Join Jim Armenti (poet) and Dave Madeloni (photographer) in support of Sun On The Muddy a book of poetry and fantastic photos published by Levellers Press of Amherst, for a short presentation, poetry reading, a few songs and conversation. Books will be available for purchase.
Jim Armenti is a poet, musician, and composer. In Sun on the Muddy he gives us fifty irresistible reflections on the people and objects that make a life. He was born in Ann Arbor, MI, the third-generation product of Italian immigrants. Jim grew up in a household of musicians, his father a classical mandolin player, one sister (of three) a guitar player, another a flute player and everyone a singer. In high school Jim started a band called H&WA, named after the school counselor’s report that Jim is “happy and well-adjusted.”
Jim performs with the legendary band, The Lonesome Brothers. He tours internationally with The Young at Heart Chorus, and he constantly writes poetry.
Dave Madeloni is a photographer, educator, and journalist. Early on, his parents strongly encouraged his curiosity and creativity. He immersed himself in the lyrics of great songwriters while capturing images of performers, protesters, and most recently, puddles. For the last forty years, he has also taught and supported young people with social/emotional disabilities, inspiring their curiosity and creativity. In Sun on the Muddy, Dave explores in photos the beauty and meaning found all around us, but not where we ordinarily look.
One day last February Carolyn woke up with these words in her head: What if I listened to the landscape and wrote what I heard?
So she did. She pulled on her boots, gathered a 5 x 7 notebook and a pen, and set off on her usual Easthampton walk: past the library, cutting through the football field, over the bike path, by the factory, and into the cemetery by the pond. Nothing usual happened but she listened and looked and wrote as she walked. Her perception widened. The everyday happenings of our small city became extraordinary in their aliveness and in their reflection of our changing climate.
Carolyn will read poems written on these walks and talk about her inspirations and creative practice.
This presentation will inaugurate a series of Walking and Writing sessions with Carolyn on Saturday mornings leaving from the library at 8:30am and convening back there at 9:30 am to share what the landscape said to us.
Three Saturdays, March 2nd, 9th and 23rd, 8:30am meet outside the library to begin walk, 9:30am reconvene inside the library.
Meet on the steps of the library at 8:30am. A map of the “official route” will be provided that you may follow or adapt to your own needs and interests. Our time of walking and writing is followed by a library meet up with this structure:
9:30-9:45 am: Chat about how the writing and walking went
At 9:45am: Anyone who wants to read from their notebook for up to 3 minutes may
Closing: A go around where people are invited to voice an intention about further developing or sharing their writing from the walk
All of these activities are optional. People who have walked at other points in the week are welcome to join for the sharing.
This event is weather dependent. If it is too wet for our notebooks (i.e. steady rain or snow) we will not go. If it is too icy to walk we will not go.
Three Saturdays, March 2nd, 9th and 23rd, 8:30am meet outside the library to begin walk, 9:30am reconvene inside the library.
Meet on the steps of the library at 8:30am. A map of the “official route” will be provided that you may follow or adapt to your own needs and interests. Our time of walking and writing is followed by a library meet up with this structure:
9:30-9:45 am: Chat about how the writing and walking went
At 9:45am: Anyone who wants to read from their notebook for up to 3 minutes may
Closing: A go around where people are invited to voice an intention about further developing or sharing their writing from the walk
All of these activities are optional. People who have walked at other points in the week are welcome to join for the sharing.
This event is weather dependent. If it is too wet for our notebooks (i.e. steady rain or snow) we will not go. If it is too icy to walk we will not go.
Due to forecasted weather, this is cancelled.
Three Saturdays, March 2nd, 9th and 23rd, 8:30am meet outside the library to begin walk, 9:30am reconvene inside the library.
Meet on the steps of the library at 8:30am. A map of the “official route” will be provided that you may follow or adapt to your own needs and interests. Our time of walking and writing is followed by a library meet up with this structure:
9:30-9:45 am: Chat about how the writing and walking went
At 9:45am: Anyone who wants to read from their notebook for up to 3 minutes may
Closing: A go around where people are invited to voice an intention about further developing or sharing their writing from the walk
All of these activities are optional. People who have walked at other points in the week are welcome to join for the sharing.
This event is weather dependent. If it is too wet for our notebooks (i.e. steady rain or snow) we will not go. If it is too icy to walk we will not go.
Five communities are coming together during March and April in a partnership called All Hamptons Read. The inspiration for this multi-community initiative is the book Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo.
It is the remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled White man and William posing as “his” slave.
Spearheaded by the public libraries in Northampton, Florence, Easthampton, Southampton, Westhampton, and Williamsburg, All Hamptons Read is partnering to give readers throughout our region the opportunity to come together for discussion and exploration of the themes from Master Slave Husband Wife.
Programs include book discussions, Underground Railroad History program and a conversation with author Ilyon Woo and clothing historian Lynne Zacek Bassett.
Copies of Master Slave Husband Wife are available to borrow from the participating libraries in each community. Ebooks and E-audio are also available through Libby.
About the book:
The remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled White man and William posing as “his” slave.
In 1848, a year of international democratic revolt, a young, enslaved couple, Ellen and William Craft, achieved one of the boldest feats of self-emancipation in American history. Posing as master and slave, while sustained by their love as husband and wife, they made their escape together across more than 1,000 miles, riding out in the open on steamboats, carriages, and trains that took them from bondage in Georgia to the free states of the North.
Along the way, they dodged slave traders, military officers, and even friends of their enslavers, who might have revealed their true identities. The tale of their adventure soon made them celebrities, and generated headlines around the country. Americans could not get enough of this charismatic young couple, who traveled another 1,000 miles criss-crossing New England, drawing thunderous applause as they spoke alongside some of the greatest abolitionist luminaries of the day—among them Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown.
But even then, they were not out of danger. With the passage of an infamous new Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, all Americans became accountable for returning refugees like the Crafts to slavery. Then yet another adventure began, as slave hunters came up from Georgia, forcing the Crafts to flee once again—this time from the United States, their lives and thousands more on the line and the stakes never higher.
With three epic journeys compressed into one monumental bid for freedom, Master Slave Husband Wife is an American love story—one that would challenge the nation’s core precepts of life, liberty, and justice for all—one that challenges us even now.