click to enlarge “With the pandemic, people have taken stock of their lives,” says Anna White, founder of the Chatham-based brand Rest & Heal. “People are thinking more deeply about what they want their lives to be about.” For her that meant moving upstate full-time with her family to their Chatham home and starting a business based around supporting women through life’s big challenges. “For over two decades, I battled chronic fatigue along with a host of other issues,” White says. “In my case, Western medicine offered little relief healing required a great deal of research, experimentation with different healing modalities, and self-examination.” She originally conceived of Rest & Heal as a sleepwear line, but ultimately realized she wanted to showcase the books that had supported her in her darkest hours. “These are books around our shared humanity,” she sa
The Revitalization of Newburgh is Finally Happening.But For Whose Benefit? click to enlarge
This mural on the side of a building between Liberty and Johnes Streets commemorates
Frederick Douglass’s visit to Newburgh in 1870. Twelve years ago I was participating in a community clean-up of a vacant lot in downtown Newburgh when someone found a deer leg. The rest of the deer was nowhere to be found. The cleanup ended for the day shortly after that, on account of temporary demoralization. That lot has since been transformed into a lush and sustainable urban park, complete with sculptures that double as public cell phone charging stations and massive, stately photographic portraits of Newburgh residents peering down from the wall of the once-and-future Ritz Theater. If you re looking for one thing to symbolize the positive changes happening in Newburgh today, stand on the corner of Broadway (the widest main street in America) and Liberty Street
click to enlarge
Frolicking on Hudson River ice in early February near the Saugerties Lighthouse. Ask someone from Saugerties how they re doing and they tell you the truth. They re exhausted. They re tired and fed up with all the endless extra work that s yet another side effect to the pandemic s trauma. Saugerties has always been extremely proud of its community spirit. Residents seem preternaturally compelled to support each other, but to sustain the level of organizing and charitable giving necessary to keep their collective heads above water is draining. Yes, it is exhausting, says Peggy Schwartz, Chamber of Commerce co-chair, owner of Town and Country Liquors, mother-in-law of Congressman Antonio Delgado, and community matriarch. But we are existing. There is activity and we are keeping on. Saugerties is a very social town. People love to get together. Another e-word: