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Jean LeBlanc is an Assistant Professor of English and Developmental Studies at Sussex County Community College in northwestern New Jersey. She was raised in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and still identifies as a New Englander with pride (especially, as she writes, “being so close to various New York sports teams that shall…
Read More »An excerpt from Cotton Was King in a chapter written by historian Mary H. Blewett, longtime professor at now-UMass Lowell: ” . . . The movement for the adoption of Plan E [city manager-council government] was headed by Harvard-educated Yankee lawyer Woodbury F. Howard. City government under Plan E would…
Read More »Photos by Tony Sampas.
Read More »In my 2013 re-cap, I should have included the major feature film “Big Sur,” directed by Michael Polish and produced by Lowell native Jim Sampas, whose aunt Stella married Jack Kerouac in the 1960s. “Big Sur,” based on the 1962 novel by Kerouac, was screened at the prestigious Sundance film…
Read More »I did not want to let the Academy Award nomination moment go by without acknowledging the vigorous film culture emerging in Lowell and environs. For 2013, the two remarkable motion-picture projects that I want to single out are (1) the documentary Lost Child: Sayon’s Journey, directed by Janet Gardner and…
Read More »Wanting to grab something quick and light for lunch yesterday, I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and relative warmth to walk from the Superior Courthouse down to Middlesex Street for my first visit to Rosie’s Cafe. Heading in that direction, I always use South Street which allows me…
Read More »Matt Hanson, who is familiar to many of us as the chair of the Chelmsford Board of Selectmen, also serves as the chair of the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments (NMCOG), the regional planning agency for Lowell and many surrounding communities. The Council met last night and this video Matt…
Read More »Our far-flung Western net-desk night editor Tom Sexton, once the Poet Laureate of Alaska and always a distinguished alumnus of Lowell High School, sent this new poem inspired by a work of art he bought from Bill Giavis, a legend at the Brush Gallery in Market Mills downtown.—PM .…
Read More »This week’s rain and thaw are not good for ice on local ponds, brooks, and lakes, but January is hockey season, so I thought I’d dig this composition out of the vault this morning. The poem was first published in my second full-length collection of poems, Middle Distance (1989). Sweeney’s…
Read More »The Lowell City Council meeting of January 14, 2014. The following is not a verbatim transcript but my notes taken as the councilors speak. For brevity’s sake, I just use the last names of councilors. Elliott: Reads letter from Auditor Sheryl Wright informing council of her planned retirement on February…
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