It’s rafting season on the Concord River. The recent rain should help put a little lift in the rapids. Contact the Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust for details on trips. Here’s a painting by Richard Marion that captures the scene. To see more artwork, visit www.richardmarion.net
This is an Adobe file of an image, which I can’t insert directly into this blog post, so please click the link to see the cover design for Tom Sexton’s new book of Lowell poems due from Loom Press in June. The collection of poems plus an essay on “Lower Belvidere” is titled “Bridge Street at Dusk.” The cover image is a painting by Richard Marion inspired by the Bridge Street or Cox Bridge. You can pre-order the book ($15 plus $3 shipping) by contacting info@loompress.com — PM
Caroline Gallagher of Howl in Lowell joined yesterday’s tour of Lowell Cemetery and shot some video (shown below) to accompany the story I wrote for Howl about the cemetery. (Be sure to check out the Local History section of Howl in Lowell for my weekly stories on Lowell’s history).
Yesterday’s imminent rain kept the tour down to ten visitors but today we had 50. For those who missed this weekend’s tours, there will be two more this spring: On Friday May 18 at 1 pm and on Saturday May 19 at 10 am. The tours begin at the Lawrence Street entrance, consist of 90 minutes of walking through the cemetery, and take place rain or shine.
I enjoy finding new places in Lowell, and this morning’s discovery was the Connector Cafe & Grill at 724 Chelmsford Street, a clean, well-lighted restaurant in a small business plaza close to Lowe’s in the Highlands.
I was with two friends, who ordered eggs, home fries, and toast, which were first-rate at the table. Besides the regular menu of breakfast, lunch, and dinner selections, there is a Paleo Menu that emphasizes meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and olive oil and excludes processed foods, grains, dairy, legumes, refined sugars, and processed oils. I hadn’t seen this before, so I ordered the “Fran,” a vegetable omelette plus sweet potato hash and sliced cold tomatoes. Everything was fresh and tasty. I would order this again.
Inside, the atmosphere is bright and comfortable with seating for about 25 people. The chef and wait staff are friendly and eager to help. Breakfast is served all day. The sandwich and dinner offerings are plentiful, from wraps and subs to Caesar salad with grilled wild salmon, spaghetti, Buffalo wings, and pork tenderloin tips. The catering menu includes sandwich platters and a range of Italian and Greek foods—chicken parmesan to pastichio and spinach pie.
For more details, visit www.connectorcafeandgrill.com or call 978-674-8047.
Writer and poet Judith Dickerman-Nelson is a 1991 graduate of UMass Lowell, former editor of the campus literary magazine, and long-time staff member at the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association in Lowell. She also has a master’s degree from Emerson College. She sent us this update about her recent and upcoming literary activities related to publication of her first book, a memoir about being a teenage mother. The book received national attention when the Associated Press picked up a Sun article about the book.–PM
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Upcoming Speaking Events:
Friday May 18, Image Theater Presents: City Stories at Old Court Pub on Central Street, 8 pm (various writers will be reading & another group on May 19)
Friday June 22, UMass Lowell Downtown Bookstore, 5 pm (B. Morrison and J D-N)
Saturday June 23, World Eye Bookshop, 1-3 pm (B. Morrison and J D-N)
My book “Believe in Me: A Teen Mom’s Story” was released in February by Jefferson Park Press, a publisher out of Charlottesville, Virginia. The book looks back to my high school years when I was a cheerleader and an honor student. I attended a Catholic girls’ school in Massachusetts, and it was the summer before my senior year. My boyfriend gave me a diamond, and we started planning for our life together. But my pregnancy changed everything, and when his parents wanted me to get an abortion, I had to make decisions that would alter my world. The book looks at my journey, internally and externally, and I hope that my story helps others remember the difficult times of high school and young love.
Since the book came out I’ve been traveling some to promote it. I went to Pennsylvania to the Write Stuff Conference and sold books at their book fair. Then I traveled to the Virginia Festival of the Book where I presented on a panel called Memoirs: Women on the Edge with B. Morrison, author of “Innocent: Confessions of a Welfare Mother.” Later, I presented to two different groups of students at St. Anne’s-Belfield, a prep private high school in Charlottesville.
One of the interesting things I’m discovering is that my book crosses all age groups. When I wrote the story, I did hope that it would resonate beyond a teen readership. So I was thrilled when a woman contacted me and told me that her ninety-year old dad told her about my book and that he’d loved the writing in it. And then when I presented to a group of students at Chelmsford High, a teacher’s mom came to hear me speak. The eighty-year-old woman had downloaded the book to her Kindle! Back in Lowell, I presented to a group of teen mom’s at the Pollard Memorial Library. I was honored to hear their stories, too, learning how they deal with the challenges of being young moms. I’ll be meeting with another group of young parents in mid-May at the library, and I plan to get out and speak to more schools, too. At UMass Lowell, I spoke to a group of writers in a Personal and Reflective Writing class, talking about my writing process and reading from the book. Like the students I’d spoken with at high schools, these students also had great questions for me. I’m available to talk to church groups, high schools and colleges, non-profits and others and plan to present at conferences.
I’m open to suggestions and ideas and can be reached via e-mail at jnelson_302@ hotmail.com. Or look me up on Facebook (Judith Dickerman-Nelson) and send me a message. “Believe in Me: A Teen Mom’s Story” is available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle. It’s also available from the publisher. But you can shop locally and find the book at the UMass Lowell Downtown Bookstore, Brewed Awakening, and St Joseph the Worker Shrine’s Gift Shop (you might want to call first to make sure they have copies). My next book, “Spirits Dancing Into Light” will be published later this year by Loom Press in English-Khmer bilingual edition. I hope to have the chance to meet some you as I’m out and about reading. Peace.
“The Worker” fountain sculpture by Elliot Schwartz and is located in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts.
NEA Arts is the quarterly magazine of the National Endowment for the Arts. Lowell is featured in the current edition in an article entitled – “Building on the Past: The Creative Rebirth of Lowell, Massachusetts.” Author Rebecca Gross wisely chose Rosemary Noon and Paul Marion as her sources! Rosemary – among her other credits – was the first director of the Lowell Office of Cultural Affairs and is currently the assistant director of the Lowell Plan and director of Public Matters – a leadership academy. Paul – author, poet, cultural affairs guru - joined the Lowell Historic Preservation Commission staff in the early 1980s and is currently the executive director of Community and Cultural Affairs at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The couple capture the realities of this important Lowell history and current state of cultural affairs. Along with telling the Lowell story - the author notes:
From Paul Marion: “It’s a heritage of innovation,” said Marion, explaining the city’s predisposition to reinvention. “Lowell was famous in the 1820s because it was the place where something happened first. It’s that attitude that needs to drive the city forward. And that’s why creative economy is such a good fit, because it’s about invention, imagination, innovation.”
From Rosemary Noon: ”The challenge is to make sure that the people who are in their 30s don’t take this stuff for granted,” Noon said. “You must get involved in your city. You can’t just sit back.”
Read the full article here: http://www.nea.gov/about/nearts/storyNew.php?id=02_building&issue=2012_v1
A Note from Jay Mason:
Please join me for an event in collaboration with the climate action group 350.org this Saturday, 5/5 at Lowell City Hall at 10:30 am. It would be fantastic if you could make it (see flyer, attached). We need your participation in a photo to be taken in front of city hall to show support for Environmental Justice in the form of a photo entry on the 350.org website. Called “Connect the Dots,” this event will join communities world-wide with photos which together will connect the dots of erratic weather patterns and other similar and likewise strange behaviors which point to the problem of global warming. The Connect the Dots campaign will provide a backdrop to the need to reduce carbon emissions (currently in excess of 385ppm) with a positive message of hope and determination. Themphoto will be taken at 11:00am and a film is scheduled for 11:30am in the Mayor’s Reception Room. Light refreshments will be served. This photo, set against the backdrop of our venerable city hall steps, will be testimony to the energy and optimism that was at the core of a revolution here in Lowell 180 years ago. Assembled with photo images from around the globe, Connect the Dots will show that our time to make dramatic change is upon us and that there is a common thread that links the people and places who stand ready to make a difference. I hope you and your fifty closest friends will join me on Saturday, 5/5 at 10:30am at Lowell City Hall. If you’d be willing to help with set up or light refreshments please let me know. Thanks and peace, Jay Mason
For more information contact acs.green.lowell@gmail.com or call Jay at 978-459-2004
Current Events, Greater Lowell, History, Lowell | 
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This first day of May, 2012 ushers in Older Americans Month. This year’s theme “Never Too Old to Play” encourages older Americans to stay engaged, active and involved in their own lives and in their communities. Who are these Americans? The older population–persons 65 years or older–numbered 40.4 million in 2010 – the most recent year for which data are available. They represented 13.1% of the U.S. population, over one in every eight Americans. In 2010, there were 23.0 million older women and 17.5 million older men, or a sex ratio of 132 women for every 100 men. The female to male sex ratio increases with age, ranging from 112 for the 65-69 age group to a high of 206 for persons 85 and over.
Congress enacted the Older American Act in 1965 – passed as a part of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society reforms. Though adjusted, changed, contracted and expanded through many administrations, the stated purpose of the OAA remains “to ensure equal opportunity to the fair and free enjoyment of: adequate income in retirement; the best possible physical and mental health services without regard to economic status; suitable housing; restorative and long term care; opportunity for employment; retirement in health, honor, and dignity; civic, cultural, educational and recreational participation and contribution; efficient community services; immediate benefit from proven research knowledge; freedom, independence, and the exercise of self determination; and protection against abuse neglect and exploitation.” The Act was last amended in 2006.
Learn more here on the AoA website: http://www.aoa.gov/AoARoot/Index.aspx
Supreme Court of the United States
May 1st was always a day on which workers celebrated hard-won rights, but after 1919 it also became a day for the Soviet Union to exalt its military might. While the massive parades in Red Square were a boon for Western intelligence services – the Soviets always rolled out their latest and greatest armor and other weapons for public view – the parades also served to show Soviet military might in a way meant to intimidate others around the world.
President Eisenhower, to contrast US priorities with those of the Soviets, during the late 1950s proclaimed May 1 to be Law Day, a day to celebrate the rule of law in the United States. When the Cold War ended, so did much of the motivation to counteract political, military and cultural moves by the Soviets and so Law Day in America has lost some of its importance (although the Greater Lowell Bar Association continues to observe the day with a ceremony in year’s past at Superior Court but in 2012 at District Court, held without much publicity last Friday).
Still, it is important to remember the importance of the law in our country’s history and culture. At a time in which our political system is bitterly divided, the remembering the supremecy of the law is more important than ever.
Soviet May Day parade
The Tewksbury Patch reminds us that the Tewksbury Historical Society’s annual fundraiser is scheduled for Saturday May 19, 2012 at the Tewksbury Senior Center. The historical theatrical presentation will focus on author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, surveyor, historian and leading transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. While Walden may be his most famous book, it was his work A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers written in 1849 that brought him near-by the Town of Tewksbury.
Read more about the event here at the TewksburyPatch.
Read more about Henry David Thoreau here: http://www.thoreausociety.org/_news_abouthdt.htm
and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau
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