Chronogram April 2022 by Chronogram

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Crossing Broadway in Newburgh. Photo by David McIntyre COMMUNITY PAGES, PAGE 40

april

DEPARTMENTS

HIGH SOCIETY

6 On the Cover: Lincoln Center Print

29 The State of Cannabis in the Northeast

“Strict Beauty,” at Williams College Museum of Art is the largest exhibition of Sol LeWitt prints ever mounted.

8 Esteemed Reader Jason Stern focuses on what to ignore.

9 Editor’s Note Brian K. Mahoney on a certain overlooked photograph.

FOOD & DRINK 10 Matters of Taste: Alexis deBoschnek The Catskills-based food influencer is publishing her first cookbook, To the Last Bite, later this month.

15 Sips & Bites Recent openings include The Central in Peekskill; Stissing House in Pine Plains; Momo Valley in Beacon; Blue Plate in Chatham; and Darlings in Tillson.

HOME 16 Impermanent Architecture In the 1970s, artist Yehuda Ben-Yehuda handbuilt an 1,800-square-foot house on the Little Beaverkill that his daughter, Noa Jones, now calls home.

Thomas Winstanley, VP of marketing at Theory Wellness, talks about the state of the marijuana ecosystem in Massachusetts and the rollout in New York. Sign up for High Society, Chronogram’s cannabis culture newsletter,at Chronogram.com/highsociety.

EDUCATION 32 The School That Won’t Give Up High turnover, low funding, and the pandemic have hampered Poughkeepsie’s only public high school. But the narrative is changing.

HEALTH & WELLNESS 37 Staying Independent Facing pressure from large retail chains, community pharmacies are finding creative ways to stay in business.

COMMUNITY PAGES 40 Newburgh: A Light Shines Here Despite its oft-mentioned challenges, this river city is trying to pilot a course that brings economic development without rampant gentrification and disenfranchisement. 4/22 CHRONOGRAM 3

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Sharlto Copley plays Ted Kaczynski in Ted K, Tony Stone's feature film about the Unabomber.

ARTS

Live Music: Some of the concerts we’re going to this month include Club D’Elf at Levon Helm Studios, Mamadou Diabate at MASS MoCA, Bettye Lavette at Bearsville Theater, Shovels & Rope at The Egg, Ballister with Joe McPhee at Tubby’s, and Yonder Mountain String Band at the Bardavon.

Weird Al Yankovic gets his chat on with Peter Aaron prior to his upcoming date at the Bardavon on his Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent Vanity Tour.

The Short List: Hasan Minhaj at UPAC, “Into the Breeches” at the Center for Performing Arts in Rhinebeck, The Chancellor’s Sheep & Wool Showcase at Clermont State Historic Site, Findings Market at Stone Ridge Orchard, and much more.

Art exhibits: Shows from across the region, including Romina Gonzales’s solo sculpture show “The Return” at Visitor Center in Newburgh and “Original Species,” paintings by Laura Gurton and photographs by Daniel Kariko, at Garage Gallery in Beacon.

52 Music Album reviews of Marriage Material by Lorkin O’Reilly (reviewed by Jason Broome); Shine a Bright Light by Sharp 5 (reviewed by Seth Rogovoy); and Solo Guitar Score for 2 x 2 x 4 by Spaghetti Eastern Music (reviewed by Morgan Y. Evans). Plus listening recommendations from David Grimaldi, store manager at Number Nine Records in Kingston.

GUIDE, PAGE 59

53 Books Anne Pyburn Craig reviews The Unwritten Book, Samantha Hunt’s reckoning with death and unfinished manuscripts. Plus short reviews of Sharkey: When Sea Lions Were Stars of Show Business by Gary Bohan, Jr.; A History of Place by Mala Hoffman; A Lynching at Port Jervis: Race and Reckoning in the Gilded Age by Philip Dray; The Red Zone: A Love Story by Chloe Caldwell; and Sacred Sendoffs: An Animal Chaplain’s Advice by Sarah A. Bowen.

54 Poetry Poems by Thomas Bonville, Ivan Jenson, John Joe Kane, George Cassidy Payne, Livingston Rossmoor, Barbara Sheffer, J. R. Solonche, Jaclyn C. Stevenson, Mike Vashen, and Jennifer Wise. Edited by Phillip X Levine.

GUIDE 56

Sydney Cash discusses six decades of artmaking at the nexus of science and innovation with Carl Van Brunt.

Sparrow has explosive thoughts about Tony Stone’s new feature film about the Unabomber, Ted K.

april

HOROSCOPES 68 What Happened to Us? This month, our societal vulnerabilities are relentlessly on display; now we must put them into perspective.

PARTING SHOT 72 The Enamel Pin Paintings of Todd Koelmel At a pop-up gallery in Kingston this month, the painter takes Pop Art out of the gift shop and puts it back on the wall.

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on the cover

Sol LeWitt Lincoln Center Print, color screenprint, 1998

ne day in 1996 my friend Zeke called me up. “Do you know this guy Sol LeWitt?” he asked. “He’s hiring people to draw lines on a wall for $10 an hour.” I explained that LeWitt was a famous conceptual artist, who creates what he calls “scores,” then finds people to execute them. A sample score would be: From the top of a 48-inch square, draw a not straight horizontal line. The line is black. The second line is drawn beneath the first line, as close as possible, imitating the first line. The next line is drawn beneath the second line. Continue copying, until the bottom of the square is reached. That’s Wall drawing #869 (1998). The wall drawings were designed to be temporary. (The art world prefers the word “ephemeral.”) After a month or two, they would be painted over, and disappear. If you’re interested in his work, the closest thing to Sol LeWitt 101 is Mass MOCA, which has 105 of his wall 6 CHRONOGRAM 4/22

drawings spanning the years 1969-2007. (The artist died in 2007, at the age of 78.) LeWitt’s art has a disconcerting way of being both symmetrical and off-balance. His colors look like they were chosen while LeWitt was completely drunk. One can see his wall drawings as a political statement. Having a group of people—including non-artists—create an art object together, then erasing it, so that it can’t be owned by anyone, is a perfect anarchist act! Though best known for his wall drawings, LeWitt worked in many mediums: sculpture, photography, artist books, painting, printmaking. The largest exhibition of the artist’s prints ever mounted, “Strict Beauty: Sol LeWitt Prints” is currently on view at the Williams College Museum of Art. This month’s cover, Lincoln Center Print (1998), is part of “Strict Beauty.” This image was commissioned by Lincoln Center to promote the Mostly Mozart Festival. The same piece was used as a limited-edition silkscreen and on a poster. “The fact that he made this image was not surprising, because LeWitt was a great fan of classical music, and often compared himself to

a composer, in that he wrote scores that others performed,” remarks David Areford, professor of art history at UMass Boston and curator of “Strict Beauty.” Black horizontal lines in the piece resemble the lines in sheet music. In fact, LeWitt collected the musical scores of friends like Philip Glass and Steve Reich, buying them when the composers were low on funds. “This particular print is probably his most overtly musical print, in terms of its conception,” Areford explains. “Staff lines and notation, the musical colors and tempos, repetitions, that all seems reflected in this print. And they really do create a kind of rhythm, and movement.” LeWitt saw Lincoln Center Print as a breakthrough, ushering in brighter colors and more curvilinear forms than he had used in the past. It’s as if the music of Mozart had entered into his art as a collaborator. (Did LeWitt have synesthesia, the ability to see a concerto as a visual shape?) “Strict Beauty: Sol LeWitt Prints” will remain at the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts until June 11. —Sparrow

EDITORIAL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Brian K. Mahoney brian.mahoney@chronogram.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR David C. Perry david.perry@chronogram.com DIGITAL EDITOR Marie Doyon marie.doyon@chronogram.com ARTS EDITOR Peter Aaron music@chronogram.com HEALTH & WELLNESS EDITOR Wendy Kagan health@chronogram.com HOME EDITOR Mary Angeles Armstrong home@chronogram.com POETRY EDITOR Phillip X Levine poetry@chronogram.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Anne Pyburn Craig apcraig@chronogram.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Phillip Pantuso phillip.pantuso@chronogram.com

contributors Sarah Amandolare, Winona Barton-Ballentine, Jason Broome, Rayan El Amine, Morgan Y. Evans, Alexa Gwyn, Lorelai Kude, David McIntyre, Lauren Mowery, Seth Rogovoy, Sparrow, Carl Van Brunt

PUBLISHING FOUNDERS Jason Stern, Amara Projansky PUBLISHER & CEO Amara Projansky amara.projansky@chronogram.com EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT Jan Dewey jan.dewey@chronogram.com BOARD CHAIR David Dell

media specialists Kevin Elliott kevin.elliott@chronogram.com Kaitlyn LeLay kaitlyn.lelay@chronogram.com Kelin Long-Gaye kelin.long-gaye@chronogram.com Kris Schneider kris.schneider@chronogram.com SALES MANAGER Andrea Aldin andrea.aldin@chronogram.com

marketing MARKETING & EVENTS MANAGER Margot Isaacs margot.isaacs@chronogram.com SPONSORED CONTENT EDITOR Ashleigh Lovelace ashleigh.lovelace@chronogram.com

interns EDITORIAL Emma Cariello SALES Jared Winslow

administration FINANCE MANAGER Nicole Clanahan accounting@chronogram.com; (845) 334-8600

production PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Kerry Tinger kerry.tinger@chronogram.com; (845) 334-8600x108 PRODUCTION DESIGNERS Kate Brodowska kate.brodowska@chronogram.com Amy Dooley amy.dooley@chronogram.com

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mission Chronogram is a regional magazine dedicated to stimulating and supporting the creative and cultural life of the Hudson Valley. All contents © Chronogram Media 2022. 4/22 CHRONOGRAM 7

esteemed reader by Jason Stern

The art of knowing is knowing what to ignore. —Rumi

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FAMILY

In Dante’s Inferno, the ninth and deepest circle of hell is not fiery. Dante’s hell is frozen, so cold and inert that nothing moves. It is a realm of inexorable habit and inertia. All the prisoners of this environment are fully encased in ice. The hell that Dante describes is characterized by the absence of freedom. Convicts in this ultimate circle of hell are guilty of crimes of treachery. They include Ptolemy, infamous for murdering invited guests. His crime is considered greater than fratricide or patricide because betraying a relationship willingly entered is more serious than betraying a relationship born into. The icebound image gains potency in consideration of the worlds the Christian tradition plots on the spectrum of hell to paradise as a simultaneous reality here and now. In this latter model, we see the gamuts of the spectrum as concentric worlds which beings inhabit in a manner precisely corresponding to their level of being and the frequency of consciousness the substance of that being conducts. Dante describes nine levels in hell, purgatory, and paradise—27 in all. While Christianity tends to view these domains as afterlife punishments and rewards, for practical consideration, we can view them as frequencies of consciousness to which a being becomes attuned by oscillating at a corresponding vibration here and now. As only verification in experience gives a theory or mental model any value, we are invited to observe these states in ourselves. Hell is a state of delusion with the corresponding negative emotions. This is a condition of fixation on fantastic or imagined threats and dangers. A true taste of delusion can be had by placing attention on any of the readily available news, entertainment, or social media channels for a few moments. This industry glorifies the meaningless and destructive, the banal and petty, the greedy and vicious, as though crime is the reality of the world. And it is, in the world of hell. When we allow our inner life to be occupied with the vibratory frequency of this world, we inevitably serve as instruments for that signal. In Dante’s third circle of hell, the prisoners are swimming in, eating, and spouting shit. This is a good picture of one who is inwardly occupied with the outputs of conventional education and professional media. Purgatory is a more benign place, characterized by absent-minded dreaminess. It is the realm of “going with the flow” in which attention is passive. There is nothing inherently destructive in this state, which is akin to a kind of waking sleep. The danger is that the passivity of attention makes one vulnerable to be captured by fears and fixations on imagined threats that are either invisible or situated in some distant place or time. The threshold to the realm that could be called paradise is in becoming conscious of and free of identification with the contents of our inner life. This means separating the immediate and real from delusions and fantasies. It means inhabiting our own nature with natural wakefulness, allowing our deeper nature to make contact with the natural world. To cross this threshold to paradise requires, as Rumi intoned in the 13th century, knowing what to ignore. The corollary is knowing what to put one’s attention on. Most everyone can recognize the state of natural receptivity and joy that arises spontaneously on a walk in the woods. Here we can allow our nature to make contact with nature. This is the beginning of conducting the frequency of paradise, and it is not limited to a walk in the woods. It is available here and now, always and everywhere. We are taught and told that the world is in peril, that crime is rife, that massive and destructive forces are at work. For most (though not all) direct experience does not support this position. Experience shows that human beings are naturally decent, sensible, and good-natured. We are told that the planet is in peril and become so fixated on this imminent catastrophe that we forget to notice that it is a place of extraordinary deliciousness, a paradise. The movement between worlds is a subtle but palpable shift that depends upon where attention alights. Where attention is, there we are also. So we are faced with a question: Can I begin to ignore the unreal and seek out the real? Can I choose not to be occupied with negative delusion and instead be a vector of awareness, grace, and joy? Can I attune the frequency of my being to the paradise that is always, already here?

editor’s note by Brian K. Mahoney

Almost Too Pretty

David McIntyre

n December, I reached out to one of our photographers, David McIntyre, to talk a bit about the upcoming year’s shooting schedule. David, you see, had photographed all of the cities and towns we featured in our Community Pages section in 2021. Over the course of the year, he had shot thousands of photos of New Paltz and Hudson and Poughkeepsie and Kingston, and all the everywheres. Only a select few images make it into the magazine each month, however (though we do publish more online). I wondered if David wanted to mix it up in some way in 2022, or if he was just over it as an assignment and ready to direct his lens elsewhere. Without skipping a beat, David told me that he was excited to return to the municipalities he’d shot in the past and photograph different people and find new storytelling angles with his camera. Allow me to tell you, dear reader, how relieved I was. David McIntyre is a master of his craft, as I hope you’ve noticed. (If you haven’t yet been dazzled by his work, skip to page 40 now.) When I asked what might help to deepen the impact of this project, bring it to the next level, he suggested spending a week embedded in each community, living and breathing like a Saugertesian or a Beaconite. And while this humble magazine does not have that kind of

budgetary fortitude, I admire David’s innate understanding of his process and what tweaks it would profit from. For this issue, David spent several shooting days in Newburgh in early March. After sending over 75 images from his multi-day shoot, David sent another email with a final image and this note: “I forgot to add this one to the collection, one of my favorites.” It’s the photo above. Gulls circle a broken-down dock populated by pigeons and more gulls. The Hudson is calm in the winter afternoon haze and a freighter plows north, having just passed through the Hudson Highlands and Bannerman’s Island. The sky is blue with wispy clouds. The photo isn’t in the community profile of Newburgh in the current issue. It didn’t make the cut. One reason is that the image isn’t specific enough to Newburgh and doesn’t seem to capture the zeitgeist, the now, of the city. Remove the Highlands in the background and it could be a spot almost anywhere from Peekskill to Coxsackie. Unlike some of David’s other photographs, which clearly illuminate the city’s idiosyncratic character. For instance, a portrait of Genesis Ramos standing outside a bodega. Ramos, a Newburgh native and the daughter of Honduran

immigrants, was recently elected to the Orange County Legislature. The youngest person ever elected to the Orange County Legislature, she is also the first woman of color ever to serve as a legislator. Ramos’s election is a tremendous achievement in and of itself and a possible bellwether of changes to come in county politics. Or, a photo of sculptor Daniel Giordano in his studio—in his grandfather’s former garment factory, located in a decidedly unfashionable part of the city. A rising star in the art world, Giordano will have a solo show at MASS MoCA next year. Much of his work is made from detritus he finds while exploring former industrial sites along the waterfront. Nevertheless, I felt bad not including the image despite the fact that we had no room for it. When I asked David why he liked the photo so much, he replied, “I guess it’s just one of those fleeting moments without any effort that make it special. The guy in pink crossing Broadway [photo on page 3], that’s the opposite—I waited around for over an hour hoping someone interesting would come along.” Well David, here’s the work of an effortless moment in print. It might just be too pretty, if you ask me, but we’ll run it anyway. 4/22 CHRONOGRAM 9

food & drink

Matters of Taste

Alexis deBoschnek grew up in the Catskills. She’s pictured here at her mother’s farmhouse in the Delaware County town of Delhi.

ALEXIS DEBOSCHNEK ON RESOURCEFULNESS, FLAVOR, AND FAMILY By Lauren Mowery 10 FOOD & DRINK CHRONOGRAM 4/22

he adage that life doesn’t move in a linear fashion but makes turns and doubles back, is apt for food influencer Alexis deBoschnek. Born in New York City, DeBoschnek moved to Delhi with her parents, both artists, at age two. She grew up in a big farmhouse with Icelandic horses and chickens. “If you didn’t cook, you didn’t eat,” she says during a phone interview while reminiscing about the dearth of restaurants back then compared to the Catskills today. After stints in New York and Los Angeles, the 31-year-old is back home again, and her first book, To the Last Bite (Simon & Schuster, due out April 19), pays tribute to a rural upbringing that taught her about resourcefulness, flavor, and family. From Soil to City “Working in food media over the last decade, I’ve heard all the buzz words about sustainability, and cutting down on waste, but people didn’t really know how to do that,” deBoschnek says. In high school, she learned to garden, use a chainsaw, and tap for maple syrup. “I took it for granted, knowing how to do these things,” she says. Growing up amidst farms, she discovered at an early age what many American children and adults still rarely experience: fresh, ripe flavor. Whether a carrot dug from the dirt, or a blush tomato plucked off the vine, she learned how vegetables and fruits could—should—taste. “In this book, I keep going back to the way I was brought up because there was such a dedication to our food sources,” deBoschnek says. While her background sounds like a natural fit for the recipe creation and writing in which she’s now engaged, deBoschnek didn’t always imagine this world as her future. Like many youths raised in the quiet hinterland, she dreamed of escaping. After graduating high school early, deBoschnek took a year off and fled to Paris. Fashion piqued her interest, so she returned to New York to the Fashion Institute of Technology. During school, she took an internship at a trend forecasting company. “They were talking about the Pantone color of the year, Mango Tango, like it was groundbreaking. It was very Devil Wears Prada. I just remember sitting there thinking, ‘What am I doing?’” she says with a laugh, recalling the pivotal moment. The summer before her senior year, deBoschnek read Ruth Reichl’s Garlic & Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, which moved her to pursue food writing. She applied to an Eater internship while wrapping up school, then finagled a job as an editorial assistant at Tasting Table. Before she could frame one degree, she had moved on to the next: culinary school at the International Culinary Center in Manhattan. “I felt like I needed to work in a restaurant or go to school, and I knew I didn’t want to work in restaurants; rather, I wanted to create recipes for home cooks,” she says. One Road Leads to Another Many great tales start with “I followed a lover to California.” While those stories often involve a break-up, a relationship’s demise rarely concludes the narrative but rather serves as a preface. For Alexis, Los Angeles, not the boyfriend, proved transformative.

To the Last Bite features a recipe for Spicy Brothy Bacony Beans. “It took me years to figure out how to make a good pot of beans,” deBoschnek says. “Time is the secret ingredient.”

“I thought I would hate it. I thought I was a New Yorker,” she says. The couple arrived in California in November 2014, a time when New York’s trees had shed their leaves and gardens had wilted to the ground. “We got there, and the sun was shining, and the raspberries were ripe and delicious,” deBoschnek says with the rapture of meeting a new amour. She got a job working at Good Eggs, an online grocery store envisioned as a farmers’ market to your door. Unfortunately, the digital retailer closed its Los Angeles, New Orleans, and New York locations suddenly. DeBoschnek then took a job with a catering company and hatched a business plan for a grocery store in LA’s Chinatown that never panned out. Then she applied for a job at Buzzfeed. “That job launched everything” she says. DeBoschnek never aspired to act—she was hired to manage the test kitchen in Los Angeles— but the position pushed her in front of the camera, which she ultimately found exciting. “I got to create recipes while bridging this new space of entertainment and education,” she says.

As on-camera talent at Buzzfeed’s culinary content channel Tasty, deBoschneck hosted the video series “Chef Out of Water” and “Friend in Town,” which racked up tens of millions of views. In “Chef Out of Water,” a mashup of game show and culinary class, deBoschnek had to create a three-course meal with a surprise household appliance like a dishwasher, toaster, or power tool. “The show was insane. More people are cooking with weird appliances, now but at the time, people hadn’t done that. I wanted it to be food I’d make at home, something a bit more elevated and exciting and if you did eat it, you’d be surprised that it could be done. People were intrigued,” she says. The first episode featured deBoschneck making a shrimp salad, poached salmon and asparagus, and chocolate truffles with a coffeemaker. The video got one million hits in 24 hours. Three years ago, she left Buzzfeed for the uncertainties and freedom of the freelance life, and hasn’t looked back. She creates recipes for publications like food52 and kitchn. Controlling her time gave her the chance to pitch a deeply personal project, To the Last Bite. 4/22 CHRONOGRAM FOOD & DRINK 11

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Home Is Where the Table Is DeBoschnek sold To the Last Bite while in Los Angeles, but momentum spurred by a global pandemic swept her home, to her mother’s farmhouse. (Her parents split years prior.) She moved in with her fiancé in October of 2020 to save money while seeking a change of scenery. “We loved it so much we ended up staying,” she says. The move altered the heart of book for the better. “I thought we’d photograph it in LA, but when I got back to Delhi, I realized there never could have been another setting for it but the Catskills,” deBoschnek says. Indeed, To the Last Bite features beautiful photography that captures the mood of the rural mountains, from gravel roads cutting a swath through the summer forest to the timeworn cabinetry of a country kitchen. The book is broken into familiar categories, from Snacks and Spreads to Vegetables and Seafood. DeBoschnek wanted it to be a comprehensive resource for home cooks of all skill levels with tips on maximizing ingredients and using leftovers in other recipes. One chapter covers the soup-to-nuts of stocking a kitchen; another advises readers on how to start a victory garden, sage advice from the past that’s prescient for the future. DeBoschnek writes in the first person, simply and directly to the audience, as one friend to another. Some recipes reference familial experiences, like her mother’s fondness for dipping fries in mayonnaise (she’s Dutch), noted in the recipe for poached shrimp with Thousand Island dressing. Others dive right into to the guts of a dish, like how a simple bowl of farro with mushrooms can rise to heavenly umami heights with the mere addition of Parmesan and soy sauce. As suits her upbringing, DeBoschnek focuses on produce. “I wanted the book to be vegetable-forward. Many of us are trying to eat better and I wanted meat and fish to be celebratory rather than a daily thing,” she explains. One lesson the pandemic has taught DeBoschnek is that life, like a book, passes in chapters, each section filled with different people, places, experiences, and ideas, while a through line of food as literal and metaphorical nourishment holds steady. “Making food for people is my love language. I love seeing how people react when they eat something delicious. It’s my best way of connecting,” she says with a smile. For DeBoschnek, her current chapter continues to unfold across the Catskills, doubling back, for now, to where she started. To the Last Bite will be released on April 19th, 2022. For additional information, please visit alexisdeboschnek.com and follow Alexis on Instagram at @alexisdeboschnek

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Scavenger Hunt Explore this year’s Top 5 Nominees across the Hudson Valley Visit the nominees, complete photo challenges, and win luxury prizes.

The Scavenger Hunt will run during the voting round, from April 1 - May 15. Help your favorites win!

PRIZES INCLUDE

A Spa Package from Mirbeau Inn & Spa Rhinebeck 2021 Runner-Up for Best Resort/Hotel Spa

Irrationally good prizes provided by last year’s winners!

PRIZES FROM CHRONOGRAMMIES 2021 WINNERS

Dinner* at Butterﬁeld 2021 First Place Winner for Best Chef

A Case of Wine from Town & Country Liquor 2021 First Place Winner for Best Wine/Liquor Shop

And more! Visit the most top-nominated businesses and win!

It’s not rocket science, start the challenge April 1

Code: Chronogrammies2022

14 FOOD & DRINK CHRONOGRAM 4/22

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sips & bites Darlings

Just like there are flyover states, there are what could be called drivethrough towns. The hamlet of Tillson in Ulster County is one. Tillson is mostly a residential community, a place you pass through on your way to somewhere else—especially since its one watering hole, the Postage Inn, closed in 2021. But after more than three decades, the building is getting a facelift and a new identity. It will reopen in early May as Darlings, a bar and restaurant serving Southern food and craft cocktails. The venture is the latest hospitality undertaking from the owners of Huckleberry in New Paltz, Julie Dabbs and Billy Simkiss and Leah Allen and Mike O’Neil, who own six bars including New York City-based Abilene, Skylark, Lowlands, and The Adirondack between them. These two couples are joined by a third—Madi Taylor and Luke Peters, who have worked front-of-house at Huckleberry since its opening in 2015.

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The Central

The historic Peekskill train station was built in the 1870s. From the late `90s to the end of the aughts, the beloved PJ Kelly’s Pub and Restaurant occupied the space. They closed in 2011, and the building remained empty for almost a decade. Now, partners Louie Lanza, Chippy Manzer, and John Sharp (Birdsall House, Gleason’s) have given it a chance at life with The Central, which opened in November. There’s plenty of coffee for commuters who need their caffeine fix, with lattes, cappuccinos, and macchiatos made with Peekskill Coffee. A wide selection of pastries is available, with sweet and savory scones ($3.50), biscuits served with honey butter ($3.75), and a quiche with bacon, caramelized onions, and manchego cheese ($4.50). There’s also a variety of sandwiches available. For a classic breakfast, there’s the bacon, egg, and cheese on a kaiser roll ($6). The Spanish brie press comes with jamón, honeycrisp apple, and hot honey dijon ($16). Another option is the veggie press, with hazelnut pesto, eggplant, bell peppers, and feta ($12). A liquor license is in the works, so The Central will offer drinks to returning commuters as well.

330 Railroad Avenue, Peekskill | Centralpeekskill.com

Stissing House

The Stissing House, an 18th-century landmark in Pine Plains, has operated as a bar/restaurant/inn since it was an overnight spot for Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette. Most recently it was run as a French restaurant for 15 years by Michel and Patricia Jean until 2020. In mid-March, chef Clare de Boer reopened the it, keeping the historic name. The revived eatery is the first solo restaurant project for de Boer, an alum of London’s River Cafe (along with Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall, April Bloomfield, and Jamie Oliver, among others revered chefs) who opened the Michelin-starred King in the West Village with fellow Brit Jess Shadbolt and Annie Shi in 2017. The menu is elevated tavern food that’s sturdy and understated—and mostly wood-fired. Dishes includes fin de la Baie oysters from New Brunswyck ($3.50), a Caesar salad ($17), beet and caper soup ($15), wood-roasted chicken with lemon and wedge potatoes ($29), seafood chowder with a giant saltine ($31) and sticky toffee sundae ($13) for dessert.

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Blue Plate

After being closed for more than a year, in late January, Chatham institution Blue Plate reopened for dining. The new owner, David Grunberg, is the son of longtime proprietor Judy Grunberg, who died in 2019. Chef Tomas Antonio is sticking to the established New American culinary vibe of the restaurant›s former identity, but he’s leaning more heavily into local sourcing of ingredients. Some of the dishes currently on the menu include Blue Plate meatloaf ($19), eggplant and chickpea stew ($18), vegetable tempura ($13), herb-roasted half chicken ($24), and grilled trout filets ($28).

1 Kinderhook Street, Chatham | Chathamblueplate.com

Momo Valley

J. Lama, a native of Nepal, has been slowly upscaling her dumpling business since 2018. First she ran a pop-up, then at a stall in the Hudson Valley Food Hall in Beacon. In January, Lama opened her own brick-andmortar location at the east end of the city. For the uninitiated, a momo is a traditional dumpling found primarily in the cuisines of Nepal and Tibet. Momo Valley offers four varieties—chicken, beef, spinach and cheese, and a vegan vegetable medley—(all 6 for $12). All the food is made on premises by Lama and her parents, and the menu includes entrees as well. The Himalayan Chicken Bowl is creamy, chunky chicken and garlicky broccoli served with jasmine or brown rice ($14). The Thukpa Bowl is house-made grass-fed beef bone broth with egg noodle, topped with seared chicken strips and garnished with scallion & cilantro ($16).

455 Main Street, Beacon | Momovalley.com 4/22 CHRONOGRAM FOOD & DRINK 15

the house

16 HOME & GARDEN CHRONOGRAM 4/22

Noa Jones’s father, Yehuda Ben-Yehuda, built the home in the early 1970s on five acres outside of Bearsville. BenYehuda oriented the home toward the Little Beaverkill, which wraps around the structure. Jones has many memories of her father building the home and spending summers with him on the property—some fond and some wild. She remains close with many of her neighbors. “Through the woods are some of my oldest friends in the world,” says Jones. “We often trek back and forth to pay visits unannounced, which I love.” Opposite: The living room in Noa Jones’s post-and-beam home features cathedral ceilings and a wall of windows facing the adjacent stream. Built from 18 different kinds of wood, the interior is a balance between open nooks and private crannies. The green acrylic and epoxy painting above the fireplace is by Jones’s brother, Raphael Ben-Yehuda. On one chair is a carpet gifted to her by Bhutanese monks. “I love the sound of the stream and the way the interior is cozy but those extravagant ceilings are also kind of grand,” says Jones.

IMPERMANENT ARCHITECTURE A HAND-BUILT WOODSTOCK HOME 50 YEARS ON By Mary Angeles Armstrong Photos by Winona Barton-Ballentine

ach spring, the Beaverkill overflows its banks gushes across Noa Jones’s fiveacre property in Bearsville. “It’s all about the stream,” explains Jones of the local tributary which flows in a gracious 180 degree arc around her post-and-beam home. “Right now it’s pretty dry but when the rain comes it can become insanely high. One year beavers built a dam downstream and it became big enough for me to kayak on. I felt like I was living on a lake.” Throughout Jones’s life the stream has been both a constant and a constantly changing feature of the wooded land. Once occupied

by the Esopus tribe, the property fell into the hands of her father, Yehuda Ben-Yehuda, in the early ’70s. He designed and built the 1800-square-foot home, often sharing the space with neighbors and friends, and both owner and house became lively, distinct threads in the fabric of Woodstock. For Jones, who has spent the past five years helping to establish the Middle Way School in Saugerties, the space has come to serve as a refuge—a place where she and her guests can step out of the tumultuous flow of everyday life for moments of peace and community. 4/22 CHRONOGRAM HOME & GARDEN 17

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RE SI D EN TI A L TR AI L D E S I G N

The home’s open kitchen “is the heart of the house, but also the most in need of a rethink,” says Jones. “My dad was an amazing cook. He would sit here playing solitaire and drinking Turkish coffee while his bread baked and his famous Iraqi dill chicken soup simmered.” A portrait of Ben-Yehuda hangs on the wall by the refrigerator. Jones hopes to add a picture window to the space and create a love seat underneath.

No Argument with the Past Jones first came to Woodstock as a toddler with her mother and brother. Although her parents were no longer married, her father soon followed to be closer to his children. “He was a huge character,” Jones says of her father. “His life had a very unusual trajectory and he was always thinking outside the box.” Born in Baghdad in 1932, Ben-Yehuda spent his childhood in Iraq at a time when it was still possible for the family to take road trips from Baghdad to Jerusalem. At the age of 11, he moved to Israel, where he went to school, and then New York City where he was known as an up-and-coming Israeli artist. After moving to Woodstock, Ben-Yehuda helped build the current home of the School of the New Moon in Mt. Tremper, and Jones became one of its first students. The children eventually moved with her mother to Colorado, but her father remained in Bearsville, and they spent summers with him in the Catskills. Some of her earliest memories involve her father building the house. “He was very engaged with the world,” she says. “He wanted to know how things worked and make them himself.” In 1972, Ben-Yehuda began assembling the house piece by piece. “Every summer, we would come

and the house would be in some stage of being built and there was always some kind of weird animal situation,” Jones remembers. “He was trying to raise chickens, or he was trying to raise bees. We had goats and rabbits. We even had two horses for a while. There were always wild things growing everywhere and projects and sawdust.” During the home’s construction, the children lived with Ben-Yehuda in a shack on the opposite side of the stream with the animal feed. “There were no windows on the shack and the raccoons would often break in,” she remembers. Ben-Yehuda finished the home in 1974 (“or never, really,” says Jones) and it quickly became a fixture in the town social scene. Jones and her brother spent summer days at local camps or at the recreation center in town. In the evenings, Ben-Yehuda often took advantage of the home’s large, open living room to host dinner parties and invited the whole town to square dances. And there was always plenty of debate. “He was famous for his cooking and infamous for his arguments and insights,” she says. “He always wanted to see where a person’s blind spot was and was dead set on rooting out hypocrisy. People would leave her either crying or laughing hysterically.” 4/22 CHRONOGRAM HOME & GARDEN 19

Transient Impressions Ben-Yehuda left his footprint all over his handbuilt creation. Perched on a knoll just above the flood plain, he designed and crafted the fourstory home from 18 different kinds of wood, much of which was harvested from the property and milled nearby. Centered around a twostory sunken living room with soaring cathedral ceilings and a wall of windows facing the stream, the three-bedroom, two-bath home features a second floor loft and catwalk with ample nooks and many whimsical flourishes. In the downstairs bathroom, Ben-Yehuda installed a giant sunken copper tub. Through a low rectangular window, the tub enjoys one of the home’s views of nearby Mt. Tobias. ( Jones removed the copper tub, but has replaced it with a clawfoot version.) Upstairs, the second-floor bathroom featured a Japanese soaking tub, (also removed and replaced with a glass shower— Jones hopes to replace it soon). The second-floor bathroom also doubles as a steam room, with heat coming from a vent in the walls. In the living room, a brick chimney divides the living room from the open concept kitchen and dining area. An additional fireplace warms the second-floor study. A tight circular staircase leads to the home’s third floor—originally covered 20 HOME & GARDEN CHRONOGRAM 4/22

with tatami mats as an overflow space for guests. A fourth-floor crow’s nest is accessed up a ladder and through a hatch door. The setting—and the memory of BenYehuda—permeates every square inch of the house, which smells like a mix of cedar and pine and resounds with the babble of flowing water. At an early stage of the home’s construction, BenYehuda tracked paint all over the freshly milled wood planks. “He was messy, not detail-oriented, and very, very impatient,” Jones remembers of her father. “You can see his footprints high up on the living room ceiling, and his handprints are everywhere—there’s a very distinct print on the master bedroom ceiling.” When his eyesight began to fail, Ben-Yehuda returned to Israel. He died in 2010 and Jones and her brother now coown the house. Back to the (Kinder) Garden After graduating from high school in Boulder, Jones attended UMass Amherst and then Hunter College in New York City. She began a career as a journalist, spending two decades traveling for work and living out of her suitcase. “Sometimes when I had downtime and no place to go, I’d camp out in the house,” she says. The rest of the time Jones and her brother rented out the home.

The first-floor bathroom has one of the home’s best views of nearby Mt. Tobias. Jones replaced her father’s copper tub with a vintage claw foot bath. She purchased the curtain on a trip to Kyoto with Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, who she’s worked for since 2001.

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A winding wooden staircase leads to the home’s third and fourth floors. A Juliet window opens to look down on the main living room. These extra, architectural flourishes are some of Jones’s favorite features of the house. “I love the way children light up when they realize there are two secret floors and a Juliet window,” says Jones. Once used as extra sleeping space, Jones wants to put a ham radio on the fourth-floor landing.

4/22 CHRONOGRAM HOME & GARDEN 23

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FAMILY

Jones enjoys the first-floor dining area looking out over the stream. After decades of traveling for her work as a writer and teacher, she moved back to the area in 2017 to begin the Middle Way school, a Buddhist preparatory school for K through 6th grade. She now serves as the school’s curriculum coordinator. Behind her is an image of the Buddha on the cover of the book Celestial Gallery and a sketch by the graffiti artist DALeast.

4/22 CHRONOGRAM HOME & GARDEN 25

Jones began working for the Buddhist monk Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, also known as Khyentse Norbu, in 2001, assisting in the production of a documentary film about his work, serving as communication director for his foundation, and helping to write What Makes You Not a Buddhist and The Guru Drinks Bourbon. Jones’s career as an educator began in 2010 when Rinpoche sent her to Bhutan to develop a Buddhist educational curriculum in partnership with the Bhutanese Ministry of Education. She spent two years attending educational workshops hosted by foreign NGOs and learning everything she could about Bhutan’s history and people, and education in general. During her third year, she created a curriculum for special needs students living at local monetary schools. It was a holistic, project-based curriculum focused on teaching practical skills. Jones left the project in the hands of a Bhutanese teacher and returned to the states to take up a new challenge. In 2017 Norbu gave Jones a new charge: to develop and implement a Buddhist preparatory school and corresponding curriculum that could be replicated throughout the world. It was a 26 HOME & GARDEN CHRONOGRAM 4/22

command that would ultimately send her back to her roots. “Rinpoche knew I already had a place in the Catskills, so we decided this would be a good place to start,” says Jones. Coincidentally, the School for the New Moon was being sold, so Jones first explored that site. “It was really coming full circle for me,” says Jones. However, the location wasn’t right for a larger school body, and Jones found a more appropriate, centrally located site in West Saugerties. Aligned with the Common Core standards, the school focuses on teaching the fundamentals and basic practices of Buddhism, referred to as Dharma, as well as academics and living sciences. “We want children to be able to play the game of life, without getting caught in the game,” says Jones. Meanwhile, Jones has relished reconnecting with her past and grounding herself in her family home. The house her father built has not only provided refuge, but a certain consistency in her life—something she’s profoundly grateful for. “Even though the grounds have changed, and the stream and everything changes, I always knew it was here. I always knew I had it to come back to.”

The home’s first-floor bedroom includes family heirlooms and much art. The orange epoxy painting above the bed is by Jones’s brother, Raphael Ben-Yehuda. The portrait above the blue chair was painted by Alberto Moretti of Jones’s mother, Cristina Ochagavia. Jones’s grandfather, Carlos Ochagavia, created the print of the tree depicting a scene from his life in Argentina.

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FOREST OF DREAMS HUDSON VALLEY FORESTRY TRANSFORMS WILD WOODLANDS INTO WELL-MANAGED LANDSCAPES

f you’ve dreamed of owning a little slice of the country to call your own (or already do), chances are that you have plans for enjoying the land around you. Winding trails to wander through? A treehouse for the kids tucked beneath a few soaring pines? A lush garden full of native flowers? As anyone who has purchased raw land or a house with forest-filled acreage can tell you, woodlands need to be properly managed to make way for all that enjoyment. And tackling all that overgrown underbrush on your own only to make a small dent in the mass of vines and thorny bushes can be daunting to say the least. That’s where Hudson Valley Forestry can lend a helping hand. “We’re not loggers, and we’re not a tree service that you call for trimming or removing one problem tree,” says owner and founder Scott Sans, whose family-owned-andoperated company provides ecologically minded forestry mulching services to the tri-state area. “What we do is bring in specialized equipment, reclaim the land, and get it to where the landowner will be able to maintain it without

ever needing outside intervention again.” Forestry mulching, as the technique is known, is a machine-based land-clearing method to selectively remove unwanted vegetation while leaving behind the trees you like along with a fine layer of mulch. To accomplish the task, Sans uses a tracked vehicle outfitted with a rotary drum full of spinning carbide teeth that eat their way through the tangle of brush, transforming it into mulch that becomes nourishment and protection for the trees. In sensitive areas with a lot of moisture, Sans and his team deploy low ground pressure machines that minimize their wake. “We can handle anything from making you a walking trail to clearing 100 acres for a solar field,” he says. ”Forestry mulching has become our specialty. There’s no soil disturbance, you don’t need a permit, and the grindings that the mulcher leaves are wonderful for soil stabilization. It’s a very green technique.” The impact on the soil may be minimal, but the effect on your pleasure as a landowner is tremendous. The benefits of forestry mulching

are many: it provides flood mitigation, increases soil fertility, reduces stress on trees, suppresses weeds and invasive plant species, and reduces the tick population, a worsening seasonal blight most upstate homeowners are all too familiar with. “We just finished a 17-acre project that was so caught up in undergrowth that a deer couldn’t walk through it,” Sans says. “In the end, it was a forest of mature walnut trees—usable and pretty.” As opposed to logging companies that will come in and clearcut or leave a mess of slash, Hudson Valley Forestry won’t leave you with a big gash in your landscape—only beautified woodland. “We can clear your property as much or as little as you want. We charge by the day, so you can keep us for a week or kick us out after day one,” Sans says. “We can do entry level projects that fit any budget. And I absolutely guarantee that for a couple thousand dollars, we can do more than you could possibly do in a year, even if the whole family pitched in.” Hudsonvalleyforestry.com 4/22 CHRONOGRAM HOME & GARDEN 27

Position yourself just north of centered Take on the day.

28 HIGH SOCIETY CHRONOGRAM 4/22

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The State of Cannabis in the Northeast A Conversation with Thomas Winstanley of Theory Wellness

s New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut race to the regulatory finish line on adult use cannabis, the legal cannabis market in Massachusetts continues to mature since launching retail sales in 2018. In late February, I spoke with Thomas Winstanley, VP of marketing for Theory Wellness, a privately held, medical and recreational cannabis brand with locations in Maine and Massachusetts. Its Great Barrington location, which opened for recreational sales in January 2019, was the first adult-use dispensary in the Berkshires. We spoke about the state of the marijuana ecosystem in Massachusetts, the ongoing rollout of marijuana legalization in New York, and what repercussions federal legalization might have on craft cannabis. —Brian K. Mahoney Did you see the cease-and-desist letter that the Office of Cannabis Management [OCM] sent out to a couple dozen businesses in New York telling them to stop directly selling or indirectly selling marijuana through gifting? This OCM letter is crazy. I’m just pulling this up now. What’s crazy about it to you? Well, I think I’ve been hearing a lot over the last couple of months, especially with the legalization in New York. We’ve heard that a lot of black market activity has accelerated in some of these markets that are now moving towards legalization, and especially in New York State. I’ve heard personally from friends, but we’ve also seen a little slump in business towards the end of last year as we transitioned into 2022. What we’re basically hearing is that there are a lot of very clever ways of operating in the black market around being a brick-and-mortar existing in New York and in the city, in particular. We were wondering what was going to happen with the crackdown, and I know that Mayor de

Blasio had, before he left office, when legalization occurred, was that he was actually pulling his NYPD officers off of prosecuting low-level cannabis offenses. So, obviously, that creates a pathway for more activity, but we were curious about how this was going to start to manifest with people interpreting the new policies in the state. So I’m really excited to see New York is really moving forward on this, but they still have a very, very long way to go, as I’m sure you’re well aware. We had profiled some folks recently who are aspiring to be in the cannabis industry. In the reporting of that story, our writer had this conversation with a couple of women who made cannabis edibles. And they’re already out there selling them now. They thought nothing of just telling him that, “Yeah, we’re selling them,” that they were already in business. It was clear that it seems that people realize that the law enforcement isn’t there and that there’s not an appetite, particularly, for it in law enforcement at the moment, so why hide it? In the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen things as far ranging as a tee-shirt shop that sells tee-shirts for $100, but then you get a gift that includes cannabis and NFTs that came with a cannabis perk. Particularly, when you start to look at regulations where gifting cannabis is allowed, there is some interpretation of, “If you buy something from me and I gift you something else,” where do you draw the line and how do you interpret that? I say this by comparison of the Massachusetts market, which has some of the toughest regulations in the country around cannabis sales and distribution. It’s very interesting to see how all of this starts to manifest in the interpretation and in these gaps between rolling out legal cannabis and preparing for legal cannabis, both from a recreational standpoint, as well as a medical standpoint too.

It was interesting to me that on the medical front, New York recently loosened up restrictions around getting a medical marijuana card. Basically anyone can get one now with a doctor’s note. I had run the numbers probably about a year ago, and I think the medical program in New York before legalization was growing at about a five to 10 percent rate annually, which is significant. But now that they’re opening it up, I’m wondering if New York State is going to consider adding more retail licenses? Are they going to open up more cultivation licenses, because one thing that is a possible future in New York is that let’s just say recreational does open in 2023? I think right now, there’s maybe five to 10 cultivators in the state. When you look at the scale at which we’re going to have adult use coming into the New York market—which has the potential to be the second-largest market in the country—you’re going to have a very large imbalance of product if you basically start to approve manufacturers and cultivators at the same time you approve retail. You’re going to have this massive lack of product. [On February 22, Gov. Hochul signed a bill to provide provisional marijuana cultivator and processor licenses for existing hemp businesses, which should alleviate some of the supply side issues.] When you have the mix of adult use cannabis coming into the market without more medical providers, without more cultivators, you’re going to have a very similar issue where supply does not meet the demand, prices are going to skyrocket, and people are going to go back to the black market, because there’s just simply not enough product. By contrast, New Jersey, which is on a very similar pathway in a lot of ways, just opened up additional licenses for medical providers in New Jersey to prepare for that eventuality, where again, when rec comes online, there’s a much stronger infrastructure. In Massachusetts, 4/22 CHRONOGRAM HIGH SOCIETY 29

is that we had a very robust medical program before transitioning into adult use. New York’s medical program is not nearly as mature as the Massachusetts market was with a much more limited pool of cultivators and product supply. Theory has both a medical and an adult-use side of its business. What is the distinction that Massachusetts makes between medical and adult-use? The major differences from a medical customer in Massachusetts versus a rec customer is 1) in Massachusetts, you have to have a medical cannabis card, which is no surprise; 2) you actually have access to higher quality products. An adult use customer can purchase up to 28 grams per day. For a medical customer, you can actually purchase up to 10 ounces, so that’s 280 grams per cycle with your card. Then, the biggest thing, I think, for a lot of medical customers is that you do not put 20 percent sales tax on your products. You get deals and discounts as well, which are not offered on the recreational side. So, again, we’re talking about, these are folks who are dealing with adverse conditions, medical conditions that need these products to help increase a better quality of life. That spectrum obviously shifts depending on the patient, but at the end of the day, there’s easier access to these products. You don’t have to wait in line. If you see something on a recreational menu that you want as a medical patient, it dispensary has to transfer it to you. The perks are there to make a better quality of life for a patient. Doing deals and discounts is always just a really nice thing as any consumer, but we cannot offer that on the rec side. The rec customers are paying that full price, plus the 20 percent on an already somewhat expensive product, when you look by comparison to the West Coast in California or Washington State, where the cost of cannabis has really come down over the years, just because of oversupply and supply overarching demand. We’re still not there on the East Coast yet, but it’ll come. But I think again, with New York, that imbalance is going to be very, very explicit, I think, in the early days. On the federal level, the SAFE Banking Act passed in the House, though it doesn›t look destined to do much more than that. What do you think of the bill? (According to the bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Ed Perlmutter of Colorado, it “seeks to harmonize federal and state law by prohibiting federal regulators from taking punitive measures against depository institutions that provide banking services to legitimate cannabis-related businesses and ancillary businesses.”) The SAFE Banking Act is interesting. I don’t think it solves all of the challenges of the industry. I think one thing that we talk a lot about internally is federal legalization is, ultimately, going to be a good thing. However, I don’t think there’s any one silver bullet that’s going to solve the entire cannabis complexity that is out there. There are much more meaningful steps that we can take to get to a place where 30 HIGH SOCIETY CHRONOGRAM 4/22

legalization is going to have a better chance of being successful. What I mean by that, very specifically, are things like keeping it a Class One substance. Does it need to be a Class One substance that then comes with heavier levied arrests and with incarcerations? There are states that have some level of legal cannabis that should be moving forward with mass expungement—these are the smaller steps toward building that future of equitable cannabis that we all want, and we’re not quite there yet. What I always talk with my team about, and we talk internally about is federal legalization is

“There are states that have some level of legal cannabis that should be moving forward with mass expungement— these are the smaller steps toward building that future of equitable cannabis that we all want, and we’re not quite there yet.” —Thomas Winstanley going to come and the day is going to happen, but that shouldn’t stop us from taking smaller, more progressive states to give a better chance of legalization succeeding in a way that it needs to. For us, that definition is equality for folks to get into the industry, access to capital to be able to start a business, getting people out of jail for cannabisrelated crimes, making sure that those folks have their records sealed so they can get the jobs that they need to become a part of this industry. These, in comparison, these are the things that we need to address to create a more equitable solution to cannabis. I don’t think you can have national cannabis legalization work without having these fundamental pieces ironed out, and there’s nothing that says we can’t iron out those pieces in advance of a larger federal legalization. To boot, we’re already seeing a very, very large consolidation of the industry today. We are seeing a lot of smaller companies get bought out, sold and merged with much larger holding companies, and this is the best path forward that we have today. Ultimately, it’s going to be very challenging to prevent a homogenized cannabis

industry where there are a handful of brands that are for the most part running the show, and a lot of those massive operations, they may not have the social equity front of mind. They may not be taking some of these larger provisions in terms of people are still in jail from cannabis while others are making millions. There is an inherent imbalance in that. You had said to me when we last spoke that maybe for now, letting states stand up their own markets, because of the federal illegality, is not a bad idea. Not allowing interstate transactions prevents massive consolidation and allows an almost hothouse-like environment for smaller operations. Yes, and that’s really, really something that we’re very curious about and we think is interesting. So if states are starting to make the decisions and they’re putting in equity provisions and protocols to prevent massive consolidation, there’s a really good opportunity for a lot of independent private entrepreneurs to actually get some traction in the market before the market is carved out, and to do so gives a lot of private entrepreneurs the shot at becoming a part of the industry. I think the Pew Research had released numbers where it was like 60 percent of Americans now support some form of legal cannabis. We know the eventuality is coming, so let’s make sure that we’re taking the incremental steps now at a social level to build that equitable future before we say, “Okay, well let’s just legalize it and see what happens,” because that does become a very, very different proposition where money will drive the industry forward. I think that’s going to isolate a lot of smaller players who simply can’t compete at a much larger scale. Look at what Amazon has done with bookstores, it’s a tale as old as time. What’s happening on the product side at Theory that our readers should know about? We launched the [infused-seltzer] brand Hi5 back in March of last year. We›re in our first year of it. We sold over a million cans in Massachusetts in the first nine months, which was really fantastic. There are going to be some super exciting new products coming out under the High 5 brand in the coming months. We see it as this really great alternative to folks who are so used to consuming alcohol, we’re really bullish about where that brand can go and where that market can go, and most importantly, the gap it fills for consumers to have something that doesn’t feel like you’re consuming cannabis. You’re not carrying a pipe or a spliff or a vape pen. And, looking into the future, we’re heads down on really mapping out where do we go next, and how do we scale? We’re trying to be as deliberate as possible as we take some of these next steps, because our teams have worked so, so damn hard to get us to where we are. What we want to do is we want to make sure that we’re being very, very disciplined about our approach to growth, and that means everything from the product side in Massachusetts to emerging markets and where you see the Theory retail stores show up next. There will be a next, but the timeline is yet to be determined when that really comes forward, so there’s lots of excitement in the works.

maker spotlight

Found in Translation Helen Prior reimagines ceramics and textile design

B Love what you see? Find Helen Prior's work on Chronogram.com as part of our partnership with Field + Supply. Scan the QR code, or visit Chronogram.com/shop. Want to see her work in person? Helen will be at Field + Supply’s Spring MRKT, May 27-29 at Hutton Brickyards in Kingston. For more information visit Fieldandsupply.com.

lock printing, a method of creating textile patterns that originated over 4,000 years ago, is a careful process that involves hand-carving a design into a block of wood, applying dye to the relief, then stamping it onto fabric over and over to create a repeating effect. Understandably, the process has long since been superseded by more expeditious methods like screen and digital printing, but in the Kingston studio of ceramicist and textile designer Helen Prior, a native of Warwickshire, England, who has called the Hudson Valley home for almost 15 years, the process lives on in refreshingly modern form. It all starts with a simple slab of clay, the building block for all the creations in Prior’s “Clay to Cloth” line of ceramics, fabrics, and wallpapers, which she started in 2018. The slab, which Prior calls a “manuscript,” is where she first explores her designs. She decorates the still-soft clay with freehand carvings and stamps, combining influences from the natural world and stylized motifs pulled from an expansive archive of historic textiles dating back to the 1880s that she amassed in her career in the fashion industry developing prints for the likes of Anna Sui, Rebecca Taylor, Trina Turk, and Diane von Furstenberg. But after over two decades of working with other designers, Prior craved a creative outlet where her own vision could take the lead. “With fashion companies you really are working in the style of the designer, but it came to a point where it was really hard to have my own voice,” she explains. After she and her family moved full-time to New Paltz, she began spending more time at Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale

exploring her passion for ceramics, an artform she had studied since she was in high school. “It was really such a great springboard for me to explore ceramics in my spare time,” she says. “Then I started decorating my ceramic pieces and doing this process of textile on ceramics and I thought, well, this looks interesting and new, and it seemed to me like such a lovely way to work.” In 2019, she opened her eponymous studio in the Shirt Factory in Midtown Kingston, whose textile manufacturing history is an appropriate fit for her work. The next year, she debuted her first collection of ceramics, fabrics, and wallpapers titled “Cross Pollination,” a reference to the way she seamlessly translates her manuscript designs between mediums. For her ceramics, the manuscripts become the master prints from which she takes the decorations for her hand-built and wheel-thrown bowls, vases, dishes, and trays. To make her textiles and wallpapers, she photographs the manuscripts, then further refines the designs in Photoshop, creating a repeating pattern that can then be digitally printed onto Belgian linen by the company outside of Philadelphia that makes her pillows or turned into wallpaper by another in Detroit. In contrast to the stark minimalism that has dominated much of the interior design world for over a decade, Prior’s work is a celebration of the history of decorative art, distilled into a version that works well for many different contemporary aesthetics. “Decorative has always been there throughout history,” she says. “I believe it to be something that always comes and goes, but I believe that people respond to it and it makes things stand out more and appeal to people on an emotional level.” 4/22 CHRONOGRAM 31

education

A collaboration with

The School That Won't Give Up

HIGH TURNOVER, LOW FUNDING, AND THE PANDEMIC HAVE HAMPERED POUGHKEEPSIE'S ONLY PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL. BUT THE NARRATIVE IS CHANGING. By Rayan El Amine Photos by Alexa Gwyn

arrison Brisbon-McKinnon leans forward in his seat, asking for a minute to think. Outside, the sound of a leaky ceiling drips into the background of our conversation. Inside, Harrison stands out behind a cascade of motivational posters, the largest of which reads “Think Like a Historian!” in bold, white letters. He reminisces on his childhood memories of Poughkeepsie. “It was like the Garden of Eden,” he says. “I remember the sun was hot. The trees were swaying. It was gorgeous.” Harrison is a senior at Poughkeepsie High School. A native of the city, he is his mother’s only child and his father’s seventh. His youth consisted of gatherings on his street, neighbors who doubled as family, and a household brimming with cousins. But his relationship to the city is not what it once was. “It kind of feels like a prison now, and I hate to say that,” he says. “The way I feel now is it’s kind of like a pit, and if you don’t jump out, you’ll be stuck here.” Harrison, 18, has lost friends to gangs and classmates to gang violence—and his experience is not unique among his peers. On February 22, Poughkeepsie High was forced into a shutdown after a student threatened gun violence against the school on Snapchat. Not that Harrison was all that surprised. “We didn’t bat an eye, actually,” he says. “I’m desensitized to this kind of violence because it’s become a common thing now.” 32 EDUCATION CHRONOGRAM 4/22

For Harrison, this desensitization began early. He lost his childhood best friend and neighbor to a local gang. As the two entered middle school, the friend’s affiliation grew stronger, and the two stopped talking. By the time they were sophomores in high school, Harrison was focused on finding extracurriculars and his former friend, he believes, had dropped out. Harrison thinks that his understanding of Poughkeepsie began shifting during these years. After attending the more cloistered Clinton Elementary as a child, his exposure to the larger Poughkeepsie Middle School was revelatory. At Clinton, he says, “I had tight walls protecting me, and when I entered middle school, those walls fell apart. I got to see Poughkeepsie for what it was, for most people.” Those years also brought Harrison a better understanding of the systemic nature of Poughkeepsie’s problems, which he now describes as cyclical. Pointing to the school district’s decades-long battle with racism and the threat of gun and gang violence, he says that past generations who had been “betrayed” by the district in turn raised families with little expectations for a solid education. That betrayal could take on many forms: teacher turnover, limited literacy, or simply a lack of emotional support. Generational failure became the root of what Harrison sees as Poughkeepsie High’s “sometimes defeated attitude.” In turn,

it produced a bottleneck where only a few can succeed. “It’s a pit because only so many of us can get out,” he says. “And it feels like right now we have to climb up on one another in order to make it out of here at all.” I asked Harrison whether he had ever imagined leaving Poughkepsie, or if he was upset that he’d had to stay for so long. It was clear he had never considered an alternative. “It’s home, it’s safe, it’s familiar. Not only is it safe because I know it, it’s safe because I’m respected here,” he says. “I’ve processed Poughkeepsie’s violence not as an act of an individual, but because of the failures of a system. I’m not afraid of the school or the people around me because they are wicked people. I recognize their behavior is an effect of systemic failure. I’m not afraid of this objectively evil thing out there. There’s no big baddie.” The Origins of Decline Poughkeepsie High School was founded in 1857 on the second floor of an elementary school building. Despite its 165-year presence in the community, the school currently finds itself in a difficult situation. In 2019, the most recent year of available graduation data, PHS graduated 187 of its 329 enrolled students, the lowest mark in Dutchess County. For the district, many of these systemic struggles originated in 1942. That year, IBM opened a plant in Spackenkill, a hamlet in

the town of Poughkeepsie. The company began pulling its newly hired employees, who were typically wealthy and educated, out of Poughkeepsie and into Spackenkill. In turn, property values began to fall and the population quickly followed. For five years, Poughkeepsie and Spackenkill residents shared Poughkeepsie High School. But as the Spackenkill district continued to grow wealthier and whiter, they began demanding a school of their own. Over the next two decades, the Spackenkill Board of Education and its residents fought for independent support from IBM and the introduction of their own separate high school. In 1971, they got what they wanted, and Spackenkill High School went into construction. The 50 years since have been brutal for Poughkeepsie High School. The falling land values pushed the property taxes that funded the school further down. Insufficient funding and Poughkeepsie’s reputation as a failing district caused significant turnover among its school administration, resulting, most notably, in an administrative carousel that saw six different principals and four different superintendents take the lead over the last 14 years. In the last decade, teacher turnover, high dropout rates, and the unexpected and disastrous onset of COVID have hampered the district. But there’s a large, looming figure now working to change the narrative. Eric Jay Rosser was a collegiate basketball star at the University of Buffalo who turned that career in for one focused on education. The Poughkeepsie City School District superintendent since 2019, he stepped in for Nicole Williams, who resigned with a $430,000 buyout after repeatedly clashing with the school board and parents. When I asked Rosser how important being a stable presence was for him, he was quick to shrug off any other option. “I’m actually a resident of the city of Poughkeepsie,” he says with a chuckle. “I’m not some apartment dweller. I actually bought a house here in the community.” Rosser sees solutions as not only necessary, but realistic. He says the school is no longer underfunded, citing a small windfall from a 2007 lawsuit alleging that small city school districts in New York State were not receiving the money they needed. After a recent judgment in favor of the districts, funding began to improve. While the Poughkeepsie City School District’s budget for the next school year has not been confirmed yet, Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed executive budget includes $31.3 billion in aid for the 2022-23 school year, the most ever. Along with that, Rosser says the district is expecting to see an approximately $8 million increase in allocated funds, a jump of nearly 10 percent from the current budget. Given this sudden boost, Rosser’s current priority seems to be solving the especially high dropout rate of English Language Learner (ELL) students at Poughkeepsie High. In 2019, 42 percent of all ELL students dropped out. Rosser acknowledges that the school isn’t doing enough to help that population. But some of that is out of their control, he says. Finding bilingual teachers who live in the community has been a significant challenge.

Poughkeepsie High School student Harrison Brisbon-McKinnon

That dearth extends beyond the ELL program. Rosser says the school has a need for teachers who can support both their students with exceptionalities and those who have the greatest level of academic and emotional need. Rosser has had a more immediate impact with the work he’s done to directly support these communities. Almost right away, the school established an office dedicated solely to ELL students within the district. That office brought with it some necessary changes: a coordinator ensuring standard practice across all district schools, an increase in the number of ELL teachers at each school, and a pilot afterschool program at Morse Elementary that seeks to meet the educational and social needs of its ELL students. But Rosser has little interest in celebrating any progress. He jumps from solution to solution in conversation, rarely pausing to acknowledge the challenges. “My mother would tell you this is one of my positives and an Achilles heel,” he says. “I don’t celebrate long. While it makes me feel good, I don’t celebrate it and wear it as a badge.” His determination represents a culture change within the district. Poughkeepsie High, long mired in controversy and uncertainty, now seems to be a growing source of pride for students and teachers. Many of the people interviewed for this story made clear that they had no interest in bashing the city’s only public high school. Instead, they want a narrative focused on change. Against the Tide I met Harrison for the first time in Room 209, a social studies classroom that had been his refuge since the early years of high school. There, in the corner of the room providing Harrison with extra reading material, was his economics teacher, Shanna Andrawis. Andrawis is a California native who graduated college chasing musical aspirations. To help make ends meet, however, she worked as a tutor with the Princeton Review and eventually found work designing standardized tests with Education Testing Service. But it wasn’t until her husband

“I’m not afraid of the school or the people around me because they are wicked people. I recognize their behavior is an effect of systemic failure.” —Harrison BrisbonMcKinnon got a job at Vassar College that she decided to fully make the transition into teaching. She chose Poughkeepsie High in part because she felt a need to serve the community that she lived in, but also because she understood the impact of a good education. “As a first-generation college student, I understood how transformative education could be,” she says. “Because education gave that to me, I wanted to help give it to other students.” Andrawis earned her teaching certification a few months after moving to Poughkeepsie and has taught at the high school for the past 14 years. Early on, she recognized the prevalence and impact of certain systemic hurdles that were out of her or the school’s control: limited resources, sporadic funding, broken facilities. Many of these structural issues persist, and the onset of 4/22 CHRONOGRAM EDUCATION 33

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COVID-19 and virtual learning underscored the challenges they present. The school struggled for months to provide students with the computers necessary for online learning, for example. “That was really frustrating,” Andrawis says. “It’s hard to feel like you’re being successful when you have to work under those conditions.” That delay meant that many of the school’s classes, Andrawis’s included, were inevitably going to fall behind. When the 2020-21 school year began remotely, many households across the district had to share a single Chromebook; it would take until February before every child had their own computer. “For many months, students were only receiving about 20 to 30 percent of the instructional time that they would have received had they had a device in their hand in September,” Andrawis says. During those months, the school adopted a modified schedule that meant Andrawis only saw her classes for 20 minutes each, every other day. The altered schedule pushed her to rethink the way she approaches teaching. The challenge of condensing a curriculum while also reformatting it for a digital screen proved to be nearly impossible. “It felt like we were rewriting everything,” she says. “It was just really overwhelming.” Beyond that, COVID left many of Andrawis’s students forced to care for siblings while their parents worked. “Some of them aren’t coming to class because they have three or four siblings that they’ve been left at home to take care of,” she says. “You just really feel stressed out on their behalf.” Recent research into the consequences of COVID-related school closures have demonstrated that changes induced by the virus have had a significant impact on learning and performance. A recent study from Goethe University, in Frankfurt, and the Center for Educational Measurement, in Oslo, found deficits in mathematics, reading, and science across the globe. It’s not difficult to imagine the same happening in Poughkeepsie. Andrawis collaborates with a number of programs at Vassar College, and works hard to expose her students to the value of a secondary education. She opens up her classroom to give students an escape from the stresses of high school. More than anything else, she has tried to be a pillar of stability at an institution that isn’t quite used to that. She says that consistent teaching practices are necessary, especially at a school where kids may find themselves a few grade levels behind. But administrative turnover makes that consistency impossible. “Whenever we have an administrative interruption, those practices are suddenly disturbed,” she says. The students most impacted are those with the highest level of emotional and academic risk. According to Andrawis, for nearly a decade the school has tried to institute a Social and Emotional Learning program aimed at helping those exact students. But with each new administrative shift, the program was halted. “It’s difficult, and it does feel like my ability to grow as an educator has been stunted by that,” Andrawis says. “I haven’t been able to be in a program, adopt it, and see it come to fruition.” Despite that frustration, she believes the school is not at fault for some of its struggles. Andrawis

Poughkeepsie High School teacher Shanna Andrawis

says that the state government puts immense pressure on its educators to quickly correct any underperformance, often without providing the necessary resources. When that pressure becomes too immense, administrators leave. “It’s not that the requirements are unfair, it’s the expectation that you meet those requirements without being given the tools and resources you need to get there,” she says. “It’s a slap in the face to these kids, their families, and the community.” But Andrawis has remained determined to be a reminder to her students that somebody within the school will always care about them. Her classroom has often functioned as the Social and Emotional Learning program that the school has been missing. That kind of support takes on many forms: motivating students to join extracurriculars, advocating on their behalf to other teachers, or simply being a companion during lunchtime. Andrawis recalls a moment when one of her students was struggling to complete an assignment for a different class. They were homeless, and already barely getting through their final year of high school. The other teacher was demanding that the student complete the assignment on time. With the student’s permission, Andrawis went to the teacher and explained their situation. He had no idea. The student was given an extension, completed the assignment, and graduated on time. This moment didn’t seem uncommon to Andrawis. “You never know when you’re gonna need to be that person,” she says. “You just need to be open to that. You need to be that person for them.” Fostering Community Harrison knew for a long time that he would go to college, and while the decision was simple, the process was far from it. He turned in his first application on November 13, an Early Decision directed to Vassar College. He remembers that day as miserable. “I remember the next week I took my hair out, and I had so much hair loss,” he says. “And I was like, ‘Oh, these past 90 days have been horrible.’” Like many of his classmates, Harrison was working to become a first-generation college student. Because of that, he had little direction

“You never know when you’re gonna need to be that person. You just need to be open to that.” —Shanna Andrawis throughout the application process. It almost became too much for him. “I felt myself drowning in it,” he says. Where he found guidance was in the Exploring Colleges program. Started by Vassar College, the program was initially advertised as a space for students to learn about the procedures and pathways necessary to enter university. In many ways, it remains that. But over time, a community has developed between the students and the program’s coordinator, Sara Inoa. Inoa’s energy is infectious. Well before the clock strikes 3pm, an assortment of the program’s regulars filter into Room 120, eager to greet Inoa as she slowly wheels in the day’s activity. Inoa matches their energy with vulnerability. The first time I saw her interact with her students was February 14. Walking into the room, it was clear she was running low. But rather than place that 4/22 CHRONOGRAM EDUCATION 35

Exploring Colleges program administrator Sara Inoa

“I want a program that tells students they’re worthy of their dreams.” —Sara Inoa fatigue onto her students, she was honest. “I’m feeling really tired today, you know,” she sighed. “Who wants a hug?” Within seconds, she was lost among a sea of high school students adamant on making her feel better. Like Andrawis, Inoa’s background is in art. An aspiring musician, writer, and artist, she was working as a cashier at a liquor store before a friend recommended she apply for the Exploring Colleges position. That retail experience was central to her fit with the program, she says. “It took the stick out of my ass,” she says. “I built a really strong community with my coworkers there.” 36 EDUCATION CHRONOGRAM 4/22

Coming into the program, Inoa was unsure of what her role would be and what her work might even look like. But her goal has been to foster a community that isn’t just academic, but loving. “I want a community that’s going to support one another,” she says. “I want them to support themselves and each other after graduation, in life. I want a program that tells students they’re worthy of their dreams.” Inoa’s emphasis on love is not lost on her students. Two of the program’s regulars, Ava Cooper and Daniel Johnson, see the emotional support Exploring Colleges provides as its biggest strength. Ava is an avid writer, and the support she receives within the program has only grown that passion. “They encourage my writing,” she says. “Every time I see one of the mentors, he’s always asking me if I’ve written something, and I’m able to show him.” Exploring Colleges is not the only program that exists to support Poughkeepsie public school students. It is part of Vassar’s broader Education Collaboration initiative, which offers different programs to help kids across grade levels within the Poughkeepsie City School District. Marist College runs a similar program, Upward Bound, which focuses on providing kids with the academic resources they need to advance toward a secondary education. Beyond the academy is the Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet. Founded by three locals and chaired by Superintendent Rosser and Mayor Rob Rolison, it’s a collective focused on building a cradle-to-career agenda for kids in the area that hopes to create long-term systemic changes for students in the city’s school district. The Children’s Cabinet has already helped establish Poughkeepsie’s first Division of Youth

Opportunity and Development and continues to set its sight on broad, all-encompassing impact. “We’re missing a ton of kids,” says cofounder Rob Watson. “How do we develop a system that benefits each child, where all means all? That’s a system-level approach—we’re trying to do system changes.” Even when returning to its core goal, Exploring Colleges has exposed PHS students to the values of a secondary education in ways the high school hadn’t been practicing. “There are so many kind people there,” Johnson says. “The way they explain their experience with college, you start to think, maybe college isn’t that bad.” That exposure, they say, stands in stark contrast to the often-disciplinarian perspective that the high school takes on college, solely focusing on the academic rigor and ignoring the more social aspects. The program’s emphasis on emotional support is also immensely valuable in times of tragedy. In mid-November, gunshots were fired outside the school grounds. Classes were shut down for days and some students were understandably shaken. In that moment, Exploring Colleges became a community of support. Inoa used the program’s next meeting to lead a debrief around what had happened. She made hot chocolate and asked the students to write down six things: three feelings they had in the moment, two facts they knew about the situation, and one question they had regarding what happened. The responses reflected a student body that was exhausted, tired of being afraid. “I have memories about my own experience,” wrote one student. Another wrote down, “I think nothing will change because our school has no order.” Inoa then led a long conversation and then took them out for sushi. Where You Come From A few months after Harrison submitted his application to Vassar, he was accepted. It means he’ll be going to college only six minutes from the high school that has already exposed him to so much. That proximity is no accident. “Everything I am is because of Poughkeepsie, for better or for worse,” he says. For Harrison, staying local is an opportunity for him to show many of the kids who grew up in the same neighborhoods he did, including his own cousins, that they can be successful. “No matter where you come from, it doesn’t dictate where you’re going to go,” he says. That pride may stand in juxtaposition to many of the frustrations that highlighted Harrison’s high school experience, but they represent an important feature of Poughkeepsie’s students: resilience. Constant adversity creates challenges, of course, but also bonds. Administrators, teachers, and students all understand their struggles, but refuse to be defined by them, and students like Harrison represent a movement that no longer tolerates Poughkeepsie High being viewed as a second-class institution. “People don’t realize it’s innocent children who become products of failure; they’re not wicked,” Harrison says. “They don’t see the people fighting against the system, fighting through it. People like me. “And we have great food, too,” he adds with a laugh. “People don’t say that.”

health & wellness

STAYING INDEPENDENT FACING PRESSURE FROM LARGE RETAIL CHAINS, COMMUNITY PHARMACIES ARE FINDING CREATIVE WAYS TO STAY IN BUSINESS. By Sarah Amandolare

hen a retail chain pharmacy in New Paltz lifted its mask mandate last year, customers started asking why Dedrick’s Pharmacy hadn’t done the same. Jared Nekos, the owner and pharmacist of Dedrick’s since 2013, still remembers his response: The other pharmacy didn’t consider itself “healthcare.” Making that distinction, at a moment when healthcare providers were still legally required to enforce masks, was clarifying for him. “They look at everything as transactional. We look at it as a relationship. We want your health outcomes to improve. We want your quality of life to improve,” Nekos says. And he believes that same approach defines “most, if not all, independent pharmacies.” But that approach is increasingly rare in an industry dominated by massive corporations. Nekos is quick to say that pharmacists themselves are not at fault. Rather, a system plagued by vertical integration—pharmacies merging with insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which determine drug availability and costs—has made it nearly impossible for small, independently owned pharmacies to survive. For some independent pharmacies in the Hudson Valley, thinking outside the box has helped them stay afloat. While their focus on customer service aligns with the spirit of independent pharmacies, they’re also branching out into wellness and proposing new business models. The Many Threats to Indy Pharmacies The challenges for independent pharmacies started well before COVID-19, but the pressures have only been growing since the pandemic began. Between 2003 and 2018, about 16 percent of independent rural pharmacies closed, and according to the Drug Channels Institute, in 2020 the number of independent pharmacies in rural and urban locations fell to below 20,000 for the first time since the institute began tracking closures in 2010. Independents lack the resources of megachains like CVS, for instance, which can purchase large quantities of prescription drugs at discounted rates from pharmaceutical companies. CVS actually owns a PBM, CVS Caremark, so the company can set its own prices and reimbursement rates. Meanwhile, independents get squeezed. Dedrick’s Pharmacy gets reimbursed for less than what it pays for about a third of prescriptions, according to Nekos. Many pharmacies are also being hit with direct and indirect remuneration (DIR) fees, a Medicare

loophole that has allowed PBMs to take back pharmacies’ revenue based on a hazy set of quality measures. Additionally, health insurance providers may implement mandatory mail-order policies, requiring that patients get prescriptions by mail from insurer-owned pharmacies. Nekos says he “lost a ton of customers” recently when the insurer for three local school districts switched to a mandatory mail-order policy.

numerous immunizations, they lack the authority granted by many other states to prescribe certain drugs and provide point-of-care testing. California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oregon allow pharmacists to prescribe birth control, for example, and 39 states permit pharmacists to perform certain noninvasive tests, such as bloodsugar monitoring. New York State Senate Bill S5092, currently in the Senate Rules Committee,

“I see an incredibly large frustration from patients, because these cracks keep getting bigger and it’s the patients who end up falling through.” —Jared Nekos, Dedrick’s Pharmacy There’s been some progress toward reining in PBMs in New York State, where 100 state bills were introduced last year that would provide greater transparency around how PBMs operate. A new law passed in January 2022 requires PBMs to register with the State Department of Financial Services and sets new standards for price transparency and conflict-of-interest disclosures. But even more is needed, according to Nekos and other local independent pharmacists. “We cannot just be prescription-filling professionals. We are not going to win that fight,” says Enrique Reynoso, the pharmacist and owner of Beacon Wellness Pharmacy. “The lobbyists for the big chains and pharmaceutical companies have infinite money.” Trading MD Appointments for Pharmacy Visits Granting pharmacists healthcare provider status, or the ability to be reimbursed for additional services beyond filling prescriptions, could help the plight of indy pharmacies. Although pharmacists in New York State can administer

would add pharmacists to the list of licensed healthcare professionals able to perform certain kinds of laboratory tests. Provider status could benefit independent pharmacies as well as patients, given pharmacists’ depth of medical knowledge (a Doctor of Pharmacy degree takes six years to earn) and accessibility compared to primary care offices, which can have long waits for appointments. In the US, about nine out of ten people live within five miles of a pharmacy, according to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. “Giving pharmacists providership abilities will go a long way for us. It would not only help with the profession, but also the healthcare crisis that we’re in. We have a shortage of doctors and nurses right now, so why not use the healthcare providers that you do have to their maximum ability?” says Reynoso. If the pandemic offers any indication, some independent pharmacies could be better positioned for an expanded role as providers than large retail chains. Reports of overworked, burnedout pharmacists and technicians quitting their 4/22 CHRONOGRAM HEALTH & WELLNESS 37

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jobs at corporate-owned pharmacies have surfaced repeatedly over the past year, leading to staff shortages and closures. By some estimates, almost 2,000 pharmacies closed in the US between December 2017 and December 2020. Near the end of last year, CVS shut down about 10 percent of its stores. The Hudson Valley has experienced this trend too. Nekos recounted hearing about a short-staffed CVS in Hudson open only four days per week, a Walgreens in Kingston that closed for the entire month of January, and a decision by Highland Walgreens to shut down on weekends without telling customers. Keeping Patients from Falling Through the Cracks Independent pharmacies have not been immune to staffing challenges either, with nearly 70 percent having trouble filling positions as of last November. But those that have managed to hang on demonstrate how pharmacies can provide a critical stopgap for an overstretched healthcare system. Nekos has seen corporations buy up five local independent doctors’ offices since 2013. These shifts often limit how much time doctors can spend with each patient, which may be especially difficult for elderly people newly diagnosed with chronic conditions, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes. They might leave the doctor’s office hoping that a pharmacist will be able to help, only to wind up being rushed through the line at an understaffed CVS. “I see an incredibly large frustration from patients, because these cracks keep getting bigger and it’s the patients who end up falling through,” Nekos says. His pharmacy, which opened in 1968, aims to always have two pharmacists on duty, and Nekos says that his business model ensures his pharmacists have “whatever it takes to do the job well,” whether they need more supplies, time, staffing, or management support. The Nekos family has been in business locally since 1901, when they opened a pharmacy in Kingston, later merging to create Nekos-Dedrick’s pharmacy on Front Street. As tense as recent years have been for Dedrick’s, the journey for newer independent pharmacies can pose even greater challenges. “To go out and start a new pharmacy, from ground zero with no customers, is a really difficult thing to do,” says Reynoso. “You have to have a good amount of investment put away because you’re not going to make money your first two years.” Thinking Outside the (For-Profit) Box To make it work, Reynoso and other independent pharmacies are doubling down on providing personalized service and, in the case of Wellness Rx, proposing innovative business models. Wellness Rx, an independent pharmacy in Tannersville, also sells natural medicine products and goods by local artisans. The pharmacy has a staff mental health and recovery coach, and provides free Narcan, the overdose-reversing drug. But pharmacist Ed Ullmann doesn’t see a long-term future for the business without some kind of shift. There’s too much pressure from the corporate chain pharmacies—the last remaining independent pharmacy in Tannersville sold to

CVS in 2006 (CVS has since closed the branch). “The trend is going to freeze out health care in local communities all over America,” says Ullmann. “There’s no way that these consolidated health systems are going to keep presences in small towns.” This has prompted Wellness Rx’s decision to make the unusual move of becoming a nonprofit pharmacy, which would let them accept funding from grants and bigger donors. They already have a Patient Assistance Fund, fed by small donations, which helps cover the costs of pharmaceuticals and wellness products for customers in need. Wellness Rx has also established a charitable trust in the hopes of attracting more sizable donations for its nonprofit

pharmacies for more than two decades, including as an operations manager for Walgreens. Reynoso helped expand the chain between Westchester and Orange County, but when it merged with the European corporation Boots Alliance, Walgreens no longer felt like a “family business,” he says. When he left the company in 2015, he spent time working for corporate pharmacies in New York City and Newburgh, where he felt powerless to change an increasingly bottom-linedriven atmosphere. At Rite Aid in Newburgh, the chain’s busiest Hudson Valley location, pharmacist technicians were getting burned out and Reynoso couldn’t spend time with customers. He worried that he’d finish his career “not talking to people,” he says.

“We cannot just be prescription-filling professionals. We are not going to win that fight.” —Enrique Reynoso, Beacon Wellness Pharmacy

conversion. Their goal is to raise a minimum of $300,000 to establish a nonprofit called Pharmacy for the Public Good, and an additional $100,000 for their new location in Phoenicia, which could open as soon as this summer. While there are other nonprofit or “charitable” pharmacies in the US, Ullmann says his would be the first to convert from a for-profit to a nonprofit. “It’s the way that I believe you level the playing field: a nonprofit wellness center with a pharmacy. The community will, can, and should support it like a local library,” he says. Ullmann, who expresses hopes to retire in five years, has had a variety of experiences in healthcare, from being appointed Ulster County Mental Health Director to founding an HMO called WellCare to purchasing a Florida mineral lake to create a rehabilitation spa. He established Wellness Rx in High Falls about a decade ago, but says that market was “too small.” When the Hunter Foundation asked him to head up an independent pharmacy in Tannersville and offered the use of a large space on the ground floor of a Victorian home, he jumped at the chance. Ullmann set out to create what he calls “a culture of service to others,” whether it means covering the cost of CBD oil for a customer who is between jobs or making house calls to deliver medications to locals who lack transportation. The desire to connect with customers also motivates Reynoso, an Orange County native. Before opening Beacon Wellness Pharmacy in December 2019, he worked for corporate

When a property on a corner in Beacon caught his eye, Reynoso decided to take the leap. And the community has responded. Reynoso says local legislators pushed to ensure that he could get the necessary licenses to open. He started welcoming customers only a few months before the pandemic started, shifting to provide COVID-19 vaccinations and testing inside the 1,000-squarefoot store—efforts that helped financially, although he still longs for providership status. He strives for a “holistic” approach, often talking to people about their diets, telling them about supplements, or helping them change their lifestyle so they can get off certain medicines. In turn, locals have been supportive of his efforts to maintain a work-life balance—even when he had to leave early on a Friday to take his daughter to a dance. That same kind of connection with his customers is what makes Nekos “optimistic” for the future of independent pharmacies like his. “What we do is so needed and our passion is so real that we will figure out a way,” he says. “And we will not only survive, but hopefully expand how we serve the community.” RESOURCES Beacon Wellness Pharmacy Beaconwellnesspharmacy.com Dedrick’s Pharmacy Dedrickspharmacy.com Nekos-Dedrick’s Pharmacy Nekosdedricks.com Wellness Rx Wellnessrxllc.com 4/22 CHRONOGRAM HEALTH & WELLNESS 39

Newburgh native Genesis Ramos represents District 6, which includes portions of the City and Town of Newburgh, in the Orange County Legislature. Ramos is the youngest person ever elected to the Orange County Legislature and the first woman of color to serve as a legislator. Opposite: Replica lighthouse located on the roof of Blu Pointe restaurant on the waterfront.

40 COMMUNITY PAGES CHRONOGRAM 4/22

community pages

A LIGHT SHINES HERE Newburgh

By Peter Aaron Photos by David McIntyre

t’s a story almost as old as the walls and streets themselves. A story that has played out in now desirable New York neighborhoods like Williamsburg and elsewhere. A story that goes like this. Around the turn of the 20th century, thanks to thriving industry, an area becomes a magnet for newly moneyed classes, who erect blocks of beautifully designed,brownstones and brick tenement buildings. After a couple of generations, the industry goes away and the moeyed classes move out. Poverty and crime set in, and for decades, buildings stand gutted, crumbling, and vacant. In search of creative space and cheap rents, artists eventually move in alongside the underserved people already living there. Galleries, cafes, bars, nightclubs, restaurants, and specialty shops soon open. A few of the townhouses and tenements get renovated by a handful of newcomers who have enough faith in the neighborhood

to buy there. Soon, more outside people, attracted by the district’s lively culture and character, want to live there as well. Developers and landlords notice, rents and property values skyrocket, the poor and the pioneers are forced out, and the soul of the sector vanishes as it becomes, essentially, an exclusive community and a high-end mall with sidewalks. The end. But Newburgh, long one of the Hudson Valley’s most culturally vibrant but economically and crime-challenged cities—a 2011 report declared it the murder capital of New York State—has learned from watching the overly gentrified outcomes of other towns and is working to write a different kind of ending for its own story. And right now, thanks to the efforts being put forth by Newburgh’s residents and advocates, it’s increasingly looking like that ending could be a happier one.

4/22 CHRONOGRAM COMMUNITY PAGES 41

42 COMMUNITY PAGES CHRONOGRAM 4/22

Daniel Giordano in his studio on Liberty Street. The Newburgh native is a rising star in the art world. A solo exhibition of his work opens at MASS MoCA in March 2023. Opposite: The Newburgh-Beacon ferry resumed service in early March once the river ice cleared. The ferry runs during the morning and evening commute, connecting city residents to the Beacon train station. It takes nine minutes to cross the river on the ferry. A oneway ticket for an adult costs $1.75. Art patrons mingle at the opening reception for “The Narrative of Things” at Holland Tunnel Gallery on Chambers Street. The exhibition continues through April 10.

New Parts from Old “I kiss the dirt every day and say to myself, ‘Where else could I have a space like this?’,” says rising young sculptor Daniel Giordano, who was born and raised locally and makes his surreal works in what was once his grandfather’s garment factory at the intersection of Liberty Street and Gidney Avenue. “It takes an entire village to bolster an artist and make them successful, and I feel like I’m getting that [in Newburgh]. My work is informed by Newburgh itself; I use a lot of industrial detritus that I find when I’m walking along the old waterfront factory areas. The larger arts scene is more decentralized now because of the internet—you don’t have to live in New York now to get your art known. And with galleries like Visitor Center, Elijah Wheat Showroom, Ann Street Gallery [run by nonprofit redevelopment group Safe Harbors of the Hudson], the arts scene here is burgeoning.” An anchor of Newburgh’s arts activity is the Wherehouse, the trailblazing restaurant/performance space that established the nowflourishing Liberty Street creative district. The City of Newburgh is perched on Orange County’s eastern edge, in the Hudson Highlands and directly across the river from Beacon. Its earliest recorded inhabitants were the Waorneck people, who belonged to the larger Lenape tribe. A small group of Englishsponsored Palatine refugees arrived to settle the area in 1709, and in 1752 future acting Governor Cadwallader

Colden (grandfather to New York City’s 54th mayor, Cadwallader D. Colden) named it after Newburgh, Scotland (his native country). Hasbrouck House, where George Washington was headquartered during the final year of the Revolutionary War, and the Newburgh Colored Burial Ground are two of the city’s prominent historic sites. Its waterfront became a shipping hub during the Industrial Revolution and the area blossomed into a prosperous manufacturing center that saw the construction of much Gilded Age architecture. Newburgh was home to the second Edison electric power plant, and its main artery of Broadway became the second US street to become electrically lit. The latter footnote inspired the name of the Newburgh Illuminated Festival, an annual largely outdoor event celebrating the city’s diversity and dynamic culture with live music, dance, art, food, poetry, and more. The pandemic saw the festival sidelined in 2020 and 2021, but with the easing of guidelines Newburgh Illuminated 2022 is now set for June 4. “When I first became involved with Newburgh Illuminated, in 2015, it was hard to find businesses, musicians, or vendors who wanted to be part of it,” says Paul Ernenwein, a Newburgh native who chaired the Newburgh Illuminated board for two years and now serves as one of its officers. “But now, as we’re coming out of the lockdowns, people are anxious to be involved. And so many newer residents have moved to the area and are interested in getting involved as well.” 4/22 CHRONOGRAM COMMUNITY PAGES 43

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Anthony Vesnaver outside of Newburgh Vintage Emporium on Route 9W. Longtime vendors at the location, Vesnaver and partner Matt Smith bought the business in January 2019 and opened a second location, Newburgh Vintage Emporium Warehouse, on Route 17K later that year.

Mary Lou Carolan, executive director of the Newburgh Free Library, is spearheading an expansion of services the library offers to the community. The library recently hosted a workforce development summit.

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Bibi Lorenzetti in her studio, Newburgh Yoga Shala, on Liberty Street. Lorenzetti moved to the city in 2018 and opened her studio in February 2020.

Back in Business One of those newer residents is Italian-born yoga teacher Bibi Lorenzetti, who runs Newburgh Yoga Shala. “I’d been living in Brooklyn for nine years and was getting burned out from that,” she says. “My husband and I were driving around, and we sort of stumbled on Newburgh and we really liked it. We found out the city was selling properties it owned, cheaply, to qualified new home buyers, and we bought a house here in 2018. I taught classes in our garage for a while, then I had a baby. I’d promised myself I wouldn’t open a studio. [Laughs.] But I went to look at this space on Liberty Street for a friend who was interested in it, and I fell in love with it. The interior reminded me of ashrams in India. I asked my astrologer if I should open a studio and he said, ‘Yes!’ For our soft opening, my partner Austin Dubois and I had a block cleanup gathering with [local social advocacy group] Melanin Unchained. We had our first class in February 2020.” Other new businesses revitalizing Newburgh’s entrepreneurial landscape include Toasted, an innovative sandwich shop, and Primo Waterfront, which serves Italian coastal cuisine; Spirits Lab craft distillery; and coworking/loft-living facility Wireworks. They join older local institutions like Liberty Street Bistro and Newburgh Flour Shop, whose owner and executive chef, Michael Kelly, graduated from the nearby Culinary Institute of America and serves on the city’s planning and industrial development boards; Newburgh Antique Emporium, which has two locations; and Anna’s

restaurant, which has been offering Greek American fare since 1985 (its owner/manager, Peter “DJ Pete Pop” Papageorgantis, spins R&B and soul 45s for “Funky Brunch” Sundays at Mama Roux restaurant, part of a retail/residential building at 96 Broadway that was restored with assistance from the Newburgh Industrial Development Agency). Greenlighted recently by the municipality, after a request for proposals, is the coming makeover of three adjacent disused buildings on Grand Street acquired by Orange County—a former American Legion Hall, YMCA, and Masonic Temple—into a $25 million, 80room boutique hotel/events facility with a spa, bar, and restaurant. The Foster Supply hospitality group, which manages six historic properties-cum-hotels in the Western Catskills, was awarded the right to buy and renovate the structures as part of a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) contract with the city. Sims Foster, who founded Foster Supply with his wife, Kirsten Foster, is emphatic about his firm’s belief in Newburgh and its desire to improve life in the city. “There hasn’t been a hotel of any substance in Newburgh in a generation,” he says. “Newburgh has great energy. And the architecture, history, and convenient location [of the complex] will attract people.” The project, which received a $1.25 million development grant from the state, is expected to create 80 jobs and $1.3 million in annual tax revenues. “[The project] will have a positive, outsized impact and help Newburgh write its next chapter,” says Sims. “And help it become what it once was, in a new iteration.” 4/22 CHRONOGRAM COMMUNITY PAGES 47

Among the city’s downtown architectural jewels are the 1883 Ritz Theater (where, in 1941, Lucille Ball made her stage debut) and the 1923 Newburgh Savings Bank building, which housed the Newburgh Karpeles Manuscript Museum until the passing of founder David Karpeles in January. But many historic structures weren’t lucky enough to evade the wrecking ball. “Around 800 historically significant buildings here were wiped out here during urban renewal,” says Reggie Young, whose Hudson Valley House Parts architectural salvage store opened in 2018 and is preparing for Newburgh’s growth and prosperity by employing and training locals in the restoration field. “As a preservationist, it’s very exciting to see how much historic architecture is being rebuilt right now. We’re planning workshops on steam radiators and plumbing, brownstone and window renovation, working with plaster and mortar, and other subjects.” A member of the city’s architectural review commission, he adds that “Newburgh has the state’s largest historic district outside of New York City, but also the lowest rate of home ownership in the Hudson Valley. A lot of investors have been coming in [public and private investments in Newburgh since 2019 total more than $144.6 million, with $128 million more expected in the next few years], which has its good and bad sides, and we’re dealing with gentrification. We want to get more people to be able to own their own homes, and not see poorer people pushed out.” 48 COMMUNITY PAGES CHRONOGRAM 4/22

Making Room According to a housing needs study by economic justice group the Leviticus Fund, nearly one third of Newburgh’s population lives below the federal poverty level. A major victory in the effort to ensure that the city, in the face of a nationwide housing shortage, remains a place for all economic echelons of citizens came with its passing of Good Cause Eviction legislation last fall. The laws are designed to prevent “exorbitant and predatory” rent increases and lay out specific causes that landlords must prove when seeking to evict tenants (similar legislation has been passed in Albany, Beacon, Kingston, and other cities). “No one in America should be evicted without good cause,” Newburgh Mayor Torrance Harvey, an accomplished actor, poet, and motivational speaker outside of his governmental duties, told the Middletown Times Herald-Record in March. “Decent housing is a human right, not a privilege.” That month, despite considerable public support for the new laws, a small group of landlords—most of them linked to the same Manhattan address—filed a lawsuit against the city over the legislation, decrying it as local government overreach that goes against their constitutional rights as business owners. Many supporters of Good Cause legislation, such as area grassroots social justice group For the Many (formerly Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson), are optimistic about the city’s upholding of its decision but are nonetheless pushing for state-wide adoption of the laws, which are already in place at the state level in New Jersey, California, and Oregon.

Cherisse Vickers, executive director of the Newburgh Industrial Development Agency, in front of a dilapidated building on Washington Street that will soon be redeveloped. Before joining the IDA in 2018, Vickers ran a blog called Newburgh Restoration, which she launched in 2008.

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APRIL 16- MAY 15, 2022 DARE TO BE SQUARE Marc Bernier • Tadashi Hashimoto Opening Reception, Saturday, April 16th, 5-7pm Friday, April 29th, 6-8 PM Aaron Latos Jazz Trio featuring Aaron Latos on Drums & Christopher Dean Sullivan on Bass

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50 COMMUNITY PAGES CHRONOGRAM 4/22

Primo Waterfront, a coastal Italian restaurant, opened in the former Cena 2000 space on the Newburgh waterfront last fall. Pictured above; executive chef Ralph Bello and chef/owner Jesse Camac, who also runs Heritage Food + Drink.

Last year Newburgh submitted its fifth consecutive bid for one of New York State’s $20 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grants, although as of this writing it’s unclear when the state will announce the grant winners. But if the city is awarded the funds, its plans call for planting trees along Broadway, creating public bicycle and transit lanes, and further revitalizing its bustling waterfront restaurant district by reconstructing the damaged Newburgh Landing public pier. “Part of what makes Newburgh a great place to live is that it’s an urban area with a lot of amenities, but it also has mountain and river views,” says Cherisse Vickers, the executive director of the Newburgh Industrial Development Agency. “I grew up on Long Island, and that’s not something that we had there. I really enjoy the diversity, meeting and talking with people from different backgrounds. Moving to Newburgh is a chance to grow and really be part of a change that’s happening. I’d say that whatever your niche is, there’s room for you here.” To that end, the IDA is at the forefront of the drive to make room for residents and businesses while preserving the town’s stock of historic buildings. The organization’s ventures include the above-mentioned 96 Broadway and Foster Supply hotel projects; the Foundry at Washington Park, a 31-unit condominium facility in a renovated brick industrial building; and a planned housing site at the former Clinton Hotel at 134 Washington Street. In a city whose 2019 unemployment rate was 4.9 percent, the Newburgh Free Library, which recently hosted a workforce development summit that attracted over 30 participating organizations and launched its Career Smart @ Your Library program, is also doing its part to help. “We’re looking for new ways of positioning the library in the digital world, so that we can be a catalyst for change in the community and a connector for people with questions,” explains Mary Lou Carolan, the library’s executive director. “The Career Smart program offers assistance with job training, resume building, computer literacy, and more. We recently hosted students from the nearby Highpoint [a workforce center for women of color] and [RUPCO-run] YouthBuild programs, and we’re planning another summit event for May. The aim is to create a new technology hub in Newburgh while also being a resource center and local historical source.” “I’ve heard my whole life about how horrible Newburgh was, but it’s one of the most beautiful and historic places in the whole Hudson Valley,” says Ernenwein, whose Austrian Jewish family has been in the area for five generations. “And during the Newburgh Illuminated festival, when we really get to show off our town and I see the smiles on the faces of all the people who are out having fun, I get choked up. Now’s an extremely exciting time for Newburgh.”

Sponsored

THE FUTURE OF SURGERY IS ROBOTIC

Columbia Memorial Health’s Surgeons Get a Helping Hand from the Mako Robotic Arm

or Dr. Christopher Gorczynski, an orthopedic surgeon at Columbia Memorial Health (CMH) in Hudson, a highly skilled robot surgical assistant isn’t a distant science fiction dream—it’s an exciting reality in the operating room. In 2017, CMH invested in the Mako Robotic Arm, a cutting-edge technological unit that helps orthopedic surgeons like Dr. Gorczynski plan and perform partial and total knee replacements and total hip replacements with exceptional accuracy. The increased precision the robotic arm provides allows surgeons to preserve healthy bone and protect soft tissue and ligaments, resulting in better health outcomes like easier recovery and rehabilitation, and a more stable, longlasting joint prosthesis that is a much better fit to the patient’s individual anatomy. As joint replacement surgery becomes increasingly common, the technological advance of the Mako Robotic Arm is helping patients obtain more predictable outcomes. “The goal has always been to make a joint replacement feel more natural to patients, to feel like they’ve never had surgery,” says Dr. Gorczynski. There’s a metric orthopedic surgeons use, known as “the forgotten joint score,” a reference to the reconstructed joint’s imperceptibility during daily life. Achieving such a goal, however, hasn’t always been easy. “Historically it’s been an issue because no matter how skilled the surgeon, manual reconstruction of a joint may not have been as accurate as they would like,” he says. That’s because prior to the introduction of the robotic arm, a surgeon would align joint

replacements manually using very simple, decades-old alignment guides. Soft tissue tension was estimated manually, and once bone cuts were made, additional adjustment was not easily or accurately done. Now, with the help of the Mako Robotic Arm, those issues are a relic of the past. The robotic arm helps the surgeon achieve a better reconstruction through three key pieces of its software design—3D CT-based planning, AccuStop haptic technology, and realtime data analytics. Before entering the operating room, the surgeon uses a CT scan of the patient’s joint to 3D-model the reconstruction and create a personalized surgical plan based on each patient’s specific diagnosis and unique anatomy. During the operation, the surgeon controls the robotic arm, which uses its AccuStop technology to prevent anything but the precise plan from being executed. And using the real-time information that the robotic arm provides, the surgeon can virtually stress test the prosthesis and make any necessary adjustments. That means Dr. Gorczynski can implant a hip or knee joint prosthesis within a millimeter and a degree of intended plan every time. “No surgeon anywhere can do this consistently using manual tools,” he says. “Since we began doing joint replacement robotically, it has exceeded my expectations with regard to accuracy of reconstruction, and it’s been so rewarding to offer this to the community.” Columbiamemorialhealth.org 4/22 CHRONOGRAM 51

music Lorkin O’Reilly

Marriage Material (Team Love Records)

If you are in the middle of a breakup, this may be a brutal listen. Scottish transplant Lorkin O’Reilly (now bound for Dublin) bludgeons us with intimate observations of random moments of tenderness; the things your friends say as you shatter and try to let go of love, a raw voice reaching out unafraid to face the vulnerable and heartbreaking. Many of us are craving this connection, this bleeding out of the broken heart, the secrets of the sanguine and personal truths. As the world itself feels diseased, drowning, and burning, we are all spinning and yearning to feel and be touched. If you are grieving and have the means, lock yourself in a cabin surrounded by the frozen moss and melting mud. Lie on the floorboards for a week and listen to Marriage Material. And then listen again. With any luck and faith, hope will replace fear and you may emerge tearless and able to gather yourself enough to put one foot in front of the other, moving towards the better. Marriage Material is a gift of the emotional frailty of the human condition and its many corrals. The stories are easy to identify with and relate to your own special version of “sad and alone.” The 11 songs satiate the present need for glorious laments from the most sensitive and expressive of musical instruments, the human voice and lyric. Not to be diminished, O’Reilly’s acoustic guitar is likewise accompanied by his Hudson Valley neighbors Kenny Siegal, Matthew Cullen, Will Bryant, Lee Falco, Felix M-B, and Laura Quirk. —Jason Broome

sound check David Grimaldi Each month here we visit with a member of the community to find out what music they’ve been digging.

Sharp 5

Spaghetti Eastern Music

(Valley Jazz Records)

(Bad Egg Records)

Shine a Bright Light

I’ve been spending a lot of time enjoying The Complete Live at the Lighthouse by Lee Morgan. It compiles every set his group performed at the historic Hermosa Beach nightclub in July 1970. The box set contains three full nights of music, so you can listen through as if you were there yourself. Also on heavy rotation is the latest Garcia Peoples record, Dodging Dues. Over the past five years, they’ve established themselves as one of the tightest bands around, both on stage and in the studio. On their new full length, they continue to develop their own unique strain of psychedelia. Don’t miss their return to the stage at Tubby’s in Kingston on 4/20. David Grimaldi is the store manager at Rocket Number Nine Records in Kingston.

52 MUSIC CHRONOGRAM 4/22

Sharp 5 refers to the augmented fifth, a chordal innovation championed by jazz composers, improvisers, and pianists. Depending on their context, they are sometimes labeled “dissonant,” but there is nothing dissonant about the gorgeous music of Sharp 5 (at least not in laypersons’ terms). Some of the Hudson Valley’s top jazz talents combine forces here on a Brazilian-flavored project, mixing original compositions with music by Kenny Barron, Thelonious Monk, Abbey Lincoln, and King Crimson (!). Even when they are firing on all cylinders, as on “E Preciso Perdoar,” with Teri Roiger on lead vocals, Pete Levin on keys, John Menegon on bass, Nanny Assis on guitar and vocals, and Jeff “Siege” Siegel on drums, no toes are stepped upon. All the parts are crystal-clear such that you can practically hear the air flowing in and around them, which only adds to the arrangement’s hypnotic, mesmerizing quality. —Seth Rogovoy

Solo Guitar Score for 2 x 2 x 4 As a fan of non-linear guitar-scapes like Nate Hall’s Electric Vacuum Roar and some of the more probiotic, gut-gurgling Boris weirdness over the years, I can get behind something as cool and inspired as Spaghetti Eastern Music’s melodic, transcendent Solo Guitar Score for 2x2x4 release. While it’s more shimmering and cosmic than the aforementioned works, and akin at times to more sophisticated mediational music, this King Crimson-influenced project, the solo venture of Hudson Valley guitarist Sal Cataldi, nevertheless delights. Written to score a celebrated Charles Dennis dance duet performed with wooden 2x4s, it was recorded live at Woodstock’s 2021 Avant-Garde-Arama festival. While the CD’s title might bring to mind WWE wrestler “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan’s signature wood-andflag-waving routine, there’s nothing campy going on here. Head to Bandcamp and enjoy waves of sonic warmth and light. —Morgan Y. Evans

books Sharkey: When Sea Lions Were Stars of Show Business Gary Bohan, Jr. STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, $24.95, 2022

In the 1930s, Gary Bohan, Jr.’s great grandfather, Mark Huling, trained a sea lion named Sharkey at his “seal college” in Kingston. Soon, Sharkey could do much more than balance a ball on his nose. He could smoke, sing, and offer a handshake with his flipper. He shot scenes with Abbott and Costello, performed for FDR, and shared the stage with Ella Fitzgerald. The Detroit Tribune dubbed him the eighth wonder of the world. Bohan makes use of newspaper clippings, movie and television footage, and stories passed down by family to tell the story of Kingston’s aquatic legend and his trainer.

A History of Place Mala Hoffman FINISHING LINE PRESS, $14.99, 2022

Gardiner-based poet and educator Hoffman takes the reader on a poetic journey through the multiple places she has called home, from Germany to Switzerland to New York. In each poem named for a specific place, Hoffman conjures up images from her past and present. She dives into her family history, imagining her mother in Germany “washing cloth diapers in cold basins singing 1940s show tunes off-key.” She recalls a childhood moment in White Plains, where she “first learned that it is different to be a Jew.” Hoffman punctuates these memories with photographs of friends, family, and the homes themselves.

A Lynching at Port Jervis: Race and Reckoning in the Gilded Age Philip Dray FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX, $29, 2022

In 1892, a Black man named Robert Lewis was lynched in the Orange County community of Port Jervis after being accused of sexually assaulting the daughter of an established Irish family. While enormous news at the time, Lewis’s story was eventually lost to history. Lynching was incorrectly seen as a largely Southern problem, and the residents of Port Jervis preferred to forget the event. Dray seeks to reverse that forgetting and bring new life to the case by exercising the same research skills he used when writing At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America.

Sacred Sendoffs Sarah A. Bowen MONKFISH, $16.95, 2022

From Rhinebeck-based publisher Monkfish, a guide to surviving animal loss from animal chaplain Sarah A. Bowen. Combinig humorous anecdotes and academic research, Bowen explores our relationships with pets, wild creatures, and the entire animal kingdom. The book shares insights on how to honor our animal companions as well as offering practical actions and everyday opportunities for helping nonhumans thrive. Along the way, we might discover how to be more human in the process and come closer to a more nonviolent human sphere and heal the planet.

The Red Zone: A Love Story Chloe Caldwell SOFT SKULL, $16.95, 2022

Hudson author Caldwell comes to the realization in her 30s that her strong waves of emotion are tied inextricably with her menstrual cycle. After beginning a new relationship, these waves begin to dominate her life. This begins her research into what exactly is causing this turmoil. She discovers premenstrual dysphoric disorder and is able to put a name to her problem. With wry humor, Caldwell takes the reader with her on her journey of not only discovering what’s wrong, but dealing with the symptoms of it. She tells the love story between herself and her body as she works to understand it better. —Emma Cariello

The Unwritten Book: An Investigation Samantha Hunt

FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX, 2022, $28

Death surrounds us. We can’t miss its inevitability and ubiquity, as the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have reminded us all too well. Trained up through generations to consider it unspeakable and turn the defining of it over to power hungry gatekeepers, many humans resent any reminder of it, even though redacting death leaves little that’s real to be seen, much less understood. And no matter how hard we may try, no matter what material resources we may bring to bear, up it pops, even unto those who have managed to evade taxes. Those whose relationship with death is defined by the ick factor, who prefer to maintain the fiction that enough plastic surgery, wellness practice, fast cars or executive privilege will render it impotent, will find no pleasure in the pages of Samantha Hunt’s The Unwritten Book. (Do people like that even read?) For the rest of us, who prefer to examine such evidence as we can find and acknowledge the inevitable, it’s rare fun indeed. The title is part literal description. The Unwritten Book contains three chapters of an unfinished novel abandoned by Hunt’s father, Walter J. Hunt, a brilliant linguaphile, father of six, editor at Reader’s Digest during its transition from family business to corporate juggernaut, and alcoholic. Hunt had known of her father’s first unpublished novel; after his death, she discovered three chapters of a second one. This story’s narrator, Sam, is a widower with two teen sons who works as head “briefer,” books editor at a high-profile national publication that prints condensed books, as Reader’s Digest famously did. Some aspects of the discovery are unsettling, given that so much is drawn from life and the chapters are framed as Sam’s journal entries; it’s slightly odd to find that your father had borrowed your name, killed off his wife, and deleted his daughters, even in fiction. But it’s in the younger Hunt’s very nature to relish the gift she has been given in finding a further communique. (Besides, her mother reemerges as an intrepid and charming female character named Phoebe Poon, who one senses might have emerged as both heroic figure and love interest had the tale continued.) It is only in reading that we can partake of the thoughts of the dead with any accuracy, and Samantha Hunt—whose earlier works include The Dark Dark and The Invention of Everything Else, a novel about the last days of Nikolai Tesla that won a Bard Fiction Prize, is a formidable reader indeed. She mines her father’s words, his life, and the circumstances of his death with insight that’s tender and unsparing at the same time, and uses the whole experience as a frame and a springboard for a unique nonfiction collection of musings about vital matters through the lens of death-adjacency. The result is the furthest thing from morbid, either by its first Oxford definition (“an abnormal and unhealthy interest in disturbing and unpleasant subjects”) or its second, “of the nature of or indicative of disease.” Unless, of course, one accepts the mainstream notion that death is by definition solely disturbing and unpleasant, instead of containing in its mundanity and mystery quite a bit more than that. In Hunt’s agile hands, the lens of death-adjacent thinking becomes a prism through which to consider motherhood (every birth, Hunt notes, inevitably creates a subsequent death), families, houses, language (father and daughter share a fascination with Joseph Shipley’s Dictionary of Word Origins), literature, hoarding, addiction, marriage, and more. Like the space between the beats, like the white space on the page, death is revealed not simply standing in opposition to any of our mortal concerns but illuminating layers of meaning. Memento mori, as the Stoics put it, if you wish to be truly alive. This is a cat cafe of a book, in which ideas slide sinuously near us to be petted till they purr and puncture the patriarchy with precise and delicate claws. It’s a bracing chat with a wise woman about the harsh beauty of life on earth. —Anne Pyburn Craig 4/22 CHRONOGRAM BOOKS 53

poetry

EDITED BY Phillip X Levine

The Lovers

Still Here

Vlad, my friend, my friend Vlad, told me that I can’t write poems about lovers. That the use of the word lover is strictly prohibited. How it came about is I had a line in a poem. Something like

I am home again, minus a body part, taken by disease and the skillful hands of a surgeon. I meet with him, in his office, a few weeks after the surgery.

Heaven sighs down the neck of your coat Like a lover holding you from behind which, fair enough, is pretty boilerplate poetic sentimentality. What was happening was me and Vlad were in his studio drinking a big bottle of sake. I had about 100 of my poems printed up and spread out all over the big wooden table. We were taking the red pen to them, moving lines, cutting stanzas and drinking sake. He saw that line and he cut it right out. He said, “No lovers and no mothers.” Myself, I might throw the moon into that category, but I love the moon, I try to see it every night, and I write about it often, things like The moon filled the hole like cold milk in a glass. which is a good line I think. But what I’m writing now isn’t about lovers really, it’s about volcanoes. It’s about two volcanoes outside of Mexico City that I saw as a boy and it is also about being a boy in Mexico City. It is about Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, which are the Nahua names for the Volcanoes. Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl were lovers, I will admit that. I’ll tell you the story now. Izta was a princess and Popo was a warrior and they were in love. When the southern border of the Aztec empire was under threat, Poco was sent to war by the Emperor. The Emperor told Poco that he could have Izta’s hand in marriage when he returned from the war. Well, somehow the news of Poco’s death made it back up to Tenochtitlan. And let me tell you, Izta was heartbroken. She was so heartbroken that she could not bear to live anymore, not in a world without her handsome, beloved Poco, and so she did herself with a jade knife, her bright blood spilling onto the palace floor like a rose blooming in milk. Here’s the kicker though. Poco was not dead. There had been some kind of mix-up. Poco returned from the war to find the light of his world had been extinguished. He went out to her grave at the edge of the kingdom and keened to the heavens like a wild cat. Well the gods heard him and they came down and they turned both Poco and Izta into mountains. Izta sleeps and Poco rages, spewing fire and smoke in his grief. But this isn’t about that. This is about something else. It’s about being a young man, a boy, walking on dirt roads outside of the city drinking pulque. It’s about dust clouds getting pulled up into the air from fallow fields and watching them swirl around and disappear. It’s about the young campesinos and their shiny boots and the burros with the gas cans full of mezcal and all the Indians getting us drunk so drunk you pissed your shorts

fell asleep with your hand in your soup

the moon big and fat white like milk

54 POETRY CHRONOGRAM 4/22

Now, in the false safety of my house, I stand in front of a window, drapes drawn open, a streetlight shining, some of the neighborhood in sight. I am smoking a Marlboro cigarette— something I had stopped doing a year after I had finished with college. Fact is, I feel no new satisfaction smoking cigarettes again, after decades of not smoking, yet, I somehow feel like I am defying something. Holding a cigarette and how I feel reminds me of what I do with one of my fingers, when I am mad at someone. The glow at the end of the cigarette is as faint as first morning light on this March morning. I think: The end is more near than far. I can’t quite figure out if I am afraid or at peace. Maybe both, I think. Is that possible—to be afraid and calm at the same time? Do the Ukrainians feel that way, as the Russian army advances, intent upon annihilating them, but knowing, Ukrainians will always be Ukrainians. After a while, I always come around to the same thought, staring at the small smudge of light that I hold between my fingers— between my mind and what I whisper, declaring to whoever is listening: I am still here. —Thomas Bonville

a girl with a cricket in her mouth chirping like lovers

—John Joe Kane

He tells me that I will be as good as new in a month or two. “Well, maybe not that good,” I tell him. He looks at me, bemused: “That’s right,” he answers, as he listens to my heart and talks about an early spring that someone is predicting.

in a house made of snow Full submission guidelines: Chronogram.com/submissions

Summering in the Winter

A Lesson in Kinetics

Like Finding New Oceans

I’m sorry but I feel like February and you can’t convince me to be more like June and by the way I am going to get all Monday on you if you don’t keep acting like Friday night when you know damn well this may be noon but what you just said is so midnight and by that I don’t mean moonlight and spirits no I mean you have turned what was pure nineties magic and made it year two-thousand and tragic

While bushwhacking this morning my mentor took a tumble after gaining much momentum down grade too steep for his knees. I watched him land his dive tossing his cane to the side as he plowed into the dirt.

as a trumpet vine grabs onto every available surface, on arbors, fences, telephone poles, and trees, you wrapped your tendrils into my yellow throat and made the world feel closer than it ever has. Unmediated by the veil of what we think we know, I kissed you. Together we became unfamiliar.

—Ivan Jenson

Certain Now The clock is tall, Old as stars and thunderous As a heart Beat, With a golden tongue To tell the hours, And iron fingers Consuming toward

Starting but soon stopping a woodland jog I helped him in the kindest way by showing the teacher what the pupil has learned: I let him rise on his own and brush the leaves from his beard. —Mike Vahsen The Answer By now, you think you know what there is to know. What you don’t know, you never will know. It is not new that the tides are turning, or this time is different. The answer, still the same; wear your usual yellow shirt like goldenrod, go through the day, do not try to find out how sunflowers turn their heads. All you need, not thousands of unanswered humming sounds, hovering overhead. Just heed the mockingbird’s sermon. and harken the tappings of the raven.

—George Cassidy Payne

Soon It Will Be Spring Soon it will be spring. Do you know how strong spring is? Do you know how strong it is to do what it does? Of course you know. You have seen spring before. You have watched spring at work many times. How it has to have the strength of a thousand winters to wrestle winter to the ground, then strangle winter with its bare hands, then smother winter with whatever it finds at hand, with snowdrops and crocus, to be certain, then dig winter’s grave deep in the ground, so deep in the ground that winter will not stir again until next winter. And it has only its bare hand, mind you, with which to do this. Tell me, have you ever dug a hole with your bare hands? I don’t mean a hole for a tulip, I mean a whole big enough to bury winter in? This is how strong spring has to be. And spring does this all alone. It gets no help, not from us, No, not from us who merely stand around, cheering. —J. R. Solonche

—Livingston Rossmoor

Shifting of deadlines Like the changing of the guard has a well-worn course

Barbara, (my dog calls me Barbara, never Barb or Barbie) make me a lap. I sit, obliging his request politely phrased by his brown eyes. Charlie nestles in for a nap, all 11 pounds of him, covered in implausibly soft caramel fur. He’s a rescue dachshund, his backstory a mystery. All we know is he likes his whiskey neat, his tobacco aromatic, and his music composed by Wagner. His eyes flutter closed as the burdens of protecting us from intruders fall away. Barbara, let me dream of squirrels. Again I oblige and stay still, not wanting to disturb his muffled barks and muscle twitches as he hunts. After a few moments, his eyes sleepily open. Barbara, let me down. I think I hear the mailman coming. I oblige.

—Jaclyn C. Stevenson

—Barbara Sheffer

—Jennifer Wise

A Haiku for Mondays

4/22 CHRONOGRAM POETRY 55

the guide

56 THE GUIDE CHRONOGRAM 4/22

art

The Unseeable in the Seen SYDNEY CASH’S SCIENTIFIC ART

by Carl Van Brunt Cross Hatching, Wall light/ shadow wall installation at the Falcon, 2011 Opposite: Credit Card SelfPortrait, 2018

knock on the door of Sydney Cash’s studio is answered by a wiry 80-year-old with an intense, inquisitive gaze, the same one he focuses on his art, which is sprawled out on the work table behind him. His mind still burning bright in the sixth decade of his career, he excitedly asks if the visitor wants to see what he’s working on now. “In a lot of ways I think I’m a research scientist,” he proclaims. “That’s what I’ve always done and that’s the most exciting part of the process for me.” Currently, Cash is interrogating hardware cloth, a prosaic metallic gridded material. He’s applying wall paint to it in various ways—pouring, brushing, repeatedly dipping, poking, blowing— to see what happens. He observes that “there is nothing more representative of contemporary art than the rectilinear grid,” adding that “this work provides a convergence of engineering, architecture, and mathematics.” The goal of this inquiry, like most of the others he has undertaken, is to produce art that carries meaning beyond its material presence. In a world that is increasingly virtual, Cash is scientifically addressing the empirical reality of the work he is making in an effort to reveal, however fleetingly, a glimpse of transcendence. His way to locate meaning in art both for himself and the viewer is to perceive the unseeable in the seen. Cash’s mother noticed that her boy liked to make things—he was clever with his hands. She took young Sydney to the Detroit Institute of Art for Saturday classes and had a workbench built for him. At Wayne State University, he first studied metallurgy but ended up getting a degree in mathematics. His current studio—

with every wall, shelf, and available surface teeming with works in process jostling for attention with pieces from as much as 30 or 40 years ago—certainly looks like a place where an artist operates. But as you listen to Cash describe his practice, his scientific framing seems to make some sense even as his workplace backgrounds a portrait of the artist he truly is.

Born in the Basement Cash moved to New York City in the 1960s. A resourceful go-getter, he made a deal with his super to use a room in the basement of his building as a studio. There, he further developed the sculptures he had begun making in Detroit fashioned from castings of antique Gargoyle carvings. Soon he found a buyer at Bloomingdales who was interested in selling the sculptures retail. Sales went well and eventually Cash opened a shop called Gargoyles in Greenwich Village. He had begun his career as a professional artist. Cash feels that he has “great permission in the material world, that [he] is intimate with materials.” Working with glass became the focus of his artistic practice as he got involved with convex mirrors. Cash liked the reflected distortions they made. He is largely self-taught and is constantly experimenting with new ideas. Cash is also blessed with what he describes as a “gift,” which enables him to visualize an unfolding process in exacting detail, “almost like watching a video in his head.” Moving to the Hudson Valley with his family in the early 1980s, Cash is perhaps best known for his innovative glass

4/22 CHRONOGRAM THE GUIDE 57

work slumping flat glass into dimensional forms in an electric kiln. (Slumping is a technique in which items are made in a kiln by means of shaping glass over molds at high temperatures.) His art has been shown in respected galleries extensively and found its way into various collections, including the Corning Museum, the Museum of Art and Design, and the Museum of Modern Art. Along with his Marlborough home studio, he has another about a mile away that houses larger works. Recently, he rediscovered large glass pieces there from the early ’90s that he had completely forgotten. Cash admits that he is somewhat impatient and has no interest in repeating himself.

Slumping Toward Beauty Around 1980, Cash started working with nichrome wire, which is stable at high temperatures, malleable, and strong. He used it in his process of slumping glass with surprisingly beautiful results. “If an artist is focused on looking for beauty, they are taking the wrong approach,” Cash says. “Beauty arises on its own, you can’t force it.” Each day in his studio is a foray into the unknownable guided by his granular knowledge of the properties of the materials he manipulates. His breakthrough sculpture from this body of work, The Tri-fold, was envisioned in a dream. The process the dream revealed began with a triangle of flat glass positioned over a triangle of nichrome strung from a steel support, all placed in a kiln. Cash recalls that in waking life, he witnessed, through a peephole in his kiln’s wall, the sculpture’s formation: “pulled by gravity as the temperature of the kiln rose, the glass started moving downwards.” The supple central cup of the sculpture formed and the three elegant supporting legs stretched toward the kiln’s floor where they folded gracefully into feet. “It was like magic,” he says. “After setting everything up, I didn’t touch a thing.” The fully emerged sculpture became a kind of Holy Grail for Cash. He went on to make several distinct variations on this theme using different kinds of glass, working at different scales, and modifying the underlying structure, each iteration achieving a different expression of what Cash calls “wonder.” Over the past decade, Cash has worked with lights, glass, and mirrors to fashion pieces that generate intricate, interacting patterns of light, reflection, and shadow on surrounding walls that create a fascinating, abstract, site-specific chiaroscuro. His black grid patterns, in oil over portraits, some photographic, others reproductions of historical works, bring out hidden dimensions of the persons depicted. Cash has also investigated patternmaking for its own sake, devising tools to manipulate paint in ways that are intricate yet spontaneous and highly energized. He has photographed, enlarged, and painted antique etchings highlighting the skilled hand work employed in their original making thus bringing the past into the present without irony and with respect, while eschewing nostalgia. He has even done a self-portrait combining individual credit cards each, with a portion of his face imprinted.

Visualizing the Ineffable On the studio work table is a piece with two partially closed gridded cylinders opening to each other. Pinkish paint of slightly differing hues, values, and viscosities has been poured over them. Some of the squares of the grid are covered by the paint, others only partially, some not at all. The cylinders rest on a mirror. Beneath the mirror, they are continued for a few inches, creating the illusion of passing through the glass. Cash states that this piece is the most finished and personally satisfying so far from his currently emerging body of work. He goes on to say that while contemplating it, he felt a sudden burst of kindness. Kindness toward himself, self-acceptance, but also kindness in a more generalized sense. Cash was reminded of the long, silent Buddhist retreats he has often attended, where the ineffable sometimes becomes visual. Sometimes, in the studio, a flash of electricity will move up his spine. “Everything gets a bit luminous,” he quips, adding a touch of humor. “It tells me to pay attention to what’s going on, this is important.” But being important isn’t it. Instead, it’s the experience itself, unmediated. “Unmediated! Everybody’s got to come to art that way,” Cash exclaims. In that moment, he had uncovered something immeasurable: a direct experience that for a wordless, unquantifiable moment that opened his heart and perhaps would do the same for others. What will the next experiment bring?

From top: Kindness, wire, paint, and mirror, 2022 The Tri-fold, wire, glass, 1980. Photo by Todd Weinstein 58 THE GUIDE CHRONOGRAM 4/22

film

Sharlto Copley plays Ted Kaczynski in Ted K, Tony Stone's feature film about the Unabomber.

Highly Explosive TONY STONE'S UNABOMBER BIOPIC TED K Availble on streaming platforms Tedkmovie.com

A biopic about the Unabomber? Well, why not? Theodore Kaczynski was not your usual bloodthirsty terrorist. He graduated from Harvard in 1961, received a PhD from the University of Michigan, taught for two years at Berkeley, then retreated to a cabin in the deep woods of Montana. Living without electricity and running water, he launched a bombing campaign that led to the largest manhunt in FBI history. The “Una” in “Unabomber,” incidentally, is short for universities and airlines, the first targets of his wrath. In the style of `70s movies like Taxi Driver and Dog Day Afternoon, Ted K, directed by Hudson resident Tony Stone, is a portrait of an “antihero” (played by Sharlto Copley) who walks the fine line between criminal and visionary. (“Ted K” was how the Unabomber signed irate letters to local newspapers.) Scrupulously based on Kaczynski’s 40,000-page journal, the feature film feels like a documentary. If you’ve ever lived in the deep country, you know how sensitive one becomes to sound. A pickup truck a quarter-mile away is an intrusion. The Unabomber had an extreme case of aural sensitivity—to the point of shooting a rifle at helicopters. On the simplest level, Kaczynski was a guy shouting at snowmobiles: “Get the hell off my land!” We see him coolly pouring screws and razor blades into his bombs; these are anti-personnel weapons, designed to tear human flesh. His mail bombs killed three people and injured 23. But the Unabomber seems to take no pleasure in his murders. He reports on them in his journal as if they were science

experiments. If no one died in the explosion, he would write: “only adequate.” Kaczynski was trained as a mathematician, and sees the world with the clear, precise logic of an algebra textbook. A minus A equals zero. Kaczynski tried to subtract techno-civilization from itself, and failed. His moment of hubris was publishing his manifesto, “Industrial Society and Its Future,” in the Washington Post. His brother recognized Kaczynski’s prose style and contacted the FBI. Without the lust for self-publication, Kaczynski might still be quietly manufacturing exploding boxes. Do mad bombers like Kaczynski secretly wish to get caught? We are all hypocrites, but the Unabomber’s hypocrisy is more noticeable than most. He rides on buses and stays in motel rooms to mail his bombs, and his ultimate goal is to be on the 6 o’clock news. Ted K joins the urban industrialized civilization he hates, by writing the definitive attack on it. As the Situationists say, he becomes part of the spectacle. The movie was made as slowly and painstakingly as the Unabomber constructed his handmade bombs. It was filmed over the course of a year on the exact tract of land Kaczynski lived on. Filmmaker Stone wanted to follow this recluse through every season. The FBI famously impounded the Unabomber’s cabin, but they left a number of the original outbuildings, which are in the film. Also, local townspeople play some of the roles—and some play themselves. Having an unknown actor (unknown to me, anyway) as the protagonist

creates a more vivid illusion. If Tom Hanks had played Kaczynski, I would have been giggling through the movie. Besides, Copley bears a resemblance to both Henry David Thoreau and Abraham Lincoln, which adds resonance to Ted K. “We tried to make something timeless,” Stone remarks. Some urban scenes in the film were shot in Albany and Schenectady. Stone built a replica of Kaczynski’s nearly-windowless hut himself, in Hudson, where he lives. (Stone is the cofounder of Basilica Hudson with this wife, Melissa auf der Mar.) I suppose for Generation X the Unabomber is a source of nostalgia. The `90s was a simpler era, when the biggest danger came from some crank in a cabin, not the President of the United States trying to foment a fascist uprising. The Unabomber was against industrial civilization before we were fully aware it was destroying our climate, dooming thousands of species to extinction. He was literally a voice in the wilderness. If he hadn’t killed an innocent computer store owner, he might well be a hero today. Stone remarks: “When I started thinking about this film 10 years ago, people didn’t understand why I wanted to make a movie about that guy, and as time went on, it became quite clear.” In the last scene we see Kaczynski’s current home, the supermax federal penitentiary outside Florence, Colorado—a long, soulless, industrial-looking box. How ironic that the ultimate nature-lover should end his days there! —Sparrow 4/22 CHRONOGRAM THE GUIDE 59

THE

B E YO N D THRESHOLD Tibetan Contemporary Art

MASTERY MERIT AND

TIBETAN ART from the JACK SHEAR COLLECTION Tsherin Sherpa, b. 1968, Untitled (detail), 2014, Gold leaf, acrylic, and ink on cotton, The Shelley and Donald Rubin Private Collection. © Tsherin Sherpa

THE FRANCES LEHMAN

LOEB ART CENTER

Thirteenth Karmapa Düdül Dorj (1733–1797) Surrounded by Lineage Masters (detail), Eastern Tibet, 19th century, Distemper on cloth, The Jack Shear Collection of Tibetan Art

MARCH 5 – JULY 31, 2022 FREE | OPEN TO ALL VASSAR.EDU/THELOEB

10 AM – 5 PM TUESDAY–SUNDAY

PATRICIA MIRANDA A Repairing Mend • April 2–May 7

Upcoming Events & Workshops with Patricia Miranda • Opening Reception | APRIL 2, 4-7PM • Lace Sewing Circles | APRIL 9 • Making Color from Nature | APRIL 23 • Lace Study Day | MAY 7

with Patricia Miranda & Elena Kanagy-Loux, Member of The Brooklyn Lace Guild and Collections Specialist at the Antonio Ratti Textile Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art

GALLERY HOURS

Thur & Sun 12-5pm, Fri & Sat 12-6pm 11 Jane Street, Suite A, Saugerties NY janestreetartcenter.com • 845-217-5715

60 THE GUIDE CHRONOGRAM 4/22

Scan for tickets and more info

live music

Ballister plays Tubby's in Kingston on April 13.

Club D’Elf featuring John Medeski

April 1. The Boston-based musical collective known as Club D’Elf conjures up a bubbling cauldron that churns with jazz, dub, Moroccan trance music, hip hop, electronica, avant-garde, Afrobeat, and prog rock. Led by bass and sinter (Moroccan three-string oud) player Mike Rivard and augmented by oud player Brahim Fribgane and a changeable cast of other deep musicians, the group will set the atmosphere at Levon Helm Studios alight with this date to promote their new album, You Never Know. Sitting in with them will be local keyboard king John Medeski of Medeski, Martin & Wood. (Moly Tuttle and Golden Highway drive in April 7; Puss N Boots pop by April 21.) 7:30pm. $30, $45. Woodstock. Levonhelm.com

Shovels & Rope

April 4. South Carolina Americana duo Shovels & Rope (husband and wife Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst) had composed the music on Manticore, their sixth and newest album of original songs, before the coming of the COVID lockdown. Perhaps unsurprisingly, during the process of recording it, the quarantine ended up shaping the sound of the new record dramatically; Manticore is a moodier and more minimal affair than its 2019 predecessor, the comparatively louder and bigger By Blood. Currently on the road to get their newer— and older—songs out into the world, the twosome does this overdue date at the Egg. Jeremie Albino will open. (The Milk Carton Kids pick and sing April 8; Amos Lee ambles in April 18.) 7:30pm. $34. Albany. Theegg.org

Bettye LaVette

Ballister/Joe McPhee

Mamadou Diabate

Yonder Mountain String Band

April 9. How could you pass up a night with a soul and R&B legend? The Detroit diva debuted at age 16 with the 1962 single “My Man—He’s a Lovin’ Man,” which became a Top 10 hit on the R&B charts. Tours with Otis Redding, Ben E. King, Clyde McPhatter, and others followed, as well as a stint on Motown; a six-year run alongside Cab Calloway in Broadway’s “Bubbling Brown Sugar”; and a string of career-renaissance albums that includes 2005’s I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise, 2007’s The Scene of the Crime (with Drive-By Truckers), and 2010’s Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook. Here, she pays a not-to-be-missed visit to the Bearsville Theater. (The Greyboy Allstars funk out April 6; Melvin Seals & JBG jam April 28.) 8pm. $29-$54. Bearsville. Bearsvilletheater.com April 9. Malian master musician Mamadou Diabate is one of the foremost exponents of the West African balafon, as well as the cousin of another well-known virtuoso, kora player Toumani Diabate. Mamadou, who settled in the US in 1996, has toured and recorded extensively and performed with jazz and blues greats like Donald Byrd, Randy Weston, and Guy Davis. For this engagement at Mass MoCA, the griot and bandleader arrives with his Percussion Mania ensemble, which crosses traditional West African storytelling rhythms and elements of Western rock for a truly torrid live experience. (Lucius gets luscious April 28; Supaman soars April 30.) 8pm. $16, $22. North Adams, Massachusetts. Massmoca.org

April 13. Like the medieval weapon for which they’re named, the free jazz trio Ballister—saxophonist Dave Rempis, local cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, and Norwegian drummer PNL—packs a wallop. On Znachki Stilyag, their 2020 debut album, the three bring their “big ears” and draw on their collective musical experience to create probing and explosive sounds imbued with barely bearable tension, telekinetic communication, and cathartic release. Starting this evening at Tubby’s with a solo set is the Hudson Valley’s one and only Joe McPhee, an international out-jazz legend who turns 83 this year (we’re hoping he’ll join Ballister on stage for an unhinged blowout). (Container, Pop. 1280, and BloodX get dark April 19; Enablers merge music and spoken word April 26.) 7pm. $10. Kingston. Tubbyskingston.com April 28. Jam-grassers Yonder Mountain String Band make their way back to the region for a performance at the Bardavon. The hard-touring Colorado quintet combines bluegrass with rock, jazz, and progressive improvisational sounds and topped the bluegrass charts with their eponymously titled fourth studio album in 2006. As their series of live Mountain Tracks albums shows, it’s on stage where YMSB shines brightest, so lovers of dazzling fretwork, keening high harmonies, and exploratory instrumental flights should line up for this one. (The Hudson Valley Philharmonic’s 49th String Competition streams April 10; guest conductor Kelly Corcoran leads the Hudson Valley Philharmonic April 23.) 8pm. $39-$49. Poughkeepsie. Bardavon.org

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EARTH DAY CELEBRATION See artists express their love for the Earth and it’s beings at our poster show celebrating Earth Day. April 22nd – June 11

Opening Reception

Friday, April. 22, 5 – 8 PM

89 VINEYARD AVE HIGHLAND, NY studio89hv.com

Save the Koala, 2022, Helen Gutfreund

Mimi Graminski Inside Out, Outside In Exhibiting April 16, 2022 – June 12, 2022 @ Unison’s 2nd location: 9 Paradies Opening Reception: Sat, 4/16 4pm–6pm

9 Paradies Ln. New Paltz, NY • unisonarts.org

Mary Frank: The Observing Heart February 5 – July 17, 2022

THE

DORSKY CELEBRATING TWENTY YEARS

Mary Frank, Lift, 2021, courtesy the artist

Spring Open House Community Celebration of our Spring Exhibitions April 3 SAMUEL DORSK Y MUSEUM OF ART

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT NEW PALTZ

www.newpaltz.edu/museum

62 THE GUIDE CHRONOGRAM 4/22

music

Weird Al Yankovic plays the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie on April 26.

Send in the Clown WEIRD AL YANKOVIC AT THE BARDAVON April 26 Bardavon.org The world has certainly been bleak as of late, and we could all use a dose of humor wherever we can get it. But take heart, people, because, along with the easing of COVID guidelines, the laughs are on the way. This month, as if on cue, the one and only Weird Al Yankovic reemerges to bring a much-need booster shot of levity to concert stages with his “Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent Vanity Tour,” which will come to the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie on April 26 at 7:30pm (Emo Philips will open the show; tickets start at $69). The accordion-playing, five-time Grammy winner is easily the most well-known popular song parodist of the age—see his uproarious, smash takeoffs of hits by everyone from Michael Jackson to Nirvana, Queen, Madonna, and Chamillionaire—as well as a successful producer, video director, and actor. The clown prince of parody answered the questions below by email. —Peter Aaron

Your music has been famously inspired by your own era; i.e., your parodies of contemporary hits or your original songs lampooning modern pop culture. But to some observers, your style feels also like it’s rooted in the comedic musical work of figures like Allan Sherman, Spike Jones, or Fats Waller, and can even be traced back to the vaudeville era. Do you ever feel like you are part of that tradition, and have you seen your influence reflected in the work of any younger artists? If so, who? Those artists you mentioned are my musical heroes, the people who directly inspired me—so of course I would feel deeply humbled to be considered part of that lineage. I’ve been told that a number of younger comedy music acts like the Lonely Island grew up listening to my music—so if I was any influence at all to them, I’m extremely honored.

Radio host Dr. Demento introduced your music to the world via his “The Dr. Demento Radio Show” in the late 1970s, but before you got to know him you were already a long-time lister to his program. What was it about the show and the music that Dr. Demento played on it that appealed to you as a teenager? Dr. Demento exposed me to bizarre music that I’d never heard before in my life. You have to remember that in the ’70s there was no internet, no YouTube…you couldn’t just do a Google search for Tom Lehrer and Stan Freberg and hear whatever you wanted immediately. Dr. Demento was alternative radio in the truest sense. The rest of the week the station would play standard contemporary rock fare, but for those few hours every Sunday night, I would be transported to a different world.

Besides its being popular, what else, to you, makes a makes a song ripe for parody? What qualities do you look for when you’re considering material to spoof? It’s hard to articulate exactly what makes a song a good candidate for parody. I tend to pick songs that have a strong musical or lyrical hook—something that feels unique, and really jumps out at you when you hear it on the radio. Hopefully the song isn’t too repetitive—I need to have enough words to play around with (which is why rap songs have always been fertile ground for parodies). And it also helps if the lyrics are overly sincere or heartfelt—it’s a lot easier to tweak those for comic effect.

You’ve had a pretty surreal career in the music business. Looking back on things, what would you say was the most surreal moment of your career? Oh man—I’ve had so many surreal moments in my life so far, way more than my fair share. But honestly, if I had to pick, I’d say shooting the movie we’re currently making WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story. It’s beyond surrealistic to drive to a movie set and see Daniel Radcliffe made up to look exactly like me from the ’80s and recreating moments from my career. Really, if you ever have a chance to have a big Hollywood biopic made about your life, I highly recommend it. Not only are you playing Carnegie Hall on your “Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously SelfIndulgent Vanity Tour,” you’re also playing—ta-da!— Poughkeepsie. Will you be tailoring your set list and routines for each venue? For those of us in the Hudson Valley who’ve heard your hits and watched your videos but have never experienced you live, what should we look forward to at the Bardavon? Every single one of my 133 shows on this tour will have a different set list, which is one of the reasons why the band loves doing the “Vanity Tour”—it never gets old for us. We love doing the big multimedia shows as well, of course, but out of necessity those need to have the exact same set list every night, and it starts to feel a little like Groundhog Day after a while. This tour gives us much more flexibility, and we’ll definitely tailor the shows to the venues we’re playing. For instance, when we play Poughkeepsie, I’ll start out the show by saying, “Hello, Poughkeepsie!” That’s just for the Bardavon audience—I promise you, we’re not doing that ANYWHERE else. 4/22 CHRONOGRAM THE GUIDE 63

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