See the latest in Merrimack Valley Magazine. Features include the Lowell Summer Music Series with Peter Aucella, the Lowell Film Festival, Micky Ward Charities, Shaw Farm in Dracut, and plenty more. This publication has become required reading “In the Merrimack Valley” (to take a phrase from my blogging colleague Marie).
If you’re interested in Lowell’s and the Merrimack Valley’s economic future, read this piece in the NYTimes today: Allison Arrief’s “The Future of Manufacturing is Local.” If you want more of this kind of writing, get the NYT daily.
When Marie posted about the food company on Phoenix Avenue producing soups and more in large quantities for resale, I had a similar thought about the prospect of jobs and manufacturing locally. The Food sector seems like a promising one for places like Lowell. Look at the profitable hummus mine and bakery yielding great local products for Cedar’s (Ward Hill) and Joseph’s (Lawrence) in the Merrimack Valley. With our international culture in this region, shouldn’t we have a more robust local food manufacturing sector?
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Corey Sciuto on Facebook posted about a bioregional quiz, which prompted me to share this information about the online bioregional journal “The Bridge Review: Merrimack Valley Culture” that was published between 1997 and 2005. Five issues of the eclectic anthology were published. “The Bridge Review” branched off, so to speak, from the Flowering City Forum community dialogue site that grew from my work with then-UMass Lowell professors David Landrigan and Charles Nikitopoulos and Clementine Alexis of the Human Services Corp. of Lowell. The four of us collaborated for several years in the Building Community Through Culture program of the New England Foundation for the Arts. The web design work is by Ferney Lopez of the UMass Lowell web team. Editorial assistants included Matt Miller, Dave Robinson, and Nora Marchand. The five issues are a treasure house of creative and scholarly work from the region. You’ll see many familiar names on the Contents pages.
Culture, Education, Greater Lowell, History, Lowell | 1 Comment »
“Townie” is a better, harder book than anything the younger Mr. Dubus has yet written; it pays off on every bet that’s been placed on him.
Today’s www.nytimes.com on the home page has a photo, headline, and lead-in to a review of Andre Dubus III’s new memoir “Townie,” in which he recounts “his scrappy youth” in the Merrimack Valley and eventual turn to writing as a way to organize his response to the world. Andre still lives among us in the valley and teaches at UMass Lowell, where he is a professor in the Department of English. This kind of attention is a huge deal for an author. Read the article by Dwight Garner in the Book of the Times feature, and get the nytimes if you want more.
Andre Dubus III (photo by Marion Ettlinger, courtesy of nytimes.com)
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It’s been ten years since writer Neil Miller in the Boston Globe Magazine shone a spotlight on the Merrimack Valley literary renaissance that was getting noticed at home and far away. The region of Bradstreet, Thoreau, Whittier, Frost, Kerouac, and others has emerged in our time as a literary hotspot. Read the archived article that features Jane Brox, Andre Dubus III, Mary McGarry Morris, Jay Atkinson, Dave Daniel, Chath pierSath, and others. Unfortunately, the archived piece doesn’t include the original photographs of the authors.
All these writers are very different, of course, and it’s hard to find one unifying theme, a single valley sensibility. Brox’s elegiac memoirs and her feeling for place have led her to be dubbed “a latter-day Thoreau.” Until recently, Dubus has been reluctant to write about the Merrimack Valley at all. Still, all are drawn to working-class, sometimes hardscrabble characters, those “practical” types who populate the region. “In the Merrimack Valley, we celebrate the ordinary moment,” says Atkinson. “That is what you write about. There is no uranium mine here.”
The intellectual history of the area reaches back almost to the beginnings of New England’s industrial revolution. In the 1840s, on a trip to America, Charles Dickens paid a visit to Lowell, where he made some unexpected discoveries: Many of the young New England farm women who came to the city to work in the textile mills subscribed to circulating libraries. And some of them were publishing a regular magazine called The Lowell Offering, which he wrote in his book American Notes “will compare advantageously with a great many English Annuals.”
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The Eagle-Tribune today on Page 1, above the fold, previewed Andre Dubus III’s new memoir: “Townie.” The Merrimack Valley author and UMass Lowell professor is earning high praise in advance reviews for his searingly honest story about growing up in Haverhill and environs during the ’70s, when mill cities in the valley were all in various phases of recovery. He tells a tough tale about surviving as a kid in a fractured family and turning his life toward creative, productive, and compassionate ends. The book is set for release at the end of February. Read about it here, and get the Eagle-Tribune if you appreciate the coverage.
Web photo by David Le courtesy of Eagle-Tribune
NYTimes columnist David Brooks today says it’s imperative that 21st-century America be a talent magnet to stay at the front of the pack in the global economic and social long-distance race. For our purposes on this blog, substitute Lowell and/or Merrimack Valley every time he mentions America, and think about what kind of city and region we need to be to offer the kind of quality of life that people want.
Read Brook’s column here, and get the NYT if you want more.
Standing on my Creativity soapbox, let me share this nugget from his column today:
The new sort of competition is all about charisma. It’s about gathering talent in one spot (in the information economy, geography matters more than ever because people are most creative when they collaborate face to face). This concentration of talent then attracts more talent, which creates more collaboration, which multiplies everybody’s skills, which attracts more talent and so on.
The nation with the most diverse creative hot spots will dominate the century.
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Lowell is a generous community. You can say the same for the region: Greater Lowell and the Greater Merrimack Valley. The people, businesses, organizations, foundations, and institutions give and give to those in need and to important causes that benefit many of us. Here are a few upcoming fund-raising events from my mailbox this week.—PM
The Paul Center for Learning and Recreation, Inc. “A Celebration of Giving: A Taste Extravaganza.” Friday, Sept 24, 7 pm, Chelmsford Elks, 300 Littleton Road, Chelmsford. For details, visit www.thepaulcenter.org
“An Appreciation Reception for State Senator Steven C. Panagiotakos.” The Steven C. Panagiotakos Charity Foundation, Inc. Thursday, Sept. 30, 5.30 to 9 pm. Proceeds to benefit the restoration of the Way of the Cross and Grotto at the Franco American School in Lowell and restoration of the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, DC. Meadow Creek Golf Course, 5 Clubhouse Lane (off Rt. 113), Dracut. SCPC Foundation, 191 Sanders Ave., Lowell.
“A Special Place in Lowell’s History: Come Celebrate the 250th Birthday of the Spalding House.” Thursday, Sept. 30, 6.30 to 9 pm. Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust. Proceeds to benefit the Spalding House Endowment so the house will be here for its 500th birthday. The Spalding House, 383 Pawtucket Street, Lowell. For details, visit www.lowelllandtrust.org
“James McNeill Whistler Distinguished Artist Award for Mico Kaufman.” Sunday, October 17, 4 to 9 pm. An exhibition opening at the Whistler House Museum of Art, 243 Worthen Street, Lowell, and award dinner at the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center, 50 Warren Street. For details, visit www.whistlerhouse.org
We sometimes forget that the Merrimack Valley is a bi-state region with deep historical roots. The flow of the mighty Merrimack River has been a unifying force for the culture, heritage and livelihood of its residents since time of the Pentacook tribes through the Industrial Revolution to this modern era of highway, environmental and technology connections.
The cross-valley and cross-state connection manifests itself in many ways - including politics, the economy, shared traditions, sports and other rivalries, deep family and ethnic relationships, transportation, tourism, education, causes, culture, the arts and recreation.
Over the next year I’ll be writing about these Merrimack Valley connections from an historical, political, practical and personal point of view.
Today I’ll note the practical - a sharing among Merrimack Valley law enforcement veterans is noted in a story from the Manchester NH Union Leader. The subject is a problem with gangs and gang fighting which is on the rise in Manchester. Lawrence Police Chief John Romero and Lowell Deputy police Superintendent Arthur Ryan have shared their experiences and strategies with Manchester as well as Nashua.
Both Romero and Ryan in offering advice said their cities’ gang problems are far from solved but for the time being are relatively under control. Read the full article here at the UnionLeader.com.
“This is an age-old story,” said Ryan, referring to youth considering the possible benefits of joining a gang. “You’re looking down the street and you see who has all the toys and who’s getting the respect. It’s the bad guy.”
Stay tuned for more from and about the Merrimack Valley.
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