Pulitzer Prizewinner Edna St. Vincent Millay has stood the test of time both as poet, feminist and cultural icon. Without help, Steepletop, her 200-acre preserved home and grounds in the Columbia County town of Austerlitz, will close to the public.
Tuesday, May 1: A legendary performer well into the sixth decade of his hit-studded career, Jones effortlessly bridges camp and art because he probably doesn’t give a damn about either. He has sold more than 100 million records, scoring not just hits, but cultural landmarks with such tracks as “It’s Not Unusual,” “Delilah,” “What’s New, Pussycat?” and a cover of Prince’s “Kiss” that sent his already-established career hurtling into the pop stratosphere.
Saturday-Sunday, April 28-29: This weekend, 126 New York-based craft breweries will be on hand, pouring more than 400 varieties of local beer. We’re not talking about big-corporation beer that comes out of huge vats. We’re talking about handmade beer with personality and genuine taste, made with pride by people who truly enjoy a quality, flavorful beer.
Great family-friendly festivals throughout the region: KidVenture, Bright Ideas, Beltane, Pinkster and AFS!
Wednesday, May 2: Benjamin’s new overtly self-effacing first book, Failure Is an Option: An Attempted Memoir is a detailed litany of failure and, ultimately, a defense of it: an “apology” in the old sense of the word.
Friday, April 27: This New Paltz-area band is serious, studious and fastidiously respectful of the music they have loved and learned well. They have apprenticed whenever possible with “the real thing,” but make no claim to being it themselves. They play their thing: a fusion of authentic West African “butterfly” guitar pop, island grooves and various folk styles from their own soil.
Sunday, April 29: Known in certain quarters as “the Bitter Buddha,” Eddie Pepitone blends social rage and self-flagellation to brilliant comedic effect.
Saturday-Sunday, April 28-29: The top level of the American Ballet Theatre training ladder, the ABT Studio Company is a classical ensemble made up of 12 dancers of outstanding potential. All performances take place in the Kaatsbaan black-box theater, which has 160 seats, with a performance floor the size of the stage at the Metropolitan Opera.
Friday, May 4: If Stevie Wonder is the Toots Thielemans of the harmonica, then Popper is its Yngwie Malmsteen: a bit of a terrifying technician, less inclined to melodies and more inclined to frenetic, dazzling sheets of notes on an instrument upon which that really shouldn’t be possible.
Opening Saturday, April 28: An extraordinarily gifted painter and printmaker from an early age, Wigfall was also famously accessible, humble, engaged and engaging, tirelessly challenging and boosting younger artists. He ran the influential Watermark/Cargo Gallery in Kingston’s Rondout; and turned his print studio in Ponckhockie into a community center and contemporary art showcase called Communications Village, where up-and-coming stars of the Black Arts Movement would meet and mingle with Wigfall’s academic colleagues, students and protégés and regular people from the neighborhood.