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Paul Tsongas (photo courtesy of the Paul Tsongas Congressional Papers, UMass Lowell Libraries) With our eyes on TV coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine today, I was reminded of past fighting by Russians under the USSR banner at the time in the cities and hills of Afghanistan. The Soviets…
Read More »Little John and the Sherwoods Rocked the House By Paul Marion “. . . the most exciting and memorable days of my teenage years . . . .”—David Arsenault When “Light My Fire” was number one nationwide in August 1967, the Summer of Love, the Doors played the Commodore Ballroom,…
Read More »It Needs Sweeping by Susan April On November 25, 1968, The Beatle’s double LP White Album was released. I was twelve, in eighth grade, and I had to have it. Wish I could say I had been swept into Beatlemania after watching their first Ed Sullivan Show appearance on February…
Read More »The Beatles Land in Little Canada by Charlie Gargiulo An excerpt from Legends of Little Canada: Aunt Rose, Harvey’s Bookland, and My Captain Jack (forthcoming from Loom Press, 2022) Not long after New Year’s Day, we started to hear about a musical group from England called The Beatles. It was…
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 »Beannachtaí Trasna are the words that leave me, they waft and wend their way to you from my acre in Ireland to your acre in Lowell and beyond, through earth, sea and sky…they mean Blessings Across. Happy New Year to all as December cedes to January, another year turns. We…
Read More »A Wicked Good Book of Poems: Michael Casey’s Millrat A Review by Stephen O’Connor A professor of mine said James Joyce wrote, “of the common man, but not for the common man.” Who but a graduate student in English would ever attempt more than two pages of Finnegans Wake? And…
Read More »Trasna is pleased to announce that poet Daniel Murphy will join its team of editors. This week we feature four of his poems. Whether it’s a “rusty gate in a field of rock,” or “the cream cheese on your cheek,” Murphy explores the expansive to the intimate. There is a rhythm in…
Read More »This article first appeared in Merrimack Valley Magazine (Nov/Dec, 2020). “Oh, Babe, What Would You Say?”: A Holiday Mosaic Painting by Vassilios Giavis, reprinted from Merrimack Valley Magazine. St. Patrick’s Day, 1986, Liberty Hall (Merrimack Rep Theatre) in Lowell Memorial Auditorium. Benefit reading for a new organization pledged to…
Read More »Belinda Juran, a Lowell Walks veteran and active community member occasionally sends emails to her contacts with information about what’s going on in the city. Today’s version was so chock full of great holiday ideas, that I asked permission to repost it here. WCAP Salvation Army radiothon – Every year,…
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