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Peter Gabriel with Larry Fast, Tony Levin, and David Rhodes, during the song “Shock the Monkey” in 1983. Levin is holding a squeeze bulb to shoot the photo. PORTFOLIO, PAGE 52

DEPARTMENTS 6 On the Cover: Monik Geisel Self-taught artist Monik Geisel primarily works in photography, but her latest work is a large oil painting of a hissing cat.

8 Esteemed Reader Jason Stern urges us to the greater perfection we already are.

9 Editor’s Note Brian K. Mahoney offers a post-Trump palate cleanser.

11 COVID Watch with The River Newsroom Farm and food workers wait for vaccine eligibility in New York State.

FOOD & DRINK 12 The Personal Is Delectable A peek inside the career and kitchen of bestselling author and Hudson Valley resident Julia Turshen, on the heels of her latest cookbook Simply Julia.

17 Sips & Bites Detroit pizza in Poughkeepsie, a whole-animal butcher in Kingston, Italian fine dining in Fishkill, and more in this month’s tasting notes.

EDUCATION 18 Citizenship 101 New classroom approaches to civics aim to shape engaged, informed citizens.

HOME 24 Trustee to Utopia A descendent of Woodstock artists, Laurie Ylvisaker ranged far and wide before returning to her hometown to build a life and a farmhouse that reworks historic themes for a modern context.

HEALTH & WELLNESS 34 Support Groups Get a Digital Redo In a time of extended isolation, support groups head online to offer much needed connection for people to continue connections begun in person.

OUTDOORS 36 Shuffle Off to Buffalo Three years and 750 miles in the making, New York’s Empire State Trail is now the longest state multiuse trail in the country, stretching from Manhattan to Canada, Albany to Buffalo.

FARMS 38 A GROWING CONCERN Local farmers talk about the practical and emotional effects of climate change on their profession and the crops that sustain us all.

41 2021 CSA DIRECTORY Our guide to community supported agriculture farms in the Hudson Valley. 3/21 CHRONOGRAM 3

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Jardin des Fleurs at Versailles, a photograph by Jeffrey Milstein from his new book Paris From the Air (Rizzoli). PARTING SHOT, PAGE 72

COMMUNITY PAGES

THE GUIDE

42 Saugerties: Keep on Pushing

This month, the second annual Upstate Art Weekend is announced, the Dorsky Museum gets a new director, Michael Lang and Woodstock 50 win damages, Fisher Center’s 2021 lineup, and more.

A recap of the January Chronogram Conversation on art and activism.

In Museum Town, Jennifer Trainer documents Mass MoCA through five lenses.

Gallery listings plus highlights from standout exhibitions around the region, including Susan Weil at JDJ Ice House, Phillipe Halaburda at AGC Gallery, and group show “All Out/All In” at Wassaic Project.

The pandemic has left Saugerties exhausted but its residents and business community are poised for a spring renaissance.

PORTFOLIO 52 Tony Levin: Frame by Frame The iconic King Crimson bassist shares photos and stories from his latest book of tour photography, Images from a Life on the Road.

ARTS 56 Music Album reviews of Slower by Jules Shear; Tocsin by Patrick Higgins; and 4 by 100ANDZERO. Plus our newest feature, Sound Check.

57 Books Jane Kinney Denning reviews In Search of Mycotopia, Doug Bierend’s homage to fungi. Plus short reviews of Neil Gaiman’s Pirate Stew; Steven P. Garabedian’s A Sound History: Lawrence Gellert, Black Musical Protest, and White Denial; Shauna Cummins’ Wishcraft; Maria Ausherman’s Behind the Camera; and Victoria Emanuela’s My Body, My Home: A Radical Guide to Resilience and Belonging.

58 Poetry Poems by Riggs Alosa, Peter Comstock, Anthony G. Herles, Yana Kane, John Kuhn, Iris Litt, David Lukas, C. P. Masciola, Eddie Sobenes, Randy Sutter, Mike Vahsen, and J Marshall Weiss. Edited by Philip X Levine.

HOROSCOPES 68 Shelter from the Storm Lorelai Kude looks at the stars for March and sees a semblance of peace after a collective celestial pounding.

PARTING SHOT 72 Place des Vosges Woodstock photographer Jeffrey Milstein captures a rare aerial view of the City of Lights in his new book Paris From the Air (Rizzoli).

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on the cover

Meowcifur, Monik Geisel, oil on canvas, 3' x 3', 2021

ats—for some they arouse fear, for others, tenderness. With hackles raised and fangs bared, Monik Geisel’s painting Meowcifur portrays a frightful feline. It’s an arresting image sure to provoke viewer reaction. What was going through Geisel’s mind when she painted it? “My feelings about it have changed over the last month, but it definitely reflects frustration and fear. It might take time to figure out. Everything starts out as a little beginning. Lines start flowing, like starting a song with a sound; you just go from there,” she says. A self-taught multimedia artist, Geisel primarily works in photography but has dabbled in writing, coding, cabinet building, sculpting, drawing, digital illustration, and painting as well. She enjoys working in whatever medium strikes her fancy. “Meowcifur was really a challenge. I’d gotten new equipment and materials and was excited to complete something in such detail. It was a personal achievement, and I succeeded in what I set out to do,” she adds. In addition to being a working artist, Geisel

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and her partner Daniel run Stuff Hudson Valley, which specializes in mid-century furniture and home furnishings. Together they spend time combing the country for hidden gems to sell online and at their shop in Uptown Kingston. Geisel’s experience with furniture is a family affair. “My parents, and one sister, are from Romania. When my father came to the USA in the 1960s, he started a cabinetry business that he is still doing at nearly 80 years old! He prides himself in European woodworking, and his heritage. As a result of working with my father, I confidently do a lot of furniture restorations at my store,” she says. Geisel’s mother influenced her in other ways. “She is a tremendously talented, natural cook, gardener, and nurturer. I admire both of my parents. They created a hard worker out of me,” she says. With a sister who is a tattoo artist, Geisel adds, “My family involved me in their crafts, and I can blame my artistic diversity on how many options they encouraged me to try.” Though she relishes experimenting with a variety of media, Geisel’s work has gotten back

to basics recently. “In some strange ways [it] has regressed back into an organic medium,” she says. “I am still photographing, but I now want to paint what my mind sees,” she says. Reflecting on her recent choice of nonhuman subject matter, Geisel says, “There is a beautiful array of shape, design, structure, and color in every being. Even if they’re a completely fabricated creature, the freedom to design an animal based on what you believe they’re up against can be very fun.” Perhaps Meowcifur is a subconscious exploration of earlier memories? “My family has always had cats, and I adopted a white cat in 2007,” Geisel says. “He passed away last April. While Meowcifur looks nothing like him, he has definitely been on my mind lately.” As to what she wants to communicate through her art, she says, “Whatever people want to see, I suppose. There never is a goal in mind. I just create what I feel like creating.” Portfolio: Monikgeisel.com. —Michael Cobb

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EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Brian K. Mahoney bmahoney@chronogram.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR David C. Perry dperry@chronogram.com DIGITAL EDITOR Marie Doyon mdoyon@chronogram.com ARTS EDITOR Peter Aaron music@chronogram.com HEALTH & WELLNESS EDITOR Wendy Kagan health@chronogram.com

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contributors Winona Barton-Ballentine, Michael Cobb, Rhea Dhanbhoora, Amadeus Finlay, Dan Fisher, Lissa Harris, James Keepnews, Jane Kinney Denning, Lorelai Kude, Jamie Larson, David McIntyre, Seth Rogovoy, Will Solomon, Sparrow, Eric Steinman

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“Seeding the future when possible extinction stares us in the face; seeding freedom when the freedoms of all beings are being closed for the limitless freedom of the one percent to exploit the Earth and people, to manipulate life and our minds: this calls for a quantum leap in our imaginations, our intelligences, our capacity for compassion and love, as well as our courage for creative nonviolent resistance and noncooperation with a system that is driving us to extinction.” —Vandana Shiva, Oneness vs The 1%: Shattering Illusions, Seeding Freedom Esteemed Reader: Words, as Bruce Lee’s character says in Enter the Dragon, are “the finger pointing to the moon,” not the moon itself. The moon is the reference point, and I am too easily enthralled by the finger. One such word is “presence.” There is the ordinary meaning, as in the case of the teacher taking attendance. I hear my name and mechanically ejaculate “present!” indicating that my body is in the room, though my attention and whole inner life may be elsewhere. At another depth of meaning, to be present means to be here with my attention, sensing my body, mindful, present in my heart. I experience something closer to presence when I am dwelling in all aspects of my nature together, moment by moment and breath by breath. Inevitably, for me, this presence, which bears no compromise or departure to imagination, evokes the image of the crucifixion. The effort and determination of presence carries this sense of being affixed to the moment, at the intersection of time and eternity. I look to the past, and to the future and voluntarily commit to staying here, now, present with my attention. What, you may be wondering, does all this talk about presence have to do with the quote from Vandana Shiva at the beginning of this missive? First to say, she is, for me, one of a few living public heroes of today. She is a champion of nature, of the underprivileged, of tradition, and of mother nature. She battles ceaselessly against the destructive forces of capitalism and commodification that, I believe, can rightly be called evil. The point of the quote is to suggest that we are living through a present moment that is rife with potential for the conception of a new world view. Under the stress of oppressive conditions we (which is to say you and I and even all of humanity) can become really present. In presence we can be impartial. From impartiality we can see that the dominant patriarchal worldview and its outgrowth in the structure and life of society are fundamentally deluded, misguided, and destructive in every detail and every respect. From this presence, and without reference to corruption and its engendering history of crimes, we can begin to conceive a different future. We can stop the world and imagine, or in the language of shamanism, dream the future of humanity. Every aspect of our modern society rests on a false foundation. Education doesn’t teach but indoctrinates. Healthcare doesn’t make people well but causes chronic illness and dependence on technological intervention. The economic system converts real value in human and natural ecosystems to derivative commodity and abstract currency. Governments don’t care for people but control them as resources and markets for corporate exploitation. The legal system doesn’t bring justice but facilitates overt and subtle forms of segregation and slavery. Media doesn’t provide reliable information but propagandizes and censors what its oligarchic owners want people to believe. The whole system is broken and so our preparation of the future cannot be an improvement, but must be something completely new. The future is a question, an inquiry for each of us to ponder, on our own and together. Every deed, act, and manifestation begins with a creative image. What is the image of a humanity that is rooted in wholeness and the interconnectedness of life; that cares for natural and social ecosystems; that recognizes value in what is shared, in the commons; that feels awe in the face of the mystery of reality; that follows a common aim to love everything that breathes? In allowing ourselves to receive a creative vision of future humanity, we are relieved of the need to reject what is and what has been. In this, our creative nonviolent resistance and noncooperation is not a reaction but a gentle letting go and an allowing of a new conception of the greater perfection we already are. —Jason Stern

editor’s note

by Brian K. Mahoney

Evening All Afternoon

onsider this a palate cleanser. But first, I need to dislodge an inedible bit of gristle stuck behind my missing molar. After three straight months of banging on about the idiocy, incompetence, and seditious machinations of the former president and his clown car of enablers and lickspittles in this column (maybe I’m not actually over this), it feels like the orange fog is beginning to lift, and the contours of the country I remember are coming into view. Since Biden’s inauguration and Trump’s deplatforming from social media, it’s gotten very quiet all of a sudden. (What is the sound of one Trump not tweeting?) Preet Bharara, prosecutor-turned-podcaster, spoke about this recently with former Bush administration official and conservative heretic David Frum on an episode of “Stay Tuned with Preet.” Both men analogized the absence of Trump similarly: Frum suggested it was like living next door to a family with a dog that barks constantly from 5am to midnight—and then one day the family moves away. Bharara likened Trump’s omnipresence and sudden disappearance to living next to a neighbor’s noisy and disruptive construction site for years, and then—presto!—the construction is finally finished. (Destruction site would be more apropos in Trump’s case, methinks.) Worth noting: both of these metaphors involve the invasion of personal space/home and debilitating sonic violence (like what’s used by our government to torture people). Trump is the barking dog who won’t shut up and the most inconsiderate neighbor who doesn’t give a flying fig about you. In the midst of the podcast, I realized that I didn’t have to cede head space to the former president anymore. While Trump’s shadow still darkened our political conversation and the cynical political calculations of Republicans in Congress—perhaps I could exile him from the front of my mind and not spend all my in-between moments doomscrolling. I turned off the podcast and took my AirPods out—simple as that. I was at the park, walking the dogs, so I took a gulp of cold, fresh air. Kids were sledding, screaming in delight at the terror of hurtling ever-faster down the hill of hard-packed snow that had taken on the near-frictionless surface of a bobsled track after multiple sledding days. These were the same conditions that almost led to the deaths of three grown men—myself being one of them—10 years ago. Hopped up on slivovitz, we convinced ourselves it was a good idea to ride James’s toboggan over the DIY snow jump someone had created in the middle of the hill. We survived, but barely. Marcus’s shoulder hasn’t been the same since. James suffers PTSD from I walked away unscathed The dogs and I walked one of the stops on the park’s “Advance Timber Challenge Course.” There are a number of signs and pieces of equipment—parallel bars, monkey bars, balance beams—at points around the park, all made by the Miracle Equipment Recreation Company, which created municipal fitness equipment during the `70s and `80s at around the same time jogging in dolphin shorts was a craze. The sign at the station where I stood read: “Alternate Toe Touch: Bend at trunk, left hand to right toe and right hand to left toe, alternately. Novice: 20 times. Advanced: 40 times. Run.” The idea was that you would run to the next station and perform the next set of exercises. In this way, we would eventually have a country that was fit—at least timber-challenge fit—in case we had to fight the Soviets handto-hand in the woods, I guess.

I decided to try a few toe touches. I figured I must be in the “Advanced” category. Bend, reach, retract. Bend, reach, retract. While my flexibility was hampered by the pandemic—which had given me the excuse to stop going to yoga—it was the dizziness of the up-down that got to me first. I stubbornly made it to 40 reps, but I was seeing stars. (The sign, nailed to a stout wooden post, is also good for support during moments of vertiginous imbalance.) Sometimes it’s nice to just sit in the snow at the park and take it all in. I did that. The dogs sat down as well. We all had a nice sit on the snow-covered ground. Just breathing slow, steady breaths while my double vision became single vision again. I resolved not to bend over so much and imagined a very long shoehorn and a closet full of loafers. And then it began to snow. (It seemed like it snowed the whole month of Trump’s—sadly short—second impeachment trial. But let’s not focus on the man who’s done more to undermine our democracy than even Facebook or Google, let’s meditate on the snow.) Whenever it snows fat, wet flakes, I think of Kate DiCamillo’s poem “Snow, Aldo,” in which a man and his dog walking through the snow in Central Park make perfect subjects for a snow globe. This synopsis is a grave disservice to DiCamillo’s magical verses. Go and read the poem in its entirety yourself. Then I got started thinking about Wallace Stevens’s “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” whose last stanza is concerned with snow: “It was evening all afternoon. / It was snowing / And it was going to snow.” And that’s the kind of gray day it has been—evening all afternoon. My reading of this stanza of Stevens’s “Blackbird,” however, has always been slightly, well, different than most writers on the subject. The last two lines: “it was snowing / And it was going to snow” have always struck me as an apt description of the female orgasm: once it gets good and going, it’s off to the races. Just settle in and let it snow. Stevens’ poem sparked a poem of mine years ago, in which I explored the difference between female and male orgasms, using a musical metaphor. Here it is, in part: Women are orchestral works slow to crescendo like Beethoven’s Ninth, meandering through three movements first soft, then fast, then slow, until the Ode to Joy, what Charles Rosen calls “the symphony within the symphony.” The chorus one hundred and twenty strong backed by the pit, pulling out all the stops, singing: “Joy, beautiful spark of the gods!” Men, like pop songs, lean on formula and tend to rush as if incapable of mystic incandescence. Think of Cat Stevens’ “Tea for the Tillerman”: perfection, but in miniature, at 61 seconds.

And there I was, in the park, snow falling, sitting with the dogs in the snow, lines of poetry and theories of orgasms running through my head. A definite upgrade to doomscrolling.

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covid watch

A collaboration with

by Lissa Harris

Essential, Invisible, Ineligible Farm and Food Workers Wait for Vaccine

ack in December, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decided that when COVID-19 vaccines reached the essential worker front line, food and farm workers should be a top priority. States as politically disparate as California and Alabama have followed the CDC’s advice and are vaccinating farmworkers. But not New York. More than a month after Governor Andrew Cuomo added essential frontline workers to the vaccine eligibility list, food and farm workers are still not considered eligible for immunization. Local public health experts are struggling to understand the decision. It’s a decision local public health experts are struggling to understand. “They should be right up there on the prioritization list,” says Nancy McGraw, director of Sullivan County Public Health. “They not only tend to be uninsured, but low-income. They struggle with housing, and safety issues, and tend to be communities of color. They’re very high risk.” Food and farm workers are a vital piece of the essential front line in New York, but not a large one. According to 2017 figures from the USDA, the state’s farms employ roughly 56,000 workers. Another 40,000 unpaid workers, a group that includes the families of farm operators, also work on New York farms. Food manufacturers employ about 11,000. Compared to the nearly 587,000 people who work in New York restaurants—or the seven million eligible for vaccine in New York’s 1b phase—food and farm workers are a drop in the proverbial bucket. But without them, food production in the state would grind to a halt.

An Unconscionable Oversight

“For me, it’s unconscionable to think about,” says Anne Kauffman Nolon, CEO of Sun River Health. “If you’re a grocery store worker, you can get a vaccine. But if you’re supplying the grocery store, processing the food, harvesting the food, you can’t.” As one of three community health center networks in New York State with a focus on reaching farm and food workers, Sun River has been pushing state and federal officials for vaccine supply. Of the roughly 244,000 people Sun River treats at its community clinics in the Hudson Valley and downstate, about 10,000 are agricultural workers. “People lose sight of the fact that food processing goes on 100 percent of the year,” says Nolon. “It’s part of the business. They don’t put together the food chain, how it really works.” By April, when many holders of H-2A guest worker visas return for the growing season in New York, vaccine eligibility will have opened up,

and officials predict that vaccine supply problems will ease somewhat. But in the Hudson Valley, food workers are at risk now. Much of the region’s essential food production goes on year-round, indoors, in environments where the coronavirus is known to spread like wildfire. Ideal Snacks, a 300,000-square-foot food manufacturing plant in Liberty, employs hundreds of workers. So does Murray’s Chicken, a company that raises humane-certified chickens in Pennsylvania and slaughters them in South Fallsburg. Sullivan County is also home to the nation’s only foie gras producers, La Belle Farm and Hudson Valley Foie Gras, and the two farms employ about 400 workers in the labor-intensive process of fattening ducks as well as slaughtering and processing. In Orange County’s Black Dirt region, where onions are a $25 million industry, workers in plants process and bag onions to supply grocery stores across the country. Dairy is not the economic powerhouse it once was in the Catskills and Hudson Valley, but milk production goes on year-round.

A Network in Place

Early on in the pandemic, Sullivan County saw outbreaks at multiple food processing workplaces. County public health officials worked with employers and did Spanish-language outreach in food worker communities to get workers tested, put safety protocols in place, and connect sick workers with medical care. Large local food employers have risen to the challenge of making their workplaces safer, McGraw says. “It’s been pretty quiet for the last several months—knock on wood,” she says. But McGraw remains worried about the food workers in her county, and has asked employers to have lists of workers ready so that the moment vaccine becomes available to them, county health officials can get to work vaccinating them. Mary Jo Dudley, director of the Cornell Farmworker Program, is also ready to act on vaccines. For decades, her program, which helps connect farm and food workers across the state with resources of all kinds, has been a face-toface operation. But pandemic has forced even the least online of us to find new digital tools. Last spring, Dudley’s program quickly spun up a text messaging network, 3,000 farm workers strong, to send vital pandemic information to workers and get information on what they needed. When the vaccine becomes available, Dudley says, that network will know. “We’re firing them up already, getting them prepped,” she says. Both farmers and worker advocates have put pressure on state officials to make farm workers eligible, Dudley says. In late January, the New

York Farm Bureau—not exactly a bastion of immigrant advocacy—made a public statement calling on the state to add workers to the eligibility list. Worker advocates and farmers alike are hoping that a recently announced federal program delivering vaccines directly to community health centers like Sun River will change the landscape in New York, both for vaccine supply and eligibility. There’s a certain cruel irony in New York State excluding food workers from the essential front line. In public coronavirus briefings, Cuomo has often hailed the importance of New York’s farms in feeding a state made poorer and hungrier by the pandemic. The state has poured $35 million into Nourish New York, an initiative bringing New York-grown and processed foods to local food banks across the state.

Rural Communities Ignored When the vaccines appeared on the stage, another narrative emerged in the governor’s briefings: The importance of reaching Black, brown, and poor New Yorkers who are underserved by healthcare. It would be hard to imagine more vulnerable and underserved communities than the workers, mostly immigrants and many with limited English, who grow and process food in rural New York State. But the state’s vaccine equity outreach efforts have mostly been focused on urban churches and public housing, and the limited data published by the state on vaccine equity is too broad to paint a true picture of the scale of the rural problem. To Nolon, Sun River’s public health mission is clear. “In rural areas, this is the population we should be focused on,” she says. Sun River’s health centers are doing what they can to prioritize food and farm workers among those already eligible. Some will qualify because of pre-existing medical conditions, a group recently added to the state’s eligibility list. Few food and farm workers qualify based on age, Nolon says. “Basically, farm worker ages aren’t older,” she says, struggling to find the right words. “Their life expectancy is significantly less than the general population’s.” Lissa Harris covers the pandemic for The River Newsroom. Sign up at Therivernewsroom.com for COVID-19 news and policy across the Hudson Valley and Catskills region via TRN’s email newsletter. 3/21 CHRONOGRAM 11

food & drink

THE PERSONAL IS DELECTABLE

Julia Turshen Dishes in Her New Cookbook By Eric Steinman

alk to any number of culinary notables about the genesis of their love for food and you will get stories worthy of Proustian tale. Stories about how wild sparks flew at their first taste of a ripe mango, or a first experience casting out and catching a fish from the depths of dark waters. For home cook and writer Julia Turshen, square one was the exceedingly humble, but utilitarian, bunch of celery. To be clear, celery wasn’t exactly what inspired Turshen to delve headlong into a life of culinary creation, but it served as a way to engage discipline and practice and go through stacks upon stacks of celery. As a child, she decided that perfecting her chopping and dicing abilities were step one toward becoming the sort of chef she dreamed of being. Her parents gladly indulged the young Turshen and the result was countless bunches of chopped celery served up to her exceedingly supportive family in just about every means of preparation one could imagine. Turshen reflects upon this formative time in her 2016 cookbook Small Victories (Chronicle) and shares that the patience and confidence shown to her by her family aided in the process of her own self instruction. “The day no celery landed on the floor: Small Victory!”

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Moving on from celery, Turshen stayed the course and followed her victories, no matter how small, toward an esteemed career as a chef, author, activist, and podcaster. Turshen has collaborated with numerous luminaries of the food world, including Dana Cowin and Gwyneth Paltrow, on cookbooks. She has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Vogue, and Bon Appétit, where she notably gave a glowing review and launched the Kingston Jamaican eatery Top Taste into a place of renown. She is well into the fourth season of her podcast, “Keep Calm and Cook On with Julia Turshen,” where she consistently does deep dives with both culinary professionals and social justice advocates to discuss everything from cooking to mental health. Epicurious has called her one of the 100 Greatest Home Cooks of All Time and the New York Times has described her as being “at the forefront of the new generation of authentic, approachable authors.” All of this approachability and authenticity lends itself to the conceit and name of her latest cookbook for home cooks, Simply Julia (HarperWave, 2021).

Above and opposite, dishes prepared from recipes in Julia Turshen’s new cookbook, Simply Julia: roasted cauliflower and red cabbage tacos; Hasselback carrots with pimentón and roasted lemon. Photos by Melina Hammer

Calculating Home Cooking Turshen views home cooking as both extremely “vital and universal” but laments that it doesn’t get the celebration nor appreciation that it deserves. “We live in a society with so many factors about how to calculate your worth,” she says. “Within that reckoning and calculation, my love of home cooking gives me daily opportunities to feel connected to the things I’m cooking.” Simply Julia is Turshen’s effort, not just to share recipes and a bit of that connection with like-minded denizens of the kitchen, but to share, in a very personal manner, her struggle and process throughout the years. Alongside recipes for one-pot meals and her father’s beloved turkey meatballs, Turshen opens up in a series of essays that pepper the text with reflections on everything from how taking singing lessons upped her kitchen game to her struggles with body issues. The essays are revealing and vulnerable and help to dispel that often ubiquitous notion that cookbook writers come to us as fully formed virtuosos in the kitchen. “I had only ever felt two things in my life: happy or fat.” she remembers in one of these essays and goes on to liken her eventual awakening toward a place of self-appreciation as her personal Matrix moment. When asked about why she chose to make this particular offering so personal, Turshen grows

“When you begin

to think deeply about food, you come to understand that it is tied to every issue that needs our urgent attention. Food not only reveals all of our inequities, it also offers so many solutions. Food helps us connect the dots.” —Julia Turshen

excited. “I am so happy that essay is in the book and without question this is the most personal book I have ever made,” she says. Turshen goes on to say, “Its really valuable to have a nuanced conversation about food. I think of cookbooks as this conversation between author and reader, and I really value my readers. Cookbooks often underestimate what readers can hold—like balancing the idea of healthy comfort food with body image.” The book draws direct connections between memory and recipe, as many of the recipes reveal connections, some dating back to childhood, between author and dish, and this is where the comfort element factors into the text. “Food is one of the easiest and most tangible ways to find comfort, and honestly I don’t think of a single food when I think of comfort food, I think being able to cook for others is incredibly powerful. Giving yourself what you want when you want it is just incredibly comforting.” Giving Back Through Food Turshen lives with her wife, Grace Bonney (founder of blog Design Sponge) and their dogs in Ulster County. Turshen contends that living in the Hudson Valley, as opposed to her previous address in New York City, has definitely and positively informed the way she cooks. “Living here has changed a lot of how I approach cooking,” she says. “I think New York City is one 3/21 CHRONOGRAM FOOD & DRINK 13

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of the hardest places to be a home cook, as you are usually working in small kitchens, carrying groceries in walk-ups, grocery shopping, etc.” And with the pandemic and the incentive to stay home and carry on cooking, Turshen’s focus has become hyperlocal, as she has a rule that if she can’t find something within a 30-minute drive from her house, it doesn’t go in a recipe. “I have long written recipes for home cooks. Now my whole life is at home,” she says. We are eating 90 percent of food at home and now I am the person I write cookbooks for.” Despite spending almost all their time in the Hudson Valley currently, Turshen and Bonney maintain their longstanding connection to both charitable and social justice organizations like God’s Love We Deliver (an organization out of New York City that delivers nutritious, medically tailored meals for people too sick to shop or cook for themselves) and Angel Food East in Kingston, doing much the same to serve the local Hudson Valley community. Both Turshen and Bonney volunteer their time to do everything from raise awareness to cook and package meals for hungry recipients. “I really believe that when you begin to think deeply about food, you come to understand that it is tied to every issue that needs our urgent attention: the environment, racial injustice, class division, and so much more. Using food as a lens to look at all of these issues helps make them feel personal, because—they are personal. For all of us. Food not only reveals all of our inequities, it also offers so many solutions such as mutual aid programs, farming collectives, pay-whatyou-can cafes, and gleaning programs. Food helps us connect the dots.” You can subscribe to Julia Turshen’s podcast “Keep Calm and Cook On” at her website: Juliaturshen.com.

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CHR ON OGR A MMI E S.C OM

sips & bites Hudson & Packard

When you think of Detroit, the cuisine is probably not the first thing that comes to mind, but the Motor City does have its own signature style of pizza. Detroit pies are not pies at all, but rectangles with a thick, chewy, crispy crust. Shelve your New York skepticism for a moment and head to the newly opened Hudson & Packard in Poughkeepsie, where you may be surprised by the deep-dish gooey goodness chef-owner Charlie Webb is serving up. In 2019, the Michigan native and CIA alum launched the Hudson & Packard brand as a weekly pop-up based out of the Underwear Factory. This past October, he opened his brickand-mortar, where his Detroit style combines with the elevated palate of his culinary training. Pick from selections like the Ford Funghi, a blend of roasted cremini, shiitake, and oyster mushrooms, caramelized onions; goat cheese, truffle oil, and lemon zest ($18); or the S-Class with roasted garlic Parmesan cream sauce, fresh baby spinach, artichokes, and banana peppers ($17). Hudson & Packard is open for takeout and delivery via GrubHub. 29 Academy Street, Poughkeepsie Hudsonandpackard.com

Frank’s Fresh

In 2008, a garden surplus led then-Gilded Otter line cook Frank Cardella to start experimenting with pickling and, thus, a new hobby was born. More than a decade later, SUNY New Paltz alum Cardella has turned his hobby into a profession and fulfilled his longtime dream of opening an eatery in his college town. Frank’s Fresh Pickling Co. opened on December 12 in the former location of Jack’s Rhythms, as a deli and provisions market. In addition to Cardella’s line of jarred pickles, sauerkraut, relish, hot sauces, kimchi, spice mixes, and jams, the deli side of the operation dishes out sandwiches and salads. Some crowd favorites include the Stevie Roys, a turkey, swiss cheese sandwich with chipotle mayo, lettuce, and plum tomato on toasted rye for $6. Or, the Turn up the Beet, which has sweet pickled beets, feta cheese, plum tomato, mesclun greens, and lemon-dill aioli for $7. 56 Main Street, New Paltz Franksfreshnewpaltz.com

Board

Cheese is the star at this new Uptown Kingston shop. Board dishes up gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, like The Capital, made with New York State sharp cheddar, tart apples, and whole grain mustard on country white ($8); or the Signature Move, featuring Comte (France’s answer to Gruyere), herbed cream cheese, finocchiona salami, arugula, and hot pepper jelly ($10). There’s also the obligatory tomato soup for dipping (duh) and the namesake “graze boards,” which feature a mix of New York State charcuterie and cheese. These days the boards come in boxes, but they still feature brands like Jacuterie, Drunken Goat, Old Chatham Creamery, and Brooklyn Cured, as well as house made beet-pickled eggs, fresh figs, dried fruit, nuts, olives, cornichons, and chocolates. 55 N. Front Street, Kingston Boardkingston.com

Beef carpaccio from Il Figlio Enoteca in Fishkill

Meat Wagon

When Fleisher’s Craft Butchery closed the doors of their Uptown Kingston location in 2017, the suddenly jobless butcher Stefano Diaz looked around and didn’t see many options. Fastforward four years, and the Fleisher’s alum has just cut the ribbon on his whole-animal butcher shop in Midtown, filling a hole in the culinary community. At the Meat Wagon, Diaz continues to practice the ethics and whole animal butchering techniques inculcated at Fleisher’s, sourcing pastured animals, raised ethically without antibiotics or hormones. With intimate knowledge of the anatomy and butchering possibilities of each animal, Diaz and his staff of two butchers are able to recommend lesserknown cuts that match customers’ needs, or custom trim a cut to your specifications. Leave the grocery list at home, and go chat with the neighborhood butcher. You might bring home something new. 331 Hasbrouck Avenue, Kingston Themeatwagonmobilebutchery.com

Il Figlio Enoteca

In late January, the doors finally opened to Il Figlio Enoteca after a yearlong renovation of the former Il Barilotto space on Main Street in Fishkill. The beautiful tiled floor ties pale blue accents to cognac leather booths, creating an elegant, amber-lit atmosphere for Italian fine dining. The menu opens with classics like burrata, served here with delicata squash, pecans, sage, and toasted ciabatta ($15); and angus beef carpaccio served with truffle aioli, topped with Grana Padano and crispy brussel sprout leaves ($15). Or how about mussels with Calabrian chili, garlic, and tomato butter ($14)? If you’re in the mood for pasta, try the hearty egg-pasta pappardelle served with Tuscan-style duck ragu, winter herbs, tomato, and Grana Padano ($22). Secondis include veal, chicken, fish, steak, and duck. A standout is the sautéed Mediterranean branzino, served with French lentils, roasted mushrooms, and a shallot and green herb salsa verde. Il Figlio is currently only open for reservations and take-out. 992 Main Street, Fishkill Figlioenoteca.com

3/21 CHRONOGRAM FOOD & DRINK 17

ITIZENSHI

education

18 EDUCATION CHRONOGRAM 3/21

101

New approaches to how we teach civics may help make us better citizens  By Rhea Dhanboora

disempowered, causing them to engage less, here are many reasons to reopen a conversation about the importance of which means they have less power,” he explains, civic learning, but the violent siege of adding that better civics learning can help bring the Capitol on January 6 made it clear that back. that some citizens lack a basic understanding For Miller, the issue is not that kids are of government, its functions, and the rights and uninterested in civics. “If anything, I think responsibilities of citizenship. The idea that we kids now are more civically aware and engaged need better civic education is not new, but the than 20 years ago, when I began teaching,” he uprising, combined with a rocky presidential says. Part of the problem is that not only is transition, has made it more urgent than ever. civics woefully ignored, but that even when it Asma Abbas, a professor of politics at Bard is focused on, local civics is overlooked. “And College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, it’s where real life is—the stuff that happens defines civics education this way: “Educating that changes the feeling of day-to-day life,” people in critical citizenship, and to inculcate Miller explains. Oakwood ensures children democratic norms in a such a deep way that they participate in their local communities. They’re actually allow us to challenge the conventional taken to demonstrations, and in years before the premises, obligations, and limits of citizenship.” pandemic, visited local representative offices as How does her working definition translate to well as Senate hearings in Washington, DC, to what students across the country are taking away ask questions and talk to elected officials about from civics education? their concerns. Michael Rebell, professor of law and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, is the author of Flunking Democracy: Schools, Courts, and Civic Participation (University of Chicago Press, 2018), which makes the case that America’s schools have systematically failed to prepare students to be capable citizens for generations. Rebell notes that some things have changed since he wrote the book, namely the critical importance of civics education has come to the fore. “A spate of commissions has begun to focus on these issues, more educators and civic groups are organizing to promote civic education throughout the country and more states have begun to make improvements in their civic education offerings, although as you know, they all have a long way to go,” he says. —Ellenbeth Kaiser-Shaffer, fifth So, how do teachers feel about civics learning, and how are they changing their grade teacher in Newburgh methods to match the needs of the time? I spoke to a few teachers from schools across the Hudson Valley to find out how they’re Abbas says teaching civics can be challenging approaching civics in the midst of a pandemic and right now. “It’s doubly or trebly tricky to cultivate political and social unrest. citizenship in a context when the citizen feels “What we need to talk about right now, is abandoned, as it feels like in this country right what is government, why we have it, how it now,” she says. works, and then also recognize what it actually Focusing on community issues is crucial, and does for us and how it’s related to us,” says according to all the teachers I spoke with, an Jennifer Kenyon, who teaches at Hawthorne easy way to get more student participation. “A Valley Waldorf School in Ghent. hundred years ago, John Dewey diagnosed the Stephen Miller, a teacher at Oakwood Friends fact that if a school curriculum doesn’t address School in Poughkeepsie, says civics needs to shift the concerns of the community, students will focus. “It’s clear that in many ways we’ve broken check out,” Miller says. society,” he says. “But we also found that some At the beginning of this year, Britni Caserta, institutions saved us from being more broken— a teacher at Kingston High School, asked her so how can we strengthen them?” class to send her an email telling her one thing they would change about their community—in Focusing on Engagement Miller mentions Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone, school or in the city of Kingston. “I ask them why, then I ask them who they would reach out which documents how civic and communal to—whether it was the mayor, a council person, engagement for all Americans has significantly local activist, or teacher. And then we go through dropped off over the 20th century. “It’s a negative feedback loop. As society becomes more the steps in order to see that through and try to make it happen” plutocratic and oligarchic, it makes people feel

“My current civic lessons are focused on what it means to be an anti-racist. To be an anti-racist, you can’t be neutral! In fact, neutrality gives racism power.”

Increasing Media Literacy Fostering engagement is difficult, but a more immediate challenge may be combatting misinformation. “The most immediate and important need at the moment is to require effective media literacy instruction in all middle and high schools,” Rebell says. Rebell, along with Jessica R. Wolff and Ann LoBue, from the Center for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia University, recently wrote a report about this titled “Developing Digital Citizens.” It includes explanations of media literacy and the systemic issues standing in its way. It also offers a framework of recommendations to help students become more media literate, including access to up-to-date technology and media literacy education training for all teachers. Deirdre Branford and Caserta, both teachers at Kingston High School, have begun to highlight the importance of media literacy in their classes. Britni says, “We have spent a lot of time looking at the idea of fake news. What is fake news? Why does it get this title? And just kind of looking at different news sources and at perspective: What makes something reliable and for whom is it reliable?” Ellenbeth Kaiser-Shaffer, a fifth grade teacher in the Newburgh Enlarged City School District, says that media literacy is especially important for younger students. “This critical life skill is important,” she says. “But it’s getting harder to teach in an era with so many platforms for misinformation.” According to Miller, misinformation is not a new hurdle—what’s changed is how social media programs itself. “The algorithms are written so that more people see [misinformation]. This causes even more people to see them, and then those algorithms link them with other pieces of misinformation,” he says. Kenyon says one of the solutions here is for teachers to adapt to technology, like the News Literacy Project, which has a range of online resources, including online software, a weekly newsletter, and a podcast, to help educators teach news literacy. “I’ve shifted some of my focus over to media literacy. I use NLP and its Checkology Virtual Classroom, which helps students go through exercises online to try and evaluate all the information,” she says. Seeing Students Differently One of the mistakes administrators, policymakers, and adults in general make, the teachers told me, is thinking children are inherently disinterested or too immature to be active participants in a community. “It’s not that they don’t care—they’re often presented as apathetic or disconnected—what they don’t know is how they can change things,” Miller says. He explains that when policymakers meet with students, “They’re very nice but amazingly patronizing. Many events start with ‘the youth 3/21 CHRONOGRAM EDUCATION 19

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are the future,’ partly saying: ‘what you say now doesn’t matter.’” Miller thinks getting rid of age segregation in American communities is crucial to help encourage civic participation. Kids may not be able to vote, but he believes voting is just a tiny part of civic participation. It’s essential, he tells me, for children to be involved in identifying societal issues and envisioning change. “It’s important to get young people and older people together to talk about things of substance and share their perspectives. Older people have life experience, but it often blocks them from being able to think about what could be different. Kids are great at being able to think about—it’s called the subjunctive—what could be instead of what is,” he says. This is not only true for high school students. “No one can call out unfair behavior better than a child, so it’s crucial to have these civic conversations at the elementary level,” KaiserShaffer says. “We need a push for support of elementary teachers to have these conversations,” Branford adds. Pushing Past Neutrality “When I started teaching, we were taught that you need to be careful and not talk about politics,” Caserta, who has been teaching for 11 years, tells me as we discuss new approaches to teaching civics. “I think that the culture is starting to shift, to see what the dangers of being neutral would mean to our students,” she adds. Her approach is to look at systems through a social justice lens. This is how Branford sees it too, and adds that with the data to back up the inequities becoming more pronounced over the 14 years she’s been teaching, “It’s more imperative now to have these discussions.” Miller thinks the idea of neutrality involves a conceptual mistake. “Civics is political,” he says. “Politics is about the public negotiation of values, questions like fairness, equity, and what a good life looks like. This is different from being partisan.” “One of the tragedies of seeing civics as ‘content-neutral,’” Abbas explains, “is that it allows people to see the government as a kind of manager or administrator of sorts, taking care of things we’d rather not be worried about.” Teachers have found that studying government functions and visiting federal buildings is not enough for proper civic education. “For example, the history of the Electoral College is disenfranchising a group of people. So, yes, we’ve had this system for over 200 years. There’s something to be said for that. However, you also have to understand where it came from and why it came about,” Branford adds. Kenyon tries to support every angle in a discussion. But with some issues, there’s no debate. She explains, “Any place where racism is occurring: in voter registrations, gerrymandering districts, anything working against racial equity is wrong and should be discussed.” Even with young children, Kaiser-Shaffer believes there should be no neutrality at this time. “My priority was to keep my personal beliefs out of the conversation,” she says, but adds, “My

current civic lessons are focused on what it means to be an anti-racist. To be an anti-racist, you can’t be neutral! In fact, neutrality gives racism power.” Adjusting to Remote Learning Another challenge to civics learning presented itself in March 2020, when COVID-19 forced schools across the state to move classes online. Caserta finds that kids in her Global 9 classes are more self-conscious online. So, even though current events would lend themselves to great civic conversations, it’s hard to get a discussion going. “In a general sense, there’s this disconnection. As civics involves a kind of communal perspective, if you’re not even seeing the community, it’s much harder to engage students,” Miller says. Branford says there’s also the added challenge of students being reluctant to participate if their opinions don’t match those of their parents. “They

“Kids are great at being able to think about what could be instead of what is.” —Stephen Miller, teacher, Oakwood Friends School may want to expand how they’re thinking about things, but they feel confined because they’re in their home, and what their parents say and watch and listen to and read contains them and their opinions,” she says. Kenyon says hybrid systems are even more challenging because it’s like balancing two different modes of teaching. With just remote learning, she says, there’s a lot you can do with Zoom. “We’re able to stay up-to-date in realtime, and we got Antonio Delgado to Zoom into the class to take questions about civil discourse, so that’s been a positive,” she says. A New Way to Learn As teachers find ways to combat misinformation and encourage engagement, conventional learning may have to take a backseat. “Conventional civics education usually begins with many of the key questions already answered, all the main problems already defined,” Abbas tells me. “Some of these include the partiality toward nonviolence that assumes the law is always right and that the system allows us to correct it; the assumption that redress for grievances is already provided for in the system (what do we do when the system is what hurts people?); and that the way to keep us safe is to constantly define an enemy against which we must be safe.” She believes students

should instead work together to establish what is mutually important and find ways to make that a possibility. “A positive change is that civic learning has become more inquiry-based than fact-based,” Kaiser-Shaffer says, but points out that the difficulty with this is that students in public schools are still assessed on facts. To Miller, this is one of the larger issues with civics instruction. “When it involves simply memorizing abstractions about how the government functions, it’s not worth much. But to see how it can be critiqued and improved is inherently interesting.” If he was designing a civics class, he tells me, it wouldn’t start with facts; it would be built around how you would solve an issue. Stay Positive Despite all the challenges, teachers think bringing optimism into civic learning is essential. Kaiser-Shaffer believes that as an educator, specifically of young children, she has to feed hope. “It’s imperative children feel empowered to have a voice, and most importantly to use that voice for the betterment of self and others,” she says. Staying optimistic may also be the best way to get more student engagement. “I think a lot of the way the big problems we’re facing are presented, makes everything sound hopeless,” says Miller. “Why would you bother engaging if it’s too late?” Abbas notes that believing there is a better possible future is vital for students of civics. “I understand and know things are terrible,” she says, “but I don’t want young people to feel like their job is to fix a broken system, without getting any time or chance to understand and envision differently, because they must also be asked and trusted to define and describe the problems anew.” A Way Forward Private and independent schools already have some curriculum flexibility because they’re free of state testing constraints. Branford says that even though there’s still too much emphasis on testing in public schools, some things are moving in the right direction. “The Board of Regents is attempting to be cognizant of these changes as well and is allowing for more flexibility of students to inject some of their own experience, for instance, in their essays. And so that’s helpful as well in trying to show them that there’s not just one way of thinking about something,” she says. Of course, schools still need more resources and training so teachers can help students build better communities. As Kaiser-Shaffer says, “We need to put our money where our mouth is. This is most important—let’s put the training and development into better civics education.” “Now is a great time to strike because it feels like government issues are critical to a lot of people,” Kenyon says, adding, “maybe one of the upsides of this crazy mess of misinformation is it’s all in everyone’s face.” 3/21 CHRONOGRAM EDUCATION 21

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hen Jeff and Liz Keithline’s kids moved out of the house, the couple decided it might finally be time to leave Rhode Island after 30 years. “There’s this arc of having kids and realizing ‘Oh right, they’re really not coming back,’” says Jeff. “We thought, ‘Well why don’t we just look around and see where else we might like to live?’” So he and Liz started spending time on online looking for homes that fit their budget and day tripping to towns in and around Connecticut, where they both grew up. They soon found themselves gravitating toward Woodstock, whose artsy vibe was a match for a couple who had spent their careers in the arts—Jeff as a musician and Liz as a visual artist and arts administrator. “We were just winging it at the start,” says Jeff. “We would come down for the day and see a few houses, grab a bite to eat, and head back.” On one trip, they decided to visit an open house that Dorothea Marcus, a realtor for Woodstock and Kingston-based Halter Associates Realty, was hosting. “There were things we liked about that house, but we really liked Dorothea,” says Jeff. “She was so friendly and relaxed, but she was very good at representing her point of view in the business as a matchmaker of sorts.” After that, Marcus and the Keithlines began working together. With Marcus’s knowledge of the area and extensive network of contacts, the process of identifying houses became much easier. “We thought, ‘Oh this is just much more efficient. She can line up more houses for us to see in a day than we could do on our own,’” says Jeff. “With Dorothea, we could see anything we wanted, plus we got her insights into the community and she learned what worked for us and never wasted our time.” It took just a few more visits to Woodstock for the Keithlines to find the white house on Juniper Lane. Situated on two-and-a-half acres, the cozy threebedroom, two-and-half-bath home reminded them of a classic New England farmhouse mixed with a vacation cottage from the coast. “It had this funkyartist-cottage-mountain-retreat vibe,” says Jeff. “It was just unusual enough for us and certainly functional for what we needed.” The c. 1925 house had belonged to an artist in Woodstock’s original Byrdcliffe Arts Colony. The home was chock-full of charming little details like Dutch doors throughout, a woodstove, exposed chestnut beams, a skylight in the kitchen, and a spacious stone patio. “This house has the best bedroom I’ve ever had,” says Jeff. On the property was also a newer outbuilding, which could easily be converted to the couple’s individual studios. The Keithlines closed on the house in late 2019, mere months before the pandemic hit the region, changing the shape of the cultural activities Woodstock is known for. “Woodstock is a small town with a lot of stuff we like to do, so like anybody else we miss all those things. But we take our dog to the Comeau Property every day and we have a group of friends in our dog group that we probably wouldn’t have met otherwise,” says Jeff. “As a couple, relocating was also a renewal for us, so we knew that we were going to be spending a lot more time together. And Dorothea is still part of our lives, hooking us up with people and events and making sure we get the most out of our Woodstock life.”

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health & wellness

Scenes from Beneath The Surface: A Film About Living with MS, directed by Kate Milliken.

SUPPORT GROUPS GET A DIGITAL REDO WHEN THERE’S A WILL—AND AN INTERNET CONNECTION— THERE’S A WAY TO BE THERE FOR EACH OTHER. By Wendy Kagan

ast December, it dawned on Marylou Kandur that it had been over nine months since the members of her Parkinson’s disease support group had seen each other’s faces. While many other groups had pivoted online after COVID hit back in March, her Rhinebeck Parkinson’s Support Group—most of them senior citizens lacking in digital fluency—lagged behind. “Let me see if I can get these people together,” thought Kandur, a retired entrepreneur in Red Hook who has had a manageable form of Parkinson’s for 22 years. “But what will I say to them?” Later, she was on her treadmill when a TV commercial came on for the 1946 Christmas film classic It’s a Wonderful Life—reminding her of a famous scene where the angel, Clarence, grants the despairing protagonist, George, his wish to have “never been born.” By making it so, Clarence helps George see the irreplaceable value of his life and want to stay alive. That’s it, thought Kandur. She’d ask the support group members to ponder the effect their lives have had on others, and then meet online the next day for a lively discussion. It was a theme that perfectly matched her goal for the group since her first day as its facilitator: to keep people interested in living. She phoned each member to gauge their interest, and many were game to try Zoom— including Kandur herself, who enlisted the help of a friend to navigate the platform. Despite the challenges (the group is seeking a tech support 34 HEALTH & WELLNESS CHRONOGRAM 3/21

volunteer), the meeting was a virtual success. One by one, their faces popped up in gallery view like the vintage TV show “Hollywood Squares”—a small, grateful group gathered for purposeful conversation. Finding Your People Faced with a pandemic reality that hits its oneyear anniversary this month, support groups of all kinds are getting creative to meet our digital moment. Their internet migration is not exactly new—it underscores a trend that has been gaining momentum since Facebook debuted in the mid-aughts. Proliferating on social media, Zoom, and other platforms, virtual forums and collectives across the globe connect people who are facing some of life’s most difficult passages—illness, disability, grief, addiction, caregiver fatigue, heartbreak, trauma. “We have the ability in this day and age to find exactly what we need at the time we need it most—and that’s the beauty of online, that you can find just the right people to connect with,” says Kate Milliken, a Bronxville-based video producer who created the support community Moodify after she was diagnosed with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2006. “The emotional relatability bond, and the support you get from it, is crazy.” In COVID times, the move to all-virtual support groups has been a blessing and a gift for the very populations that need them most. For

the chronically fatigued, having the world come to you—albeit pixelated—can be a sweet relief. For the less mobile, it’s a break from negotiating wheelchairs, walkers, or canes. “I can get people to come that I’ve never had before,” says Kandur, who finds that distance is no longer a factor in keeping folks away. Even people who typically resist support groups tend to be more receptive to attending a meeting from the privacy and comfort of their own space. That’s one of the findings from a 2019 study led by Columbia University Irving Medical Center neuropsychologist and researcher Victoria Leavitt, MD—who also found that a telehealth program called eSupport reduced loneliness and depressive symptoms in participants with multiple sclerosis. “Social support is a powerful tool for encouraging healthy behaviors,” the study notes, “and our findings reveal that [people with MS] who have strong social networks are more likely to maintain involvement in physical and social leisure activities.” In many cases, support groups are taking this pandemic era as an opportunity to do support differently. While the Rhinebeck Parkinson’s group used to convene for monthly meetings at the Starr Library and occasional social outings, they now have video calls the first Wednesday of the month that revolve around a theme designed to spark conversation. For the February meeting, Kandur circulated the 1927 Max Ehrmann poem “Desiderata” and asked participants to

pick a line that resonated for them (“You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here,” reads one line). The key to making Zoom work, Kandur finds, is having an agenda. “People want to be led somewhere,” she says—while the structure, and the inspirational topic, keep the conversation from descending into a negative spiral. “It’s this aspect of bringing something to the room, so to speak, to make them concentrate on things that are not horrific.” Even before COVID, this was not your typical illness support group. When Kandur became the facilitator a couple of years ago, she thought, “I’m going to make this different, because I don’t want to sit around discussing my aches and pains.” She found an instructor who could teach the group Rock Steady Boxing, which is a type of boxing designed for people who have Parkinson’s disease. And she helped engage speakers, such as a doctor who could educate the group about medical marijuana. “One of the things I’ve always loved about this group is that they will come up with ideas to help other people,” she says. Once, at a pre-quarantine restaurant outing, a member with a bad tremor struggled to eat with a fork. “Screw it,” they told him, “just eat with your hands!” The thought had never occurred to him, and it was just the solution he needed right then. An Invaluable Exchange The best kind of support group is one that gives you a sense of hope, says Beth Broun, a New York City transplant living in Mount Tremper, who has progressive MS. Since her diagnosis 10 years ago, Broun has been in just about every kind of support group there is. First, she formed a klatsch of working women in their 40s with MS, who met in midtown for lunchtime camaraderie. Later, she tried a more formal group out of HealthAlliance Hospital in Kingston—the kind where people sit with their spouses around a table in a board room, fortified by coffee and snacks. And she’s fairly doused herself in online support. “I’m in maybe six MS groups on Facebook for all the different medications,” she says. “I’m in one called MS Warriors. I even became friends online with a man from the Netherlands who’s got the same kind of MS I have.” Whether it’s virtual or in-person, Broun finds that the exchange of information—and the spirit of people helping people—is what keeps her hooked on support groups. “People with MS are the only ones who really understand me,” she says. “And I understand them, so we can actually be helpful to each other.” Recently, she attended an online seminar where physicians spouted medical-speak about BTK inhibitors and other complicated medications that Broun didn’t understand—so she called one of her bookish support group buddies and asked, “Can you dumb this down for me?” She’s compared treatment notes with other people and shared information about clinical trials. And through her network, she’s discovered great finds to improve her quality of life—like her new byACRE carbon-ultralight walker from Sweden. “It’s the chic-est thing—it looks like a racecar,” she says. Fellow support groupers have turned her onto

foundations, like the Patients Access Network, that can help pay the staggering $3,500 copay for a medication she takes called Ampyra. “I learned about all these things through support groups,” says Broun. “There’s gold in them hills.” Perhaps the biggest support community she was a part of was Moodify, Kate Milliken’s brainchild, which invited participants to post videos that captured their changing emotions throughout their chronic-illness journey. “I built a storytelling methodology that guides people to talk about how they feel,” Milliken explains. “The first thing you have to do is tag yourself with one of 13 emotions. As a result of that choice, you end up becoming reflective. So, if you’re really angry about your MS, it’s hard to be angry when you’re guided to talk about why. It’s the idea of getting to see somebody emotionally go through a process, come out the other side, and be

“One of the things I’ve always loved about this group is that they will come up with ideas to help other people.” —Marylou Kandur, Parkinson’s support group coordinator empowered.” Participants could choose to keep their videos private, post them to the community, or make them public—and seeing others share their emotional vulnerability made many users feel less alone. Moodify started with MS, but other communities formed for conditions like chronic pain, mental health, epilepsy, spinal cord injury, stroke, and Lyme disease. Though the online platform impacted the lives of many, Milliken struggled to find a revenue model, leading her to put the project on ice. But the connections have stuck and many Moodifiers remain bonded. Meanwhile, Milliken is in discussion with a few healthcare companies about using the storytelling technology for market research. And she created a film, Beneath the Surface, about meeting in person with some of the platform’s super-users. “We had a doctor at Johns Hopkins do a study on our site, and people’s sense of life purpose increased by over 30 percent and they had less suicidal thoughts,” she says. “Peer-to-peer support is powerful and so undervalued.”

Staying Motivated through Cyberspace While platforms like Moodify are uberinnovative and creative, plenty of support groups don’t try to reinvent the wheel in the digital realm—nor do they need to. Many have simply shifted their offerings online as best they can. That’s the case for the Parkinson’s Disease Support Group of the Mid-Hudson Valley, which is one of the longest-running support groups in the region, established in 1985. Like the Rhinebeck group, which is smaller and more localized, the Mid-Hudson Parkinson’s Group arrived late to the digital party. While a small group of computer-savvy caregivers met online fairly early into quarantine, it wasn’t until December that the group held a one-hour video call for its broader membership. “It was a pilot program, and it worked out really well,” says Nancy Redken, the group’s chair. “We had a little discussion session and then our dance therapist did five minutes of seated exercises, which are easy to do on Zoom. Then we had two mini presentations, including one from a board member who is an EMT and an ‘Aware and Care’ ambassador.” (Aware and Care is the name of a kit created by the National Parkinson’s Foundation that patients can take to the hospital with them to support their stay there.) The Mid-Hudson group is a trove of resources for people with Parkinson’s and their partners or caregivers—and going forward, Redkey believes they can offer more to their members online. From tai chi, qi gong, and Rock Steady boxing, to speech programs like the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT Loud and LSVT Big), the group incorporates many evidence-based offerings and educational opportunities. “It may sound hokey, but we start every meeting by singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to anyone who’s had a birthday that month, because singing is one of the best things you can do to exercise your vocal cords and facial muscles [which can be affected by Parkinson’s],” says Redkey. It also builds community, which is key. “It’s easy for older people to start dropping some of their important contacts,” she adds. “If you have a progressive, chronic disease on top of that for which there is no cure, it’s pretty hard to keep motivated. That can turn into a descending spiral that’s very hard to break.” That’s why the group focuses on empowering its membership to feel like a part of the solution. This September, they hope to host their annual walk on the Walkway Over the Hudson to celebrate their 35th anniversary (postponed last year due to COVID). It’s those in-person gatherings that support groups miss the most, and that feel irreplaceable in our pandemic times. For now, Zoom can fill at least part of that gap, thanks to the efforts of a few dedicated social connectors. “I would just like to make people’s lives a little happier if I could,” says Kandur. “That’s really all this is.” RESOURCES The Parkinson’s Disease Support Group of the Mid-Hudson Valley Midhudsonparkinsons.org Rhinebeck Parkinson’s Support Group (845) 663-3974 3/21 CHRONOGRAM HEALTH & WELLNESS 35

outdoors

Shuffle Off to Buffalo The Empire State Trail

The Walkway Over the Hudson is now a part of the Empire State Trail, which connects 20 regional trails to create a continuous route across the state. It is expected to draw 8.6 million residents and tourists annually.

By Anne Pyburn Craig

ith the completion of the 750-mile Empire State Trail in December, New York can now claim the longest state multiuse trail in the US. And given that one can now walk or bike from lower Manhattan to the Canadian border or hang a left at Albany and get to Buffalo—mostly off-road—it’s undoubtedly one of the most diverse, freeing us from our cars to experience everything from SoHo to the Erie Canal from whole new perspectives. The trail has been eagerly anticipated since the announcement of the plan by Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2017. It now links 400 miles of previously unconnected trailways, adds 180 miles of new off-road trail, and has upgraded 170 miles of on-road bike paths, most on low-speed rural roads, to provide safe, accessible car-free travel along the Hudson Valley Greenway, Champlain Valley, and Erie Canalway Trail, passing through 27 of New York’s 62 counties on the way. Ten feet wide, its off-road sections (about 75 percent of the whole) are surfaced in road bike and wheelchair-friendly asphalt and pulverized stone, and grades are gentle.

36 OUTDOORS CHRONOGRAM 3/21

“There’s no trail like it in the nation— 750 miles of multi-use trail literally from Manhattan to the Canadian border, from Buffalo to Albany.” —Gov. Andrew Cuomo

Getting here was a process. “To create the continuous 750-mile Empire State Trail, a total of 58 projects were completed by seven state agencies and 17 local government partners across New York State,” says Empire State Trail Director Andy Beers. “Completing all projects by December 31st, particularly in this challenging pandemic year, was a huge undertaking. It’s been gratifying to see diverse state and local partners pull together to complete the trail, with everyone recognizing the sum is greater than the parts.” (One of the final sections of trail to be completed was the 1.3-mile stretch known as the Hudson River Brickyard Trail, which extends from Kingston Point Beach through Hutton Brickyards and Scenic Hudson’s new Quarry Waters park, a reclaimed industrial site.) Major new sections to explore in the Hudson Valley area include, south to north, the 23-Maybrook Trailway from Brewster in Putnam County to Hopewell Junction in Dutchess County, a five-mile extension of the Hudson Valley Rail Trail in Ulster County creating a continuous off-road trail from the Walkway Over

the Hudson to New Paltz, improvements to the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail in Rosendale and Ulster, and the 36-mile Albany-Hudson Electric Trail from the City of Hudson in Columbia County to East Greenbush in Rensselaer County. Be warned, there’s no snow plowing outside of urban sections, but snowshoers, hikers, and cross-country skiers can have at it—and spring is just around the corner, anyway. Beers credits “dozens of public input sessions” over four years that brought stakeholders, local governments, and the general public into the process at the ground level with generating the engagement and good feeling that got the project done. The $200-million investment, the largest trail expenditure in US history, is expected to create nearly 2000 jobs and draw over 8.6 million visitors annually, bumping up the $274 million in revenue that was already being brought in each year by users of the existing Hudson Valley Greenway and Erie Canalway trails. “This pandemic year has underscored the vital role trails play in promoting physical health and mental wellbeing,” says Beers. “The Empire State Trail received record use as people flocked to the trail to exercise and rejuvenate spirits in a safe socially distanced way.” The trail’s website includes detailed descriptions and maps for each section, noting restrooms, parking, camping, attractions, and train stations. (Amtrak announced a new carry-on bicycle service on all Empire Service and Maple Leaf trains last September, with bike racks provided in all passenger coaches, the result of three decades of untiring advocacy from the New York State Bicycle Association; they’ll also make room for your skis.) An activities guide directs visitors to Iloveny.com for more details on camping, lodging, and cultural attractions along the way. And since there’s nothing quite like a good quaff after a day outdoors, the New York State Brewers Association has gotten in on the action with the Empire State Trail Brewery Passport, an app that allows users to earn beer swag as they check off visits to breweries within 10 miles of the trail. The passport is part of the Think NY, Drink NY app, which includes a rating system, beer education and style guide, map and locator, and visitor info such as hours, events, and what’s on tap. So get on out and enjoy the new possibilities, whether it’s a wander along the new Hudson River Brickyard Trail; a trek from New Paltz across the glorious Walkway and on to Hopewell Junction, then south through the Oblong to Putnam County; or a much-enhanced, safe bike ride through Manhattan from the Battery to Inwood Hill. Parks and Trails NY also puts together an annual Erie Canal Bike Tour from Buffalo to Albany; this year’s ride is July 11-18. More info at Ptny.org. Empiretrail.ny.gov

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farms

A GROWING CONCERN HOW LOCAL FARMERS ARE REACTING TO THE CLIMATE CRISIS By Will Solomon

A collaboration with Marybeth Wehrung of Stars of the Meadow Farm in Accord has lost flower crops to both an early frost in the fall and an early thaw in the spring.

hristmas Eve of 2020 brought a storm to the Hudson Valley that one might describe as tropical. Temperatures reached upwards of 60 degrees Fahrenheit, wind speeds hit 60 miles per hour, and parts of the region received over two inches of rain. This followed, by about eight days, a winter storm that in a matter of hours deposited up to two feet of snow. By Christmas morning, nearly all of it was gone. A couple of decades ago, a December weather sequence like this would have been anomalous. But such is winter now in the Hudson Valley. In some respects, this bizarre weather was an appropriate capstone to a strange and dismal year. Though we might like to turn the page on 2020, left unsaid in our desire to return to normal is that COVID is one of many interlocking crises currently afflicting the globe; just because the coronavirus has dominated the headlines for the last year does not mean the others have abated. The climate crisis is certainly the biggest of these emergencies. Indeed, COVID itself is an expression of ecological disturbance on an increasingly disharmonious planet, and twothirds of emerging diseases today are pathogens that jump from nonhuman animals to humans. The effects of climate change in the Hudson Valley are easy to list: rising temperatures; more frequent and more intense precipitation; increases in infectious disease vectors like mosquitoes and ticks; increasing spread of plant 38 FARMS CHRONOGRAM 3/21

diseases; flooding along the Hudson River due to sea level rise; prolonged periods of drought. All of these phenomena presently occur in striking ways, even as many of us get used to them. But how does climate change feel? What is the experience of the food growers of the Hudson Valley—an absolutely vital component of the viability, even survival, of this region? With these questions in mind, I spoke to several local farmers about their views on this broad subject. Rising Temperatures & Shifting Seasons Dramatic temperature swings are increasingly common in a warming Hudson Valley. This variability, particularly in the context of irregular seasonal transitions, is especially burdensome for fruit growers. “The biggest things we’ve noticed [are] the fluctuations in the weather between fall and spring,” says Brad Clarke, owner of Clarke’s Family Farm in Modena, which grows apples, pears, peaches, and other crops using a mix of organic and integrated pest management techniques. Holly Brittain, co-owner of Rose Hill Farm in Red Hook, also grows a variety of apples and stone fruit, and describes the same problem. “If it gets unnaturally warm in February, and then the temperature dips again, the fruit could be budding too early, and then all the flowers drop off, and you could lose your entire crop.” This is, in fact, exactly what happened to Clarke five or six years ago; he tells me that their farm lost an entire peach crop, which he notes was a first in

his father’s lifetime. Clarke’s father, 76, has been farming in Modena his entire life. The issue of unseasonably early blooming is also familiar to Marybeth Wehrung, who grows a wide variety of flowers using no-till methods at Stars of the Meadow Farm in Accord. (Full disclosure: I have occasionally worked for Wehrung.) She describes the disruption of typical perennial cycles she experienced after last year’s mild winter. “Things came out of dormancy on and off. February/March especially were too warm, and so a lot of [perennials] emerged sooner than [they] may have and [then] got some damage from frost,” Wehrung says. She mentions losing an entire perennial crop—Dutch iris—she had planted the previous fall, after buds formed too early and succumbed to subsequent frost. Her dahlias met a similar fate in the fall; in that case, they were devastated by an early frost. More Precipitation, More Drought Shifting precipitation patterns in the Hudson Valley—specifically, the increase in heavy precipitation events, often interspersed with extended periods of drought—are another major challenge for local farmers. While extreme precipitation is a frequently cited characteristic of climate change, last year annual rainfall in much of the Hudson Valley was actually below average. That aridity creates challenges for keeping vegetables hydrated, especially in areas with fastdraining, sandy soils. For this and other reasons,

many farmers use thin, single-use, plastic “mulch” to retain moisture and suppress weeds. At Deep Roots Farm in Copake last year, “everything that was on black plastic was so lush,” says farmer Scott O’Rourke. O’Rourke would prefer to completely avoid the material, but he considers it a necessity in his sandy soil: Five acres of his crops that were not planted under plastic burned in the summer’s extreme heat. When precipitation does come, it increasingly falls in downpours. This can lead to all sorts of issues: flooding, erosion, and over-saturated soil unable to absorb that much water. Sam Zurofsky, co-owner of Long Season Farm in Kerhonkson, grows vegetables year-round, and notes how planning has shifted to accommodate the likelihood of these events: “There are things we have to manage for actively, that maybe 20 years ago…were just less likely, or less frequent.” He says that his farm plans to install surface drainage outside one tunnel that is particularly prone to flooding. Heavy, wet snowfalls are another worrisome phenomenon. Tyler Huff, of three-year-old Mossy Stone Farms, was the only farmer I spoke to not strictly in the Hudson Valley. He and his wife grow a variety of fruit, vegetables, mushrooms, and even rice on their small property in Prattsville in the northern Catskills, at an elevation of about 2,000 feet, utilizing (like Wehrung) no-till and wholly non-mechanized methods. Huff notes the impact of severe winter precipitation on his property. “We got a snow about two weeks ago,” he says, referencing the snowstorm a week before Christmas, “and it dumped about 22 inches of snow in two hours, and collapsed my greenhouse.” Increasing Pest Pressure Pest pressure amplified by climate change presents yet another challenge for farmers. High in the mountains, Mossy Stone Farms arguably has a level of protection from this and other issues that farmers down valley lack. But Huff deals with an increasingly heavy pest presence. “The first year I was up here there was really little pest pressure at all,” he says. “This year I had Colorado potato beetles like crazy. I had aphid problems for the first time. You don’t [typically] have aphid problems at 2,000 feet because of the winters.” He also dealt with squash bugs, cucumber beetles, and cabbage loopers. Huff observes the pest and disease pressure on the Catskill forests surrounding his farm, specifically noting the ash trees. “We didn’t have ash borer problems until last year up here,” he explains. He also mentions the wooly adelgid now afflicting the hemlocks, and the spread of Dutch elm disease over the past decade and a half. “It’s a different ecosystem that’s come up the mountain, and now [we’re] really starting to have the same problems ecosystems [down-valley]…have been having for 15 to 20 years,” he says.

Holly Brittain, co-owner of Rose Hill Farm in Red Hook, worries about losing an entire apple crop due to unnaturally warm late winter temperatures that could induce trees into budding too early.

“A lot of people assume that with a warming climate, that means we’ll be able to grow things that grow in warmer climates, and that’s not really true.” —Jay Armour, Four Winds Farm

Many farmers, including Scott O’Rourke of Deep Roots Farm in Copake, use thin, single-use, plastic “mulch” to retain moisture and suppress weeds. Last year, annual rainfall in much of the Hudson Valley was below average.

Overlapping Problems Through these conversations, the intersecting variability of climate change stands out above all. Effects of “climate chaos,” as Wehrung calls it, reinforce each other. She describes how a warm winter followed by a cool spring followed by a dry summer creates compounding challenges. “Low rainfall all season made for less productive [plants], fewer stems,” she says. “[The] accumulation of all the different stresses, with the frost, things getting set back all the time, having intense heat sometimes and then no rainfall—the overall stress level on plants was high, and so pest pressure and other kinds of damage were higher.” Indeed, as much as we can observe broader trends—warmer winters, heavier precipitation events, 3/21 CHRONOGRAM FARMS 39

Clarke’s Family Farm in Modena grows apples, pears, and peaches using a mix of organic and integrated pest management techniques. Brad Clarke notes that dramatic temperature swings are increasingly common in a warming Hudson Valley.

longer dry spells—these general contours don’t necessarily translate into a neat shift. “A lot of people assume that with a warming climate, that means we’ll be able to grow things that grow in warmer climates, and that’s not really true,” says Jay Armour, of Four Winds Farm, a primarily vegetable operation in Gardiner. Armour notes that this region’s frost-free dates have not really changed. “This year we had frost on the 12th or 13th of May, and our frost-free date is the 15th…If you tried to plant things that are going to get hit by the frost early, you would’ve been out of luck.” The observation highlights an essential nuance of climate change: Simply observing that average yearly temperatures in the Hudson Valley are rising may obscure the irregularity contained within that shift. The Hudson Valley does not so much have a new, warmer climate as a variable and disturbed version of an older climate. A theoretical extended growing season due to climate change will regularly be offset by long and lingering heat waves, early or late frosts, novel or more severe diseases. Climate change is not proceeding in a steady or stable—and therefore predictable—manner. Instead, it reveals ecology in severe imbalance. Mitigation All the farmers I spoke with described ways they work to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Brittain describes how Rose Hill employs practices like longer-term crop rotation, cover cropping prior to new cultivation, and using interplantings like white clover, alfalfa, white yarrow, coriander, and dill within orchard rows to help hold water. O’Rourke echoes the utility of cover cropping: “It breaks down so fast, even if you don’t till it up very much, and it adds a lot to the moisture retention of the soil.” Water retention is a subject that comes up frequently: Healthier soil that is high in organic matter and can better hold water is an obvious boon in drought times and a significant asset 40 FARMS CHRONOGRAM 3/21

in high-precipitation events. This process of building and maintaining healthy soil suggests a recurring truism for farmers: The best defense against the unpredictability of a shifting climate may be regenerative, holistic practices. Armour takes this approach, and has practiced no-till farming for over 25 years. While he initially stopped rototilling to ease the burden of constant weeding, he has seen the benefits of that approach in terms of soil health. “I think that more farms need to be moving in this direction of not tilling, of improving soil organic matter, so that the soils will better manage extreme rainfall events,” he says. No-till methods also help retain carbon in the soil. Zurofsky stresses that the complexity of climate change and its causes necessitates that farmers and non-farmers consider best practices and tradeoffs in a more nuanced way. He points out, for instance, that no-till conventional agriculture may be less harmful to the environment—at least in terms of releasing carbon—than tillage-based organic agriculture. “We've become balkanized or siloed in our thinking where we have this [approach that says], ‘I’m opposed to carbon, therefore anything that’s not burning fossil fuels is good,’ or, ‘I’m in favor of organic agriculture, therefore anything that has to do with new technology is bad.’” He expresses a personal openness to new technologies, like CRISPR gene editing, that may not presently conform to strict ideas of “organic,” but that, in his view, ought to be meaningfully explored by the organic farming community. The Big Picture Along with Wehrung, Huff stresses that the present reality of climate change is rooted in a particularly Western historical pattern of anthropogenic destruction. He talks about the denuding of the original old-growth forests covering the Catskills and the consequent runoff of their topsoil to the ocean, the ecological trauma of this centuries-old legacy visibly

reflected in the landscape where he lives. The threats to remote areas of the region, like Huff ’s, help throw the reality of climate change into particularly stark relief. It remains unclear how these changes will continue and accelerate into the future. And of course, this local portrait does not take into account other attendant effects of climate change—effects that, as with COVID, are inevitably globally intersecting in the 21st century. Drought in California, for instance, or extreme flooding in the Great Plains, will affect food systems in the Hudson Valley. So will non-specifically agricultural events, like severe storms along the East Coast and widespread biodiversity collapse. The interconnecting complexity underscores the urgency of holistic, regenerative practices that mitigate the worst effects of climate breakdown. Immediate measures include: promoting resilience in the region by building healthy soil; thinking beyond “organic” and other certifications toward holistic and adaptive agricultural methods; and expanding and strengthening local food systems, with a focus on promoting radical equity in these systems. Education is also vital; despite the widespread acceptance of climate change as a defining existential issue, its urgency and catastrophic import often remain misunderstood, or minimized. Perhaps above all, we ought to think about place—the local ecology, wherever we are, and the best ways to develop healthy long-term relationships with it. As Wehrung points out, connection to ecology in a rapidly and frighteningly changing landscape is vital. “There’s a way we have to not cut off from loving what’s around us, and that’s what happens for me when I get scared,” she says. “I get skeptical and freaked out by it raining, or not snowing, and that keeps me from realizing how much I care, and what it’s possible we can do. We’ve got to remember how much impact we can still have, and how much we are having.”

2021 HUDSON VALLEY

Veggies from Great Song Farm

CSA FARMS Since 2016, the Hudson Valley CSA Coalition has worked to support, expand, and diversify the CSA community in the Hudson Valley. Its network of over 110 CSA farms spanning 15 counties is committed to recruiting first-time CSA members, expanding the local CSA member base of area farms, and making CSA a familiar and accessible option for everyone in the Hudson Valley. Browse the directory below to find a local CSA. Once you’re ready to sign up for a share, visit Hudsonvalleycsa.org to find your CSA farm’s profile, learn more about community supported agriculture, and access resources and recipes on how to use every last item in your share.

COLUMBIA Abode Farm CSA 10 Chair Factory Rd New Lebanon Herb, Vegetable Common Hands Farm 257 Stevers Crossing Rd Hudson Meat, Vegetable Deep Roots Farm 1639 Route 7a, Copake Dairy, Flower, Fruit, Mushroom, Vegetable, Dog Wood Farm 85 Hartigan Rd, Old Chatham Meat, Mushroom, Vegetable FarmOn! Foundation 548 Empire Rd, Copake Flower, Vegetable Field Apothecary & Herb Farm 245 Main St Germantown Herb Hawk Dance Farm 362 Rodman Rd, Hillsdale Herb, Vegetable Hawthorne Valley Farm 327 Route 21C, Ghent Dairy, Egg, Fruit, Meat, Vegetable Hearty Roots Community Farm 1830 Route 9, Germantown Egg, Meat, Vegetable Highland Farm Game Meats 283 County Route 6 Germantown Egg, Meat Ironwood Farm 103 County Rd 9, Ghent Vegetable Kinderhook Farm 1958 Co Rd 21, Valatie Egg, Meat Letterbox Farm 4161 U.S. 9, Hudson Egg, Flower, Herb Meat, Vegetable Liberty Farms 114 Ostrander Rd, Ghent Egg, Meat, Vegetable Little Seed Gardens 541 White Mills Rd, Valatie Vegetable Lu-Na Blooms 1016 NY-82, Ancram Flower Miracle Springs Farm 709 County Route 11, Ancram Dairy

MX Morningstar Farm 5956 NY-9H, Hudson Vegetable Red Oak Farm of Stuyvesant 1921 US Route 9 Stuyvesant Vegetable Rockefeller Ranch 440 County Route 6 Germantown Herb, Flower, Vegetable Roxbury Farm 2501 Route 9H Kinderhook Fruit, Meat, Vegetable Sparrowbush Farm 2409 Route 9. Hudson Dairy, Egg, Herb, Meat, Vegetable Ten Barn Farm 1142 County Route 22 Ghent Flower, Fruit, Vegetable The Farm at Miller's Crossing 170 Route 217, Hudson Meat, Vegetable Threshold Farm 16 Summit St, Philmont Fruit Tiny Hearts Farm 1649 County Route 7A, Copake Flower Trusted Roots Farm 402 County Route 34 East Chatham Egg, Vegetable Woven Stars Farm 52 Winter Hill Road, Ghent Egg, Meat

DUTCHESS Bear Creek Farm NY-82, Stanfordville Flowers Breezy Hill Orchard 828 Centre Rd, Staatsburg Eggs, Fruit, Pasta Common Ground Farm 79 Farmstead Ln Wappingers Falls Flower, Herb, Vegetable Diana Mae Flowers Beacon Flower Dreamland Harvest 789 Salisbury Tpke, Milan Flower, Herb, Vegetable Field and Larder Beacon Vegetable

Fishkill Farms 9 Fishkill Farm Rd Hopewell Junction Dairy, Egg, Fruit, Meat, Vegetable Full Circus Farm 27 Mils Path, Pine Plains Flower, Herb, Vegetable Great Song Farm 475 Milan Hill Rd, Red Hook Flower, Fruit, Vegetable Growing Heart Farm 25 Jeans Drive, Pawling Vegetable Harlem Valley Homestead 147 Old Forge Rd, Wingdale Vegetable Maitri Farm 143 Amenia Union Rd, Amenia Meat, Vegetable Meadowland Farm 689 Schultzville Rd Clinton Corners Flower, Fruit, Herb, Vegetable Obercreek Farm 59 Marlorville Rd Wappingers Falls Egg, Flower, Fruit, Herb, Meat, Vegetable Poughkeepsie Farm Project 51 Vassar Farm Ln Poughkeepsie Egg, Fruit, Vegetable Premier Pastures 689 Schultzville Road Clinton Corners Meat

Stoneledge Farm 145 Garcia Ln, Leeds Fruit, Vegetable

ORANGE Bialas Farms 74 Celery Ave, New Hampton Fruit, Herb, Vegetable Blooming Hill Farm 1251 Route 208, Monroe Fruit, Vegetable Choy Division 168 Meadow Ave, Chester Vegetable Fresh Meadow Farm 407 Ingrassia Rd, Middletown Herb, Vegetable Gray Family Farm 261 Otterkill Rd, New Windsor Egg, Meat, Vegetable J&A Farm 12 Indiana Rd, Goshen Vegetable John Lupinski Farms 1 Houston Rd, Goshen Vegetable Peace and Carrots Farm 153 Johnson Rd, Chester Flower, Herb, Vegetable Pine Hill Farm Vegetables 3298 Route 94, Chester Fruit, Vegetable Rogowski Farm 341 Glenwood Rd, Pine Island Vegetable

Rock Steady Farm & Flowers 41 Kaye Rd, Millerton Egg, Flower, Fruit, Herb, Meat, Vegetable

Royal Acres Farm and CSA 621 Scotchtown Collabar Rd Middletown Vegetable

Sawkill Farm 7770 Albany Post Rd, Red Hook Meat

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Shoving Leopard Farm 845 River Rd, Barrytown Flower Sisters Hill Farm 127 Sisters Hill Rd, Stanfordville Vegetable

GREENE Black Horse Farms 10094 Route 9W, Athens Egg, Fruit, Vegetable Heather Ridge Farm 989 Broome Center Rd Preston Hollow Meat

Glynwood 361 Glynwood Rd, Cold Spring Meat, Vegetable Hudson Valley Mushrooms Brewster Mushroom Longhaul Farm 69 S Mountain Pass, Garrison Vegetable SPACE on Ryder Farm 400 Starr Ridge Rd, Brewster Vegetable The Parcel Flower Co. Cold Spring Flower

ULSTER Deer Creek Collective Herb Farm 810 Queens Highway, Accord Herb Evolutionary Organics 283 Springtown Rd, New Paltz Egg, Fruit, Vegetable Gopal Farm 332 Springtown Rd, New Paltz Dairy, Herb, Vegetable Grassroots Farm Rest Plaus Rd, Stone Ridge Meat Huguenot St Farm 205 Huguenot St, New Paltz Fruit, Vegetable Kelder's Farm 5755 Route 209, Kerhonksen Flower, Fruit, Herb, Meat, Vegetable Northwind Farms 185 W Kerley Corners Rd, Tivoli Meat Phillies Bridge Farm Project 45 Phillies Bridge Rd, New Paltz Vegetable Rondout Valley Organics 331 Dowe Rd, Ellenville Egg, Flower, Fruit, Herb, Meat, Vegetable Sea Change Farm & Flower 221 Marcott Rd, Stone Ridge Flower Seed Song Farm 160 Esopus Ave, Kingston Vegetable Solid Ground Farm 205 Hidden Valley Rd, Kingston Egg, Flower, Fruit, Vegetable Spruce Run & Stony Ridge Farm 42 Union Center Rd Ulster Park Flower, Fruit, Herb, Vegetable Sugarshack Mushrooms New Paltz Mushroom The Farm Bridge Shares 195 Huguenot St, New Paltz Fruit, Vegetable Tributary Farm 531 County Rte 6, High Falls Flower, Herb, Vegetable White Feather Farm 1389 RT. 212, Saugerties Vegetable

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Despite being closed for almost a year, the Orpheum Theater’s marquee urges Saugertesians to stay positive.

42 COMMUNITY PAGES CHRONOGRAM 3/21

community pages Frolicking on Hudson River ice in early February near the Saugerties Lighthouse.

Keep on Pushing SAUGERTIES By Jamie Larson Photos by David McIntyre

sk someone from Saugerties how they’re doing and they tell you the truth. They’re exhausted. They’re tired and fed up with all the endless extra work that’s yet another side effect to the pandemic’s trauma. Saugerties has always been extremely proud of its community spirit. Residents seem preternaturally compelled to support each other, but to sustain the level of organizing and charitable giving necessary to keep their collective heads above water is draining. “Yes, it is exhausting,” says Peggy Schwartz, Chamber of Commerce co-chair, owner of Town and Country Liquors, mother-in-law of Congressman Antonio Delgado, and community matriarch. “But we are existing. There is activity and we are keeping on. Saugerties is a very social town. People love to get together. Another e-word: excited. We are excited for spring.”

Business in Saugerties Rolls On This year, the Chamber of Commerce gave their Spirit of Saugerties Award to the entire business community. Legacy businesses like Montano’s Shoe Store and PC Smith and Son Hardware fought through challenges, and some new businesses have actually opened or are coming soon, including Dante’s Pizza, a bagel shop from the owner of Village Pizza, Josie’s Coffee Shop, and a soon-to-open coworking space. Saugerties is a “festival town,” Schwartz says. Being able to run the yearly Sawyer Motors Car Show, HITS horse shows, the garlic festival, the upcoming Hudson Valley Volunteer Firemen’s Convention and Parade, and other events is what generates a good deal of revenue for local businesses.

In the spring of 2020, when it became apparent things wouldn’t be going back to normal anytime soon, the Saugerties community came together in a multitude of ways to make it possible for some semblance of business and community culture to persist. The village built two outdoor food courts with menus from all the restaurants and had socially distanced seating and even live music. “Summer was actually pretty good, all things considered, says Dallas Gilpin, co-owner of the Dutch Ale House. “Our customers were very supportive and we did a lot of creative things. We put up a tent behind the Dutch and people felt pretty safe eating outside. That was the difference between life and death, to be honest.” Gilpin and her husband, Ted, run the Shale Hill Hospitality Group, which includes the Dutch, Windmill

3/21 CHRONOGRAM COMMUNITY PAGES 43

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Jennifer Hicks inside 11 Jane Street, the art gallery and creative space she opened in 2019. Currently closed, the gallery will reopen with a show of Norm Magnusson’s work in May.

Wine and Spirits next door, the soon-to-open Farm Kitchen market across the street, and the Millstream Tavern, opening in April at the Woodstock Golf Course. Gilpin made the decision to close the restaurant for the winter after business dropped off through the fall. “Now everyone is just tired of everything,” says Gilpin. “As a small business owner, I’m burnt out. As a person, I’m burnt out. Especially when you are watching your business take a financial hit. Now it’s all about surviving until spring, financially and emotionally.” A Community Eager to Give Through funding from Ulster County’s Project Resilience, 3,600 meals a week were supplied by Saugerties restaurants and delivered to homes by a cadre of 30 volunteers. Restaurants were paid $10 per meal, and, while it wasn’t much, Village Mayor Bill Murphy said it helped keep staff working and the eateries were extremely generous with the amount and quality of food they supplied. Tom Struzzieri, owner of the Diamond Mills hotel and restaurant donated trays of food from the restaurant, which were distributed through the Boys and Girls Club two nights a week. Mayor Murphy estimates that between mid March and May 30,000 meals were served to the community through both programs. There’s been a vital continuum of giving throughout the pandemic in Saugerties. Five

thousand dollars in gift cards to local restaurants were donated to the village to be distributed to residents in need. That idea has been expanded as the Chamber of Commerce has launched their “Takeout Project,” where gift cards can be purchased and donated to food aid organizations for distribution. The community’s generosity consists of more than just food, however. Robert Siracusano, owner of Sawyer Motors, donated 5,000 masks. More recently, in January when the nursing homes in Saugerties couldn’t get COVID vaccines, Saugerties native Neal Smoller of Woodstock Apothecary located 400 doses and brought them to the town’s most at-risk seniors. “From March to November I knew one person who had COVID,” says Murphy. “Since November I’ve known about 50.” As of early February, the community had registered eight deaths from COVID. During the holidays each year, Siracusano provides $25,000 worth of toys for needy children through the Sawyer Toy Express. This year, that effort was taken to another level when a Saugerties resident got the town designated as a gift donation site for Alfred Kahn’s First Responder Children’s Foundation. The foundation added $200,000 worth of toys to the annual event. More than 800 children were given bags of four to five toys. “It was really cool, in a year that needed it,” Murphy says. “Everywhere I turned people were helping each other.”

A Home for Allyship For a small town in upstate New York, Saugerties has become a beacon of progressive politics. After the killing of George Floyd at the hands of the police last spring, local resident Kevin Freeman organized a daily Black Lives Matter demonstration that ran from June to November on the corner of Main and Market streets. Once President Donald Trump lost his reelection bid, they cut back to weekly events. “One march might move the needle a little,” Freeman says. “But when you’re out there every day, you have more opportunity to integrate ideas into the community.” Freeman says he and his fellow demonstrators try to stay focused on the issue of systemic racism and not bring other causes to the protests in an attempt to instill the idea that it should be a nonpartisan issue. Even from his street corner, Freeman says he doesn’t see much partisan rancor in town. “I think that people are just somewhat exhausted,” he says. “Life goes on. We have to keep pushing at the local level for the things we believe in. I can understand the seduction of an authoritarian model. You don’t have to think for yourself.” Inquiring Minds bookstore has been a gathering place for freethinkers in Saugerties for many years. Political meetings, talks, gatherings, and conversation of all sorts were ever-present before the pandemic. Now the shop is quiet. “We miss it,” says owner Brian Donoghue. “It was an 3/21 CHRONOGRAM COMMUNITY PAGES 45

Ellen Kalish of Ravensbeard Wildlife Center with Twyla, a rescued barn owl. Ravensbeard was in the national news after Rocky, a sawwhet owl who was rescued from the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, was rehabilitated there.

“In the last decade, we’ve seen a renaissance in the community with businesses and restaurants coming in. All of it speaks to the quintessential vibe of the town. People have finally discovered us.” —Michelle Hinchey, newly elected state senator and native daughter of Saugerties

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integral part of our mission. After the last year, and the Trump nightmare, I can’t wait to have the public back in here. We need to be together, to heal and talk about what we need to do next to move forward.” Donoghue said the bookstore has survived the pandemic because people seem to be reading more during their lockdown and due to the vital aid from the Payroll Protection Plan (PPP). While Inquiring Minds is famous the protest signs in its windows taking political leaders to task, Donoghue was quick to give credit where due to local and state politicians who fixed the PPP, saving many small businesses like his. But, the bookseller says, after a while, navigating all the pandemic paperwork and changing protocols, became “exhausting.” Daughter of A Favorite Son Newly elected State Senator Michelle Hinchey is a daughter of Saugerties. She’s also the daughter of the 10-term congressman Maurice Hinchey (1938-2017), who had the uncommon political characteristic of being well liked by constituents of both parties. Hinchey says she’s excited about the way her hometown is evolving but is glad for the many ways it’s stayed the same. “I feel very fortunate to have grown up in Saugerties and to be a part of it,” the senator says. “In the last decade, we’ve seen a renaissance in the community with businesses and restaurants coming in. All of it speaks to the quintessential vibe of the town. People have finally discovered us.”

As it was throughout the Hudson Valley, in Saugerties, real estate sales boomed in the first half of the pandemic as New York City residents fled for safer pastures. The influx of new residents and capital is destined to make an impact but how much, and to what ends, is undetermined. Hinchey sees it as an opportunity. “It’s critical that we think about how we grow and support the town’s economy while protecting what made it special in the first place,” says Hinchey. “The people that built the community need to be able to reap the benefits of their work.” Committed to rural broadband access, Hinchey has already spoken out against her party’s leader, expressing disappointment over Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent veto of the Comprehensive Broadband Connectivity Act. She wants to protect natural resources, like water and open space, and bring the renewable energy jobs economists hope might fuel the COVID recovery. Having likely first trod the Capitol’s marble corridor’s in baby shoes (her father served in the Assembly for 18 years), Hinchey now finds herself, at 33, the chair of the Food and Agriculture committee. It’s a significant position important to her farm-filled district and her results-driven constituency. One program Hinchey is keen to expand and make permanent is the Nourish New York Program, which facilitates getting locally grown products into communities suffering from food insecurity. While Hinchey is too smart to name her favorite businesses in Saugerties, she

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Looking across the creek toward the waterfront homes on Esopus Creek Road from the Esopus Bend Nature Preserve.

The view of the dam on the Esopus Creek from the patio of Diamond Mills Hotel and Tavern. A bustling industrial hub in the 19th century, Saugerties was home to a succession of paper mills along its waterfront.

48 COMMUNITY PAGES CHRONOGRAM 3/21

Clockwise from top left: Peter Nekos, pharmacist and owner of the Saugerties Pharmacy. Nekos is credited with revitalizing a rundown corner of Saugerties when he renovated a dilapidated building to house his pharmacy. Kevin Freeman organized a daily Black Lives Matter demonstration that ran from June to November on the corner of Main and Market streets in Saugerties. It’s now a weekly event. Ceramicist Michele Quan in her Saugerties studio. She collaborated with the Guggenheim Museum’s retail department to create an exclusive collection of ceramics that pay homage to visionary artist Hilma af Klint and were displayed during the Artists Show in 2018.

3/21 CHRONOGRAM COMMUNITY PAGES 49

“From March to November I knew one person who had COVID. Since November I’ve known about 50.” —Village Mayor Bill Murphy 50 COMMUNITY PAGES CHRONOGRAM 3/21

“Summer was actually pretty good, all things considered. We put up a tent behind the Dutch and people felt pretty safe eating outside. That was the difference between life and death, to be honest.” —Dallas Gilpin

Dallas Gilpin, co-owner of the Shale Hill Hospitality Group, outside the Dutch Ale House on Main Street. Gilpin plans to open Farm Kitchen, a market, across the street from the restaurant in the coming months. Village Mayor Bill Murphy, who is running for his sixth term in this month’s election.

admitted she grew up eating at Mirabella’s Italian restaurant. In general, Hinchey is particularly excited about the expansion of the arts community, namechecking Upriver Studios, a film production house being developed in Saugerties by actor and director Mary Stuart Masterson. The Art of Resilience After a winter break extended by the pandemic, Jennifer Hicks reopened 11 Jane Street Arts Center in August with a group show, “Read to Me,” followed by an exhibition of Jan Harrrison’s animal paintings. Harrison’s show was well received despite Hicks having to change everything she knew about art openings. “We can’t do openings like we used to,” notes Hicks. The artist was present from noon to 6pm as people trickled through, wearing masks. Harrison and Hicks sat behind plastic. “It was actually a much better experience than a traditional art opening, says Hicks. “The artist got to talk with people about her work and people didn’t just come for the food, because there was no food. And people bought work.” This summer and again at Christmas, Hicks produced a pop-up artisan market at the J. J. Newberry building on Main Street. Plans are in the works to launch a permanent artisan market in the former five-and-dime store in late spring. Hicks said other art venues and events

in Saugerties, like Emerge Gallery, and the Saugerties Art Studio Tour are doing better than she would have initially expected. “People have moved online and artists and gallerists are engaging audiences online—and that seems to be fine,” Hicks says. Art endures in times of hardship, she notes, adding that she’s currently hosting residencies for artists Wendell Beavers and Erika Berland. “Artists are having deep conversations right now about life and why we make art and loneliness,” Hicks says. “It’s a time of global reflection about what’s important. People don’t seem to be making art about COVID, it’s about this deep reflection.” Rocky at Rest In times like these, the mind searches desperately to find meaning in suffering. Humans look for metaphors of resilience. Additionally, to feel better, they often look at pictures of cute animals on their phones. In Saugerties, this sacred object of healing appeared around Christmas time, in the form of a little owl rescued from the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. Dubbed Rockefeller, the adult saw-whet owl had taken a 170-mile ride from Oneonta to Manhattan, trapped in a 75-foot-tall Norway spruce. The diminutive raptor—saw-whets are one of North America’s tiniest owl species— hadn’t had anything to eat or drink in days. A worker for the tree transportation crew

from New Paltz told his wife, who called the Ravensbeard Wildlife Center in Saugerties. “When she said where her husband found it, I thought I would die,” says Ellen Kalish, Ravensbeard’s founder. “Rocky was in much better condition than I expected. She just needed TLC and time.” Once the news was out about the feel-good Christmas story, calls poured in to the avian rescue center—from news outlets and regular folks looking to support Ravensbeard’s mission. Kalish says the other birds didn’t seem jealous of the attention the celebrity owl was getting, though her two parrots, Jasmine and Papaguy, were annoyed by the incessant phone ringing. “It was wonderful. People were thrilled to give something,” says Kalish. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years. For me it was no big deal. People needed something uplifting I think. To have a story like this just brought out the good in people. It shared a message of hope and freedom.” Ask the residents of Saugerties how they’re doing and they’ll tell you they’re exhausted. They’re not looking for sympathy. They’re honest because being tired isn’t the same as being defeated. They’re exhausted. That’s a fact. But so, too, is the fact they won’t stop working. “We are really hopeful for spring,” says Gilpin. “As a community, as human kind. We are just waiting for the sun to come out.” 3/21 CHRONOGRAM COMMUNITY PAGES 51

portfolio

Frame by Frame Tony Levin’s Images from the Road

haved head. Thick mustache. Intense presence as he wields his bass guitar or alien-looking Chapman Stick. On stage—whether it’s with King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, or other greats across his long musical career—Tony Levin provides photographers with the perfect material for striking pictures. But less known to many is the fact that Levin is himself a photographer. He recently published his third book of photos captured during his time as a world-traveling musician, Images from a Life on the Road (distributed by MoonJune Records). “I’d done [photography] as an amateur since I was a kid,” says Levin, 74, a Kingston resident. “It’s always been a hobby. But I didn’t really start to get serious about it until the early 1970s, when I was touring in Japan and could get a lot of the new lenses as they were just coming out over there. That had a lot to do with inspiring me to get deeper into it.” Levin was born and raised in Boston, where he began studying upright bass at age 10, led a barbershop quartet, and played tuba in his high school marching band. After playing in a youth orchestra that performed at the White House for President John F. Kennedy, he went on to study classical music at Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, which was established by Eastman Kodak founder George Eastman. “Yeah, that is an interesting coincidence,” he observes. “But at the time I was too fixated on music to pay that much attention to [the photography connection].” The musical fixation bore fruit, and quickly. The

52 PORTFOLIO CHRONOGRAM 3/21

bassist played in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra but became increasingly pulled away from classical and into jazz and rock, heading to New York in 1970 to play with Mothers of Invention keyboardist Don Preston. The versatile Levin rapidly rose to become one of the New York studio scene’s most sought-after session musicians, playing on albums by Buddy Rich, Lou Reed (Berlin, 1973), Paul Simon (Still Crazy After All These Years, 1975), Alice Cooper (Welcome to My Nightmare, 1975), and others. In 1977, he hooked up with Peter Gabriel, working with the former Genesis front man on his solo debut and becoming his preferred bassist ever since. During his early years with Gabriel, Levin incorporated the newly developed Chapman Stick into his musical arsenal; the instrument would become his signature axe soon after guitarist Robert Fripp recruited him for the reactivated King Crimson. Over the decades, in addition to performing on and off with both Gabriel and King Crimson, leading his own Stick Men, and playing in other projects, Levin has recorded and/or performed with John Lennon, David Bowie, Peter Frampton, Pink Floyd, Tom Waits, Todd Rundgren, Stevie Nicks, Cheap Trick, James Taylor, and dozens more luminaries. Levin, whose previously published photo books are Road Photos (1983) and Crimson Chronicles (2004), has brought his camera everywhere on tour, often setting it up on a tripod on stage during performances and

working the shutter with a squeeze bulb or a foot pedal placed next to his instrument effects pedals. The procedure resulted in some of Images from a Life on the Road’s most arresting concert shots, including one of him and Gabriel in mid leap. “That was during [the song] ‘Shock the Monkey,’” Levin recalls. “There was a point in the song when we’d always jump up and down, and I was really happy to be able to get a picture of that.” Another Gabriel photo in the new book that jumps out is a moody portrait of the singer with his head half shaved. “Peter decided he wanted to shave his head like I did and showed up at my hotel room, asking to borrow my electric razor,” says Levin. “He was halfway done when I said, ‘Wait, stop, let me get a picture of this.’” But many of the book’s most memorable photos were captured away from the bandstand. Images of exotic locales visited on tour and backstage vignettes show another side of the performing field. “It’s been such a blessing, my life and career,” says Levin, who looks toward resumed King Crimson touring this summer once the pandemic hopefully eases. “With the book, I wanted to give people a sense of what it’s like for musicians on the road. I hope that, like me, they find these photos special. Something to treasure.” —Peter Aaron Images from a Life on the Road is out now. Tonylevin.com.

3/21 CHRONOGRAM PORTFOLIO 53

Clockwise from left: Peter Gabriel performing “Lay Your Hands on Me” in the `80s. Peter Gabriel halfway through shaving his head. Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp of King Crimson on a train in Japan in 1981.

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Top: From the stage of King Crimson’s three-night stand at Royal Albert Hall, in 2019. Bottom: Tony Levin in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2017. Opposite, from top: Woodstock `94 in Saugerties, where Peter Gabirel was the festival’s closing act. Red Square in 2014, on tour with The Crimson Project.

3/21 CHRONOGRAM PORTFOLIO 55

music Jules Shear Slower (Funzalo Records) Funzalorecords.com For a modest, relatively quiet album, Jules Shear’s Slower, his first solo album since 2017’s One More Crooked Dance, sure packs a big emotional punch. You don’t even have to hear every word he sings to feel the profound depths of despair and anguish or the blissful heights of ecstasy and love embedded in these 10 new songs. Shear straddles the line between pre-rock pop and pop-soul balladry on most of these unplugged arrangements, borne along by the gorgeous piano stylings of his go-to keyboardist, Pepe. Drums and percussion are used sparingly; Sara Lee provides melodic bass lines, John Sebastian drops touches of mouth harp, autoharp, and guitar; and Perry Beekman handles the lion’s share of duties on six-string. But the greatest instrument on this recording is Shear’s voice. I’m led by some to believe it is an acquired taste, but to me it is a marvel of nature. His vocals are rich with multitones and overtones, he’s got a huge range, which he handles tastefully; his tone bespeaks torchlike resignation with a hint of irony. And then there are his lyrics. Shear is a master at turning a phrase: “Somewhere between here and hell you’ve found a place to play.” “You’re supposed to be angry and sad, is that why people love your songs?” “It feels like fall, it feels like fall, and it’s spring.” Coproduced by Shear and Lee Danziger at home in Woodstock. —Seth Rogovoy

sound check Welcome to Sound Check, a new monthly feature in which we visit with a member of the community to find out what albums they’ve been digging.

Patrick Higgins Tocsin

100ANDZERO 4

(Telegraph Harp Records) Patrickhigginsmusic.com

(Independent) 100andzero.bandcamp.com

For ambitious artists the creative journey never truly ends, but with Tocsin it’s tempting to say that Hudson’s Patrick Higgins has fully arrived as a contemporary composer. Although the guitarist and founder of the experimental band Zs doesn’t play on the album, across the three modern classical chamber works performed on the epic release (digital, CD, and luxurious vinyl package) by pianist Vicky Chow, the Wet Ink Ensemble, and the Mivos Quartet, his restless spirit and punkand-noise background are palpable, nonetheless. Higgins’s audaciousness is well reflected in the album’s opener, a string arrangement of Bach’s unfinished “Contrapunctus XIV” boldly woven into the four-part “SQ3.” Continuing the fixation he began with Bachanalia, a 2016 album of solo guitar interpretations of the German master’s music, Higgins focuses on the famously abrupt ending of the original work, spinning that moment into the dramatic device that informs each of the suite’s skittering, stop-start movements. Intense. —Peter Aaron

I’ve long maintained that 100ANDZERO is the best goddamn band in the city of Beacon, and 4, their second full-length release, amply secures their dominance while expanding their reach in bracing new directions. With most songs clocking in well under three minutes and with precisely zero ballads, 100ANDZERO forge limitless variations on an OG hardcore template. Guitarist/vocalist Jim Zellinger and bassist/vocalist/recording engineer Jed Marshall unleash squalling, free-noise overtures on “Give In” and “FAT So”; pile-drive riffs like the sick, diminished-scale chorus on “Fail You”; and do more with two agitated notes on “Bow” than some bands do with entire albums. It’s all fearsomely powered by drummer/former Buddha Hero Mark Pisanelli, invigorating each track with unsettling precision and fire. DIY with a vengeance, this is the perfect antidote to pandemias of ignorance and poser outrage. Truth comes marching in on 4—deal or kneel, punk. —James Keepnews

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I’ve been dealing with new norms by relying primarily on the comfort food of old and easy ones: Radiohead’s In Rainbows, Richard Hell and the Voidoids’ Blank Generation, Mdou Moctar’s Sousome Tamachek, Brian Eno’s Another Green World, X’s Los Angeles, Tool’s Fear Inoculum, the National’s High Violet. Elliott Smith and the Smiths are also somewhere in my mix. —Trippy Thompson (owner, the Beverly Lounge, Kingston)

books Pirate Stew Neil Gaiman, Illustrated by Chris Riddell HARPERCOLLINS, $15.99, 2020

Genre-destroying writer and Bard College professor Gaiman’s latest tells the wonderfully silly, rhyming tale of pirates, flying ships, doughnut feasts, and magical pirate stew. Long John McRon, the ship’s cook––and the most unusual babysitter you’ve ever met–– takes a boy and his sister on a crazy adventure beneath a pirate moon. Gaiman takes a step into children’s books with Pirate Stew, departing from his adult books, and even his darker kid’s book Coraline.

A Sound History: Lawrence Gellert, Black Musical Protest, and White Denial Steven P. Garabedian UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS PRESS, $27.95, 2020

Garabedian, an assistant professor of history at Marist College, tells the story of independent music collector Lawrence Gellert and his efforts to expose white audiences to traditional black music of protest during the 1930s. The book explores the unearthing of African American folksongs and how they redefined the 20th-century American music. In the 1960s, Gellert’s collection of African American music, Negro Songs of Protest, was called a fabrication by other folklorists because of the absence of names and dates within the archive.

WishCraft, A Guide to Manifesting a Positive Future Shauna Cummins HARDIE GRANT, $16.99, 2021

Wishcraft promises to teach readers to “perceive, believe, and receive” through the art of manifesting positivity. This guide of magic and practicality by Cummins, a long-term resident at Byrdcliffe Art Colony in Woodstock, provides a history of wishing to help readers create their own “wishing mind.” Learn self-hypnosis––and how to recognize one’s own true wishes––and turn all those fears, phobias, and unwanted feelings into positive tools for a magical journey of self-healing.

Behind the Camera: American Women Photographers Who Shaped How We See the World Maria Ausherman ORO EDITIONS, $25, 2021

Stuyvesant resident Ausherman’s book tells the inspiring personal stories of 16 women who broke through the physical and social expectations of society to pursue their dreams, from pioneers like Gertrude Kasebier to Dust Bowl chroniclers like Dorothea Lange to contemporary artists like Carrie Mae Weems, whose photography illustrates racism and the struggles of black families in America. Ausherman is also the author of The Photographic Legacy of Frances Benjamin Johnston and coauthor with Patricia Jennings of Georgia O’Keeffe’s Hawaii.

My Body, My Home: A Radical Guide to Resilience and Belonging Victoria Emanuela, Caitlin Metz CLARKSON POTTER, $14.99, 2020

My Body, My Home is an interactive guided meditation for self-acceptance, resilience, and healing the disconnect between the mind and body. This workbook, coauthored by Columbia County resident Emanuela, is focused on the relationship of your mind and body through different soothing meditations and thoughtful prompts. A variety of prompts, body maps, drawings, lists, and Venn diagrams help you challenge the negative feelings within yourself. This guide sparks a journey of reclamation and healing by engaging with your inner child, lineage, and your unconscious side. —Diana Testa

In Search of Mycotopia: Citizen Science, Fungi Fanatics and the Untapped Potential of Mushrooms Doug Bierend CHELSEA GREEN PUBLISHING, 2021, $24.95

In this fascinating, mind-expanding book, journalist Doug Bierend introduces us to the modern mycological movement, composed of diverse underground subcultures of fungi enthusiasts, scientists, and citizen scientists who explore and advocate for the enormous potential of fungi to help heal and create a better world. The word mycotopia is used to describe an environment where the ecological equilibrium is enhanced through the judicious use of fungi for the betterment of all life forms. Fundamental to life, fungi, as decomposers, are critical to healthy soils and ecosystems: from remediating contaminated landscapes and waterways to achieving food security. As Bierend notes, “given their ubiquity and utility, it’s little wonder fungi have played significant roles in human culture for millennia.” From the mind-altering variety to ancient spiritual and medicinal traditions all over the world (that ethnomycologists believe were influenced by the mushrooms’ psychoactive qualities), to thousands of years of culinary traditions in China, to a foraging culture in Eastern Europe, fungi play an important role in who we are as humans. However, as Bierend points out, in North America, the study of fungi and our relationship with it is comparatively lacking. But that’s all changing as mushrooms are having a moment. Interest in mushrooms is growing by a “broad, diverse and growing movement that is enthusiastically elevating the aesthetic, culinary, medicinal, economic, heuristic, and even metaphorical value of fungi.” Citizen science is at the core of these efforts as those passionate about mushrooms gather at increasingly common fungi festivals, in foraging communities (online and in person), and via a thriving DIY growing community. As Bierend showcases, the most interesting and vital happenings in mycology are taking place outside of traditional universities, where the focus tends to be on the threats fungi pose to the lumber and agriculture industries rather than their astonishing abilities and potential uses in so many other realms. This is a situation that opens the door for Bierend to challenge, in this inviting, wonderfully researched, and detailed book, the “idea of what counts as expertise, and who gets to participate and make contributions.” The diverse core of growers, independent researchers, ecologists, entrepreneurs, and amateur enthusiasts we are introduced to in these fascinating pages are responding to an increased demand for specialty mushrooms in both culinary and medicinal markets while working to advance the study of applied mycology and to center conversations around social justice and sustainability. Told though the author’s first-hand encounters and experiences, there is much to absorb and think about as your interest in mycology is piqued. The understanding that, while fundamental to our existence, fungi are not the center of things but rather that “they exemplify the interconnectedness and interdependence of all life,” is a powerful thread that resonates throughout the book. As we accompany the author on his journeys; from the mountains of central Colorado, where Bierend harbors a passionate desire to find the Amanita muscaria (this is a vocabulary-expanding book) to Kew, the Royal Botanic Gardens in London, to Smugtown Mushrooms in Rochester, Mushroom Mountain in South Carolina, the Amazon, and beyond, Bierend’s descriptive and informative prose transports you into the marvelous world of fungi and the passionate people who are at the core of the movement. In the thoughtful last chapter, “Who Speaks for the Mushroom?,” Bierend closes with an enlightening discussion of intersectional mycology, by sharing his experience, his last before the pandemic, of attending the first POC Fungi Community Gathering on Kumeyaay territory at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico). Putting forth that perhaps “the greatest opportunity afforded by fungal fellowship seems one of decentering ourselves and returning to right relationship with nature, which will necessarily bring us into better accord with one another.” Bierend has written a fascinating, challenging, thought-provoking and satisfying book: one that will send all of us to the woods when the snow thaws in search of mycotopia. —Jane Kinney Denning

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poetry The Cohort Alcoholism and pandemics don’t mix, So 1918 was not a particularly good year for Grandfather either. Hoping for some comfort He had settled into an evening ritual Raising the clunky double hung window The cast iron counterweights Rumbling like distant thunder The late March air causing the flesh On his hairless scalp to twitch As he leaned out into the dark abyss Listening for a signal in the sunken meadow. Easy to miss when it did arrive: One short percussive call. Then utter stillness. There is no melody in the first sound of the spring peeper. A group of Pseudacris Crucifer is called an army Whose ranks muster slowly Each one awakening in lonely terror From crypts within the leaf mold of the frozen forest An ice pellet lodged in the stomach A march of tortured hops through a tangled maze of dead grass. Then, half submerged, the mating begins A cry of desperation From organs knifed by winter crystals. Blind instinct can only account for part of it. Something heroic must drive This begetting of new generations. More peepers take their places, stoically, Cold nights intensifying the loneliness With long silence separating the shrill notes. The migration of peepers becomes an exodus The bog grasses alive with one inch dwarfs Fidgeting in anticipation of warmer nights Which finally arrive in a single breath Bathing the dark meadow in an expectation of better times. The space narrows between the plaintive calls Until they touch one another with slight variations in pitch. And though it might seem a mere illusion Spring peepers announce yet again, the ageless miracle: Working together Beings can create harmony where there is no music. Grandfather outlived the pandemic And surrounded by six grandchildren Stashed his whiskey in a closet forever. —Peter Comstock Syllable Birds Do not search for sense or for meaning. These syllables are for singing. These lines are wires for words— Whistling, trilling and chirping birds. Do not ask what they have to say. Now they make noise. Now they fly away. —Yana Kane

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EDITED BY Phillip X Levine

The Despot In mulling over my plot for world power And domination, I ponder: Which nation will be the first to fall? I’ll start with something small and defenseless. An easy victory like.... The piles of laundry on my chair in the corner That I haven’t been able to sit on for months. I can count on the French not becoming involved With my bold move, And while other issues are debated at the UN, I’ll drive on to plunder The top of my dresser which is covered With all of the treasures I’ve emptied from My pockets over the last year. Who will dare stop me now? It is sometimes a good thing To live in a small world. —Randy Sutter There was a White House resident Whose character was without precedent. He lied and he cheated, But in the end was defeated, And now Biden is president! —John Kuhn

Dusk Emitting

Xindian River

Blue is the color of the trees As the light presses against Dusk-lit window pane

Under the bark of a tree, clenching to pine needles, I can feel it on your skin.

Dust covered bridges collect In the attic Above your room

Sunlight conjures steam, like an alchemist, after the rain.

Please excuse me As I watch You undress

A cluster of letters burns your eyes.

Down to your Pale Pink Skin And slip into The green bath water That fogs my glasses

A mime removes his face and a woman screams from behind a soundproof wall, to awaken the boy in her dream next door.

You are the blue in the color Of the pines The thin dust in the attic That fogs my glasses

Vapor rises from a teacup and weeps.

You shed a tear, it slowly makes its way to the Xindian River. —Eddie Sobenes

Please excuse me. —Riggs Alosa

Full submission guidelines: Chronogram.com/submissions

At 85

GypsyGap

Wildlife

I do those things I only want to do. I learn those things I only want to learn. I see those friends I like who now are few.

There was a Gap gift card in that wallet the Gypsy kid stole in Firenze

I made the mistake of telling a nine-year-old about a lost dog I’d been seeing in the shoulder of the interstate every morning before dawn for two weeks. Calls to canine catchers and the highway patrol led nowhere. The men were tired of hearing it on coffee break. I tossed a flashlight on my passenger seat and promised myself to stop the next time that I saw it. I did, and it ran; first across the darkened lanes, then into a ditch. My hazard lights blinked desperately while I hid my face from high-beams and returned to my truck.

I leave the phone alone. I hate the news That’s filled with puff—not my concern. I do those things I only want to do. I bless my aged hearing. I do not yearn To listen every day to a nonsense zoo. I do those things I only want to do. I choose to look behind me without much rue And see ahead the unencumbered days I’ve earned To be with friends who now are few. I golf, I read, I nap in this late life anew. I write to be remembered before my turn. I do those things I only want to do. I see those friends who count me with the few. —Anthony G. Herles

Fitted Shoes We began as a pair of rubber flip flops tossing up sand held on by toes at ankles were strands of periwinkles Salty mud pies below our skinny knees beach umbrellas tripping to an ocean breeze

the gift card is good at Gap, GapKids, BabyGap and I picture the ragged GypsyKid transformed into a GapKid and on his/her back a Gap knapsack to carry stolen loot and Gap sandals on the bare brown feet and I wish I’d had a gift card from Dean & Deluca or Fauchon or whatever’s chic in Firenze so the GypsyGap kid could shop for something to eat. —Iris Litt

Romance

recalling no splashes

Cupid is the little god with arrow point of no return to sender that’s how love is misconscrewed “the heart wants what it wants” but actually will beat regardless nor is love seated in loins which actually will throb regardless so really cupid aims his dart at the head which captures every misconception, yearning to shape some sense of it and form a coalescence… hard fact & messy longing that sets fire to the inexplicable.

—J Marshall Weiss

—C. P. Masciola

We became cloth sneakers quick and hot and unable to stop Colorful low sockses jumpin on boxes Flashing out rhythm. We pop till we drop Casual brown leather shoes reading the news Paying our dues walking in conformation aware of our station taking our seat to our street in order to eat toasted wheat Worn vinyl slippers shuffling on vinyl flooring Not always boring but not always Until now bare feet Heels down toes up shoeboxed

Days went by without a sighting. It had been moving east. Maybe it was finally farther than my exit. A reprieve from the guilt of failure to save a stray would be god sent. None of this was to be, however. Shortly before six I saw remnants of an explosion of fur and flesh next to the white line where I’d last seen it alive. I lit a cigarette and drifted onto the rumble strip, drifted into work. For days it decomposed until only dry bones, then dust, remained. Now it’s bare asphalt. The boy’s inquired twice since then if I’ve seen that dog again. I’ve answered in the negative. What I saw was not a dog. He’s got plenty of time to fall in love with those who don’t want to be rescued. There are years before he’s got to weep for road kill. I won’t hasten its arrival. I buttered a drawer that was squeaking and it worked. I sent a handwritten letter with no carbon copy or electronic trail to a cousin I’ve never met. I swallowed a few warm mouthfuls in the shower. A rabbit suffers in silence and when it dies they’re all surprised. The Russian alphabet lacks the letter N. Every time it gets easier, but I wish he’d stop asking. —Mike Vahsen Refill In the morning you made me coffee as I was getting ready to leave. It was terrible, one of the worst cups I’ve ever had, but you looked proud of yourself, sitting across the table to watch me drink it, so I pretended to like it, even though it washed away the taste of you, still on my tongue, that I was saving for the train ride home. When it was empty I untied my shoes and stayed two more nights to get the taste of your terrible coffee out of my mouth. —David Lukas 3/21 CHRONOGRAM POETRY 59

the guide Kaatsbaan Teases Spring Season Highlights The 153-acre Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli will kick off its outdoor spring festival in May. The more than 20 presentations scheduled to hit Kaatsbaan’s two outdoor stages include performances by the American Ballet Theatre, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Yannick Lebrun from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Maria Kowroski, Ask la Cour, and Gonzalo Garcia from the New York City Ballet; pianist Hunter Noack, Patti Smith guitarist Oliver Ray; and many more. The multi-disciplinary festival will also feature dance performances, concerts, and panel discussions with poets, authors, and world-renowned culinary artists. Kaatsbaan.org

Yannick Lebrun of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs at the 2020 Kaatsbaan Summer Festival. Photo by Quinn Wharton

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mixed media It’s been a full year since the pandemic sent area artists—and everyone else—inside. But art and art news continue to be made here in the Hudson Valley. —Peter Aaron

Gospel Music History Series Goes Live

Dorsky Museum Appoints New Director

Sky Lake Series Has Music, Theater, Art

The Hudson Valley Gospel Festival Committee recently began streaming a monthly series of Zoom presentations about the long, rich history of gospel music in the region. Presented by the Arts Mid-Hudson Folk Arts Program, the series celebrates the music’s local traditions and such artists as Marva Clark, Gretchen Reed, and Toni Graham. Among the internationally famous gospel performers to have graced the stages in the area is Mahalia Jackson, whose performance and legacy will be featured in March. The series is free, but viewers must sign up via the festival’s Facebook page to receive a Zoom link to watch episodes. Facebook.com/HudsonValleyGospelFestival

Last month, SUNY New Paltz announced the appointment of Anna Conlan as the Neil C. Trager Director of the college’s Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art. Conlan takes over from Wayne Lempka, who served as interim director since 2019, and Sara Pasti, who was director from 2009 through 2019. The museum’s curator and exhibitions manager since 2019, Conland holds master’s degrees in museum anthropology, feminism, and the visual arts and brings nearly two decades of art museum experience to the position. Conlon has been key to the Dorsky’s adapting to the pandemic, notably as the curator of “Stay Home, Make Art,” an online exhibition that drew hundreds of submissions from established and up-andcoming artists throughout the region. Newpaltz.edu/museum

Rosendale meditation, arts, and community center the Sky Lake Shambala Meditation and Retreat Center is sponsoring Dharma: Art and the Artist, a series of “live personal explorations including commentary, video, and performance— all investigating the mark of dharma as it mingles with the artistic process.” The events will begin on March 2 with “The Universe Hangs on Sound” with master flutist Steve Gorn. Subsequent installments include “Transmission of Presence,” a theatrical performance by Joanna Rotte (April 6); “Following the Brush the World is Revealed,” a calligraphy program by Barbara Bash (May 4); and “The Artist in the Studio,” a painting presentation by Daniel Berlin (June 1). Skylake.shambhala.org

Woodstock 50 Wins Damage Settlement Billboard magazine has announced that Woodstock 50 festival promoter Michael Lang’s organization has won a lawsuit against its former backer, the Dentsu company. The Japaneseowned advertising firm had pledged $49 million through its Amplfi subsidiary to stage the event but later withdrew the funding and, according to Lang, spread misinformation to prevent his Woodstock Ventures group from holding the anniversary festival at a different site (the planned summer 2019 festival was originally set to take place at Watkins Glen International racetrack before being re-sited to Maryland’s Merriwether Post Pavilion and ultimately cancelled when wary artists began leaving the lineup). With the matter decided by an arbitrations panel in October, Billboard reports that “Dentsu has agreed to pay an undisclosed settlement sum covering damages but not unrealized profits that will wrap the nearly two-year old legal drama.”

Anna Conlan, newly appointed executive director of the Dorsky Museum.

Last month, Bard College’s Richard B. Fisher Center began presenting a top-flight 2021 performance season of music, dance, theater, and art by way of Upstreaming, the center’s new virtual stage. Alongside “The Future is Present,” an ongoing theater and performance exhibition, the center has on offer this month a run of intriguing concert events: Andres Rivas conducting The Orchestra Now (March 7), the Bard College Conservatory Orchestra (March 13), Zachary Schwartzman conducting The Orchestra Now (March 20), and Bard College President and conducting The Orchestra Now music director Leon Botstein conducting The Orchestra Now (April 10, May 1). Through March 21, Upstreaming is hosting As Far as Isolation Goes (online), a collaborative project by live artist Tania El Khoury and musician and street artist Basel Zaraa that utilizes touch, sound, and other means to connect audience members with the difficult experiences of refugees. Fishercenter.bard.edu

Second Upstate Art Weekend Set for August In the October 2020 debut of this column, we covered the introduction of Upstate Art Weekend, a two-day festival exploring the visual arts around the Hudson Valley region. Started by Helen Toomer of Marbletown’s Stoneleaf Retreat art center, the expanded event will make its return August 27-29. “Our goal is to highlight the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York and connect people and places, building a community that not only visits for the weekend, but returns throughout the year,” says Toomer. “Community, collaboration, art and the outdoors are essential to our well-being and Upstate Art Weekend is a combination of all of these.” Safe, self-directed, and accessible, the happening is designed to connect art lovers with art and the outdoors. Last year’s launch included more than 20 participating art centers, galleries, museums, pop-up exhibits, and other venues, among them such favored facilities as Storm King Art Center, Maggazino, Art Omi, Mother Gallery, and Elijah Wheat Showroom. Upstate Art Weekend is accepting applications for 2021 participant sites through March 30. Upstateartweekend.org

Fisher Center Announces 2021 Season

Kinderhook Board Supports Nick Cave Art Installation

Aldrich Museum Launches Art-Loaning Program Now here’s an interesting way of enabling art lovers to get around the coronavirus obstacle. Ridgefield, Connecticut’s Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum recently announced the launch of Aldrich Care Box, a year-long project that has commissioned artists Ilana Harris-Babou, Clarity Haynes, Athena LaTocha, Curtis Talwst Santiago, and James Allister Sprang to create a series of objects that examine themes of care, grief, intimacy, and healing using various materials, methods, and aesthetic approaches. Their works have been packed into boxes that can be signed out to individuals—like library books—who can borrow them to enjoy their contents at home for up to one week. Thealdrich.org

Last month, after a protracted court saga, the Kinderhook zoning board ruled that artist Nick Cave’s installation Truth Be Told, which was displayed on the façade of The School (a gallery run by Jack Shainman), is a work of art and not a sign. Last fall, Peter Bujanow, the town’s code enforcement officer, had demanded that the textbased, 25-foot-by160-foot work, described by the artist as a commentary on the murder of George Floyd, be removed, seeking to impose a $200 fine for each day it remained up. This prompted the issue to be brought before Kinderhook Mayor Dale Leiser and other village leaders, who also moved that it be taken down. But during the litigation, over 3,300 people signed a petition in support of Cave’s work. On February 2, the town board unanimously voted in support of a new resolution stating that Cave’s piece was “displayed as a political message and art for a temporary period of time and therefore Kinderhook Village Code does not apply to regulate the exhibit as a sign.” Cave’s piece will be exhibited on the plaza of the Brooklyn Museum beginning in May. Jackshainman.com/the_school

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art

Taking It to the Streets: Art & Activism A CHRONOGRAM CONVERSATIONS RECAP Chronogram.com/activistart The Chronogram Conversations discussion on January 27 featured panelists Melissa Auf der Maur, Jack Shainman, Ama Josephine B. Johnstone, Jean-Marc Superville Sovak, and Matt Dilling. Pictured above, from top left: Auf der Maur, Art Effect student Amya West, Superville Sovak, and Dilling.

62 THE GUIDE CHRONOGRAM 3/21

On January 27, Chronogram Media teamed up with gallery owner Ellen Simpson of Hudson’s D’Arcy Simpson Art Works and artist David McIntyre, founder of online gallery Hudson Art Fair, to host a panel discussion that explored how artists, educators, institutions, and the public can forge a grassroots regional coalition to bring activist art to a wider audience in the Hudson Valley. Held on Zoom and moderated by Chronogram Media Editorial Director Brian K. Mahoney, the event brought together five voices from the Hudson Valley art world and 100 remote participants for a dynamic discussion on activist movements in our community and the difficulty and importance of challenging historic power dynamics in the creation and curation of the arts. The panel kicked off with Matt Dilling, cofounder of Kingston-based Lite Brite Neon Studio, a collective of craftspeople that specializes in the production of neon art, display, luminous visual props, and architectural lighting. As a fabricator for both commercial projects and artists in non-traditional spaces, Dilling said his team is “very aware of how context transforms the artwork and changes the dialogue.” In the activist sphere, Dilling said that much of the work is about being willing to ask questions and not always having the right answer. Next to speak was the new Keith Haring Fellow in Art and Activism at Bard College, Ama Josephine B. Johnstone. Johnstone is a speculative writer, artist, curator, and pleasure activist whose work navigates intimate explorations of race, art, ecology, and feminism. Johnstone encouraged the attendees to question the binary of gallery space and the streets by recognizing that institutional spaces like galleries “come with material privileges and hierarchies’’ that have been constructed and codified by our society. The distinction between art in the gallery or in the streets can be useful, she said, if it pushes us to think about where money and resources are going. After Johnstone spoke, Melissa Auf der Maur, cofounder of Basilica Hudson, a nonprofit multidisciplinary arts center in Hudson, spoke about the responsibility that anyone with an institutional platform has to create change on a societal level. With Basilica Hudson unable to host large-scale programming during the pandemic, Auf der Maur has been working to make the center a regional hub of climate change activism by fostering private-public partnerships, including the creation of a future workforce training program for green trades.

Next to speak was Jean-Marc Superville Sovak, a multidisciplinary artist whose project “a-Historical Landscapes” involves altering 19th-century landscape engravings to include images borrowed from contemporaneous anti-slavery publications. When asked about who the audience is for his work, Superville Sovak said that it depends on who is looking. “I think the message is that there is a history that we see and there’s a history that we don’t see,” he says. “There is a way to get the history that’s not visible...visible.” Rounding out the panel was gallerist Jack Shainman, a force in the international art world whose Hudson Valley gallery, The School in Kinderhook, has been a major influence in the region’s flourishing creative culture. For the past five months, The School has been mired in the fundamental question of what public art should look like. Artist Nick Cave’s work Truth Be Told, rendered in 21-foot-high vinyl letters on the front of the building, drew objection from the village, which argued that it was a sign and not a work of art. “As a gallerist, I create a space for the artist to come in and do what they do. For me I really thought this was about supporting Nick in his work,” says Shainman. (At the beginning of February, the village’s zoning board ruled unanimously in The School’s favor just after the work was taken down. It is to be installed on the facade of the Brooklyn Museum in late spring.) After the panelists spoke, there was a Q&A that included questions from art students from youth art education organization the Art Effect. Amya West struck to the heart of the event by asking why galleries have to be a proving ground for artists and received several answers from the panelists that encouraged West and other young artists not to let the historic role of galleries limit where they choose to show their work. Ava Vernor asked about the role of online fundraising for artists’ work and livelihoods that sparked many answers from the event’s participants and presaged a rich and vibrant ongoing conversation about art, activism, and inclusion in the Hudson Valley art community. A video of this entire conversation can be found online at Chronogram.com/activistart. If you’d like to be part of a grassroots Hudson Valley coalition that facilitates and supports activist art, sign up for the email listserv: Groups.google.com/g/art-and-activism-in-thehudson-valley. —Ashleigh Lovelace

Mario Merz Long-term view

MarCh 20 – May 2, 2021

Eric Erickson PAINTINGS

Caroline Burton INCARNATIONS

Dia Beacon 3 Beekman Street Beacon, New York

featuring collaborations between installation, art and performance.

OUR NEW SEASON! more events coming soon. THE

Wendell Beavers & Erika Berland Art:Incubated Residency Jan–March Norm Magnusson May 22– June 27

DORSKY SAMUEL DORSKY MUSEUM OF ART

Kathy Goodell: Infra-Loop, Selections 1994–2020

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT NEW PALTZ

René Moncada July 10–Aug 15 Elizabeth Keithline Aug 21–Sept 26 Jennifer Hicks & Gary Wiesberg Oct 2–Nov 6 Colin Chase Nov 13–Dec 19

11janestreet.com · 11 Jane Street Suite A, Saugerties, NY ARTIST OWNED & OPERATED

Celebrating the best of rural life in Berkshire, Columbia, northern Dutchess and northern Litchfield counties

ruralintelligence.com

Kathy Goodell, Voyager, 2020, courtesy the artist

February 6 – July 11, 2021 Through SAMUEL DORSK Y MUSEUM OF ART

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT NEW PALTZ

www.newpaltz.edu/museum PART OF THE

FAMILY

3/21 CHRONOGRAM THE GUIDE 63

film

When the Museum is Also the Artist MASS MOCA DOCUMENTARY MUSEUM TOWN

Stills from Museum Town, clockwise from above: Nick Cave's monumental Crystal Cloudscape being installed at MASS MoCA in 2016. Opposite: Artist Laurie Anderson speaks to a group at MASS MoCA in 2016. The Shining, a re-purposed Airstream trailer, part of Michael Oatman's all utopias fell project on long-term view at MASS MoCA. Stills courtesy of The Office Arts

Museumtownmovie.com “I didn’t want to make another boring art movie,” says Jennifer Trainer, director of Museum Town, a documentary about Mass MoCA, the contemporary art museum in North Adams, Massachusetts. Trainer worked at Mass MoCA for 28 years as the museum’s first director of development. She has published 20 books, on such diverse topics as Einsteinian physics and how to make hot sauce. Museum Town is her first film. “I decided I would follow five characters: the curator, the fabricator, the artist, the townsperson; and I felt that the buildings were a character—because they’re so willful,” Trainer explains. Mass MoCA consists of 26 structures—the first built in 1860—all interconnected so that workers could move easily between them in winter. Originally a textile factory, the complex was taken over by the Sprague Electric Company in 1942. Eventually thousands of workers produced electronic components for consumer goods, until overseas competition forced Sprague to close. Thomas Krens, director of the Williams College Museum of Art, saw the potential of the shuttered factory as a home for up-to-the-minute artworks. In 1986, North Adams Mayor John Barrett III faced a difficult existential decision: whether to turn over the 17-acre industrial hive to a weirdo art museum—or make it a prison. Today, Mass MoCA is one of the largest contemporary art centers in North America. I go to lots of museums, and constantly wonder what’s inside the secret “backstage” areas. Museum 64 THE GUIDE CHRONOGRAM 3/21

Town takes us past the “No Admittance” signs, to reveal…a massive workshop. I’d always assumed Mass MoCA’s curators sought out artists who just happened to have 157-foot-art installations laying around, but no. The museum commissions a piece, then collaborates with the artist to fashion the structure, fabricating it like a stage set. A team of workers, led by sardonic Englishman Richard Criddle, welds a skeleton, covers it with a “skin,” and creates, for example, a 300-foot-long Dr. Seuss-style flugelhorn. (Überorgan by Tim Hawkinson, quite possibly the largest musical instrument ever made.) Sometimes the process takes a year. Museum Town follows Nick Cave, a sculptor known for his life-size, joyful, neo-tribal costumes. How will he respond to the challenge of a room the size of a football field? His solution, Crystal Cloudscape: an island floating near the ceiling, bedecked with myriad kitsch statuettes, plastic flowers, fake crystals, racist lawn jockeys. There’s an element of suspense: Will this eccentric plan succeed as a spectacle? We watch Cave arrange and rearrange the displays, making minute aesthetic judgments. And finally the island is raised, the crew pulling ropes like sailors on a 19th-century frigate. Museum Town, as the title implies, also addresses the community surrounding Mass MoCA. The film deftly contrasts the grimness of North Adams with the sweeping majesty of neighboring Williamstown.

But Williamstown, I fear, doesn’t have tireless women like Ruth Yarter, who worked for 43 years at Sprague, then became a volunteer at Mass MoCA, devotedly serving this somewhat incomprehensible art venue. The last scene in the movie shows Yarter walking through a visionary purple room created by James Turrell. She steps carefully, outlined against the dreamlike luminescence. Ruth died in 2018, at the age of 93. The film is dedicated to her. There’s a limit to how much an art mecca can revitalize a blighted town, however. Twenty years after Mass MoCA opened, galleries, and cafes are appearing on Main Street—but how much do they help the average North Adams resident? Before an indie rock concert at the museum, an angry local scrawled on the sidewalk: “Wilco Go Home.” Museum Town is available for download via Kino Marquee, a collaboration between local, independent theaters—shuttered during the pandemic and suffering massive losses—and film distributor Kino Lorber, which has created virtual Museum Town, you help support a local cinema. Kino Marquee is a virtual cinema that supports local art house cinemas through virtual ticket sales. Museum Town is screening in support of three local movie theaters: Time and Space Limited in Hudson, the Moviehouse in Millerton, and Downing Film Center in Newburgh. —Sparrow

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exhibits “HERMERICA” AT WOODSTOCK/BYRDCLIFFE GUILD.

AGC GALLERY

65 LIBERTY STREET, NEWBURGH

Curated by Carrrie Feder, “Hermerica” explores the enduring legacy of the struggle of the women’s suffrage movement through the subjective visions of the artists in the show in a mix of art and artifact. Spanning the 19th to the 21st centuries, selected historical text, quotes, images, and objects are placed in combination with contemporary artwork that speak to women’s role in society and the road which led to acquiring the right to vote. Some of the region’s most acclaimed artists are featured in the exhibition, including Kathy Ruttenberg, Melora Kuhn, Tanya Kate Hamilton, Marcuse, Portia Munson, Susan Wides, and Kiki Smith. March 12-April 25 Woodstockguild.org

“Philippe Halaburda: Spatial Representation of Emotion.” Paintings. Through April 1.

From the triptych Bodies of Plenty: Harvest, Corinne Spencer

622 WARREN STREET, HUDSON

THE ALDRICH CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM 258 MAIN STREET, RIDGEFIELD, CT

“After the Mobile: Tim Prentice.” Twenty indoor works. March 29-October 4.

BOARDMAN ROAD BRANCH LIBRARY 141 BOARDMAN ROAD, POUGHKEEPSIE

“Linda Lynton: Seasons.” Oil paintings of trees. Through March 2. “Crows Along the Hudson.” Photographs by Claudia Gorman. March 2-May 4.

BUSTER LEVI GALLERY

121 MAIN STREET, COLD SPRING “Through the Window.” Paintings by Grace Kennedy, Martee Levi, and. Barbara Smith Gioia. March 5-28.

CARRIE HADDAD GALLERY

“Invitational Exhibit.” Out of over 200 submissions, seven artists were chosen: Julia Whitney Barnes, Samantha French, Ruth Geneslaw, Hue Thi Hoffmaster, Nancy Egol Nikkal, Annika Tucksmith, K. Velis Turan, and Judith Wyer. Through April 11.

THE CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY AT WOODSTOCK 59 TINKER STREET, WOODSTOCK

“Members Show 2021.” Through March 21.

SUSAN WEIL AT JDJ ICE HOUSE Weil, born in 1930, came of age as an artist in the postwar period, studying under Josef Albers at Black Mountain College with Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Cy Twombly. Although she has deep roots in the New York School of Art, Weil’s work defies easy categorization. This exhibition brings together four bodies of work that reference the female body: paintings on paper from the early 1970s, the soft folds and configurations paintings from the 1980s and 1990s, and a selection of artist books. Regardless of form or medium, there is a sense of vivacity, dynamism, and playfulness present in Weil’s work. One can sense the pleasure she finds in everyday life—her delight in experiencing the passing of time as she moves through the world with a great sense of curiosity. Through 4/17. Jdj.world Susan Weil and Robert Rauschenberg blueprints in Life magazine, 1951

CLARK ART INSTITUTE

225 SOUTH STREET, WILLIAMSTOWN, MA “A Change in the Light: The Cliché-Verre in Nineteenth-Century France." This exhibition presents clichés-verre (a hybrid process developed in the mid-19th century, combined the techniques of the graphic arts—namely drawing and printmaking—with those of the new medium of photography) by five French artists—Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, Charles-François Daubigny, Eugène Delacroix, Jean François Millet, and Théodore Rousseau. Through May 16. “Erin Shirreff: Remainders.” Photographs, prints, and video that examine Shirreff’s fascination with the mythmaking behind art history through a practice that spans analog and digital media, two and three dimensions, and still and moving images. Through January 2, 2022.

CRAGSMOOR FREE LIBRARY

355 CRAGSMOOR ROAD, CRAGSMOOR "Cragsmoor Women of the Past." Group show curated by Beat Keeerl. March 20-April 30.

DIA:BEACON

3 BEEKMAN STREET, BEACON Works by Lee Ufan, Sam Gilliam, Mel Bochner, Barry Le Va, Richard Serra, Mario Merz, and others on long-term view.

ELIJAH WHEAT SHOWROOM

195 FRONT STREET, NEWBURGH “Pixelated Slaps to the Heart.” Installation by Ani Liu. Through March 21.

EMERGE GALLERY & ART SPACE 228 MAIN STREET, SAUGERTIES

“Something Blue.” Group show. March 6-28.

ESTHER MASSRY GALLERY

432 WESTERN AVENUE, ALBANY

PHILIPPE HALABURDA AT AGC GALLERY Newburgh’s newest gallery was opened on Liberty Street last fall by Carlos Navarro and Liam Carey, who want to focus on exhibiting artists who live and work in the city. AGC, just around the corner from Atlas Studios and down the block from Ann Street Gallery, further enlivens the city’s already robust visual arts scene. The gallery’s second show features the work of Philippe Halaburda. “Spatial Representation of Emotion,” up through April 1, is a grouping of Halaburda’s psychogeographic maps, which are inspired by the “blurry boundary between perception and experience.” Halaburda’s abstractions translate emotions into data maps that resemble computer algorithms caught between order and chaos. Agcgallery.com U—Pilth 3, Philippe Halaburda

66 THE GUIDE CHRONOGRAM 3/21

“Earthly." Julie Evans, Laleh Khorramian, Meg Lipke, Odessa Straub, and Tamara Zahaykevich—offer various organic ways of making that speak to an ethics of care. Through March 17.

FERROVIA STUDIOS

17 RAILROAD AVENUE, KINGSTON “David Schoichet: Recent Work.” Schoichet’s black and white photographs are exclusively of people of color; his subjects range from brief interactions with strangers at public events such as protests, rallies, and marches, to intimate portraits of family and friends. Ongoing.

FRANCES LEHMAN LOEB ART CENTER AT VASSAR COLLEGE 124 RAYMOND AVENUE, POUGHKEEPSIE

“Women Picturing Women: From Personal Spaces to Public Ventures.” Curated by Patricia Phagan, this exhibition studies the key themes that emerge when selecting only images of women by women artists. Through June 13.

GARRISON ART CENTER

23 GARRISON’S LANDING, GARRISON “Incarnations.” A series of process-intensive mixed media paintings that present themselves simultaneously as prints, paintings and objects. March 20-May 2. “Eric Erickson: Paintings.” Works that depict uncertain terrain where spatial relationships are constantly shifting and objects are in a state of suspended animation. March 20-May 2.

exhibits

“ALL OUT / ALL IN” AT WASSAIC PROJECT The nine artists in “All Out / All In” explore the increasingly arbitrary boundary between public and private spaces, identities, and rituals—with a particular emphasis on the potential of the home as a space for healing. Three standouts: Rose Nestler’s humorous fabric sculptures emphasize the ways in which women perform (or are made to perform) through articles of clothing; Aisha Tandiwe Bell’s traps mark the delicate balance between protecting what you have and cooperating in imprisoning power structures; Natalie Baxter’s reconceptualized eagles invert America’s toxic masculinity. Other artists include Jamea RichmondEdwards, Mark Fleuridor, Nyugen Smith, Amanda L. Edwards, Liz Nielsen, and Jen Dwyer. Through March 27. Wassaicproject.org Bundlehouse (High Tide S.O.S.), Nyugen Smith,

HILO CATSKILL

LOCKWOOD ART GALLERY

THE POUGHKEEPSIE TROLLEY BARN

“See It Swimming: Susan Jennings.” A performance of the sound producing artworks will occur in front of the venue on March 13 at 3pm.

“Likely Story.” Paintings by D. Jack Solomon. Through March 7.

“Home Sick.” First international juried exhibition of youth art curated by Mary-Kay Lombino for The Art Effect. Through April 1.

365 MAIN STREET, CATSKILL

HUDSON RIVER MUSEUM

511 WARBURTON AVENUE, YONKERS “Librado Romero: From the River to the Desert.” Through June 27.

747 ROUTE 28, KINGSTON

MAGAZZINO ITALIAN ART

2700 ROUTE 9, COLD SPRING “Bochner Boetti Fontana.” Examines the formal, conceptual, and procedural affinites in the work of Mel Bochner, Alighiero Boetti, and Lucio Fontana. Curated by Mel Bochner. Through April 5.

489 MAIN STREET, POUGHKEEPSIE

SAMUEL DORSKY MUSEUM OF ART 1 HAWK DRIVE, NEW PALTZ “

GARRISON

MARK GRUBER GALLERY

“Susan Weil.” Weil’s oeuvre oscillates between the abstract and the concrete, and this exhibition brings together four bodies of work that reference the female body. Through April 17.

NEW PALTZ PLAZA, NEW PALTZ

"Lewis Hine, Child Labor Investigator." Through July 11. Kathy Godell: Infra-Loop, Selection 1994-2020." "Dirt: Inside Landscapes." Through July 11. "Collective Consciousness: New Work by SUNY New Paltz Faculty." Through July 11.

“Winter Salon Show.” Group show of Hudson Valley landscapes. Through March 30.

SEPTEMBER

JDJ | THE ICE HOUSE

LABSPACE

2642 ROUTE 23, HILLSDALE “The Magic Garden.” Works by Alexander Ross, Amy Lincoln, Amy Talluto, Ann Wolf, Audrey Francis, Betsy Friedman, Brantner DeAtley, Eric Wolf, Jennifer Coates, Joel Longenecker, Katharine Umsted, Kathy Ruttenberg, Leslie Carmin, Mary Carlson, Philip Knoll, Undine Brod. Through April 11.

LIGHTFORMS

743 COLUMBIA STREET, HUDSON “Facing the Unknown: Imagination in the Time of Pandemic.” Works by Millicent Young, Osi Audu, Lily Morris, Martina A. Muller, Patrick Stolfo, Richard Neal, and Laura Summer. Through April 3.

OLIVE FREE LIBRARY

4033 ROUTE 28A, WEST SHOKAN “Across the River: Artists from Hudson Valley East.” Curated by Marie Cole, work by Juliet Harrison, Donald Crews, Roxie Johnson, Lousie Kalin, Gilbert Rios. March 20-May 8.

PAMELA SALISBURY GALLERY

362 1/2 WARREN STREET, HUDSON “Elliot Green: AutoRevisionism.” Sixteen abstract, multi-layered drawings of oil and pencil on paper and one large-scale painting on canvas. March 6-April 4. “Gregory Amenoff: Solid State.” Monoprints and woodblock prints. March 6-April 4.

449 WARREN STREET #3, HUDSON “Let’s rename our city.” Paintings, collages, and site-specific murals by Lukaza BranfmanVerissimo. Through March 28.

SUSAN ELEY FINE ART

433 WARREN STREET, HUDSON “David Collins and James Isherwood.” Paintings. March 4-April 18.

THOMPSON GIROUX GALLERY 57 MAIN STREET, CHATHAM

“The Stone in the Snowball.” Mixed media work by Spencer Hall. Through March 7.

THE WASSAIC PROJECT

37 FURNACE BANK ROAD, WASSAIC (347) 815-0783. “All Out/All In.” Work by Rose Nestler, Aisha Tandiwe Bell, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Mark Fleuridor, Amanda L. Edward, Nyugen Smith, Natalie Baxter, Liz Nielsen, and Jen Dwyer. Through March 27.

WOODSTOCK ARTISTS ASSOCIATION AND MUSEUM

28 TINKER STREET, WOODSTOCK “House & Universe.” Group exhibition curated by Yael Eban and Jackie Hoving, co-directors of Tiger Strikes Asteroid NY. Through March 28. “Michael Bogdanffy-Kriegh: Dark Matter.” Photographs. Through March 28. “Many Branches.” Youth exhibition. Through March 28.

WOODSTOCK BYRDCLIFFE GUILD 34 TINKER STREET, WOODSTOCK

“Hermerica.” Curated by Carrie Feder, includes work by Yura Adams, Rose Deler, Jenny Feder, Jeanette Fintz, Kate Hamilton, Valerie Hammond, Daesha Devón Harris, Lola Jiblazee, Cynthia Karasek, Beth Katleman, Melora Kuhn, Katrina Majkut, Tanya Marcuse, Susan Mastrangelo, Claudia McNulty, Portia Munson, Ruby Palmer, Rachel Perry, Debra Priestly, Christy Rupp, Kathy Ruttenberg, Kiki Smith, Corinne Spencer, Laurie Steelink, Liza Todd Tivey, Katherine Umsted, Susan Wides, and Tricia Wright. March 13-April 25.

3/21 CHRONOGRAM THE GUIDE 67

Horoscopes By Lorelai Kude

SHELTER FROM THE STORM March 2021 brings a semblance of inner peace after the nonstop celestial pounding we’ve collectively endured for over a year now, if only because we’ve acclimated to traumatic times to a certain extent. With both Sun and Neptune in sensitive, porous Pisces we can go within to tend to inner healing with less distracting outer conflict—if we choose not to engage with the buzzing dramas of this world. It’s easier to make that choice now. The annual conjunction of the Sun to Neptune March 10 illuminates the murkiest depths of our collective consciousness: What has been hidden in the shadows is now revealed, and what’s revealed can be healed. New Moon in Pisces March 13 with Venus conjunct Neptune is an outstanding day to reach for your dreams. Though everything is viewed through rose-colored glasses and unabashedly romanticized, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a basis of reality in what is perceived. Mercury enters Pisces March 18, favoring nonverbal communication and empathic understandings rather than information and data. The celestial Piscean chill-fest comes to an abrupt but not unpleasant end at the Spring Equinox March 20 followed by the First Quarter Moon in Cancer March 21, with Mercury sextile Uranus and Venus entering Aries. This is a power-packed, supercharged-champagne-supernova-in-the-sky-kind-of weekend, but it’s only the windup! The pitch is March 26–29, during which the Sun, Venus, and Chiron conjunct in Aries with the Full Libra Moon March 28, and Mercury conjuncts Neptune. This is a tremendous opportunity to kiss and make up, to heal long-festering wounds with words of forgiveness, to repair valued relationships chipped away by competing social stresses and ideological partisanship. We’ve all been tempest-tossed with trauma, changes, and loss. March 2021 brings us a little shelter from the storm.

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ARIES (March 20–April 19) Mars enters Gemini March 3, lightening your load considerably; at least it makes you more mobile, though much of the ground you’ll be covering is welltrodden. Might you have left behind some treasures? This is the month to dig them up! The Sun enters Aries March 20 at the Spring Equinox, your annual period of refreshment and renewal. Mercury squares Mars March 23, redefining terms and conditions of deals made in early-mid February. Full Libra Moon March 26 with Venus conjunct Chiron in Aries may accomplish tremendous emotional healing if you are willing to risk vulnerability and radical truth-telling.

TAURUS (April 19–May 20) Venus in intuitive Pisces square Uranus March 3 inspires your genius instinct. Innovate at the New Moon in Pisces March 13, with Venus conjunct Neptune fueling inspiration. Your personal charm helps attract the resources you need to support your vision at the sextile of Venus to Pluto March 18. Venus enters Aries March 21; assert yourself in matters of love. The Sun and Chiron conjunct Venus March 26–28 shines emotional healing light on those vulnerable places you’ve repressed and suppressed for a long time. Venus sextile Saturn March 28 builds a vessel for new self-understandings and sustainable self-care modalities. A practicing, professional astrologer for over 30 years, Lorelai Kude can be reached for questions and personal consultations via email (lorelaikude@yahoo.com) and her Kabbalah-flavored website is Astrolojew.com.

68 HOROSCOPES CHRONOGRAM 3/21

Horoscopes

GEMINI (May 20–June 21) Mercury conjunct Jupiter March 4: will your voice be amplified, or will your silence be deafening? There’s a big issue you might need to be clarifying to yourself and others. Things become murkier when Mercury enters Pisces March 15. First Quarter Moon in Cancer with Mercury sextile Uranus March 21 is a day of potential genius; your strikingly original ideas are received favorably. Mercury squares Mars in Gemini March 23; ask for help with details and don’t be afraid to delegate but be clear about specifics and expectations. Ground your big ideas in the loamy soil of viable scalability.

CANCER (June 21–July 22) Last Quarter Sagittarius Moon March 5 sheds light on how connected your emotional well-being is to your health. New Moon in Pisces March 13 marks a new creative beginning, First Quarter Moon in Cancer March 21 reveals both ancestral gifts and generational trauma which informs your creative efforts as well as your romantic relationships. Full Libra Moon March 28 connects your heart to home and family; Venus conjunct wounded healer Chiron weaves the fragrant balm of unconditional love and generous forgiveness through the tangled knots of family secrets. Understanding the past prepares the way for a healthier future.

LEO (July 22–August 23) Sun conjunct Neptune March 10 illuminates your most dramatic dreams; Sun sextiling Pluto March 16 supports powerful allies and resources you’ll need to make those dreams materialize. Sun enters Aries March 20 at the Spring Equinox, sloughing off the semi-siesta you’ve been snoozing through since mid-December. You’re feeling your own fabulosity March 26 with the Sun conjunct Venus and you’re not shy about expressing your own desires—you may receive powerful healing via acceptance and affirmation around your most vulnerable parts at the Sun’s conjunction to Chiron March 19. Sun sextiles Saturn March 31, anchoring self-confidence to demonstrable achievement.

VIRGO (August 23–September 23) Mercury conjunct Jupiter March 4 is big, loud news which may involve your health. What started as a whisper is now a shout. Pay attention and give yourself the care you deserve. Mercury enters Pisces March 15; honesty with a partner is essential for your well-being. Stop suppressing your truth for the sake of transient material benefits. Trust the universe has more surprises in store for you at First Quarter Moon in Cancer March 21, with Mercury sextile original, individualistic Uranus, you’re ready to break out of being boxed in, even in shocking and sudden ways if necessary!

LIBRA (September 23–October 23) With Venus and the Sun in Pisces through March 20, you’re powerfully connected to the rhythms of your mindbody connection and can harness these rhythms to work with health and well-being upgrades, delivering more than mere beauty, though that’s a pleasant side effect. The Venus/Uranus sextile March 3 prompts the sharing of vulnerabilities and intimacies in a way that facilitates deep emotional healing. Full Libra Moon March 28 is your annual opportunity to glow, enchant, and dazzle in all your glory; Venus conjunct Chiron adds a depth of beauty which comes from developed compassion, increased empathy, and modest humility.

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3/21 CHRONOGRAM HOROSCOPES 69

BEATLES ROLLING STONES BOB DYLAN

JIMI HENDRIX BOB MARLEY NEIL YOUNG

FLEETWOOD MAC SPRINGSTEEN BLONDIE BOWIE GRATEFUL DEAD LED ZEPPELIN

SANTANA PATTI SMITH STEVIE WONDER

STEE ELY DAN THE BAND RAMONES

VAN N MO ORRIS R SON TALKING HEADS NIRV VANA A TO OM PETT TY PRETENDERS RADIIO OHE EAD PEAR RL JAM

TH T HE POLIICE

THE CLA ASH H

U2 RE EM

BEC CK

DAV VE MATTHE T EWS S BAND ARC CADE E FIR RE

AM MY WINE EHO OUSE

WIL W LCO

PH HIS SH

GRA ACE E POT TTER R

DEATH CAB B FO OR CUTIE E

BRA ANDI D CARLILE

GARY CLARK K JR

MICH HAEL FRANTI NATALIE MERCHA ANT

MODEST MOUSE MY MORNING JACKET TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND BLACK KEYS

AVETT BROTHERS LANA DEL RAY JADE BIRD THE NATIONAL ALABAMA SHAKES

NORAH JONES THE FELICE BROTHERS

VAMPIRE WEEKEND NATHANIEL RATELIFF

Horoscopes

SCORPIO (October 23–November 21) Mars in Gemini beginning March 3 presents you with a multitude of choices; each road not taken becomes another branch in your decision tree, so discernment is essential. Sun conjunct Neptune March 10 reveals what material support your dreams need for viability. Mars squares Chiron March 17 with Moon in Taurus; intimate relationships are tested for vulnerability. Can you hold space for a partner’s imperfections as well as you hold expectations about your own shortcomings being tolerated? Mercury’s square to Mars March 23 invites communicative conflict; though offense is taken, not given, try not to give more than necessary.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22–December 22) Mercury conjunct Jupiter March 4, followed by Last Quarter Moon in Sagittarius March 5 prompts a review of the large, lofty ideals and grand schemes you’ve been planning and executing over the last year. You’ve pulled it off—but at what price? This is a month of review and reassessment of your long-term goals, a month to turn inward to determine what’s still working for you and what you can let go of now, to lighten your load and make your more flexible and mobile for whatever the Next Big Thing is that you sense coming your way.

CAPRICORN (December 22–January 20) March may be the most manageable month you’ve had in a while, with the gentle Pisces Sun generating tons of empathy and compassion which you may lavish generously upon yourself. The Spring Equinox March 20 and First Quarter Moon in Cancer March 21 stimulate new partnership interests. If you’ve spent the beginning of the month practicing tender self-care, you’ll be ready for the Venus/Sun sextile to Saturn March 30– 31, supporting a positively radiant, rested, and ready to rock (in a responsible way) public image. Cultivate a quiet, powerful charisma that says a lot with very few words.

AQUARIUS (January 20–February 19) Stimulating times ahead when Venus sextiles Uranus March 3, supporting romantic connections with unusual, surprising, unique, or just downright weird folks: not that there’s anything wrong with that, especially for you, Aquarius! Best days to present yourself in the most flattering light are March 9 through 11. Mercury sextiles Uranus March 21 prompting sudden, abrupt confessions: Make sure they’re true! Venus and the Sun sextile Saturn March 30–31, rousing your social instinct and desire to intimately connect with others. With Jupiter and Saturn on your side, you seem like a solid bet to those evaluating you for partnership material.

PISCES (February 20-March 19) Sun in Pisces through March 20 is your comfort zone; the Sun’s conjunction to Neptune March 10 is a laser beam of illumination piercing the deepest ocean depths. Even the murkiest corners of your mind are flooded with light. You glimpse the path of your own soul; New Moon in Pisces March 13 resets intentions and refreshes your emotional browser. Mercury conjunct Neptune March 30 puts beautiful words to your inner music, weaving imagination with initiative and attracting the generosity of others who share your dream, and want to share their resources to help make that dream come true. 70 HOROSCOPES CHRONOGRAM 3/21

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Inside Back Cover Green Cottage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Grist Mill Real Estate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 H Houst & Son . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Halter Associates Realty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Hapeman Hill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Helsmoortel Insurance & Realty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Herrington’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Front Cover Holistic Natural Medicine: Integrative Healing Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 The Homestead School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Horses For A Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Hudson Hills Montessori School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Hudson Valley Hospice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Hudson Valley Native Landscaping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Hudson Valley Sunrooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Jack’s Meats & Deli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Jacobowitz & Gubits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 John A Alvarez and Sons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 John M. Carroll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 The Kinderhook Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Larson Architecture Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Liza Phillips Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Mark Gruber Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Masa Midtown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 ModCraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 N & S Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Opus 40 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Pegasus Footwear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Peter Aaron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Primrose Hill School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Resinate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Ridgeline Realty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Sawyer Savings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Seed Song Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Solar Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Sunflower Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Telepathic Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Third Eye Associates Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Town & Country Liquors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Vannorstrand & Hoolihan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 WDST 100.1 Radio Woodstock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Wild Earth Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Wimowe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Chronogram March 2021 (ISSN 1940-1280) Chronogram is published monthly. Subscriptions: $36 per year by Chronogram Media, 45 Pine Grove Ave. Suite 303, Kingston, NY 12401. Periodicals postage pending at Kingston, NY, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Chronogram, 45 Pine Grove Ave. Suite 303, Kingston, NY 12401.

3/21 CHRONOGRAM AD INDEX 71

parting shot

Place des Vosges, Jeffrey Milstein

72 PARTING SHOT CHRONOGRAM 3/21

Paris From the Air, due out April 6 from Rizzoli, is Jeffrey Milstein’s second book of aerial photography, following 2017’s LA NY (Thames & Hudson), which documented New York City and Los Angeles from small planes and helicopters. For his latest book, Milstein had to secure permission from municipal authorities in Paris to fly over the city, authorization that is rarely granted, but which was eventually given to him. During two trips over the French capital in the spring of 2019, the Woodstock-based photographer shot hundreds of photos

from a twin turbine Squirrel SA 355N helicopter, documenting the classic architecture and sun-lit avenues. Because the height of the city’s buildings has been restricted for many years, most of the architecture and streetscape of Paris are on a smaller, human-scale than the skyscraping coastal megalopolises of the US. Milstein’s photos, captured using the latest aeronautic and photographic technology, show a rare aerial glimpse of a timeless city. —Brian K. Mahoney

Doodletown Barn

$789,000

Dramatically re-imagined 1863 post-and-beam barn comes with 11 acres of land on one of Columbia County’s prettiest roads. 5 BR/3.5 BA with approx. 4100 sf on 3 levels. Smart open kitchen w/ Wolf stove, 4-burner Bosch induction cooktop in island, wine cooler, 2 dishwashers, family dining room. Stunning 2nd floor is open & set up as a formal dining room & living areas. Level three has three bedrooms and two full baths; a bridge spans this soaring space. The silo is waiting to be completed with solid spiral steel staircase and (currently non-functioning) elevator. Imagine this four-level structure as your private office, art gallery, or exercise center. Close by is the 690 acre Doodletown Wildlife Management Area.

❚ David King 518.929.0755

Scale up or scale down.

537 Warren Street, Hudson

Start fresh or reimagine. Work from home, or make your workplace your home. 2021 brings new challenges... and new opportunities.

$935,000

Best location, best street, hottest city in New York! Warren Street’s former Mexican Radio building is in the heart of Hudson’s commercial district, adjacent to a public park. Previously a restaurant, beautifully designed property is floor-to-ceiling open space w/ brick walls. Ready for other ventures—another restaurant, live/work situation w/ loft living space above your retail space, private residence, or single family townhouse w/ income producing commercial space. Generous interior space, commercial kitchen, loading area. Many options for commercial & residential rental income.

❚ Pamela Belfor 917.734.7142

Hinterlands Estate

$1,948,000

Elegant country retreat in Rhinebeck with capacious floor plan with cathedral foyer & sweeping staircase. Formal semi-circular living room with high polished wood floors w/ mahogany inlay & gas FP. Formal dining room for 16+ guests. Family room w/ FP & wet bar. Renovated gourmet kitchen opens to indoor pool w/ jacuzzi. Library with cabinetry. The master suite is spacious with double walk-in closets & renovated master bath. The second floor consists of four spacious and private ensuite bedrooms, great for guests. The finished basement makes the perfect media room with full bar. Exquisitely landscaped with sprinkler system.

❚ Tracy Dober 845.399.6715

Tailings

$3,250,000

High on a ridge in Livingston with Hudson River, Catskills, & Berkshires views. 5000 sf complex of 4 pavilions. Post-modern guest apt. w/ private deck overlooking gardens & Berkshires. Palladian music room, large triangular-shaped room w/ FP & soaring domed ceiling. Palladian doors open to the columned portico. Modern kitchen/dining pavilion w/ raised FP & doors opening to west lawn. Greek Revival master suite with spacious ensuite bath, dressing room & adjoining library.

❚ Joseph Shirk 917.355.6840 ❚ Adelia Geiger 845.216.0218

Premier Country Estate

$2,599,000

One-of-a-kind historic country estate in Ghent. Allée of century-old maples, 1860s manor w/ its own 8 acre, spring-fed lake. 56 park-like acres. 4900 sf, 5 BR main house, grand proportions meet comfortable elegance: FP in the library, warm family room, living room, formal dining room, & large chef’s eat-in kitchen. Nearby private guest house, 200-year-old barn with studio/office/workspace, and hobby farm. Whole property has been technologically updated so business can easily be conducted. Lake, back terrace, porches, gym & gardens; private self-sustaining compound with high-capacity generator. Turnkey, property manager, and magazinequality contents. Family compound or retreat property.

❚ Pamela Belfor 917.734.7142

37 Broadway, Tivoli

$425,000

Conveniently located in the sought-after village of Tivoli, this renovated home has a fully applianced kitchen that includes a washer and dryer, a spacious living room with a wood-burning fireplace, formal dining room, 4 BRs, and 2 full baths, one on each floor. There is plenty of off-street parking and a lovely back yard.

❚ Tracy Dober 845.399.6715

Tivoli NY • Hudson NY • Catskill NY Rhinebeck NY • Kingston NY

garydimauro.com

Frustrated with a lack of tangible action around climate change? Looking for a change of direction to more meaningful work? Want a new way to take the lead on creating change in your community or industry? Join Clarkson and The Gigatonne Challenge, a cohort-based leadership program, to unlearn the mechanistic mindset and status quo practices and unlock new solutions. Over a two-week intensive “sprint,” you will work in teams to tackle one of the world’s most complex issues: THE CLIMATE CRISIS. Spots are available for the April 12-23, 2021 session. Learn more and register at clarkson.edu/gigatonne. To learn more about Clarkson’s Beacon Institute, visit discover.clarkson.edu/beacon.

BEACON INSTITUTE FOR RIVERS AND ESTUARIES