Area residents typically think of the John Burroughs Association as a local not-for-profit organization that maintains Slabsides and the surrounding nature sanctuary and trails in West Park. But the Association also has a national profile as a respected conferrer of annual literary awards in the genre of nature writing, helping to keep alive the primary profession of the great 19th-century naturalist himself.
One of my all-time favorite quotes is: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.” What makes you come alive? Who are you? What change do you see yourself walking toward right now? Are you heading somewhere you actually want to go?
Reading at Oblong Books on Tuesday, March 27: The novel, like much of this SUNY-New Paltz professor’s work, has a Gothic flavor, including a Victorian-era insane asylum inspired in part by the Hudson River State Hospital in Poughkeepsie.
Thousands of Americans in the nation’s capital and beyond are expected to take part in a coordinated rally March 24 demanding legislative solutions to mass shootings. Dubbed “March For Our Lives,” the event follows close on the heels of a national school walkout on March 14, in which many local students participated.
Friday, March 16: Part-time Bard College professor Gaiman is back in the Hudson Valley after showrunning the new TV mini-series Good Omens in the UK and South Africa. John Cameron Mitchell wrote, directed and starred in the cult rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. He recently directed a film based on Neil Gaiman’s short story “How to Talk to Girls at Parties,” which stars Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning. It’s due for general release in May.
Saturday, March 24: “An Evening with Colm Tóibín” should be a treat. His novels are quiet and intense, but in person, Tóibín is warm and gregarious, cracking jokes and telling stories, able to speak at length and with insight about both the sublime possibilities of fiction and the nitty-gritty of the writing process.
Spring break boosters for the whole family.
Sunday, March 18: Anderson co-stars (with Zach Galifianakis) in the hit FX series Baskets. His extraordinary performance as Christine Baskets, the matriarch of the Baskets clan, won him his third Emmy Award.
Saturday, March 17 in Kingston & Sunday, March 18 in Woodstock: Ars Choralis and the Riverview Missionary Baptist Church choir Voices of Praise will perform some of Lincoln’s favorite arias, spirituals, freedom songs, fiddle tunes and sentimental ballads. Criticized for attending the opera while the Civil War raged, Lincoln’s response was terse: “The truth is, I must have a change of some sort, or die.”
Saturday, March 17: The Clancy Tradition celebrates brothers Eugene and Pat Clancy, who first started performing with their family’s Ceili Band in Ireland in the 1950s before coming to America in the ’60s, where they toured as the Irish Ramblers and performed at Carnegie Hall.