Grand Jeté or the Great Leap in Popular American Ballet By Malcolm Sharps [Author suggestion: Listen to Copeland’s Appalachian Spring while reading this] No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and…
The B.F. Butler Cooperative Bank was founded in Lowell in 1901 by members of the family of Benjamin F. Butler, the notable Civil War general and Massachusetts politician. The bank continued in operation until 2010 when it was acquired by People’s United Bank. I recently found an old but undated…
For the month of March we have been showcasing writers and writing who have engaged with the Irish language. On the final post for this month Trasna is pleased to share the work of poet, Dairena Ní Chinnéide, a bilingual poet from the West Kerry Gaeltacht of Corca Dhuibhne. Ní…
Boarding School Blues By Louise Peloquin Chapter 8: Quick showers Andy, Titi and Blanche found moaning and groaning about strict teachers, boring courses and endless homework quite enjoyable. Among the top contentious points was the shower rule. Like a lot of teenage girls, they all liked to dilly-dally in the…
Peuo Tuy is the author of Khmer Girl (2014) in which the poem below appears. She is a contributor to the anthology Atlantic Currents: Connecting Cork and Lowell (2020). Running Water & Soap Suds By Peuo Tuy R.I.P. 3.4.21 Ngem Chea My Grandmother’s mocha-colored hands mingle with soap suds underneath…
Typewriter Romance By David Daniel In graduate school I had a little Royal manual typewriter with a carrying case. A high school commencement gift, it had seen me through my undergrad years, and on it I’d written a lot of letters, papers, and short stories. Now I was on the…
Tom Sexton lives in Alaska most of the time and sometimes Down East in Maine. He and his wife, Sharyn, are bicoastal citizens of North America. He grew up in Lowell and stayed through high school years, and has come back regularly to check on the city. He’s in the…
Mike McCormick, a Haverhill native who has lived and worked in Alaska since the mid-1970s has become a regular contributor to this site. Last June, he filed a report on the pandemic as seen from Alaska. Today, he gives us an update one year into it. Our Pandemic Year: An…
The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s own blog. The roadmap to robust democracy starts with access to information, even when public officials don’t want you to have it. Your right to know is enshrined in The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Both federal and state…
In the spirit of Lowell Walks, here’s a reprise of a blog post from March 2009. Michael Creasey, then-national park superintendent, joined me for a hike along the Pawtucket Canal, the western reach. This sketch appears as a sidebar in my book MILL POWER, about the Lowell comeback starting in…