Living Well in Litchfield County, Connecticut

We’re excited to welcome you to join us for Morris’ Annual Holiday Celebration!

This year’s event will begin on the lower Town Green where we’ll welcome the arrival of Santa and Mrs. Claus! Santa will light our Christmas Tree and lead us in Christmas Carols!

Immediately following, all are welcome over to Community Hall where you will find hot chocolate and treats for all along with Christmas Crafts for the kids, courtesy of Morris Beach and Recreation.

Families are also welcome to visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus in the Reading Room and enjoy an age appropriate book as a gift from The Reading Room and Museum Committee of the James Morris Library, Inc.

The Morris Public Library will also be joining us with treats for the kids!

Our friends from the Morris Congregational Church will have a gift for your family, as well!

Wishing you a safe and healthy Holiday Season!

Sunday, December 8
4:30 pm – 6:00 pm
(lower) Town Green / Community Hall

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8 2024

Festivities Start at 3:00pm

Tree Lighting

5:00pm

FEATURING:

• Santa and Mrs. Claus
• PHMS Choral Performance ~ 4pm Congregational Church
• LHS Strolling Caroling ~ 4pm from Espresso 59
• Center School Students ~ 4:45pm in front of the tree

STORY TIME AT LVA ~ *WHO-VILLE*
Ornament making at the the Litchfield Historical Society*
Cookie Decorating with the Girl Scouts at The Congregational Church*
Hot Chocolate with The Boy Scouts in the Center of Town *

Kick off the holiday season by celebrating the legend of Sinterklaas, a long-standing Dutch tradition, during our Sinterklaas Story Time and Celebration with Annike on Tuesday, December 3rd at 10:30am! Join us for stories, music, and crafts that teach about Sinterklaas, a character who wears a red cape and a tall red bishop’s hat and rides through towns knocking on doors late at night. This event is free and open to the public.

David M. Hunt Library

Sinterklaas Story Time and Celebration with Annike

The Hickory Stick Bookshop is delighted to welcome author Gioia Diliberto who will be here signing copies of her newest book “Firebrands: The Untold Story of Four Women Who Made and Unmade Prohibition” on Saturday, December 14th at 3 pm.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Guaranteed to change how you picture Prohibition, this lively history turns the spotlight on four women in the immediate aftermath of winning the vote who played influential roles on all sides of the Eighteenth and Twenty-First Amendments.

In the popular imagination, the story of Prohibition in America is a story of men and male violence, one full of federal agents fighting gangsters over the sale of moonshine. In contrast, “Firebrands” is the story of four Jazz Age dynamos–all women who were forces behind the passage, the enforcement, the defiance, and, ultimately, the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. They battled each other directly, and they learned to marshal clout with cowed and hypocritical legislators, almost all of them men. Their clash over Prohibition stands as the first significant exercise of women’s political power since women gained the right to vote, and their influence on the American political scene wouldn’t be equaled for decades.

In Gioia Diliberto’s fresh and timely take on this period of history, we meet Ella Boole, the stern and ambitious leader of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, who campaigned fiercely to introduce Prohibition and fought desperately to keep it alive. We also meet Mabel Walker Willebrandt, the most powerful woman in America at the time, who served as the top federal prosecutor charged with enforcing Prohibition. Diliberto tells the story, too, of silent film star Texas Guinan, who ran New York speakeasies backed by the mob and showed that Prohibition was not only absurd but unenforceable. And, she follows Pauline Morton Sabin, a glamorous Manhattan aristocrat who belatedly recognized the cascading evil in Prohibition and mobilized the movement to kill it. These women led their opposing forces of “Wets” and “Drys” across a teeming landscape of bootleggers, gangsters, federal agents, temperance fanatics, and cowardly politicians, many of them secret drunks. Building on the momentum of suffrage, they forged a path for the activists who followed during the great civil rights battles of the mid-twentieth century. Yet, they have been largely lost to history. In “Firebrands”, Diliberto finally gives these dynamic figures their due, creating a varied and dramatic portrait of women wielding power, in politics, society, and popular culture.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Diliberto is the author of eight books – three historical novels and five nonfiction narratives – and a play. Her work, which focuses on women’s lives, has been praised for combining rich storytelling and literary grace with deep research to bring alive worlds as varied as Jazz Age Paris, nineteenth century Chicago, Belle Epoque Paris, disco era Manhattan, and Prohibition New York. Her books have been translated into several languages, and her articles have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian, Town & Country, and Vanity Fair. She also teaches writing and has taught at the Savannah College of Art and Design and DePaul and Northwestern Universities.

The mother of a grown son, Diliberto lives in Woodbury, Connecticut, with her husband.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

“A reminder that . . . the dynamic, capable women behind national movements are all too often written out of the history they help make.” — Washington Independent Review of Books

“Diliberto’s story of four women’s activism in the early 20th century is well-researched, original, and refreshing, especially since this was a period, as the author points out, characterized by phenomena familiar today: ‘craven politicians, fake news, and a Congress in the grip of a fanatical minority.” — Wall Street Journal

“Gioia Diliberto’s unconventional portrait of the Jazz Age shifts the spotlight away from flappers and femme fatales to the rebels and reformers who ‘played politics like a man.’ Firebrands shows how the Noble Experiment of Prohibition was driven by female ambition, sparking an era of women’s political power that remains unmatched in American history.” -Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age

This event is free and open to the public. If you are unable to attend this event, you may reserve signed copies of “Firebrands” by calling The Hickory Stick Bookshop at (860) 868 0525, or shop our website 24/7 at www.hickorystickbookshop.com.

The Hickory Stick Bookshop
2 Green Hill Rd, Washington Depot, CT 06794
https://hickorystickbookshop.com/event/2024-12-14/gioia-diliberto-book-signing

Paintings by Amanda Acker, Sally Maca, and Melanie Parke

Exhibition Dates: December 7, 2024 – January 26, 2025
Opening Reception: December 7, 4-6 pm, public invited

To everything turn, turn, turn
There is a season turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under Heaven
A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rain, a time of sow
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late – The Byrds (excerpt)

It is December and we have moved inside for the winter. The birds have picked the garden clean of seeds, leaves have been raked, and firewood stacked against the promise of cold nights. We move inside to welcome quietude and time for reflection, planning for new growth and regeneration.

Amanda Acker moves through her daily environment with affection towards her surroundings. In her words, “I see a scene and I think, oh I see you. I feel some sort of attraction, understanding, or curiosity. Sometimes I make a sound… Oooooo, ahhhhh, hello. It is really that simple. I choose to make paintings because it is the way I acknowledge, process, learn, and move around the place where I live”.

Technically, Acker is trying to make the thing look like the thing. Not so much in a photographic sense, but in the way it is seen and evoked. “Oooooo ahhhhh.” How do you make the chair, but in paint? How do you paint the water falling from the hose? How does the tree interact with the neighboring tree? That is when the artists really start to notice things, and more things, and how she falls in love with the world.
Amanda Acker is a self-taught artist whose work has been widely exhibited (in sold out shows) in Michigan and in CT. She lives and works in Michigan.

Pastoral and bucolic still life settings emerge from Melanie Parke’s life. The tenderness of each painting evokes the artist’s fondness for domestic setting and mementos of friendship. Melanie Parke reconstructs familiar interiors and filters them through the ideology of memory. Her subjects often center on flowers, birds, decorative objects, gardens, and intimate interior settings with an intent in creating safe places for pleasure. Sentiment crafts a domestic locus and seeks visual lushness by alternating tonal moods and vivid ornamentation.

Painting is a pleasure-seeking process for Parke and abstraction a vehicle with which to think and begin. The artist sets up the space intuitively in broad and textured gestures, then pieces together arrangements to compose a homespun narrative. Specific interiors and landscapes are implied. Shifting the emphasis to pattern, texture and tone, Parke works to destabilize notions of exacting representation. This is an effort to build on a sensation of memory which conjures both comfort and longing.

The artist’s work is exhibited widely and is in collections throughout the United States. She has been a visiting artist at The American Academy in Rome three times, and an artist in residence at Borgo Finocchieto Invitational Residency, Tuscany, Italy, Heliker – LaHotan Foundation, Cranberry Isles, ME, Acadia National Park, ME, Yosemite National Park, CA, and Dorland Mountain Colony, CA. Parke earned a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL and studied at Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, IN. Parke lives and works in a contemporary studio in rural Michigan surrounded by orchards, meadows, and birds.
Sally Maca explores the daily changes in atmosphere and light and their transformational effect on familiar streetscapes and landscapes. The artist is dedicated to capturing the moment when the mundane becomes transcendent, a transition often created by the heaviness of a passing storm, the glow of a streetlamp, or an otherworldly sunset.
Maca’s subjects mostly hyperlocal landscapes, inspiration gleaned from daily walks or a glance out her front door. The artist explores the soft geometry in the angles of tree branches, or the horizon line and the hard-edged, manmade lines of roads and utility wires; these disparate elements are woven into lyrical compositions. Maca is not focused on a specific representation of a neighborhood or landscape, but in isolating the elements of a location to bring a universality to the painting, enough so that a viewer realizes that they too have experienced that same feeling, somewhere else, at another time.

The small scale of the paintings is central to the work; not only does the size invite close inspection but it evokes an intimacy with the painting.

Please contact Lani Holloway, Associate Director, [email protected], 860 560 3085 with inquires or to arrange a preview of the exhibition.

Kenise Barnes Fine Art
7 Fulling Lane, Kent, CT 06757
Gallery hours: Thursday – Saturday 11:00 – 5:30, Sunday 12:00 – 4:00 and by appointment
https://www.kbfa.com/exhibitions/272-inside-for-the-winter-amanda-acker-sally-maca-and-melanie-parke/overview/

MOMIX to perform ALICE on January 18 at 8 p.m. & January 19 at 2 p.m. at the Warner Theatre in Torrington, CT

Seamlessly blending illusion, acrobatics, magic, and whimsy, MOMIX sends audiences Flying down the rabbit hole in Moses Pendelton’s newest creation, ALICE, inspired by Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland.

Join this dazzling company on a mind-bending adventure as Alice encounters time-honored characters including the undulating Caterpillar, a Lobster Quadrille, frenzied White Rabbits, a mad Queen of Hearts, and a variety of other surprises. Filled with visual splendor and startling creative movement, ALICE reveals that nothing in MOMIX’s world is as it seems.

ALICE has toured extensively throughout France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Israel, Brazil, Uruguay, China, and the United States.

On Saturday, Dec. 7, and Sunday, Dec. 8, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Black Barn Winter Market returns to SkyRise Farm in Millerton, N.Y. for celebration of craft, community and care!

Offering guests a quintessential Hudson Valley Winter’s day the indoor/outdoor market features 20 of the Hudson Valley’s finest artists, makers and creators and one-of-a-kind objects, art and gifts. Creatives included at the event will be Erica Recto Art, FORM + LIGHT, Foxtrot Farm and Flowers, Hort and Pott, Josh Nathanson Ceramics, Jefferson Hayman, Khem Studios, Laurel + Ash Farm, OBSERVED, MQuan Studio amongst others.

The feeling on the farm will be festive- found and foraged natural materials will beautifully decorate the spaces, DJs including Upstate Soul Club will be spinning fireside grooves, barn yard games, interactive photo opportunities, nourishment for purchase by Westerly Canteen, libations by Little Apple Cidery, warming drinks by Ilse Coffee, and sweets by Vitsky Bakery and Shared Gooods will be abundant.

Tickets are $35 each and must be purchased in advance at www.blackbarnmarket.com. A portion of ticket proceeds will benefit Tri Corner F.E.E.D. and their work in supporting local farmers and alleviating food insecurity within the tri corner community.

SkyRise Farm
https://www.blackbarnmarket.com

Jesus Christ Superstar
December 5th – December 28, 2024

A timeless work, Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera set against the backdrop of an extraordinary and universally known series of events but seen, unusually, through the eyes of Judas Iscariot. Loosely based on the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Superstar follows the last week of Jesus Christ’s life. The story, told entirely through song, explores the personal relationships and struggles between Jesus, Judas, Mary Magdalene, his disciples, his followers and the Roman Empire.
Learn More & Buy Tickets

TheatreWorks New Milford
Parking at (GPS) 20 Elm Street Ext
New Milford, CT 06776

Home

Studio Hill Gallery, 507 Main ST S, Woodbury, will be presenting its 4th Annual Holiday Group Art Show featuring the works of 18 local artists including Melody Asbury, James Carter, Cynthia Gillette, Susan Kapilow, Lora Karam, Jan Kasle, John Kildahl, Mike LaChioma, Libby LaRoche, Susan Lerner, Amber Maida, Marla Thornington Martin, Scott Martin, Polly Miller, Nadine Newell, Taryn Nycek, Viktoria Stockmal, and Brian Walter II.

The show opens on Sunday December 1st and will run through Sunday January 12, 2025. An Opening Reception to meet the artists will take place on Sunday December 1st, from 2p.m. to 5p.m.
The Design Shop will be set up for the Holidays featuring handmade ornaments and prints by local artists, artisan-made gifts such as jewelry, blown-glassware, and ornaments, as well as children’s books, and books by local authors, handmade European works of art such as handmade nativities and angels from Italy and German wood pyramids, smokers, nutcrackers, and much more. There is something for everyone.

The Gallery is open Wednesdays through Saturdays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays 12pm to 5pm, and by appointment. For more information, call 203-405-6500, email [email protected]. Follow Studio Hill on Instagram @studiohillct.

Studio Hill Gallery
507 Main St S
Woodbury, CT 06798
http://www.studiohillct.com