Latest News
Dani Shapiro, left, and Laura Karetzky.
On Saturday, Jan. 18 at 5:30 p.m., the first in a new series of conversations called “Telling Stories” will take place at Spring Hill Vineyards in New Preston, Conn. Moderated by writer and teacher Maggie Levine, this inaugural session will feature bestselling author Dani Shapiro and Brooklyn-based painter Laura Karetzky in a discussion about their creative processes, storytelling techniques, and the connections between their art forms.
Shapiro, author of eleven books, and the host and creator of the hit podcast “Family Secrets.” and Karetzky, known for her narrative-driven paintings, will explore how they weave multiple perspectives and non-linear narratives into their respective works. “The reason I paired Laura with Dani is because Dani’s work, even in her fiction, is not linear. She jumps around in time and weaves different perspectives. Laura’s narrative paintings do something similar—they often tell multiple stories through layers and perspectives,” said Levine, who founded her newsletter and social platform, ArtWrite, to explore the intersections of art and writing. Levine will guide the conversation, highlighting the common threads between these two artists’ practices.
“I was beginning to see the danger in adhering to a single narrative, hewing to a story,” said Shapiro about writing. “The peril wasn’t only in getting it wrong, it was a kind of calcification, a narrowing, a perversion of reality that hardened and stilled the spirit.”
“I believe that we are experiencing concurrent truths that are in constant flux,” said Karetzky. “It’s only when I start putting an image down on canvas that I begin to understand the myriad complexities of a particular story. It’s through this process that I begin to unearth what I actually think and see.”
This conversation will take place at Spring Hill Vineyards, located along the Shepaug River in New Preston. Established in 2006 by Stephanie and Tim Ingrassia, the vineyard is also the site of Spring Hill Arts Gathering, a summer arts festival hosted in the vineyard’s gorgeous barn space. The conversation will be hosted in this same charming barn, offering an intimate setting for this exciting new series.
This free event is open to the public, with reservations encouraged. For more information and to reserve a seat, visit www.springhillvineyards.com/events or email contact@springhillvineyards.com.
Alec Linden
This year's first installment of the 12 Moons Coffee House open mic and performance kicked off to a packed house despite bracing weather on Saturday, Jan. 4.
“This is the best thing you can do on a freezing evening,” said the night’s featured performer, singer-songwriter Erin Ash Sullivan. Applause and murmurs of assent filled the vaulted interior of Falls Village’s Center on Main.
The event, which is funded entirely by donations, occurs on the first Saturday of each month and has, except for hiatus during the pandemic, been running since 2012. Since taking over in 2022, the night usually draws between 30 and 50 attendants, said John Nowak who organizes 12 Moons with his wife Nancy. “Tonight we have about 60,” Nowak said.
The evening’s structure followed the standard 12 Moons layout, starting with an open mic session which was then followed by the featured artist taking the stage at 8 p.m. Nowak explained that he sees the night as a showcase of the deep and thriving music community in the region, as well as a supportive platform for newer performers to showcase their work.
The event has a strong regular following — “We have people who come every month,” Nowak said — but continuously draws new participants. “There has always been somebody new for the open mic for two and a half years,” Nowak explained, referencing his tenure as the event’s organizer.
Saturday evening’s open mic showcased the varied and vibrant Northwest Corner talent pool, closing with David Capellaro reciting his own original poetry, a few lilting tunes from local legend George Potts, and a couple of traditional songs performed a cappella by South Kent resident John Milnes Baker, who runs his own folksong night on the second Monday of every month at the Bulls Bridge Inn.
One of Milnes Baker’s songs related an amusing tale about a traveler who unwittingly gets wrapped up in a strange barter system involving mink skins in Arkansas. When asked where he found the song, he said he wasn’t sure — he’s 92, and heard it as a teenager.
He said he grew up on the south shore of Long Island among a rich balladeering culture, and has a good memory for a tune. “I literally know hundreds of songs,” he said.
After a short break, it was time for Ash Sullivan to take the stage as the night’s featured act. “What we try to do is get local, professional artists to be our featured act — and we have,” said Nowak, noting that they now are exploring artists from further afield in New England.
Ash Sullivan, who hails from Harvard, Massachusetts, thanked the crowd and other performers before diving into the set. “This is like the best open mic I’ve ever been to,” she said to cheers from the audience.
The songs Ash Sullivan played stuck close to home, focusing on her hometown, friends, family, and intimate moments shared between loved ones. She sang about her grandmother, who was cast on the original Broadway staging of Oklahoma but backed out to marry Ash Sullivan’s grandfather, and how she wished she could have gotten more stories from her when she had the time. She also sang about motherhood, memories of going to the beach with a difficult teenage friend, and a difficult summer at home after college.
The songs were simultaneously tender and humorous, the vocals primarily accompanied by her finger-picked guitar except for one for which she played the ukulele. “Ukulele players are like vampires — they tend to sire other ukulele players,” she said, explaining that her husband’s ukulele playing had inspired her to take up the instrument.
She closed with a song about rejoining — and winning — a hometown pie eating contest as an adult after having won it twice as a preteen. The refrain encapsulates the air of levity and sentimentality that was consistent throughout her set: “Sweetness brings a sweetness that money just can’t buy.”
Chili lovers had a feast as they decided on their favorites at the Chili Cook-Off at the Copake Grange. The winner of the next competition, planned for Saturday, Jan. 25 from 5 to 7 p.m, has been a hot topic around town for months.
Rita Jakubowski, recording secretary and membership director for the Copake Grange, says the 2025 calendar, already packed with events for all and open to the public, is the result of the group’s increasingly diverse membership, up from seven in 2018 to 125 today.
The playlist for a “Love to Dance” Party, on Saturday, Jan. 18, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., the brainchild of Madeline Silverman, will feature songs which contain the words “love” or “dance” with suggestions submitted to tinyurl.com/JanuaryDance. Held several times a year, Jakubowski says, young people come out “in droves” for the party.
Donations of $5 and items for the Roe Jan Food Pantry and emergency supply cabinet at the Taconic Hills School are appreciated.
Movie Night’s “Mississippi Burning” in recognition of Martin Luther King Day, is set for Sunday, Jan. 19, from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. The movie is free with a $10 fee for a following meal of soup, salad and bread to help with the historic building’s “never ending needs.”
Months-long competitive talk of the “legendary” fourth Annual Chili Cook-Off, will be settled on Saturday, Jan. 25, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. when attendees taste samples and vote for the best entry. Chili may be purchased to eat there or take home.
To participate in “Jammin’ at the Grange,” on Saturday, Jan. 26, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. or the next free Open Mic Night scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 1 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. contact lennybarham@gmail.com
“Making Collages” on Saturday, Feb. 1, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. for children seven to 18 will be led by Grange artists Liz Fenamore and Deborah Macheski. The $5 admission fee will include art supplies.
For more information on the Grange at 628 Empire Rd. near the Clock Tower, go to www.copakegrange.org. or email copakegrange@gmail.com.
Ungardening in January: Seeds
Straw mulch over seeds protects a meadow planting. New growth will be augmented with plugs in Spring.
It is time to think about seeds for spring planting and time to plant seeds that require overwintering to break their dormancy and germinate in the spring. That is my January project, planting the native seeds collected mostly from my garden, the meadow and the woods. I will use the tried-and-true method, re-using plastic gallon jugs which I have saved for this purpose. I cut around the jug, four inches from the bottom, leaving about an inch of the plastic attached so that it hinges open. The bottom is filled with soil and dotted with seed, then I tape the top to the bottom to create a kind of greenhouse. These can be left outside until it starts to warm up, and the tops can then be removed. Be sure to label the jugs in a way that will not succumb to the elements – even Sharpie ink can fade over the winter. I use a wood plant label stake inside the container before I seal it up as well as a tag sealed with clear tape attached to the outside.
I’m also planting seeds directly into the ground in the meadow. The meadow was not mowed last year so there is an excess of grass and thatch covering the soil. I decided to use the propane weed torch to selectively burn the grass where I want to plant the seed. I waited for a morning after a big rain to start this experiment. Holding the torch steady in one spot for a few seconds created an approximately 5-inch patch of char and bare soil. I then used my boot to push back a bit of the newly uncovered topsoil. Onto this moist exposed soil I pressed a few seeds and then covered it lightly with the soil I had pushed back. My foot tamped it down gently and then I loosely covered the patch with some dry grass. With help, I was able to create about forty of these bare patches into which I planted seeds from six different native plants suited to the sandy riparian soil.
We ‘started’ the meadow three years ago on about an acre of land across the stream from our house simply by not mowing it anymore. We had no idea what would grow. And when it did, it was not impressive; mostly non-native weedy plants took over: sheep sorrel, hawkweed and several non-native grasses. But also some promising signs – a few yarrow, horsetail, evening primrose and wild strawberry. The following year, after a June mow, we planted little bluestem seeds, mostly as they did not need the overwintering that perennials typically require to germinate; they grew in well. Last spring I spent way too long pulling out the sheep sorrel and planting partridge pea seeds. Over the season I added a few more flowering perennials: Rattlesnake master, Eryngium yuccifolium, Culver’s root Veronicastrum, Bienial Gaura, Gaura Oenothera. From these and a few more species I had enough seed to spare for this planting experiment.
On New Years Day I was chatting with Jacque Schiller -about seeds- at a mellow afternoon party in North Cornwall. Jacque had planted a small meadow in the area where the septic system of their house which had been replaced. She relayed how she spread seeds- a wildflower seed mix specifically for Connecticut from Urban Farmer - last August after the septic work was complete and planned to augment with native plugs this spring. When I got home, I went on the Urban Farmer website to look at the details of the seed mix she used. I was sad and not surprised to see that about 70% of seeds in this particular mix is from non-native species. The company does offer a native mix for the Northeast which is found alongside the other seeds on offer but does not make a distinction between native and non-native seed for the state-specific mixes.
I asked Jacque if she thought her meadow was comprised of native plants; yes, she had. Her error is a common one; I too have bought plants thinking that they were native when they were not. Not all wildflowers are native, of course, but the nomenclature and the way they are sometimes marketed can be confusing to people whose intentions are to plant native. So why is it done? I suspect the wildflower species included in the CT mix are showier than the native alternatives. And perhaps even hardier, as there are fewer animals that eat them or their pollen or reproduce on them. Consumers want aesthetic success, and non-natives can do that but they do not deliver on preserving the native habitat and food chain for native insects, birds and even mammals. Moral here: Buy seeds from reliable sources such as native plant specialists. Exchange seeds with people you trust. Read labels well.
If you are looking for native seeds, there will be a native seed exchange Jan. 25 from noon to 3 p.m in the Munger Barn at The Dudley Farm North Guilford, Conn. Organized by national organization The Wild Ones, the event is a bit far away; but will be a worthwhile trip. For more information, go to mountainlaurel.wildones.org/news/
Dee Salomon ‘ungardens’ in Litchfield County.
