Chronogram June 2020 by Chronogram

More than 20 years ago

Trex® revolutionized the industry by introducing a high-performance, eco-friendly alternative to wood decking. Today, we’re proud to offer more ways than ever to live outdoors—whether you’re building on a budget or seeing your biggest, boldest idea through. It’s never been easier to make the Trex® decision that’s right for you.

WILLIAMS

Lumber & Home Centers

Rhinebeck • Hudson • Hopewell Junction • Tannersville • Red Hook • Pleasant Valley • High Falls

www.williamslumber.com

845-876-WOOD

The promise of standing together

To all all the the heroes heroes helping helping us us To get through, through, thank thank you you get Today, everything everything seems seems unfamiliar, unfamiliar, even even Today, uncertain. But But we we see see strength strength all all around around uncertain. us. Healthcare Healthcare heroes heroes working working selflessly selflessly on on us. the frontlines. frontlines. Community Community heroes heroes providing providing the supplies and and support. support. Even Even heroes heroes at at home, home, supplies putting their their lives lives on on hold hold for for the the greater greater putting good. Thank Thank you you for for helping helping protect protect what what good. we cherish cherish most–our most–our health. health. There’s There’s promise promise we in standing standing together. together. And And that that promise promise will will in help us us overcome overcome anything. anything. We We are are right right here here help with you you at at nuvancehealth.org/coronavirus. nuvancehealth.org/coronavirus. with

COVID-19 Community Community Hotline: Hotline: COVID-19 (888) 667-9262 667-9262 (888) TTY // Accessibility: Accessibility: TTY New York York -- (800) (800) 421-1220 421-1220 New Connecticut -- (203) (203) 749-9188 749-9188 Connecticut

Danbury Hospital Hospital || New New Milford Milford Hospital Hospital || Northern Northern Dutchess Dutchess Hospital Hospital Danbury Norwalk Hospital Hospital || Putnam Putnam Hospital Hospital || Sharon Sharon Hospital Hospital || Vassar Vassar Brothers Brothers Medical Medical Center Center 6/20 CHRONOGRAM 1 Norwalk

CLARKSON UNIVERSITY

Master of Science in Engineering Management Now Accepting Applications for Fall 2020 Take your career to the next level. Clarkson’s Master of Science in Engineering Management is designed for professionals in the engineering and technical fields. — Meets the needs and schedules of working professionals through a flexible, part-time program, with a one-year, full-time option starting in September 2020. — Combines limited on-site classes in either Beacon, N.Y., or New York City, with synchronous online learning. — Offers concentrations in data analytics, operations management, artificial intelligence or construction engineering management.

Learn More discover.clarkson.edu/beacon

BEACON INSTITUTE FOR RIVERS AND ESTUARIES

ndodge@clarkson.edu / 518-419-0081

HUDSON VALLEY AGENTS

Your Farm To Table Insurance Agency

Utica First

Hudson Valley Agents is not just your average insurance agency. We literally are the Hudson Valley. Our employees live, shop, and work here. Our top insurance companies are located either in or close to the Hudson Valley, so their employees also live, shop, and work here. We have handpicked 6 regional insurance carriers that know the Hudson Valley, Catskills, and Adirondacks better than anyone,

Eastern Mutual Claverack Cooperative

Preferred Mutual

Kingstone Insurance Co.

MidHudson Cooperative

We insure the people and businesses of the Hudson Valley and mountain regions so we are familiar with the nuances of the area. We know the roads, we know the weather, we know the seasons, we know the people, and we know their businesses.

www.HVAgents.com • (845) 778-2141 • 24/7 Service 2 CHRONOGRAM 6/20

6 20

june

Entrepreneur Marisa Philips at home in Saugerties with her two kids. THE JUGGLE IS REAL, PAGE 38

FRONT MATTER

HEALTH & WELLNESS

6 On the Cover: Hilma af Klint 8 Esteemed Reader 11 Editor’s Note

36 Deactivating COVID

FOOD & DRINK 12 Can We Reopen Now? Restaurateurs are working to put protocols in place for dining in in the COVID envinronment.

HOME & GARDEN 20 No Ghosts Attached The contemporary art collection of Javier Magri and Carol McCranie resides in a Greek Revival in Hudson’s historic district.

28 Seduction of Nature Illustrator Wendy Hollender’s latest book, The Joy of Botanical Illustration, takes the amateur artist on a journey from assembling the basic materials through methods for drawing scientifically accurate fruit, flowers, and leaves.

Two potential treatments for the novel coronavirus are taking root, right in our backyard. Dr. Richard Horowitz of Hyde Park is looking into alternative remedies and Regeneron in Westchester has shifted significant resources into COVID-related projects.

COMMUNITY PAGES 42 Rhinebeck v. COVID-19 One of the Hudson Valley’s most picture-perfect small towns, Rhinebeck brings to mind quaintness, not quarantines. The town’s deeply ingrained sense of community has made it exceptionally equipped to react well to the pandemic.

HOROSCOPES 68 Should I Stay or Should I Go? Lorelai Kude scans the skies finds that June is jumpy, impatient, and restless with the nervous energy of retrograde Venus in Gemini.

features 16 The Sow Must Go On

by Marie Doyon

The impact of COVID-19 on farmers varies, but one thing is clear: now more than ever consumers are wanting farm-fresh food.

34 Pomp, Despite the Circumstances by Anne Pyburn Craig

With in-person graduation ceremonies put on hold, schools are innovating what commencements look like for students and families.

38 The Juggle is Real

by Nadine Cafaro

According to a New York Times survey, 80 percent of mothers with children under 12 have said they are spending more time homeschooling their children than their partners. We talk to local mompreneurs.

6/20 CHRONOGRAM 3

CMH EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT & RAPID CARE CENTERS ARE OPEN! CMH would like to remind our community not to avoid seeking emergency medical care if you need it. CMH Emergency Department in Hudson and Rapid Care Centers in Copake and Valatie are OPEN and we are HERE FOR YOU! If you are sick, injured or have a medical emergency you should be seen immediately. Avoiding medical attention can be damaging to your health and can lead to complications in the future. We are taking precautionary measures to keep our hospital and rapid care centers clean and safe for our patients.

CMH IS HERE FOR YOU!

www.ColumbiaMemorialHealth.org

518-828-7601

FIND YOUR CENTER AT MARIANDALE Join Our Growing Online Community The Center at Mariandale is mindful of the close connection and comfort that the center provides. We want to reinforce that bond in these challenging times. The Center at Mariandale has launched a popular online community through the Zoom technology platform, providing spiritual comfort and companionship, contemplative prayer, writing support, and other exciting new ventures. Many of our former on-site programs, plus new ones, are now offered online, for free or at low cost. Please join us!

CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER ONLINE, WITH GAYNELL CRONIN Thursdays at 11:30am

Gaynell Cronin, spiritual director, retreat leader, and author, will lead online Contemplative Prayer sessions at 11:30am on Thursdays.

READING THE SUNDAY SCRIPTURES WITH A CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRIT, WITH GAYNELL CRONIN AND FR. JACK RATHSCHMIDT, OFM, CAP. Fridays at 11:30am

Utilizing the cultures out of which the bible emerges, we will take a long loving contemplative look at the Sunday scriptures in order both to understand them, and discern how we are called to live them.

Find Your Center at Mariandale Ossining, New York mariandale.org (914) 941-4455

READING PEMA CHODRON, WITH JO-ANN IANNOTTI, OP June 13, 10:30am

Come take time to expand your heart and nourish your mind with “new food for thought.” The schedule will include time for input, quiet personal reﬂection, and conversation.

Please visit our website at www.mariandale.org for new programming and updates.

4 CHRONOGRAM 6/20

6 20

june

Above: The Woodstock Day School graduating class of 2020; below: the Mountain Laurel Waldorf School graduating class of 2020. POMP, DESPITE THE CIRCUMSTANCES, PAGE 34

ARTS 48 Alternate History: A Brief Synopsis on the Origin of Spoons Alex Bildsoe explains how spoons come into being.

50 Between Gigs Peter Aaron talks with Lara Hope, Bobby Previtte, and James Felice about what’s sparking creatively for musicians sheltering in place.

54 The City We Became N. K. Jemisin talks with Marie Doyon about her latest fantasy novel, The City We Became, and about the forces that shape cities and books.

60 Music Album reviews of Darkest Light by Shana Falana; New Store No. 2 by Chris Maxwell; A Bissell Rhythm by Paul Green & Two Worlds; and Full Bloom by The Wild Irish Roses.

61 Books

A review of Scott Spencer’s new novel An Ocean Without a Shore, plus short takes on new books by Jim Metzner, David Taylor Ives, Mark Morgenstern, Bethany Slatman, and Barbara Linn Probst.

62 Poetry Poems by Kemp Battle, Laurie Byro, Lisa Caloro, Peter Coco, Don Downey, Dina Greenberg, Andrew Joffe, Josephine Johnston, Joe A. Oppenheimer, Haleigh Rabideau, and Celia Watson Seupel. Edited by Philip X Levine.

64 Drive-In Theaters No need to social distance in your own car!

67 Exhibits

A gallery of virtual and actual shows this month.

72 Parting Shot Alicia Decker’s storytelling cloth is part of the “Margins” exhibition at Barrett Art Center. 6/20 CHRONOGRAM 5

on the cover

Portrait of Hilma af Klint Helena Zay, oil on canvas, 36”x48” Much like the spirits of the afterworld that preoccupied her, Swedish painter and mystic Hilma af Klint’s (1862-1944) work has found new life well beyond the earthly bounds of its maker. And, perhaps eerily, it seems it’s because the artist herself knew well that the physical world she existed in wasn’t quite ready for her creations. Back then, af Klint, a woman in much more of a man’s world than now, had begun making her bold, colorful abstract works in 1906, nearly a decade before Kandinsky, Mondrian, and other (male) presumed pioneers of abstraction were creating their influential works. Not long before she died, af Klint willed boxes containing several of her paintings to her nephew, Royal Swedish Navy Vice Admiral Erik af Klint, with the stipulation that the works be kept secret until at least 20 years after her death. The collection caused quite a stir in her homeland when the boxes were opened in the 1960s, and eventually formed the basis for a massively popular 2018-2019 Guggenheim exhibit. But during all of that there were eight more af Klint works, made circa 1913-1915 and dubbed the “Tree of Knowledge Series,” along with a sketchbook, lying undiscovered in Dornach, Switzerland, the hometown of her theosophical colleague Rudolf Stenier. And now, thanks to Martina Angela Müller, senior artistic director of Lightforms Art Center tracking them down, they’re on loan from the Albert Steffan Foundation and on view at in at Lightforms in Hudson through August 9. (The cover artist, Helena Zay, splits her time between painting in her studio and serving as artistic director/curator of Lightforms Art Center.) “There’s something very mysterious about them,” says Müller about the watercolor images. “They’re very symmetrical, with geometric patterns—spirals, helixing—but with a little bit of representation of human forms, and birds. They’re sort of half naturalistic and half abstract.” Born near Stockholm into a bourgeois naval family, af Klint took portrait painting classes as child before studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts as a member of the first generation of women accepted into art academies. Upon graduating, she set up her first studio, where she began painting portraits and landscapes whose profits enabled her to travel throughout Europe. During her travels, she created numerous studies of flowers and other plants that are arrestingly meticulous; she also spent a year at the Stockholm Veterinary Institute as an illustrator of surgical techniques. Things took a major turn in af Klint’s life near the turn of the century, when she became interested in spiritism, a movement then just coming into vogue that held that the living could contact those who’d theoretically passed on to the spirit world. Her interest in spiritism spiked in 1880, when her younger sister Hermina died, and she became increasingly interested the theories of figures like Steiner and Theosophy founder Madame Blavatsky. She became a spiritual medium herself and joined a group of simpatico female artists known as The Five, with whom she held seances with the aim of contacting “the High Masters” in the next world. “Looking at her paintings, it’s helpful to understand how her abstract work started as representations of what she thought the spiritual world was like,” Müller says. “The brilliancy of her colors on the gray paper she worked on makes them very striking. Each day [the gallery is open], we turn the sketchbook to a different page for viewing in the display case.” Inspired by af Klint’s detailed botanical images, Lightforms commissioned 11 female artists to create images representative of the plants seen in her work, resulting in over 100 new pieces that are also on view in the show. Hilma af Klint’s “Tree of Knowledge” series and related works are on view through August 9 at Lightforms Art Center, which is planning to reopen for limited-size groups of viewers in accordance with New York State COVID-19 advisory guidelines. Lightformsartcenter.com. —Peter Aaron 6 CHRONOGRAM 6/20

Two of Hilma af Klint's paintings in the "Tree of Knowledge" series at Lightforms Art Center in Hudson through August 9.

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

COME UP FOR AIR Escape to nature this summer.

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 Alex Bildsoe, Melissa Dempsey, Michael Eck, Lorelai Kude, Fionn Reilly, Carolyn Quimby, Seth Rogovoy, Jeremy Schwartz, Jesse J. Smith, Sherry Jo Williams

PUBLISHING FOUNDERS Jason Stern & Amara Projansky CEO Amara Projansky aprojansky@chronogram.com PUBLISHER Jason Stern jstern@chronogram.com CHAIRPERSON David Dell

media specialists Kelin Long-Gaye k.long-gaye@chronogram.com Kris Schneider kschneider@chronogram.com Jen Powlison jen.powlison@chronogram.com SENIOR SALES MANAGER Lisa Montanaro lmontanaro@chronogram.com

marketing ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Samantha Liotta sliotta@chronogram.com

interns EDITORIAL Nadine Cafaro, Annemarie Durkin, Abby Foster, Tiana Headley, Emma Misiaszek, Erica Ruggiero MARKETING & SALES Pete Donohue, Sophie Friedrich, Tilejah Gilead, Zezini Robinson, Grace Sakellariou SOCIAL MEDIA Sierra Flach

administration

ESCAPE TO NATURE THIS SUMMER. Timeless summer vacations are our specialty— for more than 150 years. Beginning with our June 15th reopening, we are taking every precaution to keep our employees and guests safe. We’ve modified the guest experience to adhere to physical distancing guidelines while still maintaining your ability to have a true Mohonk vacation complete with delicious food, unforgettable outdoor adventures, and of course—relaxation on the mountaintop.

BUSINESS MANAGER Molly Sterrs office@chronogram.com; (845) 334-8600x107

production PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Kerry Tinger ktinger@chronogram.com; (845) 334-8600x108

Schedule a tee time for a round of golf, purchase a hiking pass for the day, or plan an overnight staycation.

PRODUCTION DESIGNERS Kate Brodowska kbrodowska@chronogram.com Amy Dooley adooley@chronogram.com

office 314 Wall Street, Kingston, NY 12401 • (845) 334-8600; fax (845) 334-8610

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 2020. 6/20 CHRONOGRAM 7

esteemed reader by Jason Stern

“The vision of the intolerable is reason enough to establish for human consciousness the necessity to be transformed.” —René Daumal, Everything You Know is Wrong Esteemed Reader of Our Magazine: Spring came slowly this year. She seemed to be waiting for something, a sign, and then, like an explosion, the gray skies cleared and the bare trees popped out fully formed leaves and the world was green again. Now, as I shelter in place, the beauty of the season is almost overwhelming. Every day new signs emerge—plant growth, birdsong, mating dances—the unstoppable creative force of Gaia. At the same time is the narrative presented by the professional and amateur fourth estate, myriad commentators, politicians, public relations professionals. The situation is bleak. There’s an invisible enemy threatening catastrophe in the air, on the surfaces. We are told to be afraid, and we are afraid. We are told to be angry and we are angry. We are told to stay apart, for safety, and we oblige. I find myself faced with two overlapping realities. Placed one on top of the other, the amalgam produces a cognitive dissonance difficult to reconcile. The first is the beauty of the world, the budding trees, growing plants, clear skies, animals emerging from slumber, as well as the happy and peaceful humans I see from a distance as I venture from my abode. The other is the dreaded contagion, economic and business collapse, the sacrifice of freedom to be together other than via mediated corporate platforms, and what is, in a practical sense, the voluntary implementation of a new degree of technocratic, totalitarian control of human society. How to reconcile the heaven and the horror? This inquiry plays out in my being many times each day. I find myself struggling to allow both perceptions at once. It is as though there are two worlds existing simultaneously. I alternatively gravitate toward one or the other. A walk in the woods opens my consciousness to an essential goodness, to the felt sense of the interconnectedness and interdependence of plants, animals, and humans living together in the body of the biosphere. And then I go to the store, careful not to upset anyone with too much proximity, heartbroken by the atmosphere of fear. I arrive home, check the news, and the bile begins to rise. I resist the temptation to get involved in conversations about the situation because its obvious absurdity is almost overwhelming. I am reminded of a fragment of a poem by Rumi, loosely remembered: Yesterday was beauty and light. Today, a burnt blackness everywhere. In the book of my life these two days shall be written as one. A hundred years ago Rudolph Steiner predicted that our century would herald the triumph of materialism. What he called the “Ahrimanic” influence would so dominate human life as to cause humanity to forget we have a nature subtler than the physical objects of our bodies. Society would be structured for automation and control. The silver lining, he said, is that people individually and in small groups could make use of this influence to deepen our connection to our creative and spiritual nature. A small number of people willing to work in this way might be able to transmute the influence into something useful for transformation. In one of Steiner’s lectures, he said, “Let us learn to say frankly: Yes, the earth is in its decline, and human life, too, with respect to its physical manifestation; but just because it is so, let us muster the strength to draw into our civilization that element which, springing from humankind itself, will live on while the Earth is in decline, as the immortal fruit of Earth evolution.” For me, practically, this means striving to live equally in two worlds. First of all, the world of the inner life, of presence in myself, presence with others, in nature, and in the subtler qualities of life, relationships, meaning, and love. At the same time, it means being fully present with the prevailing narratives about the state of things, even as apparent events produce a reaction of fear or anger. With this balance, there is the choice to include the essential perception together with fear and anger. With this balance is relief from the need to dramatize anything. With this balance, poison transforms into nectar. —Jason Stern 8 CHRONOGRAM 6/20

Japanese Antiques Two Warehouses, 15,000 square feet. Packed with Japanese Treasures. NOW OPEN BY APPOINTMENT Rhett (413) 298-0215 or (413) 404-8842, Molly (413) 528-0099

Nesting Cormorants Screen Taisho 1912-26

18th C. Shigaraki Tsubo

MUNDY’S

ASIA GALLERIES Kyoto · Great Barrington

“Asia Wonderland” - BOSTON GLOBE “You find the most amazing things” - New York Times

Taisho Kitsune (Shinto Shrine Foxes)

Meij Period (1868-1912) Clothing Chest

GREAT BARRINGTON - 420 Stockbridge Rd, (Rte 7) @ Jenifer House Commons. 413.528.4619 Open May-Sept or by appointment 413.528.0099 KYOTO, JAPAN - by appointment only +81 (0) 90-3848-8934

asiagalleries@sbcglobal.net

www.asiagalleries.com

FLEXIBLE ONLINE ADVANCED CERTIFICATE IN TRAUMA AND DISASTER MENTAL HEALTH

If you’re a mental health professional with a graduate degree in counseling, social work, or a related field, you can learn the skills and professional training to help children, families, first responders, caretakers, or anyone exposed to trauma and disaster. http://www.newpaltz.edu/idmh/grad.html  Your public university

6/20 CHRONOGRAM 9

, pllc

352 Dean St. Brooklyn, NY 11217 332 225 7200 www.polyarch.studio mph@polyarch.studio

Pools, Spas & Patio Furniture 1606 Ulster Avenue, Lake Katrine (Next to Adams) • 336-8080

One Light...Changes EEverything. hi

Architecture (new construction + renovation) Interior Design, Sustainable Design, Landscape Design, Historic Restoration, & Remote Consulting

Custom Inground Pool Installations Large Selection of Patio Furniture Salt Water Pools

Close working relationships with a community of builders, artists & craftspeople local to the Woodstock, NY area

Free Pool & Spa Water Analysis

www.aquajetpools.com

Woman-owned & operated

Family owned and operated for over 30 years

the

berkshires farm table cookbook 125 Home-Grown Recipes from the New England Hills

"...A Love Letter to Farmers and Food...a timely contribution and

a response to our needs and concerns at this particular moment."

_ LISA GREEN, RURAL INTELLIGENCE

ELISA SPUNGEN BILDNER & ROBERT BILDNER

with CHEF BRIAN ALBERG

www.berkshiresandbeyond.com

10 CHRONOGRAM 6/20

Best. Logos. Designer. The wrenching COVID-19 transition is also creating new opportunities. If you’re planning your next move, or a startup, be well positioned for resurgence or new growth. Start with a strong brand image, which will benefit you for decades. We are presently offering dramatically lowered rates for logo designs, hoping to help you launch your new future. You can do this – we can help.

www.BestLogosDesigner.com • 845.548.4872 Special rates: code BLD 001 NOTE: I have designed hundreds of logos for clients local, national and international, communicating via phone and email. No need for face-to-face contact. Be well and stay safe.

Best Logos_ad_Chrono_Modified.indd 2

4/15/20 1:18 PM

editor’s note

by Brian K. Mahoney

Up the River

y gateway drug to getting hooked on Amazon was my love of the pulp science fiction novels of Phillip K. Dick. Although many films had been made of his mind-bending narratives— Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Total Recall to name a few—no adaptation had ever been made of my favorite work of his, The Man in the High Castle. The 1962 Hugo Award winner is an alternate history that imagines an America that lost World War II and is occupied by Nazi Germany in the east and Imperial Japan in the west. (It’s a fun little brain-twist of a book, with neat details like Hitler with advanced syphilis, the Mediterranean Sea drained by the Nazis for farmland, and cigarette machines that dispense joints.) When I saw the ads promoting a pilot for a new Amazon series based on The Man in the High Castle—the ads featured photos of giant swastika banners hanging off high rises on Broadway1—I knew I had to sign up for Amazon’s streaming service. On November 21, 20142, I became an Amazon Prime member, forking over $99 for my first year of membership—without hesitation and without thinking twice. While pessimistic wags were concerned at the time that Amazon was killing off independent booksellers (remember those halcyon days when Amazon was perceived as pushing only one retail sector toward the cliff ?), I’ve always loved roaming among the stacks in bookstores, and would never buy a book online that I could buy in person. And that didn’t change with my Prime membership. But, the holiday season was in full swing at the time, as was a new Mahoney family tradition. To try and put the kibosh on a gift-giving arms race that had taken hold of my family, we’d introduced a Secret Santa gift-giving format, with a $1003 spending cap. To facilitate the Secret Santa set-up, we used Eflster.com, which allowed all of us to upload our wish lists, and the gift givers to buy the exact gifts (brand, size, color, etc.) online from links in the Elfster platform—a very convenient solution for a thorny family problem. However, almost all of my holiday shopping was now being done through Amazon, not in local retail stores. And, of course, it all came with two-day delivery,

and five percent back if I used my Amazon credit card. As in so many areas of life, the pandemic has given me time to think about where I spend my money. Without getting too deep in the weeds on spending local as a general good (it keeps money circulating in the local economy, rather than being shipped off to corporate headquarters in Seattle or elsewhere), it seems that Amazon may not need my money as much as local retailers. Amazon has emerged as one of the big winners of the pandemic, with revenues of $75.4 billion in Q1—that’s $33 million an hour. As for Amazon’s owner, Jeff Bezos, who is already the world’s richest man, in April, he saw his fortune swell by $13 billion to $145 billion. While Bezos was pooping money in pants made of money, Amazon workers were complaining about risky working conditions in its warehouses due to a lack of social-distance protocols. Christian Smalls, who organized a walk-out over the conditions at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse, was fired. Former Amazon VP Tim Bray wrote a tell-all blog post explaining why he quit in dismay over the company’s HR policies. And we kept buying from Amazon and getting it shipped to our houses (two-day delivery!). The smiling boxes shipped and shipped and shipped. As I write this at the end of May, the MidHudson Valley waits for Gov. Cuomo to take us off PAUSE and open up “non-essential” businesses. Well, having a thriving retail sector is an essential part of our communities. The pandemic has been an extinction-level event for many industries (cough: media), retail foremost among them. There will be lasting harm to American small businesses from COVID-19. The pandemic will favor franchise chains over mom-and-pop shops and banks and 24-hour pharmacies rather than bookstores and nail salons and takeout counters. Local retail will have to fight to survive. The pandemic has brought with it a pervasive feeling of helplessness. Most of us are not essential workers, told to stay (mostly) at home until further notice. But there is one simple thing we can do to help small businesses in our communities.4 If you have an Amazon Prime account, try this: Go to Amazon.com and click the End Membership button. I did this today. No more streaming. No more two-day shipping. No more Amazon. Buy local.

Another aspect of Amazon’s promotional campaign for the show involved an innovative use of the New York City subway. One car on the 42nd Street Shuttle was covered—seats, walls, and ceilings—in imagery from the show, which fused design elements from German (Nazi eagle) and Japanese (rising sun) World War II-era flags with the stars and bars of the American flag. Riders on the subway were surrounded by the dystopian counterfactual of the show. Ten days after it launched, the MTA removed the ad placements at the request of Gov. Cuomo. Mayor de Blasio called the ads “irresponsible and offensive to World War II and Holocaust survivors, their families, and countless other New Yorkers.” 1

I know the exact date because Amazon lists your annual renewal date on your account profile. 2

As you might imagine, given this was a voluntary program, compliance by those who started the gift-giving arms race was low, thus creating a toxic stew of grievance on one side and hurt and misunderstanding on the other. In recent years, Secret Santa, as well as the entire Mahoney Family holiday program, has been discontinued. We get together now on days less fraught with clashing ideological agendas. 3

There are, of course, many things we can do help the small business community survive, like buying online from local retailers, buying gift certificates from businesses that don’t have online stores, and paying it forward in innovative programs like the Hudson Business Coalition’s Hudson Bonds initiative. 4

6/20 CHRONOGRAM 11

food & drink

Image from the Mid-Hudson Region Hospitality Industry Guidelines for Reopening After COVID-19, compiled by the Bonura Hospitality Group

12 FOOD & DRINK CHRONOGRAM 6/20

CAN WE REOPEN NOW? Local Restaurants Prep for Post-Pandemic Dining By Melissa Dempsey

an you recall your last restaurant experience before the novel coronavirus struck? Not just where you went and what you ate, but how you felt walking in the door— perhaps excited to try a new spot or welcomed back as you approached a family favorite. Were you seated an arm’s-reach from an intimate couple, the aroma of their grilled steaks giving you salad remorse? Could you see staff in a crowded kitchen busily weaving between one another? It’s only been a few months since restaurants were ordered to cease dine-in service, though it feels much longer. But time goes on, curves flatten, and government-issued small-business loans only go so far. As restaurants look to reopening, we move toward regaining that sense of normalcy that we all took for granted—but of course, it won’t be the same. Though suggestions have been constantly evolving, especially as officials watch the results of other states reopening, the mostrecommended guidelines for welcoming back patrons are heavy on continued distancing and germ awareness. Despite the values of our eco-conscious region, disposables are in: plates, utensils, linens, and menus—the latter of which might just become relegated to phone apps that allow online ordering, touch-free payment, and alerts when tables are ready (it’s time to move beyond that buzzing black pager, anyway). Tables and barstools would see greater elbow room between them, while staff would wear face coverings to prevent the spread of germs, concurrently removing the warmth of a simpatico server’s smile, no matter how fun the fabric print. “The most important factor in reopening is keeping our employees and our patrons safe. If that means restrictions have to be in place, that’s what has to happen,” says Michael Bonura, principal of Bonura Hospitality. With nearly 50 years of experience in the hospitality industry, the group owns popular restaurants like Blu Pointe in Newburgh and Shadows on the Hudson in Poughkeepsie that have been offering limited to-go and curbside pickup. Also included in Bonura Hospitality are lauded event venues Anthony’s Pier 9, The Grandview, and West Hills Country Club, among others, whose wedding-season was completely thrown off; as of May 20, they had to move the dates of almost 200 spring and summer weddings. Bonura was part of a collaboration to create regional guidelines for a phased reopening of the restaurant and catering industry within the MidHudson region. Additional input was provided by the Leading Caterers of America, Dutchess

County Regional Chamber of Commerce, and Orange County Chamber of Commerce In the document, the initial phase starts with strict physical distancing: tables placed a minimum of six feet apart; a 50-percent maximum occupancy; no more than six guests per table; and no meetings, ceremonies, dancing, or seating or standing at bars. Employees would undergo daily health screenings and enhanced hygiene guidelines including required face coverings. Cleaning processes would include regular sanitizing of frequent-touch surfaces, single-use menus, no self-serve food, and extra hand sanitizer. Last, no symptomatic guests would be admitted and guest logs are suggested to allow contact tracing.

“If you don’t have the same volume coming through your restaurant, how do you make enough to make it worthwhile?” —Melissa Fleischut The second phase eases the guidelines with a maximum of eight guests per table, bar seating at six feet apart, and dancing allowed with distancing in place. The third phase allows for increased occupancy up to 75 percent and relaxes six-foot distancing if law allows. The final phase, listed as the New Normal, allows for 100-percent capacity and relaxed physical distancing guidelines, but keeps enhanced hygiene and sanitation protocols intact. It might seem overwhelming; the idea of a dancing ban sounds as though it comes straight from the plot of an Off-Broadway production. But with the rapid pace of the pandemic and the uncertainty we still face—including the looming threat of an autumn recurrence, the true

concern is safety in the wake of the century’s most significant health scare; one that forced the region into uncharted territory. Beyond working on the reopening guide, Bonura says his group’s main focus has been on taking care of staff; between the restaurants and event venues, the group laid off more than 500 employees. “If you asked me in February if I thought we’d lay off a single employee outside of a known seasonality situation, I’d have called you crazy,” Bonura explains. “The first thing we did was open up to serve free meals to all of our laid-off staff and their families. We didn’t have hours for them to work, but we refused to see any of them or their families going hungry. Soon we’ll be able to bring back our staff to wintertime levels. This time of year, we’d typically have nearly double those staffing levels, but I certainly don’t expect to get to that seasonal high level this year. We expect to open with maybe 25 percent of expected volume; we’ll have half of our tables and expect to only fill half of them. Hopefully volume grows, but that’s our realistic expectation.” The Depth of the Hole The past two months have seen a startling reversal for an industry that had become a linchpin of the tourism-based regional economy. Over the past two decades, the Hudson Valley has leveraged its proximity to New York City, its abundance of agricultural resources, and its culinary talent to develop a fine-dining culture built around fresh, local ingredients and farmto-table experiences. Fine dining, as part of the larger, more traditional food and beverage sector, represents a major regional employment sector. A 2010 report by the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council found that the food and beverage sector employed 53,000 people in Columbia, Greene, Ulster, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Sullivan, Westchester, and Rockland counties, a 23-percent increase from 2000. By 2016, that number had grown to 67,000. The sector is ranked fourth in regional employment statistics, behind health care, government services, and retail. In Ulster County, where some 464 establishments employ 5,162 workers, the food and beverage sector grew by more than 10 percent between 2014 and 2018, growth that wasn’t projected to slow down before the pandemic hit. According to Melissa Fleischut, president and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association, sales had already begun to drop in March as more and more New Yorkers began 6/20 CHRONOGRAM FOOD & DRINK 13

It’s Easy Being Cheesy

588 ROUTE 9

FISHKILL , NY 12524

845.765.8401

9AM-9PM CURB SIDE PICK UP • ONLINE ORDERING • DOOR DASH DINEATREDLINE.COM

From appetizers to signature cocktails, we’ve got you covered on your big day! 79 Main Street New Paltz 845-255-2244 Open 7 Days

of Full Line uts C ld o C Organic ooking C e m o H and en Delicatess

Local Organic Grass-Fed Beef • Lamb • Goat • Veal • Pork • Chicken • Wild Salmon

No Hormones ~ No Antibiotics ~ No Preservatives Custom Cut • Home Cooking Delicatessen Nitrate-Free Bacon • Pork Roasts • Beef Roasts Bone-in or Boneless Ham: smoked or fresh Local Organic Beef • Exotic Meats (Venison, Buffalo, Ostrich) • Wild Fish

Voted Best Indian Cuisine in the Hudson Valley

Red Hook Curry House ★★★★ DINING Daily Freeman & Poughkeepsie Journal ZAGAT RATED

HUNDI BUFFET

TUESDAY & SUNDAY 5-9PM

4 Vegetarian Dishes • 4 Non-Vegetarian Dishes includes: appetizers, soup, salad bar, bread, dessert, coffee & tea All you can eat only $16.00 • Children under 8- $10.00 28 E. MARKET ST, RED HOOK (845) 758-2666 See our full menu at www.RedHookCurryHouse.com

OPEN EVERY DAY Lunch: 11:30am-3:00 pm Dinner: 5:00pm-10:00pm Fridays: 3:00pm - 10:00pm

Catering for Parties & Weddings • Take out orders welcome

14 FOOD & DRINK CHRONOGRAM 6/20

On & Off Site Catering Available

Take-out orders from Liberty Street Bistro in Newburgh.

staying home, out of the virus’s path. Then the bottom fell out with Cuomo’s shutdown order. A survey conducted by the association, released on April 21, shows the depth of the hole the industry has found itself in. Statewide restaurants lost $3.6 billion in sales, while 80 percent of the sector’s workforce has been laid off since March. The survey found that overall sales were down 79 percent in the first 10 days of April compared to the same period last year. Forty-nine percent of the 550 New York restaurants surveyed planned to shut down entirely for at least 30 days. Eleven percent reported that they had or would shortly close, with no plans to reopen. Fleischut, meanwhile, said that by her own estimation, 25 to 30 percent of restaurants that close down will never reopen. She believes that many of the association’s members are treading water, getting by on takeout and delivery services that may not be sustainable for long. “If you don’t have the same volume coming through your restaurant, how do you make enough to make it worthwhile?” she says. “I think a lot of places will eventually decide that takeout and delivery is just not working and they’ll shut down.” An App for Appetizers For smaller restaurants, like New Paltz’s longstanding Main Street Bistro—an intimate space whose stellar breakfast menu has been known to lure throngs of hungry patrons and hungover college students each weekend—the new norms have owners scrambling to come up with innovative solutions. For instance, the bistro’s owner, Doug Thompson, decided to set up an online order form through the Toast Tab app, as a way to streamline menus and takeout services. “We’ve spent a lot of time in webinars to set the bistro up in the safest way possible for our guests and staff,” Thompson says. “The app is mainly

for ordering takeout through pickup or delivery, allowing customers to pay beforehand and letting them request condiments and prewrapped silverware in advance. It may also be used to replace our in-house menus so we can minimize the number of items that need to be sanitized.” With a small entryway, usually those waiting for a table at the bistro are relegated to forming crowds just outside of its doors and on the sidewalk. To encourage safe distancing and reduce crowding, Thompson says he plans to set up a system where guests receive texts when their table is ready; he’s considering taking reservations, as well. “This is going to be a challenge for all businesses, but to survive we have to adapt,” he says. But space regulations produce other challenges for restaurant owners—reduced crowds lower the amount of income they can make, while food supply shortages have raised costs. “It’s been particularly challenging to source certain items like cured pork products and eggs, and, in general, food costs are through the roof,” says Mike Kelly, executive chef and owner of Liberty Street Bistro in Newburgh. “Our biggest challenges have been what probably every other restaurant is facing at the moment: Mounting bills that still need to be paid by margins even thinner than they were before; not being able to have our entire staff back at work and missing out on the camaraderie associated with that; and having to function in uncertain times and on an unknown timeline, making it impossible to plan more than a few days at a time.” Kelly believes it will take a significant amount of time to recover financially, but he’s optimistic. “We’ve realized our need to be adaptable; we’ve weathered literal storms in the past, having to close for a few days at a time, but never anything close to this,” he says, referencing the tornado that

swept through the City of Newburgh in the spring of 2018. “Now we know we need to be flexible to meet whatever current conditions dictate, and those conditions may turn on a dime.” Though he’s eager to get back to business as usual, whatever that entails, Kelly says the safety and comfort of employees and guests come first. “We are constantly monitoring the situation and adhering to best practices put forth by the state, the CDC, and the FDA, among other governing bodies,” he says. “When we’re able to open again for inside dining, we’ll be following whatever current protocols are being recommended at the time, including properly-spaced and reduced seating capacity, hand sanitizing stations for our guests, and frequent disinfecting of any shared spaces and surfaces. We want to ensure our guests and employees feel safe and comfortable dining and working with us and hope the need for social distancing and hypervigilance wanes with time. When it’s safe to do so, we want to get back to having our dining room and lounge filled to its pre-pandemic capacity.” But even with strictly adhered-to guidelines, the initial days after reopening are filled with uncertainty. Will people come out to eat? They will. Will it be uncomfortable? At first, probably. But some of the best things in life are uncomfortable in the beginning, from new shoes to becoming a parent to the first night in a new home. We’ve seen firsthand how resilient Valley restaurateurs can be, and how determined they are to thrive. But we hungry residents play an important part in the next step: Our ability to adapt and work alongside business owners to maintain safety protocols can help keep our communities safe and our region’s beloved bistros, bars, cafes, and restaurants afloat. Additional reporting by Jesse J. Smith. 6/20 CHRONOGRAM FOOD & DRINK 15

feature

Danielle Carolei at Locust Hill Farm Market in Millbrook

THE SOW MUST GO ON Farms in the Pandemic By Marie Doyon

hether or not there’s a pandemic, the cows still need to be milked, says Kam Bellamy, executive director of Churchtown Dairy, a biodynamic farm in Hudson. “They’re blissfully unaware of everything that’s going on.” The 250-acre farm, a legacy of Peggy Rockefeller’s farmland preservation efforts, produces raw milk from 28 dairy cows plus beef, pork, and cheese. The onsite store is currently closed to the public, accepting email orders for curbside pickup. “We’re known to be a highquality producer, so our sales have really gone up during this time,” Bellamy says. “We’ve seen a lot more people coming to the store for our milk and our meat especially, but also for our cheese.” Churchtown Dairy’s raw milk certification and direct-to-consumer sales model has saved it from the economic peril most commercial milking operations in the state are facing. According to New York’s State Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball, 50 percent of dairy produced in the state is normally sold to the food service industry. With schools closed and restaurant sales slowed to a mere trickle, demand for dairy has plummeted, causing some New York farms to dump milk. And yet, demand at grocery stores and food pantries has grown exponentially, but 16 FARMS CHRONOGRAM 6/20

in order to shift to these new buyers, milk must be packaged differently, with the availability of plastic one-gallon containers limiting the volume of milk that can be processed and distributed. A Diverse Industry While milk is by far the largest agricultural commodity in the state, at the time of the last USDA Ag Census in 2017, there were more than 33,000 farms in New York, which generated an annual revenue of $5.75 billion across a diverse portfolio ranging from apples to maple syrup to corn and Christmas trees. In an already unpredictable industry subject to nature’s flights of fancy and the Trumpian rollercoaster of international politics, novel factors brought about by the pandemic—ranging from the delayed arrival of migrant farmworkers to consumer panic-buying to school and restaurant closures—are shifting the economic landscape under farmers’ feet. And still, on-farm activities from milking to pruning and planting have necessarily continued amid COVID-19. “Every farm business is different, and everyone has a different kind of challenge during this time,” says Matt Igoe, acting director of the Rondout Valley Growers Association, a farmer-led nonprofit that

advocates for the viability of local agriculture and the preservation of farmland. “But everyone is doing the same thing—running their businesses, planting, extremely busy, and recreating sales models and sales channels. It’s a difficult, fastpaced, furious moment.” What makes the Hudson Valley such an amazing place to buy local food—the incredible diversity of types and sizes of farms—means that COVID-19 impacts vary. Basically, how individual farms are faring at the moment differs based on product and operation size. “It’s a good thing for people who have a direct sales outlet. For those who don’t, like [commercial] dairy, it’s hard,” says Jennifer Fimbel, senior resource educator for agriculture for Cornell Cooperative Extension and Dutchess County ag navigator. A Purple Patch for CSAs and Farm Stores A study released on April 15 by Hunter PR confirmed what we already knew intuitively: stuck at home, Americans are cooking more. A lot more. And with the current anxiety around supermarkets, demand is shifting to other sources. “People are wary of grocery stores, especially with produce, which comes from who knows where and was touched by who knows who before it gets to you,” says Bob Fade, of

Plants ordered from Clove Valley CSA’s new online store packed for curbside pickup at the farm in High Falls. Left: Aileah Kvashay planting potatoes at Clove Valley CSA, in collaboration with Back Home Farm.

Fiddlehead Farm in Rosendale. “They are seeing the importance of knowing where their food comes from, if they hadn’t before.” As part of this trend, CSA signups are soaring from across the country. “Demand for farmfresh food has rapidly increased,” says Kate Anstreicher, program coordinator for Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming. “The waitlist for our CSA is longer than it’s ever been before, and our meat freezers are emptying out.” Glynwood also manages the Hudson Valley CSA Coalition, and several participating farms report having sold out of CSA shares much earlier in the year than normal. “Normally, I count completely on the Woodstock farm market, and it doesn’t seem that secure,” says Aileyah Kvashay of Clove Valley Community Farm, a two-acre veggie operation in High Falls. “I’ve committed to prioritizing the CSA, and whatever I have left over I’ll bring to market, which is a complete reversal.” Rather than a CSA, Fiddlehead Farm offers a buying club program. Last year the program had about a dozen members, this year Fade says they’ve already passed 40 signups. “People keep asking ‘Is there more room? Is there more room?’ People want to support a local farm, and they like the security of knowing where their food comes from.”

And it’s not just vegetable operations that are seeing a boost. For Kyle Jaster of Atticus Farm, who raises pastured hogs and meat birds on 10 sylvan acres in the foothills of West Shokan, consumer demand far exceeded his expectations. “We have seen a 400-percent increase in on-farm sales, doing it contactless through our online store,” he says. “I haven’t released the CSA yet, but the customers from last year are already reaching out and buying whatever product I have in stock, saying, ‘Save me two dozen pork chops on top of my next year’s share.” To keep up with demand, Jaster has doubled the number of chickens he’s raising in 2020 and increased the number of pigs by 50 percent. He would scale up even more but is limited by the capacity of local meat harvesting facilities. “I don’t think people ever realized before what their customers were willing to do,” Igoe says, “Most farms would never have even guessed that people would drive to five different farms if they had too.” While individual farms are logging increased sales for their products, it’s also an especially good time for farm stores that aggregate local goods, simplifying the circuit shoppers’ need to tick off their whole grocery list. In Millbrook, the family-run Locust Hill Farm Market has nearly

tripled their business since lockdown began, all while managing homeschooling for their kids. “We used to see maybe 10 sales per day—and that was a good day during the week. Now we are filling about 20 to 25 orders daily, and on the weekends we are seeing upwards of 40 to 50,” says Amanda Skuza, co-owner of Locust Hill. Their farm store, which has been open seven days a week since March 13, accepts email orders for curbside pickup the following day. Given the growing demand, they’ve increased the volume and diversity of the products they stock. In addition to their own farm-fresh beef, pork, and chicken, the market is selling as much locally sourced produce as possible, cheeses, fresh bread, milk, and snack foods. Whereas they used to get once-weekly deliveries for most of their products, now everyone from the bakers to the veggie farmers are dropping off products daily. “We have added so many new products with the online form. People just want to shop with us,” Skuza says happily. Nearby, Fishkill Farms, a 270-acre apple orchard and farm, is seeing record signups for their fruit and vegetable CSA, surpassing 300 members in the beginning of May. “We have seen a huge change in buy-in demand,” says Katie Ross, marketing, communications, and 6/20 CHRONOGRAM FARMS 17

events manager for the farm. Like Locust Hill, the farm store business is also booming amid the altered COVID-19 reality, registering two to three times the normal number of sales for this time of year. “We’re supplementing what we normally carry with some common items you’d find in a grocery store, like mayo, mustard, and whatnot,” Ross says. “We’re trying to carry what people are asking for.” Agritourism Heads into the Unknown Despite the farm store’s current surge in sales, Fishkill Farms’ owner and operator, Josh Morgenthau, is still anxious about the rest of the season. “We are devoting a tremendous amount of time and energy to planning out how we can maintain critical aspects of the business in a completely different world,” says Morgenthau, who is envisioning new systems for everything from U-pick reservations to online preordering for the farmers’ markets to handwashing stations. “It’s a tremendous lift at a time of year that’s already extremely busy,” he says. Assuming the farm can find a safe, socially distant way for people to visit, the million-dollar question Morgenthau—and all agritourism businesses—still face is: Will people come? “And if they do, will we be able to maintain the level of sales we need to cover our costs?” he wonders. About 40 percent of the farm’s revenue in a typical year comes from food and beverages consumed on-farm, including their own line of craft hard cider. Morgenthau adds, “It’s unclear whether we’ll be able to make up for any of that revenue.” From pick-your-own to petting zoos, agritourism operations are in the same boat, nervously preparing for the season while battling uncertainty. Hull-O Farm in Greene County is an all-natural meat farm, but they rely heavily on income from interactive farm stays where guests help with farm chores like animal feeding and care, as well as fall activities like their famed 10acre corn maze. “The good news is that our all-natural meat business has picked up tremendously,” says Sherry Hull. “And the sad news is that because of the COVID-19, my farm stay had dropped off to next to nothing until just recently. We were asked by our local government to not allow guests in our accommodations for a while as the virus was peaking. So we had a dramatic drop in income.” Guest visits have resumed, with the Hulls asking guests to self-screen and only come if they are healthy and haven’t been in contact with anyone infected. On the farm, both guests and workers are practicing social distancing and wearing masks. “As it stands right now, we are going to plant the corn for our corn maze and we plan on doing hayrides in the fall,” Hull says. “But If COVID-19 comes back with a force, like some predictions have mentioned, then for everybody’s safety, we probably won’t [offer these activities.]” Testing New Models With the pub, cafe, and beer garden closed, and U-pick operations still in question, the 100-acre Pennings Farm in Warwick is relying solely on retail sales from their farm market and garden 18 FARMS CHRONOGRAM 6/20

center at the moment. Customers order online and pick up in the parking lot. “It’s kind of like we’ve gone full circle from where we started as a business 35 years ago,” says Steve Pennings. “We have become a farm market that’s online. And we’ve increased our lines of groceries and produce to meet the needs of what people are asking for, as well as selling our growlers of beer and cider.” Products span the gamut from housemade zucchini nut bread to Tonjes aged farmstead cheese to a four-pack of Gatorade. This increase and diversification of sales is something that farm stands across the Hudson Valley are echoing, from Damn Good Honey Farm in Kerhonkson to Brookby Farm in Dover Plains. And the benefits ripple outward to the whole ag community, with farm stores providing a retail outlet for other ag operations that don’t have a built-in direct-to-consumer market.

“I know a lot of farmers who are working all day on the farm and all night on the computer, but that is so hard to keep up. If I put in a 12-hour farm day, do I really want to go check emails after?” —Aileyah Kvashay Alongside brick-and-mortar markets, some area operations like Veritas Farms, outside New Paltz, are testing a co-op-style delivery model to bring more farms’ products to more people. “We usually only sell to large customers like restaurants or retailers, but we have recently started doing home delivery,” says Jaqui Rose of Veritas. “We take orders once a week, pick everything up from various partner farms, and then deliver the food to porches and process payments online, so there’s no contact.” Just as companies in every sector across the world have had to adjust to working from home, farms, too are being forced to modernize—both in sales models and technology. “There was some adaptation that had to happen before this, but this has forced the hand of small farms to change,” says Igoe of RVGA. “In some ways, this is a terrible moment because

everyone is on the line, but we’re trying to look at it as an opportunity to take on new sales challenges that previously were avoided.” The current and future success of most farm markets relies on savvy use of the internet— from grocery orders to U-pick reservations. For farmers, who are used to having their hands in the dirt, this has been an adjustment, with many farmers lacking the technical know-how and the time to set up and maintain these systems, and have had to call in backup from friends, family members, and interns. “Our website has a full list of what is in stock,” says Skuza of Locust Hill. “We are updating it almost daily.” An online point of sale system may be the golden ticket for this era of business, but it has its own downsides—namely the increased administrative component. “I’m getting so many calls and texts and messages,” says Kvashay of Clove Valley. “I know a lot of farmers who are working all day on the farm and all night on the computer, but that is so hard to keep up. If I put in a 12-hour farm day, do I really want to go check emails after?” Growing with Purpose And yet, tech logistics and admin headaches aside, many farmers are finding fulfillment in their work amid this period of uncertainty. When lockdown went into effect in Mrch, and initial anxieties about food scarcity and supply chains soared, Kvashay found renewed purpose in her vocation. “It was kind of exhilarating,” she says. “I felt like, wow, this is my time to shine and grow as much food as I can to make sure my friends don’t starve.” Ironically, this was supposed to be Kvashay’s first time in 11 seasons transitioning to part-time work off the farm through a teaching position with the Poughkeepsie Farm Project. But with schools closed, she’s logging long hours in the fields and soaking up every minute. “I really do love farming, so it was an easy pill to swallow,” she says. “It’s all I want to be doing right now. I wish the days were longer so I could work more.” For Jaster of Atticus Farm, the pandemic caused restaurant orders for his pork and chicken to bottom out completely. Yet he has replaced 100 percent of this income with direct-to-consumer sales. “With COVID, it feels like what we’re doing is providing a service as opposed to a luxury,” he says “And that feels really good—to be able to feed people really good quality food and let them be confident in not just the safety of it, but the difference in quality and flavor. As people are cooking more, hopefully they are noticing that local farmers make a better product.” Labor Shortages When US consulates and embassies around the world closed on March 17 due to COVID-19, panic spread through the farming community. Migrant workers constitute roughly 10 percent of the nation’s agricultural workforce—204,801 H-2A temporary work visas were issued in 2019. The indefinite closure of the consulates threatened dire consequences for commercial farmers and the supply of produce, prompting the Agriculture Workforce Coalition to pen a strongly worded letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The letter didn’t mince words: “The

failure to take necessary action to protect our food supply will result in bare shelves in grocery store produce aisles, not from panic buying, but as the result of the federal government directly causing a shortage of critical labor.” Just over a week later, on March 28, the State Department reversed course, announcing that consulates would not only resume processing H-2A applications but also expand the group of applicants who could get visas without an inperson interview. Still, the gap in processing and new system have delayed the arrival of workers on farms throughout the Hudson Valley and the US by up to six weeks, adding further ambiguity to a season already rife with unknowns. At the iconic Hepworth Farms in Milton, the first group of experienced H-2A workers arrived from Mexico in late April. “They arrived a month later than expected but in time to keep us on track with additional work required to catch up,” says Gail Hepworth. They’ve already postponed the flight reservation for one Guatemalan worker twice, due to visa processing delays, and the commercial organic farm is still counting on more than 70 workers to come in from Guatemala, Mexico, and Jamaica later in the season. If the first round of seasoned migrant crewmembers hadn’t arrived in time, the farm season would have looked drastically different. “Frankly, we would have reduced our acreage from 550 to less than 50,” Hepworth says. “Our workers are highly trained in our diverse farm model. Each job is critically important for a commercially successful harvest. Some of our workers have been here for over 15 years. They are why we can do what we do.” The staggered arrival of workers also presents a logistical challenge with housing and task delegation. Fishkill Farm has separated living quarters for year-round farm workers and seasonal laborers. “When our first six crew members arrived, we kept them separate from those that have been on the farm consistently,” says Ross. “They’ve been doing solitary work and those who’ve traveled together and are working together.” From housing to hygiene, farms small and large are rolling out new safety protocols. In early April, Cornell Cooperative Extension distributed 1,000 gallons of hand sanitizer per county to farm operations. “We have handwashing stations and we are washing everything constantly,” says Ross, echoing many other area farmers. “We’re trying to keep our distance as best we can, but some farm equipment doesn’t allow for that.” Emergency Relief The Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) offices throughout the Hudson Valley are doing their part to drive traffic to farms. In Ulster County, the extension produced an interactive map of all the farms in the county. Across the river in Dutchess County, CCE partnered with Dutchess Tourism to produce a list of all open farm stands—41 in total, not counting the seasonal stands that will open soon, come first harvest. “There are only two towns in all of Dutchess County that don’t have farm stores: Amenia and Pawling,” Fimbel says. “It’s pretty impressive, the spread and how they’ve adapted.” CCE employees are also working to connect

Kyle Jaster at Atticus Farm in West Shokan Photo: Misha Handschumacher

farmers struggling economically with state and federal relief programs, ranging from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to Economic Injury Disaster Loans program (EIDL), which provides forgivable loans of up to $10,000, and the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). “Farmers in general don’t like to ask for help very often,” says Fimbel of CCE. “But for some, that $10,000 could make or break them. There’s a lot of ups and downs right now, but that’s what farming is.” At the national level, on May 5, Congressman Antonio Delgado introduced the Relief for America’s Small Farmers Act in the House, while Kirsten Gillibrand pushed for the same in the Senate. The bill would offer debt forgiveness

across three types of USDA farm loans, allowing more small farmers to remain operational during COVID-19. “New York’s 19th Congressional District is home to nearly 5,000 farm operations that are essential to our upstate way of life,” Delgado said in a press conference in May, adding that the bill would provide “a critical lifeline for our small farmers.” From weather to consumer behavior and buying patterns to the progression of the virus, the season ahead is full of unknowns. “My grandfather always said, as a farmer you have to be an eternal optimist,” says Nick Cipollone of Barthel’s Farms in Ellenville. “We are optimistic that our farm and our community will get through this and come out stronger on the other side. We really don’t have a choice.” 6/20 CHRONOGRAM FARMS 19

Enlightened Landscaping LANDSCAPING

Working with nature to create beautiful, sustainable, and natural landscapes.

Landscape Design | Pollinator Gardens | Permaculture • Forest Stewardship • Tree Care

• Rain Gardens

- Your Gardens are our Gardens -

845-687-9528 www.hudsonvalleynative.com

larson architecture works pllc

501 Fifth Avenue, 2108 New York, NY 10017 646.809.5009

20 HOME & GARDEN CHRONOGRAM 6/20

2981 Church Street Pine Plains, NY 12567 917.873.7713 larsonarchitecture.com

the house

Carol McCranie and Javier Magri's 4,500-square-foot home was built in the 1840s by prominent Hudson attorney Nathan Chamberlain.

No Ghosts Attached A CONTEMPORARY ART COLLECTION RESIDES IN A CLASSIC GREEK REVIVAL By Sherry Jo Williams

udson has an impressive historic district comprised of 139 acres, with 45 blocks of architecturally significant real estate centered around Warren Street, the city’s main thoroughfare. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, this charismatic little city has 756 significant properties, originally dating from Hudson’s founding in 1785, up to the mid-1930s. Invited to explore one of these impressive properties, I seize the opportunity to investigate a handsome residence near Willard Place, a sprawling 4,500-square-foot Greek Revival. Built circa 1842 by Nathan Chamberlain, a prominent Hudson attorney, the historic home has three bedrooms, a graceful stairwell, double parlors, and a spacious front porch added in the late 19th century. The house is visually and

spatially imposing. The generous backyard, with landscaping by Peter Bevacqua, includes a dreamcome-true lap pool, and a massive bronze owl sculpture by Thomas Houseago, watching intently over the premises. Carol McCranie (a Southern belle with a lovely drawl to prove it) and her husband, Javier Magri (Columbian born, raised in Long Island City) are the consummate art collectors and unabashed culturati who inhabit this gem. The couple met at Parsons School of Design in the 1980s and recently celebrated 36 years together, personally and professionally. Avid collectors of museumquality artwork, limited-edition books, and esoteric antiques, both are equally passionate about punk culture and music. Their combined expertise and experience is channeled through their professional arts consultancy, Hudson Brick LLC.

6/20 CHRONOGRAM HOME & GARDEN 21

Home. Serving the community for over 60 years. We’re family.

John A. Alvarez and Sons custom modular homes let us make our house your home

518.851.9917

3572 ROUTE 9, HUDSON, NY 12534

A LVA R E Z M O D U L A R S . C O M CRDesign

PLISKIN ARCHITECTURE 212.899.9885 / www.panyc.info

A Forest Of Choice. The broadest selection of the biggest trees The broadest of the biggest and plantsselection in the Hudson Valley.trees and plants in the Hudson Valley.

Sassafras Land Care LLC Ecological Landscape Services Dedicated to improving the health, beauty, & resiliency of our local landscapes.

Call or email today to schedule a free consultation. 9W & Van Kleecks Lane, Kingston, NY (845) 338-4936 AugustineNursery.com 9W & Van Kleecks Kingston, NY (845)8am–5pm 338-4936and Sunday, AugustineNursery.com SpringLane, Hours: Monday–Saturday, 10am–4pm Spring Hours: Monday–Saturday, 8am–5pm and Sunday, 10am–4pm FULL- SERVICE NURSERY • CUSTOM LANDSCAPE DESIGN & INSTALLATION • STONE YARD & HARDSCAPING WATER• FEATURES • IRRIGATION • LIGHTING • RETAIL SHOP & MORE FULL- SERVICE NURSERY CUSTOM LANDSCAPE DESIGN & INSTALLATION • STONE YARD & HARDSCAPING WATER FEATURES • IRRIGATION • LIGHTING • RETAIL SHOP & MORE

22 HOME & GARDEN CHRONOGRAM 6/20

(413) 717-1251 sassafraslandcare@gmail.com sassafraslandcare.com Great Barrington, MA

caption tk

Top: Thomas Houseago's massive bronze sculpture, Large Owl (For B), stands guard over the backyard lap pool. Bottom: McCranie and Magri in the photobooth at Little Rickie, an East Village novelty shop, in the 1980s.

Swooning over Hudson After decades of living in Long Island City and New York City, the couple were drawn to the Hudson Valley while searching for a suitable upstate residence in which to house their expanding collection. Thrilled to discover a treasure trove of like-minded creatives in Hudson, they quickly realized “this was our destiny and we needed to uproot,” McCranie says. These urban expats swooned over Hudson’s combination of premier cultural institutions, legendary architecture and, of course, the convenient proximity to Amtrak. McCranie and Magri bought the Greek Revival in 2014 from a couple who had purchased it from the prominent interior designer and accomplished artist, Frank Faulkner. A local legend, Faulkner renovated at least 14 homes during his time in Hudson. He, too, was a Southerner, so when McCranie reached out to him about renovation, they became instant kindred spirits. The house came with his custom-painted floors, but reluctantly they needed to remove the paint in some rooms. Faulkner promised to design a new pattern if the newly sanded floors were unacceptable, but, once they'd been stripped to their natural color, he agreed they were perfectly “Zen”—the ultimate minimal backdrop for the objects and furnishings they own. In stark contrast to modern amenities such as a backyard pool, McCranie shared, “We loved the crumbly, old, thick white paint on the exterior and left it untouched. It reminds me of thick icing on a big cake.” The house is indeed a delicious confection of good architectural bones filled with extraordinary art and furnishings. 6/20 CHRONOGRAM HOME & GARDEN 23

The couple's extensive contemporary art collection includes a number of pieces by Rashid Johnson, whose Promised Land dominates the second-floor hallway landing.

A Nick Cave Soundsuit lurks in the corner of the dining room, which also features a William Eggleston photo, a multimedia work by Matthew Day Jackson, and a fur-lined cup by Pruitt-Early on the table.

24 HOME & GARDEN CHRONOGRAM 6/20

DENISE GIANNA DESIGNS

Interiors

RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL DESIGN Vacation Home | Weekend Home | Investment Home

FOREVER HOME

Pro guidance

full renovations

Great design for functional, livable, beautiful spaces.

lllllllll

BARE BARE BARE BARE BARE BARE BARE BARE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE BARE FURNITURE

lllllllll

Call Us for Pro home/commercial Deep Cleaning for post-quarantine / construction disinfection.

BARE BAREFURNITURE FURNITURE

In-house team of designers, builders & craftspeople

We share your passion.

80 Main St. Beacon NY 845.765.8500 denisegiannadesigns.com

Hillsdale, NY: 518.325.3131· Lakeville, CT: 860.435.2561· Millerton, NY: 518.789.3611 Hudson, NY: 518.828.9431· Chatham, NY: 518.392.9201· Sheffield, MA: 413.229.8777 www.herringtons.com· 800.453.1311· OUR PEOPLE MAKE THE DIFFERENCE

CABINET DE S I GN E RS l l YOUR YOURENTIRE ENTIREORDER ORDER l l ll

EST 1987

llllllll ll

30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% OFF OFF OFF OFF OFF OFF OFF OFF llllllll ll 30% OFF

UNFINISHED UNFINISHED UNFINISHED UNFINISHED UNFINISHED UNFINISHED UNFINISHED UNFINISHED UNFINISHED FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE UNFINISHED UNFINISHED FURNITURE FURNITURE & & & & OUTDOOR & OUTDOOR & & OUTDOOR OUTDOOR & OUTDOOR & OUTDOOR OUTDOOR OUTDOOR OUTDOOR FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE FURNITURE & OUTDOOR & OUTDOOR FURNITURE FURNITURE

Bare Bare Bare Bare Bare Furniture Furniture Furniture Furniture Furniture Bare Furniture

WWW.BAREFURNITURENY.COM WWW.BAREFURNITURENY.COM WWW.BAREFURNITURENY.COM WWW.BAREFURNITURENY.COM WWW.BAREFURNITURENY.COM WWW.BAREFURNITURENY.COM WWW.BAREFURNITURENY.COM WWW.BAREFURNITURENY.COM WWW.BAREFURNITURENY.COM WWW.BAREFURNITURENY.COM WWW.BAREFURNITURENY.COM @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @

40 Marabac Road P.O. Box 339 Gardiner, NY 12525 www.ridgelinerealty.net

lllllllYOUR YOUR lYOUR lYOUR YOUR YOUR YOUR YOUR ENTIRE ENTIRE ENTIRE ENTIRE ENTIRE ENTIRE ENTIRE ENTIRE ORDER ORDER ORDER ORDER ORDER ORDER ORDER ORDER llllllll ll l l lYOUR YOUR ENTIRE ENTIRE ORDER ORDER

30% 30%OFF OFF

LIVING LIVING LIVING LIVING LIVING LIVING LIVING LIVING LIVING & && & & DINING & DINING & & DINING DINING & DINING & DINING DINING DINING DINING LIVING LIVING DINING & DINING UNFINISHED UNFINISHEDFURNITURE FURNITURE SEATING & OCCASIONAL SEATING SEATING SEATING SEATING SEATING SEATING SEATING SEATING & && & & OCCASIONAL & OCCASIONAL & OCCASIONAL OCCASIONAL & OCCASIONAL & OCCASIONAL OCCASIONAL OCCASIONAL SEATING SEATING OCCASIONAL & OCCASIONAL & & OUTDOOR OUTDOOR FURNITURE FURNITURE OFFICE & ENTERTAINMENT OFFICE OFFICE OFFICE OFFICE OFFICE OFFICE OFFICE OFFICE & && & & ENTERTAINMENT & ENTERTAINMENT & ENTERTAINMENT ENTERTAINMENT & ENTERTAINMENT & ENTERTAINMENT ENTERTAINMENT ENTERTAINMENT OFFICE OFFICE ENTERTAINMENT & ENTERTAINMENT BEDROOM & HOME ACCENTS BEDROOM BEDROOM BEDROOM BEDROOM BEDROOM BEDROOM BEDROOM BEDROOM & && & & HOME & HOME & HOME HOME & HOME & HOME HOME HOME ACCENTS ACCENTS ACCENTS ACCENTS ACCENTS ACCENTS ACCENTS ACCENTS BEDROOM BEDROOM HOME & HOME ACCENTS ACCENTS

Bare Bare Furniture Furniture

[845] [845] [845] [845] [845] [845] [845] [845] [845] 626.0061 626.0061 626.0061 626.0061 626.0061 626.0061 626.0061 626.0061 [845] [845] 626.0061 626.0061

WWW.BAREFURNITURENY.COM @ @WWW.BAREFURNITURENY.COM

4747 4747 4747 4747 4747 4747 4747 4747 4747 RTE RTE RTE RTE RTE RTE RTE 209 209 RTE RTE 209 209 209 209 209 .209 .209 209 .ACCORD, .ACCORD, .ACCORD, .ACCORD, ACCORD, ..ACCORD, .ACCORD, ACCORD, ACCORD, NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY NY 4747 4747 RTE RTE 209 ..ACCORD, ACCORD, NY NY

THE KITCHEN + BATH DESIGN FIRM

LIVING LIVING&&DINING DINING SEATING SEATING&&OCCASIONAL OCCASIONAL OFFICE OFFICE&&ENTERTAINMENT ENTERTAINMENT BEDROOM BEDROOM&&HOME HOMEACCENTS ACCENTS

[845] [845]626.0061 626.0061

4747 4747RTE RTE209 209. .ACCORD, ACCORD,NY NY

Jaynie Marie Aristeo

NYS Lic. Real Estate Broker/Owner 845 255-8359 Ridgelinerealty@gmail.com

KITCHEN | BATH | CLOSETS | TILE “When it comes to customer service, the sky is the limit.”

747 NY- 28 Kingston, NY 12401 (845) 331-2200 | info@cabinetdesigners.com www.CabinetDesigners.com 6/20 CHRONOGRAM HOME & GARDEN 25

Xerox/Rock/Art Somewhat naive, but definitely fearless, they acted as their own general contractor during the renovation of the prodigious mansion. Having just moved upstate, they were also reviewing new pieces to add to their already impressive art collection, as well as developing a book about fashion icon Stephen Sprouse. The book, Stephen Sprouse: Xerox/Rock/Art: An Archive of Drawings and Ephemera 1970s-1980s (Damiani, 2015) was inspired by a discarded portfolio of Sprouse’s original fashion illustrations which McCranie rescued from a dumpster in New York City. Edited by McCranie and Magri, the book features an introduction by Debbie Harry and documents Sprouse’s design work, which bridged the glamorous studios of fashion greats Halston and Bill Blass, and celebrated the 1980’s Downtown punk scene. The book is simply one more artistic achievement to add to the roster of creative accomplishments this pair consider a day’s work. 26 HOME & GARDEN CHRONOGRAM 6/20

In addition to the challenging projects already underway, the ambitious duo promptly immersed themselves in Hudson’s cultural scene. They co-curated exhibits ranging from from a collaboration with Hudson Hall and the “Now Forever” group show at Basilica Hudson, to a show of Sprouse’s drawings at the Gilded Owl in Hudson, celebrating the publication of Xerox/Rock/Art. In this home, an unusual balance is delicately maintained, the owners constantly redefining the space as a museum and a private home. An immense Gothic Revival mahogany table (its twin lives at Gracie Mansion) purchased from neighbors fills the dining room with the memory of Hudson’s rich heritage. A six-foot Nick Cave Sound Suit towers behind it, lifelike and energetic, poised to make the journey to Olana for a major installation in 2021. This crosspollinating twosome embraces domestic life and culture equally, enjoying historic real estate with no ghosts attached.

Ryan McGinley's Jake (Golden) adorns the wall across from the bed in the guest room. In 2003, at the age of 25, McGinley was one of the youngest artists to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Sponsored

MORE THAN THE ER Amid the Pressures of the Pandemic, Columbia Memorial Health’s Emergency Department Is a Vital Community Resource

ike many hospitals in Upstate New York, Columbia Memorial Health in Hudson prepared for a wave of coronavirus patients that never hit. According to Jeff Burns, nursing director for the emergency department, it’s another challenge for an already-demanding environment as the only critical resource dedicated to Columbia and Greene counties. “We don’t know if someone might be positive, so we’re treating everyone like they could be as a precaution,” he says. By now, Columbia Memorial Health’s emergency department staff have become accustomed to the personal protective equipment (PPE) that they must wear daily to keep themselves and their patients safe. Full operating scrubs, face masks, glasses, and hair bonnets are the new, if cumbersome, normal. A booth in the hospital parking lot staffed by a health care provider screens every incoming visitor for possible coronavirus exposure. If they’re highrisk, the patient will be further evaluated by a provider wearing proper PPE. The precautions are part of the new reality of routine healthcare in a pandemic. But for the team at Columbia Memorial Health, the atmosphere of a pandemic is taking an entirely different toll on their patients. “We’re seeing

people who are critically sick and have been for days who are afraid to come in,” Burns says. “But we have all the right safety precautions in place, and we’re an expert resource for our community.” The emergency department is the first place people think of when they or a loved one needs treatment for a heart attack, stroke, vehicular trauma, or substance overdose. But as the first stop for many patients, the emergency department at Columbia Memorial Health also specializes in connecting them to a web of other healthcare resources. “We’re more than just an ER. We’re a vital part of our community for all kinds of health resources,” Burns says. Among the department’s many other services is a mental health unit stationed in the ER itself, which can refer patients to the in-patient unit upstairs or to out-patient facilities all over the state. The department also has trained onstaff nurse case managers with backgrounds in social work who provide support on issues like domestic violence or caregiver burnout. “Sometimes EMS will bring a patient into the emergency department because they realized they’re struggling with the exhaustion of caring for a family member,” says Burns. “Our nurse case managers can find them the respite resources they need.”

The department also has trained sexual assault nurse examiners, who can provide comprehensive care to sexual assault victims, conduct forensic exams, and provide expert testimony in a court. “Our nurses are able to provide a compassionate environment while understanding the gravity of the situation,” Burns says. The emergency department even runs a program for community members suffering from substance abuse issues like opioid and heroin addictions, which have particularly plagued rural areas like those in Columbia and Greene counties. “We have relationships with trained peer coaches who meet with patients who have overdosed to help guide them through what the process for a recovery program is. They can provide help getting to a peer support group or just be someone to talk to at 2 am.” Critical illnesses aren’t going to wait for the coronavirus pandemic to go away. That’s why the emergency department at Columbia Memorial Health is still working every day to provide their community with the resources they need when they walk in the door. “We’re not just an emergency room,” Burns says. “We’re a fullservice emergency team.” 6/20 CHRONOGRAM HEALTH & WELLNESS 33

Congratulations

2020 Graduates of Columbia-Greene Community College “IF YOU WA NT TO GO FA ST, G O ALON E. IF YOU WAN T TO G O FAR, GO TOGE THE R.” AFRICAN PROVERB

Vinita Abbott Amirah Abushqeir Yusef Abushqeir Morgan Adriance Noor Ain Qurat Ain Cody Anderson Carly Antone Juan Argueta Christopher Arsenault Amanda Atkinson Nathaniel Auer Krista Barger Brenna Barkstrom Samaria Barnes Ireland Bathrick Taylor Baxter Adam Beach Hailey Beaumont Rachael Beaumont Amanda Beers Savanah Beers Spencer Benassutti Sarah Beneway Sean Berry Imre Berta Tyler Biernacki Andre Bissent Shawn Bizanos Lisa Blake Samuel Bodwell Amanda Booy Autumn Bower Stephen Bowes James Brabazon Wenona Bradley-Williams Corey Brady Keojhi Branch Kyle Brown Victoria Brundage Kenneth Burns Hannah Byrnes Altaira Calen Kimberly Cammarata Jazmin Campbell Michael Casaregola Jadya Case Shawn Casey Nicole Chavez

Katherine Christman Emily Clark Gabrielle Cody Gavin Colwell Joseph Comito Elizabeth Conklin Caly Connolly Matthew Cotton April Craig Nyla Dallas Ashley De Kraai Jordan Decker Sheila DeJesus Pineda Shaheim DeJesus Vincent DeMarco Brianna Denier Keegan Deyo Anthony Diaz Lewis Distefano Sara Donn Katie Drummond Danielle Ellis Taylor Ellis-Cookingham Jennifer Ellsworth Elizabeth Ernst Brittany Evans Krystie Evans-Zaman Marisa Ewing Frank Fandozzi Caroline Farr-Killmer Angelika Fernandez Thomas Finley Samantha Fletcher Patricia Freligh Kendall Gallant Tina Gardner Summer German Christopher Gianola Jennifer Giordano Kaylee Glastetter Kenneth Gritman Anthony Guzzi Emily Haigh Matthew Haigh Tyffani Haines James Hardy Elaine Hernandez Steven Hickey Christine Hicks

Connor Hillicoss Laurie Hoffman Sylvia Hoffman Sarah Holbrook Alexander Horst Gregory Horst Jack Hummingbird Isabel Humphrey-Reed Karen Hunt Kelly Hunter Haley Imbesi Wyett Imperati Jenna Jimenez Alex Jocelyn Allison Johnsen James Jollie Spencer Jones Meghan Jordan Jack Keller Jason Keller Brianna Kern Nicole Kernan Erica Kilmartin Daniel King Holly Kleinmeier Kate Kristiansen Taylor Kurtz Conor Lackemann Timothy Latimer Samantha Lauria Isabella Lugo Hayden Luy Hailey Lynch Connor MacGowan Alexandra Mannino Victoria Mannino Dominick Manoli Kaitlyn Marano Mary Marshall Emily Martin Christopher Martinez Kathlyn Martino Hannah Mawyin Cody Maxfield Tara McCarthy John McClung Shane McGinnis Athena McIndoo Garrett McKenna

Kyle Menzynski Matthew Michetti Jennifer Might Jordyn Miller Lamonica Miller Tina Moccio Andre Moisan Kristen Molina Laura Monnier Zachary Moro Virginia Mueller Eleanore Nelson Heather Nymann Rebecca Nymann Kelli O’Leary Sara O’Leary Patricia Ormandy Jack Osborn Rachael Osborn Rita Ouimet Cameron Pagnani Marist Parr Kyleigh Coon Ashley Petrocca Jasmine Pewarski Steven Polach Elizabeth Pollinger Allison Potter Frank Proper Nina Quick Stefany Quinn Andromeda Raindance Amelia Repko Alyssa Rice Corrin Cavanaugh Alexis Rivera Hannah Robinson Stephen Root Yuleiva Rosa-Brown Emily Rydin Keneise Samuels Angie Scarantino Randall Schmollinger Alison Schwanz Lauren Scott Vanessa Scutt Kayla Shaffer Leah Sheffer Korreen Shook

Karrie-Ann Silvernail Kayla Simmons Kaya Sindler Megan Smith Nina Sommer Katelyn Sterritt Kyle Stevenson Emily Stone Ryan Sullivan Sarah Sullivan Tobey Sutherland Matthew Sweet Reafa Tamanna Dominick Tarsia Juliana Tatro Tamya Taylor Cameron Thomas Daniel Thomas Richard Thornton Rachel Tice Eliza Tkacy Mary Tracy Chelsea Kelder Kathleen Tully Benjamin Turck Rahim Uddin Sean Van Etten Brooke Veneziali Jonathan Walch Aziara Walker Amy Weiland Jonathan Weinberger Angeline White Ronica White Kacey Wildermuth Jessica Wilson Michelle Wilson Dora Wilt Shianne Winegard Bailey Winters Ella Wolfe Alyssa Wright Siena Wright Victoria Younes Kristen Zanotelli Anna Zuvic

Route 23 | Hudson, NY | 518.828.4181 | SUNYcgcc.edu |

Let’s Go Together, #CoGreene! 34 EDUCATION CHRONOGRAM 6/20

education

POMP, DESPITE THE CIRCUMSTANCES

Honoring the Class of 2020 By Anne Pyburn Craig

SUNY New Paltz graduate Skylar Galioto outside the Old Main Building on the New Paltz campus on Sunday, May 3.

o lining up in the hallway straightening each other’s mortarboards as they await the swelling chords of “Pomp and Circumstance.” No families squashed cheek by jowl into gymnasiums. no prom or senior skip day. The graduating class of 2020 has experienced a collective senioritis interruptus unlike anything in living memory, missing out on myriad adventures large and small that they’d been anticipating for months, even years. “We understand this is a time of year when you would have been performing in your last concert, acting in your last play, competing in your last athletic event, finalizing prom details, and preparing to walk across Academy Field,” wrote Newburgh Enlarged City Schools Superintendent Roberto Padilla to the graduating class of 2020 on April 7, back when there was still some hope that the shutdown would be brief. “This is why we are launching a campaign in our district

called #SavetheSeniorExperience. We are committed to ensuring you and your family have your memorable, in-person graduation. As soon as we get through this, we will celebrate you as seniors.” As of May 20, there was still no certainty about when that in-person graduation might be held. Social distancing has led to graduation innovation, reshaping a procedure that’s stayed the same in most places for decades. In Indiana, grads from Speedway High School will get to drive a section of the Indy 500 track with their families, getting their diplomas at the finish line. In New Hampshire, 174 grads will ride a ski lift up Cranmore Mountain. In Virginia Beach, June has been declared “The Month of the VBCPS Graduate;” among other events, each of the four high school stadiums will “Light Up The Night” on successive evenings, field lights blazing for precisely 20 minutes and 20 seconds while scoreboards flash 2020.

Senior yard signs, prerecorded speeches from notables, and tribute videos have replaced traditional observances across the Hudson Valley, as administrators and stakeholders wrestled with ways to make their congratulatory message land with some oomph. Poughkeepsie hung a giant “CONGRATULATIONS” banner with a class picture taken in pre-COVID. Kingston High School is holding a virtual awards night and opening the building for a day so that grads can come in one by one, pick up cap and gown for the livestreamed ceremony, and say hello and goodbye to administrators and familiar hallways. As of May 7, 35 educational institutions of various descriptions had inquired about the use of the Warwick Drive In; most dates in June were already spoken for pending state approval of the plan, which would include utilizing only every other parking space. Woodstock Day School is holding its commencement at the nearby Greenville Drive-In. “It’s great,” says Director of

6/20 CHRONOGRAM EDUCATION 35

Launching your career? Seeking a new career direction? Need help with your résumé, or job-search strategies?

At Fulfilling Futures, we design customized career development programs that help you to: • Discover promising jobs that are an intersection of your interests, strengths, values, and needs. • Set career goals and action plans. • Develop job-search strategies and interview skills. • Craft high quality résumés and cover letters.

During this period of uncertainty, learn how to confidently navigate today’s rapidly changing work environments.

For more information visit fulfillingfutures.com or contact Ros Geuss at ros@fulfillingfutures.com

36 EDUCATION CHRONOGRAM 6/20

Admissions and Dean of Students Adrian Hood. “We’ve got so many talented teachers and parents working out the details that it’s going to be one for the books.” At half-capacity, the drive-in holds 135 cars, “so we’re basically going to be able to keep our whole beautiful tradition,” she says. “We’ll have live music. All of the seniors will be able to speak, socially distanced on a little pedestal, and they’ll be live-streamed onto the movie screen. And we have some surprises for them—prerecorded tributes from famous actors, comedians and musicians. The New York Times is thinking of sending a photographer. Meanwhile, we’re celebrating all of the kids every chance we get.” At Oakwood Friends School, traditions made virtual include a senior awards ceremony (academic, athletic, and arts) followed by a candlelight Quaker Meeting for Worship. “While Zoom isn’t the traditional platform, we anticipate that our students and their families will enjoy this event regardless,” says Dean of Students and Residential Life Sara Sandstrom. Rounding out the program were informal Zoom hangout sessions for seniors and faculty, a celebration video, and finally a live-streamed graduation. “Our grades are small and every senior goes to the podium and makes a two-minute speech,” explains Sandstrom. “We do not have a graduation ‘speaker.’ This year our seniors have been mailed their caps and gowns and will be recording their speeches at home.” There are hopes of reuniting the Class of 2020 for an in person celebration in January of 2021. Berkshire Country Day School is holding an outdoor ceremony, gathering graduates and immediate family to the school’s 27-acre campus in small, socially distanced groups to partake of live music and pre-taped individual videos made by teachers. The entire event was recorded for posterity and ease of sharing. Though it may not be as fraught with pomp and circumstance, every parent of a 13-year-old knows that 8th grade graduation matters too. Schools are posting virtual recognitions, holding waving parades past the homes of those “moving up,” and otherwise trying to make sure that next year’s freshman class will know in their bones that they’ve accomplished something. At Mountain Laurel Waldorf School in New Paltz, graduating 8th graders—the school’s oldest group—have been feted all year long. The first day of the year began with a Rose Ceremony, in which 8th graders welcomed new first graders across a wooden bridge and handed each a single rose. The class carried the giant dragon in the school’s September Michaelmas observance (the other kids were defiant villagers) and organized and directed schoolwide Games of Courage. In February, the class filled the house at the Rosendale Theater for a two-night run of “Into The Woods,” the capstone of their eight years of dramatic education and performance. But on May Day, when Mountain Laurel’s Class of 2020 would traditionally have performed a Morris sword dance, gathering in person was impossible and sorely missed. And students have voted against a prerecorded version of their Presentations, highly anticipated sharing of the passion projects they had worked on with mentors all year, opting instead to postpone until a live event would be safe. The Faculty Tea gathering and graduation itself are also postponed. Given the choice, Mountain Laurel students are opting to wait until they can give and get those hugs; meanwhile, creative energy is being poured into an extra-special yearbook. And school personnel were still trying, as of mid-May, to figure out just how to replicate the Reverse Rose Ceremony, in which graduates receive a rose from first graders, in a socially distant way. Some colleges held May commencements as best they could. SUNY Ulster streamed prerecorded ceremonies over Facebook Live and Youtube, complete with “Pomp and Circumstance” from the school’s brass quintet (2017 version) and recorded messages of inspiration from College President Alan P. Roberts and a long list of dignitaries. Degree candidates were presented via slides with voice overs, which may well have afforded the audience a better look at each graduate’s face than is possible in an auditorium. Roberts then set off in his car and drove around the county to pay each grad a personal visit, presenting them with their diplomas and his masked words of congratulation. Overshadowing the entire experience, of course, is uncertainty about the future. College campus visits have been impossible, standardized tests rescheduled, and many schools are not at all sure whether there will be campus life in fall 2020. For now, the best the adults can do is tell the kids the things they are sure of: We love you. We’re so proud of you. Good luck.

LEARNING BY DOING Life Skills – Self-Motivation – Exploration – Achievement

A Unique Montessori School on an 85 Acre Campus • Preschool to 8th Grade • Expansive Academic Program • Farm Animals • Gardens • Environmental Stewardship

Photo: Randy Harris

The Homestead School • Glen Spey, NY • 845-856-6359 • info@homesteadschool.com #homesteadschool HomesteadSchool homesteadschool.com

While our building may be closed... Doane Stuart is OPEN!

Believe in the child. DR. MARIA MONTESSORI

Congratulations to the Class of 2020!

“How wonderful it is that nobody needs to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” – Anne Frank

Enrolling NOW for Fall 2020 · Early Childhood through 8th Grade

Over 65 classes have gone virtual! PreK - Grade 12 keeping their daily schedules: 8:15AM to 3:25PM From Dr. Seuss to Science Labs : Connecting, Sharing, Learning DISCOVER THE DIFFERENCE AT DOANE STUART.

www.mountainlaurel.org | 255-0033 | 16 S. Chestnut, New Paltz

doanestuart.org admissions@doanestuart.org (518) 465-5222 6/20 CHRONOGRAM EDUCATION 37

feature

The Juggle is Real Mother and Teacher by Day, Entrepreneur by Night By Nadine Cafaro 38 HOMESCHOOLING CHRONOGRAM 6/20

fter spending the day following a regimented school routine for her two young kids, consisting of noisy nursery school Zoom calls and scheduled circle time, which occasionally involves a 20-minute crying session in her closet, Esther Downton puts in a four-hour workday while her children rest. After bouncing around from family to emails, some nights she ends up standing in the kitchen with her husband, wondering how she can continue under such high levels of stress. Downton owns Eliza & Wyld, an online and wholesale all-natural CBD wellness shop. “I’m not counting the days or weeks into how long we’ve been isolated now because I can’t even tell you. I’ve gotten to the point where that piece of information is pointless.” Residing in Shokan, Downton represents one of many business-owning mothers who have begun homeschooling their children due to the novel coronavirus. In her case, she’s been homeschooling her four-year-old daughter, Wylder, while Eliza, her younger daughter, absorbs as much information as she can. At about 1pm, Eliza, who is almost two, takes a snooze. This is when Downton takes advantage of the time and concentrates on writing, numbers, or drawings with Wylder. This style has become their routine. “My initial feeling was to replicate the school day. We have a big chart in our house that has every hour or half-hour increment written down with pictures of what they were doing at that time so that they can kind of understand the day,” Downton says. “I think that the biggest challenge is—as a mom you’re dealing with a lot of emotion with your children all the time.” Since replicating school at home and establishing a routine, Downton has to wear the hat of a moderator and become more rational with her children. From the moment Downton wakes up, she is planning her day with her husband, Brook Downton, who is still remotely working as an executive producer for MediaMonks, a global digital production agency. “We literally open our eyes and start having conversations about the day and check our inboxes. Then it’s, like, ‘What time do we both need?’ and the two of us then have to negotiate the day.” Since Downton’s husband isn’t his own boss, his job responsibilities are more so the focus throughout the day. “That tends to trump a lot of my stuff, so my work gets pushed into the evening,” Downton says. Prepandemic, Downton was exploring getting new retailers for Eliza & Wyld. Since the spread, she has pulled back since many businesses are not looking for new stock. When she gets pockets of time to work, she fulfills orders and strategizes for her business.

Downton’s daughters, four-year-old Wylder and one year-old Eliza. Downton says about the pandemic, “I’m not counting the days or weeks we’ve been isolated now. I’ve gotten to the place where that piece of information is pointless.” Opposite page: Esther Downton, owner of Eliza & Wyld, an online and wholesale all-natural CBD wellness shop, generally works in the evening, after the kids are in bed.

6/20 CHRONOGRAM HOMESCHOOLING 39

Mom Stays Home, Dad Goes to Work According to a survey published by the New York Times in early May, 80 percent of mothers with children under 12 have said they are spending more time homeschooling their children than their partners. Only 3 percent of women say their spouse does more. This sounds a bit like Marisa Phillips’s case, a mother of two and entrepreneur who was in the works of opening a coffee shop in Saugerties with a partner before COVID-19 made its spread across the nation. “We had the cafe ready to go when this happened and it suddenly became the worst business you could open at this point. I have to reshift the business on top of homeschooling my two kids.” With plans to open in the fall, Phillips has fully taken on the role of stay-at-home mom and teacher. Her former partner has a full-time job, which she mentions is the priority, so her first grader and nearly four-year-old have been with her during the week. “For my youngest one I can do whatever with her, but my first grader is really learning some fundamental blocks. She’s just learning to read and learning about math. I’ve never considered myself a teacher, and there’s a lot of guilt involved. You want to do a good job,” Phillips says. Phillips is impressed with her children’s schools’ response to the pandemic, which includes sending long daily checklists of work, giving out homework, and hosting Zoom meetings. Since her week is taken up by schooling her kids, Phillips uses the weekends for her work, a time where parents usually kick back and relax. “Weekdays are being taken up by school, since I get them until Friday. I have one weekday to catch up on all the administrative-type things I do. I feel like I’m trying to cram so much into the couple days I have.”

Above: Clothing designer Stephanie Doucette gets ready for work, which involves much time on Instagram. Doucette spends a lot of time juggling the school-based technology needs of her three children, picture above. Opposite page: Fruition Chocolate CEO Dahlia Graham splits homsechooling duties for three-year-old Zooey with her husband, Bryan.

40 HOMESCHOOLING CHRONOGRAM 6/20

A Balance of Time Kingston resident Dahlia Graham, CEO and cofounder of award-winning chocolatier Fruition Chocolate Works splits the homeschooling time with her husband, Bryan, since they work together. “I have our daughter Zoey in the morning until he comes home between noon and three,” Graham says. “He watches her and I go work remotely. My parents have a little guest cottage where I bring my laptop and phone. It gives me a safe space.” Zoey, who is three, was a full-time nursery student at Woodstock Day School pre-pandemic and even stayed in the afterschool program. Graham spends her time balancing her business and attending Zoom calls with Zoey’s class. On top of that, she’s doing educational activities with her, such as art, “PBS Kids,” and reading. Woodstock Day School also sends home project ideas and packages, such as scavenger hunts and even a wooden flower to assemble for Mother’s Day. Though Graham is stressed due to taking on both roles of business owner and teacher, she explains that she also worries about the social aspect Zoey is missing out on. “She was really starting to get into loving her school and having that social aspect. This is the time she’s supposed to be learning to share and play games with other kids—all of that, that she’s missing.”

A Day in Their Life Stacey Dugliss-Wesselman is the founder of Cold Spring Apothecary, a wellness products and home goods manufacturer that has a small brick and mortar shop in Cold Spring. DuglissWesselman has a hectic day from start to finish with her sevenyear-old son. “My son is going through something he’s never experienced. His whole life has changed,” she says. On a regular day, Dugliss-Wesselman wakes up around 6:30am. While she cooks breakfast, she prepares for the day by preparing worksheets and making a schedule. At this point, her son usually has a workshop for school, so she finally takes a look at her own emails. From here, it’s schoolwork mode again until lunchtime. “I try to go to our manufacturing facility to check on what’s going on there and help ship out any online orders. Then I’ll come back here and get him rolling for the second part of the day.” It’s around 4pm when the “school day” ends for DuglissWesselman and her son. After that, it’s free time, dinner, and then bedtime. This now becomes her time to begin her work— right around 8pm. “Any small business owner knows you spend most of your day putting out fires, and I think that this is another one of those things. Yes, the fire is really big and we’re kind of unable to put it out right now, but it’s a matter of tamping it down so it doesn’t grow out of control. That’s kind of how I’m looking at each day. It’s just doing what I can in those moments where he’s not going to finish all the schoolwork that was assigned. It’s realizing we’re going to have to catch up the next day.” Older Kids Some moms are balancing a work life with kids older than seven. Stephanie Doucette, a mother, designer, and entrepreneur from Cold Spring, owns Swing, a mindful and inspiring clothing company to encourage confidence in women. Doucette has a 12-year-old and two twins who are nine. “It’s been really hard. There’s so much juggling of technology, Zooming, and all these programs that these teachers are forced to figure out. “There’s like seven to nine Zoom calls a day.” Doucette says, “My 12-year-old is pretty self sufficient, but the twins definitely need to be kept on track. I need to help them, and it’s usually needed at the same time, so it’s really hard to keep it together.” Doucette describes their school as “the cornerstone of their remote learning.” However, she also finds it quite intense. Her kids participate in meetings with their teacher virtually. With her kids not being at school, Doucette has pondered the question of their learning outcomes for the year. “Are they going to learn what they would have this year in this situation? No, they’re not, but they’re going to learn different things. Families have never had this much time together. That’s a huge experience, so I’m trying to focus more on that.” For Doucette, her days are about all of her family members getting their work done—so they all try to roll through the day with flexibility of everyone’s needs. The Reality Though the pandemic has practically forced many families to have all the time in the world together, it doesn’t make at-home situations easier. Yes, these mothers are now able to witness more developmental stages with their children, like their first time writing a word or them learning a new counting number, but with this pleasure comes the one certainty of the situation: stress. For many parents, school wasn’t just a place of learning, but childcare for working moms. It was a place for kids to make new friends and to be more social. Downton puts this very simply in regard to her daughter: “It’s been wonderful watching her develop. I’ve seen her write her first words now, which I would not have seen if she had been in school. I saw her draw her first little doodles, which was a huge developmental leap that wasn’t there before the pandemic. So, that’s beautiful and amazing, but what comes with all of that joy is exhaustion.” 6/20 CHRONOGRAM HOMESCHOOLING 41

community pages

Rhinebeck v. COVID-19 Community is Key By Peter Aaron Photos by Abby Foster

y wife came down with COVID-19, it’s horrible,” says Village of Rhinebeck Mayor Gary Bassett, who tested negative. “She was in and out of the hospital three times. After seven weeks, she’s finally recovering. We’re really thankful.” One of the Hudson Valley’s most pictureperfect small towns, Rhinebeck brings to mind quaintness, not quarantines. Its charming, walkable, tree-lined, architecturally historic streets are renowned for their manicured cleanliness—not the type of environment one might have expected, at the beginning of this ordeal, to have been affected by the virus. But as we’ve seen all too well, COVID-19 cares not for culture or geography when it comes to the places it impacts. Dutchess County, which includes the town of Rhinebeck and the identically named village at its heart, was hit early and hard by the pandemic, reporting some of the first cases in the region, several of which were among students at nearby Bard College. At the same time, though, Rhinebeck’s being home to the state-of-theart Northern Dutchess Hospital has literally made the town a lifesaver for many who’ve been afflicted with the illness. And on another level Rhinebeck’s deeply ingrained sense of community has made it exceptionally equipped to react well to the crisis. The roots of this 42 COMMUNITY PAGES CHRONOGRAM 6/20

cooperative sensibility stretch back to the town’s establishment in 1686, when the local Esopus and Sepasco tribes traded 2,200 acres of charter land to Dutch settlers. A Special Spot “Rhinebeck is the most unique place along the entire Route 9 corridor,” Bassett maintains. “Nowhere else in this area do you really have the kind of shopping district we have here, with the intersection of Mill Street and East and West Market streets, Montgomery Row, and the variety of shops and restaurants, all within such a small area. And the businesses are really good about cooperating, which is really helping us get through this now. I meet twice a week with county officials, who are in turn meeting with the state to plot the phased reopening of various regions. We formed a task force to reach out to people in the community to find out what they need, and we set up food pantries.” The idea of food pantries in a town known for its many fine restaurants may be disconcertingly surreal. But the need is real, and the fact that the municipality is meeting the COVID challenge so straight on is certainly a welcome sign. Rhinebeck’s easy accessibility to New York City has long helped make it a popular magnet for tourism. That industry has, of course, been

adversely impacted by the pandemic, and local inns are doing their best to adapt to the guidelines established by Governor Cuomo’s PAUSE executive order. Both the historic Beekman Arms (est. 1766) and the newly constructed Mirbeau resort have ramped up their cleaning operations and put in place PAUSE-compliant protocols (the latter has closed its lavish on-site spa, pending guidance from local authorities). Rhinebeck’s close proximity to Manhattan contributes to its being the bedroom community of several prominent entertainment and media figures who are currently working from their weekend homes in the town. During the quarantine, “Today Show” anchor Savannah Guthrie has been hosting portions of the broadcast from her Rhinebeck residence while “What Do We Need to Talk About,” the latest in townie and Tony-winning playwright and screenwriter Richard Nelson’s (“Chess,” Hyde Park on the Hudson) cycle of plays about the fictitious local Apple family, was recently staged online using Zoom. Screen-star couple Jeffrey Dean Morgan (“The Walking Dead”) and Hilarie Burton Morgan (“One Tree Hill”) are finding fast success with their new AMC streaming show “Friday Night in with the Morgans,” which they host remotely from their Rhinebeck farm. The program features celebrity

With warmer weather, Rhinebeckers are taking to the streets, masks at the ready.

6/20 CHRONOGRAM COMMUNITY PAGES 43

Est. 2010

Grand Cru Beer & Cheese Market 1094 Route 308 Rhinebeck NY 845.835.6150

Taste the flavors of South India with our new SUREKHA RICE

100% CRAFT

@grandcrurhinebeck

Serving the finest Craft Beer, Cider and Wine for 10 years Visit us at our new location featuring a large beer garden, outdoor games and fire pit • Ready in 90 seconds • Organically grown • From small farms in Kerala • Nutrient rich

Bring the family (& the pups) and enjoy the large lawn Music most weekends Light Bites and Food Trucks

AVAILABLE AT HANNAFORD AND WHOLE FOODS MARKET

Join us!

To see all our products visit mayakaimal.com

grandcrurhinebeck.com

A Better Kind of Fitness Open Gym Memberships Are Available On A Limited Basis. Please Inquire info@refinery.fit

JOURNALISM IS A NECESSITY During this crisis, The River is collaborating with journalists throughout the region to report on the fast-moving coronavirus. Our team is working around-the-clock to gather reliable information to keep you informed about the latest regional developments.

therivernewsroom.com

www.refinery.fit 6795 U.S. 9, Rhinebeck 845.835.1700

44 COMMUNITY PAGES CHRONOGRAM 6/20

Who would argue against a pizzeria as an essential business? Al Mazzella, owner of Rhinebeck Village Pizza.

guests and always highlights a member of the community (a recent episode included Jass Liu, the owner of local sushi restaurant Osaka). Burton Morgan is also the author of the bestselling The Rural Diaries, signed copies of which are available (with free shipping) from village staple Oblong Books & Music. Businesses Bonding One snapshot of a Rhinebeck business aiding a neighbor can be seen in Gigi Trattoria owner Laura Pensiero’s offering a leg up to an employee from the currently closed menswear shop Changes, which is right next door to her popular Mill Street eatery. “He’s a friend and has been helping us out; I also rehired one of my old bartenders, who’d just moved back up because the place she was living in down south was destroyed by a tornado,” says Pensiero, who, in this, her restaurant’s 19th year in business, has been forced to lay off most of her staff. She’s been working 14-hour days to offer daily curbside pickup service for phone and online lunch and dinner orders to customers. “It’s been really challenging, our catering and our private event room service for the year have been cancelled,” says Pensiero. “But I’m still crunching stats and planning for fully reopening, trying to stay optimistic and keep the engine warm. I just hired new kitchen staff, and there’s a young energy with them that I’m excited about. Things aren’t done and over.” Working directly with Pensiero’s bistro is Grand Cru Beer & Cheese Market, which

is owned and operated by husband and wife Rod Johnson and Alicia Lenhart: The bottle and tap room/cheesemonger is now offering its growlers to go at Gigi as well as at its own location, outside the village on Route 308. “We set up an online store, and we post our daily tap menu on our website and Facebook and Instagram pages,” says Lenhart, whose business opened in 2010. Grand Cru recently added a live music room and had 20 acts lined up for the spring and summer, all of whom had to be cancelled. But with the warmer weather coming, the operation plans to utilize its expanded outdoor beer garden, which is large enough to space tables six feet apart and accommodate food trucks and a stage among its fire pits and other amenities. Hummingbird Jewelers, opened in 1978, is one of the oldest businesses in Rhinebeck. Normally, this would be one of Hummingbird’s busiest times of the year, with its East Market Street location aflutter with customers looking for graduation or wedding gifts. With walkin sales off the table presently, owner Bruce Lubman has found the impetus to move further into e-commerce. “Overall sales have down 16 percent, but online sales have been up eight percent,” he says, adding that he has no plans to permanently close his physical store and mentioning the newly formed all-volunteer, grass-roots assistance group Rhinebeck Responds as something that gives him pride in his community.

Hummingbird was one of 42 businesses that took part in a recent webinar hosted by Rhinebeck Responds that offered legal advice to merchants about dealing with landlords during the closures. “That was really uplifting,” says Grand Cru’s Lenhart, another webinar participant, about the experience. “To hear everyone connecting and helping each other.” Healing Arts The Center for the Performing Arts at Rhinebeck, a bastion of local theater since 1998, is also finding its mark during the pandemic. The theater suspended its spring schedule on March 15, three days after Cuomo’s announcement of the CDC-recommended lockdown. As the barn-like facility awaits reopening, it’s offering livestreamed shows each week (new originals on Wednesdays, “Livingroom Shakespeare” Zoom readings on Saturdays, and a Friday cabaret on YouTube; donations are encouraged), as well as online classes in dance and theatrical techniques. “We’re so blessed to have a community that supports us,” says Kevin Archimbault, the center’s artistic director. “We look forward to seeing everybody’s faces again soon.” Although those faces will likely be masked, the reunion may be soon, indeed. According to Archimbault, the theater is hoping to erect an outdoor stage for socially distant performances of “A Chorus Line,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and other plays on its five-acre property. “People will be able to bring a blanket, a bottle of wine, and a picnic 6/20 CHRONOGRAM COMMUNITY PAGES 45

Oblong blong Books & Music Millerton & Rhinebeck

Real booksellers. No algorithms. We’ve got books, games, puzzles, toys & gifts and we’re happy to put together special occasion gift bundles for you! Choose contactless curbside pickup or free shipping.

oblongbooks.com

A HOLISTIC EDUCATION IN RHINEBECK NOW ENROLLING EARLY CHILDHOOD - 6TH GRADE

Our Waldorf-trained teachers bring our academic curriculum to life through storytelling, art, movement, music, and engagement with the natural world.

GROUNDBREAKING CINEMA SINCE 1972 GROUNDBREAKING GROUNDBREAKING CINEMA CINEMA SINCE SINCE 1972 1972 GROUNDBREAKING CINEMA SINCE 1972

Schedule virtual time with us by emailing: info@primrosehillschool.com

PRIMROSEHILLSCHOOL.COM / RHINEBECK, NY / (845) 876-1226

RHINEBECK RHINEBECK RHINEBECK RHINEBECK SINCE 1972 SINCE 1972 RHINEBECK SINCE SINCE 1972 1972 (NEXTSINCE TO LIBERTY) 1972 (NEXT (NEXT (NEXT TOTO LIBERTY) TOLIBERTY) LIBERTY) 866TO FILM NUT (NEXT LIBERTY) 866866 866 FILMFILM FILM NUTNUT NUT 866 FILM NUT WOODSTOCK WOODSTOCK WOODSTOCK WOODSTOCK 132 TINKER ST WOODSTOCK 132 132 TINKER TINKER ST ST 132 TINKER ST 845 6608 132679 TINKER ST 6608 845845 845 679679 679 6608 6608 845 679 6608 BECOME

BECOME BECOME BECOME A MEMBER MEMBER BECOME A A MEMBER A MEMBER GETOUR OUR WEEKLY WEEKLY EMAIL GET EMAIL A MEMBER GET OUR GETUPSTATEFILMS.ORG OUR WEEKLY WEEKLY EMAIL EMAIL UPSTATEFILMS.ORG GET OUR WEEKLY EMAIL UPSTATEFILMS.ORG UPSTATEFILMS.ORG NOW SCREENING UPSTATEFILMS.ORG COMEVIRTUALLY SEE SOME STAY COME COME SEEHEALTHY! SEE SOME SOME COME SEE SOME

Open • Take Out • Gluten Free Options

All Fresh and Made to Order: Falafel, Sabich, Salads, Hummus, Tahini, Soups, Spicy Condiments, Amazing Pita, Baklavah

Open daily for lunch 11-3:30 | 54 East Market St. Rhinebeck | 845-876-2324

22 Garden St Rhinebeck NY Offering Curbside Takeaway Food & Craft Cocktails Order Online bia-rbk.com @bia_rbk Be Kind Be Safe

46 COMMUNITY PAGES CHRONOGRAM 6/20

basket,” he says. “And it’s such a beautiful spot.” Another beautiful local spot is the lush, 190-acre campus of the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, an internationally renowned, non-profit educational retreat founded in 1977. With the grounds now closed, Omega has postponed its on-premises programming until 2021 and pivoted to exponentially increase its inspirational, thought-provoking, and healing courses and seminars online. “Obviously, being online isn’t the same [as in-person gatherings],” says Omega CEO Robert “Skip” Backus. “But for the short term we’re focused on accelerating our online content to bring our regular high-quality, blended learning to people in this way. There’s a lot of anxiety among people right now, but we will find balance through all of this.” At least one native business has even been, in a way, growing the town’s community during the closedown. “Through Instagram, I’ve been getting students from all around the world—Kuwait, Egypt, Australia, Iceland, the Isle of Man,” says Rhinebeck Pilates owner and instructor Elaine Ewing, who started teaching classes online the week of the edict. “A lot of these students say they’d never have access to Pilates classes otherwise.” Opened in 2003, Ewing’s studio has in the past attracted numerous in-person international visitors, who come to workout using its collection of rare equipment built by Dr. Joseph Pilates himself just after World War II. What Recovery Looks Like No doubt many residents have been happy to learn that Mayor Bassett, in one of several efforts designed to counter the economic downturn, is proposing they’ll be able to pay taxes in two installments this year, instead of the usual single June installment. “We’ve also suspended the signage laws, so that businesses can put out sidewalk signs, and we’ve put parking restrictions on hold, to make curbside pickups easier for people,” says Bassett. “Now we’re at the point where we’re asking ourselves, ‘What does recovery look like?’ and trying to work with that vision.” That vision, a combination of online actions and sagely implemented real-life projects, has been coming more sharply into focus. Last month, the signature weekly Rhinebeck Farmers’ Market reopened—with social distancing and other safety guidelines in effect and for now without its regular live music—and the chamber of commerce held a successful virtual sidewalk sale with participation from two dozen businesses. Plans to close off portions of the streets to allow appropriately spaced al fresco seating for all of the town’s restaurants—in effect converting the village center into one big outdoor cafe—are also being discussed, says Bassett. Like other schools have, those in Rhinebeck’s Central School District have switched entirely to remote learning during the pandemic. And, also like other high schools, Rhinebeck High School is grappling with how to proceed with its 2020 commencement ceremony, slated for June 27. “The rest of the faculty and I feel so bad for our graduating students this year, even though they know the situation isn’t our fault,” says its principal, Edwin Davenport. “The assistant principal and I have been meeting with the senior class advisor and senior class officers to go over options while we wait to find out how the authorities want to proceed. The students agree that the least appealing option would be a virtual ceremony, so we’ve been talking about some kind of a drive-in ceremony with a parade through town, with decorated vehicles and people watching from their porches. Another idea would be postponing it until a date in July or August, depending on where things are at then.” The sprawling Dutchess County Fairgrounds, which this spring has seen the cancellation of such popular events as the Camping World RV Super Show, the Rhinebeck Antique Car Show and Swap Meet, and the Rhinebeck Crafts Festival (as of this writing, the Hudson Valley Hot-Air Balloon Festival is still set for July 10-12, the Dutchess County Fair is on for August 25-30, and other events are still on the web calendar), lie just east of the village center. At present the fairgrounds are the site of one of three food pantries organized by the town to support those in need, and it’s there, on Saturdays, that you’ll find the mayor himself, helping out. “We’re seeing history happening, right now,” Bassett says. “Later on, we’ll look back and say, ‘Did we do things right or not?’”

A+C

A rc h i t e c t u re + C o n s t r u c t i o n PLLC

N e w Yo r k | R h i n e b e c k Full Service architecture firm committed to design excellence and client satisfaction. Est. 2005 212-845-9611 | apluscny.com

6/20 CHRONOGRAM COMMUNITY PAGES 47

alternate history

Spoons A BRIEF SYNOPSIS ON THE ORIGINS OF

Story and illustration by Alex Bildsoe

very spoon starts out completely flat. Couldn’t hold so much as a peanut if they tried. This is the beginning of their dutiful lives, before they have been taught to hold things.

Teaching spoons isn’t as easy as one might think. It takes years of schooling and hard training to get the young spoons to hold dry goods and room-temperature liquids, years more to hold hot liquids. The training develops physical as well as psychological attributes that will prepare them for a life of scooping, stirring, measuring, transporting, and generally containing (in an orderly manner) any substance they come in contact with. After 10, sometimes 11 years (for the resistant ones), the spoons leave training and go out into the world as our most beloved and universal tool. Let’s start at the beginning, though, when spoons are born. They are not sexually reproducing creatures such as ourselves, rather, they come into being spontaneously and are therefore part of a group called spontaneums (other things in the spontaneum group are shoe horns, bells, and certain types of hubcaps, for example). Instead of being born from another spoon, they are “released” into existence in a faraway place and travel here as flat beings. A mysterious god known as HOAT, or Holder Of All Things, cuts them out of a ball of metal that has a surface area larger than our sun. Imagine a gigantic planet that is made entirely of smooth metal and, instead of an interior made of rock and molten plasma like our Earth, it is hollow and home to the force that gives all spoons life; HOAT. While it is unclear exactly what HOAT is or how they got there, one thing is for sure; 48 FEATURE CHRONOGRAM 6/20

they must be extremely strong to be able to propel bits of metal across galaxies. Among many of the theories surrounding HOAT’s existence, there are a couple major and widely held beliefs. Some spoons believe that HOAT is a giant beast who was entrapped in the metal planet as punishment for attempting to hold the entire universe throughout all spacetime. HOAT thought that not only would this be a tremendous accomplishment for a god, but also that holding the universe might help living creatures out on all inhabited planets (who doesn’t want to be held?). The other gods were threatened, thinking that HOAT wanted to control all of existence. HOAT tried to explain that they just wanted to be a container for all existence, but no one believed them, so the other gods plotted to catch and imprison them to stop HOAT’s plans. HOAT was captured inside the metal planet and realized that they might be stuck in there forever. HOAT decided to send tiny messengers to any planet that would accept them as carriers of HOAT’s devotion to holding. HOAT began ceaselessly cutting out spoon-shaped pieces of metal from the shell of the metal planet and propelled them out into space on soundwaves from their melodic voice. This all happened tens of thousands of years ago, when humans on earth were just beginning to include spoon-like tools in their daily lives. The first flat spoons fell to our planet and, as soon as they saw the need for handheld holding devices, they taught themselves how to hold all the things humans needed. These were the days before the rigorous spoon training, of course, so their forms were rougher. Humans took to them right away. Spoons are not always called spoons. From the time they are released into existence until the moment they meet the spoon elders for the first time at the training center, they are known

as nys (pronounced neese, like the city in France) which stands for “not yet spoons.” The singular of nys is ny (pronounced nye, rhyming with eye). Nys are completely flat and rough with few distinguishing qualities among them except for their size, which varies slightly. As they approach the Earth’s outer atmosphere, they are attracted to the location of the spoon institute via a giant magnet which has been placed there for this very reason. Nearly all nys make it to their special destination and the few that don’t… well, we won’t dwell on that too much. Needless to say, they never end up holding things. The nys crash land onto a field the size of a small town. In the field, known as the pasture, the softest grass grows for them to land on (the magnet is under this) and the newly fallen nys are gathered by shepherd spoons whose only job is to find new nys and usher them into their lives. Shepherd spoons are always the largest of the spoon family (most often industrial-sized ladles) so that they are able to handle the nys that arrive. Each shepherd has a large pack filled with cloth napkins which are wrapped around each ny as they are found to offer comfort and to get them used to napkins. Once brought back to the training center the nys are greeted by the elder spoons who created the school over 10,000 years ago (metal spoons can last a very very long time if they are well taken care of ). Upon this greeting, the nys become known as spoonlettes. Alas, their life begins. The first year of training is devoted entirely to the familiarization with earth, humans, and the role that they have in it. The spoonlettes are taught what it means to be a vessel and why humans need them so deeply. One of the first images they see of humanity is a film of a mother human feeding her baby mashed bananas with a little spoon. They also hear baby food spoons talk about their experience nourishing baby humans.

This is always a very exciting time for teachers and students alike because the spoonlettes are, for the first time, beginning to understand their role in society. Many spoonlettes have a moment, like a spiritual revelation, when they all at once understand their role. They understand it in their bodies. It may be during class or while they are studying or even during free time. Whenever it may be, it can be exciting to witness. The spoonlette will become completely still for a few minutes and then POP…their first physical attribute will appear. Attributes such as tapered handles, a polished or brushed surface, detailing at the end of the handle, etc., usually develop slowly over time as the spoonlettes are schooled. The one exception is the initial attribute, which for some spoonlettes can appear in an instant. This is called being decorated. Getting decorated is very desirable and can be a point of envy among the young spoonlettes. However, they have no control over whether it happens to them or not, as their teachers remind them, and it has no reflection on their effectiveness as a future spoon. One very important part of the institute and the spoonlettes’ education is The Library of Concave Importance. This facility houses the Register of Holdables, an exhaustive list of all the things spoons have held since the beginning of recorded history. The Register is constantly growing as new substances are being held every day around the world. One month of studies per year takes place within The Library of Concave Importance. Each spoonlette is expected to yearly select a small portion of the Register to memorize and research; they must understand what each substance is and why it is important to humans. To give you an idea what this list might be like, here are a few possible entries: lukewarm porridge with whole milk/honey/ almonds, boiling pasta water with generous salt and one bowtie pasta, granulated sugar, cold tap water from Ballard Creek subwatershed/ Sugar Creek watershed/South Skunk subbasin/ Upper Mississippi-Skunk-Wapsipinicom basin/ Upper Mississippi-Iowa-Skunk-Wapsipinicom subregion/Upper Mississippi region, human urine, hot okra soup with locust beans/crawfish/ prawns, birdseed mix with sorghum/cracked corn/millet/safflower seed, household bleach concentrate, hot undercooked jasmine rice, one chicken egg in its shell, hydrogen peroxide, hot black bean foam, cool hazelnut crème brulee, peat moss, warm Café Bustelo coffee with powdered milk and sugar, goat broth, teff flour, one salted black licorice hard candy, and nabak kimchi stock with a clump of mold. The spoonlette’s list is about three times this length. All parts of the spoonlette’s training are of equal importance, but there is an order to

how skills are introduced and cultivated. The first couple of years are primarily focused on learning their role in society and understanding humans. This creates a context for the subsequent training and fosters a passion to engage in their education. Then, in the third year, a physical regime is added in to help them gain flexibility in their body so they can go on to be permanently formed. The mental and spiritual elements of holding are introduced in the fourth year and gradually take up the entirety of their studies. By the time their 10th year rolls around, they are spending 12 hours every day holding. They have developed all their physical attributes and can—with ease and grace—hold anything they encounter at any time. They are ready to be spoons. It is in the fifth year that some spoonlettes will leave their training at the institute, sometimes by choice and sometimes by request of the elder spoons. Not every spoonlette is fit to become a spoon and about 20 percent of the nys that land in the pasture will ultimately become forks. Those that leave go to a special building at the edge of the woods where elders cut out slits in their flat bowls so that they can refocus their energy from holding to stabbing. These sporklettes are then sent to their own institute somewhere else. They will incorporate some of the spoon training they have already had into the new fork training and ultimately become either a spork, dessert fork, or other tool that uses both holding and stabbing.

Where are these institutes? Where is the majestic pasture where nys fall to earth? Where is The Library of Concave Importance? No one really knows…or the people who do know are not coming forward. Like Hogwarts, Atlantis, and all those pirate ships with gold treasure, it is a great mystery. And probably best kept that way. Spoons are so important to us, if anything were to disturb their training—and thereby our supply of them—what would we possibly do? Many people even believe that the location should be kept secret for the simple fact that the spoon’s training process is so powerful and so effective, God only knows what could happen if it fell into the wrong hands. It could lead to mind control, world domination, uncontrollable spooning, and the end of society as we know it. So, let’s let sleeping dogs lie and we won’t have to start eating hot soup with our hands. Thank you for taking the time to learn a little more about the lives of spoons. Remember: Spoons want to be used. That is their purpose for living. Whenever possible, try and use spoons in your daily lives. Ever tried eating a smoothie with a spoon? It’s the best! And you get the satisfaction of knowing that you have made a spoon happy. Be well and spoon often. This is an excerpt from New Manifesto, a zine of writing, illustration, interviews, and comic strips by Alex Bildsoe. Individual copies and subscriptions to New Manifesto are available at alexandrabildsoe.com. 6/20 CHRONOGRAM FEATURE 49

feature

Between Gigs Hudson Valley Musicians Play Through the Pandemic By Peter Aaron

Lara Hope

50 ARTS & CULTURE CHRONOGRAM 6/20

Bobby Previte

o here we are. Four months into the closures brought on by the virus. Normally in this space, as part of our traditional June Summer Arts Preview issue, we’d be running down a rich roundup of the fantastic music festivals that are about to take over the Hudson Valley region for the summer, after having fretted for weeks about deciding which ones to holler about this go-around and which to save our raves for until next year. Well, obviously, not this time: As of this writing, some upstate businesses are tenuously reopening, but the majority of summer music and arts festivals have, sadly but unsurprisingly, cancelled or suspended their 2020 seasons. It’s the heartbreaking, but necessary, current reality. During this figuring-out period, musicians have been inspiring pillars of strength. Daily on social media we see more and more solo artists and band members livestreaming wonderfully intimate performances directly from their garrets. And in a way this entire current holing-up-andmaking-music movement is much in keeping with our local legacy: The Hudson Valley is, after all, the birthplace of the Basement Tapes. And we’re lucky that, in addition to living in area that already offers nurturing solitude, we also now live in an age in which musicians themselves can, using technology, open their own basements— or living rooms, bedrooms, computer nooks, wherever they play at home—to their fans as they bring in some much-needed cash via donations or merch sales. Many of them are writing heaps of new songs and even recording

whole new albums during this downtime, a silver lining to be sure. This month, we reached out to some prominent local musicians to find out where they’re at in the midst of all this (besides home, of course).

“Doing the livestream every week gives me an excuse to try to write new songs and get dressed up.” —Lara Hope Lara Hope and the Ark-Tones You know things are real when the sun’s down and Lara Hope isn’t out there whooping it up on stage. With her band the Ark-Tones, the Kingston-based queen of roots rock has for the last few years been on the road constantly, touring the US and Europe with the likes of the Brian Setzer Orchestra and Reverend Horton Heat—that is, when she and the boys aren’t bringing their homebrewed blend of rockabilly

and honky-tonk country to regional venues or she and her husband, Ark-Tones bassist Matt Goldpaugh, aren’t holding forth with their side project, the Gold-Hope Duo. The couple had, in quirk of timing, just put a down payment on a Midtown house and were expecting to leave on a six-week tour when they got word that it had been cancelled. Although the Ark-Tones as a live band have been put on hold, Hope and Goldpaugh, never ones to stop playing— pandemic, renovations, and financial worries be damned—have been making music throughout it all, performing a weekly, tips-generating livestream set on Facebook (Mondays, 7-8pm) from their basement, where they’re recording an EP, Songs in the Key of Quarantine. “We’d always recorded in real studios before, and it’s pretty lo-fi,” Hope explains about the release. “But [the process] is giving us a chance to learn how to record ourselves using Garageband. My plan is to buy [higher-quality recording software] Logic, once I finally get my unemployment [benefits]. Doing the livestream every week gives me an excuse to try to write new songs and get dressed up.” Along with devising new merchandise for their website (check out their hand-painted, coffin-shaped keepsake boxes), the singer and her beau have revived the GoldHopealongs, a kids’ music project, with the aim of livestreaming for hire to children’s parties. “Musicians are going to have to think of other revenues to tap into,” says Hope. “Luckily for us we’re already used to being on a shoestring budget, so we already think like that.” 6/20 CHRONOGRAM ARTS & CULTURE 51

“Who knows, maybe after this, things will somehow actually be better than they were before.” —James Felice

The Felice Brothers Photo by Fionn Reilly

“Now’s the time to stop and assess things, and to find ways to be even more creative.” —Bobby Previtte Bobby Previte “I’d just gotten off a European tour with my quintet,” says drummer Bobby Previte about the beginning of his COVID-enforced work changes. “Andrea [Kleine, his wife, a writer and performance artist] were starting a residency in Florida when things first started to hit. We were down there, reading every day about what was going on in New York, where we have an apartment. We were afraid of getting stuck in Florida, but we didn’t want to be stuck in New York, either. So we pretty much came straight here [to the couple’s Claverack bungalow]. I’m very fortunate to have this place to come to.” Since moving in in 2013 the composer, 52 ARTS & CULTURE CHRONOGRAM 6/20

percussionist, and bandleader, a kingpin of New York’s 1980s experimental jazz world and a collaborator of artists ranging from John Adams to Iggy Pop and Tom Waits, has become a beloved presence on the ColumbiaGreene county scene thanks to his residencies at Hudson’s Club Helsinki and Catskill’s Avalon Lounge. As is the case with many touring American musicians, however, much of his fanbase is overseas, where he doesn’t expect to be going in the near future. “To me, the idea of there being gatherings to play at anytime soon is just magical thinking,” says Previte, who has been busying himself with producing music for other artists; recording tracks at home for projects with long-time cohorts Charlie Hunter, Jamie Saft, and Michael Cammers; releasing new and archival recordings weekly via his Bandcamp page; prepping a June 17-20 online improv workshop presented by Hudson Hall; and hosting Q&As with fans using Zoom. “I’m assuming that the music world has fundamentally changed due to what we’re all going through now, and I’m trying to prepare for that,” he says, adding that he’s using some of his newfound free time to learn about becoming a volunteer COVID-19 contact tracer. “It would be too easy to be miserable, and there are people who have it a lot worse than I do. Now’s the time to stop and assess things, and to find ways to be even more creative.”

The Felice Brothers The last time we spoke at length with any of the Felice Brothers was in September 2018, when the road-wrangling folk rock juggernauts were performing in support of their seventh album, Life in the Dark. Since then there’ve been lineup shakeups, another album (2019’s Undress), a solo album by singer Ian Felice (2017’s In the Kingdom of Dreams), and many, many touring miles. And now? Well, befitting the Palenville-born act’s rustic roots and its musical aesthetic, original members Ian and James Felice are, for this pandemic moment, just living the country life. “Ian’s got a son now and a few acres up in the Berkshires, so he’s there with his family,” says James Felice, who lives in Kingston with his girlfriend, singer-songwriter Allison Olender (the group’s bassist, Jesske Hume, and drummer, Will Lawrence, are in Brooklyn). “I’ve been picking up woodcutting work here and there. I bought a chainsaw last year. That turned out to be a really good investment.” But although the group isn’t currently able to woodshed together, Felice Brothers music is still being born. “Ian’s always writing songs, and I’ve been writing stuff, too,” says Felice, whose band saw an April US tour fall through and the loss of well-paying festival dates including the particularly poignant cancellation of the Newport Folk Festival. “That’s the only thing to do during all of this: write and play music and try not to worry about stuff. Musicians are among the hardest hit by this whole thing, and also among the least protected.” While he’s realistic about it taking some time for live music to return, he remains optimistic that it eventually will. “Here in New York State live music is part of Phase 4 [the final phase of the state’s reopening plan], so it’ll be one of the last things to come back,” Felice says. “I can’t see whole tours happening any time soon, but I could see some outdoor things making sense. But who knows, maybe after this, things will somehow actually be better than they were before.” What else would he say to fans who are lamenting his group’s absence? “This will end, and you will see us again,” he offers, adding, in the meantime, “Don’t forget about us. We won’t forget about you.”

Tony Falco Photo by Fionn Reilly

BETHEL WOODS CENTER FOR THE ARTS

More than a field.

Step back in time: Discover the historic grounds of the 1969 Woodstock festival beneath your feet. Meet Me at Woodstock, the all-new augmented reality adventure, allows you to hear the music, see the stage, and look out at the crowd of 450,000.

Sleeping Stages While musicians shelter in place, work on new material, step up their online fan engagement, and commune with their couches, local venues mainly remain dark. We say “mainly” because of the area venues that also serve food, some, like Daryl’s House in Pawling and Tubby’s in Kingston, are partially open to offer curbside pickup service for select menu items and beverages, in accordance with New York State guidelines for restaurants (the former, owned by hitmaker Daryl Hall, is even taking orders for grocery packages that include toilet paper, bread, milk, vegetables, and other essentials). The majority, though, are simply hoping to hang on long enough to make it through as they look forward to a safe and sensibly paced reopening—whatever that might mean, given the new paradigm of social distancing. It’s a scary time for all small businesses, especially live music outlets: The newly formed National Independent Venue Association states that the bulk of its 1,300 member venues don’t have enough reserves to last more than six months without federal aid. To raise awareness of the situation to lawmakers, NIVA launched the Save Our Stages campaign (#saveourstages). “Right now, we’re figuring that we could do 25 percent of our normal capacity of 400 and stay compliant with state social distancing guidelines,” says Michael Amari, booking agent at the recently renovated Bearsville Theater, a NIVA member, like Tubby’s, Daryl’s House, and several other regional venues (see the NIVA website for a full list). “It could mean us having to bring ticket prices up. But the audience demographic that might be able to pay a little more for tickets tends to be older people, who are the most at risk [for COVID-19]. Hopefully, bands will understand about coming down on their guarantees to make things work. We’ll probably only be booking local bands for the first year once we reopen. It might make sense for some out-of-town bands to play multiple nights.” “We’ve been doing a lot of painting and cleaning and we’re ready to go whenever we get the word, but it’s hard enough to make money when you have a full house,” says the Falcon’s owner, Tony Falco, whose operation gives 100 percent of its audience donations to performers and relies on bar and food sales to cover operating costs and pay its staff (unfortunately, the venue’s location on a narrow stretch of Route 9W and its largely out-oftown clientele mean curbside food service untenable). “I won’t be able to hire a lot of my employees back; luckily, they’re all getting unemployment. We have good outdoor seating and we plan to switch to easier food like pizzas and burgers.” Thanks to a 35-acre grant from the neighboring Tilcon building materials company, during the lockdown Falco has himself been clearing trails for public use on land adjacent to the club. His primary concern, though, is with the musicians. “It’s a real struggle for them,” says the entrepreneur, whose water testing lab business sustains his family. “They give us so much, and they live hand-to-mouth. Those are the cats I’m worried about. Not me.”

Planning your visit? Visit BethelWoodsCenter.org to confirm hours of operation. WHILE YOU’RE HERE: LIGHTS, COLOR, FASHION SPECIAL EXHIBIT

EARTH IN FOCUS OUTDOOR EXHIBIT

CROCHETED CONNECTIONS BINDY BAZAAR TRAILS

Bethel Woods Center for the Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit cultural organization that inspires, educates, and empowers individuals through the arts and humanities.

Nivassoc.org 6/20 CHRONOGRAM ARTS & CULTURE 53

q&a

The City We Became

N. K. Jemisin’s Love Letter to New York

n March 24, two days into statewide lockdown, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in New York City had just topped 13,000 when acclaimed fantasy writer N. K. Jemisin released her latest book, The City We Became. Eldritch timing for the release of a novel set in a modern New York City under attack by an otherworldly parasite. Jemisin, a trained counseling psychologist, came onto the literary scene in the early 2000s, when she began publishing science fiction and short stories. By the time she crowdfunded enough money to quit her day job and begin writing full-time, she already had a column in the New York Times and a growing fan following. In a decade, she’s written nine novels, which have earned her over a dozen book awards. Introducing timely themes of social justice, cultural conflict, environmentalism, and sexuality to her books, coupled with a psychologist’s capacity for character development, Jemisin has expanded the appeal of fantasy writing and demonstrated the power of an oft-dismissed genre to a new generation of readers. In The City We Became, Jemisin trains her deft pen on a real-life subject of mythic proportions: New York City. Part ode, part treatise on gentrification and white-washing, her latest book is a sweeping, masterful, and honest portrait of a city in the midst of a battle for its soul. On May 2, Jemisin spoke with Neil Gaiman in a live-streamed conversation sponsored by Bard College and Oblong Books. Ahead of the event, I spoke with Jemisin by phone about her new book, the history of New York City, and the literary power of fantasy. —Marie Doyon

54 ARTS Q&A CHRONOGRAM 6/20

The City We Became came out as New York City was rapidly emerging as a global epicenter of COVID-19. Hell of a time for a book release. Yep. All things considered, it seems to be doing alright. It hit the New York Times bestseller list right out of the gate, which I was not expecting at all, given the situation. But apparently a lot of people find it resonant, at least right now. The book is a beautiful ode to New York. You visited regularly as a kid and now you live there. Tell me about your relationship with the city.

When I was a kid I lived here from early childhood until I was about five or six, then my parents divorced, and I kept coming back summers and holidays, because my father stayed here. Then I finally moved back here in 2007. In terms of the total amount of time I’ve spent here, it’s probably about a third to half of my life. I think of myself as half New Yorker, half a bunch of other shit. Half New Yorker, half Southerner mostly. It means that I periodically do weird food experiments that usually turn out well. You said people are finding the book resonant at this time. It’s interesting because historically, the density of cities has always been a potential health problem, dating all the way back to the Bubonic plague in the 13th century. Have your thoughts on cities shifted at all since the pandemic began? No. The idea that the density of cities makes them dangerous or unhealthy feels like a very European idea to me. In European cities back in the day, like during the Bubonic plague, that was a matter of filth. But there have been large cities all over the world that did not have these problems, concurrent with the Bubonic plague. In Mesoamerica and the Americas, there was

documented evidence of these cities having sewers and other infrastructure that European cities just didn’t have. We’ve seen even with corona situation, Singapore, which is a gigantic, ridiculously dense city, is not having these problems, because they used testing, they did sensible stuff. It’s not the density that’s the problem, it’s what you do with it. The New York I grew up with was one that was going through the crack epidemic in ’80s and was nearly bankrupt in ’70s, and all that other stuff. It was a city which, during emergencies, pulled together and did what it needed to do take care of itself and and to take care of the immediate surroundings and people nearby. Back in the ’80s, one of the ways the neighborhood I live in now, Bed Stuy, got rid of crackhouses and crack dealers was they relied on the Nation of Islam. Whatever your feelings on the Nation of Islam, the reason a lot of black neighborhoods really respect them is because they took care of black neighborhoods in an era when the rest of the city didn’t give a damn, when NYPD was basically just visiting to harass people. That dynamic of the city doing for itself and taking care of itself is emerging again. For example, there are mutual aid societies that have erupted all over the place. A lot of them are now online. Back in the day it used to be something the block associations would do. But now, for example, there is Bed-Stuy Strong. It is an organization of younger people who will run errands for elderly people and disabled people, mothers with kids who can’t go anywhere. They are going to get groceries for these folks, and paying for the groceries in some cases if people can’t. Whenever there is a crisis, whenever there is a blackout, you’re always going to see some random Joe jump out there and direct traffic. This was a dynamic of the city that I’d always believed

was part of being any large city, but particularly New York. And I’d worried that that dynamic was dying with all the changes that happened to the city. But what corona has proven to me is that New York is still New York. Despite the gentrification, despite so many people being pushed out of the city, there is still hope. Obviously in the book there is the character of the White Woman, the Enemy. What do you perceive as the real-life threats to New York?

She is a character, but she is representative of a couple of phenomena. There are a couple of things I’m getting at. The force that I perceive as the greatest threat to New York City is broadly called gentrification. Gentrification takes several different forms. One is economic in that neighborhoods that were formerly affordable become unaffordable, when they get trendy or when the existing population gets forced out rapidly. A certain amount of that has happened in New York. Neighborhoods have always switched ethnicities. It’s the affordability change and the rapidity of it that’s different. It used to happen over a generation, now it’s three years or five years, and that’s the huge problem. And with that economic change also tends to come a cultural change, and some of that cultural change is structured and imposed. For example, cops suddenly start patrolling the neighborhood more than when it was a poor, people of color neighborhood. They start harassing people for what they call for “quality of life issues.” They harass black kids because their pants sag. They harass old men for sitting on the stoop just enjoying a nice afternoon and having a drink because it’s public drinking. Shit that used to just be what people do becomes criminalized. Then there is also the cultural shift that comes from new inhabitants in a neighborhood trying to impose their way of thinking on that neighborhood. There is a parade that happens every year in New York around Labor Day: the Caribbean Day parade. It has happened as long as I’m alive. It has gotten dangerous in recent years for reasons I don’t fully understand, but it’s historic. It always happens. And bands will practice for the month or so up to the parade. There is a steel drum band that used to practice in this one corner of my old neighborhood in Crown Heights. And they did it every year for as long as I’ve been alive. And there is this one woman who started calling the cops every time they practiced. Even if they were practicing at 6 or 7 in the afternoon. They originally would go pretty late, because nobody in the neighborhood minded because they liked the music. But this woman started complaining and they actually adjusted their hours. But she kept complaining, kept calling the cops on them, kept coming down to film them, to harass them, to scream at them. And it’s just this one woman, but she was determined. And she was doing what she could to destroy this neighborhood tradition. I no longer live in Crown Heights. I don’t know if she was able to push the band out of its traditional space. They own that property, but I don’t know

if she was able to work strings, or whatever. That’s the kind of thing that I’m talking about. There is a homogenization at the core of that. These are people that come from places where city life ends at 5pm or sunset. They’re coming from small towns, they’re coming from rural America, and they’re moving to the city that never sleeps and they want to make it go to bed. It’s an ethic. There is a homogenization attempt here to make New York like Peoria or like Springfield. And what I am getting at with the Woman in White is the homogenization of whiteness as a social justice dynamic. Basically, before Europeans came to America, before colonization, Europeans regarded each other not as the same people. The French did not like the Germans. The Germans did not like the English. There was none of this “we’re all white” shit. Whiteness is an outgrowth of colonialism. It’s an attempt to homogenize people from very different ethnic backgrounds and very different traditions and give them a single agenda, and that agenda is “Hey, at least you’re not black,” or “Hey, at least you’re not one of these other people.” The result of that, at least in the United States, is that you don’t have that ethnic identification anymore, and you lose the culture that comes with that. I was just reading an article about how German Americans have lost all their food traditions. Aside from Oktoberfest, they don’t have their old cooking traditions. They’ve all lost their languages. Many have lost unique religious variations. They’ve all been subsumed and swallowed into this generic whiteness. And it’s even sort of unusual for white Americans to retain strong identification with their ethnic group. It’s not just Germans. It’s a thing that actually afflicts every ethnic group that comes to the United States. If they are light enough to join whiteness, they are inevitably and invariably faced with a choice at some point, where they are going to have to throw other people’s color under the bus to join the tide of whiteness in order to benefit in this country. Most famously, there’s a great book, How the Irish Became White, by Noel Ignatiev. Noel points out the history of Irish Americans and how originally, especially in New York, Irish Americans and black Americans had a lot of fellow feeling and were fighting in trenches to be recognized as workers and to unionize. When you look at the bodies of people that were buried under Wall Street with the African Burial Ground. A few years ago, they began excavating a part of Wall Street—thousands of unmarked graves from African and Irish and other workers, some of whom were enslaved some were not, they died and they literally paved over them and put a financial services building on top of them. They’ve begun to exhume these bodies. And there is a memorial down now. But New York’s Irish and African-American communities had a lot of solidarity until very specific incidents occurred, where the Irish American community’s leadership had to make some difficult choices. And they had to do things like abandon their solidarity for abolition. They had to basically throw black people under the

“I do believe there is some inherent difference that will come out of my fiction because I’m coming from a different perspective. That is why I am an advocate not just for diversification but also decolonization of literature.” —N. K. Jemisin

6/20 CHRONOGRAM ARTS Q&A 55

Extreme Heat, COVID, and Equity in New York City

Get Chronogram Delivered!

Urban Systems Lab / The New School

June 18, 2020 | 7 - 8pm EDT via Zoom Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies Science Conversation New York City is expected to have a hot summer. What will potential heatwaves, blackouts, and brownouts mean for at-risk city residents already struggling with lack of air conditioning and limited access to green spaces? Experts from Cary Institute, NASA, and The Nature Conservancy will discuss equitable solutions to addressing the many threats posed by extreme heat in cities. The event is free. Registration is required.

It’s more important than ever to maintain the parts of our lives that feel normal, sane, and invigorating—like curling up on the couch with a good old-fashioned magazine.

Only $5 per single-issue OR $3 per issue with a 12-month subscription! chronogrammedia.com/delivery

Because She’s The One Through The Generations Brides Have Trusted Us

• Art Carved • Mariana • Naledi • Coast Diamond Artisans Available to Customize Your Diamond Engagement Ring

Musical Group

LE B

R ATI N G

sassanbrassny.com for your reception

$3500 value $1000 Certificate from BLUSH BRIDAL

290 Wall St. Uptown Kingston • 845-331-1888

No purchase required.

Antique Fair and Flea Market May 2-3, 2020 August 1-2, 2020 at the

WASHINGTON COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS, Rt. 29, GREENWICH, NY (12 mi. East of Saratoga Springs, NY)

$5 admission,

(65+ $4, under-16 - FREE)

Old-Fashioned Antique Show featuring 220+ dealers, free parking, great food, and real bathrooms. ($10 - Early Buyers Fridays before show) 56 ARTS Q&A CHRONOGRAM 6/20

$90 - Dealer Spaces Still Available: FAIRGROUND SHOWS NY PO Box 528, Delmar NY 12054 www.fairgroundshows.com fairgroundshows@aol.com Ph. 518-331-5004

schneidersjewelers.com

Your work deserves attention. Which means you need a great bio for your press kit or website. One that’s tight. Clean. Professionally written. Something memorable. Something a booking agent, a record-label person, a promoter, or a gallery owner won’t just use to wipe up the coffee spill on their desk before throwing away.

When you’re ready, I’m here.

PETER AARON

Arts editor, Chronogram. Published author. Award-winning music columnist, 2005-2006, Daily Freeman. Contributor, Village Voice, Boston Herald, All Music Guide, All About Jazz.com, Jazz Improv and Roll magazines. Musician. Consultations also available. Reasonable rates.

See samples at www.peteraaron.org. E-mail info@peteraaron.org for rates. I also offer general copy editing and proofreading services.

bus in order to get ahead. And this is a thing that happens to almost every ethnic group that comes to America, particularly in New York. I wanted to speak to that homogenization, and what that homogenization costs. These are things that folks may not get if I don’t put a pin in them. This is your first book that takes place in a real place on present-day Earth, so you didn’t necessarily flex your typical world-building muscles here, but you do some pretty epic myth building. In what ways was the process of writing The City We Became similar to and different from the other novels that you’ve written?

In a lot of ways, it wasn’t that different. The process of creating the mythology that you see, how the other cities have come to be, how they’ve got their own traditions, how they have this history with the Enemy—all of that is pure secondary world building. It’s no different from any world building that I did for any other series. Because New York already exists, I didn’t have to create it. I just had to get it right. That’s not world building to me, that’s honesty. Now, we do see lots of things that are set in New York that do their own creepy world building. I don’t know that they are conscious that they are creating this dishonest version of New York. We see “Friends,” we see “Girls,” that are set in this sort of all middle-class, all-white New York, where everyone has giant apartments. This has never been the New York I’ve ever lived in. They were world building too, they just weren’t doing it honestly. If I am depicting the New York that is around me, then I have to make sure I understand the dynamics of what created that New York. I am not doing so much research into the generic facts, like when was the city founded. What I am researching more is how the power dynamics developed. I’ve been listening to this fantastic podcast called “School Colors” which is by an organization here in Brooklyn that decided to look at the 1968 New York teachers’ strike. It was the biggest teacher strike in history. The entire city got shut down, basically because the parents in a black neighborhood got fed up with segregation and poor education being given to their kids, and took matters into their own hands and basically started running the school district in their neighborhood for themselves. Among other things, it was a great chapter in civil rights history in the city, but it also caused a homogenization of what in New York had still been relatively discrete ethnic groups. That was one of things that led to white flight from New York City, bankruptcy in the `70s, the crack epidemic in the `80s. So if I’m going to understand the city, not just how it is but how it got to be this way, that is the type of research I’m doing. That is what I’m trying to depict honestly in the book. A sort of cultural biography of New York in fantasy clothing.

Fantasy has always done this. Scratch that. Fantasy should always do this. Supposedly the nature of fantasy is to explore history, but

really what it explores is myth and the power of myth on society. You’re looking at historic epics, prophecies, lore, and things like that and how these things dictated the way that a society developed. Now, 90 percent of what you see [in fantasy] is vaguely generic, medieval European lore and how that impacted medieval European life, which is frequently dishonest in and of itself, because when you look at actual history of medieval Europe and who was there and what were the politics, you don’t see a lot of that in fantasy. Honest fantasy has always looked at how did the world get to be the way it is and what should we do about it? Is that bad? Is that good? Can we fix it? If we are going to fix it, what does fixing it mean? Does that mean putting it back to the way it was or does that mean some kind of fundamental change? That is what the power of fantasy in my opinion always has been, and to apply that to a modern setting is just useful. H. P. Lovecraft weaves in and out of the book, in what seems like a meta conversation with the genre of sci-fi and fantasy. What does he represent for you—do you see him as an antithesis to what you are trying to do with your fantasy? In the sense that he inspired what I decided to do with this book. And I mentioned it in the book proper, Lovecraft’s fantasy was rooted in his fear of other people in real life. We see him using the same language to refer to fellow New Yorkers in letters that he’s written to family and friends as he uses to refer to subhuman minions of hell, in his fiction. And then sometimes he crosses the streams and writes about “The Horror at Red Hook,” where he is writing about a fictionalized New York where his fellow New Yorkers are subhuman minions from hell it’s because they are non-white, non-British monsters as far as he is concerned. These groups of people that came here and formed the industrial base and work base and made the city the powerhouse that it was terrified him, because he perceived their diverse energy as a threat. I basically started thinking, well, what if their diverse energy was actually a positive thing? What if their diverse energy caused some supernatural effect, as Lovecraft thought, but that that effect was a net-good thing. Maybe Lovecraft’s reaction to it and hatred of it was because he is in alignment with forces that see cities’ growth and diversity as threats. You definitely don’t seem to see cities’ growth as a threat. Although, in the book, in order to be born, a city must “punch through universes,” extinguishing thousands of other worlds as it does, which sounds inherently violent. Well cities are inherently harmful to some degree. Any large agglomeration of human beings in a single space is dangerous to the environment, and I want to acknowledge that. But keep in mind, with the book, the perception that you’re getting of cities being inherently harmful is coming from their Enemy. Their perception of harm that a group of people does, when it is framed by people coming outside of a group, is not always accurate.

“I don’t valorize cities in and of themselves as inherently perfect or awesome places. There is a little mythmaking happening in our society that treats city and country as diametrically opposed.” —N. K. Jemisin

6/20 CHRONOGRAM ARTS Q&A 57

Take a virtual Byrdcliffe tour until we can welcome you back!

woodstockguild.org 34 TINKER STREET, WOODSTOCK, NY • 845.679.2079

RADIO WOODSTOCK 100.1 PRESENTS

SOFA SESSIONS ~ Special Notice Regarding Spring & Summer 2020 Arts Events at e Hotchkiss School ~

Every Thursday at 7pm, featuring 3 artists, performing 20 minute sets from the safety of their sofas. WATCH LIVE: FACEBOOK.COM/RADIOWOODSTOCK 58 ARTS Q&A CHRONOGRAM 6/20

We are grateful to those in our communities working on the front lines to keep us safe and extend well wishes to all during these challenging times.

11 Interlaken Road | Lakeville  ./

I felt the book wasn’t a pure defense of cities but more of an acknowledgement of all the complexity—the good, bad, ugly, and beautiful— that happens when you have so many people in a small space. That is something I wanted to acknowledge, yes. There are going to be a lot of people who read this book and aren’t interested because it’s about New York. There seems to be a core contingent of people who just have this unreasonable hatred of the city, in a lot of cases without any contact, and I don’t fully understand it, but I recognize they are out there. But then there are people who hate the idea of cities in general. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me because human society has had small-versuslarge agglomerations of people and the two of them tend to be symbiotic, but fine. I don’t valorize cities in and of themselves as inherently perfect or awesome places. I also don’t valorize rural areas as inherently perfect or awesome places. I think there is a little mythmaking happening in our society that treats city and country as diametrically opposed. We touched a little on what you view as the purpose of fantasy. In your own stories, you touch on everything from racism to sexuality to environmentalism to extractive economics. I wonder how you conceive of your own books. Do you see them as a vehicle for literary activism? Or is it commentary? Or is there a goal that you have with your writing? No. People keep asking me that, I don’t get it. My goal is to entertain readers and tell a good story, that’s about it. But there is also power in the genre that you are using in your capacity to ask the sorts of questions you were mentioning earlier—how did we get here? Have we gone wrong? Can we get back on track, or should we?

I think all fantasy is capable of asking these questions. It doesn’t always choose to, but it can. And it doesn’t always choose to answer those questions honestly, but it can. To me, that is simply part of good storytelling. You can tell a false story. And there are some people who perceive that as a good thing. They want those mythic versions of New York and not the reality. There are people out there that prefer the “Friends” depiction of New York, or the “Seinfeld” depiction to the New York that I’m going to give them. That is their choice. I really have no choice but to depict reality as I see. All writers do this. This is not something I’m doing that is unique. All cishet white male writers are going to tell a story through their particular lens. And in their stories, cishet white men are going to be the center of existence. They’re going to be the people getting magic powers or they’re going to be the bad guys or they’re going to be the people whose story we’re expected to identify with to most. I am not a cishet white dude. I do believe there is some inherent difference that will come out of my fiction because I’m coming from a different perspective. That is why I am

an advocate not just for diversification but decolonization of literature. The idea that certain stories are better than others, the very European focus of so much of our literature is a dishonest engagement with our world and the way it is and the way it got to be. I’m not trying to do any particular thing. This is the world as it is and this is how it got to be this way, and I’m not going to pretend anything else. How do you view being perceived as a genre writer?

I’ve been a genre writer since I started my career. I’m not trying to write outside the genre. It’s nice that people outside the genre are willing to read outside of their comfort zones. But there is still the fantasy tag on the spines of my books. I’m still with the same publisher I’ve been with for the last 11 years. I’m not doing anything new. I think the American readership is starting to realize that genre fiction isn’t inherently worse fiction. And maybe you shouldn’t be listening to people who can’t write tell you what is good writing. I’m not trying to throw shade on anyone in particular, I’m just saying that in a lot of cases our literary tastes as a society are shaped by wannabe writers who get jobs as English teachers and have never published a thing, but know very very firmly what “is” or “isn’t” good writing. Listen to people who read a lot. Listen to people who have read widely. Listen to people who just care about what a good story is. That is the thing that we should all always have been doing. Would you agree that there is still a stigma attached to the genre?

Back in the day, the pulp era of the ’30s and ’40s, genre writing earned the stigma. They called it pulp for a reason, because when you crank out a book in a week, it’s not going to be good. But it’s 2020, and that hasn’t been the case for a long time—at least my whole life and a decade before that. Part of the problem is that when you talk to genre readers these days and you ask them what’s the good stuff to read, they’re still citing shit from the ’30s and ’40s. I don’t fully understand why we still do that. That’s dumb. But when you are quoting stuff from “Golden Age of Science Fiction,” and it’s poorly written, it’s got regressive views of women and people of color and everything else—no, that doesn’t represent our genre well. And we’ve had lots of conversation within the genre about how to introduce people to what we do without resorting to ancient lore. Were you a big sci-fi/fantasy fan as a kid?

It’s basically all I read until I hit my teens or so. I just never really stopped reading it. I went right from childhood fairy tales to adult science fiction and fantasy, probably because the shelves were right next to each other at the library. Do you think as a black female writer you have increased the appeal of your genre to more readers of color? I don’t know. When social media became a thing, really back in the day of blogs and live

journals, there was a series of massive blog-based conversations that took place between readers of science fiction and the editors, agents, and writers. In that conversation, it became clear that there had always been a large audience of readers of color in science fictiondom. What had happened was that this audience of color, of people who were deeply into the fantastic, simply wasn’t acknowledged, wasn’t noticed because they didn’t show up at unfriendly, distant, difficult-to-get-to science fiction conventions. Not surprisingly. They went unnoticed and their wishes got disregarded. And there was a lot of racist science fiction that got published with the assumption that, well, black people aren’t reading this stuff, so it doesn’t matter. I don’t think there’s anything that different happening. The audience that’s always been there is now more visible. And that audience now has more power to say, “Stop doing racist things.” Or “It’s great that you’ve done this book. We want more like it.” The audience that has always been there is finally having a voice. 6/20 CHRONOGRAM ARTS Q&A 59

music Shana Falana Darkest Light (Arrowhawk Records) ArrohawkRecords.com The world was frightening enough in spring 2018, when Shana Falana stepped up to the studio mic to sing the headand-heart-strong mantra “Everything is Gonna Be Okay.” Two years later, with the quantum leap in anxiety ushered in by the arrival of COVID-19, and the anthem takes on a level of added resonance that the Kingston rocker couldn’t have foreseen. For all the unapologetic shoegazing that Falana is known for, her namesake duo’s (Falana on vocals and guitar; Michael Amari on drums) perceived dusky din has always also been imbued with a kind of sing-songy, optimistic radiance. The difference with Darkest Light, her seventh studio release, is that this time around, true to the album’s title, she’s amped up the blackness—only to find more brightness within it. And, conversely, more blackness in the brightness. For the track that’s truly, to borrow a line from This Is Spinal Tap, none more black, look to the title tune: “Darkest Light” brings shuddering shards of P.J. Harvey circa To Bring You My Love, pointing the way to the heart of darkness, where “redemption lies.” While the new wave nod of Depeche Mode’s “Stripped” doesn’t mess much with the original, its dark entry certainly fits the murky mood; besides that, it stirs the swamp to make way for the album’s standout, “Right Now is All We Know” (Ram Dass is thanked in the credits), a postpunk pounder that gives Austin dark lords the Black Angels a run for their murky money. Long may Falana’s black light shine. —Peter Aaron

Chris Maxwell New Store No. 2

Paul Green & Two Worlds A Bissel Rhythm

The Wild Irish Roses Full Bloom

(Max Recordings) Maxwellsongs.com

(Big Round Records) Bigroundrecords.com

(POE Records) Thewildirishroses.bandcamp.com

Arkansas-bred Woodstocker Chris Maxwell has a history. For any self-respecting music fan, that could end with the fact that his Little Rock combo, the Gunbunnies, went to Memphis to work with producer Jim Dickinson, play dates with Alex Chilton, and have their bio penned by Robert Palmer. Stop! Enough! We are not worthy. He also played guitar in Erik Sanko’s antic New York combo Skeleton Key, and, as a producer himself, collaborated with They Might Be Giants, Yoko Ono, and Iggy Pop. Maxwell’s brilliant sophomore disc, New Store No. 2—packed with Hudson Valley ringers like Cindy Cashdollar, Connor Kennedy, Ambrosia Parsley, and Larry Grenadier—follows his penchant for experimentalism, flowing through modes of what might be reflexively called Americana. The opener, “Birdhouse,” is hauntingly gentle; the spare, breathy piano ballad “Jack Lee’s Dead” resurrects Maxwell’s Southern roots; and “Dear Songwriter” is the best Jeff Tweedy song he never wrote. —Michael Eck

Klezmer comes in all shapes, sounds, and sizes these days. What unites them all is mostly and often subtly technical: the use of specific modes, pitches, and ornamentation (roughly analogous to “blue notes” in jazz and blues). In the early 20th century, some Eastern European immigrant musicians absorbed the sounds and strategies of jazz. Western Massachusetts composer, clarinetist, and bandleader Paul Green may be an unlikely heir to that genre—he spent most of his musical life playing classical music—but he captures the mood of klezmer and the rhythms of jazz on original tunes meant for dancing or reflecting on his second album, A Bissel Rhythm, which was recorded at NRS Recording Studio in Catskill and engineered by Hudson Valley superstar Scott Petito. Aided by his stellar sextet of mostly Berkshire-based musicians, Green’s fusion is both logical and evocative, a marriage of two great musical traditions. —Seth Rogovoy

The family that plays together stays together, to paraphrase an old religious slogan. The Rose family of Wallkill is living proof of that motto, with the release of their fourth long player, featuring Kristina (bass, vocals), Michael (guitar, vocals), and the five oldest of their eight children. Recorded in their home studio and featuring 17 tracks of original and traditional Celtic songs, the Roses add more than a dash of rock ’n’ roll attitude to the equation. Standout Celtic-infused covers include the Sweet’s “Fox on the Run” and a bagpipe-infused take on the Velvet Underground classic “All Tomorrow’s Parties.” The later received substantial airplay earlier in the year on free-form radio behemoth WFMU. Sisters Josie, Evelyn-Marie, and Penelope-Anne take featured tracks on lead vocals, while son Aenghus ably fills the drum seat and oldest sister Hannah contributes vocals, and plays bodhran, a traditional frame drum. —Jeremy Schwartz

60 MUSIC CHRONOGRAM 6/20

books Sacred Mounds Jim Metzner SKYBOAT MEDIA, 2020, $21.41

Salvador Samuels is catapulted back to the precolonial period when he swaps bodies with a blind Native American, who in turn jumps into his body in modern America. Although 400 years apart, the two must work to save our world, guided by thousands of mysterious and ancient mounds that sporadically cover North America, and two courageous women. Jim Metzner, host of the award-winning NPR series “Pulse of the Planet,” weaves together this tale of magical and historical realism as his characters encounter insect swarms of biblical proportions, a telepathic tyrant, and body-swapping sex while they embark on their world-saving adventure.

American Dreamer David Taylor Ives MONKFISH, 2020, $22

At the age of 17, Rhinebeck resident David Taylor Ives saw first-hand what global inequality looked like. During a trip to Brazil, he witnessed a family sharing a mattress laying on the bare floor within a crudely fashioned tin and corn stalk shelter, their only water source being used for cooking, bathing, and sewage. From that moment forward, Ives became passionately committed to humanitarian issues, taking his love of history and politics into the Peace Corps and to directing the Albert Schweitzer Institute at Quinnipiac University. American Dreamer recounts Ives’s life as a committed global humanitarian.

Strange Situation: A Mother’s Journey into the Science of Attachment Bethany Saltman BALLANTINE BOOKS, 2020, $27

Inspired by the first-hand account of the author as both a mother and a daughter, Saltman explores the scientific explanation for the bond that exists between parent and child. After a lonely childhood and love-crazy adolescence, former Chronogram columnist Saltman embarked on a 10-year study of the innate bond between parent and child under the expert tutelage of one of psychology’s most influential figures, Mary Ainsworth. This emotional recounting of what it means for a parent to love their child is both scientific and poetic, as Saltman not only uses her newfound knowledge of the science of attachment to explain her past, but also to help readers understand their own.

The Joppenbergh Jump Mark Morgenstern RECITAL PUBLISHING, 2020, $15

Sergeant Coot Friedman is newly returned from the battlefields of Afghanistan to his hometown in upstate New York, nestled at the bottom of a perhaps mystical mountain named Joppenbergh. (Any resemblance to the town of Rosendale, which also has a Joppenbergh Mountain, on the part of the author, who co-owns the Rosendale Cafe, is likely intentional!) Suffering from PTSD, Freidman must battle with his own demons while at the same time dealing with small town mayhem, certifiably crazy characters, ghosts, visions, and dark forces—both those wearing suits and those of the more mystical variety.

Queen of the Owls Barbara Linn Probst SHE WRITES PRESS, 2020, $16.95

Elizabeth, a rising academic star, poses for a series of nude photographs in order to feel more in sync with her muse, Georgia O’Keeffe. By recreating O’Keeffe’s famous nude photographs, Elizabeth is finding a way to fit into her skin. Then she learns that the compromising photographs are to be made public. As a mother to young children and a teacher in the community, Elizabeth tries to convince the photographer to stop the project, but he refuses. Viewing the photos as his property, word of the risqué pursuit quickly spreads to Elizabeth’s students, her husband, and the university that she works for. Now she faces an important question: How far will she go to be recognized? —Abby Foster

An Ocean Without a Shore Scott Spencer ECCO, 2020, $27.99

In his 12th novel, National Book Award finalist and Rhinebeck resident Scott Spencer explores where the river meets the ocean. An Ocean Without a Shore explores many of the same characters and the fictional Hudson Valley town of his previous novel, River Under the Road (2017). Where River was a bricolage of parties (extravagant and disastrous alike), this novel is the aftermath; it’s a portrait of devastation in all its forms. With beautifully precise prose, Spencer’s newest novel explores unrequited love and how caring for other people can sometimes do more harm than good. A supporting character in River, Christopher “Kip” Woods steps into the limelight in this novel. When we meet Kip, he’s confessing to a crime and awaiting his sentencing. In his confession, Kip recounts the mundane (yet life-changing) phone call from Thaddeus Kaufman—the fallen protagonist from River—and everything that followed. On that fateful morning, Thaddeus asks Kip to buy land from Orkney, his Hudson Valley estate, located in Leyden, New York (a fictionalized Rhinebeck). Bought at the height of his professional success, Orkney has fallen into disrepair along with Thaddeus’s career and life. Kip, who works at a successful Manhattan investment firm, knows he’s seen as a lifeline for Thaddeus, so he agrees to the proposition. Not because he loves Orkney or to help them avoid foreclosure, but because of his unending, secret love for Thaddeus. Money looms heavy over the novel: who has it and who doesn’t, how it’s wielded, and the ways it corrupts. Kip’s job is to make other people money. Thaddeus is consumed by his economic (and social) freefall. Thaddeus explains to Kip how the Leyden locals throw stones at the Amtrak trains coming from New York City (“There are a lot of hometown guys who think their lives were a lot better before people like us started moving up here. It’s a kind of radical nostalgia for the past.”). The novel captures the complicated socioeconomic clashes prevalent in the region. Oscillating back and forth in time, Kip reveals how much of his life has revolved around Thaddeus’s wants and needs. Kip is willing to do anything (including breaking the law) to ensure the married father of two’s happiness. During a conversation with Thaddeus’s gay uncle Morris, Kip tells him that he truly and wholly sees Thaddeus, and he loves him despite his weaknesses. To which Morris tells him that his nephew will disappoint Kip and probably something far worse: “He might not want to. But he will. He will destroy you.” As Thaddeus leans into his worst instincts, Kip continues to adore him. It’s only after the explosive climax that Kip sees how much he’s lost of himself while in pursuit of someone else. Toward the end of the novel, he says that he understands loneliness: “When you are in a state of longing, desire goes on and on, like an ocean without a shore.” Kip’s decades of unrequited wanting obscured everything in his life, and it’s only after that longing lifts that he’s able to seek out the happiness waiting for him on shore. —Carolyn Quimby 6/20 CHRONOGRAM BOOKS 61

poetry

EDITED BY Phillip X Levine

I Carry In my heart, The sound of a cat purring, The soothing sound of crickets chirping, A wind chime singing its song, And the waves crashing on the beach. Beautiful African violets blooming, The saying, “Never give up,” And last, The sound of the rain, Hitting on the roof.

In my head, All the friends I’ve made, Christmas time and opening presents, Memories and more, Snowboarding, school, all my teachers, How tiny the kittens once were, On the beach catching frogs, All 100 in a day, But mostly, Memories of happy times, That can’t be forgotten. —Haleigh Rabideau (8 years)

Mornings During the Virus When we can touch, I will invite you on the porch to sit next to me. The swing now empty, has shadows from before. Days, I fill it with birdsong. There are many birds whose voice I never noticed until now. Some birds have raucous voices. An especially brave wren gently taps the glass. Our feeder is empty. We cannot take the risk. When we can touch, I will summon you early, ask you to stomp on the porch, and make me greet the hummingbirds. My father, now gone, used to try and catch them going off to business, to their Blue-plate special flowers. If we waste the day, the peepers will join us with their tedious love songs. I will make us pots of tea. I hope I will not take this for granted. Mornings are short, remembering a long time. If you cannot be with me, I will mourn you. Forgive me ahead of time, but I will notice for you, I will try to make all this matter. If you can be with me, forgive me, but the tea will cool and we will squander hours. The peepers and birds will go silent. I will listen for you. The music of your voice will replace the need for all the rest. —Laurie Byro All that We Hear en Los Estados Unidos Ellos dicen: Ve a dormir! You tremble. Tú preguntas: ¿Qué es este lugar? Their eyes tell you nothing. Tú recuerdas tu madre siempre decía: Dulces sueños, niñito. You try to remember her face. Tú preguntas ¿Cuándo volverá mi madre? They say: Soon. They say: Pronto. Ellos dicen: ¡Para de llorar! Cry baby! Your tears flow like the river from which they dragged her. Ellos dicen: ¡Silencio! Your small heart leaps with fear. Ellos preguntan: ¿Te gusta ice cream? ¿Te gusta Coca Cola? ¿Te gusta chicken nuggets? Your stomach churns with hunger. Tú dices: No. No tengo hambre. You remember her hand on your cheek como una bendición del sacerdote. Tú preguntas: ¿Cuándo volverá mi madre? They say: Soon. They say: Pronto. —Dina Greenberg 62 POETRY CHRONOGRAM 6/20

she said: “let’s get together soon” i didn’t know she meant soon as in never —p

Just Because He’s Not There I think I know when the dead are hopeless. I won’t find what I won’t find. But at least I’ll know it. The railroad tracks below my house won’t ride my tears, won’t run through a sunset backwards. Certain things don’t happen and some not so sensible do. Possible is all that’s left after we’re born And that’s happened so I kick a rock, loosen a dead beer can down by the river It’s caved in and useless. I’m still talking to anyone who might be listening. But I’ll tell you they’re not listening. I think I know when a thing is hopeless. —Don Downey Lull Nearby Dark snores a song, Beyond the precast wall. Companion comfort, my respire Alone. —Tina Dybvik

When Sadness Comes “There is nothing I can do against your coming. When I awaken, I am still with thee.” from “Having It Out with Melancholy” by Jane Kenyon He hovers over your bed, snatches the morning sunshine, sticks it in his pipe. He croons, be my guest, bends to blow “the bile of desolation” into your lungs. You avoid his stare, look at the blank wall instead; it offers no advice. The room holds its breath. You break the silence with a muffled sob. Sadness does not offer you a tissue. Guilt drops by, puts her arm around his shoulder, nudges your body like it’s a sleeping cat. You turn over, but she grabs the pillow, demands your attention. Guilt is the mother of all feelings. Sadness tips his hat, takes a step back. You slink out of bed, force your feet to move you to the kitchen for coffee, to the closet for clothes. Sadness smiles slowly like a saxophone player, says I’ll be here all day. —Lisa Caloro Cat Cat is at home in the empty house Within herself, she is at home She will find sustenance there around her If she find none, still she is at home She will survive the way she will If she cannot, she will accept Cat will do what she will do Within herself, she will maintain Within herself, she is at home —Andrew Joffe A Reckoning Your feet smell like dust My three-year-old announces, Hanging upside down from the armchair In our bedroom. Soon enough, soon enough I think, uncertain whether to laugh or cry. Such words to a younger father Might have prompted mock outrage and A tossed pillow, but I am old And I cannot blame her. So I turn my head To watch the crows settle in a meadow Still brittle with the end of winter. Certain that she and I hold either end of a truth That neither of us can change, Though only one of us knows enough To want to. —Kemp Battle

The Order of Things At night before retiring she folds slacks just so maintaining a proper order to things ever since she learned her birthday was shared with her grandmother who showered in Auschwitz. We do what we can, these days, they must have thought while hiding in cellars or holding at home in ghettos awaiting The Great God Random to select his next prey. Then things got so lucky, so rosy, we forgot to worship his razor wit, and he felt it time to grab our attention and now we huddle hiding alone. —Joe A. Oppenheimer

Love in the Time of Corona don’t touch me Touch me —Peter Coco

Pandemic Easter and the Passover are gone. In isolation, each day I rise again, my brow a lintel on which the names of the dead are written in light: Mother, father, sister, brother, husband, first born son. In the garden, the Lenten roses bend toward the earth and, where last night’s rough wind passed over them, the tossed cups of daffodils cluster, unable to hold a drop. I do believe Elijah is coming. The faces of my friends on Zoom pixilate as they speak of masks and growing their own potatoes. How are you, they ask. I am well. Yesterday, after the last day of my last job was done, I longed to speak to my sister again, to tell her how it is now, how her daughter is recovering from Covid, how I am filled with grief but also expectation, how I walk my solitary drive where the trees creak and the spring air rushes to fill the space between buds, delicate as alveoli, how that morning, a bird sang its love song at my window, how each night I leave the door open. —Celia Watson Seupel

Distant |;;||;|||;;;;;;|||;;|||;;|||;;;|||||;;|||;|;||;| |;|||;;|||;;……...|;;||;;;|||;;||……|;;| [|;;]……[||]……[||:;;]……[||] [|;;]…….[||]….…[|] [|;;] [|] [|] | :( —Josephine Johnston

Full submission guidelines: Chronogram.com/submissions 6/20 CHRONOGRAM POETRY 63

Photo by Abby Foster

AND NOW, OUR FEATURE PRESENTATION

NEW YORK STATE DRIVE-INS ARE BACK IN BUSINESS

n May 15, drive-ins hit play, reopening for the first time since New York went on pause in March. Opening weekend, cabin-fevered New York residents turned out in droves. “We could’ve easily filled up twice over,” says John Stefanopoulos, co-owner of Four Brothers Drive-In. The Amenia destination, which is limiting capacity for their single screen to 70 percent, or about 80 to 90 cars, has sold out every day they’ve been open. “We had thousands of people calling and emailing every day.” Across the river in Orange County, tickets for Warwick Drive-In’s Memorial Day weekend screenings sold out within an hour of going live. Per New York State regulations, Hudson Valley drive-ins are requiring guests to have masks or a face covering for entry to the premises. Additional safety precautions include increased spacing between parked cars, enforced social 64 THE GUIDE CHRONOGRAM 6/20

distancing in food and bathroom lines, and extra sanitation measures. In order to minimize in-person interactions, most local drive-ins are also offering online ticketing. Although the COVID-era drive-in experience looks different, with no lawn chairs or picnic blankets to speak of, the chance to escape the house for a purely recreational outing is a treat after months of sheltering in place. Stefanopoulos, who is a longtime believer in the drive-in revival, believes the COVID stir-craziness is only stoking a pre-existent flame. “When mall society came in, they took drive-ins out, but Small Town America is coming back,” he says. “You see that in Beacon, Hudson—places that have mom-and-pop stores. Drive-ins have a role to play on the entertainment side. There is a massive resurgence in the industry. Then you put the pandemic on top of that, and people don’t even care what movie is playing. They just want to get out of the house.”

With their BYO seating model, drive-ins are almost uncannily well-designed to provide safe entertainment in a pandemic. They offer what an indoor theater with a circulated air system cannot—a contained mini ecosystem for each guest or group. NBC reports that across the country “mom and pop drive-ins have seen spikes in revenue and a massive increase in demand in recent months.” While the current national estimate of around 330 drive-ins is far down from the peak of 4,000 in the 1950s, entrepreneurs are perking up at the resilience of the drive-in model and the resurgence of interest. The day we spoke in May, Stefanopoulos had already received nearly two dozen calls from around the country asking for advice on how to open a drive-in or interestested in franchising. “California, Carolinas, Chicago, Texas. I’ve had calls from everywhere,” he says. It’s not just movies the drive-ins can offer. Amid the pandemic, these businesses are also

drive-in theaters

renting their sites and particularly well-qualified infrastructure for socially distant events. Overlook and Hyde Park theaters are showing plein-air films Friday through Sunday, with their venue reserved for graduations the rest of the week. “We’ve had an astronomical demand in private bookings for parties and events,” Stefanopoulos echoes. “We’re in talks right now with a bunch of concert bookers and comedy clubs from the city that want to do live shows up here.” While New York slowly creeps back open, what lies over the economic horizon is unclear. But with cinemas low on the state’s list of businesses scheduled to reopen, drive-ins could be the only moviegoing option for some time, hinting at a good season ahead. “It’s hard to gauge from now,” Stefanopoulos says. “But my prediction is that we’re going to be really busy.”

Four Brothers Drive-In Theater 4957 Route 22, Amenia (845) 373-8178; Playeatdrink.com Open seven days a week, showing two films a night.

Hyde Park Drive-In 4114 Albany Post Road, Hyde Park (845) 229-4738; Hydeparkdrivein.com Open Friday to Sunday, showing two films a night.

Warwick Drive-In 5 Warwick Turnpike, Warwick (845) 986-4440; Warwickdrivein.com Open seven days a week, showing six films a night.

Overlook Drive-In 126 De Garmo Road, Poughkeepsie (845) 452-3445; Overlookdrivein.com Open Friday to Sunday, showing two films a night.

Hi-Way Drive In 10699 Route 9W, Coxsackie (518) 731-8672; Hiwaydrivein.com Open Friday through Sunday, possibly more, showing four films a night.

Fair Oaks Drive In Theater 365 Bloomingburg Road, Middletown (845) 316-2266; Fairoaksdriveintheatre.com Open Friday to Sunday, showing two films a night.

—Marie Doyon 6/20 CHRONOGRAM THE GUIDE 65

Jan Jan Sawka: Sawka: The Place of Memory The Place of Memory (the (the Memory Memory of of Place) Place) Artist Playlists

A weekly series of playlists curated by artists

Artist Web Projects

Twenty-five years of commissioning projects for the web

Dia Blog

Read, watch, listen, interact

Watch & Listen

A comprehensive digital archive of twenty years of public programming at Dia

Explore Dia’s online projects and resources at diaart.org

Jan Sawka, The Memory (or The Mirror), 1987, courtesy the Estate of Jan Sawka Jan Sawka, The Memory (or The Mirror), 1987, courtesy the Estate of Jan Sawka

Our doors are closed.

February – 12, But 8 still open online! February 8we’re – July July 12, 2020 2020 SAMUEL DORSK Y MUSEUM OF ART SAMUEL DORSK MUSEUM OF PALTZ ART STATE UNIVERSITY OF YNEW YORK AT NEW

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT NEW PALTZ

www.newpaltz.edu/museum www.newpaltz.edu/museum

66 THE GUIDE CHRONOGRAM 6/20

exhibits

Red Soil, Parna Baharali

Hive, Laura Moriarty

"Together in Isolation" exhibit, Re Institute

BARRETT ART CENTER

PAMELA SALISBURY GALLERY

THE RE INSTITUTE

“The Earth Beneath Their Feet” (through June 21) brings together four artists who examine themes related to the natural world and its fragility: Margot Glass, Ellen Driscoll, Laura Moriarty, and Laura Sharp. The exhibition can be viewed in its entirety on the Pamela Salisbury Gallery’s website. Pamelasalisburygallery.com

The objective of the Re Institute’s ongoing, open-call “Together in Isolation” exhibit is to “continue creativity while participating in an exhibition that mirrors the coronavirus experience for artists” and is intended to be an ongoing record of this time. Artworks will be accepted throughout the life of the exhibition. Thereinstitute.com

Daphnis and Chloe, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux

White Lines, Sophie Larrimore

E=MC2, Mark Di Suvero

THE CLARK ART INSTITUTE

MOTHER GALLERY

STORM KING ART CENTER

Although the Clark Art Institute’s galleries and public programs are currently closed due to the pandemic, its online “Clark Connects” series presents newly added virtual programming every Monday and Friday. Additionally, the grounds and walking trails of its 140acre campus are open for exploration and socially distant enjoyment. Clarkart.edu

As part of FAIR, a new initiative designed to be entirely online, function cooperatively, and act as a benefit for the New Art Dealers Alliance’s community of galleries, nonprofits, and artists, Mother Gallery will each week present one work available for purchase by a selected artist. This month includes Joshua Marsh (June 3 at 10am) and Jenny Morgan (June 10 at 10am). Mothergallery.art

Although the grounds of Storm King Art Center remain closed (as of the end of May), the internationally renowned outdoor sculpture museum is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a special online feature exploring its history of presenting extraordinary art in a beautiful natural environment via rare and previously unseen images. Stormking.org

“Margins” runs through June 21 and finds artists from around the world (as far ways as Australia and Iran) exploring how various groups are marginalized by contemporary society. “Photoworks,” also through June 21 is a solo show by Chinese artist Cheng Gong featuring large-scale photographs and examining how Eastern and Western religions collide. Barrettartcenter.org

Courtesy Daniel Katz Gallery, London 6/20 CHRONOGRAM THE GUIDE 67

Horoscopes By Lorelai Kude

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO? June is jumpy, impatient, and restless with Sun and Retrograde Venus in Gemini. The energy is skittish, and the mood is mercurial even as we each must answer the question “Should I stay, or should I go?” for ourselves as June begins. By the month’s end, the question will have answered itself. The nervous energy of retrograde Venus in Gemini squares Mars in Pisces and conjuncts the Sun June 2–3, making us less than discriminating in our pleasure-partnership choices, especially during the Lunar Eclipse at the Full Moon in Sagittarius June 5, squaring Mars and opposite the retrograde Venus/ Mars square. We may feel love’s arrow has missed its intended mark, and disappointment fuels hurtful words disguised as “honesty.” Passive-aggressive anger is the default response to feelings of rejection, and the temptation to drown one’s sorrows in reckless excesses of fleshly pleasures is powerful, dangerous, and should be actively resisted. Mars sextiles Pluto in Capricorn as Mercury stations retrograde in Cancer June 18, setting the stage for the Summer Solstice New Moon / Solar Eclipse in Cancer June 21. Economic anxiety, doubts about the stability of informational and educational institutions, “Homeland Security” issues, and fierce feelings of familial and tribal protectiveness are all triggered. The second of 2020’s three Jupiter-Pluto conjunctions in Capricorn occurs June 30, concurrent with the Sun/Retrograde Mercury conjunction as Mercury sextiles Uranus. This is the retrograde version of the April 4 conjunction, and if we’ve answered “Should I stay or should I go?” incorrectly at the beginning of June, we’ll find ourselves back where we were around April 4—or worse. Patience is not a virtue cultivated overnight, and those who need it most are the least likely to develop it. Pass on short-term gains in favor of long-term goals if you want to win in June.

GLENN’S SHEDS Custom-built Firewood Sheds

SPRING IS THE RIGHT TIME

ARIES (March 20–April 19) With planetary ruler Mars in intuitive Pisces through June 27, most of the energetic focus this month is on “remembrance of things past.” You feel ambivalent about looking backwards, yet you’re drawn to unfinished business, unresolved relationships, and unanswered questions, especially June 2, 6, and 13–20. The Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse June 5 fires up your imagination; scenarios of “what if” and visions of the Road Not Taken haunt your imagination. Reach out to that special someone you’re missing, even if it’s been decades— chances are they’re thinking of you too. Ignite old flames by June 28.

TAURUS (April 19–May 20) Planetary ruler Venus retrograde in Gemini through June 24 inspires a retrospective review of your material world, values, and valuables. Questioning your own acquisitiveness and culling your possessions for real–life relevance feels surprisingly good. Venus square Mars and conjunct the Sun June 2-3 reflects a shift in lifelong friendships and traditional loyalties. Ignore transitory differences of opinion in favor of preserving long-term relationships. Upgraded consciousness around Earthcentered issues reveal that dogma and drama aren’t your priorities now. June 30’s Jupiter-Pluto Conjunction reminds you that Mother Earth is closer to God, and a better place to kneel than a pew.

GLENNSSHEDS.COM

845.328.0447

68 HOROSCOPES CHRONOGRAM 6/20

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.

Horoscopes

GEMINI (May 20–June 21) It’s all about Venus this month as the planet of love, creativity and romance retrogrades through Gemini until June 25. Full Moon / Lunar Eclipse June 5 triggers cabin fever, catapulting you to far-off vistas, at least in your mind, if not your body as well. Foreign/exotic people, place and things are unbearably attractive to you now, and while physical travel may still be restricted, you’re finding unusually creative ways to intimately connect. Planetary ruler Mercury retrogrades in Moon-ruled Cancer June 18, and the Cancerian New Moon/Solar Eclipse June 21 reminds you “there’s no place like home.”

CANCER (June 21–July 22) The Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse June 5 is a big wakeup call. If you’ve been sedentary and binge-eating during our communal crisis, it’s time to radically reverse gears and run, don’t walk, towards a more balanced lifestyle. June 21’s New Moon in Cancer / Solar Eclipse on the Summer Solstice ushers in a new phase of life: all the wisdom, experience and sense of competency you’ve developed and built on over the last year and a half is being integrated into your persona and it shows. The respect and admiration you’re receiving from others may be surprising, but not undeserved.

LEO (July 22–August 23) The Sun-Venus conjunction June 3 perfectly illuminates how to shine your lovelight into the darkest recesses of your immediate environment—your neighborhood, community, your “home turf,” wherever warmth and magnanimity are lacking. Reach visionary heights June 11 when the “Big Idea” appears like an overhead lightbulb. Solar Eclipse / New Moon June 21 launches a period of deep exploration into the hidden places of your own subconscious and unconscious mind. Intimate partners mirroring your own process help excavate ancient fears and assist in extracting primal self-doubts from tightly wedged places in the heart by the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction June 30.

VIRGO (August 23–September 23) Mercury in extra-feely Cancer all month heightens emotional sensitivity, while a square from Mars in Pisces challenges you to up your compassion game. Don’t think folks don’t pick up your internal judgement; even if you manage not to express it verbally it’s still detectable, especially during Mercury Retrograde June 18–July 11. Your community is your comfort zone and you may have multiple communities, all of which are undergoing change during this time, much of which distresses you. The dust hasn’t settled yet, but detaching yourself from an ultimate outcome may help manage fears around the emerging new normal.

VISIT OUR REMOTE OPEN STUDIOS ONLINE

Life Happens. Plan.

LIBRA (September 23–October 23) Planetary ruler Venus in multifaceted Gemini squares Mars and conjuncts the Sun June 2–3. The curtain parts, the spotlight is on you, center stage. You’re realizing that you’re not just the star of the show, but the director, producer, and playwright as well. You’re feeling unusually flexible, ready to adapt to the next curveball life throws your way, mostly because you’ve learned it’s harder to hit a moving target. Dance yourself out of trouble’s way June 30 at the JupiterPluto conjunction in Capricorn by focusing on developing and implementing an action plan to secure a peaceful home environment.

THIRD EYE ASSOCIATES

Life • Planning • Solutions ®

6/20 CHRONOGRAM HOROSCOPES 69

Horoscopes

<; KOL HAI 97

SCORPIO (October 23–November 21)

Hudson Valley Jewish Renewal

Musical Meditative Multigenerational Shabbat Ser vices

Now online: KolHai.org

Mars in Wise Warrior Pisces gets a workout in June with squares to Venus in Gemini June 2, the Sun June 6, and a conjunction to Neptune at the Last Quarter Pisces Moon June 13. Scorpio’s Fixed nature feels discomfort around all these Mutable aspects, as your desire is to dig in as deeply as possible while resisting external force. If ever there was a time to go with the flow, it’s now, before it comes to an abrupt halt and flames ignite when Mars enters Aries June 28. Jupiter-Pluto conjunction’s seismic shock rocks the home front June 30.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22–December 22)

Three Great Camps Just for your kids

Camp Seewackamano In the Woods With Bussing Shokan, New York

Starﬁsh Camp At the YMCA Kingston, New York

Camp Wiltmeet Lenape School New Paltz, New York

“Freedom!” is the battle cry of June 5’s Full Moon/ Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius. You’ve been chafing at confinement, but when your personal space is threatened, your customary delights such as travel, talking to strangers, and spontaneous adventures are cut off and there’s nowhere to run, you’re either running in circles or running on empty. Point yourself in the right direction, by June 30 at Jupiter’s conjunction to Pluto you’ll likely find yourself back where you were at the beginning of April. Learn from your mistakes last time so when this happens again mid-November, you’ll have the home-team advantage.

CAPRICORN (December 22–January 20) It’s a big “I told you so” month but you’ll have to wait until June 30 to gloat about your prescience, when Jupiter and Pluto conjunct in Capricorn at the same sensitive point that has been hit hard already in January and April. You’re learning lessons now you’ll be demonstrably proving in November. Cancerian New Moon / Solar Eclipse on the Summer Solstice June 21 inspire tender, protective feelings, facilitating a long-withheld forgiveness. Saturn’s sextile to Mars June 28 highlights the bottom-line advantages of humanitarian actions. It’s a win-win when you can simultaneously do good and profit by it.

AQUARIUS (January 20–February 19)

Rosendale, NY 1 2472 | 845.658.8989 | rosendaletheatre.org

The Rosendale Theatre has temporarily suspended operations. We are actively monitoring the situation and keeping up on all developments. STAY STRONG AND

10 YEARS

70 HOROSCOPES CHRONOGRAM 6/20

HELP EACH OTHER

Normally stable friendships run into disruptive communication bumps June 5 at the Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse and Mercury’s sextile to Uranus. “Frank talk” becomes hurtful when honesty is an excuse to vent passive aggressive anger. The same uncomfortable issues revisit around June 30; this time, don’t hesitate to apologize for wounding words, and don’t insist on waiting for the other party to say, “I’m sorry,” first. Sweeten the judgement you’re feeling June 8–11 by imagining those who trigger negative feelings as if they were cute, helpless, tiny infants. Compassion is aroused even while witnessing these infant-adults doing selfish, horrible things.

PISCES (February 20-March 19) Wise warrior Mars in Pisces through June 28 swims though squares to Venus June 3 and the Sun June 6, avoiding confrontation and yielding for the greater good. Mars conjunct Neptune at the Last Quarter Moon June 13 finds you fighting tooth and nail for your ideals, but in a smart way. Experience has taught you the powerful are vulnerable to their own vanity; June 18–21 exposes their weaknesses, and Neptune’s retrograde in Pisces June 22 returns you to the scene of the proverbial crime, where you’re setting mine traps for predators encroaching on your field of dreams.

Ad Index

Our advertisements are a catalog of distinctive local experiences. Please support the fantastic businesses that make Chronogram possible.

SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESS Thank you to our advertisers for your support during this difficult time. Readers, did you know that if every one of you allocated just 5% of your federal stimulus checks to spend at local businesses in the Hudson Valley, it could put $6,000,000 back into the local economy? Yes, 6 MILLION DOLLARS. Need a haircut? Craving your favorite lunch dish from your local cafe but they’re closed? Want to prepay for your anniversary dinner later this year? Buy a gift certificate from your go-to local spot to use when they reopen! Because with your help, they will reopen. Support your local businesses now so you can see them later. Stay strong, Hudson Valley. 11 Jane Street Art Center . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Fulfilling Futures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Pliskin Architecture PLLC . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Aba’s Falafel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Garrison Art Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Polyarch Architecture & Design, PLLC . . . . . 10

The Abode of the Message . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Glenn’s Sheds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Primrose Hill School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Angry Orchard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Grand Cru Beer & Cheese . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Red Hook Curry House . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Aqua Jet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Halter Associates Realty . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Refinery Fitness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Architecture + Construction, PLLC / A+C . . . 47

Herrington’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Ridgeline Realty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Augustine Landscaping & Nursery . . . . . . . 22

Holistic Natural Medicine:

The Rodney Shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Bare Furniture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Integrative Healing Arts . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Rosendale Theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Beacon Natural Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

The Homestead School . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art . . . . . . . . . 66

Belgrove Appliance, Inc. . . . . . . . . back cover

Hotchkiss School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Sassafras Land Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook . . . . . . . 10

Hudson Hills Montessori School . . . . . . . . 37

Schneider’s Jewelers, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Best Logos Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Hudson River Housing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Stamell String Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Bethel Woods Center for the Arts . . . . . . . . 53

Hudson Valley Agents . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sunflower Natural Food Market . . . . . . . . .

BIA Rhinebeck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Hudson Valley Native Landscaping . . . . . . . 20

SUNY New Paltz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Binnewater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Hummingbird Jewelers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Third Eye Associates Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Cabinet Designers, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Jack’s Meats & Deli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies . . . . . . 56

Jacobowitz & Gubits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Cassandra Currie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

John A Alvarez and Sons . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

The Center at Mariandale . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

John Carroll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Clarkson University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Kol Hai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Columbia Memorial Health . . . . . . . . . . 4, 33

Larson Architecture Works . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Columbia-Greene Community College . . . . . 34

Liza Phillips Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Daryl’s House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Mark Gruber Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Denise Gianna Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Maya Kaimal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Dental Office of Drs. Jeffrey

Mohonk Mountain House . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Upstate Films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Vanikiotis Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 WDST 100.1 Radio Woodstock . . . . . . . . . 58 Wildfire Grill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Williams Lumber & Home Center . . . . . . . . inside front cover Wimowe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Woodstock Day School . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County . . . . . 70

& Maureen Viglielmo . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Mountain Laurel Waldorf School . . . . . . . . 37

Dia Beacon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Mundy’s Asia Galleries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chronogram is published monthly. Subscriptions:

Doane Stuart School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Murray Engineering . . . . . . . . inside back cover

$100 per year by Luminary Publishing, Inc.

Dreaming Goddess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

N & S Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Fairground Shows NY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Nuvance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Fall Kill Creative Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Oblong Books and Music . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Fionn Reilly Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Peter Aaron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Chronogram June 2020 (ISSN 1940-1280)

314 Wall Street, Kingston, NY 12401. Periodicals postage pending at Kingston, NY, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Chronogram, 314 Wall Street, Kingston, NY 12401.

6/20 CHRONOGRAM AD INDEX 71

parting shot

Crossing Paths—Rufino, Alicia Decker, fiber, 38” x 28”

72 PARTING SHOT CHRONOGRAM 6/20

Alicia Decker’s storytelling cloth on the life of indigenous rights activist and organizer Rufino Dominguez-Santos is part of “Margins: International Contemporary Arts Exhibition” organized by Barrett Art Center in Poughkeepsie. The exhibition was juried by Anthony Elms, Daniel and Brett Sundheim Chief Curator, ICA Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania. It is online through June 21 at Barrettartcenter.org.

RESTORATION • SALES • REPAIR • CLEANING • MAINTENANCE

OMG! I love that stove!

REB

ATE

SAVE UP TO

$800 on pick up or delivery*

Nothing makes a statement more than a customized stove–the centerpiece of your kitchen. Whether you want a vintage stove in a modern kitchen or a completely retro look, Belgrove Appliance, Inc. has you covered. We have over 150 stoves in stock customizable to your individual taste and style. Home of The Famous Stove Lady, Belgrove Appliance, Inc. has been the #1 choice for vintage stove services and products for over 20 years. Highly regarded and respected as an industry leader, they offer free design assistance, sales of appliances for the whole kitchen, and impeccable customer service. Don’t DIY. Skip Craigslist and get a Stove Lady Certified Safe Pre-Owned Stove! Already have a vintage range at home? The restoration experience, both exciting and emotionally rewarding, provides more value in the long run than a new stove.

Let your stove speak volumes by calling the Stove Lady today. BUILDERS & CONTRACTORS, we are

Visit stovelady.com call: (914) 664-5231 or email: info@stovelady.com

MINORITY WOMEN BUSINESS ENTERPRISE

*Limited time offer. See website for details.

MWBE Certified