N MAGAZINE June 2022 by Nantucket Magazine

N F R O M A R T H E I S T S T O B A N K R O B B E R I E S, T H E

BARNICLE

BROTHERS STEAL

JILL KARGMAN A U T H O R

L E G E N D A R Y

A C T O R

B R O A D C A S T E R

NATALIE JACOBSON

THE

SHOW

N A T I O N A L

B O O K

A W A R D

W I N N E R

JAMES McBRIDE

BURIED TREASURE O N

N A N T U C K E T

JUNE 2022

N O T H I N G C O M PA R E S

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M A G A Z I N E

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Compass is a licensed real estate broker and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdrawal without notice. No statement is made as to the accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footages are approximate. This is not intended to solicit property already listed. Nothing herein shall be construed as legal, accounting or other professional advice outside the realm of real estate brokerage.

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Invest In nantucket

Donate to the nantucket FunD The Nantucket Fund is our Island’s permanent endowment. It supports key community priorities, such as behavioral health, childcare, housing, elder services, and food insecurity. Please consider making a gift today.

To learn more & donate, visit:

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M A G A Z I N E

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M A G A Z I N E

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M A G A Z I N E

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CONTENTS /

JUNE 2022

110 Smart Attire

30 CONTRIBUTORS Meet some of the talented folks who helped make this issue possible. 32 NUMBERS A numerical snapshot of Nantucket. 34 NEAT STUFF The Artists Association of Nantucket has a lot to offer in its brand-new gallery space. 36 NTOPTEN From the Book Fest to the Film Fest, behold the ultimate rundown of island events popping off this June. 38 TRENDING In honor of the tenth Nantucket Book Festival, literary giant James McBride checks in with Nantucket Sound. 40 NECESSITIES Jot these hot items on your must-have gift list. 42 NGREDIENTS How to pull off the perfect picnic spread this summer. 44 KID’N AROUND School’s out! Here’s where you can send your kiddos next. 46 HEALTH N WELLNESS Jules Embry-Pelrine breaks down the benefits of studying martial arts on Nantucket. 48 NBUZZ All the news, tidbits and scuttlebutt that’s fit to print courtesy of the Nantucket Current. 50 NEED TO READ Tim Ehrenberg gives us a preview of this year’s grand Nantucket Book Festival. 52 NOSH NEWS Chef Anna Montgomery gives new meaning to high-end dining.

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M A G A Z I N E

SHARK SWEATER: REMY WHITE JEANS: REMY SNEAKERS: MURRAY’S TOGGERY SHOP JEWELRY: ICARUS & CO. GLASSES: ACK EYE Photo by Brian Sager

NSPIRE 56 BOW WOW Marking NiSHA’s tenth anniversary, founder and executive director Jessica Sosebee digs in for more. 62 KEYS TO SURVIVAL After surviving a deadly earthquake in Haiti, Maudjeani Pelissier found music on Nantucket.

Breakout musician Maudjeani Pelissier

Photo courtesy of Nantucket Community Music Center

NVESTIGATE 69 BURIED TREASURE A priceless collection of artifacts finally sees the light of day. 74 THE BLUE WAVE Blue Flag Partners has taken Nantucket hospitality by storm. What’s their game plan?

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The Blue Wave

The patio of Faraway Nantucket (photo by Matt Kisiday)

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M A G A Z I N E

NDEPTH

NHA

123 DOG YEARS Dig into Nantucket’s pets of the past.

82 STEALING THE SHOW How the Barnicle Brothers broke into the movie business.

NUPTIALS

90 DARK COMEDY The hilariously dark life and career of summer resident Jill Kargman.

134 Madison Finley and Will Ridgway tied the knot on Nantucket.

NOT SO FAST

NQUIRY

136 A quick chat with outgoing Nantucket Book Festival executive director Maddie Hjulstrom.

96 REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK Legendary broadcaster Natalie Jacobson reports on her own life in a new memoir. 104 NOVEL IDEAS Literary icon James McBride makes a rare appearance at the Nantucket Book Festival this June.

June 2022

NVOGUE

110 SMART ATTIRE Check out some of the island’s latest looks at the Nantucket Atheneum.

Critically “First Republic Trust Company takes the time toacclaimed understand my values in addition to my finances.Colin and filmmakers I can rely on them to help manage Nick my family’s legacy.” appear Barnicle on the cover of this June issue in a photo by Noa Griffel

The Local Magazine Read Worldwide

ON THE COVER

N F R O M A R T H E I S T S T O B A N K R O B B E R I E S, T H E

BARNICLE

BROTHERS

SUE MIR Z A

STEAL

Nonprofit Volunteer and Benefactor

Nantucket Magazine

160 Federal Street, Boston (617) 478-5300 1 Post Office Square, Boston (617) 423-2888 772 Boylston Street, Boston (617) 859-8888 47 Brattle Street, Cambridge (617) 218-8488 284 Washington Street, Wellesley (781) 239-9881 (855) 886-4824 | firstrepublic.com | New York Stock Exchange symbol: FRC First Republic Private Wealth Management encompasses First Republic Investment Management, Inc., an SEC-registered Investment Advisor, First Republic Securities Company, LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC, First Republic Trust Company, First Republic Trust Company of Delaware LLC and First Republic Trust Company of Wyoming LLC. Investment and Advisory Products and Services are Not FDIC Insured, Not Bank Guaranteed and May Lose Value.

JUNE 2022

Nantucket Issue 2 June ‘21 Mirza PWM-T2 AB4 ND2017.indd 1

JILL KARGMAN A U T H O R

L E G E N D A R Y

A C T O R

B R O A D C A S T E R

NATALIE JACOBSON

THE

SHOW

N A T I O N A L

B O O K

A W A R D

W I N N E R

JAMES McBRIDE

BURIED TREASURE O N

N A N T U C K E T

JUNE 2022

3/20/21 5:54 PM

Photo by Brian Sager N - M A G A Z I N E . C O M

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N PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 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 Wendy Rouillard Rebecca Settar Jonathan Soroff

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Michael Blanchard Rob Benchley Tim Ehrenberg Noa Griffel Matt Kisiday Lexie Moreland Laurie Richards Joshua Simpson

MON • WED • FRI

DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING & PARTNERSHIPS Emme Duncan

ADVERTISING SALES Fifi Greenberg

PUBLISHER N. LLC

CHAIRMAN: Bruce A. Percelay

Nantucket Times 17 North Beach Street Nantucket, MA 02554 508-228-1515

©Copyright 2021 Nantucket Times. Nantucket Times (N Magazine) is published six times annually from April through December. Reproduction of any part of this publication is prohibited without written permission from the publisher. Editorial submissions may be sent to Editor, Nantucket Times, 17 North Beach Street, Nantucket, MA 02554. We are not responsible for unsolicited editorial or graphic material. Office (508) 228-1515 or fax (508) 228-8012. Signature Printing and Consulting 800 West Cummings Park Suite 2900 Woburn

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M A G A Z I N E

Thank you Nantucket for making us number one. In less than a year, Nantucket Current has emerged as the island's most trusted source of news. Our coverage now includes island events ranging from politics, to sports, to breaking news. By providing the island with the unbiased, relevant and timely news, we are proud to have been number one. FIRST IN • National News pickups • Breaking News • Total digital readership • International news pickups • Story click throughs

EVERYTHING ELSE IS OLD NEWS

SCAN FLOWCODE TO SUBSCRIBE WWW.NANTUCKETCURRENT.COM

P u b l i s h e r ’s L e t t e r

NANTUCKET’S

GOT TALENT Wherever you turn around, there is someone on

over the course of the

Nantucket who has taken their creative talents to

pandemic, he taught

another level. From Meghan Trainor and Brynn

himself how to play

Cartelli to the plethora of authors, actors and

both the piano and gui-

broadcasters on Nantucket, this island seems to

tar. This spring, Pelis-

either breed or attract talent.

sier performed his own

Our cover story on the Barnicle Brothers is a clear example of Nantucketers who have trans-

original music before an audience on the island.

BRUCE A. PERCELAY Publisher

lated their creative skills into large-scale success.

Another glowing tal-

With their highly touted Netflix series This Is a

ent on Nantucket is best-

Robbery and their upcoming documentary Carol

selling author, screenwriter and actor Jill Kargman,

& Johnny, about a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde

whose dark humor is a comedic bright spot. Daugh-

that will show at this month’s Nantucket Film Fes-

ter of longtime summer residents Arie and Coco Ko-

tival, Colin and Nick Barnicle are ones to watch.

pelman, Kargman is perhaps most widely known for

In the realm of the broadcast world, few peo-

her television series on Bravo, Odd Mom Out. She is

ple have left a more indelible mark over the years

currently working on a number of projects, including

in Massachusetts than beloved anchorwoman and

a film to be shot in Boston this fall.

now author, Natalie Jacobson. As one of Bos-

Whether the island’s talent makes you laugh or

ton’s most enduring news personalities, Jacobson

cry, we are surrounded by a group of gifted individ-

became the face of Boston and the trusted voice

uals who are a gift to us all. As the weather begins to

for many in getting their daily news. Her new

turn, we all look forward to a chance to curl up with

book Every Life a Story being featured at this

a good book on the beach. Chances are pretty good

year’s tenth annual Nantucket Book Festival

that it was written by someone next door.

provides a fascinating account of her career. This issue also features an inspiring story of how one young man’s raw talent emerged from

Sincerely, Bruce A. Percelay

the rubble of an earthquake in Haiti to blossom on Nantucket. High school senior Maudjeani Pelissier had never picked up an instrument before coming to the island three years ago, but

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Contributors

Rob BENCHLEY Photographer Rob Benchley has accrued many credits since moving to the island year-round in 1982. He co-authored Scallop Season: A Nantucket Chronicle and has been a photographer and writer for four Nantucket publications since 1983: the Inquirer and Mirror, the Nantucket Beacon, the Nantucket Independent and the original Nantucket Magazine. His other book credits include Peter Brace’s Walking Nantucket (Faraway Publishing 2003), Voices of the Village (’Sconset Trust 2002) and Keeping the Light: The Epic Move & Preservation of Nantucket’s Sankaty Head Lighthouse (Sconset Trust 2009.) Last spring he collaborated with Richard Trust for Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America: ’Sconset (the place he calls home, and where he’s now the keeper of Sankaty Head Lighthouse.)

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M A G A Z I N E

Noa GRIFFEL Noa Griffel is a Brooklynbased photographer and digital artist who focuses on marrying cinematic colors light, and mood to express the surreal aspects of both fashion and real life. She began her career after graduating at twenty from the School of Visual Arts with an MFA in Computer Art. Her photography work was discovered in the music industry, and she quickly began traveling globally on documentary assignments. Since then, she has worked as a personal photographer for numerous music and fashion industry moguls, and hit her stride working to provide creative solutions as a multidisciplinary visual artist. She specializes in establishing a visual DNA for various brands across the music, fashion and entertainment industries. Her work has been published in a multitude of international magazines.

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Jonathan SOROFF After growing up in Newton and graduating from Duke University, Jonathan Soroff began his journalism career at the Boston Herald. For 28 years, he was the lead columnist for The Improper Bostonian magazine, writing the social column and a celebrity interview in each issue and contributing numerous features. He’s written for a variety of publications, including People, London’s Royal Academy Magazine, the South China Morning Post, Modern Luxury, DuJour, The National and the South African editions of Elle and Elle Decor. 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.

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NUMBERS NANTUCKET BY THE

287 MPH

Nantucket runners completed the Boston Marathon in April.

Food trucks were granted permission to operate at Cisco Beach this summer: Nantucket Beach Dogs, Nantaco and Sushi Sean 11:11.

Maximum cruising speed of electric planes being purchased by Cape Air, slated to be in the air in 2024.

$36 Million

Closing price of 21 Lincoln Avenue, the most expensive home sale in Nantucket history.

9 Years

Time Lola Burger was open on Nantucket before closing this May.

Affordable rental housing units proposed by Affordable Housing Trust, which just bought a vacant lot on Orange Street in collaboration with the Nantucket Land Bank.

3,200

Number of trips to the island that 41 North Offshore projects to make this summer in ferrying UPS trucks over on barges.

10 th

Anniversary of the Nantucket Book Festival takes place this June.

Bushels of scallops were pulled by Nantucket’s commercial fleet this season, the lowest total on record.

200

Cases of Lyme disease were reported on the island last year.

Steamship Authority employees were fired in April for refusing to get vaccinated.

25 Years

Fairgrounds Restaurant operated before being put up for sale this spring.

2.23 Tons Trash collected by a four-person team called Pod Squad to win this year’s Litter Derby.

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M A G A Z I N E

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n eat stuff SPONSORED CONTENT

PICTURE THIS WRITTEN BY LARRY LINDNER

The Artists Association of Nantucket returns to its gallery roots, expanding its showings in the Thomas Macy Warehouse Building at 12 Straight Wharf

fter 34 years, the Artists Association of Nantucket (AAN) is returning to the Thomas Macy Warehouse at 12 Straight Wharf for a season of spectacular gallery events. “We’re coming back home,” says AAN’s Executive Director, Courtney Bridges. AAN showed its works in the iconic brick building from the organization’s inception in 1945 through 1988. Now, after a top-story restoration that has made the place clean and bright with white-beamed ceilings, wonderful brick walls and historically restored floors, AAN is renting the place from the Nantucket Historical Association. In its earliest days back in the 1800s, the edifice had been a chandlery and warehouse. The new area will more than double AAN’s capacity for exhibiting paintings, taking it from about 130 feet of wall space to almost 300 feet. Each show will feature large-size art that wouldn’t be able to fit at AAN’s gallery at 19 Washington Street. The organization is calling the newly revived space the Big Gallery. Some paintings will be as wide as nine feet. “Our artists asked us if we could find another space to show more of their larger works,” says AAN Artistic Director Bobby Frazier, “and that’s what we’ll basically be exhibiting.” The organization’s storefront gallery on Washington Street, while lovely and which will continue to remain open, can usually accommodate only three or four good-size paintings among 75 to 150 smaller ones, depending on the show. “I am looking forward to decorators coming in to see

some big work because with the new building boom, there are a lot of white walls on Nantucket and a need for larger paintings,” Frazier comments. “We have regular contact with some interior decorators who are looking for singular works of reasonable size.” Five shows, running from June 3rd through December 20th, will exhibit paintings and other art for sale, and the Big Gallery will be open seven days a week during the high season. Opening parties for each show, free to the public with complimentary food and drink, will occur on the first Friday of the month through the summer and a couple of fall months: June 3, July 1, August 5 and so on. The five shows:

For more information, see nantucketarts.org. 3 4

M A G A Z I N E

• June 3–June 27: Coastal Impressions. • July 1–August 1: MEGA—Modern Epic Gigantic Artworks, exclusively. • August 5–September 12: “Planet Nantucket: Photography of the Island.” • September 16–November 13: “Master Artists/ Masterworks” by the painters John Lochtefeld, Joan Albaugh, Sherre Wilson Liljegren, David Lazarus and Julija Mostykanova Feeney. • November 18–December 20: Holiday Expo. “This will have a lot more ceramics and things of smaller size,” Frazier says, “not just 2-D wall art.”

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n top ten

EVENTS

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TWN’S METEOR SHOWER MAY 26-JUNE 18

Bennett Hall In this new comedy by Steve Martin, Corky and Norm are excited to host friends Gerald and Laura at their home outside LA to watch a once-in-a-lifetime meteor shower. But over the course of their starlit dinner party, the wildly unexpected occurs and things take a turn for the crazy. Martin’s trademark absurdist humor will have you laughing and surprised from beginning to end. For tickets and more information, visit theatrenantucket.org.

2 51ST FIGAWI RACE WEEKEND MAY 27-29

Hyannis to Nantucket Many might be asking, “Where the Figawi for Figawi this year?” And the answer is a hybrid. The beloved Memorial Day weekend race is still taking place from Hyannis to Nantucket, while the celebratory Figawi events will take place in Hyannis. However, you can still cheer on the sailors from the Nantucket docks (or your boat) as they take part in this classic Cape & Islands tradition. For more information about the race, visit figawi.com.

3 2 ANDY FRASCO AND THE U.N. JUNE 10-11 AT 10 PM

The Chicken Box Looking for a “Change of Pace”? Put on your party pants and dancing shoes and get to the Box when Andy Frasco and his merry band of music makers come to town. Quickly becoming a Nantucket summer classic, Frasco and the U.N. are known for shows that are consistently a rollicking good time. For tickets and more information, visit thechickenbox.com.

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BLOOMING BIDS FOR NANTUCKET KIDS

JUNE 23, AUCTION 10 AM-7 PM, CELEBRATION 5:30-7 PM

Bartlett’s Farm

to attend in-person or virtually this summer

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NANTUCKET OYSTERFEST JUNE 12 AT 12-4 PM

Cisco Brewers Aw shucks, Oysterfest is back! The Nantucket Land Council and Nantucket Shellfish Association are bringing back a seafood lover’s paradise, featuring a shucking contest, live music, food trucks, 888 cocktails, a raffle and plenty of fun. Tickets include a 2022 Oysterfest T-shirt and a dozen local oysters. For more information, visit nantucketlandcouncil.org.

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MISS JUNETEENTH FILM JUNE 14 AT 7 PM

The Atheneum In celebration of Juneteenth, the Atheneum will be screening the award-winning film Miss Juneteenth, directed by Channing Godfrey Peoples. Following the story of Turquoise Jones, a single mother in Texas, and her daughter, Kai, as they navigate the world of pageants, this film explores purpose, family and pursuing your dreams. For more information on the screening, visit nantucket.librarycalendar.com.

7 NANTUCKET BOOK FESTIVAL JUNE 16-19

Various Locations The Nantucket Book Festival is starting a new chapter this June, with the return of in-person events, a new executive director and a whole catalog of new featured authors. Enjoy interviews, Q&As, book signings and more at the tenth anniversary of one of the literary world’s top festivals. For tickets and more information, visit nantucketbookfestival.org.

8 7 NANTUCKET’S GOT TALENT JUNE 18 AT 6 PM

The Dreamland A star will be born on the evening of June 18 when this one-night performance program highlights the myriad talents of those living on Nantucket yearround. A true variety show in the style of NBC’s America’s Got Talent, participants are encouraged to audition with a song, dance, acrobatics, magic and more. Significant cash prizes for winning contestants! For information on auditions and tickets to the event, visit nantucketdreamland.org.

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NANTUCKET FILM FESTIVAL

PLEIN AIR NANTUCKET

Various Locations Pop the popcorn and settle into your seat—the 2022 Nantucket Film Festival promises to be a blockbuster. Featuring screenings of all kinds of films from mainstream to indie, intimate interview sessions with filmmakers and fabulous parties to celebrate the world of movies, an NFF pass is the hot ticket of June. For tickets and more information, visit nantucketfilmfestival.org.

JUNE 14-19

Various Locations It’s plain to see why so many Nantucket artists love AAN’s Plein Air Festival—they get to enjoy the island’s beautiful scenery while creating a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Keep an eye out for these artists around town as they work and then stop by AAN’s Gallery to see their art go up on the walls during the days of the festival. For more information, visit nantucketarts. org/events/plein-air-nantucket.

JUNE 22-27

This year is the Fairwinds Center’s diamond jubilee, and it’s planting the seeds to throw a one-of-a-kind birthday celebration at the 2022 Blooming Bids. Attendees will have the chance to bid on spectacular planters, art, fashion, jewelry and unique experiences, all while benefiting mental health initiatives for young people at Nantucket’s counseling center. For tickets and more information, fairwindscenter.org/events. *All events are subject to change.

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BOOKING TALENT Literary giant James McBride grants a rare interview on Nantucket Sound To mark the tenth anniversary of the Nantucket Book Festival this month, Nantucket Sound scored an exclusive interview with literary icon James McBride, who will be attending the festival this month beginning on June 16th. While readers can enjoy an abridged version of the interview in this issue (see “Novel Ideas,” page 104), the full podcast conversation with the National Book Award

winner provides a rare glimpse into the mind of one of the country’s most revered writers. The best-selling author of a half dozen books exploring race, class and art in America, McBride first established his foothold with his debut memoir The Color of Water, which is now required reading in schools across the country. For all attending the Book Festival this month, consider this podcast required listening.

TO SUBSCRIBE AND LISTEN, SCAN HERE

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O CEANFRONT.Nothing Compares Oceanfront. Surfside. Nantucket Island. Rare oceanfront offering. This four bedroom, five and 1/2 bathroom home overlooks the Atlantic with direct private access to the beach. The open floor plan includes a first-floor gourmet kitchen with a custom tile mural of the beachfront, dining/living areas, fireplaced family room, game room, and two en suite guest bedrooms. The sunlit home offers two more spacious bedroom suites on the second floor. The master bedroom has separate his and hers bathrooms and closets with an oversized shared shower, office, and ocean-facing wrap around deck. A glassed tower with panoramic views is yours to create as an office, sitting area or exercise room. Enjoy the southwest breeze on the ocean facing decks or the sheltered, perennial garden decks. Offered at $16,995,000

EXCLUSIVELY SHOWCASED BY

Gary Winn, Broker gary@maurypeople.com | 508.330.3069 MAURY PEOPLE SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY | 37 MAIN STREET, NANTUCKET, MA 02554 | MAURYPEOPLE.COM Each Office is Independently Owned and Operated. Equal Housing Opportunity. N - M A G A Z I N E . C O M

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n ecessities

ACK WOVEN BOOKMARKS

Made with custom cutouts of Nantucket, a whale or a scallop shell and available in three colors, these woven bookmarks are an ideal gift for the bookworm in your life! ACK WOVEN @ackwoven • ackwoven.com

HAUS SPRITZ KIT Just in time for summer, the Haus Spritz Kit allows you to enjoy farm-to-bottle ingredients and that fancy, crisp cocktail feeling with no additives. Flavors like Citrus Flower, Rose Rosé, Lemon Lavender and Pomegranate Rosemary are a delicious twist on the spritz! HAUS • @drinkhaus • drink.haus

DEAD KOOKS APHEX SURFBOARD

Perfect for Nantucket surf, this Dead Kooks Aphex board features great volume with a nice, long rail but still plenty of pop and drive! So whether you’re out in small chop or riding in those bigger, cleaner days, STOKE ACK has you covered. STOKE ACK @stokeack stokeack.com

SUMMER

WISH LIST GIRLS OASIS BLUE GINGHAM BATHING SUIT

NANTUCKET MAP WOOL THROW BLANKET The natural beauty of Nantucket is woven into a luxurious, soft merino wool throw blanket! Made in the USA, this throw is from the historic Faribault Mill is the perfect addition to your décor and is sure to keep you warm during those seaside summer nights. FARIBAULT MILL • @faribaultmill • faribaultmill.com

This oasis blue gingham style for girls is minnow’s fresh take on swim. With beloved details like a sweetly smocked torso, puff cap sleeves for coverage and a keyhole back with elevated grosgrain ribbon, your little one will reach for this all summer long. minnow @minnowswim minnowswim.com

WAVES NEON SIGN Now you can feel like you’re seaside all year round, day or night! Made in the UK, these stylized waves are the perfect touch for any water lover’s home. NEON87 • @weareneon87 • neon87.com

ALL MY FRIENDS FLORALS ARRANGEMENT June is in bloom! Completely locally grown and harvested, All My Friends Florals will be partnering with island ceramicist Eve Christa and popping up at Pip & Anchor all summer long, including weekly CSA pickups. ALL MY FRIENDS FLORALS @allmyfriendsflorals allmyfriendsflorals@gmail.com

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Sa le s / Re nt a l s

S con set / Town

HISTORIC CH A RM | BR A NT POINT | $12,750,0 0 0 In the he a r t of B r a nt Point, 6 4 H u l b e r t Ave n u e fe ature s a seve n - b e droom ma in hou se, a one - be droom cot t age, a nd a ga r age on a ha lf- ac re lot. T hi s p rop e r t y b oa sts acros s-the stre et be ach ac ce s s, p roximit y to Town, a nd opp o r tunit y fo r expa n sion a nd sub divi sion.

1 NORT H BEACH S T REET

6 MAIN STREET

NANTUCKE T, MA 02554

SIASCONSET, MA 0 2 5 6 4

5 08 .2 28.2266

508.257.6335

GREATPO INTPRO PERTIES.CO M @ greatp oin tp rop erties

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n gredients

IMAGES COURTESY OF XXXX

the coastal environment by decorating your table with sunset colors or keep it simple and sophisticated with neutral shades.

Life’s a Picnic

• When it comes to color, we say the brighter, the better! Adorn the center of the table with a brilliant table runner paired with fresh flowers and ruby grapefruits cut in half. We love using this citrus trick as it gives the table a bright summertime look and the delicious citrus scent is an added bonus.

HOW TO PULL OFF THE PERFECT PICNIC SPREAD THIS SUMMER COURTESY OF ACK PICNIC

reshly cut flowers, ice cold drinks and decadent food…nothing says Nantucket in the summertime quite like a picnic with your closest friends and family. Here’s a few tips and tricks to create an experience you’ll savor well after sunset.

• Picnics are an opportunity to balance curated design with casual vibes and fun. Every detail, including seating, table, decor, food and drink, should play nice together. We love making them interactive by engaging all your senses and getting guests involved with a few icebreaker games. • A picture-perfect picnic is a work of art built from the ground up. For seating we recommend layering comfortable throw pillows and blankets with a nice low, sturdy table. When it’s time to set your table, melamine dishware is our go-to. It’s durable, easy to clean and very picnic-friendly. We found this to be a great alternative to fine porcelain or ceramic, and we love having reusable dishes to help with our environmental impact. • Now time for the fun part: making a statement with your décor. Use your picnic to create an atmosphere or set a mood, or pick a theme and look to your surroundings for inspiration. You can enhance

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•

Choosing a neutral color palette will allow you to layer multiple different textures without fear of it being too busy. A eucalyptus garland adds life and freshness to the table. You can create height and drama with tall candleholders. We love neutral tables that are classic and portray a nice laid-back yet refined look.

•

Finally, you can never go wrong with a crowd-pleasing seaside-themed table. Make sure to look around the house for little trinkets or knickknacks that just might be the perfect touch to elevate your table. We like to pair tall candleholders and short local hydrangea bouquets to complement this seaside setting.

• Don’t be afraid to experiment with different levels, textures and colors to create your Instagram-worthy picnic table. We truly believe a picnic is the perfect way to celebrate with friends and family this summer. What better place than Nantucket to draw inspiration from and get creative among the beautiful island scenery we all know and love.

Brant Point

Sconset

41 Hulbert Avenue | 4 BR 5.5 BA $16,950,000 | Robert Young

14 & 16 Coffin Street | 5 BR 4.5 BA $11,900,000 | Richard & Lisa Matheson

Town 2 Silver Street | 5 BR 4.5 BA $5,395,000 | Wallis Mautner

Surfside

Town

14 Tripp Drive | 6 BR 5 BA $4,295,000 | Lee Gaw

53 Washington Street | 4 BR 3 BA $3,350,000 | Susan Renzulli

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WRITTEN BY WENDY ROUILLARD

YOUTH WEAVING AT THE NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION It’s never too early to learn basket weaving! The NHA, in affiliation with the Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum, is offering a Youth Weaving Program for children in grades 3-6. With generous funding from the Nantucket Golf Club, these small classes provide students with hands-on instruction to help them not only learn a new skill but also gain a deeper understanding of this cherished Nantucket craft. For more information, please visit nha.org and be sure to follow them on @ackhistory.

Kid' N

AROUND LINDA LORING FOUNDATION Looking for an adventure? Head outside to the Linda Loring Nature Foundation for its Family Walk on June 20th from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Explore Nantucket’s rare habitats on the western end of the island as you hike along the rolling trails, discovering insects, birds and plants along the way. Please meet at 110 Eel Point Road. To register for this free family event, please visit llnf.org or @loringnatureack. SUMMER WITH THE DREAMLAND STAGE COMPANY Registration is open for the Dreamland Stage Company’s summer theater camps and productions. The Dreamland is offering theater and dance for kids of all ages with its Dreamland Kids, Dreamland Youth and Dreamland Teens programs. This summer, your child will be performing the popular musicals of Into the Woods Jr. and Madagascar Jr. For more information and to register, please visit nantucketdreamland.org and follow them @dreamlandstagecompany.

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SPRING INTO PEACHTREE KIDS Peachtree Kids, located at 19 Main Street, carries timeless, classic clothing, accessories and shoes for both everyday wear and special occasions for newborns up to 12 years old. The store is filled to the brim with lines like Rylee + Cru, Quincy Mae, Mayoral, Hatley, Busy Bees, Sperry, See Kai Run and many more. Peachtree Kids is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. or visit them online at peachtreekidsnantucket.com. You can also follow them on Facebook and Instagram @peachtreekidsnantucket. OPENING DAY AND MORE AT MARIA MITCHELL One of Nantucket’s special and must-do activities is visiting the Maria Mitchell Association. The Aquarium, Natural Science Museum and Mitchell House are ready to welcome you on their official opening day on Monday, June 6th. Come and enjoy a magical tour of the night sky with the association’s professional astronomers at the Loines Observatory. On June 13-16, families can participate in the popular and free Look Up program. Also, starting June 20th, stargazing at Loines Observatory is offered Monday and Wednesday evenings throughout the summer. See the moon, planets, star clusters and even other galaxies as you’ve never observed them before! For more information, please visit mariamitchell.org/open-nights and follow them @maria_mitchell_association. BARNABY’S TOY & ART SHACK Barnaby’s has kicked off the season with more than 100 art classes for children ages 2 to 13, and kids can also drop in and create every day, all day! All Barnaby’s classes are taught by professional artists and educators who will guide your child’s technique and processes in an inspirational space in downtown Nantucket. Barnaby’s also has a wide variety of toys and art kits to go that have been hand-selected and designed for all ages. For the program calendar or more information, please visit barnabysnantucket.com, call 508-680-1553 or email at barnabyack@gmail.com. Be sure to follow @barnabystoyartshack!

STUNNING VICTORIAN ARCHITECTURE | 19 BROAD STREET | TOWN | $6,249,000 Outstanding opportunity for a Town/Brant Point Buyer - Seeking the amenities of Downtown and proximity to the Harborfront. Designed and built by Charles H. Robinson for island coal merchant Andrew Hunt, circa 1876, the Victorian achitecture features detailed roof lines, scrolls and a stunning turret with harbor views; situated in the heart of downtown Nantucket. A most exciting location offering a front row view of Broad & Federal Streets from a meticulously restored home with a generous elevated front porch complete with seven authentic gas lanterns. Zoned Commercial Downtown, this lovingly maintained structure has been used residentially consisting of 3 bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms, formal dining; formal and informal living areas; 10’ tall ceilings on two stories and exquisite light fixtures throughout. The kitchen looks out to private gardens with a water feature and a brick patio lined with roses. Commercial Downtown Zoning offers many uses and possibilities. Available for Summer 2022 occupancy.

Mary Taaffe, Broker

37 Main Street | Nantucket MA 02554

mary@maurypeople.com c 508.325.1526 | t 508.228.1881 x 132

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healthnwellness

Some people might be intimidated by the idea of beginning to study martial arts later in life. Why should that not be the case? Running coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman is credited with the phrase, “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” Everyone who first steps into a martial arts class will have physical limits that they need to work around. A good teacher shows students how to connect with the material within their current fitness and understanding, and helps set goals for moving forward. There are many different options when it comes to learning martial arts. Even teachers of the same discipline all have their own approach. The sort of intimidation-based teaching style seen in the original Karate Kid movie is very rare. Anyone can find a martial art and a teacher that works for them.

FIGHT

CLUB INTERVIEW BY ROBERT COCUZZO

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT NOBLE

JULES EMBRY-PELRINE BREAKS DOWN THE BENEFITS OF STUDYING MARTIAL ARTS ON NANTUCKET

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What can someone expect when attending an introductory Brazilian jiujitsu class? Jiujitsu is not MMA (mixed martial arts). You won’t be hitting anyone or being hit in your first class. I work hard to foster a welcoming and supportive environment in my training center. Everyone struggles in their first class, so try to leave your ego at the door. Jiujitsu involves very close contact with your training partner. You’ll find yourself in positions that would be awkward with your spouse. Almost nobody has a frame of reference for moving around on the ground, so your movements won’t feel smooth. You might feel winded sooner than you hoped. Just give it your best shot and remember, no matter what happens, you’ll only improve moving forward. What are the physical benefits of studying martial arts like Brazilian jiujitsu? Virtually any martial art can improve balance, coordination and muscular strength/endurance. Jiujitsu has the added benefit of not only moving your own body, but doing so against a resisting opponent. Jiujitsu movements are done first with little to no resistance, so each partner can understand what’s happening. Then resistance is increased, so every movement needs to be done against someone basically attempting the opposite at all times. This has great cardiovascular benefits.

What are the mental benefits? Success in jiujitsu requires you to be mentally present. You have to set aside the stresses and distractions of the day and focus on the here and now. This is a great habit for anyone, not just martial artists or athletes. Jiujitsu constantly presents new problems to solve. You have to think creatively and overcome any frustration you might have. Everyone can gain something from practicing with anyone else, so it encourages you to keep an open mind. As far as self-defense, can someone learn effective ways to protect themselves from violence in a short amount of time? Being able to protect yourself shouldn’t require years of study. By far the more important consideration is how many hours you have spent practicing, not how many days have passed since you started. Someone can learn effective skills and strategies in a single session, but repetition is crucial. Those things need to be practiced under stress to develop confidence that they’ll work when it counts. The more time you’re able to commit to it, the more rapidly you’ll improve and the greater your skill will become.

Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx — Xxxxxxxw

To book a class with Jule Embry-Pelrine, visit nantucketmartialarts.com.

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nbuzz WRITTEN BY JASON GRAZIADEI

NANTUCKET VOTES FOR TOPLESS BEACHES Nantucket voted at the 2022 Annual Town Meeting in early May to allow women to go topless at any island beach. Island residents voted 327 to 242 in favor of the proposal, but it must still be approved by the state attorney general before taking effect. The bylaw to allow anyone to go topless at island beaches was the most closely watched of the meeting, garnering national media attention. It was spearheaded by island resident Dorothy Stover to seek

Photo by Kit Noble

“equality for all genders on all island beaches” by creating a new town bylaw that would make it legal for any person “to be topless on any public or private beach within the Town of Nantucket.” Stover, who was born and raised on the island and is the daughter of the late town clerk Catherine Flanagan Stover, is a sex educator who enjoys going to Nantucket’s unofficial nude beach near Miacomet. “I hope you vote for equality today,” Stover said at the meeting.

UPS GETS TUGBOAT BAILOUT

The shipping giant UPS missed the boat on booking summer Steamship Authority reservations, leaving the company scrambling to find alternative transportation options to get thousands of Amazon and other packages to Nantucket during the peak season. It has found an unlikely partner to bail it out of the sticky situation. UPS has contracted with a tugboat company to bring its tractor trailers full of packages to Nantucket by barge. After receiving a license for the pilot program from the Steamship Authority in late April, the barge trips began earlier this month. UPS typically sends two to three trailers to the island on a daily basis including time-sensitive packages like medication and food, as well as the bulk of the Amazon packages destined for Nantucket.

NANTUCKET ENDORSES ISLANDWIDE BAN ON FERTILIZER

Nantucket residents voted in early May to ban fertilizer island-wide, making an emphatic statement in support of the health of the harbor over the objections of some in the landscaping industry. Tempers flared as the debate unfolded during the 2022 Nantucket Annual Town Meeting, with constables having to step in between a scalloper and landscaper who had a dust-up at the microphone. Town Meeting attendees voted 347 to 105 to endorse the ban on fertilizer, which includes the entire island with the exception of farmland. As a home rule petition, it still requires approval by the state legislature, where critics believe it faces steep odds. “It’s dead on arrival,” one island landscaper told Nantucket Current at the meeting. But the petition originally sponsored by the town’s Natural Resources Department technician Joe Minella, elicited impassioned pleas from environmental advocates and scallopers alike for its passage. They believe that runoff of fertilizer from green island lawns is loading the harbor with nutrients like nitrogen that cause excessive algae blooms and choke out the eel grass, which is a critical habitat for Nantucket’s bay scallops. 4 8

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WHO’S YOUR (POT) FARMER?

Bartlett’s Farm is poised to make the island's first bid for a marijuana cultivation-only license. “There's an opportunity there for us to meet a need and diversify our business and do what we like to do, which is grow,” John Bartlett told the Nantucket Current. The plan would be to build an indoor cultivation facility and greenhouse at Bartlett's and sell cannabis to the island's two dispensaries—The Green Lady and ACK Natural—but with no retail component at the farm. The new venture would be called Ocean View Hydroponics. The island has already reached the limit imposed by the Select Board of two cannabis dispensaries, but the state also allows for cultivation-only licenses to grow and sell marijuana.

RED SOX OWNER JOHN HENRY ROUNDS THE POINT

Boston Red Sox owner John W. Henry dropped $25 million in April for a waterfront estate on Nantucket in the Shimmo neighborhood. Henry, who is also the principal owner of The Boston Globe and the Liverpool Football Club, is also believed to have acquired an abutting property on Shimmo Pond Road. The two properties at 4 Middle Valley Road and 48 Shimmo Pond Road—both of which had been owned by entrepreneur Donald Burns—were previously on the market together for $42.5 million. The property Henry acquired on Middle Valley Road is a waterfront estate that features multiple buildings totaling 18,100 square feet, including 10 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms. Burns had tapped internationally known architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen to envision the compound.

N MAGAZINE

HONORED

WITH TEN

NENPA

AWARDS

The New England Newspaper & Press Association (NENPA) held its annual awards dinner in Boston in April at the Seaport Renaissance Hotel, and N Magazine received ten awards, including three first-place finishes, for a variety of stories and photographs. NENPA is the professional trade organization for newspapers and media organizations in the six New England states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island. The organization represents and serves over 450 daily, weekly and specialty newspapers throughout the sixstate region. Its objective is to help these publications successfully fulfill their mission to engage and inform the public while navigating and ultimately thriving in today’s evolving media landscape.

RAW DEAL

Yoshi Mabuchi, the co-founder of the former Sushi by Yoshi restaurant in downtown Nantucket, is suing his old business partner’s nephew, Terrance Noyes, alleging that he was illegally frozen out of his stake in the restaurant’s reincarnation as Bar Yoshi on Old South Wharf. The lawsuit filed in Nantucket Superior Court in April claims Noyes fraudulently used Mabuchi’s signature on several documents such as leases, deeds and corporate documents, illegally stripping Mabuchi of his ownership interest in Bar Yoshi. Noyes has denied the allegations. N - M A G A Z I N E . C O M

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need to read

W R I T T E N

B Y

T I M

E H R E N B E R G

Tim Ehrenberg from “Tim Talks Books” gives us a preview of this year’s Nantucket Book Festival

LET’S GET BACK TO THE PARTY BY ZAK SALIH

P O R T R A I T

B Y

K I T

N O B L E

In sparkling prose, Zak Salih examines a theme in Let’s Get Back to the Party that is one of the more interesting topics for me as a gay man today: “the paradoxes of queer life in contemporary America through the generations.” Zak doesn’t tell, he shows, and the result is a truly memorable, one-of-a-kind portrait of queer friendship and a textbook for what it means to be a gay man in America over the past 50 years. This book is one to party over! Now, let’s get to reading it. I will be interviewing Zak Salih on Friday, June 17, at 3 p.m. at the Methodist Church for Nantucket Book Festival.

SCAN HERE to connect with @TimTalksBooks

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SCAN HERE to purchase Tim's Need to Reads from Nantucket Book Partners

For more information about this year’s Nantucket Book Festival and the complete schedule of events, visit nantucketbookfestival.org.

BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY BY QIAN JULIE WANG

This is one of my favorite memoirs I’ve ever read, about an undocumented immigrant living in poverty in America after leaving China in 1994 with her parents. Qian Julie writes so vividly that you feel her fears and excitement, applaud her courage and resilience, and reflect on her deep themes and message. I loved the lyrical observations about everything from the books and TV shows of my own generation to her daily musings on growing up in New York City. A “Read with Jenna” pick in 2021, this is a coming-of-age story about the American Dream as a struggle to survive, beautifully told through the senses of a memorable young girl. Our theme this year for the Nantucket Book Festival is “connection,” and this book proves the power of literature to connect us to stories that are not our own but that profoundly change us after reading them. I will be interviewing Qian Julie Wang on Saturday, June 18, at 3 p.m. at the Methodist Church for Nantucket Book Festival.

THE LATECOMER BY JEAN HANFF KORELITZ

I was curious to see what Jean Hanff Korelitz wrote after The Plot, one of 2021’s most suspenseful thrillers and The Tonight Show’s Summer Reads winner. I absolutely devoured The Latecomer. It’s a different type of book than its predecessor, more of a slowburn character study than a thriller, but it still provides plenty of suspenseful moments. In fact, I was on the edge of my reading chair toward the end. The Latecomer is a story about three siblings desperate to escape one another and not all that likable at times, and the upending of their family by the late arrival of a fourth. Jean Hanff Korelitz | Friday, June 17 | 11 a.m. | Methodist Church

SURVIVAL MATH BY MITCHELL S. JACKSON

Race. Toxic masculinity. Gangs. Guns. Addiction. Family. This collection of essays, written by Pulitzer Prize– winning author Mitchell S. Jackson, is one of those you want to read slowly, both for the shock of the content and the artistry of the sentences. Praised as one of the best books of 2019 by most publications, Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family is a brutally honest look at one man’s life that also manages to be a commentary on racism in America. Don’t miss Jackson’s “Twelve Minutes and a Life” from Runner’s World, the moving Pulitzer Prize– winning essay on the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. Mitchell Jackson | Saturday, June 18 | 10 a.m. | Methodist Church

ALL THAT SHE CARRIED BY TIYA MILES

You can choose any positive adjective to describe All That She Carried and many reviewers have: gorgeous, brilliant, powerful, fearless and extraordinary, to name a few. Winner of the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction, All That She Carried is expertly researched and tenderly written, as Tiya Miles traces the life of a cotton sack handed down through three generations of Black women. On the surface this is an important history and narrative on slavery, but peel back the many layers and you’ll discover a poignant example of resilience and love during an impossible time. Tiya Miles | Friday, June 17 12 p.m. | Methodist Church

READ DANGEROUSLY BY AZAR NAFISI

This book perfectly encapsulates the Nantucket Book Festival’s mission “to celebrate the transformative power of words to inspire, illuminate, educate and connect.” In the midst of rampant book banning across the world today, we need to remember to “read dangerously” for ourselves and for the next generation of readers. Azar Nafisi has structured the book as a series of letters to her father and presents us with a reading list and guide to the power of literature in turbulent times. Within these pages, Nafisi covers the works of Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Margaret Atwood and many more. Azar Nafisi | Saturday, June 18 2 p.m. | Methodist Church

HOW BEAUTIFUL WE WERE BY IMBOLO MBUE

Speaking of beautiful, how beautiful is this book? Imbolo Mbue charmed us at the Nantucket Book Festival in 2018, and we are thrilled to welcome her back to the island to discuss her latest novel. It’s a sweeping, wrenching story about the collision of a small African village and an American oil company. Told from the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a girl named Thula, who grows up to become a revolutionary, it’s about community and connection with not a sentence or word wasted in its pages. These characters stay with you. After all, I first read this book in 2019, and I still think about Thula, Woja Beki, Jakani and Sakini, and many more. Imbolo Mbue | Friday, June 17 | 2 p.m. | Methodist Church

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Catering to the

HighEnd WRITTEN BY REBECCA SETTAR PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT NOBLE

Anna Montgomery rolls out a marijuanainfused menu

(Right) charcuterie board with edible flower goat cheese drizzled with infused local honey; (Right page from the top) roasted carrots over whipped feta, infused carrot top pesto, spiced pistachios, and pomegranate; lavender lemon bars; endive bites with infused whipped chive blue cheese, crusty sourdough, honey, celery, walnuts, and edible flowers; local Washashore Farm radish dipped in cannabutter with Maldon salt; pickled beet deviled eggs with infused creme Fraiche filling

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ooking food—and great-looking food at that—was nothing new for Anna Montgomery. A graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City, Montgomery spent several years working in restaurants, bakeries and even as an assistant food stylist for Bon Appétit in Manhattan’s Freedom Tower. However, it wasn’t until the thirty-one-year-old moved to Nantucket full time that she began cooking with an ingredient you’d be hard-pressed to find on any restaurant menu. As head of the edible cannabis program at the ACK Natural dispensary, Montgomery spent hours whipping up sweet and savory recipes all infused with the titillating ingredient of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the psychoactive compound in marijuana. What started as a hobby has since sparked a fullblown (and highly popular) catering company on the island called ACK Supper Club. “Nantucket is actually a really cannabis-positive community,” Montgomery said. “And it’s an ideal community to have something like a supper club, based on how many people either grow their own cannabis or are intrigued by it.” Today, Montgomery crafts a wide array of dishes for her clients, from THC-infused goat cheese crostini for cocktail soirees, to slices of pepperoni pizza—or “weedza” as Montgomery calls it—with cannabis-infused garlic butter crust for bachelor parties, to her ever-popular cannabis cakes, pastries and tarts for birthdays.

“Who doesn’t like looking at beautiful, colorful, bright, stimulating food that makes you feel good?” — Anna Montgomery

“I like to use locally sourced ingredients that really accent the terpene profiles of the plants,” Montgomery explained. “Sometimes that means using edible flowers to make those flavors blend. And who doesn’t like looking at beautiful, colorful, bright, stimulating food that makes you feel good?” Despite having visited the island throughout her life, it wasn’t until Montgomery took a job as pastry chef at Lemon Press that she decided to move here year-round. “My grandparents met at Jetties Beach in 1950 and were married at the ’Sconset Chapel,” Montgomery said. “It’s a very special place to me, and moving out here just felt serendipitous.” So was working for local businesswomen like Darya Gault and Rachel Afshari. “It was a fantastic opportunity.” But when ACK Natural came calling with an opportunity to head their edible program, Montgomery jumped at it. “When you take an edible, it gives you a different psychoactive high than you

would get just by smoking THC,” Montgomery explained. “It also lasts longer and has some really incredible health benefits, including the treatment for insomnia, anxiety and even ADHD.” Montgomery believes that her cannabis-infused concoctions offer her customers something intimate, new and exciting. “You’re going into this immersive experience with all

your senses—your smell, touch, taste. It’s meant to be very relaxing and enjoyable.” As for the future of ACK Supper Club, Montgomery says that she hopes to eventually develop a cookbook for her fans to craft their own favorites in the comfort of their own kitchens. But for now, customers can order a variety of colorful, edible-flower adorned treats. “I pinch myself every day that I have the opportunity to do this,” Montgomery says with a smile. “And it’s so aesthetically satisfying to see flowers and weed leaves on top of really delicious food. What more could a gal want?”

To order some of Anna Montgomery’s cannabis-infused treats, contact her at visit acksupperclub.com.

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Explore Nantucket, With Our Local Expertise The Nantucket real estate market has never been more dynamic, so whether you are considering a purchase or potential sale, Fisher has you covered. From our deep market knowledge to knowing how local regulations may impact your property’s value, let our team guide you through this unique time. To learn more about the various topics influencing the island’s market scan the QR code or visit:

ack.fish/current-topics

→ SITE CHARACTERISTICS & VALUE Nantucket properties may pose unique valuation challenges for both a seller and a buyer, particularly when a site has certain characteristics that may impact its ultimate value due to restrictions on expansion, septic capacity, or other traits that are intertwined with local regulations and restrictions. A comprehensive understanding of a property’s potential and/or limitations will not only better frame a property’s value, but it will start the design and building process off on the right foot. There’s no better time spent than engaging a team of experts, and your Fisher team member can introduce you to many of them to answer some of the most complicated nuances of island properties. For instance, civil engineers can be invaluable to understanding the placement of buildings on a lot as they relate to lot boundaries, endangered species surveys, and septic systems. Your broker can then help you parse out site characteristics that may impact property values. Lara Hanson, Sales & Rental Broker

→ NAVIGATING POOL REGULATIONS The popularity of residential pools on Nantucket has skyrocketed over the past couple years. The lack of a pool or the inability to add a pool is often a deal breaker for both renters and prospective buyers. Pools increase rental rates dramatically and private pools have arguably enhanced quarantine life, so there is no wonder why pools have become so popular. Due to the increased demand, coupled with the divisive opinions on the hot topic, there have been some recent bylaw amendments which have been adopted to further regulate the approval of residential pools. Every year it seems that more restrictive measures are brought to the table and are voted on during Town Meeting -- the topic is not going away. There are a few different governing parties that are involved in the approval process and they each have their own set of conditions that need to be met for a pool to be approved. Spencer Heydt, Sales & Rental Agent

→ UNDERSTANDING WETLAND IMPLICATIONS When you fall in love with a property on Nantucket, and may even be involved in a bidding war to secure it, the last thing you might think about is the regulations that may constrain its future potential. Having some understanding of wetlands, protected species and the Conservation Commission (ConCom) can be tremendously helpful in understanding the ability to build or expand a property and will influence its market value. While a civil engineer’s study will confirm specifics, in general, 100 feet away from wetlands is the rule of thumb for where building can take place without much need for special approvals. Depending on the circumstance, it is possible to apply to ConCom for permission to build/expand between the 50-foot and 100-foot lines. If there are structures preexisting between 0 feet and 50 feet, you may repair or replace them, but you often cannot expand them or change them significantly. Liza Hatton, Sales & Rental Agent

→ CRYPTOCURRENCY TRANSACTIONS?

→ ISLAND CONSTRUCTION COSTS Fisher’s construction blog series has been among our most popular and though many of the topics we covered remain the same, the costs of building a property have changed dramatically since it was first published. Notable changes to the price per square foot to build property begin to increase with the initial pandemic disruptions including worksite shutdowns, shipment and factory issues and an inconsistent supply chain. They were then exacerbated by a strong real estate market that impacted the supply of local workforce housing amidst an already constrained labor market. Now, rising inflation and increasing interest rates are driving costs even higher. While all these factors are formidable, and there are no quick solutions for them, new construction properties remain the most in demand retail product in the Nantucket housing market, for sale or for rent. To learn more about current costs per square foot on a project today, or factors related to a project you may be considering, please visit the blog or reach out to a Fisher agent to chat.

One of the first cryptocurrency-based property transactions was documented in the US in 2017. In April 2021, a Miami home sold for the equivalent of $22.5 million and the Florida market appears to be leading the way in listing prices based on non-fungible tokens (NFT). While NFT-based transactions are not yet a predominant force on the island, we anticipate high-end markets like Nantucket could see broader adoption sooner than we may all think based on developing trends. In fact, cryptocurrency tokens have been used as collateral on loans for Nantucket real estate purchases so it’s likely just a matter of time before NFT-based transactions become more mainstream. Or perhaps it’ll become another way to differentiate offers in a competitive market… J. Brent Tartamella, Sales & Rental Agent

Real-time data and insights 21 Main Street, Nantucket, MA | 508.228.4407

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BowWow

WRITTEN BY REBECCA SETTAR

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT NOBLE

Jessica Sosebee marks the ten-year anniversary of Nantucket Island Safe Harbor for Animals

uthanizing healthy puppies and kittens was not a task Jessica Sosebee anticipated when she decided to work for the advocacy of animals, but that is exactly what she found herself doing while managing a local animal shelter in the rural town of Starkville, Mississippi, as a twenty-threeyear-old graduate student. “It was horrific, and it changed my life,” recalls Sosebee, the executive director of Nantucket Island Safe Harbor for Animals (NiSHA), of that single year of experience—only one because it was all she could emotionally withstand. “Seeing that volume of animals come in every day with a very low amount of good, adoptable, loving homes was just devastating.” Upon returning to her home of Nantucket and touring what was then the local Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) shelter, Sosebee was told it had been over six months since they last had a dog for adoption, and

the kennel was typically empty. “At that point I just thought, we’ve got thousands of healthy, friendly, sweet, loving animals down south that are being euthanized every day, so that’s when we started transporting them to Nantucket.” Today, approximately seventy dogs a year, or about six litters of puppies, affectionately referred to as “Mississippi Mutts,” nearly all of which are vetted, housebroken and socialized, are delivered into the loving and eager arms of the Nantucket community. The project quickly became so popular and in demand that even President Joe Biden’s late son Beau Biden once made a family member of one—and there is a photo of the former stray boarding Air Force Two for his flight home with his new family. The Mississippi rescue project has since been delegated to volunteer and Nantucket native Lori Smith, who, according to Sosebee, “has put in thousands of hours over the years.”

Jessica Sosebee and her team at NiSHA

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Jessica Sosebee

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Jessica Sosebee

But this work is all due in large part to Sosebee, who in contrast hardly gives herself a pat on the back for the effort. “In the past few years, I’ve realized we’re not getting anywhere,” she says matter-of-factly. “It’s a Band-Aid. Nothing’s changing.” This is why Sosebee and her staff at NiSHA have started a grant that will help fund no-cost spaying and neutering in the rural towns from where the rescues are made. “I think it’s our responsibility on the receiving end to start making some changes,” she explains. “Eventually all of us want to be out of work—that’s the goal.” Currently, Sosebee’s work is not limited just to her responsibilities at NiSHA. She also serves as district leader for the Ninth Congressional District of Massachusetts as an advocate for all animalrelated legislation affecting the Cape and Islands. Her leadership on- and off-island was not by design.

“We are very proud that we are an open-door policy in the sense that we never turn away an animal—or a person that needs help with their animal.” — Jessica Sosebee

jjjjEleven years ago, in the fall of 2011 and amidst a global recession, Sosebee and her co-workers employed by the MSPCA were given just three months’ notice that the organization would be closing the doors on its island location indefinitely. With the desperate need for an on-island animal shelter, Sosebee recruited fellow staff and local volunteers to quickly form NiSHA, a nonprofit animal welfare organization that opened to the public on the very day the MSPCA closed, January 1, 2012, requiring no animals to be relocated or turned away. Today, with Sosebee at the helm, NiSHA is celebrating its tenth

year of service to the community and its many accomplishments. But the organization is also highlighting the struggles it still faces and its future aspirations. “NiSHA has really evolved,” Sosebee explains. “We started off in a very reactive way,

but now we are fully staffed and we have several community outreach programs, including humane education in schools, visits to Our Island Home, elderly assistance, a pet food pantry and more. Adoptions are just one small piece of what we are doing.” And, as Sosebee explains, all of these programs are completely dependent on financial donations. “We are very proud that we are an open-door policy in the sense that we never turn away an animal—or a person that needs help with their animal. There is no judgment, no matter what the circumstances. Really, we’re an animal welfare resource center.” A much-anticipated and key component of the organization’s fundraising is its annual gala held every summer under the tent at Bartlett’s Farm, this year on Friday, August 5th. “This year, our theme is ‘There’s no place like home,’ and we will have live entertainment, dancing and, of course, the ever-popular doggy fashion show,” Sosebee says. In addition to funding programs that would serve the island community, the organization also hopes to obtain a permanent home on Nantucket as well.

“What people may not understand is that we are tenants in the Offshore Animal Hospital [located at the same address on Crooked Lane] and we are not affiliated with them, although we do have an excellent working relationship,” she says. “But we really do need a facility that will adequately let us provide the services that we are providing, like space for kids to come visit and have classes onsite, dog training and more. Currently, it’s not a good working environment for our staff and also not a great animal space. We definitely need a new home.” In addition to financial donations, Sosebee explains that volunteers are always welcome, in the form of fostering animals, walking dogs and assisting the elderly with their animal needs. “We’ve tested what Nantucket needs, and there are a lot of needs,” she says. In her personal time, Sosebee loves walking with her own Mississippi rescue, Freja, exploring the thousands of acres of conservation land on this beautiful island she proudly calls home. “I feel really fortunate to do what I do here on Nantucket,” Sosebee says. “The community is extremely receptive and animal-loving already. People here really love their animals; they are their best friends, and they want to do the best thing for them.”

To learn more about NiSHA or to make a donation, visit nishanimals.org. 5 8

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From Nantucket to New York And Around the Globe

Recognized for market knowledge and top achievement, Lydia Sussek offers global real estate advisory in sales, residential property purchasing and negotiation. Available 365 days, Lydia looks forward to assisting with your every real estate need.

Lydia Sussek Licensed Real Estate Salesperson Senior Global Real Estate Advisor O 212.350.2224 | M 917.721.7853 lydia.sussek@elliman.com 575 MADISON AVENUE, NY, NY 10022. 212.891.7000 © 2022 DOUGLAS ELLIMAN REAL ESTATE. ALL MATERIAL PRESENTED HEREIN IS INTENDED FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY. WHILE, THIS INFORMATION IS BELIEVED TO BE CORRECT, IT IS REPRESENTED SUBJECT TO ERRORS, OMISSIONS, CHANGES OR WITHDRAWAL WITHOUT NOTICE. ALL PROPERTY INFORMATION, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO SQUARE FOOTAGE, ROOM COUNT, NUMBER OF BEDROOMS AND THE SCHOOL DISTRICT IN PROPERTY LISTINGS SHOULD BE VERIFIED BY YOUR OWN ATTORNEY, ARCHITECT OR ZONING EXPERT EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY. N - M A G A Z I N E . C O M

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Nantucket and Ukraine are Oceans Apart But Today, We are Neighbors. The brutal Russian war on Ukraine has displaced nearly 4 million men, women, and children. Nantucket Cares new mission is to help refugees who have fled to Poland by providing them with necessities, especially those who have been brought to remote locations. We purchase and distribute our own supplies, making sure badly needed medicine, food products and paper goods go directly to those in need. Your help to expand our mission is needed now.

Please donate at nantucketcares.com

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O CEANFRONT.Nothing Compares Madaket Beach Retreat Sweeping ocean views, spectacular sunsets and authentic Nantucket charm located at 36 Sheep Pond Road. This beach retreat, abutting conservation land, offers four bedrooms in the main house and a separate finished studio with a full bath and kitchenette. Two additional structures allow for extra storage and studio space. Sited on a two acre lot with expansion potential-seven bedroom septic in place-floor plan, elevations and site plan available. Unobstructed ocean views and direct access to the beach. Offered at $4,995,000

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KEYS TO SURVIVAL WRITTEN BY JASON GRAZIADEI

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT NOBLE

Maudjeani Pelissier playing the piano in the Nantucket Community Music Center

After surviving a deadly earthquake in Haiti, Maudjeani Pelissier found music on Nantucket

rowing up on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti, Maudjeani Pelissier’s only exposure to music was through his father’s record player. The sounds of Motown, Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder would fill the small room where he spent most of his days, as it was dangerous to stray too far from his home. When he arrived on Nantucket in 2019 at the age of 14, Maudjeani had still never played an instrument. But this March, he found himself on stage at the Nantucket Community Music Center for a solo piano and lyrical performance of four songs he had composed over the past year. The soft-spoken, self-taught seventeen-year-old musician was now headlining his own show. “I still can’t believe I can actually play the piano now,” said Maudjeani (pronounced Moe-Johnny). “Sometimes I’m like, man. I’m pretty happy playing the piano.” The four songs Maudjeani played for a packed house at the music center are part of his debut album, Blooming, which is a work in progress that he describes as “pop music with a twist.” The album title is fitting for the Nantucket High School senior who just picked up piano less than a year ago and has learned to play simply

by listening, trial and error and lots of practice, rather than reading music. “I just figure it out,” he said. In June, Maudjeani will graduate from Nantucket High School before heading off to UMass Lowell to study music production, capping off a fateful journey to the island from Haiti just before the pandemic hit. But COVID-19 was far from the first hardship he had experienced. Maudjeani was only six years old when a massive earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010. Port-au-Prince, just 15 miles from the epicenter, was devastated, and some estimates pegged the casualties as high as 300,000 people. The calamity defined Maudjeani’s childhood. “It was very scary,” Maudjeani said. “I remember you couldn’t use the water; there was no electricity. At that moment, we had the whole neighborhood coming into one place, then we would put food together and do stuff for each other until people could start living by themselves again.” The family collected rainwater to purify and drink, he recalled, and while he didn’t lose any of his immediate family members in the quake, they knew many who did. In the years that followed, the area never truly recovered and the conditions left Maudjeani isolated.

“When I was in Haiti, most of my life I just stayed in my house...I wanted to go to a place where I could actually get out of the house and do something else.” — Maudjeani Pelissier

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“When I was in Haiti, most of my life I just stayed in my house,” he said. “The only thing I probably did was go to my house and go to school, back and forth. It was not very safe to go out by myself or do anything else really. So I wanted to go to a place where I could actually get out of the house and do something else. School was very hard there too. There were many days I could not go to school because of protesting and other problems so I really wanted to leave the country at this point.” As he entered his teenage years, he found that opportunity. Maudjeani’s aunt, Moirar Leveille, had lived on Nantucket for years, working as a mental health counselor and motivational speaker. She was the connection that brought Maudjeani and his mother to the island in 2019. The initial transition, he recalled, was a bit of a struggle. “I remember it being really confusing,” Maudjeani said. “I was not used to a big school like this. In my school, there was probably nineteen kids for the whole grade. I got used to it.”

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But just as he was getting used to it, the pandemic arrived and the schools closed. Remote learning was ushered in, and Maudjeani was once again stuck at home and isolated, just under much different circumstances. That’s when he picked up his aunt’s guitar. “I was self-taught pretty much, and “It was during I’ve just been trying to figure out the first week everything, transpose what I hear and of COVID,” he put it into the instrument.” said. “I didn’t — Maudjeani Pelissier have much to do and my aunt had this guitar, and I decided to start learning it.” As restrictions began to lift, Maudjeani started to play for fun with a group of island musicians, including Bob Walder, and had the opportunity to play a piano for the first time. Maudjeani also knew of the Nantucket Community Music Center from his high school music club, and as soon as it reopened its doors to the public in 2021, he became a regular. “I started coming here almost every day to practice,” he said of the organization’s headquarters on Centre Street. “I was self-taught pretty much, and I’ve just been trying to figure out everything, transpose what I hear and put it into the instrument.”

Maudjeani Pelissier playing the guitar, which he learned at the beginning of the pandemic, in the Nantucket Community Music Center

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Creating Together

2020 year brought us all back to the basics, back to what matters most and back home. Now, more than ever, our personal spaces have gotten much more, y know, personal. We’re here to help you create this space you want to be in when the planes aren’t flyin and the sbats aren’t running. Because, let’s be hones Nantucket has always been a refuge in life’s storms

As we rebound as a country, we take nothing for gran Now, more than ever, you should enjoy your nantuck home, your port in the storm. Let our family be a part of building your family’s dream home.

Welcome Home to Nantucke Committed to Excellence Since 2017

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Buried Treasure WRITTEN BY JOSH GRAY

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT NOBLE

ARTIFACT PHOTOS BY ROB BENCHLEY

A priceless collection of artifacts finally sees the light of day David Billings is revealing his world-class collection this summer6 N - M A G A Z I N E . C O M

Kingfisher feather-embellished gilt metal “dragon” finials, Qing dynasty

David Billings and his wife Beverly Hall in their ornate home in Madaket

ucked away among the wind-worn cottages of Nantucket’s western shore resides a collection of Chinese artifacts millennia older than anything ever found on the island. Spanning more than six thousand years, these priceless relics make up one of the most varied and desirable private collections of Asian artifacts in the world. As unlikely as it would seem, the collection is housed along the banks of Hither Creek inside a cottage that looks like any number of other Madaket homes, on an island not known for Chinese treasures. Owned by longtime Nantucket resident David Billings and his wife, noted island photographer Beverly Hall, the four-thousandpiece collection has lived in the couple’s Madaket home for the past decade, filling every nook and cranny, covering every wall, with some pieces even sprinkled among the property’s eclectic gardens. Protected by high-tech, discreet security systems, this space is unlike most museums; there are no hermetically sealed rooms, no attendant asking you to keep a respectful distance from the artifacts—just the owners and a collection that they live with and love. Now, beginning at the end of May, hundreds of the Billings’ finest pieces will be on public display thanks to the Nantucket Historical Association. Entirely self-taught, Billings amassed the collection by purchasing these artifacts over the course of more

than fifty years at hundreds of auctions, private sales and from dealers, dedicating large sums from his personal fortune to the pursuit. From ancient figurines and Ming Covered Longquan Funeral Jar, Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279) dynasty vases to burial suits and statues, the Billings Collection is a fascinating window into one of the world’s richest and oldest cultures. After moving to the island full time in 2008, Billings began a years-long process of transferring his collection from around the world to Nantucket. “At that point, the collection was all over the place,” said Billings. “Moving to Nantucket allowed me to bring everything to one place. That process took about three years and completely filled my small Milk Street house, so much so that I would throw furniture out the back door to make room for pieces as they arrived!” When Billings and Hall met in 2012, they discovered a unique connection. Raised in New York City before moving to the island in 1964, Hall is the daughter of the late Gerry P. Mack, a world-famous collector of antique Chinese snuff bottles. After this initial connection, Billings took Hall on a first date to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel at The Dreamland, and

Earthenware figure of a spirited mythical tricorn beast, Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) 7 0

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Standing Earthenware Storyteller or Entertainer, Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD)

Billings’ world-class collection is housed in a home gallery in Madaket

exactly one year later, they wed. Over the past decade, they’ve consolidated residences to Hall’s longtime Madaket home that began as a small cottage in the mid-1960s and has been added to a handful of times over the years, creating a 7,000-square-foot labyrinth of halls and unique rooms, several of which have been repurposed and converted into sections of the “museum.” At the beginning of the pandemic, Billings and Hall took stock of their collection and decided to share it with others in the form of a book. “The world forced me to stop everything I was doing,” Billings said. “I was always so busy with the various projects I had been dedicating myself to, that I never thought there would be a window to create a book, no matter how many friends had been telling me to write one. COVID changed all of that.” Meticulously detailed, the couple’s new book, Passion and Pursuit: The David Billings Billings and Hall outside Collection, is a four-hundred-page tome offering their home incredible detail as well as hundreds of high-resolution photographs taken by photographer and Nantucket resident Rob Benchley. Part of producing the book required some serious restorations of specific pieces, which was made more difficult by the fact that virtually every museum and art restorer had been shut down due to COVID-19. “I ended up consulting with several of the large London museums,” Billings said, “since no one was picking up here in the States.” However, one American museum that did reach out during the pandemic was the Nantucket Historical Association, offering an opportunity to show his unified collection to the wider public for the first time. Over many months of negotiations, which included finding a curator that Billings felt he could Pair of Mounted Hunters with Cheetahs, Tang Dynasty (618-907) work with to produce a show that would meet his high standards, it was agreed that of the thousands of pieces in the collection, just three hundred of the finest, oldest and rarest would appear in the

Warrior with Armor, Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD)

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Billings and Hall with their dog

Broad Street exhibition. Exhibit curator Alice “Tita” Hyland said the book and the collection offer “an extraordinary opportunity to expand our knowledge of these creations made over thousands of years throughout Asia.” She added, “We are the beneficiaries of their commitment to collecting so many noteworthy treasures.” One of the more notable pieces in the exhibition will be a five-footlong burial suit from the Han dynasty (approximately 200 BCE) made up of almost three thousand small jade plates tied together by strands of gold that took five months to restore. This afterlife garment made for a woman of high rank has a beautiful chest plate emblazoned with twin rising phoenixes and is believed to have taken at least ten years to make.

dates back as far as four thousand years before Christ, and a white glazed vase from the Song dynasty formerly owned by the Mellon family. This vase is an important piece as it is one of the first examples of white glaze being used in China. In fact, the Billings Collection mainly consists of ceramics, but it also includes a variety of objects in bronze, wood and jade, as well as many textiles and several large Buddhas, including one weighing more than 1,200 pounds. And not all of the collection is from China, with masterpieces from India, Burma, Cambodia, Tibet, Korea and Japan included as well. “I think I love the historical context with more than eight thousand years of recorded history,” Billings explained of his motivation. “I’ve loved studying the different dynasties and why they did the things they did. A lot of these objects are from tombs, which preserved them from the power transitions over the centuries when the invading or rebelling force would destroy everything significant to the previous rulers. I love that when you stitch all the history back together, you end up with an extraordinary story that continues on today.”

“I love that when you stitch all the history back together, you end up with an extraordinary story that continues on today.” — David Billings

Other highlights include the Peking Opera, a diorama of thirty-nine figurines detailing an elaborate and colorful staging of a Chinese opera. Also featured are an eggshell-thin black earthenware cup from the Longshan Neolithic culture, which (Middle) Pair of Lokapalas,Tang Dynasty (618–907) ; (Bottom) Ornate Money Tree Stand, Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD)

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THE

BLUE

WAVE WRITTEN BY GRETA FEENEY ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATT KISIDAY

Blue Flag Partners has taken Nantucket hospitality by storm. What’s their game plan?

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or better and for worse, the look and feel of Nantucket has been shaped by influential developers, beginning with Walter Beinecke who purchased 80 percent of the properties downtown as well as the dilapidated docks in the 1960s and proceeded to mold Nantucket as we know it today. In more recent decades, Steve Karp of New England Development took over many of Beinecke’s former properties and has made his mark through scores of high-end retail and hotel properties dotting the island. But now there appears to be new kids on the block who are wasting no time putting their stakes in the ground. With breathtaking speed, Blue Flag Partners has acquired a shocking amount of prime, historic commercial real estate on Nantucket. The Boston-based development firm arrived quietly on the scene in 2015, taking center stage four years later when it purchased The Roberts Collection on Centre Street for $25.1 million. The following year, Blue Flag picked up speed, developing the Cannonbury Lane and Hawthorne Park subdivisions, opening a hotel on Cliff Road called Life House Nantucket (formerly Century House), and then acquiring Hawthorn House on Chestnut Street, followed by the Star of the Sea youth hostel, which it wrested from the Egan Maritime Institute for $3.55 million.

Blue Flag Partners (left to right) Tyler Hardy, Jason Brown , Terry Sanford, Brad Guidi and Brian Barnett

This winter, Blue Flag went on to absorb The Beachside for $38 million, along with a $13.3 million historic hospitality cluster that includes The Woodbox Inn at 27-29 Fair (a 300-yearold building that had been condemned by the Nantucket Health Department as unfit for human habitation), 31 India Street and the Pineapple Inn at 10 Hussey Street. The group also acquired The Boarding House and The Pearl from Seth and Angela Raynor for $7.2 million last September. “The truth is that many of the long-standing owners of Nantucket real estate are retiring after many years of serving the community,” says Brad Guidi, a managing partner at Blue Flag. “As this generational shift is happening on Nantucket, many of these properties need a reinvestment or they will simply not be able to support themselves anymore, financially or physically. Blue Flag is trying to find the balance Sister Ship restaurant inside Blue Flag’s hotel Faraway Nantucket

“[Blue Flag] will continue to put the Nantucket community first in every decision we make.” — Brad Guidi

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between all of this while trying to preserve these experiences so the next generation can be able to enjoy what the previous ones did.” When the Meeting House on Centre Street was shuttered in all of its dilapidated, lopsided splendor, Nantucket lost a rare, unpretentious downtown public space where folks of all walks of life could enjoy plein-air dining along the sidewalk or wander back through the shops to purchase gifts from local artisans. In its place has sprung up the Sister Ship—a chic, neo-Colonial affair enclosed by double walls of privet and ivy with an interior that evokes late nineteenth-century Singapore. What does all this mean for Nantucket’s economy and downtown cultural life? Comparisons to the Karp empire are inevitable, but—according to Blue Flag’s supporters and principal partners—not necessarily correct. Guidi wants it made clear that Blue Flag does not share the viewpoint that Karp—also known for buying and “poshing up” old hotels—has neither homogenized nor monopolized any aspect of Nantucket’s economy. “Walter Beinecke’s Sherburne Associates compiled a massive hundred-plus-building All images from Blue Flag’s Faraway Nantucket hotel

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commercial portfolio that Steve Karp’s White Elephant Resorts acquired mostly intact and manages effectively to this day,” Guidi says. “By some estimates, that portfolio includes 80 percent of the retail space in downtown Nantucket. Blue Flag does not aspire to be White Elephant Resorts and anyone who suggests this is simply misinformed.” Blue Flag’s selfdescribed mission to be “stewards of profound experiences” does include high-risk endeavors, including “cleaning up an illegal junk yard into

a cluster subdivision” and running Sister Ship at a loss “so that the islanders would be able to enjoy a night out when everything else is closed.” According to Guidi, Blue Flag has and “will continue to put the Nantucket community first in every decision we make.” To that effect, Blue Flag has shown commitment to supporting the local economy. “One hundred percent of the hotel and restaurant management lives yearround on the island,” he says. “In fact, we value our staff so much that we personally cover housing for them.”

“As a native of Nantucket, I am acutely aware of how important each of the properties we become stewards to are to Nantucket’s culture.” — Terry Sanford

Terry Sanford, also a managing partner at Blue Flag, was born in the Cottage Hospital and attended public school on Nantucket. “As a native of Nantucket, I am acutely aware of how important each of the properties we become stewards to are to Nantucket’s culture,” he says. “We do our best to carry on the legacy and bring it into its next iteration while always respecting the history.” Sanford makes a powerful testimony to the need for firms like his to take on projects like The Woodbox, a “neighborhood gem” that “languished on the market for

over a year without interest from a single conservation group nor a well-heeled neighbor.” Noting how many boutique inns and smaller commercial properties are now being converted into single-family homes, Sanford claims that in order to preserve The Woodbox as a restaurant, “Blue Flag stepped in when we perceived that residential conversion was imminent.” He adds, “Despite having existed for more than hundred years, these ‘powers that be’ argue that any commercial use is inappropriate in this now ritzy residential neighborhood.” N - M A G A Z I N E . C O M

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hile it may not be advisable to hold one’s breath in anticipation of the return of the famed Woodbox popover, rest assured, The Pearl and The Boarding House will be open for business eventually. “Seth and Angela founded The Pearl thirty years ago and truly created magic on the island,” Guidi says. “We are honored that they have entrusted us to be stewarding their decades-long legacies, even down to some of the recipes that have made them island favorites. Guests can be assured that these menu favorites will continue to be front and center and new dishes will be introduced as well in the updated spaces.” Of all of Blue Flag’s acquisitions, perhaps the most uniquely beloved is The Star of the Sea. Built in 1873 as Nantucket’s first lifesaving station, it had been run for the past sixty years as the island’s only youth hostel. A forty-bed open-floor operation sporting Victorian-style architecture where college kids, middle-class families and the thrifty globe-trotter could stay for less than $50 per night, The Star of the Sea was the only real budget lodging on Nantucket.

Stanford agrees that The Star of the Sea is irreplaceable. “It’s a special property whose Café space in Sister Ship hostel-style hotel business model ultimately failed and could no longer support the capital needs of maintaining the buildings,” he says. “When it was put up for sale, there were proposals to convert it to residential use or to turn it into a museum with corporate offices. “We’re doing Our team at Blue Flag was compelled to try our best to and salvage the only hotel experience on the find that balance… South Shore.” The viability of maintaining time will tell this property for lodging use where this ultimately is up against the complex and lands but we sometimes crushing regulatory will do our best oversight of the town. “But the to preserve opportunity for an island visitor to Nantucket as we spend the night under the stars,” know and love it.” Sanford says, “listening to the surf endlessly roll in is an endangered — Terry Sanford Nantucket experience and one worth trying to save and protect.” When asked what their long-term vision is for their growing portfolio of properties, whether to hold or eventually sell, Sanford says, “We look forward to continuing to honor the history of the island we know and love with our thoughtful approach to design and locally- rooted experiences.” In an era seemingly defined by divisiveness, Blue Flag is reaching across the aisle to neighbors who suspect their motives are strictly profit-driven. “We have found that trying to protect Nantucket’s cultural experience is one thing, agreeing to what Nantucket’s cultural experience is, is quite another,” Sanford says. “We’re doing our best to find that balance…time will tell where this ultimately lands but we will do our best to preserve Nantucket as we know and love it.”

The Star of the Sea youth hostel, which Blue Flag acquired for $3.55 million (photo by Kit Noble) 7 8

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STEALING THE SHOW WRITTEN BY ROBERT COCUZZO

PHOTOGRAPHY BY NOA GRIFFEL

HOW THE BARNICLE BROTHERS BROKE INTO THE MOVIE BUSINESS

Art Direction by Meg Carrigan

“it was a lot of stepping on each other’s toes for ten years. I think we literally got into a fist fight in the middle of the Cincinnati Reds ballpark.” — Colin Barnicle

olin and Nick Barnicle were raised on stories. As the sons of former Boston Globe columnist Mike Barnicle, the two brothers remember running around the streets of Boston as their father interviewed all walks of life, from detectives to bar owners to ballplayers to little old ladies. When it came to pursuing their own brand of storytelling, instead of newsprint, the brothers turned to film. What started out as playing around with a camcorder shooting funny skits with their younger brother ultimately turned into a New York City-based production house that’s now one of the hottest documentary outfits in the country. The Barnicle Brothers’ 2021 limited series on Netflix, This Is a Robbery, analyzing one of the most famous art heists in American history, was a binge-worthy national sensation. Now the brothers are returning to the Nantucket Film Festival this month with yet another hotly anticipated project centered on a robbery, a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde biopic

titled Carol & Johnny. Before This Is a Robbery had even debuted on Netflix, Colin and Nick had already switched gears to this new project. They were digging through old newspapers, searching for a possible sequel to This Is a Robbery, when they discovered a blurb in a Seattle newspaper from 1994 about a husband and wife named Carol and Johnny Williams who were in prison for commit-

There wasn’t a lot of information available about the criminal couple, so Colin searched for John Williams in the U.S. Bureau of Prisons inmate database and found that he was serving a life sentence. The brothers wrote him a letter. They received a lengthy ten-page reply written on a yellow legal pad in perfect penmanship. “It was so interesting and engrossing that we started a correspondence with him in prison,” said Colin, who leads the creative arm of the Barnicle Brothers duo as director and chief filmmaker. “Then he got out of pris-

Colin Barnicle shooting This Is a Robbery

ting a string of fifty-six consecutive bank robberies, the most in American history.

on on compassion release, which was a surprise to us…and a surprise to him, too.”

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had to pull on. What the brothers discovered after meeting with John and Carol was that their story wasn’t limited to their criminal past—a smashand-grab string of stickups during which John earned the nickname in the press as “The Shootist” for unloading his firearm into the air to scare bank tellers. As they developed a close rapport with the couple, the brothers realized that this was also a story about Nick and Colin shooting reenactment scenes for This Is a Robbery

Colin and Nick Barnicle

olin was the second person Williams called after he became a free man. Hearing his gravelly Midwestern drawl for the first time over the phone, the filmmaker knew instantly that he had a documentary on his hands. But he didn’t want to go about shooting it in the same way that he had with This Is a Robbery. Working during the pandemic, Colin decided to strip down his filmmaking process to the bare essentials. “With the exception of two days, Colin shot every single “The storytelling comes from our thing you will see in the film,” dad, given what he did for a living, said Nick, who runs the producbut in terms of the staying rock tion side of Barnicle Brothers. solid and making sure that your “He edited every single piece head is constantly above water, you will see in the film. He that comes from our mom— traveled to Seattle, Texas, New Mexico…as a one-man band.” the great Anne Finucane!— The result was an intimate porwho has ice water in her veins.” trayal of the couple, following — Colin Barnicle unexpected threads that Colin

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a husband and wife returning to life outside of the penitentiary. “As they explained their past to us, their future in the present situation literally changes,” Colin described. “They start thinking differently about things, they start to relate to each other in different ways. So the film is really about what you do when you’re seventy years old, an ex-bank robber and you get out prison. What kind of

life can you build?” Colin and Nick earned their filmmak“We’re the complete ing chops on the job—some more sucCarol & Johnny was shot, edited and cessful than others. “We were really submitted to film festivals—debuting at opposite...It’s bad at working for other people,” Colthe Tribeca Film Festival on June 8th— more like steel in admitted. “I was actually an intern within a year, a breakneck pace comsharpening steel.” pared to the seven-year saga that went at Jimmy Fallon not getting paid and — Nick Barnicle into creating This Is a Robbery. “We I still got fired. I was working forty were probably the most unsuccessful hours a week for free and I was still people to have a movie on Netflix,” joked Colin. “Over so bad that they said, ‘No thank you.’” Nick was able the course of ten years, we probably went bankrupt five to hold down a gig working with YouTube superstar times.” Indeed, the ascension of the Barnicle Brothers Casey Neistat during his early days producing an as the new darlings of the film festival circuit has been HBO series with Neistat’s brother Van and Nantucket more like a turbulent hot air balloon ride than a trip on Nectars founder Tom Scott. The Barnicles eventually a rocket ship, in which the brothers have sometimes had opened an office directly across the street from Neistat’s in New York City and began pulling together to heave deadweight over the side to stay afloat. their own filmmaking outfit. With no formal education in cinematography, both

Colin shooting scenes of Boston for This Is a Robbery

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ne of their first films was a short documentary on Boston Red Sox employees that ultimately led to them getting a regular assignment with Sunday Night Baseball. Despite spending their entire lives together, Colin and Nick struggled early on to carve out a productive working relationship. “It was like having a dance partner without any instructions; it was a lot of stepping on each other’s toes for ten years,” Colin described. “I think we literally got into a fist fight in the middle of the Cincinnati Reds ballpark…and we were old enough at that point that Nick threw out his back and I broke my glasses.” Unlike other famous filmmaking brothers such as the Coens or Farrellys, Colin and Nick do not consider themselves to be two halves of the same brain. “We’re the complete opposite of that,” Nick said. “It’s more like steel sharpening steel.” By the time they started breaking ground on This Is a Robbery in 2015, Colin’s and Nick’s roles in the operation were well defined. While Colin helms much of the creative direction, cinematography and editing, Nick is the engine behind production—getting the film funded, ensuring the crew is on set, keeping the schedule—as well as working the phones to get

Nick and Colin Barnicle in their New York City studios

the project picked up and distributed. Despite their different personalities and responsibilities, both brothers have inherited helpful traits from their parents, Mike Barnicle, now a pundit on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and Bank of America vice Carol and John Williams chair Anne Finucane. “I’d say that most of the attributes that are good were inherited from them, especially from my mother,” Nick laughed. Colin agreed, adding, “The storytelling comes from our dad, given what he did for a living, but in terms of the staying rock solid and making sure that your head is constantly above water, that comes from our mom—the great Anne Finucane!—who has ice water in her veins. We’re still trying to learn that one from her.” Thanks to their parents, Colin and Nick grew up spending their summers on Nantucket. Right before the pandemic, Colin and his wife purchased a home in Sconset, which was where he first began writing the treatment for Carol & Johnny. With the story now returning to the island as part of the Nantucket Film Festival, the Barnicle Brothers will give even more insight on this bank-robbing couple. If anything, the Barnicle Brothers are proof that in some cases crime does indeed pay.

The Barnicle Brothers will be showing Carol & Johnny at the Dreamland as part of the Nantucket Film Festival. Listen to N Magazine's podcast--Nantucket Sound--with Colin Barnicle by scanning Flowcode 8 6

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DARK

COMEDY WRITTEN BY JONATHAN SOROFF

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LEXIE MORELAND

The hilariously dark life and career of summer resident Jill Kargman

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ention the name Jill Kargman, and you’ll get one of two reactions: “Who?” or “Oh my God, she’s hilarious!” The Upper East Side multi-hyphenate is a journalist, novelist, essayist, satirist, TV personality, actor, social media influencer and lifelong summer resident of Nantucket, and if you’re one of those people who don’t know who she is, you’re missing out on some serious laughs. Before her TV show, Odd Mom Out, began airing on Bravo in 2015, Kargman was already a known quantity within certain circles, having

amassed an impressive collection of bylines in magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, and having written such irreverent pop-lit novels as Wolves in Chic Clothing and The Right Address, both with Carrie Karasyov, and The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund, Arm Candy and The Rock Star in Seat 3A on her own. However, the cult success of her TV show catapulted her into the select and subversive kind of pop-cultural stardom enjoyed by the likes of Amy Sedaris and Billy Eichner. Kargman has also been compared to other “voices of their generation,” like Lena Dunham and Pamela Adlon, who share a similarly fish-out-of-water, irascible but lovable ingenuousness. Craig Carraeu

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hen faced with the suggestion that she is, in fact, a bit of a big deal, Kargman responds: “I’m a middle-aged woman on basic cable.” This sardonic quip is characteristic, and her deft hand at exposing herself and her milieu in magazine articles and essays or on TV, without coming across as affected or self-involved, is the secret to her success. Years ago, she published an article in Town & Country about spending the holidays in Sun Valley, Idaho, with close family friends Teresa Heinz and John Kerry. Around the same time, she chronicled the process of decorating her Upper East Side townhouse for Elle Decor. In both articles, she managed to be laugh-out-loud funny without coming across as obnoxious. When I tell her this, her response is “Thank God. There’s nothing worse than sounding like a douchebag.” Despite her snarky-saturnine persona, Kargman insists, “I’m actually really smiley. Humor comes before all the other stuff. My aesthetic might be gloom and doom, but humor comes first. I think I appreciate life more because I come from such a morbid family. Appreciating death makes you enjoy life more.” Odd Mom Out was based on her novel Momzillas. On the show, which ran for three seasons, Kargman played a fictionalized version of herself named Jill Weber, who marries into the sort of snobby family that thinks it’s desperately important to tack a “von” onto their last name. Kargman’s wit surgically burst the bubble of the absurdly

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coddled, cannibalistically competitive Manhattan elite. It was more realistic than the Real Housewives (although they do share some common DNA) and infinitely more entertaining. Part of what makes Kargman such a keen observer of that world is that she grew up in it but has never really been of it. Her father, Arie Ko-

more of an Edward Gorey vibe.” No one would disagree that her aesthetic leans toward the Gothic, which makes her unalloyed adoration for Nantucket something of an anomaly. “I don’t like the beach, or sunshine, or sports, or waking up at 5 a.m. to go see whales or whatever. I love the fog, the history, the cobblestones. The lanterns on Main

“I don’t like the beach, or sunshine, or sports, or waking up at 5 a.m. to go see whales or whatever. I love the fog, the history, the cobblestones. The lanterns on Main Street...It’s the dream horror movie set.” — Jill Kargman

pelman, was the president and chief operating officer of Chanel, and her mother, ironically named Coco, is an admired figure in New York’s philanthropic and social circles (hence, their daughter’s elevated, unerring fashion sense and unique style). Picture Fran Lebowitz, only beautifully dressed. Kargman is a fashion royalty princess crossed with a disaffected thrash-metal rocker. She attended the elite, allgirls Spence School and then Yale, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in art history. Her senior year, she was at a dinner party with then Vogue editor Amy Astley (now editor-in-chief of Architectural Digest). “She was talking about that kid who had gotten caned in Singapore, and how no writers wanted to go there to do a story she needed done,” Kargman recalls, “and I said, ‘I’ll go.’ That was my first magazine assignment.” This macabre back story is exactly the kind of detail Kargman relishes. “Growing up, everybody always compared me to Wednesday Addams,” she says. “Personally, I think it’s way

Street. The soul of it has a very strong New England vibe that’s inherently spooky and charming. It’s the dream horror movie set,” she says, adding gleefully, “My whole childhood, there were three competing ghost tours!” Her paternal grandmother had been a visitor to the island, and her parents bought a house there when Kargman was twelve or thirteen. “Before that, we stayed at the White Elephant,” she says. “Any island, particularly with a history of whaling, and the sea, and loneliness…there’s something so darkly romantic about it,” Kargman rhapsodizes. “I love rainy days. When it rains on Nantucket, everybody’s bitching, and I’m doing a jig in my Wellies. The only happy people are me and the shopkeepers, because the rain forces people into town.” Yet she owes a lot more to the island than a lifetime of gloriously gloomy days. It’s where she met her husband, Harry, a digital advertising entrepreneur, originally from Boston. “Our grandmothers played bridge together for fifty years,” Kargman ex-

“My aesthetic might be gloom and doom, but humor comes first. I think I appreciate life more because I come from such a morbid family. Appreciating death makes you enjoy life more.” — Jill Kargman

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ing, “The #NoEvilStepmother plains, “and they did a bridge is the greatest blessing I could weekend on Nantucket. They set have hoped for.”) us up on a blind date.” As for the new direction KargUnlike most such matchman’s career is taking? During es, theirs ignited and stayed lit. COVID lockdown, her satiri“Harry also grew up going to cal Instagram character DanNantucket, and we were at all ielle (pronounced “Dzanyelle,” the same bonfire parties, in the with a thick Great Neck, Long same line for Steamboat Pizza. Island, accent) got her 222,000 We were in the same place at the followers with hilarious takes same time but never met. Our on speakeasy hair salons, hidthird date was on Nantucket, ing out in the Hamptons, the walking on the beach. It was so depredations of high-end takeromantic. Our fifth date was in Jill Kargman with her dad on Nantucket out and other indignities foisted Paris. It moved pretty quickly.” on entitled New Yorkers. More Twenty years later, the couple recently, she filmed a role in an independent film set have three children: Sadie, 18; Ivy, 15; and Fletch, 14, who in a vintage clothing store in Southampton, and she’s adore Nantucket for all the reasons wasted on their mother. currently working on a play. This fall, Kargman is executive “They live for it,” Kargman says. “Nantucket’s their producing a movie shot in Boston happy place. They love the beach, surfing, swimming, tencalled Guardian about a stand-up nis, sunshine—normal people things.” So what does she do comedian struggling to raise two while her kids are off catching waves or swinging at tennis nieces whose mother is dying of balls? “Power walks with my dad, wandering all the little cancer. The combination of death streets, breaking an ankle on the cobblestones. I love the and comedy couldn’t be more on Whaling Museum. I’m also a big eater, so the restaurants brand for Kargman. are major to me. Black-Eyed Susan’s, Proprietors, Chanti“It’s so funny,” she reflects. cleer. Proportionally, Nantucket gives New York a run for “I was in a no-man’s-land in my its money.” career when Odd Mom Out happened. I wanted to write “My dad bought us all plots a essays, but my publisher while ago. My parents toured was pushing me to do more graveyards the way other people fiction. Instead, I got a job at an ad agentour colleges...So, I might be a cy doing copy, and these brilliant directors, Daniel Rosen2-1-2 girl at heart, but my final berg and Tim Piper, encouraged me to work on a TV show. They set up a meeting with Andy Cohen at Bravo. I think resting place is in the 5-0-8. I he wanted me to do Real Housewives, but somehow, we was so psyched when I found convinced him to do a scripted comedy. He introduced me out I’d be a worm buffet there.” to Lara Spotts, and we developed it together. I didn’t start — Jill Kargman acting till I was forty. So who knows?” There’s one thing she’s certain of, though: She’ll be buried in Nantucket’s cemetery. “My dad bought us In August 2021, Kargman presided at the wedding of her all plots a while ago. My parents toured graveyards the brother, art consultant Will Kopelman, to Vogue fashion way other people tour colleges. He found a plot that had director Allie Michler, at a much-publicized wedding on a ‘great view,’ and once, when I called, he didn’t pick up the island. (Kopelman was previously married to, and has because he was looking at gravestone fonts. So, I might two daughters with, Drew Barrymore. Tellingly, Kargman be a 2-1-2 girl at heart, but my final resting place is in the remains close to Barrymore, appearing on her daytime talk 5-0-8. I was so psyched when I found out I’d be a worm show, and Barrymore, for her part, proclaimed herself presbuffet there.” ident of Michler’s fan club on the Howard Stern Show, say-

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nquiry

Reporter’s Notebook INTERVIEW BY BRUCE A. PERCELAY

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSHUA SIMPSON & KIT NOBLE

Legendary broadcaster Natalie Jacobson reports on her own life in a new memoir During her four decades as co-anchor of Boston’s WCVB-TV, Natalie Jacobson earned a level of respect and admiration seldom seen in the news business. She became synonymous with the city of Boston and earned celebrity status throughout the state. Now this longtime summer resident of Nantucket has turned her journalistic approach inward, reporting on her life and career in a new memoir that hit bookstores this May titled Every Life a Story. N Magazine spoke with Jacobson to discuss how she broke into the industry, some of the highlights of her career and the inspiration behind her debut book. During your tenure in Boston as anchor on Channel 5, you became an iconic figure at a level that few broadcasters have ever achieved. What was it about you and your connection with the audience that elevated you to a very different position in this market? I don’t really know, but I always felt part of the viewers; I am one of them. I’m a very curious person. I love to know the who, what, when, where, why of everything. I drive people crazy. But I think that helped me connect with the audience. I also think most people are good. I like to hear why people think the way they do, why they believe what they do. I don’t have to agree with them, but I like to know their reasoning. That’s why I always found it pretty easy to be fair in interviews, because I didn’t need to be of your political persuasion to respect your opinion, if you had a good reason for your opinion. I’m very grateful for the relationship that I still have with people. It’s comforting. It fills my life. Jacobson with her father

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How did you break the glass ceiling in becoming one of the first female broadcasters to assume an anchor chair? When I first came back from Bangkok, Thailand, where I lived with my first husband, Bill Jacobson, during the Vietnam War, I tried to get an interview with various companies. I could not get a job anywhere because I was a female. I understood that because my own father, who was a first-generation American and very old school at the time, didn’t see any reason for his daughter to go to college. I remember him saying, “Your mother can teach you everything you need to know.” At the time, men did not want to hire a young woman because, as they put it to me, “you’ll probably get pregnant and have children and you’ll quit.” Why didn’t I just give up? In part, because I saw my father—who had no formal education, was not worldly, had no contacts—go from driving a taxi cab to become the president of Gillette North America. He always taught us that if you set your mind to something, if you work hard enough, you can achieve it. So when I faced “no girls need apply,” I just thought, I’ll find a way.

— Kevin O'Leary

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Did you have any early vision of being a broadcaster or did this career happen by circumstance? It definitely happened by circumstance. When I graduated from the University of New Hampshire, very little was available to girls that appealed to me. You could be the secretary, not the president. You could be a nurse, not a doctor. You could be a teacher, not the principal. And while those are honorable professions, they didn’t appeal to me. So I didn’t know what I wanted to do. When I got back from Bangkok, it was the first chance I had to say, “OK, so what are you going to do with your life?” One Jacobson giving the 1990 UNH day I was watching Walter Cronkite commencement address on television and thought, Hmm, journalism. Would I want to be a reporter? Would that be a good job for me? What kind of reporter? With newspapers, you have the written word, with radio you have the spoken word. In television you have it all—writing, pictures and sound. So I decided I would try to see if TV was right for me. From “ascertaining the needs of the community” to producing shows that helped people, I saw this was where I belonged. This was right for me. My goal was to be the best reporter I could be. Photo by Kit Noble Reporters usually cover a story, but they’re seldom part of the story. In the campaign of then-Boston University President John Silber, you became part of the story—not by design I’m sure—but you altered the course of political history in Massachusetts. The audience had a visceral reaction to John Silber’s animus toward you on TV. People said, “You don’t talk to Natalie that way.” Were you surprised at how much influence you had and how you actually influenced the outcome of an election?

I was very surprised and taken aback and chagrined. Of course, I never intended to influence an election. I went back and looked at the tapes of that interview over and over again. I was confident that what we put on the air was accurate. John Silber was a highly intelligent, accomplished, driven man, but his contrarian demeanor came off as angry. And I think that scared people. He said he was going to run a campaign that was not plastic, which meant he was running against the media. He was going to say whatever he wanted. Some of his comments became known as “Silber shockers.” People liked that initially because it was an angry time in Massachusetts. It was not a happy time for voters of the Bay State, and Silber spoke to that anger, much in the same way that

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Mr. Trump spoke to the anger of people when he ran. So what happened? People saw an angry man and that scared them. And I think after a long campaign, people tired of his negative attitude. Over the course of your career, Massachusetts was pumping out presidential candidates—Michael Dukakis, John Kerry, Mitt Romney—but for one reason or another, none of them succeeded. Can you comment as to why bright, competent people like that just didn’t make it? I think they didn’t connect with voters across the country. It’s pretty well established that the people of both coasts tend to not understand the rest of the country, which is sometimes referred to as “flyover country” by people from those two coasts. Even a sitting president made comments about people who are not on those coasts: “Well, let’s leave them to their guns and religion.” A woman who wanted to be president referred to people who didn’t agree with her as “deplorables.” I think that the two coasts, which have certainly produced a lot of elected officials, feel that they lead the way, that their way is the right way for the country. People on the farms of Iowa, in the coal mines of Virginia, in the bayou of Loui-

“When I graduated from the University of New Hampshire, very little was available to girls that appealed to me. You could be the secretary, not the president. You could be a nurse, not a doctor. You could be a teacher, not the principal. And while those are honorable professions, they didn’t appeal to me.” — Natalie Jacobson

siana living with the disasters that have happened to their waterway—they live a different life than the people who go to Boston University, Harvard and Stanford. In my opinion, one reason that the three men who ran for president from Massachusetts did not make it is because they didn’t connect with enough people to be elected.

(Clockwise from the top) Jacobson with Tip O’Neil and Ted Williams; Jacobson with Chet Curtis and their daughter Lindsay Dawn; Jacobson with Dick Albert

Of the many politicians you interviewed, who did you find most compelling? Who had that intangible magic and magnetism? I would say that Tip O’Neill was magical in many ways. Here’s a blue-collar guy who gets elected to the House of Representatives. He was bigger than life. He was a big man physically, but more importantly, he was a big man in terms of his character. He embraced everyone he met. You didn’t have to like his politics to like him. Ronald Reagan is a great example. They couldn’t have been more different. And yet at six o’clock, the differences disappeared and they would have dinner together. Another part of his magic was that he understood the difference between the working-class person—which is where he came from and where he lived—and the elites. For twenty-five years, he and Millie lived in their original home. He didn’t move to Washington until he became House speaker. He stayed con-

You have seen, interviewed, done a character analysis of many political players and understood what makes them successful or not. You were approached by the Republican Party to run against Ted Kennedy, which you ultimately declined. Why did you decline it? And in hindsight, do you think you could have been victorious? I doubt that I would’ve been victorious. I was totally taken aback when members of the Republican Party in Massachusetts asked me to run against him. They brought forward one person who was going to pay

“Tip O’Neil was magical in many ways. Here’s a blue-collar guy who gets elected to the House of Representatives. He was bigger than life. He was a big man physically, but more importantly, he was a big man in terms of his character. He embraced everyone he met.” — Natalie Jacobson

nected with the people that he was elected to govern. And he managed to finesse with the elites with whom he had to work, including people in the Oval Office. He told me he did not like the two presidents he worked under or with, when he was speaker, which were Carter and Reagan. But it didn’t mean he wouldn’t get along with them. It didn’t mean he couldn’t do his job as speaker, which was to deliver for the country and his party.

for the campaign. I would not have to hold one single breakfast or tea to raise a dime, which was intriguing because then you’re beholden to no one, except for this one man. And I was assured I wouldn’t be beholden to him either. This came out of the blue. I had never thought about being a politician. I interviewed politicians. I liked asking the questions, not answering them. But there were two issues at the time that I was very interested in, campaign finance reform and term limits. I thought if we could change that, we would change the elections across

“Perhaps my greatest strength is that I’m curious and like bringing people together through information. I find people fascinating and try to get them to tell their stories to share with our viewers.” — Natalie Jacobson

America. And then I thought: You’re pipe dreaming, girlfriend. What do you know about being a U.S. senator? Nothing. What do you know about the deals you have to cut to get things done, to get bills passed? Nothing. How successful do you think you could be? I don’t think I’d be very successful. And then on a personal level, I was co-anchoring with my husband, Chet Curtis. We had a daughter who was a teenager. Did I want to leave my daughter who needed a mother during those difficult teenage years? Did I want to completely disrupt the partnership I had with my co-anchor and my husband? I just decided that you have a good life as a reporter, why don’t you just stay where you are. At another point in your career, you were approached by 60 Minutes to become a part of their highly visible, influential broadcast team. In your book you indicated how torn you were about not accepting that. If you had gone, how would that have changed your life? Dramatically. Completely. I got a call from CBS News President Dick Salant’s office asking me to come to New York to interview to be a CBS correspondent. Are you kidding me? I’m nobody. I’m N - M A G A Z I N E . C O M

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just learning how to be a local reporter. And they’re talking to me at the home of Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow. So I was frightened. I was certainly honored. And then I was offered the job. To answer your question, I made that decision in a vacuum. I had no one to talk to. I had no one with whom to consult. Why I didn’t

self sixty seconds to think about it, and then I put the whole memory back in my shoebox and put it back in the closet. As a broadcaster, what was your greatest strength and what was your greatest weakness? Perhaps my greatest strength is that I’m curious and like bringing people together through information. I find people fascinating and try to get them to tell their stories to share with our viewers. I like learning why you believe what you do, appreciating your view that

“We all play a role in this world. I hope that through the stories I chose to tell, this book brings that point across, so that everybody feels they have a contribution to make, and understand that we’re all in this together. No one’s life is any more important than anybody else’s life. Every life is a story.” — Natalie Jacobson O’Leary with the other Sharks including Nantucket summer resident Jamie Siminoff

Natalie Jacobson on Surfside Beach

talk to my parents, I have no idea. The whole thing seemed beyond me. I didn’t know what to do. I knew I wanted to have a family as well as to have a career there. So I turned it down. In retrospect, I respect my decision because I made it at the time as best I could. I love the life I had in Boston. But had I taken the offer, I might still be working for 60 Minutes. I do miss being a reporter. So it’s a mixed emotion. I don’t dwell on it, but I watch 60 Minutes pretty much every Sunday and give my-

doesn’t have to be mine. As for my weaknesses, I am low on patience and I tend to be a perfectionist. I expect a lot of myself and also of others. I guess I usually think we could make anything better if we tried, and at times, I probably drove people nuts in that pursuit. What do you hope readers will take away from your book? This book is a memoir, but I titled it Every Life a Story on purpose. We all play a role in this world. I hope that through the stories I chose to tell, this book brings that point across, so that everybody feels they have a contribution to make, and understand that we’re all in this together. No one’s life is any more important than anybody else’s life. Every life is a story.

As a featured author at the Nantucket Book Festival, Natalie Jacobson will be in conversation with Robert Cocuzzo on June 9 at 10 a.m. in the Atheneum Great Hall. Listen to N Magazine's podcast with Natalie Jacobson by scanning Flowcode 1 0 0

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Part of the magic of Nantucket has always been the fascinating people that this faraway island attracts. From titans of industry to media moguls, A-list actors to local legends — there’s no shortage of folks whose life stories grip our imaginations. Join N Magazine as we amplify some of our most riveting interviews in a podcast that will give new meaning to Nantucket Sound.

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NOVEL INTERVIEW BY ROBERT COCUZZO

PORTRAITS BY JOEL SAGET/AFP

IDEAS LITERARY ICON JAMES McBRIDE MAKES A RARE APPEARANCE AT THE NANTUCKET BOOK FESTIVAL THIS JUNE

ames McBride rarely does interviews any more. The National Book Award winner, Presidential Arts and Humanities Medal recipient and Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at New York University says his fifteen minutes of fame are over and it’s time to pass the torch to the next generation of literary talents. However, that’s not to say that people no longer want to hear what he has to say. As the author of half a dozen books exploring race and class in America, McBride’s perspective has never been more necessary. The cornerstone of his bibliography, The Color of Water—a memoir about being raised in a poor Black neighborhood by a white Jewish mother—is considered an American classic, impacting millions of students in the same way that To Kill a Mockingbird did a generation earlier. His latest novel, Deacon King Kong—centering on a shooting in 1969 Brooklyn— has amassed an array of awards and landed on the recommended reading lists of everyone from Oprah to Obama. James McBride will be appearing at the tenth annual Nantucket Book Festival as both a featured author as well as a member of the Rock Bottom Remainders, a band made up of best-selling authors that will perform on Saturday, June 18th. In light of his first visit to the island, McBride waved his no-interviews policy and spoke exclusively to N Magazine about a range of topics, including his process, race in America and the significance of Juneteenth, which coincides with the final day of the book festival.

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In the spirit of the Nantucket Book Festival, what was the first book that you encountered that spoke to you and inspired your literary career? When I was very young, I read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. That was a seminal work for me. I think it set the tone for a lot of my understanding about how the outside world viewed African American life. Even though [Lee has] been criticized for how she depicted Calpurnia and the characters in the novel—people find all kinds of stuff to nitpick over—that’s just a great book. And she was a great writer and a very humble person. That book, probably more than any, pushed me towards the literary life. It’s interesting you bring up To Kill a Mockingbird, because that's required reading for so many students. Now you’re in a position where your books are required reading for so many students, particularly your memoir, The Color of Water. Where does that sit in the psyche of you as a writer, especially as someone who had a mother who was so deliberate in trying to drive you and your siblings toward pursuing education? If you’d have told me this forty years ago, or when I was a kid, that my mother’s life, part of my life, would be part of school curriculum in any country, I’d say you probably were losing your mind. But I think it

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“If you’d have told me this forty years ago, or when I was a kid, that my mother’s life, part of my life, would be part of school curriculum in any country, I’d say you probably were losing your mind.” — James McBride

shows that the evolution of American life is moving forward, however painfully it goes. My mother’s formula actually worked, as flawed as it was in retrospect. The things that she emphasized—school, education, religion, discipline—those things work…If there is one common element in those books—and I’m not comparing myself to Harper Lee at all—but there are characters, like

Atticus Finch and Ruth McBride Jordan, who tried to look to the biggest story in terms of what they wanted for their children. What they wanted for their children is what most of us want, which is our kids to live a good life, to be happy however they are, in whatever form they decide to take, whatever sex they choose, whoever they decide to marry. If you’re lucky, you

get eighty years. That’s maybe thirty thousand days. How much time do you want to waste on hating somebody because they’re not like you? So if those books have anything in common, it would be that. And the fact that they're still being read by people all over the country, I hope it’s considered a piece of good news in a time of notso-good news. When you sit down now to write, does it enter your mind that what you put down on the page could have some impact on the discourse that's happening as a country? If I thought on the big scale, I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed.

McBride being awarded the Presidential Arts and Humanities Medal from Barack Obama

violence is easy on the page, but the ramifications of it last a lifetime. I try to write books that make people feel better. I try to write things that I’d like to read, that make me feel good about people, because generally I do feel good about people. I try to keep cynicism out of my work because cynicism is toxic to creativity. Skepticism is okay. Skepticism is healthy. But cynicism is toxic to creativity and, frankly, to all forms of creation, be they political, sociological or even economic. This year the book festival culminates on the 19th of June, which is Juneteenth. What are your thoughts on Juneteenth being recognized as a national holiday and how do you think that day can best be commemorated? I would just commemorate it by loving somebody. Nothing we do now is going to change the past. As long as we just try to be nice to each other and listen with each other, I think that would be a good way to celebrate it...I’ve always been happy with how our New England brothers and sisters have tried to conduct themselves with regard to matters of race. So I’m glad it's being celebrated up there in Nantucket. I wish that it would be celebrated in places like Columbia, South Carolina, and Houston, Texas, and Moss Point, Mississippi, with that kind of fervor. Until we start accepting each other’s real history, we’re never going anywhere. That’s the fact. That’s the truth of it. In terms of history, there's been some that have said that we shouldn't be celebrating Black History Month because it’s another form of separation? Do you share in that opinion?

Really. I wouldn’t be able to do it. I'm not that smart. I’m very lucky to make a living putting words to paper. And I try to make what I write funny, and amusing, and entertaining, and to have some goodness in it, and to push into areas that are interesting but that are not ridiculously violent or ridiculously stupid, because

Should there be a Black History Month? I mean, it doesn’t matter that much. Sure. Why not? It's not that important that we put it all in a month. I’ve never thought about it too much because I don’t really pay attention to these kinds of things. I live with real history. Living with real history means you read three newspapers every day, and you try to bring justice to

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“We need to figure out that this race thing is just a game that just pits us against each other. When you go to an old folks’ home, they're not so worried about race anymore.” — James McBride

wherever you are. These labels, and these committees, and these people—there’s a lot of blabbing and not enough muscle flabbing. I think Black History Month is a good idea, a good thing. And until we come up with something better, why not? Why not keep it going? I think the bigger question is how do we find ways to talk to each other honestly, without texting, tweeting, and TikToking, and Flickflocking, and all this other nonsense? The more important questions are, how can we stop giant media from controlling the way we talk to each other, and manipulating information, and news that is disguised as propaganda, and propaganda that’s disguised as news? That’s a much more important question, in my mind, than the whole business of Black History Month. There was a huge upswelling of support and calls for social justice in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and other Black men and women, particularly at the hands of police. It captivated the nation. What were some of the takeaways from that period of time, and were there missed opportunities? What happened to George Floyd is not new. This has been happening all my life. So I like the fact that people were

paying attention to this poor man and the details of his life, and not treating him like he was just another story on the news. Yes, there’s always missed opportunity to discuss these things in a real way. I can’t say how, specifically, we might have had missed opportunities with regard to George Floyd, but I’m sure glad we started talking to each other. And I like to think that the deaths of Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, and so many like them have given us the opportunity to examine in fruitful ways how we can change police tactics and change how we view each other. We need to figure out that this race thing is just a game that just pits us against each other. When you go to an old folks’ home, they're not so worried about race anymore. What are you looking forward to with the Nantucket Book Festival? I’m looking forward to just trying to inspire young people. I mean, I’ve had my fifteen minutes, man. It’s time for somebody else to have their time. I don’t remember meeting anybody like me when I was young. I just don't remember it. And so I’m mindful that young people think I’m smart. That’s really a problem for them, I think. I’m honored that people will be listening to me.

This interview has been edited and condensed due to space limitations. To listen to the entire unedited discussion, scan the Flowcode at right. WWW.NANTUCKETPODCAST.COM

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KIMONO: CURRENTVINTAGE JEANS: MURRAY’S TOGGERY SHOP TANK TOP: MILLY & GRACE SHOES: MILLY & GRACE JEWELRY: CURRENTVINTAGE

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DRESS: VINEYARD VINES SWEATER: MURRAY’S TOGGERY SHOP EARRINGS: HEIDI WEDDENDORF BRACELETS: MURRAY’S TOGGERY SHOP RING: ICARUS & CO. PURSE: MURRAY’S TOGGERY SHOP SHOES: MURRAY’S TOGGERY SHOP

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DRESS: CURRENTVINTAGE PURSE: MURRAY’S TOGGERY SHOP RING: ICARUS & CO. EARRINGS: HEIDI WEDDENDORF

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2 1 B R O A D H OT E L .C O M · 508-228-4749 N - M A G A Z I N E . C O M

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AIR TAXI SERVICE Serving the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic info@skylineflight.com I 877.359.7594 I www.skylineflight.com

Clothing by The Lovely & Peachtree Kids

Complete Landscape Design, Installation & Maintenance on Nantucket atlanticlandscaping

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Tel: 508.325.6777

atlanticlandscapinginc.com

Hulbert Avenue | Prime Waterfront Compound | $16,950,000

Enter through a private garden to access the main house, or down the central boardwalk if you want to go directly out to the beautiful large lawn that overlooks the harbor. The views to the east, west and north go forever. Sunrises, sunsets, sailing, boating and the best view of the 4th of July fireworks. These two waterfront homes have 4 bedrooms, multiple living areas including common rooms on both 1st and 2nd floors and expansive decks and porches overlooking Nantucket Harbor. The main house has 2 bedrooms and 3.5 baths, with an elevator. the cottage has 2 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. The main house was newly built in 2008, the cottage had been a boat house built in 1983 and updated to 2 bedrooms in 2008. Both buildings are in excellent condition. The expansive gardens are exceptional. The unusually large yard at the waters edge is a prime spot for watching the world go by.

Recognized as the #1 Luxury Brokerage by Leading Real Estate Companies of the World Official Real Estate Company of the Boston Red Sox

Robert Young, Broker Associate 508.325.1571 | Robert.Young@raveis.com William Raveis Platinum Club

#1 Sales Associate Closed Volume Massachusetts

17 MAIN STREET | NANTUCKET, MA | 02554 | 508.228.9117 | RAVEISNANTUCKET.COM

NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION PRESENTS A MAJOR SUMMER EXHIBITION

ON DISPLAY MAY 28 – NOVEMBER 1, 2022 Lead Corporate Sponsor

NANTUCKET REAL ESTATE • MORTGAGE • INSURANCE

Passion and Pursuit: The Billings Collection, a book published with the exhibition is available at the museum shop. Learn more and book your visit at NHA.org Nantucket Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street | 508-228-1894 1 2 2

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@ackhistory

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Dog Years Dig into Nantucket’s pets of the past courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association photo archives

A little girl and her puppy outside of the NOcean View House in 1911 - M A G A Z I N E . C O M 1 2 3

John C. Gardner with dog in buggy in the early 1900s

Baby Harrison Burgess on the lap of his sister Mildred Burgess in 1904

Peter Coffin with his bulldog in 1935

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George Jones with his dog Jancho in the early 1900s (below)

Little girl sitting in a pony-pulled cart

Henry S. Wyer with his dog in 1910

Three island women holding kittens at 4 Joy Street in the 1930s

Young Sonny Butler with two dogs, sitting on the steps of 4 Joy Street in the 1930s

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Austin Strong outside his home on Quince Street in the 1930s

Louise Garnett Gibson and her dog Peggy at 4 Joy Street in the 1930s

Mrs. Freeman and her dog in 1947

Nancy Gardner with her dog in 1937

Dorothy and her pets on a porch swing in 1910

Island woman with her dog in the 1910s

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Mabel Winslow holding two cats in the 1930s

Young man with his dog in a wheelbarrow in the 1910s

Mr. Carter and his dog at Rudder Grange in 1911

Eleanor J. Ham posing with her rabbit in 1946

Francis Holdgate and his dog

Islanders posing with their pets

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76M AIN.COM · 508-228-2533 1 2 8

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NANTUCKET’S COOLEST PHOTO BOOTH SOCIAL MEDIA & PRINTING ON SITE ZOFIAPHOTO.COM FOR MORE INFO & TO RESER VE A STUDIOBOOTH FOR YOUR NEXT EVENT!

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FOG GY

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The forty-sixth annual Nantucket Daffodil Festival was in full bloom this April thanks to a bright spring weekend on the island. From the classic car parade beginning downtown to the tailgate picnic in Sconset, islanders went full throttle with the Daffy spirit. Here's a look at some of the scenes captured by photographer Laurie Richards.

DAFFODIL FESTIVAL DEIRDRE SPLAINE LEWIS & HEATHER UNRUH

AVA MOSSCROP

PAT LACOUTURE, ALISON VIETZ, LISSA POTTS & LINDA PELLEGRINI

ANNE O'NEIL, JEFF PORTER, MONICA O'NEIL, STEVE JENNINGS, MONIQUE O'NEIL & MARK O'NEIL

STEVE VISCO, LARRY & DONNA GATES

MASSEY FAMILY, AMANDA, DOUG, MADISON, RILEY, GRAHAM FAMILY, PRISCILLA, NICO, CHARLOTTE, LUKE, PRISCILLA, IAN AND VIRGINIA, JOHNSON FAMILY, BENNETT, KATIE AND HENRY ERIC MCKECHNIE

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DEBI LILLY, MIKE SPRINGER & JACQUES

JENNIFER & JACQUELINE ANTICO, NEELY POWELL & TINK

KATHRYN KAROL, JULIE SUGAR, HOLLY BARBER & LISA NELSON

AL CARDI & BRYAN LARIVEE

MARK DONATO AWARDING THE BEST IN SHOW RIBBON TO THE PERCELAY FAMILY

RICHARD CONGDON, ANNE CONGDON,& SUSAN SCOTT

OLLIE QUIGLEY

THE DUNLAP FAMILY

SUMMER GRANT, NAOMI & THEA HARNISHFEGER

ANN MARIE MINOR, CALI MACCHIA, ROSEMICHELLE MACCHIA, LISA MIELE, & KAREN LAROCCO

LONDON GREEN, ELISA BEN-AKIVA, LANA RIMMER, DYLAN BURRELL, SAYLOR SANFORD, MIREYA PEVERLEY, PIERCE PEVERLEY & DASH GREEN

TINA VASCONCELLES, LINDA MOONEY, PAM BOYER, LANA PETA, CATHY BUNTING, SHERRI HORN & JAYNE KIM ELIZA & PAIGE RUSSELL N - M A G A Z I N E . C O M

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After a two-year hiatus, the Nantucket Historical Association’s annual Flower Power Party was back and better than ever at the Nantucket Whaling Museum. With DJ Billy Voss spinning records, party-goers were dressed to the nines with the Daffodil Festival spirit. Here are some of the looks that won the night captured by photographers Laurie Richards and Zofia & Co.

FLOWER POWER PARTY

BETH ENGLISH & MARK DONATO

BILLY VOSS & SHANNON HADDEN

AVA ROLLINS ANNALISA & TOM NELSON

ANDREA LALONDE & SYLVIA MENENDEZ

ANNE MARIE BRATTON, OLIVIA CHARNEY, & FRIENDS

SANDRA CARUSO, JULIE LANCIA, CONNIE ANNE HARRIS, ELISE GILBERT, JANE DEE 1 3 2

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PETER GREENHALGH, LINDA & BOB TURKINGTON

NILES & SONJA PARKER

JENNY BENZIE & KIRK BAKER

JUDY HILL, KIM KORKRAN & STACEY STUART

KENNY HILBIG & MICHAEL ROSS

MARY & DAVID SHARPE

JULIE CONNOR & ZOFIA CROSBY

SHANTAW BLOISE-MURPHY & BIANCA BROWN

MICHELLE BELLIVEAU, CHRISTINA BECKER-BIRCK, JESSICA RADFORD, KATY KECHES, EDEN DAVIES, RACHEL ROBERTSON, TAMARA GREENMAN, MICHELE GREENMAN

JANETTE & TIM CROWLEY

COLLEEN DUNLEAVY & LAUREN MURRAY SOVERINO

DAVID HANDY & DONALD DALLAIRE

JAMES SCHEURELL & TIM EHRENBERG

featured wedding

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Bride: Madison Finley • Groom: Will Ridgway • Venue: The Westmoor Club Wedding Planner: Handy & Dallaire Events • Photographer: Zofia & Co. Photography Videographer: Yellow Productions • Caterer: The Westmoor Club • Cake: The Westmoor Club Florist: Winston Flowers • Officiant: Siasconset Union Chapel • Tent: Nantucket Tents Bridal Hair: Darya Salon • Bridal Makeup: Darya Salon • Bride’s Dress: Carolina Herrera Groom's Tuxedo: Mister Tuxedo • Band: Protege • Invitations: Bell’Invito

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not so fast

Book End A QUICK CHAT WITH OUTGOING NANTUCKET BOOK FESTIVAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MADDIE HJULSTROM

Who is the one author that you had to pinch yourself when you saw them walk onto the Nantucket Book Festival stage? Louise Penny, who will be back this year. I can say “I knew her when.” We’ve been friends for over fifteen years, when I was at Barnes & Noble and she was just starting out. To see her enjoy so much success and still stay such a wonderful person is really gratifying.

What is in the special sauce that has made the Nantucket Book Festival so successful? It’s the magic that happens when you combine the world’s best authors with the world’s best readers, on the world’s best island.

What’s one thing most people don’t know about you? From 2016 to 2019, I also managed the Daffodil Festival and Christmas Stroll for the Nantucket Chamber of Commerce.

What was the first book that changed your life?

all my free time the rest of the year, so diving into my pile of books after the festival ends is my reward.

What advice would you give to someone who has a hard time reading? Think about the things in life you enjoy and read about those things. Read anything. Don’t let people bully you into thinking that only “high literature” is worthwhile.

What book would you love to see be made into a movie? I loved Ahab’s Wife (Moby-Dick is one of my favorite books)—[it’s] gorgeously written and set on Nantucket. It could be truly beautiful.

What’s one book you wish hadn’t been made into a movie? Probably The Time Traveler’s Wife. Another gorgeously written book that is also frustratingly complicated—on purpose. We’re supposed to feel the frustration the protagonist endures when he hops helplessly back and forth in time. The movie couldn’t capture that and opted for a happy ending (boo!).

What should festivalgoers know about what goes into making the book festival a success each year?

Little Women. When I was ten, my dad was very ill, and I would sit at his bedside every day after school and read. Little Women was the first time I experienced how a book can totally transport you to a different place and time, so that you can forget your worries for at least a little while. Reading saved my life.

We have only one staff member (me, and now Kaley Kokomoor). We rely on an extraordinary group of volunteers and contractors who work much harder than you can imagine. Our donors and sponsors have kept us alive, even with no live festivals during the pandemic. All the work of the Nantucket Book Foundation is a labor of love, from readers to readers.

What’s one key lesson or piece of advice you’ve learned from your book festival tenure that you will be taking with you on your next ventures?

What does this next chapter of your career look like?

Mister Rogers said it best: “Be kind. Be kind. Be kind.”

Roughly how many books do you try to read a year? About two dozen, although I’ve only had time to read in the fall and winter. Preparing for the book festival takes up

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Photo by Tim Ehrenberg

Lots of reading. I want to see more of my two grandsons, who weren’t here when I started at the book festival! And then I’m excited to see where life takes me. (It will probably involve a bookstore.)

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TUNE N Part of the magic of Nantucket has always been the fascinating people that this faraway island attracts. From titans of industry to media moguls, A-list actors to local legends — there’s no shortage of folks whose life stories grip our imaginations. Join N Magazine as we amplify some of our most riveting interviews in a podcast that will give new meaning to Nantucket Sound.

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