Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘block island’

July Photos

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on July 14, 2015| 2 Comments »

This group of photos starts with four from New Shoreham, including the Southeast Light and the posters on the food truck.

Next we have two sides of a utility box in Arlington, Mass. — the work of local artists. Many other utility boxes around town are painted, all charming.

The old, unused water works building always strikes me as a perfect setting for a mystery novel. The dog in the next photo is checking out the portable Uni library in the Greenway, an initiative of Sam and Leslie Davol.

The lushness of the hydrangeas this year makes me think of sheep. I start singing, “Sheep may safely graze and pasture/ In a watchful shepherd’s eye.”

And you know clouds.

070615-Mohegan-Bluffs

070615-southeast-lighthouse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

070615-food-truck-ad

070615-SE-Light-food-truck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

071115-artists-paint-Arlington-utility-boxes

71115-Arlington-utility-box-with-bird

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

71015-old-concord-water-works

071415-sam-and-leslie-uni

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

071215-white-sheep-in-the-early-morning

071415-clouds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

More on Poetry Opportunities in New England

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »

While we’re on the subject, here are two more poetry events scheduled for spring.

Nancy writes, “Some of your readers may also be interested in the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, in Salem, May 1 – 3. Marge Piercy and Richard Blanco will be among the many well-known poets reading.”

She also notes that if you are near Providence in March, you may want to attend the Poetry Out Loud recitation competition for high school students. The statewide competition will be held at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, with 15 students from schools across Rhode Island reciting poems (by such people as Shakespeare, Mary Oliver, Robert Frost, etc.) in hopes of qualifying for nationals. Info here.

Another inspiring poetry competition for youth is the one depicted by the movie Louder than a Bomb, in which students compose their own poems and perform them. My husband and I were impressed by what the creative opportunity and the discipline did for some at-risk kids. You can get the movie from Netflix, which describes it thus: “Capturing the combined creative spirit of more than 600 Chicago-area teenagers who are participating in what’s billed as the world’s largest youth poetry slam, this documentary highlights the joy of language and the power of collaboration.”

Read Full Post »

Poetry of the Wild

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I have mentioned the Block Island Poetry Project in past years, and I wanted to let you know that I just got the scoop on this year’s theme.

Nancy writes, “The Block Island Poetry Project weekend will be April 16-19 and will focus on Poetry of the Wild, a project of Ana Flores, who visited just a few days ago to show us examples of what she’s been doing around the country for the last twelve years. … I’m in the process of developing my Poetry of the Wild poetry box project for the school.”

The Poetry of the Wild website explains, “Poetry of the Wild invites the public out for a walk to see their world anew through the keenly felt perspectives of poets and artists. Using a unique presentation of ‘poetry boxes’ that combine art and poetry, the project serves as a catalyst for exploring our towns and considering how place informs mindfulness. The public becomes engaged by finding the boxes which are sited as a network on mapped trails, reading the poems, and responding in the public journals contained in each.

“The sculptor Ana Flores created Poetry of the Wild in 2003 while she was the first artist in residence for the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association in Southern Rhode Island. Her mission was to use the arts to foster public awareness and stewardship of the land and waterways protected by the Association. That first project had a dozen boxes created by students from area schools, members of the environmental group and other artists. The public response was overwhelming during its three month tenure. It turned out that many people roaming the trails were poetic– but they had had no place to express themselves. Journals were replaced three times and the trails leading to boxes also became less littered.”

For more about Ana’s work, see earthinform.com. And for more about the Block Island Poetry Project (founded by 2008-2013 Rhode Island poet laureate Lisa Starr), click here.

Ana Flores

Read Full Post »

BBC Creates New Snow Measurement

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on February 16, 2015| 2 Comments »

The BBC, having fun at our expense, has been measuring our snow depth in height of dogs. More recently, having passed what it calls “six dogs,” it is adding athletes as a unit of measure. See several illustrations here.

The unconventional measurement should work for Bostonians, who have  been accustomed since 1958 to measuring the length of a bridge over the Charles River in Smoots. (Oliver Smoot was an MIT student pledging to a fraternity.)

For a more realistic picture, see below. The first shot, from Sandra Kelly, is of New Shoreham, RI. It’s windy on the island, and snow usually blows right off. But it seems to be sticking this time. A poet out there tells me it’s “wild, white, and windy.” I can hear the wind whistling in that. I hope she writes a poem.

The icicles and front walk are from Massachusetts.

021515-new-shoreham-in-snow

021515-old-man-winter-lets-his-beard-grow

 

 

 

 

 

 

021515-front-walk-view-of-neighbor-house

Read Full Post »

Island Nurse, Cont’d

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on August 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »

A while back, I wrote about a documentary on Mary Donnelly, a public health nurse who made house calls for many decades and on whom year-round island residents relied. She was so trusted that the community made donations to something called the Mary D Fund, and with the money, she would directly help people in need by paying heating and other bills when they were strapped.

Today the island dedicated a bit of park on the harbor to her and unveiled a marker.

Read my previous post here.

mary-d-and-family

plaque

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

plaque-and-view

 

 

Read Full Post »

Hidden Glass Floats, Year 2

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 2, 2013| 2 Comments »

Around this time last year, I alerted you (here) to a treasure hunt for hand-blown glass floats. I never ran into anyone who found one, but they must have done, as the tourism council is back at it again this year.

Glassblower Eben Horton has once more hidden floats off the beaten path, including a special float with gold leaf.

The tourism council explains it all for you.

“WHAT: 400 Glass Floats (glass orbs about the size of a grapefruit) will be hidden on Block Island. Floats will be dated, numbered and stamped with the shape of Block Island. All floats are clear glass except for 13 (because it is 2013), which are special colored orbs. One super special float is made entirely out of gold leaf.

“WHERE: Floats will be hidden on the beaches and on the Greenway Trails. They will be above the high tide mark but NEVER in the dunes or up the side of the bluffs. They will be within one foot of either side of any Greenway trail they are placed on.” More.

3/5/14 Update: Suzanne e-mailed me about a Kickstarter campaign for the glass float project. Check it out here.

Photo of glassblower Eben Horton: The Tourism Council

Read Full Post »

Island Poetry Workshop, April 11-14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 9, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Nancy Greenaway, owl poet, is passing along the website of the Block Island Poetry Project and details of this year’s gathering.

From the website: “The Block Island Poetry Project is turning 10, and we are so excited about it that we are outdoing ourselves with a 4-day celebration featuring the usual fun and extraordinary work which has become our hallmark. In addition, we are honoring our decade together with an anthology of poems written during, or as a result of, Poetry Project workshops.”

The website continues, “Unpretentious, textured, authentic, practical, frisky… that’s who we are at the Block Island Poetry Project, and that’s why our series is like no other.”

The 2013 featured poets are Li-Young Lee  and Coleman Barks.

According to poets.org, Lee was “born in 1957 in Jakarta, Indonesia, to Chinese parents. His father had been a personal physician to Mao Zedong while in China, and relocated the family to Indonesia, where he helped found Gamaliel University. …  ‘What characterizes [Lee’s] poetry is a certain humility …  a willingness to let the sublime enter his field of concentration and take over, a devotion to language, a belief in its holiness.’ ” More on Lee, here.

The Coleman Barks website says that he is “the author of numerous Rumi translations and has been a student of Sufism since 1977. His work with Rumi was the subject of an hour-long segment in Bill Moyers’s Language of Life series on PBS.” More on Barks, here.

The featured poets will be joined by a range of other poets, teachers, editors, and publishers. Rhode Island’s new poet laureate, Rick Benjamin, will also stop by.

(Perhaps one of my favorite Rhode Island poets, Kate Colby, will get to this workshop some year.)

Read Full Post »

Treasure Hunt

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 29, 2012| 2 Comments »

Eben Horton, a glassblower with a studio in Wakefield, Rhode Island, loved hearing how glassblowers in Lincoln City, Oregon, had hidden special creations on a local beach for a community treasure hunt.

Inspired to do something similar, he settled on the idea of glass floats, the kind traditionally used on fishing nets.

The Block Island Tourism Council helped Horton launch the Glass Float Project. The council’s site has details.

“WHEN: The hunt begins June 2nd, 2012, and continues indefinitely. It only ends when all the floats have been found!

“WHAT: 200 Glass Floats (glass orbs about the size of a grapefruit) will be hidden on Block Island. Floats will be dated, numbered and stamped with the shape of Block Island. All floats are clear glass except for 12 (because it is 2012), which are special colored orbs. One super special float is made entirely out of gold leaf.

“WHERE: 100 floats on beaches and 100 floats on Greenway trails. Floats will be hidden above the high tide mark but NEVER in the dunes or up the bluffs.”

Understandably, they don’t want people walking on the dunes, which protect the island in storms.

Check the council website for the bio on the artist, too: “Eben creates custom one of a kind pieces on an individual basis out of his studio that he calls ‘The Glass Station’- a converted 1920’s gas station.” More.

Read Full Post »

Owl Poet Sends Reminder

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »

In case you don’t usually read blog comments and missed the ones on yesterday’s post, the owl poet sent word about two great poetry events coming up soon.

“Just a reminder to your readers that The Massachusetts Poetry Festival begins in Salem this Friday, April 20, and runs through Sunday, April 22. Go online to discover details and to register for a wide variety of sessions.

“Also, the Block Island Poetry Project is sponsoring a weekend on Getting Published, running Friday, April 27, through Sunday, April 29. For details, go to Block Island Poetry Project 2012.”

Read Full Post »

Urban Kids Interning with Nature Conservancy

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on July 25, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I was reading about the latest enthusiastic group of LEAF interns in the Block Island Times tonight and decided to look up more information on the program.

The Leaders in Environmental Action for the Future (LEAF) program is an initiative started by the Nature Conservancy (TNC) 17 years ago. According to the TNC website, it “provides paid summer internships for high school students and helps educators from environmental high schools share best practices and scientific resources. The long-term goal of LEAF is to support more than 30 environmental high schools across the country, ultimately serving over 20,000 students.”

The Block Island Times notes that this is the third year of the island’s participation. The three girls who are currently interning have come with their mentor come from Atlanta. Intern Niniola Mark tells the newspaper, “This is my first time in New England, and I also saw the ocean for the very first time.” The article doesn’t say what high school the girls attend, but the only one in Georgia that I see on the TNC site is the Arabia Mountain High School.

What fun to go to an environmental high school!

Read Full Post »

Island Nurse

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 2, 2011| 1 Comment »

Pippa Jack at the Block Island Times reports today on a Rhode Island humanities grant for post-production work on a local film. The film is called “Island Nurse” and is about island treasure Mary Donnelly.

“The filmmaker, Sue Hagedorn, who is also a nurse practitioner, retired nursing professor and summer resident of the island, shot the intimate footage over the past two years, following Donnelly as she made house calls, visited with family, did non-profit work and remembered the past. Next she will film other people, collecting stories about the frail-looking but dynamic woman who has tended to the sick here for two generations.” Read more here.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts