You don’t need to be reminded at this point that domestic travel is difficult (and becoming more difficult) and that foreign travel is, literally, impossible.
For most of us, that simply means our dream vacation has to be postponed. For a lucky but unlucky few, that means that a treasured and meaningful destination is, for now, unreachable.
Rome is that destination for the writer Andre Aciman (who is Egyptian but emigrated briefly to Italy before then moving on to the U.S.) and Jeannette Montgomery Barron, who grew up in Georgia before moving to New York City. She lives in Kent, Conn., now but in the middle somewhere were 11 years that she spent in Rome with her husband (gallery owner/art dealer James Barron) and their two children, who were young at the time but are now college graduates.
Aciman and Barron had met while their children were in school together in Manhattan and reconnected a few years ago when Aciman was in the Northwest Corner to speak at Ben and Donna Rosen’s wonderful but short-lived Kent Presents summer speaker series.
Aciman was already a well-known and respected writer before he became very famous for the film made from his book, “Call Me By My Name.”
Barron is sort of a stealth famous person in her own right having spent much of the wild late 20th century in New York City, partying with Bianca Jagger and taking portraits of friends such as the actor Willem Dafoe and the artist Keith Haring.
Barron’s life is more quiet and reflective now, especially in the pandemic — which has made it impossible for her to travel back to her beloved Rome.
“We’re very fortunate to be up here,” she said. “I’ve felt so lucky that I’m not in a city wearing a mask all the time. I can go outside. It’s been a very creative time for me.”
Barron is working on several books with a publisher in England, but she’s also doing what she loves, which is to wander around with her iPhone in her pocket, snapping photos of things that catch her eye.
Here in Litchfield County, those photos are likely to be taken on long walks in the woods and along the river. In Rome, those photos were often architectural or of works of art.
“I wasn’t going out to look for photos to take,” she said of her images from Rome. “They just … appeared in front of me and I’d have my phone in my pocket, I’d be going to the market or Pilates or to meet a friend and I’d find a photograph.”
She had been primarily doing magazine work, portraits, and a series of photos of mirrors of all kinds. The more random images taken on the streets of Rome were a completely different artistic experience for her.
“In a way, it was like taking notes. It kind of freed me up.”
Those photos are the ones that form the centerpiece of a new book that she and Aciman collaborated on, called “Roman Hours.” It is a small volume that can fit in a large pocket and includes a color image of Rome facing a short musing or haiku-like observation by Aciman. The words weren’t written to match the photos, or vice versa.
“I think Andre just was walking around Rome doing the same thing I was doing: Going on errands and jotting notes in a Moleskin on his way to have a coffee.
“I love it when words don’t illustrate the images,” she added. The words and photos in “Roman Hours” “stand alone and have no real relation.”
“Roman Hours” is the first in what is expected to be an ongoing City Series by Ivory Press, which pairs up an artist and a writer.
The book costs $30, which is a bargain for what is essentially a portal to a city that we all wish we could travel to, with guidance from two experienced expatriates in Italy.
Signed and personalized copies of “Roman Hours” by Jeannette Montgomery Barron and Andre Aciman will be available after Dec. 7 at House of Books in Kent, Conn. Unsigned copies are available now. Go to www.houseofbooksct.com for ordering information.
The Great Room at Norfolk Library filled to capacity for the Haystack Festival.
Just after noon on Sunday, Oct. 6, attendees of Norfolk Foundation’s Haystack Festival spilled out of the red Shingle Style Norfolk Library into brilliant October sunshine, emerging from the final book talk of the weekend (excepting an event for young readers later in the day). The talk, which was a conversation between horse experts journalist Sarah Maslin Nir and author David Chaffetz, was rife with equine puns and startling facts. The tongue-in-cheek use of the word “cavalier” brought laughs from the engaged audience, while Nir disclosed that horses eat for a full 16 hours a day.
The talk brought levity and humor to the festival’s conclusion, while also diving into the serious history of the relationship between society and horses. Chaffetz explained horses were fundamental in the formation of large empires: “We don’t see empires until horses became fundamental to the political state.” Nir elaborated that the “wild” horses in North America are not native, but feral horses descended from animals brought by Spanish imperialists. “No tea grows in England,” she explained, “it is the result of empire – and so are horses.”
Other talks included a conversation about the history of ballet between writers and dance critics Marina Harss and Mindy Aloff, a discussion between bestselling authors Michael Korda and Simon Winchester on wisdom and memory, and a heady chat about the intersection between academic ideas and the public sphere between public academics William Egginton and Samuel Moyn.
Festival Director Michael Selleck said that while he doesn’t curate for theme when selecting the speakers, a certain atmosphere tends to manifest. While last year the tone skewed political, he said, “this year things were more philosophical.”
Exemplifying the philosophical streak in the festival was a conversation between naturalist and writer Noah Charney and Great Mountain Forest executive director Mike Zarfos. Charney advocated for a philosophy of nature that “shouldn’t take species as good or bad.” He encouraged the audience to get out into their own yards and “learn the plants and critters” while remaining open to imaginative and novel understandings of ecology. He urged the crowd to follow a naturalist principle of “being out there, getting muddy and wet, and eating plants.”
Selleck was very pleased with the turnout this year, with few seats left empty and an audience that he said was “very engaged”. And why throw a festival like this one in Norfolk? “Norfolk is a cultural center,” he said, and he wants to “bring a literary element back to the cultural heart of Norfolk.”
Brooklyn and New York based writer Gillian Bagley gave the Brendan Gill Lecture on Friday night. The lecture is an annual talk given in memorial of Brendan Gill, a celebrated New Yorker writer who lived in Bronxville, N.Y. and Norfolk.
Appropriately, it was a family affair. Bagley is Gill’s granddaughter, and she was introduced by her cousin Anne Gill, another granddaughter of the writer. As she took the podium, Bagley fondly recalled spending summers with her grandfather in Norfork as a child – during one such stay, the two co-authored a book called “The Monster of Haystack Mountain.”
Beyond recalling memories, Bagley also presented and read from her new novel Negative Space, and reflected on how Gill influenced her own writing. She read a passage in which Gill said he sought to instill within his paragraphs “a weight and a shape no greater than a cloud of blue butterflies.” She said she strives to imbue her own fiction with this sense of “precise contours and the weight of something real,” informing her practice of “constant whittling” that defines the pared-down style of her prose.
This writing process doesn’t produce long novels, and she offered several jokes about her predilection for brevity that drew hearty laughter from the crowd. Several readers had told her they had finished the book in one sitting, she said, adding that, “I suspect it wasn’t that they couldn’t put it down, but that they didn’t have to.”
"The Red Sand Project" is intended to draw attention to often overlooked domestic violence issues in the Northwest Corner.
To mark the start of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Project SAGE held its annual community vigil on Tuesday, Oct. 1, at Community Field in Lakeville. Project SAGE is a community-focused organization dedicated to supporting, advocating, guiding and educating victims of relationship violence through a range of services and outreach programs.
A large group of people gathered quietly in the center of the field where they were handed packets of red sand. Red Sand Project, created by artist and activist Molly Gochman, is a participatory artwork that uses sidewalk interventions and earthwork installations to encourage people to reflect, connect, and take action against the vulnerabilities that contribute to human trafficking, modern slavery, and exploitation.
“We pour sand into sidewalk cracks to draw attention to issues we often overlook, like intimate partner violence, exploitation, and sexual assault in our own communities,” explained Kristen Pratt, operations manager at the Red Sand Project. “So, as you’re pouring the sand into the cracks, think about what vulnerabilities might be present all around you in your own community. How can we open our eyes and deepen our awareness a bit more? How can we remember the ones we are honoring tonight as we go forward?” Pratt instructed.
After filling the sidewalk cracks around the park with sand, the group reconvened to hear opening remarks from Project SAGE’s executive director, Kristen van Ginhoven. “Thank you for taking time out of your day to join us in honoring those who lost their lives to domestic violence in Connecticut in 2023,” said van Ginhoven. She went on to explain that Project SAGE is part of a larger coalition of eighteen sister agencies across Connecticut (known as Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence or CCADV) all of whom are dedicated to creating social change and ending interpersonal relationship violence for all.
Virginia Gold, Project SAGE’s director of client services also spoke. “We are gathered tonight to remember 26 lives that ended this year in Connecticut. Each individual was the victim of someone who decided to use the power of brute force to silence their voice forever,” said Gold. She went on to offer a hopeful reflection of resilience.
The group then lit battery operated candles and walked along Main Street, “as a visible, collective symbol,” said Gold. “The lights we carry honor both the lives that have been lost as well as all of us who still work and hope for change,” she added. Slowly and contemplatively, the group processed to Project SAGE’s office on Porter Street where a poem was shared in English and Spanish before the names of the 26 victims of Domestic Violence were read aloud. After each name was read aloud, names of victims aged 2 to 83, the group was instructed to respond in unison: “We remember their name.”
The list of names was followed by a moment of silence after which, Pastor John Nelson, who serves on the Board of Directors of Project SAGE, offered closing remarks. “In the silence we hold, we remember the pain and loss. We remember those who have borne the injury of violence in their bodies and in their spirits. But we remember also our commitment that no one will be left alone. We remember our determination to demand an end to violence. We remember our resolve that violence will not define us.” Inviting the group gathered to stay for refreshments and reflections, Pastor Nelson offered, “We can move forward from silence to community, to the resolute practice of compassion, even to the celebration that we will share, so that tomorrow we may return invigorated to continue the good struggle for justice, for healing, and for hope.”
Pottery of all sorts will be on display at the Clay Way Tour, featuring 26 area artists.
Now in its 8th year, The Clay Way Studio Tour is an annually held event featuring some of Connecticut’s best potters. Twenty six artists will show their work among nine studios.
The Tour takes place in Litchfield County Connecticut and Wingdale, New York Oct.19 and 20 from 10 a.m to 5 p.m. Potter and organizer Jane Herald explained the origin of the tour.
“Clay Way was the brainchild of a potter named Linda Boston, who started it with Alison Palmer about eight years ago. Originally, they aimed to gather a following for potters in the Woodbury area. For some reason it didn’t take off there, but the response was enthusiastic in the Northwest Corner. So here we are,” Herald said.
The tour is free and a great way to enjoy a weekend in beautiful Litchfield and Dutchess Counties during peak fall foliage season. The tour will take place rain or shine.
“Clay Way is a cooperative effort by the nine host potters and their guests. Ann Heywood and Jane Herold have been chairing it the last few years. By inviting guests to show with us we are able to offer a wide range of pottery in a fairly concentrated area. Quite a few regular attendees make a weekend of it, and go to all nine studios,” Herald explained.
Regarding the abundance of potters in the area, Herald said,
“Rural areas have always attracted potters, in part because they are able to afford properties that can be adapted to workshops and studios. A number of the potters on the Clay Way Tour fire wood kilns, which requires a team effort, which has probably contributed to the growth of a pottery culture here. Some of us use locally found materials including kaolin and limestone. And there’s a pottery supply shop right in Sheffield, Massachusetts.”
As to the role Clay Way Tour plays in promoting clay arts and the regional arts community in general, Herald said,
“A number of our exhibitors teach classes in the area, or host workshops, in addition to wood firing. There is a huge interest in learning to throw. I get asked about classes at least once a week at my showroom in Cornwall. I’m very happy that 5 Points Arts Center (an arts space in Torrington) now has a well equipped pottery studio where I can send people. Drew Montgomery teaches classes at his studio in Wingdale. Alison Palmer hosts about 12 workshops a year at her studio in Kent, bringing people from all over to teach and participate. The benefit to the communities extends to local inns and restaurants as well. The northwest corner is beginning to be known as a welcoming place for potters. We hope this can extend to other craft-based businesses as well.”
As a potter herself, Herold makes pots that are “useful” including dishes.
“But holding food is not what makes them useful. The most important task of a useful pot is to generate caring. Most of modern life does not generate this emotion. Things many of us think of as useful or even essential – cell phones, automobiles, computers, fast food, microwaves – don’t generate real caring at all. We could live very well without many of these things. But we can’t live good lives at all if we are callous and uncaring. Being indifferent, unconscious, unawake is not something that you can turn on and off at will. We must either find ways of living that encourage awareness or face a loss of sensibility that is likely to seep into all areas of our lives.”
The Clay Way Studio Tour is free and takes place rain or shine, much of it outdoors if the weather cooperates. For more information including examples of each artist’s work and a printable map, go to: www.ClayWay.net
