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With the celebration of the city’s 175th anniversary coming up next week, I was asked to share on this blog the poem I was commissioned to write by the city’s Sesquicentennial Committee in 1986. I read the poem at the opening ceremony on the plaza at the JFK Civic Center.…
Read More »Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) wrote during the Edo Period in Japan. He is considered the master poet of the time. In celebration of National Poetry Month, this blog is hosting the 3rd Annual Community Haiku Project. Readers are invited to send no more than two haiku at a time for consideration…
Read More »“Just wondering if you’d be interested in tagging along to the statehouse on April 13th to attend he Joint Committee on Election Laws’ public hearing on the teen-led initiative to Lower the Voting Age to 17 in Lowell’s muni elections.” Above is a message I received from a proponent of…
Read More »Jim Calhoun, UConn Basketball Coach We do like to make those Lowell connections. The starting center for the UConn Huskies – Sophomore and Lowell native – Alex Oriakhi was a critical player in last night’s win for the national chanpionship with his 11 points and 11 rebounds. Oriakhi played at…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Check it out. We love movies set in locations we know: witness The Fighter, set in Lowell, and The Town, set in Charlestown. The appeal of the familiar works in print as well, notably Andre Dubus’ powerful memoir…
Read More »Thirty Three years ago on April 5, 1968 cities across the United States experienced violence and unrest during the twenty four hour aftermath of Dr Martin Luther King’s assassination. I was seventeen, living in an inner city and remember the night well. In Boston a concert featuring the King of…
Read More »On this day – April 5, 1908 – Ruth Elizabeth “Bette” Davis was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. The iconic actress and two-time Oscar winner is remembered for many performances especially in the films “Dangerous” and “Jezabel” for which she won Academy Awards. Her performances in “Dark Victory,” “All About Eve”…
Read More »George DeLuca (Come to Lowell) took a tour of the under-renovation St Jean Baptiste Church on upper Merrimack Street and sent along these notes. From my conversation with George, it was abundantly clear that he was very enthused about the renovation results. With so many former churches in Lowell, finding…
Read More »One of the most important American painters of our day is George Condo, who has deep roots in Chelmsford and at UMass Lowell, where his father, Pasquale Condo, was a longtime professor of mathematics. Condo was profiled by Jim Sullivan in yesterday’s Boston Globe. One early influence on Condo was Kerouac: “But as a…
Read More ». Budget crisis looms Nuke radiation drifts here As Red Sox hit swoon . —Ray LaPorte (c) 2011
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