Archive for April 3rd, 2011

April 3rd, 2011

Tom Sexton in Lowell

by DickH

I attended today’s Parker Lecture at the Lowell National Park Visitor Center and very much enjoyed listening along with about 50 others to Tom Sexton read many of his Lowell poems. The topics, characters, and language involved transported me back to younger days making the room sound much like a Sunday night dinner with my extended family. Tom, a 1958 graduate of Lowell High who was selected as one of the school’s Distinguished Alumni several years ago, may have physically moved out of the city but big parts of his heart and his mind are still here. I purchased a copy of “A Clock With No Hands”, Tom’s most recent book of Lowell poems (he said he’s at work on another) and was delighted to find titles such as Mike Rynne, Lucy Larcom Park, Harry Bass and Hoare’s Fish Market inside.

Tom said many of his poems are about boxing because “boxing was always an integral part of Lowell.” He speculated that his own reclusive personality is what helped make him a poet. He still takes pride in his Irish ethnic heritage and for that reason doesn’t think much of Henry David Thoreau who didn’t think much of the Irish. To aspiring writers, Tom said “when you start writing, you don’t have much to write about; but if you keep writing, you soon have too much to write about.” Tom had many other interesting and poignant things to say (including a kind shout-out to this website which he apparently reads from time to time).

Tom Sexton will do another reading of his poetry tomorrow (Monday, April 4) at 3 pm at the top floor of Coburn Hall on UMass Lowell’s South Campus at the corner of Wilder and Broadway.

CategoryLowell, Poetry | CommentNo Comments »

April 3rd, 2011

Kerouac’s “On the Road” Makes the List

by Marie

On  HuffingtonPost – Zoe Triska tell us the results of HuffPo’s query of readers about books they are currently reading published over fifteen years ago. Not surprisingly given yet another movie version – Jane Eyre was a popular choice. Of the nineteen books and their covers on the wesite, Jack Kerouac’s iconic novel On the Road is number six. Check out the others and make your own suggestions here at HuffingtonPost.com.

CategoryCulture, Current Events, History, Lowell | Comment1 Comment »

April 3rd, 2011

Ben Butler and the end of slavery

by DickH

Of all the famous and infamous experiences of Lowell’s Benjamin Butler during his service as a Union General during the American Civil War, perhaps the most important was a decision he made in May of 1861, just a month into the war and just a day after he took command of Fortress Monroe. Located at Hampton Roads, Virginia, just across from Norfolk, Fortress Monroe sat at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay and was one of the few pre-war military installations in Virginia that were retained by the North in the early days of the war.

On Butler’s second day in command of Fortress Monroe, three slaves who had been forced to dig gun emplacements in the Confederate lines opposite the fort escaped and showed up at the front gate asking for asylum. Because the North was unified behind preserving the Union and not ending slavery, the Lincoln administration had scrupulously avoided the issue of what to do with slaves that came under control of the Union Army. This issue now unavoidably confronted Butler.

In today’s New York Times magazine, Adam Goodheart, whose new book “1861: The Civil War Awakening” will be published this month, has a wonderful account of how Butler made his decision and the far-reaching consequences of that decision. In the article, Goodheart describes how the slaves were brought before the new commanding general of the fort, a face that was unfamiliar to any of them. Goodheart continues:

As far as faces went, his was not – to put it mildly – a pleasant one. It was the face of a man whom many people, in the years ahead, would call a brute, a beast, a cold-blooded murderer. It was a face that could easily make you believe such things: a low, balding forehead, slack jowls and a tight, mean little mouth beneath a drooping mustache. It would have seemed a face of almost animal-like stupidity had it not been for the eyes. These glittered shrewdly, almost hidden amid crinkled folds of flesh. One of them had an odd sideways cast, as if its owner were always considering something besides the thing in front of him.

Using the reasoning skills he had refined in courtrooms across Massachusetts, Butler decided that (1) even though the Federal Fugitive Slave Law required anyone in possession of an escaped slave to return it to its rightful owner, Virginia now claimed to be a separate country and therefore Virginians no longer were entitled to the benefit of that law; and (2) that since the law of warfare allowed the seizure of the property of an opponent that was being used for warlike purposes and because these slaves (who their owners maintained were property) were being used by the Confederates to dig gun emplacements opposite the Union lines, then Butler had as much legal right to seize these slaves as contraband of war as he would have had to seize a Confederate shipment of muskets. Butler decreed that the escaped slaves would not be returned but would be held by the Union forces as “contraband of war.”

While Butler’s decision was not embraced by Washington, neither was it overruled and almost tacitly, the “contraband of war” logic became Union Army doctrine. Word quickly spread throughout the slave states and soon tens and then hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who had been held in bondage came streaming into Union lines in a tide that was irreversible.

By his decision at Fortress Monroe, Ben Butler redefined the American Civil War and profoundly changed our nation’s history.

CategoryHistory, Lowell | Comment5 Comments »

April 3rd, 2011

Tom & Me

by PaulM

Arthur’s Paradise Diner is tucked in along the canal in the shadow of the Boott Cotton Mills. Eating there is like eating inside an old wooden tool box that is perfectly designed, without an inch of wasted space between the griddle and the booths. Tom ordered the cheese omelette and gave in to the cook’s urging to have just a minor pile of homefries while I chose the “small” French Toast breakfast (That’s three pieces for small; the large is six, can you you believe it?) with potatoes on the side, which I didn’t finish. I think he said he hadn’t eaten in the diner since high school. I don’t imagine the decor has changed much since the late ’50s. The place was busy on Saturday morning even though Bridge Street was quiet at 8.15 a.m. It was a good morning for a walk.

From the diner we headed up the Eastern Canal with the sun at our backs, admiring the craftsmanship in the preservation work and new construction at the Boott, the restored boarding house (Mogan Cultural Center), not-so-new Boarding House Park pergola/performance pavilion, Robert Cummings’ three-part sculpture, Canalway path and railings, all the improvements in the area that says “National Park” more than any other except for the Lower Locks Complex between Middlesex Community College’s main building and the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center. Tom recounted stories of his extended family that are filled with enough drama for a family saga trilogy. You don’t have to be Shakespeare to see the drama in your driveway.

We crossed French Street at Lucy Larcom Park and paid our respects to the poet, editor, teacher, abolitionist who had her own park before Jack K. got his in 1988. Ellen Rothenberg’s serial public art installation in the park includes an unforgettable quote from Sarah Bagley, editor of the fiery Voice of Industry pro-labor newspaper of the 1840′s: “Truth loses nothing upon investigation.” That would be a good slogan for a politician trying to beat back opponents who treat facts like a twistie that you use to tie up the bread bag. Apparently, no photo or illustration of Sarah Bagley exists. She was a pioneer among women working beyond the farm and village, and became the first female telegraph operator of her day.

Our path turned up Merrimack Street, through Monument Square and the Ladd & Whitney tribute (Luther Ladd was 17 years old when he died on the street in Baltimore on his way to help protect Washington, DC). We stopped to take a good look at the Smith Baker Center, whose exterior red glowed in the early morning sun. I told Tom about the plans for the Kerouac Creativity Center and the prospects for a high-energy community arts program in the building. He liked the location, right across the street from Pollard Memorial Library and City Hall, and within sight of the Whistler House Museum of Art. We kept going up Merrimack, where he pointed out the same liquor store that sold him beer when he was in high school and way under 21. He said he had heard from someone that the pizza was tasty at Brothers Pizza at the corner of Cabot and Merrimack. We cut up Cabot and curled back on Market, passing the CCA, one of the stalwart social clubs that dot the city. It strikes me that most of these gathering places are primed for a generational turn. Maybe with an influx of new members these clubs can be re-energized as the vital “third places” that younger Lowellians say they are looking for.

When we got to Nick’s barbershop across from North Common Village, the owner I presume was dozing in one of the swivel chairs. Somebody has got to document this fantastic shop in photographs and/or video while it has its amazing interior. The walls are completely adorned with posters, snapshots, polaroids, news clippings, tickets, stickers, you name it. No fine artist could do a better job with an installation evoking time and place and culture. There’s a strong Sinatra thread, but so much more. It’s a time machine and wall-mounted archive. My friends at the National Park Service should certify this as a historical site and work with the owner to save it as is to show what Lowell culture is like in this long moment. And let the haircuts continue.

We crossed Market and stepped behind one of the brick housing units at North Common to get in back of Holy Trinity Church, where there was still a topping of snow on the faux temple ruins in the newly landscaped and paved parking lot. From there we headed toward the Whistler House Museum, which has a Lowell-theme art exhibition this month. The opening reception is next Saturday. Tom said he’d wander back in the afternoon to see the show. We looped back on Dutton and turned south on Market to get back to the ICC where he is staying. Tom said the downtown looks wonderful compared to the business sector he had driven through on Rte. 38, going from Lowell to Tewksbury the day before. He said that mish-mash of commercial sites, shopping strip, parking-lot heavy parcels, fast food drive-thru’s, and auto service outfits of all kinds reminded him of nothing so much as Wasilla, Alaska, home of she-who-must-be-heard. Although he winters in Maine now, Tom’s permanent address is still Alaska, and he has his own view of what you can see from there.

CategoryUncategorized | Comment3 Comments »

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