Posts tagged ‘Lawrence’

September 28th, 2011

Bridge Review: Special Issue for Bread & Roses Centennial

by PaulM

The Bridge Review Special Bread and Roses Issue Seeks Submissions

The Bridge Review will produce a 2012 special issue in support of the Centennial Anniversary of the Great Lawrence Strike of 1912, better known as the “Bread & Roses Strike.” Deadline for submissions is January 11, 2012.

The Bridge Review: Merrimack Valley Culture, an on-line bioregional journal founded in 1997, explores the interwoven concepts of place, nature, culture, and society in our region. Based at the UMass Lowell, the journal includes writing, visual art, music, video clips, and other creative and scholarly work.

The year 2012 offers an opportunity to examine the 1912 strike and the issues surrounding it using poems, short stories, oral histories, creative non-fiction, and the visual arts. The intent of the centennial is to tell the strike story and see it as a lens to discuss relevant contemporary issues. Subjects to consider include work, immigration, the labor movement, occupational health, social justice, city life, technology, industrialsm and post-industrialism, and more.

Submit work for consideration to guest editor Charles_Levenstein@uml.edu. Text documents must be submitted in Word (12 point Times), double-spaced, with all text justified to the left margin. If you want to send possible contributions non-electronically: The Bridge Review, c/o Prof. Robert Forrant, History Department, UMass Lowell, Lowell, MA 01854

The editors will consider material suitable for electronic transmission to the Bridge Review audience. Works that are substantial in size should be discussed with the editors prior to submission. For more information you may want to consult:
http://ecommunity.uml.edu/bridge/sub_gui.htm and breadandrosescentennial.org.

CategoryCulture, Greater Lowell, History, Lowell | CommentNo Comments »

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July 8th, 2011

In the Merrimack Valley: Recall Petition Ready Today

by Marie

According to Lawrence City Clerk William Moloney, the petition to recall Mayor William Lantigua will be ready today. The citizen group “It’s Your Right” led by activist Reverend Edwin Rodriguez with help from others like Wayne Hayes – need to gather at least 5,232 signatures or 15 percent of the number of registered voters in the city at the time of the 2009 election before the August 8 deadline.

According to an article in today’s Eagle Tribune:

The petition would then be submitted to the City Council. After the signatures are collected, Lantigua, who became the first Hispanic Mayor in 2009, will have five days to resign or the City Council would order an election within 60 days. The ballot would ask voters whether they are for or against the recall and would include names of candidates to succeed Lantigua.

Read the full article by Yadira Betances here at eagletribune.com.

Stay tuned.

CategoryCurrent Events, Greater Lowell, History, Poetry | CommentNo Comments »

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April 10th, 2011

Anthony Nunez Steps Up in Lawrence

by PaulM

Boston.com and the Globe this morning report that Lawrence resident Anthony Nunez, a civil engineer, has stepped up to call for volunteers to clean up the parks and roadsides of his hometown. He’s mad as hell about the trash and not going to take it anymore. Read the article here, and get the Globe if you want more.

CategoryGreater Lowell, History | CommentNo Comments »

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January 20th, 2011

Robert Frost & the JFK Inauguration

by PaulM

Brian Williams in 2006 reported on the back story of Robert Frost’s poem written for President Kennedy. See the clip of Frost reading and find out what happened.

This is our Robert Frost of the Merrimack Valley, who grew up in  Lawrence and graduated from Lawrence High School.

Here’s the poem Frost recited from memory because the sun reflecting off his typed sheet prevented him from reading the poem he wrote for the day:

The Gift Outright

The land was ours before we were the land’s.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England’s, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.

CategoryCulture, History, Lowell, Poetry | CommentNo Comments »

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January 16th, 2011

Bread & Roses Centennial Planning Launches in Lawrence

by PaulM

From Bob Forrant:

More than 60 people, including three Lawrence city councilors and two representatives from US Rep. Niki Tsongas’s office, yesterday gathered in Lawrence to start planning in earnest the 2012 Bread & Roses Strike Centennial Project. For more information, contact robert_forrant@uml.edu

Read the Eagle-Tribune’s report on the January 15 meeting, and get the E-T if you want more.

CategoryCulture, Greater Lowell, History, Lowell | Comment1 Comment »

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January 4th, 2011

Bread & Roses Centennial Meeting, Jan. 15

by PaulM

Prof. Bob Forrant chairs the planning committee for the Bread & Roses Centennial Project in Lawrence. He sent this information about the upcoming planning meeting on January 15.

“One hundred years ago this very week, thousands of workers in Lawrence had no idea that within just a few days they would engage in one of the most significant labor strikes in history, a strike that would resonate around the world. Largely made up of immigrant workers, many of whom were women, the strikers walked out in the dead of winter to protest wage cuts, dangerous work, and their unhealthy living conditions and in pursuit of a better life for their children.

“The 1912 Strike’s centennial represents an opportunity for people from Lawrence and others who choose to participate to engage in a series of important community conversations on, among other things, the role of democratic institutions in America at the time of the strike and today. The centennial celebration will be marked by a year-long series of conferences, film showings, lectures, art exhibits and other  events. A successful, widely marketed and well-coordinated series of activities across 2012 will provide a powerful platform to enhance civic pride in Lawrence. And, the centennial year offers an extraordinary opportunity to educate a wide-ranging audience on the history of Lawrence, its mills, its immigrant population, and its working people. At the same time it creates an important lens for a community conversation regarding what the city’s next one hundred years could be like.

“We ask you to join us on Saturday, January 15, from 1:00 pm to 3:00  pm at the Lawrence Heritage State Park to discuss and plan for the centennial year. For this to be a success, we need your help!  For further information visit: www.lawrencehistorycenter.org

—Robert Forrant
For the Bread & Roses Centennial Planning Committee”

CategoryCulture, Education, Greater Lowell, History, Lowell | Comment1 Comment »

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December 18th, 2010

Bread & Roses Centennial Planning Meeting, Jan. 15

by PaulM

99 years ago on Janurary 15, 20,000 people took to the streets of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Why?

Prof. Bob Forrant of the UMass Lowell History Dept. sent news about a community meeting to help plan events for the 2012 centennial of the legendary Bread & Roses Strike in Lawrence. The meeting, open to all, is set for Saturday, January 15, 2011, from 1 pm to 3 pm, at the headquarters of Lawrence Heritage State Park, 1 Jackson Street. The goal is to organize a year-long series of events that will be entertaining, educational, and inspiring.

CategoryCulture, Education, Greater Lowell, History, Lowell | CommentNo Comments »

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November 8th, 2010

In the Merrimack Valley: An Ambassador for Lawrence

by Marie

Others have tried to adapt and reuse the abundant mill space in the city of Lawrence with varying degrees of success. In today’s Boston Herald, Thomas Grillo tells the story of pizza chef and executive Salvatore Lupoli and his drive to deliver on his promise to restore a mill complex along the Merrimack River. There were skeptics – others had tried and failed.

For decades, millions of square feet of Lawrence mill buildings stood vacant and decaying, an eyesore at the edge of Route 495 and the Merrimack River.

That was until Salvatore Lupoli, chief executive of Sal’s Pizza, began a search for space to build a larger commissary for his growing chain.

Sal’s Riverwalk Properties complex now houses not only his restaurant and function facilities but also 200 companies including a  a vast array of medical offices and services and the Essex North Registry of Deeds. Over 2000 people are employed in the complex.  The complex is growing and could soon account for 4500 employees. Last Spring Lupoli received the Wilkerson Award given for his “significant contributions to the lives of Merrimack Valley residents.”

Read “the rest of the story” here in today’s Herald. And read about the award and Governor Patrick’s praise of Lipoli here  in the Eagle-Tribune of April 15.

CategoryGreater Lowell, History | Comment1 Comment »

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November 5th, 2010

‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’ by Robert Frost

by PaulM

Nothing Gold Can Stay

.

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

.

—Robert Frost (from “New Hampshire,” 1923)

CategoryGreater Lowell, History, Lowell, Poetry | CommentNo Comments »

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September 8th, 2010

Addison Gallery in Andover Re-Opens

by PaulM

We don’t like it, but we write about guns and shootings on this blog because that’s part of what happens in our lives. Fortunately, we live in a place that offers many ways to uplift and enrich us day to day. Dick wrote about the Bread and Roses Festival in Lawrence on Labor Day, which is a wonderful community festival with a lot of spunk. He also shared a photo of the Robert Frost memorial on the common in the middle of downtown Lawrence. That tribute to Frost pre-dates the Kerouac Commemorative in Lowell and was in my mind when we started planning a public space to recognize Kerouac. Sunday’s Globe included a feature article on the renovated Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy in Andover, which is considered one of the best small museums in America. Read Sebastian Smee’s article here, and consider buying the Globe if you appreciate the writing.  

web photo courtesy of andover.edu

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