Author Archive

FLICKS! (1983)

Before Luna Theatre, before the Lowell Film Collaborative, there was FLICKS! (For Lowell Interesting Cinema KaperS!), a local film society that was popular in the early 1980s. The organization screened films, often at the Speare House restaurant on Pawtucket Boulevard (it was near the Dunkin Donuts, opposite the UMass Lowell…

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Pirate on South Street

On South Street today, I saw a guy about 25 years old with a shaved head, tattoos, earring, shirt with no collar, pants that were three-quarter length, no socks, and sneakers. He was talking on his phone. Walking toward the South Common. And I realized what I was seeing. The…

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The Community Psychologists Are Here !

If you are downtown in the next three days and want to talk to an expert about community empowerment, grassroots organizing, neighborhood dynamics, coalition building, and all the good things that make for a competent, healthy, and just society where you live, just look for one of the 660 community…

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150 Feet of Civic Love

It doesn’t take much sometimes. It’s uplifting to see how much people appreciate a positive gesture, no matter what size. In addition to spreading a layer of loam and re-seeding the sports field at the South Common, the good folks at City Hall brought in a pavement company to resurface…

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Coburn’s Pitch

Years ago, I wrote a rhyming poem about an incident at Bunker Hill described in Silas Coburn’s “History of Dracut.” The story is that Captain Peter Coburn of Dracut led a company of men from his town in the battle. He was shot by the British three times, in the…

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