgy, risqué style, he certainly has more in common with the so-called hipster invaders than he does or ever did with his fellow Hudsonians. Yet his ties to his hometown and a few old friends are deep and abiding, and there is still much love there to explore. What the hell happened to Hudson is that Ronan has returned, setting into motion an orgy of cataclysmic violence that will turn the city upside down. Ronan discovers a kinship with the whales upon which the city was founded. He feels the pain of “the blade between” his ribs. Hudson’s bloody history will come back to haunt it in ways no one could have ever imagined. And in the telling, Miller skillfully balances stark verisimilitude, parallel dimensions, and the paranormal. The Blade Between hides a novel about gentrification inside a work of genre fiction. That it works as both is Sam J. Miller’s great achievement. He is truly a hometown boy made good. —Seth Rogovoy 2/21 CHRONOGRAM BOOKS 57
poetry
EDITED BY Phillip X Levine
Wildfire
Today Only One Face (11/3/2020)
It Is Better To Be Angry
These mornings I wake with an alarm bell in my throat, wild
What happens if all rumors are true. Don’t ask me where it comes from. It is in the smell of morning air.
people make me angry but it is better to be angry at people than to rail at clouds or at gods isn’t it because if a man sees your anger he might regret what he did that brought your anger on next time he won’t do that thing whereas a cloud goes on about its business indifferent to your emotions gods, I’m told really, really care what you think of them whether you—at the most basic—even believe in their existence whether you—and this seems to be the demand—love them praise them surrender yourself to them and don’t ever fucking get angry with them because otherwise or else you know it’s you who’ll regret it right? so it’s better to be angry at people this logic goes than to be angry at gods or at clouds
with dread. Two thousand miles away, the sky turns orange and then black with smoke. When my mother calls to tell me the ranchers set all their fifty horses free along the highway, police cars ushering their frightened shapes across the lanes through the dark mouth of the canyon, away from the flames I am in my kitchen in New York holding in my hands an egg I am afraid to break and afraid to set back down. I hold it as though the rain depends on it. —Kate Levin Deer in the Yard I once heard someone say they’re nothing but giant rats with hooves. He has a point. They’re pests all right. They eat practically everything, including what the gardening books say they don’t. And there’s no denying that they’re hazards on the roads. I see them everywhere, especially now in the middle of autumn, their dead bodies contorted every which way. But look at this one. Look at how she looks at me. Look at how she stands there. Look at how she holds her ground. Look at how the right foreleg starts to move, then stops moving. Look at how she wants to take one step forward, one step toward me, but doesn’t. This is my ground, she says. Look at how I hold it. —JR Solonche The Beauty of Resilience My son once found A cherry tomato plant Growing out of the cracks Of a sidewalk at the Local chain department store He thought it was The most beautiful thing Like what I see When I look at him —Jason Gabari
In the silence, conscience speaks out. Something in the throat. Line after line, are they in the same boat? Many voices: howls, murmurs, whispers. Many colors: white, black, yellow, brown... Many ages: young, old, very old. Many faces, and each person wears many of them. Today, only the same year-long worn-out face; Like hat, dust laden, rugged trace of washing, like shoe, uneven bottom, cushion depressed, suffocated, air is gone. Like pant, seams split, thread disappears. Like glove, fingers poking out of holes. Like old clothes, like that everyday jacket, color faded. Like old zipper, out of half step. Like hair, decide to bid farewell and you wish the good-bye hug will last longer. Like saggy sock. Like beaten-down brush of toothbrush. Like mirror, always numerous spots. Like that very old car, maybe next year. Many voices, many colors, many ages, many faces. It has been a long journey. Today, only one face.
–Glenn Ingersoll
—Livingston Rossmoor
Dream On
Low Level Prophet I’m not even a low-level bargain basement prophet. I can’t see into the future at all. The best I can do is look at a calendar. Okay, how about the past? I can see into the past a little bit. I can see it clearly every time I watch TV especially, re-runs. It’s the present I’m having problems with. What is happening now, that’s what I can’t explain. —John Blandly
Suddenly, in the middle of the night— to be Clutched like a Pen, and hear the Celestial Voices Sweetly Singing through your Nerves— with such Richness and Splendor, as could never be truly represented in any Earthly Form… and then, To slowly Awaken as this Vision is Dissolving, and to know full well that— The Greatest Foolishness of all would be trying to write it down… —Bob Grawi This Season the metal is cold so cold it burns it turns the skin red brings upon that dry scale one more season I tell myself this is the last one but here we are the last one —Cody McAvey
58 POETRY CHRONOGRAM 2/21
Seeing You Makes Me Happy
Overlook
I want to reach through the screen and hug you. To squeeze you and kiss you and tell you I love you. I see you on the screen and hear you through the speaker. But it’s not the same.
Sometimes, moving up the mountain alone, I stop and listen to the wind in the tops of the trees. It doesn’t reach me, here, on my sweaty face But that hand up there pushing makes the taller pines Groan with the stretch of their wooden weight. On the head of Mount Overlook and combed by the breeze— That’s what height is for, some perks of grandeur And the celebrated view, though it’s really nothing more Than a hill compared to an Everest or an Alp.
You run around with laughter and sing out loud. I see you at the table doing homework and I’m so proud. You ask me questions and I answer. But it’s not the same. Every morning I awake with the thought of you. Every night I fall asleep with the thought of you. Every day I can’t wait to see you on that screen and hear you through that speaker. But it’s not the same. The saving grace is that I know you are safe. You are loved by those who love you most. And cared for by those that care the most. That thought quiets my sadness and softens my heart. I wait for the day I can see you and hug you. To tell you how much I love you. And to thank and hold the ones that took such good care of you. Seeing you makes me happy. —Michael Hargrove
The Changing Season For My Mother Winter trees resting bare and emaciated against a white sheltering moon Alone on your pillow generations you mothered gather Feed and toilet keep you warm In your house reduced to one room In the next room a tv distant baby laughter kitchen pots rattle you remember You and starving birds somehow know the changing season god’s indifference Is waxing like a hunger cold almost reachable your fingers fragile broken twigs. —Daniel Brown
Full submission guidelines: Chronogram.com/submissions
Words words are curls like ferns and fiddleheads associations with dues of usage and intent abused by font and fragile meaning more or less when inked by tongues or pen taste the truth for example and watch the rain make quick work of paper plans recombining metamolecules into paintings of permeable ink blots for the discriminatingly insane to say nothing of tone music hijacking a notebook the symbols mage-ing on the page spellcheck casting: {nonouns univerbs adobjectives punktuation} diabracadabraid the question being the end— full stop or ellipsis
The first time was different, I was a boy And accorded the walk its monumental terms: A Mountain. A Day. I might’ve used the word summit Had I known it then. Yet even as I’ve grown, Mount Overlook remains as big as when I was shown the way up by much longer legs. All the legends—oracles, visions, knowledge apprehended And handed down—I’ve realized, in hiking up here So many times, why they’re still around. At the right age a secret is attaining wisdom And to me one was given, a reward On entry into the elevated order: The location of a spring very near the top. My uncle brought me to the spot, parting briar tangles As we went. Just yards off the trail but well hidden, There’s a cold little pool that spills quietly Into lush, sloping grass. I seized on that fountain Intuitively. An oak leaf swam over rusting summers. I’ve seen far greater heights that held out nothing in return, And here I am, back on the mountain with its spring Like a barely heard whisper. I make a cup of my hands. —Patrick Walsh
Things
Evrythng
Things hide… Behind doors, Under shelves, Between couch pillows…
i am everything all of the time except when you are on my mind and everything is your eyes your skin your love
But worst of all, In plain sight! Alas, the brain when under strain Goes ever so gently Down the drain. —James Lichtenberg
oh how now everything is a disintegration loop i see a ladybug and crumble —Randy C. A. Grimshaw
— David Clark Perry
2/21 CHRONOGRAM POETRY 59
the guide
Three Pan Goddesses, a painting by Jennifer Coates, will be exhibited at LABspace in Hillsdale as part of the group show "The Magic Garden," which runs February 20- April 11.
60 THE GUIDE CHRONOGRAM 2/21
mixed media Welcome once again to Chronogram’s ongoing overview of area arts-related news during these politically wrought and pandemically plagued times. This month, as we anticipate brighter, safer days, we can take solace in the fact that creativity in the Hudson Valley region is non-stop, always finding new ways to survive and thrive. —Peter Aaron
Upstate Films Founders Prepare to Step Aside
Howard Johnson (1941-2021) Kali Z. Fasteau (1947-2020)
Bridge Street Theatre Holds Winter Dance Residencies
After 48 years of managing beloved independent movie theater Upstate Films, the business’s founders, Steve and DeDe Leiber, who established the enterprise with board president Susan Goldman, have chosen to cede control of the operation to someone else. “It was just one of those moments in the making,” says Steve about the decision. “We’ve been running it as a not-for-profit since 1972, and the pandemic really made it crystal clear to us that now was a good time to bring in new people and let them take over.” Focusing on foreign, indie, repertory, and art-house films, Upstate Films maintains two theaters, the original location on Market Street in Rhinebeck and the latterly introduced Woodstock site on Tinker Street (formerly the Tinker Street Cinema, it was reopened under the Upstate name in 2010). While temporarily closed due to COVID-19, the Upstate organization has been presenting a robust schedule online. In the nearly five decades since Upstate Films opened, the by-film-lovers-for-film-lovers venture has screened over 4,000 movies from upward of 100 countries—including the premieres of numerous genre classics and Oscar nominees—and welcomed more than 1.5 million viewers to its screens. Among the visiting film giants who’ve brought their works to Upstate are Jim Jarmusch, Jonathan Demme, Julia Reichert, Steve Buscemi, Shirley Clarke, Ethan Hawke, Emile De Antonio, Karyn Kusama, and many others. Ralph Nader, U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter, Neil Gaiman, John Sayles, Natalie Merchant, Todd Haynes, Pauline Kael, and other luminaries have spoken to Upstate audiences, and Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn performed their original play “My Dinner with Andre” at its Rhinebeck site before it was remade into the classic 1981 film by Louis Malle. Before Upstate Films launched, which occurred in an era when neither VHS nor cable TV—let alone today’s streaming-on-demand services—was common for most households, Hudson Valley cinephiles had to travel to Manhattan to see non-mainstream offerings. The Leibers remade the local landscape for film lovers, bringing the Manhattan movie sensibility to our area, for which they deserve epic applause. But even though they’re preparing to take their bow, fear not, film buffs: Upstate Films will continue, and it’s not being taken over by some faceless multiplex chain. A national search via the community-based website Art House Convergence yielded, according to Steve, some experienced and enthusiastic new operators to assume management, and he and DeDe will stay on in an emeritus/advisory role until, at least, Upstate’s 50th anniversary in 2022. But for right now, they’re welcoming the turnover and looking forward to the vaccinations that will lead to the reopenings of most businesses. “That will be a great day in America,” says Steve.
The sad news came recently about the passing of two locally linked musicians. Tuba player and multi-instrumentalist Howard Johnson died on January 1 after a long illness. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Johnson performed with the Band on the live album Rock of Ages and at their famous 1976 farewell concert that was filmed for the movie The Last Waltz. He led the house band on “Saturday Night Live” during the 1970s and was a familiar presence before audiences at Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble events in Woodstock as a key member of Helm’s recording and touring bands. In addition to working occasionally as an actor, he led his own groups (the best known being the tuba ensemble Gravity) and performed and recorded with Charles Mingus, Taj Mahal, Gil Evans, Hank Crawford, Rahsahn Roland Kirk, Archie Shepp, James Taylor, Jaco Pastorious, and many others. “I treasure these profoundly transformative and indelible experiences of both the social and natural world,” multi-instrumentalist and world traveler Kali Z. Fasteau said when she was profiled in the October 2006 issue of Chronogram. “But I also discovered that we carry our thoughts with us wherever we go, so the real work on improving our heart, mind, and spirit takes place within us.” Fasteau, whose voluminous discography as a leader on her Flying Note label blurs the borders between jazz, world music, and improvised styles, worked with Joe McPhee, William Parker, Dewey Redman, Archie Shepp, Rashied Ali, her late life partner Rafael Garrett, and other leading figures of creative music. Her performance with percussionist Joakim Lartey at one of the magazine-sponsored Cafe Chronogram salon events is fondly recalled by those who there. She died at her home in Monroe on November 20.
Dance has returned to Catskill, despite the COVIDshuttering of the town’s high-profile, dance-oriented Lumberyard arts center. Last month the Bridge Street Theatre, although closed to live performances since March 2020, began its own four-month winter dance residencies program with virtual presentations of the Anh Vo dance company’s BABYLIFT and a work in progress by Dorrance Dance company member Jabu Graybea. The web-based series, which continues this month with a performance of SWITCH by the LayeRhythm Experiment with Mai Le Ho on February 11 at 7pm, also includes a work in progress by Thang Dao on March 12; Chroma (working title) by Adrian DanchigWaring, Norbert De La Cruz III, Joseph Gordon, Kristin Sztyk, and Virginia Wagner on March 26; and Trapped by the Passion Fruit Dance Company on April 10. All will be viewable for free via Bridgest.org.
Kicked Out of Kinderhook, Nick Cave Art Bound for Brooklyn It seems Kinderhook’s town board can’t face the truth. At least not when it’s in letters that are 21 feet high. Groundbreaking visual artist Nick Cave’s artwork Truth Be Told, comprised of black vinyl letters that fill up an entire 160-foot side of art dealer Jack Shainman’s gallery in Kinderhook known as the School, was created and installed last year by the artist as a part of the national conversation on racial injustice that followed the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis policeman. It wasn’t up long, however, before Kinderhook Mayor Dale Leiser and other village leaders demanded that it be taken down, stating that the text-centric work is a sign, rather than public art, which puts it in violation of local signage codes (the board also stated that the material used for the letters is flammable, which has been refuted). After a lengthy court battle with the town, Shainman and Cave accepted an offer to move the work to the Brooklyn Museum, where it will be displayed starting on May 14. In an open letter dated January 7, Cave, who is Black, said, “I know that the town of Kinderhook is not censoring the words I’ve formed, but rather the meaning that it has assigned to them, and in turn the ability of others to have access to my provocation.” (As of press time in midJanuary, Shainman planned to take the piece down in Kinderhook at the end of January.)
Pandemic Recovery Assistance for Arts Venues As of this writing we don’t know how it will happen, but we do know that it will be happening: Federal funding is coming to independent performing arts venues that have been hit the hardest by the pandemic closures. In December 2020, Congress voted to pass the Consolidated Appropriations Act, a $900 billion bipartisan economic relief package that includes the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act (AKA the Hard Hit Act), a $15 billion grant program through which the US Small Business Administration (SBA) will provide aid to struggling live performing arts venues, independent movie theatres, museums, cultural institutions, and related businesses. Also known as the Save Our Stages Act (SOS), the allotment will arrive alongside a $600 check for every American making up to $75,000 and a $300-per-week unemployment insurance enhancement for those who are currently out of work due to the pandemic, a group that includes nearly 100,000 live music professionals. On January 12, Governor Cuomo announced the New York Arts Renewal Plan, which aims to resuscitate New York State’s shuttered arts scene. “We must act,” Cuomo said in a video address. “We cannot wait until summer to turn the lights back on and provide a living wage for artists.” ($10 million has been made available to Ulster County venues through the plan.) Also in January, NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci indicated that, based on current projections, the fall 2021 return of live performances he had predicted early last year still looked plausible—as long as herd immunity is achieved by vaccinating 75 to 80 percent of the population. “If everything goes right, this will occur sometime in the fall of 2021,” said Fauci in a January 11 videoconference. “So that by the time we get to the early to mid-fall, you can have people feeling safe performing onstage as well as people in the audience… I think you can then start getting back to almost full capacity of seating. We’ll be back in the theaters—performers will be performing, audiences will be enjoying it. It will happen.”
2/21 CHRONOGRAM THE GUIDE 61
film
Sarah Rich as Rosie in #Like, which was filmed in Bearsville.
A Tangled Web SARAH PIROZEK’S FILM #LIKE Streaming on AppleTV+
Sarah Pirozek on the set of #Like in Bearsville.
62 THE GUIDE CHRONOGRAM 2/21
British-born, New-York-based writer-director-producer Sarah Pirozek splits her time between Brooklyn and Bearsville—the latter is the moody setting for her noirfeminist, indie thriller #Like. The film—released in 2019 and shown recently at the Woodstock Film Festival, is Pirozek’s feature debut, though she’s no stranger to directing. Since film school, Pirozek’s directed documentaries, music videos, and commercials, but always wanted to make narrative feature films. “I was put on this Earth to tell stories about women,” she tells me during our phone conversation. #Like, a step toward that, is written, directed, and produced by Pirozek. It follows Rosie (Sarah Rich), a teen mourning the first anniversary of her younger sister’s suicide, as she attempts to find the man whose online abuse led to her death. When the police refuse to help, she decides to take matters into her own hands. It’s a twist on the typical revenge film—think Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, with a female protagonist. Reading about internet predation and watching Lee Hirsch’s 2011 documentary Bully made Pirozek think about how the dangers of the real world have followed kids into the virtual realm. Researching the world of online video chat communities that online predators and pedophiles frequent sowed the seeds for #Like. In the film, Rosie’s sister—who wants to be a dancer—posts videos on a site like this. She’s tricked into sharing too much, then stalked and bullied. Pirozek wrote the script before the #MeToo hashtag took off, but it feels appropriate to the moment: It’s angry, feminist, and filled with the paranoia that comes from being surrounded by the leery male gaze, all without being too on-the-nose. “I grew up in an era where men had free rein. I mean, they’ve had free rein until recently. Do you know how many times I’ve walked around with my keys in my hands, ready to punch someone in the face if I have to?” she says, explaining how the tone of the film is inspired by encounters with this male gaze. Devoid of cheap tricks and jump scares, the film’s a slow burn, with some uneasy but never gratuitous scenes. The strength of Pirozek’s script, including the decision to have Rosie interact with The Man (Marc Menchaca)—an unnamed person she assumes tormented her sister online—sets it apart from gardenvariety social-media thrillers. If you recognize The Man, it’s because Marc Menchaca is a television regular, known for his roles as detective Jack Hoskins in “The Outsider” and Russ
Langmore on “Ozark.” “I wrote the script with him in mind,” Pirozek says. The Man has a very limited range of physical motion in the film, an interesting challenge, and one of the reasons, she says, that Menchaca was interested in the role. Although Pirozek isn’t into “blood and guts and gore,” #Like is every bit as unsettling as any body-horror film, if not more so, because its monsters could be any inconspicuous face in a crowd. Everything feels a little off, and Pirozek tells me this was an intentional mood she wanted the film to have, inspired by her experiences as a woman. “It’s all a little bit like the interior world of a lot of women—unless you’re with a group of friends or someone is protective of you, the world can be a little off.” From a bicycle ride around the neighborhood to Rosie’s interactions with Rory, a potential love interest (Dakota Lustick), everything is rife with potential risk. Some of the tensest scenes occur in a bomb shelter, inspired by one on Pirozek’s property in Bearsville. “I was always looking at it and going, ‘Oh, we need to demolish or tear it down.’ But I kept not doing it—it’s so creepy,” she says, adding, “that was a big part of the inspiration for writing the script.” #Like would not have been easy to make without the folks in and around Woodstock. Laurent Rejto, who runs the Hudson Valley Film Commission, gave Pirozek invaluable advice about working in the area. Meira Blaustein, the cofounder of the Woodstock Film Festival, was incredibly supportive of the film and passionate about screening it. Then there were people who helped scout shooting locations, like Julie Beesmer (who runs Bread Alone in Woodstock). She went to high school with one of the police officers, who in turn spoke to the police chief, and helped Pirozek film the scenes in the police station for free. “It’s so satisfying as a female filmmaker to have my first feature be a pro-feminine, feminist movie with an amazing, complicated, strong central performance by Sarah Rich,” Pirozek says. She credits the film’s success, despite its small budget, to a passionate cast and crew. There may be more in store for #Like since she’s considering turning it into a limited series. She’s also working on a documentary called The Coffee and Cream Club, which is about interracial relationships, and serializing a film script she wrote called The Squatters Handbook, based on her real-life experiences in London. —Rhea Dhanbhoora
Nominated for the Pushcart Prize - 2020 Available At: •
Rough Draft
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The Golden Notebook
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Inquiring Minds
THE
DORSKY SAMUEL DORSKY MUSEUM OF ART
Kathy Goodell: Infra-Loop, Selections 1994–2020
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT NEW PALTZ
petercocowoodstock.com
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AMING ION FR EXHIBIT ICES T S E RV FINE AR eet, rren Str 551 Wa Y N , Hudson 4-5614 (843) 32
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Kathy Goodell, Voyager, 2020, courtesy the artist
t.com
February 6 – July 11, 2021 SAMUEL DORSK Y MUSEUM OF ART
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT NEW PALTZ
www.newpaltz.edu/museum
Home Sick
l National The Art Effect’s Inaugura lley Barn! Tro Juried Exhibition at The
2021 February 25 – April 1, ffect.org
845.471.7477 | feelthearte
sie 489 Main St., Poughkeep , 12-4 Mon — Wed, 12-3 & Sat viewing Free | Covid-safe gallery
Mario Merz Long-term view
Dia Beacon 3 Beekman Street Beacon, New York
2/21 CHRONOGRAM THE GUIDE 63
music
That Big Rockin’ Chair Won’t Go Nowhere
A tribute to John Barry (above) on the Bardavon marquee in Poughkeepsie this fall.
POUGHKEEPSIE JOURNAL MUSIC COLUMNIST JOHN BARRY RETIRES AFTER 20 YEARS As the music and arts columnist for the Poughkeepsie Journal since 2000, John Barry’s byline is about as familiar to Hudson Valley residents as the characteristic hum their tires make when they drive over the MidHudson Bridge. But last month, after 20 years, Barry’s editorial hum came to a halt at the publication when he retired from New York State’s oldest newspaper. We reached out to him via email to see how he’s faring following his two decades of community service. —Peter Aaron Congratulations on your retirement after such a long and interesting career. Where are you from originally, and how did you get interested in music? Thank you kindly! I was born in the Bronx and grew up in Rockland County. My older brother gave me the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album as a Christmas gift when I was 11 or 12. That blew my mind. A few years later, in June of 1984 in fact, he took me to my first concert: Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden. We had nosebleed seats but somehow worked our way into the 100s section, right near the stage. Mind blown again, and after that point, there was no turning back. How did you come to be a journalist, and what led to you becoming the music columnist at the Poughkeepsie Journal? I’ve loved to write since the first or second grade and this passion only grew as I got older. In my mid-20s I landed a job at the Journal News, my hometown paper in Rockland, writing about potholes and politics and land development and I loved every minute of it. The music writer position opened up at the Poughkeepsie Journal, which like the Journal News, is owned by the Gannett company. A friend who worked there tipped me off. I applied for the job and the rest is history. What was your first assignment as the paper’s music columnist, and what do you remember about working on the story? My first assignment as music writer for the Poughkeepsie Journal was to interview Woodstock guitarist Jim Weider, who is well-known for playing in the Band, the Levon Helm Band, and the Weight Band. We did our interview over coffee at a joint on Route 28 64 THE GUIDE CHRONOGRAM 2/21
that is no longer there. I’ll never forget getting back to the newsroom and loving how different it was to write a story about a musician, his passion, his performance, and to really let loose with my writing as I worked to capture Jim’s artistry with words. This was very different from writing about potholes and car crashes. There was a sense of abandon to it all and a great sense of possibility. Yet again, my mind was blown by music. Certainly, over the decades you’ve seen some notable concerts and interviewed some interesting artists. What are some of the most memorable shows you’ve seen and what makes them stand out in your memory now? Any Midnight Ramble at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock and any road show featuring the Levon Helm Band remains a night to remember. The Ramble that Emmylou Harris played at Levon’s stands out in particular. Levon always generated a sense of wonder when he walked into a room. But the Ramble with Emmylou was off the charts. It was a game-changer for me and a game-changer for music in the Hudson Valley. Hall and Oates christening Daryl’s House in Pawling on Halloween night 2014. How could there be a better way to launch the music venue and restaurant operated by former Dutchess County resident Daryl Hall? Bob Weir and RatDog at the Bardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie. Prior to the show, I was able to say hello to Weir backstage and hand him a copy of the story I had written about him, for the Poughkeepsie Journal’s weekend magazine. He was visibly pleased and I could have gone home right then and there. But I stuck around and saw one of the best shows of my life. I could go on and on. But quickly, Bob Dylan at the Chance in Poughkeepsie; David Bowie at the Chance in Poughkeepsie; Andy Summers of the Police at the Towne Crier Cafe, when it was in Pawling; Donald Fagen and the Nightflyers at the Falcon in Marlboro; Mike Gordon and Trey Anastasio of Phish playing a Woodstock Film Festival party at Allaire Studios; Mike Gordon playing the Bearsville Theater; David Byrne at UPAC in Kingston; Santana at the Bardavon; any Hot Tuna show at the Bardavon. Any Mountain Jam festival. A trip to the Woodstock festival site and Bethel Woods Center for the Arts was always special. Okay, I’ll stop!
Who were your favorite artists to interview, and was there anything that surprised you about them when you interviewed them? Without a doubt, Levon Helm, Ringo Starr, and Pete Seeger all stand out as far as interviews. I can’t say that anything really surprised me, but the big thing I took away from each interview, and there were multiple interviews over the years with each musician, was the humanity and emotion that each shared. After hanging up the phone or leaving the room when these interviews were done, I felt empowered and emboldened by optimism and faith. Speaking to any of these three guys always felt like I was cozying up to a campfire on a cold night. It was really something else to be invited to stand in their glow. And Pete during at least one phone interview sang a few bars of “We Shall Overcome” and “Over the Rainbow.” Amazing. Are there any lessons you learned from your 20 years on the job that you can impart to aspiring arts writers? Do your homework. Don’t be late. Follow your gut. Approach everything you write about as if it was hard news. Find the hard-news angle and you’ll write a better story that will resonate louder with readers and generate more of a response. Don’t take any guff from people. Don’t be afraid to bark back. Remember that if you’re a music writer or a business writer or the night cops reporter, everything you do is done on behalf of your reader and your main goal is to enlighten them, whether it’s regarding a crooked politician with their hand in the till at city hall or writing a review of the best concert you’ve ever seen, one that changed your life and blew your mind. What do you most hope that readers have gotten from your work? In what ways do you hope people have benefitted from it? I hope I’ve made people think critically about the world around them. I hope my writing has taken them places. I hope my writing has stirred emotion in people. I hope it has held our public officials accountable, so the world we all live in is a just world, where everyone gets a fair shake and the opportunity to claim their successes or failures as their own.
art
Lily of the Valley LILY MORRIS AT LIGHTFORMS ART CENTER Through April 3 Lightformsartcenter.com
Two white birds dive together, almost intertwined, on a black background, forming a convoluted shape resembling the number 6. That’s White Male Peacocks, a painting by Lily Morris. “They’re actually fighting, but they look angelic,” says Martina Müller, of the birds. Müller is one of the curators of “Facing the Unknown, Imagination in the Time of Pandemic” at the Lightforms Art Center in Hudson. The show runs through April 3. Yes, white peacocks exist. They have a genetic mutation called leucism, which prevents pigment from being deposited in their feathers. White peafowl are one of the discoveries Morris made in her ceaseless research. “I have hundreds of folders of pictures, labeled in weird categories,” she explains. “I have shrapnel of images everywhere.” Morris combines these images either through computer manipulation or literal collage, to create her final subjects. Phoenix emerged from a different process, however— it began as a painting with a wig. “For years and years, I tried to paint with my hair,” Morris recounts. “I thought it was a signature of my life force, trailing along everything I did. So I was trying to paint with my hair, and it was just hideously disastrous every time. I didn’t have any control, and it was probably poisoning me.” So Morris bought a three-foot wig on the Internet, secured it to a foam base, dipped the ends of it in paint, and created a flowing shape, which she later filled in with her highly realistic brushwork. These bird paintings are a response to Morris’s previous body of work, Monuments of Man: drawings of telephone poles with absurdly intricate wiring. After immersing herself in this technological complexity, Morris was drawn to the aerodynamic simplicity of a bird’s shape. The installation Jet Shadow combines a painting of a fighter plane, based on the Soviet Sukhoi Su-24, with a sculpture of a diving gannet. (Gannets are the largest seabirds of the North Atlantic.) The shape of the plane mirrors the bird’s aquiline contours, though the colors are opposite: the gannet white, the airplane black. Jet Shadow reminds us that the world’s massive military apparatus—larger than at any time in history— is powerless against a tiny virus, which has killed 1.9 million humans. Morris has been researching the Roman augurs, priests who studied the flight of birds to intuit the will of the gods. In these days of political instability and plague, who doesn’t wish they could see the future in the gliding of a gannet? Müller first encountered Morris’s paintings, fittingly, in the movie Bird Box. (Sandra Bullock had seen the artist’s work on Instagram and invited her to contribute to the film.) “Facing the Unknown” includes seven artists, all of whom live in the Hudson Valley. The work in the show was created during the pandemic. The spacious back room at Lightforms was once the mechanic’s shop for a car dealership. For this show, the space has a winged theme, with floating sculptures made of horsehair and vines by Millicent Young; Morris’s work; and New Nike by Müller: a swirling white abstracted sculpture of Nike, Greek goddess of victory. Osi Audu’s mechanized “self-portraits” are ironic black-and-white paintings that function simultaneously as optical illusions, self-negations, and mystic icons. Lightforms opened in late 2019. Their second show featured work by Hilma af Klint, the Swedish Theosophist who may have been the first Western artist to create purely abstract paintings. The exhibition was a hit, but unfortunately had to close after two weeks due to the pandemic. —Sparrow
White Male Peacocks, Lily Morris, oil on linen, 67" x 48", 2020
2/21 CHRONOGRAM THE GUIDE 65
exhibits ALDRICH CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM 258 MAIN STREET, RIDGEFIELD, CT
“Through the Eye of a Needle.” First major solo museum exhibition of New York-based artist Genesis Belanger. “Frank Stella’s Stars: A Survey.” Outdoor installation. Both shows through May 9.
ARTS SOCIETY OF KINGSTON (ASK) 97 BROADWAY, KINGSTON
“Nicole Fossi: Grounding Narratives.” Paintings. February 6-27.
BARRETT ART CENTER
55 NOXON STREET, POUGHKEEPSIE “Photowork 2021.” Audrey Sands, Assistant Curator of Photography, Phoenix Museum of Art and the Center for Creative Photography, selected 39 photographic artworks for this show. Through February 21.
BARD COLLEGE : CCS BARD GALLERIES PO BOX 5000, ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON
"Sky Hopinka: Centers of Somewhere." First solo museum exhibition of artist and filmmaker Sky Hopinka. Through February 14.
BAU GALLERY
506 MAIN STREET, BEACON “Dream.” Group show with painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, and blown glass by Faith Adams, Jebah Baum, Daniel Berlin, John De Marco, Lukas Milanak, Eileen Sackman, Melissa Schlobohm, Ilse Schreiber-Noll, Diana Vidal, Pamela Zaremba, and Steve Derrickson. Through February 7.
BOARDMAN ROAD BRANCH LIBRARY 141 BOARDMAN ROAD, POUGHKEEPSIE
“Linda Lynton: Seasons.” Oil paintings of trees. Through March 2.
THE CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY AT WOODSTOCK The Checkered Dress (Portrait of O’Keeffe), Hilda Belcher, 1907
Sadie Kelly, 11 years old, Peerless Oyster Co., Lewis Hine, 1911
59 TINKER STREET, WOODSTOCK
“Members Show 2021.” February 15-March 21.
CLARK ART INSTITUTE
225 SOUTH STREET, WILLIAMSTOWN, MA
“WOMEN PICTURING WOMEN” AT THE LEHMAN LOEB ART CENTER Curated by Patricia Phagan, “Women Picturing Women: From Personal Spaces to Public Ventures” studies the themes that emerged when selecting only images of women by women artists. Drawn from the permanent collection of the Lehman Loeb, this exhibit shows how women artists frequently communicated the idea of an intimate or sheltered enclosure even though these women participated in a more public arena to show or even make their work. Other women artists relayed the idea of venturing into a public place such as a street or an office, or into the more public, intellectual world of a narrative found in religion, mythology, or social critique. Artists in the exhibition include Kathe Kollwitz, Berthe Morisot, Hilda Belcher, Emma Conant Church, and Elizabeth Rebecca Coffin, among others. February 6–June 13. Fllac.vassar.edu
LEWIS HINE AT THE DORSKY MUSEUM Lewis Hine (1874-1940) was an American sociologist and photographer who used his camera as a tool for social reform. Hine’s photographs were instrumental in changing child labor laws in the United States. “Lewis Hine, Child Labor Investigator,” curated by Anna Conlan with Amy Fredrickson, showcases a collection of photographs, recently donated to the Dorsky. These powerful photographs were made between 1908 and 1922, while Hine was employed by the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) to investigate and document widespread instances of young children working in unsafe conditions. Hine’s work for the NCLC was often dangerous—he was frequently threatened with violence or even death by factory police and foremen. February 6–July 11. Newpaltz.edu/museum
“Ground/work.” First outdoor exhibition at the Clark featuring work by Kelly Akashi, Nairy Baghramian, Jennie C. Jones, Eva LeWitt, Analia Saban, and Haegue Yang. Through October 2021. “A Change in the Light: The Cliché-Verre in Nineteenth-Century France." This exhibition presents clichés-verre (a hybrid process developed in the mid-nineteenth century, combined the techniques of the graphic arts—namely drawing and printmaking—with those of the new medium of photography) by five French artists—Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, Charles-François Daubigny, Eugène Delacroix, Jean François Millet, and Théodore Rousseau. February 13-May 16.
DIA:BEACON
3 BEEKMAN STREET, BEACON Works by Lee Ufan, Sam Gilliam, Mel Bochner, Barry Le Va, Richard Serra, Mario Merz, and others on long-term view.
EMERGE GALLERY & ART SPACE 228 MAIN STREET, SAUGERTIES
“Exit 20.” Work by artists from Saugerties. February 6-28.
MISON KIM AT GARRISON ART CENTER “Games, Guns, and Glory” at Garrison Art Center presents bold diagrammatic drawings by Mison Kim that suggest semi-automatic rifles, board games, and icons. Within the confines of these rigid graphics, Kim has woven a multitude of lyrical lines that make their way in and around the graphic design. Upon closer examination, the viewer discovers that these are, in fact, architectural plans for government buildings and houses of worship. “The grandest architecture is both eloquent and beautiful, and I thought, that’s where I’d like my lines to live,” says Kim. “These architectures are also associated with presenting society’s greatest aspirations. They were purportedly constructed to support the highest of ideals.” Kim’s intricate wanderings offer pleasure in the simple act of looking and getting lost in an image. Through February 28 Garrisonartcenter.org St. Tommy Gun, Canterbury Cathedral, Mison Kim
66 THE GUIDE CHRONOGRAM 2/21
exhibits SUSAN COPICH AT WINDHAM FINE ARTS Set in Youngstown, Ohio, Copich’s latest work, “then he forgot my name,” is a self-portrait photography series examining decay and mortality in America’s Rust Belt. The series emerged over three years while Copich shuttled between her hometown in Ohio and upstate New York, and spending time with her father, who was battling dementia. Using a rundown family-owned building in downtown Youngstown as a backdrop, she set out researching the structure’s history and reimagining past occupants. Copich’s photography illuminates a psychological landscape through the pain of living, the continuum of decay, and the struggle for change while reflecting on the collective awakening of female power. Through April 15. Windhamfinearts.com
Game Changer, Susan Copich
ESTHER MASSRY GALLERY
HUDSON RIVER MUSEUM
OPALKA GALLERY
“Earthly." Julie Evans, Laleh Khorramian, Meg Lipke, Odessa Straub, and Tamara Zahaykevich—offer various organic ways of making that speak to an ethics of care. Through March 17.
“Librado Romero: From the River to the Desert.” Through June 27.
“Terry James Conrad: Object Permanence." Conrad transforms found or discarded objects into prints and sound. Through March 13.
228 MAIN STREET, SAUGERTIES
FERROVIA STUDIOS
17 RAILROAD AVENUE, KINGSTON “David Schoichet: Recent Work.” Schoichet’s black and white photographs are exclusively of people of color; his subjects range from brief interactions with strangers at public events such as protests, rallies, and marches, to intimate portraits of family and friends. Ongoing.
FRANCES LEHMAN LOEB ART CENTER AT VASSAR COLLEGE 124 RAYMOND AVENUE, POUGHKEEPSIE
"Women Picturing Women: From Personal Spaces to Public Ventures." Curated by Patricia Phagan, this exhibition studies the key themes that emerge when selecting only images of women by women artists. February 6-June 13.
GARRISON ART CENTER
23 GARRISON’S LANDING, GARRISON 424-3960. “Blue Like an Orange.” Paintings by Elise P. Church. Through February 28. "Games, Guns, and Glory." Drawings by Mison Kim. Through February 28.
511 WARBURTON AVENUE, YONKERS
LABSPACE
2642 ROUTE 23, HILLSDALE “The Magic Garden.” Works by Alexander Ross, Amy Lincoln, Amy Talluto, Ann Wolf, Audrey Francis, Betsy Friedman, Brantner DeAtley, Eric Wolf, Jennifer Coates, Joel Longenecker, Katharine Umsted, Kathy Ruttenberg, Leslie Carmin, Mary Carlson, Philip Knoll, Undine Brod. February 20-April 11.
LIGHTFORMS
743 COLUMBIA STREET, HUDSON “Facing the Unknown: Imagination in the Time of Pandemic.” Works by Millicent Young, Osi Audu, Lily Morris, Martina A. Muller, Patrick Stolfo, Richard Neal, and Laura Summer. Through April 3.
MAGAZZINO ITALIAN ART
2700 ROUTE 9, COLD SPRING “Bochner Boetti Fontana.” Examines the formal, conceptual, and procedural affinites in the work of Mel Bochner, Alighiero Boetti, and Lucio Fontana. Curated by Mel Bochner. Through April 5.
MARK GRUBER GALLERY
13 NEW PALTZ PLAZA, NEW PALTZ “Winter Salon Show.” Through February 28.
140 NEW SCOTLAND AVENUE, ALBANY
"Dirt: Inside Landscapes." February 6-July 11. "Collective Consciousness: New Work by SUNY New Paltz Faculty." February 6-July 11.
SHAKER MUSEUM POP UP 17 MAIN STREET, CHATHAM
“Liv Aanrud: Double Down”. Twelve large-scale, brightly colored textiles. Through February 28.
“Fringe Selects.” Selection of Shaker material chosen by Katie Stout from the Museum’s permanent collection, plus two new chairs by Stout created as a response to her exploration of Shaker material culture. Through February 28.
THE POUGHKEEPSIE TROLLEY BARN
SUSAN ELEY FINE ART
"Home Sick: International Juried Art Exhibition." The Art Effect's new international juried youth exhibition series. February 25-April 1.
“This Land.” Group show with Rachel Burgess, Katherine Curci, Deborah Freedman, and Rachelle Krieger. Through February 28.
QUEEN CITY 15
WOODSTOCK ARTISTS ASSOCIATION AND MUSUEM
PAMELA SALISBURY GALLERY
362 1/2 WARREN STREET, HUDSON
489 MAIN STREET, POUGHKEEPSIE
317 MAIN STREET, POUGHKEEPSIE
433 WARREN STREET, HUDSON
“Meet the Matis: Adaptation and Endurance in Amazonia.” An exhibit featuring the photography and artwork by Carl Parris and his fellow explorers during their expedition to meet the Matis Indians. February 6-27.
28 TINKER STREET, WOODSTOCK
SAMUEL DORSKY MUSEUM OF ART
34 TINKER STREET, WOODSTOCK
1 HAWK DRIVE, NEW PALTZ “Ben Wigfall
and Communications Village”. A retrospective of the artist, teacher, and gallerist Ben Wigfall (1930-2017). February 5-July 17. "Lewis Hine, Child Labor Investigator." February 6-July 11. Kathy Godell: Infra-Loop, Selection 1994-2020."
"Celebrating the Centennial: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Part 1.” Through March 28.
WOODSTOCK BYRDCLIFFE GUILD “Gamut.” 2021 annual members' show. Through February 28.
2/21 CHRONOGRAM THE GUIDE 67
Horoscopes By Lorelai Kude
SHAKE YOUR BOOTY, RATTLE YOUR JEWELRY, ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES 2021’s celestial theme centers on the three Saturn-Uranus squares, the first on February 17, pitting conservative Saturn in radical Aquarius against revolutionary Uranus in cautious Taurus. This is shorthand for earthquakes, both literal and figurative, and identity crises, both personal and collective. We’ll witness a sea change in the direction of established institutions and gain revolutionary understandings of ourselves in the context of our affinity groups as a response to these great societal stressors. We are likely to see everything from radical traditionalism to progressive conservatism, and the strangest of bedfellows are made when otherwise nonaligned interests cooperate in the service of larger, more over-arching imperatives. This response to the erosion of stability and trust in established institutions can be found in the Aquarian realm of groups, communities, the collective, and affinity groups arranged around common values and ideals. New Moon in Aquarius February 11 with Venus conjunct Jupiter feels like one of the best days of the year, when positivity and hope run high and good news brings a fresh wave of faith in the future. Mercury retrograde in Aquarius conjuncts Venus and Jupiter February 13 to 14 prompts grand promises and glorious declarations; Mercury direct after February 20 is challenged to fulfill these after reviewing for viability and bottom-line reality. Mars in Taurus trine Pluto in Capricorn February 24, energizing a real opportunity for transforming the very foundations of this American enterprise; Full Moon in Virgo February 27 sifts for purity of purpose, nobility of intentions and practicality of methodology. Everybody will have to compromise; nobody gets everything they want but everybody gets something. Snatch moments of personal joy while you can as external events shake, rattle, roll and rock our world. Shake your booty, rattle your jewelry, and roll with the punches, because 2021’s a new kind of wild ride.
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ARIES (March 20–April 19) Your personal resources and friendships, communities, and your affinity groups will be most affected this month by the square of Saturn to Uranus February 17, but Aries has a preview of this energy February 1 when the Sun squares Mars, giving you an opportunity to rehearse your response to the challenges at hand. Identify your uncompromisable bedrock values and know the locations of your red lines, because the assault against both is real and has long-term consequences. Mars sextile Neptune February 13 energizes your visionary powers; Mars trine Pluto February 24 empowers rebuilding your dreams from the ground up.
TAURUS (April 19–May 20) 2021’s three Saturn-Uranus squares, first on February 17, with Uranus and Mars in Taurus are turbulent events creating space for a radical remodel of your personal value and public worth. Venus in Aquarius through February 26 presents unusually creative and risky opportunities; normally you might pass on these, but these times are anything but normal. Venus squares Uranus, conjuncts Saturn, and sextiles Chiron February 6: if you’re not “woke” by now these celestial events will shake you from slumber. Venus conjunct Jupiter February 11 and square Mars February 19: recognize your lucky break when you see it. A practicing, professional astrologer for over 30 years, Lorelai Kude can be reached for questions and personal consultations via email (lorelaikude@yahoo.com) and her Kabbalah-flavored website is Astrolojew.com. 68 HOROSCOPES CHRONOGRAM 2/21
Horoscopes
GEMINI (May 20–June 21)
MARC
MENCHACA
The Sun’s conjunction to Mercury retrograde February 8 segues the subject matter back to a decision made midJanuary regarding what best serves your current life path. Mercury square Mars February 10 prods a sore spot, producing fighting words unless you can hold your tongue until Mercury’s three-way kiss with Venus and Jupiter February 13 to 14, which may turn out to be kiss-and-makeup. First Quarter Moon in Gemini February 19 assesses progress realistically; Mercury direct after February 20 adjusts goals for closer alignment with your increasingly spiritual and surprisingly deep dive into the realms of your own subconscious and unconscious mind.
SARAH
RICH
CANCER (June 21–July 22) Last Quarter Scorpio Moon February 4 resolves a question of the heart. New Moon in Aquarius with Venus and Jupiter February 11 may be one of your best days this year, as conditions are perfect for development of those values and resources you share with friends, comrades, and communities of commonalities. First Quarter Gemini Moon February 19 uncovers near-forgotten treasures of your past achievements, which come in handy now. Full Moon in Virgo February 27 empowers eloquence and elegance as you communicate your vision of service and shared beliefs in your quest to manifest your vision for everyone’s good.
LEO (July 22–August 23) Sun in solar opposite Aquarius through February 18 illuminates a seldom-seen, long-shot perspective allowing you to catch a glimpse of an otherwise elusive truth. Sun square Mars February 1 is a big, possibly abrupt boost (or kick in the pants), career-wise, especially if that career involves creative or financial partnerships. Sun conjunct Mercury retrograde February 8 reveals important details you’ll want to double-check and confirm before proceeding with any partnership agreements. Sun sextile Uranus with Moon in Leo February 25 is your day to let your unique originality shine by delivering inspirational genius—and genius loves company, particularly yours.
“Pulses with the energy of a ‘70s thriller.” —Elements of Madness
A NOIR THRILLER SHOT IN THE HUDSON VALLEY
“Horror Story for the #MeToo Generation” —Wicked Horror
“#Like is dark. Very dark.” —Eye for Film
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VIRGO (August 23–September 23) Sun conjunct Mercury retrograde February 8 reveals that your spiritual, mental, and physical health are intertwined and need equal measures of nourishment and care. Mercury square Mars February 10 empowers you to fight against your own extremist instincts for the balance your well-being needs right now. Receive the gifts of grace, which is freely given unmerited favor, February 13 to 14 with Mercury’s conjunction to Venus and Jupiter. Mercury direct after February 20 recalibrates your path forward. Full Moon in Virgo February 27 precisely focuses on distinctions and details needed to ensure you’ll have the resources needed to reach your goals.
LIBRA (September 23–October 23) The theme song of your planetary ruler Venus transiting Aquarius February 1 to 26 is “Friends, Lovers, or Nothing,” as your planetary ruler whose realm is love, creativity, and romance squares erratic Uranus, conjuncts structurepositive Saturn and sextiles vulnerable Chiron on February 6. You lay down the law, and the law of the heart is commitment and honesty, at least from where you’re sitting. Venus conjunct Jupiter and Mercury retrograde February 11 to 13 prompts gigantic ultimatums and supersized declarations which by First Quarter Moon in Gemini February 19 with Venus’s square to Mars you’ll want to modify, or at least add addendums. 2/21 CHRONOGRAM HOROSCOPES 69
BEATLES ROLLING STONES BOB DYLAN
JIMI HENDRIX BOB MARLEY NEIL YOUNG
FLEETWOOD MAC SPRINGSTEEN BLONDIE BOWIE GRATEFUL DEAD LED ZEPPELIN
SANTANA PATTI SMITH STEVIE WONDER
STEE ELY DAN THE BAND RAMONES
VAN N MO ORRIS R SON TALKING HEADS NIRV VANA A TO OM PETT TY PRETENDERS RADIIO OHE EAD PEAR RL JAM
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AVETT BROTHERS LANA DEL RAY JADE BIRD THE NATIONAL ALABAMA SHAKES
NORAH JONES THE FELICE BROTHERS
VAMPIRE WEEKEND NATHANIEL RATELIFF
2ND ANNUAL READERS’ CHOICE AWARDS
DON’T WAIT, NOMINATE!
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Horoscopes
SCORPIO (October 23–November 21) The Sun’s square to Mars February 1 reveals tension between surprisingly competitive priorities: your partnerships and your home and family, putting you in an awkward situation. Last Quarter Moon in Scorpio February 4 ties up loose ends around decision-making you’ve been avoiding; you can’t afford ambivalence when your personal worth is at stake. Mars in Taurus trine Pluto in Capricorn February 24 presents a rare opportunity to manifest structural support and bolster harmonious conditions for the establishment of your vision. Win/win by demonstrating your reassuring trustworthiness and stability in the eyes of those you share your most intimate resources.
SAGITTARIUS (November 22–December 22) February 17 is the first of 2021’s three Saturn-Uranus squares, opening space to shift how expressing your selfperception manifests in your body, environment, and life. You can upgrade your mind-body connection in a significant way at the New Moon in Aquarius February 11, with Venus conjunct Jupiter. Make friends with your most vulnerable parts and help them feel safe enough to heal. Mercury retrograde’s conjunction to Jupiter February 14 recovers remembrances of things past, amplifying articulation of your heart’s desires. With Mercury direct after February 20 and Sun in compassionate Pisces, speak good and it will be good.
CAPRICORN (December 22–January 20) Conservative Saturn in revolutionary Aquarius squares revolutionary Uranus in conservative Taurus three times this year, first on February 17. This impacts your values, valuables, your material world, and the realm of your unique personal creativity. How do these relate to each other? Venus conjunct Saturn February 6, reminding you of what gives you pleasure and sparks joy. You’ll want to hold on to that at Saturn’s sextile to Chiron, exposing vulnerable fears and feelings of inadequacy, especially rooted in home life. Confront these fears; denying yourself creative fulfillment using responsibility as an excuse is no longer a viable option.
AQUARIUS (January 20–February 19) Classical ruler Saturn makes three hard squares in revolutionary Aquarius to modern ruler Uranus in conservative Taurus, during 2021, first on February 17. With Jupiter and Saturn both in Aquarius now, your sense of fate is supersized and a feeling of facing your own destiny both excited and frightens you. Resisting the disruptiveness will only make it worse. New Moon in Aquarius February 11 calls you back to basics: The roots of revolution need nurture before the branches bear fruit. Venus squares Uranus February 6, connecting you with supportive allies. Sun sextile Uranus February 25 illuminating dazzling, fresh ideas.
PISCES (February 20-March 19) The three Saturn-Uranus squares of 2021 aim to unblock communicative channels between your conscious and unconscious mind. There’s every chance you’ll employ alternative means of accessing these realms, as that’s where the gold of your creative treasure is buried, but it’s important to do so responsibly. Mars sextile Neptune February 13, energizing your ability to envision the next step forward. Sun in Pisces after February 18 facilitates a deep dive into the recesses of your imagination; Full Moon in Virgo February 27 puts practical matters into perspective as you gain valuable insights into integrating specific ideals into real-life conditions.
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Bistro To Go................................... 16
John A Alvarez and Sons.............. 26
Cabinet Designers, Inc.................. 25 Calyx Berkshire Dispensary.......... 41 Cassandra Currie........................... 68 Catskill Farms.................................. 8 Charlotte’s...................................... 37 Clarkson University.......... back cover Clemson Brewing Company......... 37 Columbia Memorial Health............. 2 Daily Planet, Redline Diner........... 14 Darkside Records.......................... 45 Dedrick’s Pharmacy...................... 30 Dia Beacon.................................... 63 Douglas Elliman Real Estate......... 22 Etain............................................... 31 Facets of Earth.............................. 34 Fionn Reilly Photography.............. 68 Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center................................. 45
Larson Architecture Works........... 22 Liza Phillips Design....................... 26 Mark Gruber Gallery...................... 69 Masa Midtown............................... 16 ModCraft........................................ 22 Mohonk Mountain House................ 7 Montano’s Shoe Store..................... 8 N & S Supply.................................. 27 The Pass........................................ 41 Peter Aaron.................................... 63 Peter Cocuzza............................... 63
Cannabis in New York: Recreational marijuana on the horizon?
Ridgeline Realty............................. 26 Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art..... 63 Solar Generation............................ 27 Steven Holl Architects................... 25
Glampstar...................................... 37
Third Eye Associates Ltd.............. 68
Green Cottage............................... 37
Two In Love Photo......................... 34
The Green Palate........................... 15
Walnut Hill Fine Art........................ 63
H Houst & Son............................... 26
WDST 100.1 Radio Woodstock.... 70
Hapeman Hill................................. 22
Wild Earth Programs....................... 2
Hawthorne Valley
Williams Lumber......inside front cover
Herringtons.................................... 26
February 18, 4-5pm
Lambs Hill LLC.............................. 34
Sunflower Natural Food Market.... 15
Hempire State Growers................. 41
Legal Weed is Coming
John Carroll................................... 30
Gary DiMauro................................... 1
Waldorf School........................ 18
Join the (virtual) Conversation
Wimowe......................................... 37
All signs point to legalization in 2021. So, what might that look like in New York State? A discussion with
local growers, dispensary owners, politicians, and legalization advocates.
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YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County.................... 30
Chronogram February 2021 (ISSN 1940-1280) Chronogram is published monthly. Subscriptions: $36 per year by Chronogram Media, 45 Pine Grove Ave. Suite 303, Kingston, NY 12401. Periodicals postage pending at Kingston, NY, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Chronogram, 45 Pine Grove Ave. Suite 303, Kingston, NY 12401.
2/21 CHRONOGRAM AD INDEX 71
parting shot
October 20, 2019, a photograph by Ion Zupcu from his Etudes on Glass series
72 PARTING SHOT CHRONOGRAM 2/21
Hopewell Junction-based photographer Ion Zupcu’s latest body of work draws on his earlier photographs of paper sculptures, though for his Etudes on Glass, Zupcu has moved into a colorful mode, leaving his black-and-white paper portraits behind. The primary colors, graceful curves, and crisp creases of the sculptures belie the work’s formal complexity. Their minimalist rigor brings to mind the repetitive phrases and shifting textures of composer Philip Glass, whose music was a primary influence on this body of work. “My longtime obsession with the music of Philip Glass inspired me to imagine his music in visual form,” says Zupcu. Determining the appropriate color directions to mirror the sounds of [Glass’s] Etudes, or how to construct visual analogues to his satisfying note strikes/attacks, was as engaging a process as listening to the music itself. Each photograph in Etudes on Glass started with a line drawing; then I considered the relationships between lines, space, forms, light, color, proportions, and the structures of the foreground and background. The resulting paper sculptures were constructed as still lifes in my studio and photographed utilizing a traditional setup—camera, tripod, and natural light.” Zupcu recommends viewing his photographs while listening to Philip Glass’s Etudes in the background. “Etudes on Glass” is being exhibited through February 20 at ClampArt in Manhattan. Clampart.com. —Brian K. Mahoney
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BEACON INSTITUTE FOR RIVERS AND ESTUARIES
