Jimmy Sturr to Perform at City Winery

age categories.

The festival is funded through donations. Those wishing to donate can do so through the Sullivan Public Library Alliance on PayPal, or by sending a check made out to SUPLA - with ‘Youth Poetry Festival’ in the check memo, to: SUPLA, c/o Sunshine Hall Free Library, P.O. Box 157, Eldred, NY 12732.

Children’s Art Contest in Milford

The Pike County Tick Borne Diseases Task Force is holding its second Safe Steps Art Competition. Submissions must illustrate “Where ticks live” or “How to protect yourself from tick bites.”

Help educate your child and their peers about where ticks are found and how to prevent encountering ticks by encouraging your child to participate in this year’s competition.

The art contest is open to children in grades K-6, broken into four groups: grades K, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6. One winner from each group will be chosen.

Entries must be received by April 5 at 4:30pm. Bring entries to the Pike County Commissioners Office or mail to: Pike County Commissioners Office

Attn: Pike County TBD Task Force, 506 Broad Street, Milford, PA 18337.

Contest winners will be invited to attend the May 3 Pike County Commissioners meeting to accept his or her award. All winners will receive a certificate of participation. Contest guidelines can be found at: www.pikepa.org/tick.

Joan, Judy & Suzanne in Sugar Loaf

It’s the Ladies entertaning in Sugar Loaf, and everyone is invited!

April 15, 8:00pm

Joan Osborne is an 8-time Grammy nominee and multiplatinum selling recording artist. A native of Kentucky, she moved to NYC to attend NYU Film School, but dropped out after becoming involved in New York’s downtown music scene. Raised a Roman Catholic, Osborne distanced herself from that institution after childhood, particularly influenced by telling her parents that she wished to become a priest only to learn that tradition forbade it.

April 21, 8:00pm

Judy Collins is taking a rare moment to look back on her landmark 1967 album, Wildflowers, accompanied by singer-songwriter

Madeleine Peyroux and a 35-piece symphony orchestra!

Collins’ is an Academy Awardnominated documentary director and a Grammy Award-winning recording artist, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records (which has included folk, country, show tunes, pop, rock & roll and standards).

Madeleine Peyroux began her career as a teenager on the streets of Paris. She sang vintage jazz and blues songs before finding mainstream success in 2004 when her album Careless Love sold half a million copies.

April 22, 8:00pm

Suzanne Vega emerged as a leading figure of the folkmusic revival of the early 1980s when, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, she sang what has been called contemporary folk or neo-folk songs of her own creation in Greenwich Village clubs. She’s bringing An Intimate Evening of Songs and Stories to Chester.

The Sugar Loaf Performing Arts Center is at 231 Creamery Pond Road, Chester. Tix: www.sugarloafpacny.com.

American polka musician, trumpeter, clarinetist, saxophonist and leader of Jimmy Sturr & His Orchestra, Sturr’s recordings have won 18 out of the 24 Grammy Awards given for Best Polka Album. The Orchestra is on the Top Ten List of the All-Time Grammy Awards, and has acquired more Grammy nominations than anyone in the history of musical polka awards.

Although the group has toured internationally in Italy, Ireland, Poland, Austria, Switzerland and Germany, they currently tour the USA in their 45-foot tour bus. The band has just returned from touring South Florida where they performed at the famed Strawberry Festival in Plant City. They drew nearly 5,000 people. Sturr’s annual concert in Texas this past year broke the attendance record of 34,000 people.

Jimmy and the band toured with Bobby Vinton for fifteen years, eighteen years with the legendary Boots Randolph (Mr. Yakety Sax), and for a whopping twentyone years, they toured with Myron Floren, the accordionist featured on the Lawrence Welk television show.

The group released five CDs featuring Willie Nelson, and several other entertainers have recorded with the group such as the Oak Ridge Boys, Alison Krauss, Charlie Daniels, Mel Tillis, and many more.

Jimmy Sturr & His Orchestra have performed to sold out crowds at Carnegie Hall in New York City to four performances at the Lincoln Center. They have headlined in Atlantic City, NJ and Las Vegas, NV casinos such as the Stardust, Aladdin, Sam’s Town and the Orleans.

Jimmy Sturr & His Orchestra perform at City Winery Hudson Valley, 23 Factory Street, Montgomery, on April 30 at 2:00pm. See ad page 9.

William Seaton Reads at Noble Coffee

“William Seaton possesses a poetic voice whose sage and steady delivery comforts yet challenges us simultaneously,” writes Karen Corinne of Compulsive Reader

“Formally trained and accomplished in translating Greek, Latin, German, and French, Seaton has a formidable background firmly entrenched in the history of poetry. It’s an art he not only practices but has taught, and a craft he takes quite seriously in the tradition of such heady influences as Ezra Pound and poets who worked laboriously upon each word and phrase as being integral to the integrity of an entire piece. Nothing is viewed as superfluous.

“And in spite of this studied and precise attention to the importance of each word, he avoids a didactic, uninspired mindset and transforms that precision into music. The result is a lovely song to enjoy in its entirety without the obvious dissection of each note in its composition. We might be interested in the ingredients of a great meal, but it is the colors, textures, and tastes we appreciate in the final presentation.”

Active in poetry performance since sixties happenings, Seaton was a member of the San Francisco Cloud House group in the seventies and produced the Words in the Air television show in the eighties and the Poetry on the Loose series in the Hudson Valley for twentyone years. He was director of the Northeast Poetry Center for five years and worked on programs of the Seligmann Center for the Arts for seven years, including producing evenings of performance art.

Seaton has taught in rural Nigeria, in New York prisons, and in BedfordStuyvesant as well as in universities. He has won nine NYSCA Decentralization grants, two Orange County Tourism Arts grants, Ada Louise Ballard Fellowship in the Humanities, Helen Fairall Scholarship Award in Comparative Literature, Pushcart nominations in both poetry and essay, and the Orange County Arts Council “Champion of the Arts” Award.

Seaton reads at Noble Coffee Roasters’ Poetry Night, 3020 Route 207, Campbell Hall, on April 6 at 7:00pm, followed by an open reading. Host: Robert Milby Phone: 845-294-8090. $2 donation.

The “Other” Frank Sinatra

by Derek Leet

Though Frank Sinatra is hailed as one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, singers of all time, please, let us not forget his remarkable/great/moving unparalleled screen portrayals, mostly always overlooked when it came time for the Oscars. I consider his acting skill far superior to his singing skill, which did lack some technical perfection.

In his early musical films, he does show excellent acting skills, and thanks to his charisma, holds his own with MGM’s other major musical super-stars.

But after winning the Oscar, thanks to Ava Gardner’s dedicated efforts to get him the role of Private Angelo Maggio in From Here to Eternity, he went on to perform brilliantly in many films, notably Suddenly (1954) as a loathsome, psychopathic assassin, The Man with The Golden Arm (1955) as a struggling musician/addict, and Some Came Running (1958), giving “a top performance, sardonic and compassionate, full of touches both instinctive and technical,” wrote Variety, with his right-on characterization of a wouldbe writer.

These films were followed by his wonderful acting in many movies such as, to name just a few, The Detective (1968), Von Ryan’s Express (1965) and The Devil at 4 O’Clock (1961), in which, for my money, he out-acts and steals the film from, ironically, his acting-idol, Spencer Tracy.

But perhaps his “deepest” acting is in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) in which his sensitivity in a train scene, underplaying falling in love with Janet Leigh, and his heartfelt compassion for Laurence Harvey’s turmoil are two examples of his superior ability to wrench the viewer’s heartstrings.

Noted film historian John DiLeo will be hosting a showing of The Manchurian Candidate on April 16 at 4:00pm in the Milford Theatre, 14 E Catharine Street. DiLeo’s usual Q&A follows the screening.

17th Annual Spring Poetry Cafe, Florida

Jane Ebihara is the author of two poetry chapbooks; A Little Piece of Mourning (2014) and A Reminder of Hunger and Wings (2019), and one full length book, This Edge of Rain (2021).

Her work has also been published in several literary journals and anthologies and she has been a volunteer author for New Jersey Norwescap’s Senior Life Stories Project, received a Geraldine Dodge Fellowship to the Fine Arts Workshop in Provincetown, MA and has been a Pushcart Prize nominee. She is currently Associate Editor of The Stillwater Review and Poetry Contest Editor of Tiferet Journal

Elaine Koplow is a member of the Writers’ Roundtable, Director of the Sussex County Writers’ Roundtable, Associate Editor of The Stillwater Review, Associate Editor of The Paulinskill Poetry Project, and a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Writers who have influenced her include

Talk & Edible Craft

Every Man (And Woman) His Own Doctor, a lecture by Carolyn Ivanoff (pictured), examines healthcare in Victorian America. What was it like to need and experience medical care in 19th century? How did people handle and treat inevitable illnesses that come with the human condition? Find out on April 13 at 6:00pm at the Goshen Public Library, 366 Main Street.

An edible book is a creative food project that takes inspiration from books. It can take the physical form of a book, refer to a scene or character, be a pun on the title, or otherwise be inspired by a book or author. Entries can be sweet or savory. While they must be edible, entries do not have to be baked goods, made from scratch or even taste good (unless you hope to win best tasting).

Celebrate books, literature and food at the Edible Book Fest on April 26 at 6:00pm at the Goshen Public Library. Create an edible book to enter, vote on your favorites, and join in the tasting!

Registration required for both events at Reference Desk or call 845-294-6066.

Dylan Thomas, Sharon Olds, and Linda Pasten.

Elaine says of her writing, “Often what inspires me begins as an ordinary, even mundane occurrence, that then becomes a defining moment in our lives.”

The Florida Public Library will host its Annual Spring Poetry Café. Orange County Poet Laureate Emeritus Robert Milby will emcee the afternoon, which will feature poets Ebihara, Koplow and Milby, on April 23 at 1:00pm.

“The Library’s first Spring Poetry Cafe was in April, 2006, so this April will mark 17 years,” remarked Milby. “It’s been an unusual reading series. I think this April will be the 65th reading since the start in 2006.”

Open readings will begin and end the Café. Seating is limited so register by visiting www.floridapubliclibrary.org.

If the weather permits, the Café will be held on the back deck at 4 Cohen Circle, Florida. For more info: 845-651-7659.

Cornerstone’s 2023 Season Begins

Cornerstone Theatre Arts (CTA) has announced the opening play of its 2023 season: 2 Across by Jerry Mayer

Two strangers, a man and a woman, board a San Francisco BART train at 4:30am. They’re alone in the car, each is married, and both are doing The New York Times crossword. She’s an organized, sensible psychologist. He’s a free-spirited, unemployed ad-exec. This starts an 80-minute ride with intriguing and entertaining results.

At age 83, Jerry Mayer, a highly successful television writer and producer for hit television shows such as M*A*S*H, All in the Family, The Bob Newhart Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show is still going strong.

Since 1986, he has been writing plays, most of them comedies, which have been staged in Los Angeles, offBroadway, and around the country and abroad. “You know, it’s always nice when you have opposites meeting in a romantic comedy,” Mayer said. “As I wrote the play, I drew from stuff in my life.”

Mayer’s career as a comedy writer for television was launched in 1966, when he met TV comedian Jerry Lester, known for having hosted the first late-night comedy and variety program, Broadway Open House, in the early 1950s. He took the initial step toward a career as a playwright in the mid1980s, while working as executive producer of the hit TV series, The Facts of Life

Directed by Sara Johnson, with Tech Design by Victoria Cottone, CTA is featuring two of its stalwart thespians in the leading roles, Evelyn Albino and Mark Von Oeson www.cornerstonetheatrearts.org

The production is sponsored by The Goshen Public Library & Historical Society, and will be performed at CTA’s home base, the Goshen Music Hall, 223 Main Street, a 2nd floor walk-up theatre. Show dates are April 29 to May 14 Admission is FREE. Reservations are required by calling 845-294-4188.

Sullivan County Chamber Orchestra: All Baroque in Hurleyville, Jeffersonville

The Sullivan County Chamber Orchestra (SCCO) will perform an all Baroque program featuring JS Bach’s Coffee Cantata this month in Hurleyville and Jeffersonville. Grab your favorite beverage and snack and mingle while listening to the SCCO house band!

The group will perform a variety of Baroque favorites including: Bach’s Violin Concerto in A Minor performed by Akiko Hosoi, Telemann’s Sonata # 4, in g minor, TWV 43:g1, and Vivaldi’s Cello Sonata No. 6 in Bb, with performers to be announced.

The event will culminate with a performance of Bach’s comic Coffee Cantata. The narrator tells the story of a distraught father (sung by David Trombley) desperately trying to marry off his young daughter to a proper suitor. But she prefers to spend time drinking her favorite beverage, COFFEE!

Bach composed it probably between 1732 and 1735. He regularly directed a musical ensemble based at Zimmermann’s coffee house called Collegium Musicum, which was founded by composer Georg Philipp Telemann in 1702 (as a law student). The libretto suggests that some people in 18th century Germany viewed coffee drinking as a bad habit.

In 1723, the year Bach moved to Leipzig, Zimmermann’s was the largest and bestappointed kaffeehaus in Leipzig and a centre for middle class gentlemen. While women were forbidden from frequenting coffeehouses, they could attend public concerts at Zimmermann’s.

The coffeehouse was located at 14 Katharinenstrasse, then the most elegant street of Leipzig, The name of the street had been taken from the old St. Catherine’s Chapel which had been demolished in 1544. In Telemann’s and Bach’s day, only the name of the street remained.

The performances are on April 22, at 6:00pm at the Hurleyville Performing Arts Centre, 219 Main Street, Hurleyville, and April 23, at 3:00pm at the Jeffersonville Bake Shop, 4906 Route 52, Jeffersonville.

For tickets, see ad page 19 and you can also purchase them up at the door at each location.

For further information, email marina@nesinculturalarts.org or call 845-798-9006.

SCCO is a Nesin Cultural Arts supported project. This program is made possible in part by funding from the NYS Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathleen Courtney Hochul and the NYS Legislature, Episcopal Charities, Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation, Laura Jane Musser Fund, Sullivan County Legislature, M&T Charitable Foundation, Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, NY Life Foundation, Walmart Community Foundation and Stewart’s Shoppes.

SUNY Orange, Newburgh Solo Show

Rachel Williams is a full-time art teacher. She studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, The School of Art and Design at Alfred University, SUNY New Paltz, and SUNY Orange. A restrained color palette on a variety of surfaces such as canvas, burlap, wood, paper doilies, library cards, sheet music, and vintage paper lends a soothing aspect to her subjects and offers her viewers the opportunity of capturing calm, introspective moments of daily life.

Introspective, a solo art exhibit by Rachel Williams will run from April 1 to June 3 in the Mindy Ross Gallery, Kaplan Hall. The free opening reception, which will include live music provided by pianist Darius Beckford, will be held on April 14 from 5:00pm-7:00pm www.sunyorange.edu/culturalaffairs

Kaplan Hall is located at the corner of Grand & First Streets, Newburgh where free parking is available in the college’s garage on First Street.

Grit Gallery in Newburgh, Trio Exhibition: “Figures - Burden - Loneliness”

Figures - Burden - Loneliness is a remarkable show at Grit Gallery in Newburgh featuring three artists working in three different disciplines: sculpture, painting, and photography. Explore the gallery and feel the impact of these combined works, inspired by wild beasts, a lifetime of experience, and the lonely, beautiful places of our lives.

Geo/Physical Abstraction

“My new sculptures reflect my varied life experiences. No longer predominantly abstract in design, they show my fascination with words and color, as well as the human figure. Moreover, my experience as a builder informs each piece with an intimate awareness of how material and form interact in mysterious and sometimes astounding ways.” -

Morris Shuman

Beasts of Burden

David Lionheart has continued his pursuit of creating larger than life subjects through mixed media and rugged textures, carefully sculpting impressions made by the wild nature appreciated in his life. To see them and to touch them is to understand them.

Liminal Spaces

David Patiño is a photographer specializing in portraiture and prosaic scenes. Patiño creates images that are accessible for all, images that examine the irony of loneliness in a densely populated world. While his work can be enjoyed simply as color and composition, it also explores the desire to be recognized in modern society.

Patiño’s work finds beauty in the mundane; it demands reverie. Most importantly, it triggers pause, if only for just a moment.

The show runs weekends through April 30 at Grit Gallery, 115 Broadway, Newburgh. For info: 845-565-0700.

“Spring Art Fling” in Highland Falls

Highlands Arts Alliance (HAA) is pleased to invite the community to the second annual Spring Art Fling. This artists and makers market is a great way to spend a spring afternoon immersed in creativity! Enjoy painting, photography, home decor, arts activities and more from talented Hudson Valley creators.

In 2016, HAA member Marie PerryEdwards attended an acrylic painting course at the Alice Desmond CenterforCommunity Enrichment and decided to pursue painting further. She continued taking classes in drawing and acrylics learning various techniques, and studied acrylics with Rebecca Cornell and oils with Mitchell Saler A member of the Middletown Art Group, Marie enjoys being involved in the arts community. She recently became the ticket coodinator for the Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra

“Art to me is an expression of myself which is done through my feelings, interpretations, impressions, expectations, desires and a quest to portray my innermost thoughts through movement of paint on canvas. Art allows me to step outside of the box and get messy and creative. It is like I am being guided and shown where to place the tree for peace, the sky for love and all the other details are added for a harmonic balance. Aristotle said, “The aim of art is not to represent the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” I could not agree more. The feeling of accomplishment upon completion is vastly exhilarating and satisfying.”

Spring Art Fling is on April 22, from 11:00am-3:00pm at the American Legion Hall, 134 Old State Road, Highland Falls. Light refreshments will also be available. See ad page 8.

VINYL! VINYL! VINYL!

Watercolor Demo Workshop, Balmville

Riverside Art Workshops offers small, intimate, and intensive workshops where you can get to know artists personally and participate in their demos from only a few feet away. “We are happy to offer you art workshops in the comfort of our private studio, which has breathtaking, panoramic views of the Hudson River, with plein air instruction, daily demonstrations, a generous lunch menu to order, free wi-fi, and a welcome gift,” said director Marguerite Meyerson

Michael Solovyev is often called a “sunny watercolorist” - his airy, transparent artworks look as though they emit the sunlight. His traditional academic art education, extensive experience as a theater stage designer, and oil painter career now inform his priority as a watercolor artist - light.

Solovyev considers adrenaline, novelty, and experimentation the necessities of the creative process. He is always challenging himself with new techniques, ideas, stories, and materials. A signature member of four prestigious art societies: National Watercolor Society, Society of Canadian Artists, North East Watercolor Society, and International Watercolor Society, he is also the brand ambassador of Daniel Smith, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of art and watercolor materials.

Solovyev will demonstrate and teach at Riverside from April 11-14. “Because we keep the number of student to teacher ratio smaller, allowing for a better oneon-one experience, our workshops fill up quickly,” said Marguerite.

For info and to register, call 845-7874167 or email mkmeyerson@gmail.com. Visit www.riversideartworkshops.com and check out the ad on page 26.

Isbell and Amanda Shires

“Record stores are gathering places. They’re rooms full of carefully curated art and entertainment. In your local record store you find common ground and the excitement of discovery. Record stores make it possible for recording artists to find their audience and their voice.” Jason

Callicoon

Vinyl has gotten its groove back at Time Warp Records located at 28 Upper Main Street. Voted as “Best Music Store” by River Reporter readers, owner, Lillyan Peditto brings her extensive personal vinyl library from her radio show days in the 70’s as a DJ at NYC’s rock station WQIV-FM to Callicoon.

Time Warp is a visually stunning store, small in size but giant in well edited, well stocked music history including rock, rap, Motown, soul, reggae, punk, blues, country, r&b and lots of jazz. Other musical oddities for sale include vintage rock magazines, tapes, cd’s & 45’s, posters, guitars, sheet music, t-shirts, and much more.

Time Warp is constantly buying small and large private collections. It’s a great place for browsers and collectors. Phone: 845-887-3032 or 845-796-8170.

Pine Bush

Marc Giammarco has “curated’ vinyl stores in Salisbury Mills and Montgomery. Now he is bringing his expertise and music on Vinyl Celebration Day April 22 from 10:00am-6:00pm to Soulshine Market, 96 Main Street, Pine Bush. See ad page 10. Phone: 845-744-6006.

Warwick

Join Original Vinyl Records for Record Store Day, an annual event inaugurated in 2007, and held every April and Black Friday of November to “celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store.”

Look for exclusive albums from Taylor Swift, U2, Madonna, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Allman Brothers, Ramones, Keith Richards, Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, Max Roach, Archie Shepp, Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires, Pearl Jam, Paul & Ringo, and more on April 22, from 9:00am-6:00pm at Original Vinyl Records, ‘Side A’ (unit #7), 314 Route 94 South, Warwick.

Enjoy free refreshments and some vinyl surprises, too! For info: 845-9873131 or www.originalvinylrecords.com. Check out the ad on the right.