“Summer’s Gone” by Jerry Bisantz

SUMMER’S GONE A short monologue By Jerry Bisantz This monologue is dedicated to my parent’s generation.  The set is bare. Actor enters Center stage in blackout. He begins to sing. ACTOR “When I think of what we wasted it makes me sad… we never ‘preciated the things we had… now…

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“Sleeping with the Kingfisher” and other poems by MARK ROPER

This month Trasna is featuring writers participating in Words Ireland National Mentoring Programme. Every year, 22 emerging writers are selected for the program in the areas of literary fiction, creative non-fiction, children’s/YA fiction, and poetry. Each are paired with mentors. Featured this week is poet Mark Roper, who acted as a mentor…

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From the Archives: June 12, 2009

Here’s a post from eleven years ago as the country was trying to recover from the Great Recession. In the midst of the pandemic and its resulting economic distress, it seems a timely reminder that the old saying “in crisis there is opportunity” applies to city planning too. Is Lowell…

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Pandemic photos from London

Michael Leary-Owhin, London-based photographer and author of Exploring the Production of Urban Space: international comparisons of three post-industrial cities (University of Chicago Press, 2016), a study of Lowell; Manchester, England; and a section of Vancouver, Canada, who we profiled last month on this site, has posted a new batch of…

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Flag Day in Lowell

Today is Flag Day which observes the June 14, 1777, vote by the Second Continental Congress adopting a national flag of the United States which was to be “thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” In…

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“Droichead na nDeoir” and other poems by BILLY FENTON

This month Trasna is featuring writers participating in Words Ireland National Mentoring Programme. Every year, 22 emerging writers are selected for the program in the areas of literary fiction, creative non-fiction, children’s/YA fiction, and poetry. Each are paired with mentors. Featured this week is poet Billy Fenton. On participating in Words Ireland, he…

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