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Chillin’ With Dylan by Steve O’Connor I’ve been hanging out with Bob Dylan quite a bit over the last few years. We’re pals. He’s always delighted to see me because he enjoys my company immensely. Generally, he comes by at about 3:00 am, though it’s hard to say because…
Read More »On Sunday, WBUR (Boston’s NPR radio station) posted a story about race or ethnic-based restrictive covenants in Massachusetts land records. The story also ran in Sunday’s Lowell Sun and was on the air and online from WBUR on Monday. Today I’ll supplement that story with additional information about the documents…
Read More »Here’s a schedule of events from the Jack Kerouac Estate and the Kerouac @ 100 Committee for the upcoming centennial birthday celebration of Lowell’s most famous writer. To mark the centennial birthday anniversary of world-renowned “Beat Generation” pioneer, novelist, writer, poet and artist JACK KEROUAC, THE JACK KEROUAC ESTATE and…
Read More »Here’s my review of local real estate activity and trends in 2021. This originally appeared in the January 2022 edition of the Merrimack Valley Housing Review. The real estate boom that began along with the pandemic continued through much of 2021 according to recording statistics from the Middlesex North Registry…
Read More »Please welcome Emilie-Noelle Provost to our content contributors. A longtime resident of Lowell, Mass., Emilie-Noelle is a writer and the author of the middle grade novel, The Blue Bottle (North Country Press, 2018). She was the editor-in-chief of Merrimack Valley Media Inc., publisher of Merrimack Valley Magazine, from 2011 to 2016. Throughout…
Read More »Boarding School Blues: Chapter 28 By Louise Peloquin Ch. 28: A Grocery Stop A bear hug replaced verbal goodbyes between the two friends. Blanche strutted down C’s front steps with a swing in her hips thinking of the Animals, the Dave Clark Five, Gerry and the Pacemakers and the other…
Read More »The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial is on the northwest side of the Tidal Basin, across the water from the Jefferson Memorial. The site is to the south of the National Mall, about even with the Vietnam Memorial. The memorial is simple, dignified, and inspirational. Its main components are three large…
Read More »Hidden in Plain Sight: Stories of Black Lowell is a collection of interviews of 27 Black people who have lived or worked in Lowell over the past few decades. Produced by Free Soil Arts Collective, the book is superbly designed and is illustrated with vibrant photos of the speakers. The…
Read More »Virtual Schwarzenegger By David Daniel Every January my wife tells me I spend more time writing my list of New Year’s resolutions than I do keeping them. But not this year. 2022 is gonna be different. Okay, some resolutions I’ll probably fail with. Watch TV less, read more. Cut back…
Read More »It’s a new year. There’s a new Lowell City Council. And I’m trying a new thing, a weekly newsletter on Lowell politics. Some background: The richardhowe.com blog was born 15 years ago. Its mission was to cover “Lowell politics and history” which we did with thoroughness and regularity. But by…
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