N MAGAZINE May 2023

23, 25 AND 27 NONANTUM AVENUE

SURFSIDE | 4 BEDROOMS | 4+ BATHROOMS | $29,750,000

Experience the pinnacle of luxury living with this grand waterfront estate encompassing over 4.5 acres on Nantucket Island. Located on the sandy shores of this exclusive New England destination, this property enjoys direct beach access, offering the perfect setting for sun-soaked days and breathtaking sunsets. This offering includes:

(1) a main house and garage with studio above sitting on a 2.04 acre lot; (2) two adjoining undeveloped lots with 2.10 acres between them - one of the lots is OCEAN-FRONT; and (3) a half-acre +/- paper road which can be split and/or assigned to either adjoining lot.

Michael Passaro M 917.806.8213 | O 508.386.9733

Michael

$30,000 | 6 BR, 6.2 BA | Web# 73031197

Michael Passaro M 917.806.8213 | O 508.386.9733

$25,000 | 7 BR, 5.2 BA |

Michael Passaro

M 917.806.8213 | O 508.386.9733

Michael

Michael Passaro

M 917.806.8213 | O 508.386.9733

$28,000 | 5 BR, 4.1 BA | Web# 73068855

Michael Passaro

M 917.806.8213 | O 508.386.9733

4B Hawthorne Lane | Nantucket, MA

53 Hummock Pond Road | Nantucket, MA

33.5 Vesper Lane | Nantucket, MA

Web# 73046483

66 Hulbert Avenue, GG | Nantucket, MA $24,000 | 6 BR, 3 BA | Web# 72997346

NANTUCKET STONE

CONTRIBUTORS

Meet some of the talented folks that made this issue possible.

NUMBERS

A numerical snapshot of Nantucket this offseason and early spring.

NTOPTEN

All the hottest events you need to get on your social calendar this spring.

NGREDIENTS

Set to make landfall on Nantucket for the Wine and Food Festival, famed chef Cassie Piuma dishes one of her favorite spring recipes.

Fashion

NECESSITIES

Add these items to your spring wish list.

KID’N AROUND

Looking to keep your kiddos busy this spring?

We’re here to help.

HEALTH N WELLNESS

Are injectables your next best shot at beauty?

NBUZZ

All the news, tidbits and scuttlebutt brought to you by Nantucket Current

NEED TO READ

Tim Ehrenberg is back with his best books for the spring.

DRESS AND PURSE: 120% LINO EARRINGS & NAVY RING: (shown right) THE VAULT PINK & GOLD BRACELETS AND RING: (shown left) SUSAN LISTER LOCKE

NOSHNEWS

The Nantucket Wine and Food Festival toasts its 25th anniversary.

NEAT STUFF

36 Artist Steve Lacy fuses rock ‘n’ rollers with Nantucket in his latest collection of iconic prints.

NVESTIGATE

WRECKED

A deep dive into the shipwreck that appeared on the shores of Nantucket this winter.

RIG OVER TROUBLED WATERS

What is the potential impact of offshore wind energy developments on Nantucket?

TRIP TO THE DOCTOR

Are psychedelics the answer to Nantucket’s mental health crisis?

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Rig Over Troubled Waters

NSPIRE HEAD COACH

40 45

One of the country’s top corporate coaches steps out from behind the curtain.

COLD REALITY

How a group of local women bonded over plunging into the frigid ocean over the winter.

70 NDEPTH

LEADING LADIES

Meet some of the strong female figures leading Nantucket’s nonprofits.

90 NQUIRY

BACK AT THE HELM

Niles Parker returns as executive director of the Nantucket Historical Association.

Shipwreck remains that washed up on the shores of Nantucket this winter (photo by Kit Noble)

The cover of the May issue features a lineup of female leaders photographed by Kit Noble.

Executive coach and Nantucket summer resident Jeannie Esti (photographed at the Mandarin Oriental by Kit Noble.)

Bruce A. Percelay

EDITOR

Robert Cocuzzo

ART DIRECTOR

Paulette Chevalier

MANAGING EDITOR

Emme Duncan

CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER

Kit Noble

FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER

Brian Sager

SENIOR WRITER

Jason Graziadei

CONTRIBUTORS

Tim Ehrenberg

Greta Feeney

Josh Gray

Larry Lindner

Wendy Rouillard

Jonathan Soroff

Mofsen Steve Lacy

WOMEN R

Since the whaling days, women have played an oversized role on Nantucket, and they continue to do so today. The cover of our spring issue clearly illustrates how women dominate leadership of the island’s institutions in addition to their position in retail businesses, restaurants and in management of our waterfront. Indeed, the phrase “women rule” is quite literal on Nantucket. Perhaps one of the most underreported stories on Nantucket in recent times is the potential impact of the planned Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm. Contributor Greta Feeney sheds light on the potential impact of offshore wind farm developments. Unlike the uproar created by the Cape Wind project, the new wind farm has generated a muted response from the island despite its possible visual and environmental impacts. From concerns about the interruption of our pristine sightline from south shore beaches to potential impact on right whales, this is a subject that deserves attention from all island residents.

Navigating Nantucket’s waters before the age of GPS and other navigation aids was hazardous, and the shoals that surround the island as well as those in Nantucket Sound claimed hundreds of ships over the centuries. The discovery of the shipwreck of the Warren Sawyer this past winter generated a tremendous amount of excitement and our article on the efforts to identify this vessel certainly takes us back in time.

Few people have a better sense of the island’s nautical past than the new Nantucket Historical Association executive director Niles Parker, who

ULE

has returned to the island after formerly working at the NHA for almost a decade. His previous role as director of the Penobscot Marine Museum has helped give him new perspectives in managing the NHA including new ideas on introducing technology to enhance the experience for children as well as thoughts on sustainability for the museum’s properties.

BRUCE A. PERCELAY Publisher

The waters off Nantucket are notoriously cold in the winter but this has not deterred a hearty group of women calling themselves the “Morning Mermaids” who gather daily to take a plunge in the frigid ocean. While the science of cold plunges is still evolving, it appears that there could be significant physical and mental benefits from dives into chilly waters, and the women who partake in this ritual attest to the extraordinary benefits of their freezing frenzy.

After what can be best described as a tumultuous offseason from national politics to the economy, hope springs eternal on Nantucket as we are all looking to reset, relax and recharge. We wish you an enjoyable spring and look forward to the coming warmth of the summer.

Bruce A. Percelay

A regular contributor to N Magazine , Greta Feeney studied creative writing at Bennington College, and voice at the Juilliard School. After performing at the San Francisco Opera for fifteen years, she returned to the East Coast to complete a doctoral degree in music. A dual citizen of Nantucket and Concord, MA, she draws inspiration from Concord’s history in the transcendentalist movement, and is writing her first novel, a work of historical fiction about a male soprano castrato set in eighteenth-century Venice. For this May issue, Greta investigated the potential impacts of offshore wind energy development on Nantucket.

Larry Lindner is a New York Times bestselling writer who also penned a nationally syndicated column for The Washington Post for several years. His work has appeared in publications ranging from The Los Angeles Times to The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, and O, the Oprah Magazine. Currently, he serves as executive editor of Your Dog and Catnip, monthlies put out by Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. For this May issue, Lindner profiled a group of local women exploring the benefits of year-round cold plunging in the ocean and explored the rock-and-roll-inspired art of Steve Lacy.

After growing up in Newton and graduating from Duke University, Jonathan Soroff, 55, began his journalism career at The Boston Herald. For twenty-eight years, he was the lead columnist for The Improper Bostonian Magazine, writing the social column and a celebrity interview in every issue and contributing numerous features. He is currently a contributing editor at Boston Magazine, writing the Person of Interest interview, a quarterly column, and travel content, and he produces travel stories for numerous national and international publications. For several years, he co-hosted a weekly radio program, “Status Report,” on Boston Herald Radio. In 2013, he published his first novel, Crimes of Fashion For this May issue, Soroff dug into the mysterious shipwreck that emerged on the shores of Nantucket this offseason.

COAST IS CLEAR. JUST DRIVE.

The new ClearView™ single-pane windshield on the Hinckley 35 provides best-in-class visibility and an unmatched driving experience. Enjoy unobstructed coastal views at speed or at rest at your favorite beach spot. This much fun at the helm is contagious. Now available with Mercury V10 power.

N UMBERS

824

a new record.

$1.6 Billion

25

Years the Nantucket Wine Festival has been in existence.

7.9 Million $

62

20,000

128

Seats planned for the Straight Wharf Fish Market, which the Select Board approved in March.

3,036

People voted in a Nantucket Current poll saying that the new topless beach bylaw is “going to be fine.”

137

Japanese black pines were felled in what became known as the “Christmas Catastrophe,” when sellers of a 3.2-acre waterfront property clear cut the land before selling it to the Sconset Trust for $4.75 million.

1.6 Million $

Closing costs of small cottage on Washington Street purchased by the Nantucket Land Bank early this spring.

101

Waterfront properties have sold on Easton Street in the last three years.

Listing price of the Surfside Lifesaving Station by Blue Flag Partners, which purchased the historic property for $3.5 million in 2020.

Runners participated in this year’s Shamrock Run in support of NiSHA.

Square footage of new proposed parking lot at Cisco Beach.

Deer were harvested during last year’s hunting season, setting

Species of birds were identified on Nantucket during the 68th annual Nantucket Christmas Bird Count.

Total real estate sales in 2022, setting a new record.

2 1

CHRISTIAN MOREAU GRAND

CRU CHABLIS LUNCHEON

MAY 18TH @ 11AM

White Elephant Ballroom

Join the “King of Chablis” Christian Moreau for a large format Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos Luncheon featuring multiple vintages, all poured from jeroboams. The exuberant Christian Moreau will delight and educate you with family stories and winery tales while chefs Conor Dennehy, Erin Miller and Sandrine Wallace create the perfect accompanying dishes.

2 2

CHÂTEAU MARGAUX DINNER

MAY 18TH @ 8 PM

Private Home TBA

Château Margaux is considered the most elegant and sensual of the first growths. Its haunting perfume and incredible balance of power and finesse are nothing short of amazing. This memorable five-course dinner prepared by Chef James Hackney of Twenty-Eight Atlantic at Wequassett boasts unforgettable wines from Château Margaux, including Pavillon Blanc and Rouge, as well as three vintages of the Grand Vin dating back to 1983.

Special Nantucket Wine and Food Festival Edition

4

4

PRESIDENTIAL TASTING

MAY 19TH @ 11AM

Nantucket Hotel

Esteemed wine educator Kevin Zraly will lead a small, intimate group through a tasting of the favorite wines of some of the most influential presidents of the United States. Sample the same wines that were enjoyed by Presidents LBJ, Nixon, and JFK, with such selections as Veuve Clicquot, Robert Mondavi Winery, and Rare Wine Co. Madeira.

5 5

CHILEAN WINE LUNCHEON

MAY 19TH @ 12:30

White Elephant Deck

Join Julio Alonso, executive director of Wines of Chile, along with five top Chilean vintners and learn why Chile is all the buzz today. The luncheon will be prepared by celebrated chef Fernanda Tapia.

7 7

CALIFORNIA CABARET

MAY 19TH @ 3:30PM

White Elephant Ballroom

Take a twirl around the “Napa Dance Floor” with some of the top producers from Mount Veeder, Atlas Peak, Rutherford, Knight’s Valley and more. Napa Valley is the source of some of the world’s best tasting and most sought-after Cabernet Sauvignons.

7 8

WINE AROUND THE WORLD

MAY 19TH @ 3:30PM

White Elephant Deck

Get your passports out for this global wine tasting adventure. Your journey will take you to exciting wine regions including Australia, Hungary, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Croatia and beyond!

6 6

MYSTICAL WORLD OF PINOT NOIR

MAY 19TH @ 11AM

White Elephant Shoreline Tent

Taste top producers from across the world of pinot who will share what is special about their own terroir. From Grand Cru Burgundy by Domaine Jacques Prieur to Craggy Range of New Zealand and the rest of the world in between, these Luminary winemakers will guide you through a tasting of the best their own region has to offer.

2 3 10

SONOMA WINE DINNER

MAY 20TH @ 7PM

White Elephant Ballroom

7 9

BUBBLES & CLAWS

MAY 19TH @ 1:30PM

Tent at the White Elephant

Join this beautiful luncheon at the elegant White Elephant for a first taste of summer luxury. Travel beyond the coastal waters of Nantucket and experience three magnificent Champagnes, each paired with a unique, sumptuous lobster dish.

DAMES DÉJEUNER

MAY 20TH @ 11AM

TBA

Dames Déjeuner has become one of the most sought-after tickets at the NWF. Gather to celebrate the women who have inspired us with their craftsmanship, their leadership and their motivation. The luncheon is filled with compelling dialogue, award-winning cuisine, top-rated wines and a host of motivated women who have moved the dial, pushed the envelope, paved paths and built bridges.

Join this remarkable collection of Sonoma wine producers for a wine-paired dinner and guided tour of Sonoma County, a region of honest, family-owned wineries. You will explore the best of Cabernet, Merlot, Zinfandel, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay that the region has to offer.

Nantucket Wine and Food Festival luminary chef Cassie Piuma shares her steak tartare recipe from her critically acclaimed restaurant Sarma

STEAK OUT

INGREDIENTS

1lb minced beef

1 medium tomato, small diced

1 Fresno, minced

1 shallot, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup sliced scallion

½ cup parsley

½ cup cilantro

3 tbsp capers, rinsed and chopped

¼ tsp sugar

½ tsp grains of paradise

¼ tsp black pepper

2 tsp coriander

¼ tsp carraway

1 tsp Aleppo

1 tsp salt

VINAIGRETTE

¼ cup harissa

2 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp pepper paste

1 tbsp sherry vin

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp lemon Juice

1 tsp Dijon mustard

4 tbsp water

4 tbsp canola

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

HARISSA CHIPS

3 thin pitas, split open to form 6 rounds

4 tbsp harissa

¾ cup olive oil

DIRECTIONS

For the harissa chips:

Rub pita rounds down until oil is absorbed

Slice into chips

Season Bake at 225 degrees for 30-35 minutes

Rotate halfway through cooking

For the vinaigrette: Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Reserve, chilled.

To mix tartare: Place beef and all ingredients in a bowl. Add vinaigrette one spoonful at a time until you have reached your desired level of sauciness.

Serve with harissa chips, crudités and soft cooked egg.

Philip Sireci Breeze, ACK

Mark Stark Stark Reality Restaurants, CA

Fernanda Tapia Private Chef, Boston

John Tesar Knife, Dallas Hong Thaimee Celebrity Chef, New York City

Jamie Kenyon BOTTINO, New York City

Erin Miller Urban Hearth, Cambridge, MA

Cassie Piuma Sarma, Somerville, MA

Marga Raffucci Sorellina, Boston

Johnny Sheehan Salt Raw Bar, Plymouth, MA

Charlie Foster Woods Hill Pier 4, Boston

James Hackney Wequassett Resort, Harwich, MA

E.J. Harvey The SeaGrille, ACK

Joseph Hsu Brant Point Grill, ACK

Joseph Keller Company of the Cauldron, ACK

Silvia Barban LaRina Pastificio, Brooklyn, NY

Fred Bisaillon The Charlie Noble, ACK

Edwin Claflin Òran Mór Bistro, ACK Amarilys Colón Porto, Boston

Conor Dennehy Talulla, Cambridge, MA

CLASSIC SURF ROD

Fish Stix Nantucket creates custom fishing rods for fishermen and women of all ages. Using only the best rod blanks and components available, they design and build surf, inshore, kayak, fly, boat and fresh water rods— perfect for the angler in your life!

FISH STIX NANTUCKET fishstixnantucket.com

WHOLEHEARTEDLY: THE ONE YOU WANT TO FIND IS YOU

Throughout her relatable, vulnerable and occasionally hilarious memoir, Holly takes readers on her own hero’s journey of profound transformation and the reunion with her true love. Witness as she sheds the layers that do not serve her while sharing guideposts for the next generation of treasure-hunting spiritual seekers.

HOLLY RUTH FINIGAN • @hollyruthfinigan • hollyruthfinigan.com

DE SOI

Inspired by the French ethos of pleasure and restraint, De Soi is a line of sparkling, ready-to-drink non-alcoholic aperitifs that celebrate the wellness mindset. Reminiscent of a light-, medium- and full-bodied wine, De Soi’s three flavors—Golden Hour, Champignon Dreams and Purple Lune— are offered by bottle or by can and layer botanicals’ natural adaptogens for a settled yet sharper mind.

DE SOI

@drinkdesoi drinkdesoi.com

WISH

SPRING LIST

FRAME DELIVERY

TROLLEY

Not just practical but beautiful, too! Designed for use both indoors and out—and with weatherresistant construction allowing for outdoor storage all year long—there’s no more elegant and useful addition to your home.

ELEISH VAN BREEMS HOME @eleishvanbreems evbantiques.com

ALL THINGS OIL BY UNDER

LUNA

Made with skin-loving oils and plant infusions, All Things Oil was formulated to be your go-to for just about everything, from face and body oil to diaper rash. Organic, essential oil-free and safe for the whole family!

THE VERDANT MAIDEN @theverdantmaiden theverdantmaiden.com

GOLD SCHOOL CHINO

Today’s version of Duck Head’s legendary khaki chino, which originally launched back in 1978, is made from 7.5 oz. cotton rich twill and equipped with deep drill cloth pockets and industrial grade brass zipper. A workday to weekend staple for decades, the Gold School Chino is the perfect addition to every man’s wardrobe!

DUCK HEAD APPAREL @duckheadapparel duckhead.com

ROASTED GARLIC SALSA

This small-batch salsa—created right here on Nantucket by husband-and-wife duo Chef Nicko and Amy Fix—boasts a creamy texture and smoky flavor, and can be used as a marinade, dipping sauce, pasta sauce base or a pairing with chips at your next party!

BROKE DA MOUTH SALSA @brokedamouthsalsa brokedamouthsalsa.com

Kid' N AROUND

THE NEW PEACHTREE KIDS

Introducing the all-new Peachtree Kids! Open year-round on the sunny side of the historic cobblestoned Main Street, Peachtree Kids has been a favorite one-stop shop for Nantucket’s locals and vacationers since 2004. Peachtree Kids carries timeless classics and on-trend clothing, shoes and accessories for infants and children through size 12. New brands in store include Sammy + Nat, Nantucket, Petit Peony and Joy Street Kids. They also continue to carry shop favorites Piping Prints, Barnaby Bear, Hatley, Busy Bees, Bailey Boys and more. Be sure to stop by Daffodil Weekend for the Coastal Brahmin Mommy & Me pop-up Friday, April 28, and Saturday, April 29, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Also, meet the designers behind Sammy + Nat on Saturday, May 20, from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Peachtree Kids is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. or visit them online at peachtreekidsnantucket.com or @peachtreekidsnantucket.

SUMMER WITH THE DREAMLAND

This summer, the Dreamland has summer programs for children of all ages, with six sessions of its educational performance camps (ages four to eight) and the Dreamland Stage Company’s musical productions of Legally Blonde in July and SpongeBob in August. Students work together to design their own sets, costumes and props, culminating in a final performance for their families. For more information about the performance camps, Dreamland Stage Company and ticket sales, please visit nantucketdreamland. org. Also, be sure to follow them @dreamlandstagecompany. See you at the Dreamland!

SPRING INTO BARNABY’S TOY & ART SHACK

Barnaby’s is kicking off the summer season with more than 100 art classes for children ages two to thirteen! Kids can also drop in and create all day, every day. All of Barnaby’s classes are taught by professional artists and educators who will guide each child’s technique and processes in an inspirational space in downtown Nantucket. Barnaby’s also offers a variety of toys and art kits to go that have been hand-selected and designed for all ages. For Barnaby’s class schedule and information about special workshops and programs, please visit barnabysnantucket.com, call 508-680-1553 or email barnabyack@gmail.com. Also, follow @barnabystoyartshack.

DISCOVER THE NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

The NHA’s Discovery Center at the Whaling Museum has a fresh new look this spring! There’s a photo booth, an interactive information monitor, a new mural in the reading corner and a student art display

space. A new Captain’s Quarters play station opens this summer. And be sure to explore the rest of the Whaling Museum, featuring new displays and exhibitions for all ages to enjoy. The NHA’s daily programs, offered by its expert museum guides, will explore Life Aboard a Whaleship and the infamous  Essex Gam. These presentations are engaging, educational and fun for the whole family! For more information and to reserve your visit, please visit nha.org. Island families enjoy free admission year-round. Follow all the NHA’s properties @ackhistory.

STARGAZING WITH MARIA MITCHELL

One of the island’s must-do activities is visiting the Maria Mitchell Association’s Loines Observatory. Enjoy an impressive tour of the night sky with the association’s professional astronomers. Throughout May, families can participate in the popular “Look Up” program, a free stargazing program geared toward children and students. The Aquarium opens for the season on Monday, June 12. Visitors can get a feel—literally—for local marine life at the most popular aquarium activity, the touch tank! For more information, please visit mariamitchell. org or @maria_mitchell_association.

THIS SPRING AT THE LINDA LORING FOUNDATION

Looking for an adventure? Head out to the Linda Loring Nature Foundation at 110 Eel Point Road to enjoy Story Walk and much more! Each month, a children’s book is posted along the trail, so you can read along while enjoying the beautiful sweeping views of the western end of the island. The foundation also hosts regular guided nature walks during which participants stop along the gently rolling trails to learn about the island’s insects, birds and plants. For a full lineup of this season’s programs, visit llnf.org and follow @loringnatureack.

Surfside | $4,950,000

A Rare Opportunity In Surfside Oversized 2.53 acre wooded lot with an existing 2-bedroom home, plus HDC-approved plans for a brand new contemporary 4-bedroom main house with pool. Outstanding opportunity to secure a private compound setting with plans for the future!

Existing

Summer Ready Enjoy timeless and sophisticated 2+ bedroom house on a very private 2.53 acre lot in Surfside, less than one mile to Surfside Beaches. Property sale includes HDC-approved plans for a beautifully designed contemporary 4-bedroom main house with pool. The existing house has clean lines and inviting light-filled spaces, featuring well placed windows and doors that highlight the beautiful natural setting and surrounding grounds. Relaxed open-floor plan with chef’s kitchen and two first-floor bedroom suites; one large room on the second story provides upscale bonus living space for an office or play space. Owner/Builder available to execute approved plans under separate contract.

SHOT

Why should someone consider trying injectables?

Injectables and skin care are modern-day, routine forms of selfcare. Anyone interested in looking good and feeling good in all aspects of their life should consider trying injectables. Injectable treatments can help boost confidence by putting your best face forward, and when performed ethically and conservatively, they can deliver a beautiful, natural aesthetic.

What exactly are injectables?

When we talk about injectables, we are largely talking about three different drug classes—neurotoxins (e.g., Botox Cosmetic, Dysport), hyaluronic acid dermal fillers (e.g., Restylane) and biostimulators (e.g., Sculptra). These medications (in a skilled prescriber’s or injector’s hands) can be used for preventive maintenance and corrective treatments for fine lines, wrinkles, volume loss, textural changes to the skin, acne scarring and much more.

What are some of the misconceptions of injectables?

The biggest misconception of injectables is that if you get these treatments done that you will ultimately look fake or overdone. We like tell our clients that the best injectables are not detectable. A truly educated and skilled injector can provide beautiful, natural and complementary results for clients. Many consumers do not realize the extent to which providers need to train (and continue training!) to become true masters of this craft.

Thinking about injecting something new into your beauty routine?

The team from LexRx on S. Water Street has some points for you to consider.

Are there any specific treatments that cater to a Nantucket clientele?

One thing that will be new to our lineup of services for the 2023 season will be our collagen induction therapy (also known as microneedling) with the Food and Drug Administration-approved SkinPen device. This treatment has FDA approval for the face and neck, and is clinically proven to help tighten the skin, erase fine lines and wrinkles, diminish the appearance of acne scars and pores, and so much more. The best part is that it requires only twentyfour hours of downtime for redness. We anticipate

our Nantucket clientele loving this treatment as it is results-driven and causes little to no interruption in beach or social plans.

Beyond beauty, are there any health benefits to injectables? Can you treat any conditions with them?

Beyond helping to put your best face forward, cosmetic injectable treatments with neurotoxins may help reduce the frequency of headaches. Though our practice does not inject botulinum toxin for migraine management, many of our clients report improvement in the intensity and frequency of headaches. In addition, there have been studies and publications about the psychosomatic benefits and improvement in depressive feelings for clients that seek neurotoxin treatments for aesthetic purposes. For medical dermatological conditions such as acne, we see amazing results and benefits when combining neurotoxin treatments, microneedling treatments, chemical peels and medical-grade skin care regimens into our clients’ journeys.

INTERVIEW BY ROBERT COCUZZO PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT NOBLE

THERE IS ANOTHER WAY TO FLY.

It is flying that is an extension of what you value not an interruption of it. Less harrowing than flying commercial. More intimate than flying private.

IT’S FLYING PERSONAL. And once you’ve done it, you’ll never want to fly any other way.

SCHEDULED SERVICE TO NANTUCKET FROM THE NEW YORK AREA.

nbuzz

REPORTED BY THE NANTUCKET CURRENT

Nantucket’s commercial scalloping fleet ended the 2022–23 season with just over 6,100 bushels of bay scallops landed, nearly doubling last year’s harvest. The rebound in the number of bushels from last season’s near-record low was a welcome sign, according to fishermen and the Nantucket Shellfish Association, but it was tempered by lower prices paid to scallopers and volatility in the wholesale market.

BEACH

RETREAT

SHELL SHOCK HOUSE PARTY

This season’s tally nearly doubles the 3,200 bushels landed last season and is on par with the 7,600 bushels taken during the 2020–21 season. Yet it’s still well off the 13,000 bushels that were harvested from Nantucket and Madaket harbors as recently as 2017–18. There are several factors in play: While the scallop habitat has declined in the harbor, there are also far fewer scallopers in the fleet than just a few years ago.

The threat of erosion has prompted the Nantucket Land Bank to forge ahead with a plan to relocate the Cisco Beach parking lot, which is one of the most heavily used areas along the island’s south shore. In late March, Land Bank staff proposed a calculated “retreat” from the dune along the beach that would move the parking area farther inland as part of a coastal resiliency strategy. The Land Bank Commission voted unanimously to endorse the plan and allow the organization’s staff to move ahead with the permitting for the project. “Future erosion will result in the front row of parking being compromised,” said Rachael Freeman, the Land Bank’s director of environmental and agricultural resources. “Shifting the parking area to be perpendicular to the coastline during this move is also a coastal resiliency strategy that will limit the impacts of erosion to a few parking spaces at a time as opposed to potentially losing an entire row of twenty or more spots in one storm event.”

Rallying on the steps of the State House in Boston in midMarch, nearly sixty Nantucket residents urged state lawmakers to finally pass the so-called housing bank legislation to fund affordable housing initiatives on the island. And

they were not alone. The Nantucket group—which included Cyrus Peirce Middle School students, Select Board members, Land Bank commissioners, real estate professionals and the Chamber of Commerce—was joined by an even larger contingent from Martha’s Vineyard that was seeking the same thing: a transfer tax on large home sales that could help alleviate the housing crisis playing out on both islands. Together, they spent the day walking the halls of the State House

to plead their case to state lawmakers and their staff, then gathered on Beacon Street below the famed golden dome of the iconic Boston building for the rally. Nantucket’s quest for the housing bank legislation has been going on for more than a decade, and the concept has caught on with other communities—on the Vineyard, on Cape Cod and beyond—that have joined the fight. The island is seeking what Nantucket’s municipal housing director Tucker Holland calls a modest request: a 0.5 percent transfer tax on real estate sales above $2 million to fund affordable housing initiatives.

It sounded simple. “We’d like to make that a clam shack,” chef and restaurant owner Gabriel Frasca said of the waterfront property on Nantucket Harbor that was for decades the home of Straight Wharf Fish Store and Stars Ice Cream. But Frasca and his partner Kevin Burleson’s plan to continue the fish market and ice cream sales while adding a sixty-two-seat clam shack restaurant became a flashpoint over the offseason. The wealthy property owners of the neighboring Old North Wharf—including billionaire Charles Johnson—lawyered up and mounted an opposition campaign. The noise, trash and traffic generated by a new restaurant in an area already saturated by busy dining establishments would be too much and too close to their seasonal residences, they said. Yet despite the well-heeled effort to challenge the proposed Straight Wharf Fish Market and the new clam shack, the Nantucket Select Board voted 3-1 in March to grant restaurant, alcohol and entertainment licenses for the new venture. In the end, it appeared that the reputations and relationships built by Frasca and Burleson over their decades in the island restaurant industry outweighed the near limitless financial and legal resources that the Old North Wharf property owners brought to stop the clam shack.

SHACK ATTACK STRIP

SURF HITS THE POPPING OFF

A new wine bar called Ethos Nantucket is coming to Broad Street, taking the torch from the Afterhouse, which closed late last year. The leadership team at Ethos, including Gracie Schadt, Emily Dusseau and Zachary Hotter, recently obtained a new seasonal common victualler with all-alcoholic beverages license, along with a new entertainment license, from the Town. The twenty-three-seat restaurant will aim to be open six nights a week (Wednesday to Monday), 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., between April and January 15. “Ethos is a Greek word meaning ‘character’ that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a person, community or place,” the Ethos team stated in its license application to the Nantucket Select Board. “This is our Ethos: hospitality, education and community engagement through the lens of great wine and food. Ethos hopes to be a boutique wine bar in Nantucket featuring a creative small plates dining menu and artisanal cocktails. Dishes will highlight regional cuisine with an emphasis on locally sourced products by partnering with local sustainable farms and fisheries.”

A new player is coming to The Strip on Broad Street. After the closing of the Easy Street Cantina at the end of 2022, Georgetown Events, the parent company of Millie’s restaurant in Madaket, announced that it had signed a lease to bring a new restaurant concept to the location. Georgetown Events owner Bo Blair shared a preview of what’s in store for the The Strip: a new restaurant called Surfside. Slated to open this May, the restaurant will be modeled after Georgetown Events’ other Surfside restaurant located in Washington, D.C., albeit with slightly different fare. Blair told the Current that Surfside will be open seven days per week, offering fast casual breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night options. They will also seek a liquor license to offer beer and mixed cocktails until 10 p.m. The operation will be open seven months a year and will have Baja-style and coastal food offerings, including seafood and salads.

Tim Ehrenberg from “Tim Talks Books”dishes on the hottest reads for spring.

All books can be purchased at your two island independent bookstores, Mitchell’s Book Corner and Nantucket Bookworks, or online at www.nantucketbookpartners.com. For more book recommendations, follow @timtalksbooks on Instagram or visit timtalksbooks.com.

I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU BY

REBECCA MAKKAI

When Rebecca Makkai appeared at the Nantucket Book Festival in 2019, she spoke about a literary mystery set at a boarding school as the premise of her next novel, and here it is in all its glory. By the author of The Great Believers, this novel is a mix of the best Dateline episode and your favorite boarding school novel. It speaks to society’s obsession with true crime and the reckoning of one’s past, all tied up in a page-turning narrative that puts you in the center of the investigation of what happened to Thalia Keith at Granby School in 1995. No question, this will be one of my favorite books this year!

ON THE SAVAGE SIDE BY

TIFFANY MCDANIEL

I had one of those reading experiences with this book that only comes along every so often. You know the one: up way past your bedtime to finish it, and then once you’re done, flipping back to the first page to start it again because you are not ready to let go of the characters. On the Savage Side reminded me of A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara in that it’s emotionally powerful but not easy to live in the story at times. Trigger warnings should be everywhere. Sentences float off the page like mini poems, but it’s ultimately a savage story of abuse, addiction and violence against women. I describe it as brutally beautiful in its telling. Inspired by the unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six, Tiffany McDaniel has written a book with characters I will never forget.

THE WAGER: A TALE OF SHIPWRECK, MUTINY AND MURDER

BY DAVID GRANN

For those whose favorite nonfiction book is In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick, make sure to pick up David Grann’s latest, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder. I have been a fan of Grann’s nonfiction for years, but this is his best yet. It reads like the ultimate historical adventure thriller but is the very true story of the Wager, a British vessel that left England in 1740, and the harrowing tale that follows of survival, mutiny and treachery, all culminating in a court martial that reveals shocking truths of human behavior at the extremes. It’s one of those stories you must read to believe.

MAAME BY JESSICA GEORGE

In case you missed it, the February Read with Jenna pick was Maame by Jessica George, and it’s a perfect example of why I read and love contemporary fiction. They say to never judge a book by its cover but judge away because this book is perfection. We follow Maddie Wright as she deals with all of life’s ups and downs: familial duty, mental health, finding happiness, juggling work, forming relationships, asking Google for advice, making lists and finding herself amid it all. I adore her voice: humorous, insightful and drawn from the author’s personal experiences, giving the book such a genuine sound and lasting impression. Every time I turned a page, I felt like I was catching up with my best friend.

ALL THE DAYS OF SUMMER BY

NANCY THAYER

The release of a new Nancy Thayer novel is like the daffodils or cherry blossoms you’ll notice this month—it’s the first sign of warmer weather and “all the days of summer” ahead. Nancy is the queen of books with happy endings, and this one also delivers that Nantucket nostalgia and cozy reading experience we have come to expect from this treasured island author. All the Days of Summer features memorable characters living, loving and laughing on Nantucket Island in a novel that explores the complexity of family and the unexpected ways fate can guide you forward. Get yourself a signed, personalized copy of the book, which publishes May 2, from nantucketbookpartners.com. Join Nancy at Mitchell’s Book Corner for a book signing on Saturday, May 13, from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. for a perfect Mother’s Day gift and event.

YELLOWFACE BY

R.F. KUANG

This eye-opening, compulsively readable novel tackles diversity, racism and cultural appropriation in the publishing industry. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang tells the saga of bestselling author Juniper Song and her new book about Chinese laborers during World War I. Juniper Song is not who she claims to be however. She’s not Asian American, and she didn’t write the novel getting so much press and praise. While this book is a quick read, it’s also an important and revealing look at prejudice, representation, social media and greed in the literary world. Available May 16

Toast to

WRITTEN BY JOSH GRAY

Twenty-Five

The Nantucket Wine Festival celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary this May

In the wake of the pandemic, the return of the Nantucket Wine and Food Festival wasn’t guaranteed so much as demanded by those who have loved it, produced it and worked it year after year, bringing some of the best winemakers and chefs in the world to Nantucket’s shores for more than two decades. Now organizers are gearing up for what they believe will be one of their best festivals yet, and it just happens to be their twenty-fifth anniversary.

The Nantucket Wine Festival was founded in 1996 by Denis Toner, a longtime Nantucket seasonal resident. Nancy Bean began her tenure with the annual celebration in 2007 when she was hired by Toner to become the director of operations. Then in 2012, Toner sold the festival to Bean and her then business partner, Mark Goldweitz. Since then, Bean has become the sole owner of the festival and rebranded it as the Nantucket Wine and Food Festival due to her belief that food is a necessary component to enjoy wine to its fullest.

Boasting what Bean refers to as a “rock star

lineup,” this year’s anniversary event will feature some of the most well-known and exciting female chefs in the country. “Now as a female-owned company and really running things since 2012, it’s become my baby now and that’s something I’ve always wanted,” she said. “Over the years we’ve always featured a variety of female chefs and vintners such as Jody Adams, Barbara Lynch, Lydia Shire, Elizabeth Falkner, Tiffani Faison and many others, but this year is really special, and we have some incredible women to watch on the culinary side.”

Those names are expected to include Izabela Wojcik of the James Beard Foundation; Cassie Piuma of Sarma in Somerville, Massachusetts; Silvia Barban of LaRina Pastificio & Vino in Brooklyn; Annie Copps, chef, cookbook author, TV host, educator and mentor; Nantucket’s own Angela Raynor, chef and former longtime owner of The Pearl and Boarding House; Maria Helm Sinskey of Robert Sinskey Vineyards; Fernanda Tapia of Ferncooks.com; Marga Raffucci of Sorellina in Boston; and Amarilys Colón of Porto in Boston.

To commemorate the occasion, Bean and her largely female team—with a few spectacular gentlemen, she was quick to add—have added a new signature event to the festival. “Dames Déjeuner has become one of

award-winning cuisine, top-rated wines and a host of motivated women who have moved the dial, pushed the envelope, paved paths and built bridges.”

Another highlight among the very full five days of tastings, parties, dinners, lectures and gatherings (more than fifty in total, said Bean) will be the opportunity to see, hear from and taste the food of Chef Conor Dennehy of Talulla in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dennehy was supposed to attend the sold-out 2020 festival, which had to be canceled at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, he will be presenting at the

when you consider pandemic and climate change impacts affecting us concurrently,” Bean said. "We'll have a breakfast where we’ll discuss how climate change is affecting agriculture, and we have a lot of people that want to be a part of that. Another theme will be sustainability, and we have some players coming who are making significant change in that world and have an incredible passion with some really strong messaging.”

Now on the other side of the

the most sought-after tickets at the Nantucket Wine and Food Festival this year,” she said. “We will gather to celebrate the women who have inspired us with their craftsmanship, their leadership and their motivation. The luncheon is filled with compelling dialogue,

Chablis Grand Cru Luncheon and the Harbor Gala on Thursday, May 18, as well as the Rosé Brunch on Friday, May 19.

Throughout the festival, revelers will take part in programs celebrating diverse cultures and tastes from around the globe and will shine a light on the impacts that climate change is having on the food and wine industries. “We’ve all been through so much the last few years and a lot has come at the food and wine industries especially

pandemic, Bean said it’s awesome to be able to come together and celebrate without the hindrances of the past few years. The festival serves as an important early-season boon for island restaurants, hotels, art galleries and other businesses. Bean said tickets are moving quickly but noted they will be offering some special pricing over the Daffodil Festival for the year-round community. “It’s an honor to be one of the launching points of the season, along with the Daffodil Festival in April, of course,” she said. “It’s been so nice to have come to rest in this place on the yearly landscape and to have become so important to commerce on the island during this time of new beginnings and the rejuvenation of spring.”

Tickets for the twenty-fifth annual Nantucket Wine and Food Festival are available at Current Vintage or on the event website, www.nantucketwinefestival.com.

“This year is really special, and we have some incredible women to watch on the culinary side.”

— Nancy Bean

Artist Steve Lacy fuses rock’n’rollers with Nantucket in a new collection of prints

Rock stars are rarely spotted walking the streets of Nantucket. No one has ever come across Mick Jagger playing fetch with his dog on Surfside or stood behind Axl Rose in line at the Juice Bar. But thanks to frequent island summer visitor Steve Lacy, these kinds of rock ’n’ roll sightings are not impossible to imagine.

When he’s not anchoring the news for New York City’s FOX affiliate, WNYW-TV, Lacy can be found working on art that combines photography and silk-screening to create Andy Warhol-esque images of rock stars superimposed on Nantucket backdrops. Lacy brings his art to life through a painstaking process of photoshopping the images to manipulate light and texture and then draining

WALL OF FAME ROCK’N’ROLL

color and applying it anew from a silk screen onto a canvas. It takes weeks—up to 100 hours—to finish one piece in a physically arduous process of squeezing colors where they need to be. Lacy can dream up his creations—Slash from Guns N’ Roses holding a striped bass instead of a guitar, for instance—or you can commission him to pair the rocker of your choice with an island landmark.

Michelle Kroin has a huge silk screen of Jerry Garcia in Nantucket red pants and a Juice Bar T-shirt in her Dionis kitchen.

“We’re Deadheads,” she says of herself and her husband. “Normally, rock ’n’ roll doesn’t scream ‘beach’ or ‘Nantucket,’ but everyone loves it. Of all the art we have in our house, Steve’s piece is our hands-down favorite.”

In their Quidnet game room, Jodi and Mark Loughlin have Stevie Nicks in front of the compass rose at Gardiner’s Corner. “We actually have a few of his pieces,” Jodi says. A number of them hang in showrooms across the country, as Mark owns a large commer-

WRITTEN BY LARRY LINDNER

cial office furniture dealership. “Some of the country’s leading commercial interior designers come through,” Mark says, “and they love his stuff. People see it and then commission works of their own.”

In the Loughlins’ New York showroom, Lacy installed a Bruce Springsteen image with a map of the Eastern Seaboard in the background. “Nantucket is uber-emphasized” in that piece, Mark says. “It’s seriously one of the coolest pieces we own.” He adds, “Steve really takes the time to get to know the people” he’s creating for. “He asks all the right questions” and then comes up with something that truly reflects who the client is and how they relate to the rock artist.

Lacy gets his rocker images from Mark Weiss, one of the country’s premier rock photographers who has shot covers for everyone from Bon Jovi and Ozzy Osbourne to Gwen Stefani and Christina Aguilera. At first, Weiss was pretty involved in how Lacy used his photography. “Now,” he comments, “if Steve would say to me, ‘Mark, I want ten photos—we’re going to have a gallery exhibition,’ I would totally trust him to surprise me at the opening. He brings my work to a higher level.” The works have been exhibited in gallery spaces in New York, Miami and Greenwich, Connecticut.

Lacy says his aim is to create an image that “tells a story about the things a person loves most.” For many people, like Lacy himself, those things are Nantucket and rock ’n’ roll. It’s not surprising, he says. Both islanders and rock stars are oneof-a-kind. “Where else does anyone wear red pants with lobsters?” Jodi Loughlin hasn’t thought about it quite that way. She just likes that combining music and art with Nantucket “fills you up with all the good feels.” In addition to rock ’n’ roll-themed pieces, Steve also specializes in family portraits and hyperrealistic sports card art.

To see more of Steve Lacy’s Nantucket-inspired work or to commission a piece, visit www.nantucket2023.com.

Turning Second Hand Goods into Cutting Edge Technology

Last year, the Hospital Thrift Shop made the largest gift in its 94-year history to Nantucket Cottage Hospital to enable the purchase of a new state-of-the-art MRI scanner. Thank you to the volunteers, staff, donors and shoppers of the Hospital Thrift Shop for supporting the health of our community.

“The new MRI provides much faster scan times and higher resolution images. The faster scan times are a big improvement in convenience and comfort for patients and will make more appointments available. The higher image resolution means that many diagnostic procedures that have previously required a costly trip off-island can now be done here on Nantucket.”

– Dr. Chinyere “C” Rumph, NCH Director of Imaging

Jeannie Esti was photographed at the Mandarin Oriental in Boston

HEAD

COACH

WRITTEN BY ROBERT COCUZZO PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT NOBLE

One of America’s top executive coaches emerges from behind the curtain

Jeannie Esti is an executive coach of the highest order. Some of the most powerful CEOs in America have her on speed dial. In times of crisis, her clients have been known to charter private jets just to speak with her in person. Armed with cunning business instincts and a megawatt personality, this longtime Nantucket summer resident has spent decades helping leaders lead through her trademark no-nonsense approach. Today, her waitlist rivals that of the Steamship Authority. Locked up in NDAs, Jeannie’s role in facilitating corporate conquests has been entirely hidden from the public eye. But more recently, rumor has it that Jeannie’s story has grabbed the attention of top producers in Hollywood who are interested in bringing her out from behind the curtain and into a leading creative role.

Jeannie’s energy fills every room she enters. It radiates off her like a forcefield that you can feel even over the phone. She’s funny, quick-witted and refreshingly irreverent. Her inexhaustible sense of humor is matched with a steely-eyed clarity for business that helps her dice highly complex situations down to size. It’s what has made her an indispensable ally to Fortune 500 CEOs, unicorn entrepreneurs, professional sports power brokers, lifestyle influencers and A-list celebrities.

“There’s a moment in The Wizard of Oz when the good witch says to Dorothy, ‘You had the power all along,’ and that is what I remind my clients of,” says Jeannie. “I am not here to shift and change your life. I’m here to show you where you can shift and change

your life. You want a business that hums? You want to grow your business? You want to create revenue? I’m here to work with you shoulder to shoulder—I am the navigator—but I’m not driving. You’re doing the work.”

Jeannie was born with business in her blood. The daughter of a directmarketing CEO, she spent her formative years stuffing envelopes after school for a penny a piece. When her friends went off to get summer jobs scooping ice cream or life guarding, Jeannie was working on the divestiture of AT&T in New Jersey. “I was wearing stockings on my legs while everyone else was running around in flip-flops,” she says with a laugh.

—

Her business background served her well. After graduating from St. Bonaventure University and while earning a master’s from Fordham, Jeannie hit the fast track and quickly climbed the ranks of American Express Publishing and then Bank of America. “I was really fortunate to have had that early career experience as I was told it gave me a slight edge over other candidates who were also new college graduates,” she says. “I had done essentially three internships by the time I graduated so I walked into a position with more busi-

ness experience than many new grads. So the trajectory of my career was faster…and I had a lot of responsibility at a young age.”

But over time, Jeannie “got tired of leading the deals, making big profits for other people and not sharing enough in the return,” as she put it. One night while her father and uncle, who was the CEO of Bank of New York, were puffing cigars and sipping over-priced port, they challenged her to start her own strategic marketing firm. After Jeannie hung her shingle,

her business took off. In short order she came to represent big-name clients in the NFL, The Nature Conservancy and National Geographic Life was good. She earned a princely living, traveled the world and established herself in Washington, D.C. Then in 2002, a CEO invited her to attend a leadership conference being held at Harvard. After the first day of listening and interacting with keynote speakers Jack Welch and Rudy Giuliani, Jeannie returned to the conference on the second day where a professional coach was presenting. Something about this kind of leadership facilitation clicked with Jeannie—and the coach herself recognized that.

Jeannie Esti

“I am not here to shift and change your life.

I’m here to show you where you can shift and change your life.”

Before the day was out, she cornered Jeannie and said, “You not becoming a coach would be like Picasso having decided not to paint.”

Jeannie was intrigued by this compliment. It stuck in the back of her mind for six years until she decided to enroll in a coaching certification program, more out of curiosity than any serious intention of pursuing it as a career. While most of the attendees were wearing casual clothes on a Friday afternoon, Jeannie, who had to return to her office afterwards, strut into that coaching certification program carrying two phones and wearing a Hillary Clinton-style pantsuit.

Within two hours of sitting down for the program, she knew in her bones that she had just found her calling.

“It wasn’t a good feeling,” she recalls. At the age of forty-two and at the top of her career, was she really going to give up her lucrative business to become a coach, a profession she knew virtually nothing about?

mentioned how impactful Jeannie was to his career,” says Craig Descalzi, the CEO and founder of Morrison Avenue Capital Partners. After conferring with other CEOs who had utilized a coach, Craig enlisted Jeannie’s services.

“Despite her youthful appearance and demeanor, Jeannie has tremendous experience, both from coaching and

“One thing was for certain, my value and differentiator would be to stay on the business advisory side of the narrative and blend in coaching when necessary,” she says. “I didn’t want to abort all of the business acumen about running a P&L to all of a sudden start talking to clients about the weather in their souls. It was then, and still is important to me, that a client sees a return—however they define it.”

Indeed, the idea of becoming an executive coach had a magnetic pull on Jeannie. It felt like something she had been unknowingly training for since those days of stuffing envelopes for her father after school. Coaching would not only call upon her business background but also her personality. Jeannie decided to take the leap. She sold her house in D.C., put most of her belongings in storage, and moved to Nantucket where she intended on giving coaching a shot. She spent the next two years building her business and hasn’t looked back since. Today her roster of clients numbers in the dozens and she has at least five other coaches working for her.

“I was initially skeptical of coaching, then a good friend

her own career,” he says. “If she takes you on, you can count on her first advocating for you, and then solving problems.” Craig describes Jeannie’s coaching approach as aggressively supportive. “Coaching, or should I say receiving coaching, can be a difficult and dare I say humbling process,” he says. “Jeannie differentiates herself through her passion and personality… she finds a way to make her immense impact fun.”

Through some twists of fate, Jeannie’s story has garnered the attention of Hollywood elite who are taken by her character as a high-powered female CEO soothsayer. “I have been very fortunate to be working with some incredible producers and writers who have been interested in creating a storyline potentially based on what I do and how I do it,” she says. “But theirs is a world that requires creativity, patience, timing with a twist of the miraculous so I’m not quitting my day job.” Time will tell whether Jeannie Esti will make her big-screen debut, but for now she’s content to continue to play a supporting role alongside some of the biggest performers in the business world.

“One thing was for certain, my value and differentiator would be to stay on the business advisory side of the narrative and blend in coaching when necessary.”

— Jeannie Esti

EXTRAORDINARY OCEANFRONT | $12,350,000

Waterfront property privately set at the end of a quiet tree-lined drive with a path to secluded Squam beach. The immaculately maintained home offers four ensuite bedrooms, multiple spacious living areas, and a pool accented by a bluestone patio.

COLD REALITY

WRITTEN BY LARRY LINDNER PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT NOBLE

A group of island women embrace the hot new trend in health

cardio workouts once more.

Whether for state of mind, exercise or to commune with nature (“To be able to float on my back in my bathing suit in the middle of winter looking up at the clouds and the sky is just fabulous,” says Hannah Judy Gretz), those adding to the ranks of the Morning Mermaids reflect that cold plunges are hot. Hard numbers are lacking, but the International Journal of Research and Public Health maintains that the activity has become “increasingly popular,” and sales of wet suits by Mountain Warehouse reportedly surged by 227 percent in the winter of 2021 alone.

Igo in like Eeyore and come out like the Dalai Lama,” says Sally Ure, referring to her plunges into Nantucket’s frigid waters throughout the winter months. Ure is a member of Nantucket’s ever-expanding group of “Morning Mermaids,” tracking with the growing number of people across the country who take to the water in the winter to reap the benefits of cold water immersion. Those benefits range from the emotional to the physical to the spiritual. “For me,” Ure explains, “it’s a shortcut to gratitude.”

For Sandrine Legrand, who joined the Morning Mermaids last November, it was about being able to start going to the gym again after fifteen years of relative inactivity due to debilitating muscle and joint inflammation resulting from fibromyalgia. After just nine weeks of plunges into water whose temperatures dip into the thirties during the winter months, the one-time Ironman competitor was doing

Much of the recent surge has been attributed to the pandemic. The original Mermaids group, consisting of five women in their fifties and sixties, started in the fall of 2020, when the country was firmly in COVID’s grip. “Being outside was liberating and a release,” Gretz says. Their number has grown steadily since, and now women of all ages and walks of life take part, from a preschool director to a house painter to new mothers who say swimming or dunking in cold water relieves their postpartum depression.

Does it? A spate of preliminary studies suggests yes. One, titled “Winter Swimming Improves General Well-Being,” showed that people who swam in cold water at least four times a week during the winter experienced lower scores for “negative mood state,” while the scores of non-winter swimmers remained unchanged.

Mermaid Larc Jaycobs doesn’t need a study to prove what she experiences. Cold water swimming, she says, is “incredibly uplifting. It’s magical. It’s spiritual. The serenity,” she adds, is yet “another kind of magic.”

And the physical benefits that the Mermaids attest to—improved circulation, a more finely tuned

immune system—does the research jibe with those claims? Findings aren’t conclusive, but a review published last year in the International Journal of Circumpolar Health of more than one hundred studies on the matter found that cold water activity may reduce the risk for diabetes by helping insulin work more efficiently to remove sugar from the bloodstream. It may also ward off cardiovascular disease, strengthen respiration and, yes, increase various biochemical markers for strengthened immunity.

— Sally Ure

“ I go in like Eeyore and com out like the Dalai Lama.”

For those who do not have access to the ocean, cold plunge pools have become hot commodities.

What the findings did not discuss, but all the Mermaids did, are the friendships they have formed. “I think it’s a very intimate group,” Ure says. “The people care about each other. Women are very good at talking about what matters, anyway. Within ten minutes, a group of women will always get down to the nitty-gritty. But this particu larly makes for a sense of tribe.”

Legrand talks about having found her tribe as well, saying that “the kinship is amazing. Something greater than the plunge has developed.” Adds Jaycobs, “I don’t think you’ll talk to a single Mermaid who is not highly enthu siastic about the camaraderie.”

The women also pointed out that everyone “uses” the water in a different way. “We all have different cold tolerances and different strategies,” Jaycobs

says. “Some people like to splash and yelp. Some like to go in under the water.” Others truly swim. “Our rule is that there is no rule,” she makes clear, “and no peer pressure. It’s just about being company for each other—and safety.”

Nobody stays in for more than about ten to twelve minutes, but a buddy system is critical in case the muscles seize in cold water. It’s key to spot each other.

Cold water immersion also “doesn’t take any special equipment or gear,” says Ure, although she and others recommend neoprene gloves and booties. “My daughter’s friend just puts on a sports bra and some leggings,” she comments. “It’s not Palm Beach. It’s Nantucket. And you find what’s best for you. If a minute works, you do a minute. If you get in to your knees and decide that’s not the day, you turn around.”

While some of the Morning Mermaids actually do go out in the morning, not all do, and many don’t go every day. It’s whatever works.

“Anyone interested in going around noon?” someone might text the group. One day the Galley might be the perfect spot for a small group. Another day some of the women might head to Willard Street, off Hulbert Avenue. There’s a little cut-through there. For others, Pocomo or Sconset is the spot. Wherever you end up going in, Ure says, “it’s grounding, it’s calming, it’s joyful.”

Interested in cold water plunges? Leave your cell phone number with Pete at The Sunken Ship, 12 Broad Street. A Mermaid will be in touch.

— Larc Jaycobs

“I don’t think you’ll talk to a single Mermaid who is not highly enthusiastic about the camaraderie.”

WRECKED

WRITTEN BY JONATHAN SOROFF PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT NOBLE AND KATIE KAIZER

The mission to identify the shipwreck discovered this winter

On Friday of Christmas Stroll weekend last year, year-round resident Mike Campbell was walking the beaches between Miacomet and Surfside when he came upon the remains of a long-buried shipwreck. It was unmistakable, the wooden ribs of the hull sticking up from the sand like a pirate’s skeleton in a fish tank. Campbell snapped a photo and sent it to Evan Schwanfelder, the director of education and public programs at Egan Maritime Institute, which operates the Shipwreck and Lifesaving Museum. The next day, local landscaper Matt Palka was riding his bike and stopped at the beach. Excited by what he discovered, he sent pictures

to Nantucket Current editor Jason Graziadei, and soon, the whole island knew. “I didn’t know what to do,” Schwanfelder says, his boyish enthusiasm as apparent as on the first day he learned about it. “I didn’t know who to call, who had jurisdiction. I had no idea what the protocol was.”

That’s understandable, given that stumbling upon a find like this is a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence. After a quick Google search, Evan found the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources, “the sole trustee of the Commonwealth’s underwater cultural heritage,” and its director, Dave Robinson.

We filled out a one-page report, and Dave got down here almost immediately,” Schwanfelder recounts. They surveyed the site joined by Graham McKay, a marine archaeologist and boat builder; Michael Harrison of the Nantucket Historical Association; and island preservation planner Holly Backus.

The remains were clearly that of a wooden sailing ship, and it appeared to be the bow, but there were no identifying markings. Vessels of that type were a dime a dozen well into the early twentieth century. As Schwanfelder puts it, “They were the tractor-trailers of their day, hauling stuff up and down the East Coast.”

Archaeology in sand is an entirely different beast than archaeology in dirt. To excavate the wreck was both logistically impractical and prohibitively expensive. So, under Robinson’s aegis, they took photographs and precise measurements of the exposed timbers, marked GPS coordinates and noted observations about details like wood composition. Everyone involved was keen to establish the exact identity of the ship, but there was nothing definitively distinguishing about the remains. It was time for a little historical sleuthing.

Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut, has an extensive archive—boat builders’ records, bills

of sale, ship manifests, insurance inspection documents—on many of the commercial vessels that plied the waters around New England during the golden age of sail. After sifting through them, Robinson lit upon a likely suspect: the Warren Sawyer, a three-masted schooner that foundered on the shoals off the south shore

of Nantucket on December 22, 1884. It was carrying a cargo of cotton and scrap iron from New Orleans to Boston.

According to a statement issued by the Shipwreck and Lifesaving Museum’s director, Charles Allard, “Her unfortunate end…is one of Nantucket’s most complete and remarkable stories of shoals, storms, and rescue. The Surfside Life-Saving Station saved the crew, and wreckers salvaged most of the cargo.” However, Robinson says, “in trying to arrive at a conclusive determination

The team examining the wreck presumed to be the Warren Sawyer

as to whether or not the wreckage is from the Warren Sawyer, it was a bit like pulling a thread on a sweater. The more interesting information I looked at, the more I found.” And while he found nothing to suggest that it wasn’t the Warren Sawyer, he found nothing to confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was.

Despite this frustration, the conundrum prodded Schwanfelder to revive his podcast, Time and Tide Nantucket, and devote his first episode to the enigmatic shipwreck. “I’d been trying to reboot the podcast, and then this came out of the ether and landed on our plate,” he says. Fast forward to February 9, right after a heavy storm and just as Schwanfelder was putting together the next episode. A section of the stern showed up on the beach, roughly 1,000 feet west of where the bow remnants had, by then, receded back into the sand. When Schwanfelder contacted Robinson, the latter’s first question was “Is there copper?” The insurance records in Mystic Seaport Museum indicated that the Warren Sawyer had copper fastenings.

“On the photos I sent him, Dave highlighted where to look,” Schwanfelder says, “and I went back at low tide. Looking at the exact spot Dave suggested, I could see a little black nail head, a piece of copper, which was really cool. We now had enough evidence to say that it’s the Warren Sawyer, although, if we could find pieces of the cargo or the bell, we’d be closer to 100 percent.”

“This is wonderful for Egan Maritime because it encompasses everything we do,” says Carlisle Jensen, the executive director. “The history, being able to use the site as an outdoor classroom. It plays into the Shipwreck and Lifesaving Museum and our maritime education program, Sea of Opportunities. It really marries the two sides of our mission.” She and Schwanfelder now plan to develop educational programs, including a “citizen science project” and guided walking tours.

As for the temptation to take a bit of the wreckage as a souvenir, a 1945 edition of The Inquirer and Mirror reported: “The wheel of the Warren Sawyer is now a very attractive chandelier at the Maddequet Admiralty Association’s Clubhouse at Madaket. Wallace Long has her quarterboard fastened to his barn on West Dover street.” However, all the experts

involved implore the public to resist the urge if they come upon a similar wreck. “It goes against the old, salty Nantucket habit of putting these things on your mantel,” Schwanfelder says. “I can’t police it, but we’re trying to get the message out.” As for what comes next? Jensen says simply, “We wait until the next time it’s exposed.”

While the team still can’t say with absolute certainty that what they found was the Warren Sawyer, one thing is undeniable: For everyone following the story, the discovery

added some excitement to the offseason, and it’s probably just as well that it happened when it did. After all, the stretch of sand behind the sewer beds is the island’s unofficial nude beach, and the investigators could have found themselves picking their way gingerly through a herd of naturists sunning themselves like seals in the altogether. That’s possibly the only thing that could have improved this classic Nantucket tale.

—

Carlisle Jensen, executive director of Egan Maritime

“This is wonderful for Egan Maritime because it encompasses everything we do.”

Michael Harrison of the Nantucket Historical Association with Graham McKay from the state Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources

Michael Harrison of the Nantucket Historical Association and Graham McKay from the state Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources (photo by Katie Kaizer).

RIG OVER TROUBLED

WATERS

WRITTEN BY GRETA FEENEY

Investigating the potential impacts of offshore wind development on Nantucket

Large-scale offshore wind development has been front and center in U.S. and global politics, yet on Nantucket—the locale that is essentially “ground zero” for the U.S. offshore wind energy “revolution”—there has been little recent public conversation since the high-profile failure of Cape Wind. Given the community’s propensity to have big opinions about even the smallest of issues—especially those involving historic preservation and conservation of the environment—this might seem surprising, especially in light of the enormous magnitude of the changes potentially facing those who live, work and stay here.

A recent publication by Mayflower Wind (now SouthCoast Wind)—the second offshore wind corporation to set its sights on federal lease waters adjacent to Nantucket Sound—features a new and more comprehensive set of simulated images created by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), images that reveal the full visual impact of the six offshore wind developments currently planned for Nantucket’s waters. Pristine views from undeveloped southern beaches and elevated preservation land such as Sanford Farm are clearly impacted by what appears to be a glittering city of white skyscrapers stretching for miles across the horizon.

Simulated nighttime views of the water reveal a panorama of hazy electric light emitted from structures, each of which approach the height of the Eiffel Tower. Further visual simulations created by the federal government—now available on YouTube—demonstrate what the proposed experimental aircraft detection lighting system technology looks like as a plane flies overhead. Slow bursts of red-orange light followed by asymmetrical bursts of white flashing lights above the horizon will be visible for miles.

Having so vociferously fought the Cape Wind project, how exactly did Nantucket get to a point where a project of this magnitude appears to have sailed through without being presented at an annual town meeting, and what is the price for the loss of a pristine viewshed? With respect to compensation, the Town of Nantucket agreed to $16 million in “mitigation money” from Vineyard Wind, which was documented in a so-called Good Neighbor

Agreement that binds local governance and preservation and conservation groups to a pro-wind agenda, leaving the community to fend for itself against the interests of the offshore wind industry and the federal government.

Environmental activist and member of Nantucket Residents Against Turbines Amy DiSibio thinks that the Good Neighbor Agreement does not adequately address the harm that Vineyard Wind I and other future offshore wind developments will likely have on the Nantucket community and the environment: “While we understand the construction of a very visible 1,600-square-mile power plant off our coast will jeopardize Nantucket’s status as one of the oldest and largest National Historic Landmarks, our organization is addressing the environmental risks of these projects and is specifically committed to defending the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale."

— Amy DiSibio, Nantucket Residents Against Turbines

“Our organization is addressing the environmental risks of these projects and is specifically committed to defending the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.”

A photographic simulation by Vineyard Wind showing the view of the wind farms from Madaket Beach under clear conditions. Image created by Saratoga Associates.

DiSibio also feels that Nantucket's protection under Section 110(f) of the National Historic Preservation Act, which mandates "federal agencies to require all possible planning to minimize harm to National Historic Landmarks" was not fully leveraged by the handful of individuals who, along with the Town's attorneys—Cultural Heritage Partners, LLC—conducted negotiations with little to no community engagement.

The potential environmental impacts of large-scale offshore wind development are largely unknown, and DiSibio and other environmental activists question how "green" the process of pile driving 1,080 structures, each equipped with a diesel engine, into the pristine waters of the North Atlantic Ocean can possibly be. In addition to its distinction as an impeccably preserved National Historic Landmark, Nantucket also plays an important role as a critical breeding and foraging habitat for the last remaining 340 North Atlantic right whales, and is an ecologically significant bird sanctuary.

There are those who also argue that wind energy poses significant hazards to birds and bats—conservative estimates place annual fatalities well into the millions— but some scientists claim that traditional energy sources are far worse. In 2009 (when there were significantly fewer onshore wind facilities in the U.S.) findings were published in the Energy Policy journal citing wind and nuclear power as responsible for between 0.3 and 0.4 bird and bat fatalities per gigawatt-hour (GWh) of electricity, while

fossil-fuel power stations were responsible for about 5.2 fatalities per GWh.

Then there are the whales. As warming waters force them away from

that climate-driven changes are causing increased habitat use by critically endangered North Atlantic right whales in Cape Cod Bay. With marine mammal

traditional breeding grounds in the Gulf of Maine and the tropics, their populations are increasingly reliant upon North Atlantic waters, in particular the sanctuary surrounding Nantucket, as a safe haven. In 2022 scientists from UMass Amherst published a study showing

populations caught between the Scylla and Charybdis of climate change and forced human interactions, an alarming spate of whale and dolphin deaths in New Jersey has recently caused a spike in opposition to offshore wind development.

Modeled trajectories of tagged Piping Plovers from breeding areas in Rhode Island and Massachusetts (image sourced from Research Gate)

Despite public outcry citing offshore wind survey activities as suspect in what the National Ocean and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) refers to in a May 2022 memorandum as “ongoing unusual mortality events”—the deaths of ten dolphins and twenty-nine whales, including more than a dozen humpbacks and one right whale, in a span of three months—the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has stated that it “is aware of no credible evidence that offshore wind-related survey activities could cause whale mortality.” This argument was detailed within the thousand pages of research done by the Cape Wind project, which argued that fishing nets and boat strikes are the primary contributor to sea mammal mortality. Ørsted, the Danish company conducting survey work and soil sampling of the ocean floor in New Jersey, claims to not have experienced any marine mammal strikes during offshore survey activity in the U.S., and that the company's testing processes do not involve “sounds or actions that will disturb whales or any ocean mammals.”

Still, in March a congressional hearing was held on East Coast offshore wind industrialization after findings indicated that BOEM ignored the warnings of its own scientists last year when approving initial plans for SouthCoast Wind. The

hearing echoed the concerns of a coalition of thirty New Jersey mayors, the National Congress of American Indians, Clean Ocean Action and Nantucket Residents Against Turbines— which is currently involved in a federal lawsuit against BOEM and other federal agencies. In the meantime, the Inflation Reduction Act’s energy investment tax credit now provides a 30 percent tax break for offshore wind projects that begin construction before January 1, 2026. U.S. Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey has pushed for more transparency from the federal government about the risks of offshore wind development. “A NOAA scientist sent out a warning almost a year ago sounding the alarms on the long-term impacts offshore wind could have on the

endangered North Atlantic right whale, yet there have been zero changes made to the development process."

The aforementioned memorandum —obtained about six months after it was written by a Freedom of Information Act request—was sent to BOEM by Sean Hayes, chief of the protected species branch at NOAA’s Fisheries. Hayes proposed an immediate conservation buffer zone of about ten nautical miles (or about twenty kilometers) around the Nantucket shoals, a prime breeding and foraging area for the North Atlantic right whale, as well as a host of other at-risk and protected marine species. The proposed buffer appears to overlap with an eastern portion of the Massachusetts-Rhode Island wind energy area, affecting at least four leases, including those held by Vineyard Wind (owned by Copenhagen Infrastructures Partners and Avangrid Renewables LLC), currently in the early stages of construction off Madaket, and SouthCoast Wind (backed by Shell New Energies and Ocean Winds North America), which has plans for construction still in the review process.

— New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

At the February 8 Nantucket Select Board meeting, which had threadbare public attendance, representatives of SouthCoast Wind presented the developer’s latest plans to install another 149 turbines in Nantucket Sound. In New Jersey, however, where dead whales and dolphins have

U.S. Representative Jeff Van Drew

“No credible evidence that offshore wind-related survey activities could cause whale mortality.”

— U.S. Representative Jeff Van Drew

“A NOAA scientist sent out a warning almost a year ago sounding the alarms on the long-term impacts offshore wind could have on the endangered North Atlantic right whale, yet there have been zero changes made to the development process.”

been regularly washing up on beaches relative to three new offshore development sites, more than four hundred concerned citizens packed the Wildwoods Convention Center at Wildwood Crest Beach and spilled out onto the boardwalk to hear testimony by a panel of scientific experts, environmental advocates and fishing industry representatives, as well as GOP lawmakers from three states, including Van Drew, who are calling for a moratorium on offshore wind projects.

“If offshore wind industrialization moves forward, it will be the most profound transformation of the Atlantic coast in the history of the United States of America,” Van Drew said in his opening statement. “Developers want to build thousands of Eiffel Tower-sized turbines that will line our horizons for decades. Despite the gravity of this undertaking, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has engaged in a rushed and sloppy project and a sloppy approval process.”

blades on the towers, which could actually elevate ocean water temperature. Findings from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences based on current U.S. wind energy installations showed that, by removing kinetic (wind) energy from the atmosphere, aggregate planned onshore and offshore wind facilities will likely have the cumulative effect of actually warming temperatures.The data, extrapolated, suggests that “it would take more than a century before wind’s warming impacts are offset by the climate benefits of reduced emissions.”

The case for and against the wind farms is hardly black and white. Both sides make compelling datadriven arguments as to the merits of their position and it is often difficult to sort out fact from hyperbole. But no matter on which side of the wind farm argument one sits, the question remains as to whether the solution to our clean energy

Nantucket may be ground zero for offshore wind industrialization, but the community seems to be oddly silent on an issue far more impactful than nude beaches and downtown restaurant signage. Once the 1,080 structures are erected, there will be no turning back, and while designed to produce clean energy, they could have myriad unintended consequences for the island. A recent Harvard study, for example, has raised the question as to whether the impact of cooling winds could be diminished by the massive

dilemma carries with it costs that exceed the benefit. Many argue that we have no choice but to capitalize on every clean energy option and that Nantucket Sound is an ideal location. However, in the case of the 340 remaining right whales, if the wind farm developers are wrong, the consequences will be permanent. If indeed the wind farm is built and the concerns of the activists prove correct, we will have a great deal of time to look back at what was allowed to happen.

—

U.S. Representative Jeff Van Drew

“Developers want to build thousands of Eiffel Tower-sized turbines that will line our horizons for decades.”

Image above does not depict the size and scale of proposed turbines by Vineyard Wind or SouthCoast Wind

TRIP TO THE DOCTOR

WRITTEN BY ROBERT COCUZZO

Will psychedelics help Nantucket’s mental health crisis?

In the fight against mental illness, many believe that psychedelics offer the most promising new forms of treatment. Once rejected as dangerous drugs, psychedelic compounds such as psilocybin (commonly known as “magic mushrooms”), MDMA (commonly known as “ecstasy”) and LSD (commonly known as “acid”) have been shown to have miraculous outcomes in treating severe clinical depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders and other forms of drug-resistant mental illness. So much so that the decriminalization of these substances is opening the door to entirely new therapy practices and practitioners around the country. With the island community continuing to struggle with mental illness, when will these treatments be available on Nantucket? Or are they already here?

“I have seen discussions about these drugs, but I think it would be premature to recommend them until more research is done,” indicated Dr. Timothy Lepore, Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s medical director and chief

of surgery who also runs a suboxone clinic treating addiction on the island.

“Medical aphorism: Don’t be the first or last to use a medication.” However, Lepore is open-minded about the potential of unconventional treatments. “I

who helped pioneer the research that expedited FDA approval. “With most medications, like Valium, the anti-anxiety effect you get only lasts when it is in your system. When the Valium goes away, you can get rebound anxiety. When you take ketamine, it triggers reactions in your cortex that enable brain connections to regrow. It’s the reaction to ketamine, not the presence of ketamine in the body that constitutes its effects.”

While the FDA has paved the way for ketamine clinics to pop up throughout the country where doctors can legally administer the drug to patients, those seeking treatments by way of illegal substances such as psilocybin have had to seek out “underground guides.” With their cultivation stemming back to shamans in Mexico, magic mush-

have tried low-dose ketamine in a few patients, nasal dose,” he added. “There is evidence it works for depression.”

Originally developed in the 1960s as anesthesia for animals, ketamine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in March 2019 in the form a nasal spray to treat drug-resistant depression and suicidality.

“This is a gamechanger,” said Dr. John Krystal of Yale School of Medicine

rooms were first popularized in the United States by Life magazine after a banker turned amateur mycologist named R. Gordon Wasson became one of the first Westerners to participate in a mushroom ritual in Oaxaca, Mexico, in 1955. Wasson wrote about his experience in an eight-page photo essay titled “Seeking the Magic Mushroom” that was read by millions of Americans. A version of this tradition of shamans or guides that Wasson encountered in

— Dr. Timothy Lepore

“I have seen discussions about these drugs, but I think it would be premature to recommend them until more research is done.”

Dr. Timothy Lepore

Psilocybin, often called "magic mushrooms" have been identified as promising treatments to mental illness.

Mexico has quietly flourished in the United States with a network of practitioners treating patients with some of the same ancient rituals.

One man in his late thirties, who asked to remain anonymous, described his experience of a therapeutic psilocybin journey administered by an underground guide off island. “I had been battling bouts of depression since the age of eighteen,” he said. “I’d been seeing therapists for years and had been taking two different antidepressants as the result of a major clinical depression.” After becoming frustrated with the lack of reprieve and progress he found with the antidepressants, the man was put in touch with an underground guide by friends. Following a series of onboarding sessions in which he and the guide discussed his intentions for the journey, the man spent a day consuming higher and higher doses of psilocybin administered in the form of a tea from the guide.

“There were some very hard and intense moments during the journey,” he reflected. “But I was ultimately able to experience a new perspective—not just see it, but feel it— and something deep shifted within me.” Following the day-long session, he returned to the guide to discuss how to integrate the takeaways from his journey thereafter. Today, the man reports being completely off of all antidepressants with no symptoms of depression. “It was nothing short of life-changing.”

In recent years, at least one shaman has come to Nantucket to preside over underground group ceremo-

nies held in a private residence where ayahuasca and peyote were administered over the course of two nights. Speaking under the condition of anonymity, a participant of one of these private ceremonies described a rigorous pre-interview with the shaman during which she voiced her intentions for the psychedelic journey. She arrived on the first night of the ceremony wearing all white, as each participant was instructed to do, and encountered many familiar faces from around the community. After a series of rituals, the participants consumed ayahuasca tea and then were shown to a mat where they would lie down for that night’s inner voyage. The following morning, they consumed peyote followed by another nighttime session with ayahuasca.

Reflecting on the impact of each session, the participant spoke glowingly of the transformation and healing she experienced. Her deep, long-held psychological pain was released and she found lasting inner peace. Although she considers the experience overwhelmingly positive, the participant was troubled by some aspects of the ceremony in retrospect, specifically the number of people who ultimately became involved. What she had originally thought was only going to be seven participants turned into around twenty by the second night. Her concern was that there were too many people in the throes of an intense psychedelic trip for one shaman and an assistant to care for at once.

In his widely viewed Netflix documentary Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics, Nantucket-native Donick Cary featured dozens of famous actors, musicians, comedians and other public figures discussing their experiences with psychedelics. Cary is now in the process of producing a sequel to the film that hones in on the therapeutic advances being made with these compounds.

“Part of what we lost over the last fifty years by having psychedelics so stigmatized and becoming part of the war on drugs and becoming something that we were so scared of that we equated it with crack cocaine—we lost fifty years of really looking at how this can help with the mental health crisis we’re in,” he said. “So there’s a lot of stuff we don’t know, which we’re at a moment where there’s a whole bunch of possibilities where we can learn

about that, discover that and explore that. But there is stuff that we do know that’s all really positive.”

Cary said that we should stop looking at psychedelics as drugs, but rather as medicines. As these psychedelics continue along the path of decriminalization and become more mainstream, he also advocates a highly careful integration. “My biggest fear is that we as humanity get it wrong, where we say ‘get this stuff out there,’ and we set ourselves up to have horror stories where people who shouldn’t be touching this stuff are taking too much of it and making huge mistakes,” he said. “And these stories scare everyone in Congress, and the war on drugs comes back.”

“It was nothing short of life-changing.”

Psilocybin is often administered in the form of a tea.

— anonymous participant of a psilocybin journey

Massachusetts is uniquely positioned to the advent of these therapies. This past January, lawmakers filed two bills to decriminalize psychedelics like psilocybin, mescaline and MDMA statewide on the basis of their dramatic therapeutic potential. The bills, now before the state Senate, come after Somerville became the first community in Massachusetts to decriminalize entheogenic plants possessed by adults. This legislation is bolstered by the fact that one of the global leaders in psychedelic advocacy and education, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies,

commonly referred to as MAPS, has a heavy presence in Boston. In March 2021, Massachusetts General Hospital followed the lead of Johns Hopkins, New York University and UCLA, which have been studying the impact of psychedelics in end-oflife care for years, when it launched the Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics to study “how psychedelics enhance the brain’s capacity for change, to optimize current treatments and create new treatments for mental illness, and to make the term ‘treatment resistant’ obsolete.”

With all this happening, how is Nantucket preparing for the possibility of these treatments? “At Fairwinds, we are attending very closely to developments in this area but do

not anticipate implementing these programs in the near future until data on safety and long-term effects are developed,” said David Barlow, Ph.D, ABPP, a board director and Clinical Committee chair at Fairwinds, Nantucket’s Counseling Center. “In the meantime, unfortunately, these drugs have been in use illegally for years often with tragic consequences, including psychotic breaks and deaths, particularly for those with existing mental disorders.”

That is not to say that Barlow and his contemporaries at Fairwinds do not acknowledge the tremendous potential of these treatments, citing that “ketamine and psilocybin and sometimes LSD are beginning to show some promise, particularly for treatment-resistant depression [deep depression that

Patients are encouraged to wear eyeshades and earphones while embarking on their psychedelic journeys.

has not responded to an adequate course of antidepressant medications or cognitive behavioral therapy] as well as PTSD.” But as Dr. Dominic Maxwell, the medical director of Fairwinds, put it, “These treatments remain the subject of intensive ongoing research, and while we are hopeful that they may one day be added to our collection of tools to tackle various psychiatric conditions, for the time being we simply do not have the necessary evidence or data to advocate for their use.”

Among mental health professionals, there remains significant trepidation around even addressing these unconventional treatments. When asked for its position on the potential use of psychedelics, Gosnold, a national mental health organization treating patients on Nantucket, declined to comment, but instead shared a link to studies being done at Massachusetts General Hospital. For some practitioners, this reluctance

as a therapist, Taus began integrating psychedelics into her practice four years ago and saw dramatic results. “I’ve seen people go from suicidal despair to thrive,” she said.

“There’s no doubt that this is the future of mental health care if we are going to make progress. We have made so much progress in so many other verticals in medicine, but within the realms of mental health, we

to address these compounds is frustrating. “We’re really in pretty dire times and we need solutions that work,” said Lauren Taus, a psychotherapist based on the West Coast.

“These medicines both scientifically and spiritually work to get people results that they might never get in a lifetime of pursuing help.” Taus, who treats patients with ketamine, has witnessed this firsthand. After nine years of treating patients

haven’t. And we’re not OK. We’re just collectively not OK. These are not panaceas; this is not all of a sudden cure anyone. But these interventions, when worked with well, are some of the most effective interventions for some of the most difficult pathological processes known to humans.”

— Donick Cary

“Part of what we lost over the last fifty years by having psychedelics so stigmatized...[was] fifty years of really looking at how this can help with the mental health crisis we’re in.”

Donick Cary

Lauren Taus

Thanks to our generous donors, most events are free and open to the public.

Donick Cary

Holly Finigan

Jennifer Finney Boylan

Julie Gerstenblatt Jessie Greengrass

Hernan Diaz Wyn Cooper

Stacy Schiff Sally Bedell Smith

Ilyon Woo Emma Straub Danielle Trussoni Jenny Slate

Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Samantha Hunt

Tracy Kidder Imani Perry Jodi Picoult Kirk Wallace Johnson

Luke Russert

LEADING

LADIES

WRITTEN BY ROBERT COCUZZO PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT NOBLE

Meet the next generation of female leaders on Nantucket

Female leadership is sewn deep into the fabric of Nantucket, perhaps more than in any other community in Massachusetts. There is no shortage of historical examples of women taking the lead on the island, whether in business with Petticoat Row, astronomy with Maria Mitchell, social justice with the early abolitionists and suffragists, or countless other lesser-known women who took up the work of running Nantucket while the majority of men were off whaling.

That legacy of strong female leadership continues to this day and can be seen in every dimension of the island, from town government to business to education to health care. In recent years, this trend has become particularly evident in a cadre of women who are now serving as executive directors of some of the community’s most important institutions. Here is a selection of those individuals who are helping to define the next generation of female leadership on the island.

COURTNEY BRIDGES

The landscape of female leadership is strong on the island,” says Courtney Bridges, the executive director of the Artists Association of Nantucket. “You see that some of the more feminine qualities of leadership keep everybody together. You have your trailblazers, like your Sheryl Sandbergs, who sing the song of ‘you can be a great leader if you act with more of a masculine leadership style.’ But I think, here on island, you can embrace the feminine leadership style— you can be empathetic, you can be collaborative—and those traits are rewarded here.”

Courtney has checked a lot of boxes during her many years on Nantucket: teacher, co-owner of two small businesses and executive director of two nonprofits. Prior to her current post at the Artists Association, which she has held since 2018, Courtney spent five years as a teacher at the Nantucket Lighthouse School followed by four years leading the Small

Friends Early Learning Center as its executive director. While working those full-time day jobs, she and her husband, Jason, also owned and operated Nantucket Bike Tours as well as Handlebar Café, which they sold three years ago to Ring founder Jamie Siminoff.

Along with championing the Artists Association’s seventy-five-year mission of fostering the visual arts on Nantucket, Courtney

is a full-time mom to daughter Eloise with another child about to be born at press time. “Instead of small businesses, I now have small children,” she says. “To me it’s about integrating your family life with your work life…As long as you’re willing to have a barnacle baby and not an anchor, then I think you will be successful.”

“But I think, here on island, you can embrace the feminine leadership style—you can be empathetic, you can be collaborative—and those traits are rewarded here.”

At just twenty-eight years old, Carlisle Jensen became one of the youngest nonprofit executive directors when she took the lead at Egan Maritime Institute last summer. “But you could say that I’ve been working in the nonprofit sector for twenty-five years,” she says. The daughter of Cecil Jensen who, prior to her current position as executive director of ReMain, held similar leadership roles at the National Historical Association, Nantucket New School and Artists Association, Carlisle grew up immersed in the nonprofit world, spending her after-school time stuffing envelopes and observing her mom in action.

“From day one, I thought I learned more after school than I did during it,” she says. “We were given this opportunity to watch our mother become an incredible leader and how she managed staff and balanced everything…I loved it.”

Indeed, representing the next generation of female leaders on the island, Carlisle firmly believes she’s standing on the shoulders of those women who mentored her. In addition to learning from her mother, Carlisle became an intern under Melissa Murphy during Murphy’s tenure as executive director of the Dreamland. Then, after college, it was off to her most recent post working alongside Margaretta Andrews and Jeanne Miller at the Community Foundation for Nantucket. When Carlisle was selected for the executive director role at Egan, Pauline Proch and Jean Grimmer helped her get up to speed.

“As someone so young coming into this position, there’s a lot of opportunities to fail,” Carlisle admits, “and I think that I have succeeded because I know that I have fellow females I can call whenever something comes up and they help me through the problem.” She adds, “Nantucket is a great model for how the world should be run. If you look at history and you think of Petticoat Row, we’ve always had really strong, smart female leaders keeping this island going. I think it’s been like that since day one, and I think it continues to be like that.”

“If you look at history, we’ve always had really strong, smart female leaders keeping this island going. I think it’s been like that since day one, and I think it continues to be like that.”

CARLISLE JENSEN

When Alicia Graziadei attended Nantucket Public Schools growing up, the majority of the principals and vice principals were men. Today, the leadership of Nantucket’s public education is predominantly female, beginning with superintendent Elizabeth Hallett and extending to most of the principals and all of the vice principals. Today, as the director of the Nantucket Community School, Alicia is part of this emerging contingent of female leaders in education.

mothers one of her focuses. Not only is she striving to expand access to after-school programs and child care available through Nantucket Community School, but she’s also reimagining positions in her organization to be more conducive to working mothers. “I’m working to make my leadership roles more appealing to working mothers so that they can have time to work from home and overcome that child care piece that gets in the way of taking these roles.”

“It’s pretty amazing coming to the table with all these strong women,” says Alicia, who, after spending eleven years at Nantucket New School in various roles from teacher to Dean of Studies, was made the director of Nantucket Community School last July. “It’s a powerful time to be a female leader in this community. I go into these meetings with all these women and we’re collaborating, working together, and I just feel like we’re getting so much done right now.”

As director of Nantucket Community School, an extension of Nantucket Public Schools that provides a wide array of programming from early childhood education to youth classes and camps to adult education to even driver’s ed, Alicia has made supporting working

In looking toward the up-and-coming generation of female leaders, Alicia says that the pressures on young women today are much different than what she encountered growing up. “Social media is a new hurdle,” she explains. “[Young women] have such a wider platform of people giving them feedback on all aspects of who they are—whether it’s physical appearance or personality—that I think it’s harder for them to be confident in who they are without outside feedback.” Alicia says that parents modeling healthy technology use is one way to counteract the insidiousness of social media. By parents putting their own boundaries around social media and technology, their children are more likely to embrace similar behaviors.

Fortunately, this next generation of young women have people like Alicia to look up to in the senior ranks of public education, which wasn’t exactly the case when she was growing up. “I now feel like I am part of this new elite club of woman,” she says. “I don’t feel isolated because there are so many people in roles like mine that I would feel comfortable picking up the phone and asking a question.”

“It’s a powerful time to be a female leader in this community...I just feel like we’re getting so much done right now.”

ALICIA GRAZIADEI

JOANNA ROCHE

Idon’t think it’s an accident that we have this emergence of strong leadership that is female,” says Joanna Roche, who was made the executive director of the Maria Mitchell Association two summers ago. “This island, this Gray Lady, has birthed these women who have had many opportunities here to lead and to learn and to work in a way that I think is different than in [mainland] America.”

Appropriately, Joanna points to the namesake of her organization, the early nineteenth-century astronomer Maria Mitchell, as one of the matriarchs of this female-empowered culture that continues to flourish on the island today.

“Maria Mitchell was a changemaker,” she says. “She existed in the Nantucket of that era because Nantucket was this incredibly special place where women had rights that they didn’t have in other communities.”

Evidence of this, Joanna says, could be seen in the fact that Nantucket became the first place where women had the power of attorney. The island was also the first place that allowed for what was known as the Boston Marriage, legally enabling two women to marry and combine households so that they could support one another while their husbands were at sea. “It wasn’t about sexuality; it was about legality,” Joanna says. “So a lot of the change that we see happening in our society

today is the same kind of change that was happening back then.”

Prior to assuming her post at Maria Mitchell, Joanna held several positions in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, on island and off. Before moving to Nantucket, she was executive vice president and chief strategist for a major marketing firm in Manhattan. Here on Nantucket, she’s done everything

from serving as a director at the Westmoor Club to hosting a radio program on ACK-FM to most recently running a global nonprofit fusing wellness and sustainability.

“I really feel like it’s my responsibility to make sure that other young woman believe they can do some of the things that I have done, particularly around volunteering for the town,” says Joanna, a mother of two high school students who serves on both the Town’s Finance Committee and the newly formed Coastal Resiliency Advisory Committee.

“One of the obstacles that I have heard people say is that it’s going to take time away from my family, but I really feel that women who volunteer are actually setting an example to their family.”

“I really feel like it’s my responsibility to make sure that other young woman believe they can do some of the things that I have done...”

Some people were surprised when Kaley Kokomoor threw her hat into the ring for the executive director position of the Nantucket Book Festival last year. “Because I had been a little bit of a wallflower,” Kaley admits. “I like to think I am a listener first. I try not to be quick to jump in. Instead, I like to take in the information, understand the people and the different issues and topics I am dealing with, synthesize a bit, and then come back with thoughtful dialogue, questions and leadership.”

The Nantucket Book Foundation board agreed with Kaley’s approach and officially made her the successor to another strong female leader, Maddie Hjulstrom, who had been executive director for the better part of a decade before retiring in 2022.

Relatively new to the island, having moved to Nantucket in 2017 after teaching elementary school in Connecticut as well as on a small island off the coast of Maine, Kaley began working at Small Friends before taking a position at the Atheneum where she went from the development office to becoming the library’s communications and outreach coordinator. She made the move over to the Book Festival part time on the eve of the pandemic and helped facilitate that year’s successful all-virtual events.

Now leading the Book Festival, what has become one of the country’s most popular literary gatherings, Kaley is committed

to strengthening the mission established by its female-led team, most notably its co-founders Mary Haft and Wendy Hudson as well as its literary committee chair Tharon Dunn. “We celebrate the transformative power of words to inspire, illuminate, educate and connect us,” Kaley says of the Book Festival’s mission statement. Part of that, she indicates, is creating programming that can nurture the next generation of leaders. For instance, this year’s festival will showcase an all-female panel of feminists discussing the impact of climate change.

Above all, Kaley champions the life-changing power of the written word. “We live one life. We walk our path and we meet the people that we meet on that path. We all get this one life and the experiences that we have,” she muses. “Whereas, when you read a book, you’re opening your mind and your entire philosophy to being shaped by other people’s stories and other people’s experiences. I think that’s important for everyone, but especially for women who can often feel hemmed in and not see all the opportunities available to them.”

“I think that’s important for everyone, but especially for women who can often feel hemmed in and not see all the opportunities available to them.”

KALEY KOKOMOOR

SHANTAW

BLOISEMURPHY

When Shantaw BloiseMurphy assumed the role of director of Culture and Tourism for the Town of Nantucket last year, she was already a familiar face to many on the island. A graduate of Nantucket High School, Shantaw had been heavily involved in the community for years, most recently serving as business manager and interim CEO of the Chamber of Commerce. But, as she says, there’s much to her story that most are not aware of.

“A lot of people don’t realize where I come from,” the thirty-two-year-old says. “They realize I’m from Jamaica, but I’m from one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods where I experienced a lot of violence and poverty. My move to Nantucket was not a traditional move at all. I went from being homeless on the streets of Montego Bay with my mom to being a homeowner on Nantucket…I literally climbed out of the trenches to be here.” With her fortitude forged by hardship, Shantaw has emerged as an exemplar to other woman, particularly young Black women on the island. She draws inspiration from historic island icons like Florence Higginbotham. “I am a Black woman on Nantucket; needless to

say, our climb to leadership is a little different than that of my white female friends,” she says. “Having someone to look to like Florence has constantly reminded me that I am allowed to dream. The things that I want for my life and my family are absolutely attainable on Nantucket, no matter how difficult it might seem at times.”

Florence Higginbotham aside, there is one woman who is always front and center in Shantaw’s mind. “I think about my mom who was a single, teenage mother who found herself homeless and who dug herself out of that to go on to get certifications and better jobs so that she could work morning, noon and night to send me to the best schools in Jamaica and afford me opportunities to come to America to study and find my way to Nantucket,” she says. “I do everything thinking that I just want to make my mom proud. I know all the sacrifices she’s made to get me where I am, and I love calling her and telling her what I’m about to do next.”

“My move to Nantucket was not a traditional move at all… I literally climbed out of the trenches to be here.”

e’ve had female leadership on the island for two hundred years, that’s nothing new,” laughs Mary Bergman. “But I agree that we are having a defining moment right now.” As the executive director of the Nantucket Preservation Trust, Mary is in the business of, as she describes, “taking the best of the past into the future.”

While her focus may be on the archi-

their contemporaries on the mainland, whether that was in commerce, education or real estate. “One thing I see in my work is women owning property in the 1800s without their husband’s name on the deed,” she says. “You have to remember that in the United States, women could not get a credit card without a cosigner until 1974.”

tectural identity of the island at the Trust, she is also one of the stewards of the island’s history and has unique insights, particularly around the topic of female leadership.

Citing the research of Jascin Leonardo Finger who wrote The Daring Daughters of Nantucket Island, Mary points to the fact that during the height of the whaling era women outnumbered men four to one, which effectively changed their roles from

While celebrating her fellow female leaders on the island, Mary also highlights the men who helped propel her and others forward. In her case, the late Gene Mahon served as her chief champion, guiding her to new positions. “I wouldn’t have this job if it wasn’t for Gene.” She continues, “Men who make space for women and who want to lift up women’s voices are important. Yes, it’s great that women are in power on Nantucket, but we are half of the population and we’re not half of the leaders. Men who are in leadership positions who are willing to amplify women’s voices are really important and help break down the old boy’s clubs.”

“We’ve had female leadership on the island for two hundred years, that’s nothing new... But I agree that we are having a defining moment right now.”

MARY BERGMAN

ALICIA CARNEY

Alicia Carney had big shoes to fill when she took over for Joe Hale as executive director of the Dreamland two years ago. “It’s an interesting position as a woman to take over for somebody who is a seasoned executive, especially as this was my first executive role leading a multimillion-dollar nonprofit,” she reflects. “That was really intimidating at first as a young female executive. Knowing that the bar is set really high and knowing that the work we do at the Dreamland impacts everyone in this community…I was not about to let that ball drop with me.”

Not only did Alicia seamlessly take the helm, but she started steering the ship on a new course, first by shifting and redesigning each position at the Dreamland to play to the strengths of her small but mighty team, and then recruiting for additional talent. She also set out to nurture an open culture where her leadership could create other leaders. And she did it in her own unique style.

“One of the biggest challenges women face in leadership is being afraid to show vulnerability, but also knowing that that’s your greatest strength,” she says. “When we lean into that as women, we tend to encourage people to let their guard down enough to be seen and

to lean into their own strengths and leadership style.”

Her approach proved the difference last summer when Alicia gave birth to her first child in the midst of the most demanding time of the year.

“My team didn’t miss a beat,” Alicia says. “We had the busiest season the Dreamland has ever had and they executed the most incredible and engaging and amazing summer that we ever had as an organization.”

Alicia takes a dedicated approach to her professional development, reading volumes of books, taking courses and seminars, and collaborating with her fellow nonprofit leaders. “I’m always challenging myself to level up,” she says. “Especially as a young female executive—I’m in my mid-thirties—you can never be complacent, because if you’re stagnant, your team is…The Dreamland can’t afford to have somebody who is asleep at the wheel.” It’s safe to say, Alicia Carney is wide awake.

“One of the biggest challenges women face in leadership is being afraid to show vulnerability, but also knowing that that’s your greatest strength.”

BACK

HELM

Niles Parker returns as the Nantucket Historical Association’s executive director

After leaving his post as executive director of the Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) in 2006, having served there for seven and a half years, Niles Parker shipped off to Maine where he broadened his museum experience, beginning at the Penobscot Marine Museum. He spent five years as head of the museum before becoming the director of the Maine Discovery Museum in downtown Bangor. Recognizing that the state of Maine did not have a designated science museum, Parker embarked on expanding the offerings of the Discovery Museum, which was originally designed specifically for children, to be a more all-encompassing science museum. Last year, when Parker learned that the executive director position was open at the NHA, the call of the island was too much for him to resist and he now sits in the captain’s chair.

INTERVIEW BY BRUCE A. PERCELAY PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT NOBLE

You have been away for a number of years. Generally speaking, what do you think has changed on Nantucket?

It’s plain to see the growth that’s happened on the island, both in terms of the physical building as well as the number of people out here going through the winter. I’m amazed at how busy it still seemed out here. It slowed down from early August maybe, but it was still fairly busy. And I’d say the demographics. It feels a little bit like a different island than when I was here seventeen or eighteen years ago.

gallery space in which to do that.”

Let’s talk about the NHA and the Whaling Museum itself. How do you feel the building and the institution have weathered since you left, and what is the biggest change that you’ve noticed upon your return?

The building’s held up really, really well. I think the design of that expansion has provided a lot of opportunity and ability to think about the storytelling that the NHA has been able to do. I think the whale skeleton and that display in Gosnell Hall has really held up well. I’m still as stunned by it every time I turn the corner and see it staring me in the face as I was eighteen years ago. But the collections have grown over the years and there are stories that we haven’t really told.

How do we tell those stories? What are those stories? How do we engage diversity of communities to tell those stories? To do that, I do think we’re going to need to expand the ways in which we tell stories and probably find additional gallery space in which to do that.

Culturally, a lot has changed in the national dialogue and there has been much more discussion about the impact of culture on minorities and minorities on our culture. The whaling industry relied on the use of labor that was definitely stratified. How much of your future messaging is going to get into the parts of the whaling business that were not quite as glossy as they may have appeared?

We certainly intend to tell more of that story, the reality of the whaling stories and what that has meant and how perceptions of that have changed over time. But I think more than that, where we’re going is that Nantucket history is much more than whaling. And while I think there are some important components that were true in whaling and are probably true on Nantucket today, in terms of stratification and thinking about the economics of the island if you will, we want to do more storytelling than just whaling. We really want to branch out and talk about Nantucket in the twentieth century and how it evolved well into the twenty-first century. There are so many stories to tell. I think if we can get across to people that Nantucket history didn’t stop in 1845, but it’s being rewritten every day and figure out how we play a part in telling those stories, then I’ll be really happy.

One of the biggest issues facing the island is climate change. Do you see the museum tackling that subject, particularly since it is a low-lying building?

Absolutely. It’s a huge issue for us. It’s going to be front and center in our new strategic plan that we’re working on right now. We hosted with the National Park Service a symposium in December at the Whaling Museum that is looking at how organizations and people with historic buildings can begin to wrap their arms around this issue and what ways we can protect the historic fabric. We need to be ready to deal with it on an increasing

need to be ready to make sure that we can preserve not only the artifacts within the museum but the building itself, the historic fabric of the building itself.”

basis. We need to be ready to make sure that we can preserve not only the artifacts within the museum but the building itself, the historic fabric of the building itself, and think about what that means for our operations, for our business model, if the iconic flagship is threatened increasingly from rising sea waters.

“I do think we’re going to need to expand the ways in which we tell stories and probably find additional

— Niles Parker

“We

— Niles Parker

What does that effort look like more specifically?

The relationship that we formed with the symposium has led to an interesting partnership with the University of Pennsylvania and the ICCROM, which is the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property based in Rome, looking at the conservation for historic materials. We’re having an intern beginning this summer on the island looking at all of our historic properties as well as some additional historic properties on the island, to do a rapid assessment survey and then do a historic structure report through the lens of what increasing humidity, increasing temperatures and rising sea levels will mean for all of these buildings. That will then position us, we hope, over the next three to five years to develop a plan to implement whatever changes we can to best protect those properties. It’s going to be central to everything we’re doing over the next few years.

Technology has had a huge impact on the mindset of children. How do you create an experience that is as equally exciting to kids as the lure of the tablet or iPhone in the eyes of a young person?

Museums everywhere are exploring this issue and have been for a while. How do we engage digitally with people in exciting ways? How do we share our collections and our research? One way is expanding our online programming, online resources. But also, are there ways in which we can get people to explore some of the cooler, newer versions of technology like augmented reality to be able to dive deeper in a way that lets them get to know the island better and have fun doing it? I think there are a lot of opportunities there that can utilize our collection, utilize the properties, utilize different places on Nantucket in a fun way. And I’m really excited about what some of those options might be.

Obviously, the Whaling Museum centers around whales and whaling. There is a controversial project being planned right now, the Vineyard Wind development, that a number of people think could have a negative impact on the right whale. Does the museum have thoughts or a position on this type of offshore wind project?

We don’t have a position. It’s something that I’ve been trying to get up to speed with myself and learn more about it. It’s an interesting situation. Speaking for myself, clearly the idea of wind energy is a really important one for our economy and for our efforts for protecting the environment and sustainability going forward. But I do think we have to be mindful of the potential impact on the fisheries, on whales. We just had those whales going through the canal the other day. It’s a complicated issue, but the NHA is not taking a position on it.

What mark do you want to leave on the NHA when you finally hang up your executive director shoes?

The issue of the rising sea level and its impact on our historic buildings is critically important. If we can develop this model, build a template and make meaningful strides toward protecting those buildings and the historic fabric and the collections, that’s going to pay off in the long term. We’re also starting to grapple with the issues like housing

“The issue of the rising sea level and its impact on our historic buildings is critically important. If we can develop this model, build a template and make meaningful strides toward protecting those buildings and the historic fabric and the collections, that’s going to pay off in the long term.”

for employees. How do we build our staff? How do we support our staff on a year-round basis out here? And then finally, how do we tell a diversity of stories in an interesting way so that we get across the idea that Nantucket history didn’t end in 1845—it’s being rewritten every day? If we can find ways to engage the public, our communities, with that idea and have them increasingly excited about joining that effort, I’d be thrilled. I’d be really excited about what that means, not only for the NHA but for the island.

Renderings of sea level rise created by Resilient Nantucket

— Niles Parker

SEASON SPRING

PHOTOGRAPHER: BRIAN SAGER

STYLING: LEXY KAROLYI

PHOTO ASSISTANT: KRISTEN SWAIN

HAIR STYLING: MELISSA PIGUE

MAKEUP: JURGITA BUDAITE OF NANTUCKET ISLAND GLOW

MODELING: CHARLOTTE NAGLE OF MAGGIE INC.

LOCATION: SURFING HYDRANGEA NURSERY

DRESS: MILLY & GRACE

JEWELRY: ICARUS & CO.

BRACELET: (shown left)

CURRENT VINTAGE

PURSE: CURRENT VINTAGE

HAT: MURRAY'S TOGGERY SHOP

PLAID DRESS AND GOLD BRACELET: CURRENT VINTAGE

PURSE: WHEAT

EARRINGS: THE VAULT

NECKLACE: HEIDI WEDDENDORF

RINGS: ICARUS & CO.

JUMPSUIT, JEWELRY AND CLUTCH: CURRENT VINTAGE

BLOUSE: 120% LINO

SHORTS: CURRENT VINTAGE

NECKLACE, EARRINGS, BRACELET AND RING: (shown right) SEAMAN SCHEPPS

RING: (shown left) ICARUS & CO.

PONY TAIL HOLDER: MILLY & GRACE

PURSE: MURRAY'S TOGGERY SHOP

SUNGLASSES: ACK EYE

DRESS: REMY

JEWELRY: SEAMAN SCHEPPS

PURSE: CURRENT VINTAGE

DRESS: CURRENT VINTAGE

JEWELRY: THE VAULT

SWEATER AND PURSE: MURRAY'S TOGGERY SHOP

DRESS: REMY

JEWELRY: THE VAULT

PURSE: CURRENT VINTAGE

DRESS AND BELT: MILLY & GRACE

NECKLACE, EARRINGS, RING: SUSAN LISTER LOCKE

BRACELETS: REMY

BAG: MURRAY'S TOGGERY SHOP

DRESS: WHEAT

JEWELRY: SUSAN LISTER LOCKE

Look who is quoting the Current.

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Legacy

nantucket by design

August 2–5, 2023

As the Nantucket Historical Association’s summer fundraiser, Nantucket by Design celebrates design with engaging keynote speakers, unique discussions, a partnership with The Nantucket Summer Antiques Show, a design panel, and more!

2023 Design Luminaries

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A Snapshot in Time

FOGGY SHEET

N Magazine's digital news source Nantucket Current covered all the Whaler sports this fall and winter. There was plenty of history made. It began in the fall with the girls volleyball team, which was led by senior captain Kalina Natcheva, junior Chloe Marrero and sophomore Vicky Todorova, making it to their first state quarterfinal in program history. The boys hockey team was the main event in the winter, led by senior captain and winger Jack Billings, junior goalie Griffin Starr and junior center Ryan Davis, as they rode a magical and improbable season all the way to their first state semifinal in program history. The Current's Sports Editor David Creed, along with Current contributing photographer Chris Tran, documented it all through words, video and photography.

WHALERS SPORTS

Photography by David Creed

FOGGY SHEET

The seventh annual Hometown Hoedown event benefiting Small Friends on Nantucket took place at the Chicken Box earlier this spring. The night consisted of auctions, raffles, a food truck and live music performances by Sean Lee and Buckle & Shake. Nantucket Current contributing photographer Charity Grace Mofsen was at the event and captured the highlights throughout the course of the night.

HOMETOWN HOEDOWN

Photography by Charity Grace Mofsen

featured wedding

Bride: Delphine Garneau • Groom: Timothy Morrill • Venue: Galley Beach

Wedding Planner: Maureen Maher - Nantucket Island Events • Photographer: Katie Kaizer

Photography

• Videographer: Yellow Productions

• Cake: 45 Surfside • Florist: Tori Samuel & Marybeth Ferro Design • Rentals: Event Rental Co., Placesetters Nantucket, BBJ La Tavola

Officiant: Hayes O'Connor • Tent: Nantucket Tents • Lights: Advanced Production & Design

Band: Soho - Night Shift Entertainment • Audio: Last Minute Productions • Bridal Hair: Katarina Geezil - Jana Rago Studios • Bridal Makeup: Paolina Doycheva - Darya Salon

Bride's Dress: Custom Hayley Paige • Groom's Tuxedo: 5 Tailors • Paper Suite: Paper Plum Co.

featured wedding

Bride: Melanie Sablehaus

Groom: Jim Guidera

Venue: Great Harbor Yacht Club

Wedding Planner: Lulu Powers

Photographer: Debi Lilly

Caterer: Great Harbor Yacht Club

Florist: Debi Lilly

Dessert: Espresso Martinis and Novelty

Ice Cream Bars

Officiant: Curtis Barnsack

Band: Matty B Entertainment

Asking for

MOORE

INTERVIEW BY ROBERT COCUZZO PHOTO BY KIT NOBLE

A QUICK CHAT WITH RICHARD MOORE, NANTUCKET’S DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS OPERATIONS MANAGER

What’s one thing that most people don’t know about you?

I’ve done several theatrical plays on Nantucket with a starring role in Of Mice and Men. I enjoy singing, even though I can’t. I went to the Art Institute of Seattle for music and video production and promotion. But most importantly, I am a die-hard blues fan.

What’s the most fun or interesting part of working with the DPW?

Being involved in the day-to-day operations of the town. It’s humbling being a small part of a system that affects Nantucket’s future history.

As head of the DPW, you really know the inner workings of the island. What would most people be surprised to learn about how the island operates from your unique perspective?

What surprises most people when they get involved with the DPW is the almost overwhelming amount of responsibility of scheduled work this department is able to accomplish, along with the unforeseen, with only a modest-sized crew. If we had fifty people working here, we could keep them busy year-round.

What’s your favorite Nantucket pastime or tradition?

It may seem simple, but my favorite pastime is winding down at some local restaurants or bars or the VFW, surrounded by close friends and new acquaintances.

If you could bring one thing different to Nantucket from somewhere else in the country, what would it be?

A good blues bar with Southern cuisine.

What’s one of the hidden secrets to Nantucket that most visitors don’t know about?

Driving along one of the many back roads and paths around the island, including the Moors and Madequecham.

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