Although the music is ending at the Harmony Café in Woodstock, jazz lovers should know about the ongoing Wednesday night performances by Jeff “Siege” Siegel and Rich Syracuse at Catskill Mountain Pizza.
Optimism rules at Ars Choralis. The chorus’s program last week, which I heard at Overlook Methodist Church on March 30, was entitled “The Poets Speak: Mending a Broken World.” The musical selections were interspersed with inspirational poetry, well read by Gilles Malkine, and included numerous brief works with positive themes.
The 2019 Woodstock Bookfest featured, as usual, smart panels, bright speakers, and festive parties. I am able to report on a sampling of events, along with my favorite quotes from presenters.
No legend in the making is impervious to the first gush of early praise. But a roster of remarkable players have much to say on behalf of Chogyi Lama so we’ll have to gamble on his humility holding up. Thursday night, April 4, Chogyi will begin his evening with an acoustic set at Colony Woodstock, 22 Rock City Road, featuring Daniel Littleton and local phenom singer Olivia Gabriel, before leading his own full band in a set.
The author of I Am Yours, just out from Amberjack Publishing, Zaman will be the keynote speaker at the 10th annual Woodstock Bookfest on Saturday, March 30, at 8 p.m. at the Kleinert/James Center for the Arts. Zaman will be interviewed by former NPR war correspondent Jacki Lyden, herself the author of a memoir, Daughter of the Queen of Sheba (Penguin, 1998).
Once again, the event will bring readers and writers together for four days of panels, classes, keynotes and a story slam.
The Woodstock Artists Association & Museum continues its centennial year celebration with the opening of a new host of exhibits this Saturday, March 9, that celebrate the freshness and diversity of creation that’s been at play within the organization since its founding by a mix of traditional and younger artists in 1919.
There’s a restful quality to the chiaroscuro of Renee Zhang’s 8 inch by 6 inch linoleum block print Banana Leaves, chosen by The Woodstock School of Art as its 2019 Annual Print. Despite the graphic stillness of the image, one senses wind in the darkness, quieted before a storm. It fits the times, now, but also demonstrates the acumen of a singular new talent.
Have you seen Eve?
The Center for Photography at Woodstock’s Artist in Residence program, established “to support photography-based artists of color, and to expand the dialogue around diversity, race, identity and social justice,” turns 20 this year.