Sandy Graff

in Garden as well as other published works. All are welcome to read her works, your own related work, or speak in honor of her during the open mic period. Bringing small gardening tools, pots, and seeds to decorate and then donate to the SUNY Orange Horticulture program is encouraged.

You are also invited to donate to the newly created scholarship: Professors Stephen Meagher and Sandy Graff Environmental Advocate Award.

Celebrating Poet Sandy Graff, a memorial reading, is on April 23 at 2:00pm in the Great Room (101), Kaplan Hall, SUNY Orange, 73 First Street, Newburgh. Free parking in the garage on First Street.

For additional information, contact Amanda Crowell-Broadleaf at AmandaCrowell@sunyorange.edu

Let’s Celebrate Farm Arts Collective!

Farm Arts

Collective (FAC), a farm-based cultural organization on Willow Wisp Organic Farm in Damascus, PA, will host its second annual April Fool’s Fête on April 1 at the Catskill Provisions Distillery, 16 Upper Main Street, Callicoon.

This major fundraising event of the FAC season supports the 2023 line-up of farming workshops for adults and children, the creation and presentation of play #4 of Dream on the Farm (an annual climate-change themed performance that the FAC actors, farmers, writers and musicians are making from 2020-2030), special agri-cultural events, and FAC’s work to provide a place for creative community engagement in agriculture, environmentalism, and the arts.

Doors open at 6:30pm and the evening

Chorale & Drumming in Port Jervis

The Four Seasons Chorale will be presenting a concert, One World: A Concert of Musical Connections. The chorale, under the direction of Kathy Brink and accompanied by Seth Riehl, will include music from Africa along with popular selections such as Let There Be Peace on Earth, We Shall Overcome, and What a Wonderful World will include a Mexican food cantina buffet, signature cocktails by the host distillery, local wine, live music with a sneak peek of a scene from the 2023 Dream on the Farm and an incredible silent auction featuring art, photography, hand-crafted furniture, and pottery by local makers and artists.

The 2023 Gala is sponsored by Toad Hollow Farm, Wayne County Community Foundation, Leo Schmidt and Melissa Bell, Sue Currier and Ace Thomas

Tickets are $100 and can be purchased online at www.farmartscollective.org.

Yarnslingers Gather in Callicoon

Dedicated to the art and craft of story, Yarnslingers was founded in 2012 by writer/musician Ramona Jan. She believes “Everyone has a story...or two,” and encourages people from all walks of life to spin their spellbinding tales.

Yarnslingers have presented their stories in the villages extending from Narrowsburg to Long Eddy. Venues which have hosted Yarnslingers include the Catskill Art Space, Wayne County Arts Alliance, Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, NaCl Theatre, Rock Valley Schoolhouse, Bethel Woods Center for the Performing Arts, and the public libraries of Callicoon, Tusten, and Cochecton, as well as cafes and taverns in the Upper Delaware River region.

Although participants in Yarnslingers change periodically, the focus remains consistent and steadfast: to create opportunities for experienced and novice memoirists to write and present true, firstperson stories that engage and inspire audiences and foster self-expression while strengthening the empathic power of communities.

The Yarnslingers will sling their yarns at Seminary Hill Cidery, 43 Wagner Lane, Callicoon, April 2 at 11:30am For information: 845-887-4056.

The chorale’s special guest for this concert is Maxwell Kofi and Sankofa (meaning ‘going back to the roots’ in the Twi language from Ghana).

Kofi is the leader and artistic director of Kofi & Sankofa Drum and Dance Ensemble. “The ensemble is very symbolic in promoting personal and community awareness of the positive role of the arts in the villages in West Africa demonstrated through our rich cultural values passed on to us by our great ancestors ‘Nananom’,” said Kofi. Sankofa is made of four drummers and three dancers led by Kofi (an Asante prince from Ghana) and Yacin (a Wollof princess from Senegal). Sankofa’s performance is electrifying in terms of the spiritual release in their drum, dance and songs (chants). The performances generate the same community spirit of sharing, oneness, joy, and love where everyone gets involved, both audience and performers. Join the celebration of connectedness on April 2 at 3:00pm at First Presbyterian Church, 60 Sussex Street, Port Jervis. The concert is in the handicapped accessible church sanctuary. Admission is free; donations gratefully accepted to help defray the concert costs. For information, call 570-430-1755.

This program is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature and administered by Arts Mid-Hudson