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On September 7, 1992, Labor Day that year, the lead editorial was about Lowell and Lowell National Historical Park. It was tremendous exposure for the city and our history. Read the editorial here from the NYT archives, and get the paper if you want more. Here’s how it begins: Youngsters…
Read More »On Facebook, I received a notice about the people at Penguin Books saying they are re-reading all of Charles Dickens’ books in anticipation of the 200th anniversary of his birth next year. 2012 also marks an anniversary of Dickens’ visit to Lowell, which he wrote about in “American Notes.” UMass Lowell,…
Read More »My wife and I did the be-a-tourist-in-your-own-state thing again yesterday as part of our “stay-cation” approach this summer. We started and ended our day in Andover, but spent most of the bright blue-sky day in Boston, which looked very good in the parts we visited. Boston King Coffee on Main Street…
Read More »Folklorist Maggie Holtzberg of Lowell National Historical Park and the Massachusetts Cultural Council posted many photographs with commentary from the recent Lowell Folk Festival on her blog Keepers of Tradition, which you can find on the rh.com blogroll to the right on the home page. Here’s the connection.
Read More »I second the emotion of the Globe’s Stuart Munro when he writes in today’s review of the Lowell Folk Festival that he was “bowled over” by the surprising performances of the Boston-based Debo Band with guest singers and dancers from Fendika of Ethiopia. Yesterday afternoon at the Dance Pavilion off Dutton Street, Debo…
Read More »My writing colleague Jack McDonough, an occasional contributor to this blog, would say this about last night: “Rain failed to dampen the spirits” of the festival-goers as the 25th annual Lowell Folk Festival rolled through downtown with its cargo of bright music, savory foods, hand-shaped craft objects, bins of joy,…
Read More »1. A success from the beginning, starting with National Folk Festivals as the model in the first three years. The content was high quality, the audiences were large, and the event production was first-rate. It’s always been a work-in-progress with improvements being made as seen and needed. Changes will continue based on…
Read More »Marie posted on the Globe article today about folk festivals in Lowell and Newport, R.I. Here are a couple of more soundbites from the James Reed article: Last year the Steep Canyon Rangers, a bluegrass band that has recorded and been on the road lately with Steve Martin, did double…
Read More »Just back from Boarding House Park and what some audience members described as a “life-changing experience” after 2.5 hours of musical immersion in the art of Bela Fleck and the fabulous Flecktones. I don’t know the vocabulary of the banjo, but Mr Fleck coaxes out of it a sophisticated sound…
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