It isn’t often that a book of poetry becomes a publishing sensation, but that’s what happened with Edgar Lee Masters and his “Spoon River Anthology” when it came out in 1915.
The poems in the collection remain relevant today, and perhaps are particularly of interest this year in the Northwest Corner, as our small towns see an influx of new residents coming from nearby cities.
This collection of poems, modeled on an anthology of Greek poems written between 500 BC and 1000 AD, takes a caustic, critical look at the residents of a small Midwestern town at the turn of the last century. It flipped inside out the cozy fantasy that country folk are simple, pure and always good. The poems (each one is the story of a Spoon River citizen who is speaking from his or her burial site) could be seen as harsh — but for many readers, they made small town residents become more universal, like real humans and not like illustrations in a storybook.
This month the Sharon Playhouse, the Hotchkiss Library of Sharon, the Sharon Historical Society and the Historic Sharon Burying Ground have joined forces to dramatize several of the poems from the anthology, in an unusual setting: The historic Sharon burial ground in the center of town, near the Green.
Groups of 10 visitors at a time will tour the cemetery, threading their way between the memorial monuments and the centuries-old gravestones as actors from the region and from the larger Sharon Playhouse theater community bring a selection of the poems to life.
The Sharon burial ground is of course always a spooky attraction on Hallowe’en —but this year it hasn’t been decided yet whether the traditional trick-or-treating on the town Green will be allowed, because of the pandemic and quarantine. The Spoon River tour will give visitors a chance to see the gravestones, see some familiar theater faces, and hear the timeless poetry (and judgments) of Edgar Lee Masters.
Some familiar Tri-state region names in the show include Macey Levin (famous for his long onscreen trek up the stairway in the fundraising film for The Moviehouse in Millerton, N.Y.), Deron Bayer, Susie Hackel, Emily Soell, Barbara Zucker-Pinchoff, Katie Weiser, Michael Baldwin and Dave Cadwell.
Starting at noon and leaving on the hour, there will be six tours; audience members will follow their guide, who will recount tales and history of the Sharon cemetery.
“At various locations actors will bring to life, as it were, original stories and selected works from ‘Spoon River Anthology,’” promised Alan M-L Wager, the artistic director of Sharon Playhouse. “The Spoon River stories are told from the point of view of the deceased, so what better setting for their stories than an actual cemetery?”
Following the tours there will be a reception on the Sharon Green, at the Historical Society and the Hotchkiss Library of Sharon. The tours and gathering will be socially distanced as recommended by state and town guidelines; all audience members are required to wear a mask.
For more information and the link to reserve a time slot, go to www.SharonPlayhouse.org (and get the schedule of their ongoing outdoor evening performances), www.hotchkisslibrary.org or www.sharonhist.org.
This is a free event; any donations received will be shared between the four nonprofit organizations that are hosting the tour and reading.
Jennifer Almquist
Harriet Newman Cohen
Harriet Newman Cohen weathered many storms in her five-decade-long journey to become one of the nation’s most celebrated divorce attorneys. Voted one of the top 100 attorneys in New York for many years, Cohen served as president of the New York Women’s Bar Association and has been a champion of divorce reform. She and her co-author, journalist David Feinberg, will give a book talk about her memoir, “Passion and Power: A Life in Three Worlds,” at the Norfolk Library on Sunday, March 22 at 2 p.m.
What began as a personal record of her life, intended for her family, grew into a memoir that journalist Carl Bernstein describes in his endorsement as “wise and riveting.” Born in 1932 in Providence, Rhode Island, to parents who immigrated in 1920 from Ukraine and Poland, Cohen traces the arc of her life and the challenges she faced entering a legal profession that was overwhelmingly male at the time, leading to her success as a maverick divorce attorney fighting for women’s rights and equity in the law. She received her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Brooklyn Law School in 1974, one year after Roe v. Wade was decided. She is a founding partner of Cohen Stine Kapoor LLP in New York City, a family and matrimonial law firm she formed in 2021, at age 88, with her daughter Martha Cohen Stine and Ankit Kapoor.
Provided
Cohen writes fearlessly, with a good dose of wry humor, about her own struggles balancing marriage and divorce, raising four daughters, entering Brooklyn Law School in 1971 at age 38, and her ensuing legal career. According to Bernstein, “Passion and Power” is as much about the reshaping of American cultural norms as it is about one remarkable woman’s role at the forefront of legal and social transformation.
Cohen’s work in the legal profession has been pivotal to social change. A 2021 HBO documentary, “Nuclear Family,” directed by Ry Russo-Young, chronicles the landmark custody struggle of Russo-Young’s parents, a queer couple who hired Cohen as their lawyer.
Cohen is an honest storyteller, unflinching in admitting her mistakes and rightly proud of her accomplishments. Her story ranges from tales of her father’s fortune made producing the Hula-Hoop to her memory of schoolmate Kiki Bader — Ruth Bader Ginsburg — as a cheerleader waving pom-poms in Brooklyn. She also writes of her deep love of family, the stultifying suburban life of her first marriage, mentorship by legal icon Louis Nizer and riding the wave of social revolution that buoyed her career.
Norfolk author Gillian Linden writes of her step-grandmother, “Harriet Newman Cohen is a funny, edifying guide — precise, curious, warm. Entirely unsentimental. Marriage and its many paths is rich territory. This book is filled with the strange, glamorous, desperate and sadistic characters you hope to meet in the very best novels.”
For details, visit norfolklibrary.org
Aly Morrissey
Ram Miles and Donna Lloyd Stoetzner.
Donna Lloyd Stoetzner and Ram Miles have been friends since kindergarten. With decades of shared memories stretching from grade school through high school, the two have spent a lifetime in each other’s orbit. Today, they both work at Indian Mountain School, just a short distance from where they grew up.
On Saturday, March 28, Miles and his band, The Harlem Line Band, will perform their seventh semi-annual concert at the White Hart Inn in support of the Jane Lloyd Fund, a grassroots organization that helps local families facing cancer-related financial hardship. The night promises live music, dancing and friends gathering for a cause deeply personal to Stoetzner.
Miles and Stoetzner grew up attending the same local schools. Their families knew one another, and music was always in the background.
“We’ve known each other since kindergarten,” Miles said. “I knew the whole Lloyd clan.”
In high school in the late 1970s, Miles was already playing rock and roll in local bands, performing at house parties across the tri-state region. “We’d show up and there’d be 100 kids at a house party,” he recalled. “Once the homeowner came out with a shotgun and everybody ran for the cars. The drums were rolling down the hill.”
Stoetzner remembers those days well, especially the dancing. Her sister, Jane Lloyd, whose memory now inspires the fund, was a regular at Miles’ shows. “Jane was always up for something — moonlight walks up the mountain, skating on a pond, music festivals. She loved it all,” Stoetzner said.
When Jane was diagnosed with breast cancer at 34, the community rallied around her. One of the first fundraisers was held at the White Hart Inn, with Miles’ band performing for a packed crowd. More than 300 people attended, raising roughly $6,000 to help cover Jane’s medical bills. After her death, the community’s support inspired Stoetzner and others to create the Jane Lloyd Fund, formally established in 2006.
Since then, the organization has quietly helped hundreds of local families, providing financial assistance for medical bills, utilities, gas and other basic needs during treatment. Stoetzner estimates the fund has distributed more than $1.3 million in grants. “It’s bittersweet,” she said. “It’s so gratifying that we have it — but you wish people didn’t need it.” Applications are submitted anonymously through social workers and reviewed by a volunteer advisory board.
That same spirit keeps the Harlem Line Band concerts going. The band formed 16 years ago when Miles assembled a group of Indian Mountain School parents for a school auction and stuck together long after their children graduated.
“Every one of the band members has been touched by cancer in some way,” Stoetzner said. “They could be making big money playing somewhere else, but they do this for us for free.”
For Miles, the night is more than music. “It’s like a reunion,” he said. “Everyone’s there because they want to be — to dance, listen to great music and support a great cause.”
During the set, the band always performs “Sweet Jane,” a tribute that brings the crowd together on the dance floor.
The event will take place Saturday, March 28, at the White Hart Inn in Salisbury. Music begins at 8 p.m., with $20 donations accepted at the door benefiting the Jane Lloyd Fund.
“It’s just a beautiful night,” Stoetzner said. “Great music, great people, and a lot of love in the room.”
Lakeville Journal
Rebecca Serle (right) and novelist Jessica Anya Blau shared laughs and literary secrets during a lively conversation about Serle’s new novel “Once and Again” at the The White Hart Inn in Salisbury on Wednesday, March 11. Serle is the bestselling author of “In Five Years,” “One Italian Summer” and several other novels beloved for their emotional twists and reflections on fate and second chances. The talk was part of the White Hart Speaker Series presented with Oblong Books and the Scoville Memorial Library.
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C.E. Tripler
The Salisbury Winter Sports Association’s ski jumping team travelled to Lake Placid,NY, the weekend of Saturday, March 8, in a multi-club jump competition.
Ten athletes from SWSA joined a field of 20 other ski jumpers from across New York, New England and Canada.
Competitors jumped in one of two heights, the 10-meter and 20-meter jumps. Additionally, athletes competed in a cross-country ski racing event, in which competitors skied a half-kilometer course at the bottom of the ski jumps.
Athletes completed two to six laps covering a distance from one to three kilometers in distance depending on their specific competition group.
Ski jumpers competed in their age classes with the youngest jumpers in the 10 years and younger group jumping first.
SWSA’s Bodhi Thomas of Falls Village jumped to a gold medal in the U10 boys with a distance of 26 feet.
In the U12 division, Charlotte Milner of Lakeville jumped to a silver medal with a distance of 44 feet for the girls.
Wyeth Taylor of Somersville, Massachusetts and Salisbury took the gold medal jumping 48 feet and Henry Sheil of Lakeville took the bronze medal with a distance of 44 feet.
In the open category, Augustus Tripler won gold with a jump of 51 feet on the large hill.
Aerin Sheil of Lakeville skied to a bronze medal finish in the U10 girls Nordic combined with a time of 6:15 in the 1K. Mather Eckert of Lakeville took second place for U10 boys with a time of 7:07.
In the longer distance categories Wyeth Taylor grabbed silver with a time of 9:56 and Henry Sheil earned bronze with a time of 12:41 for the 2K distance U12 boys category.
In the open category, Augustus Tripler finished in second earning his second medal of the day.
While conditions were less than ideal with the warm air and strong sun, all the jumpers seemed to be having fun. One of the younger jumpers, Oona Mascavage, 7, from Lakeville said “It was great! I had a lot of distance on my jump” and Francesca McLoughlin was happy with the overall event saying “I had a lot of fun!”
Riley Klein
The winners of the 3-on-3 championship game were, from left, Georgie Clayton, Anthony Foley and Peyton Bushnell.
FALLS VILLAGE — A miniature version of March Madness was held at Housatonic Valley Regional High School Tuesday, March 10.
Seven teams entered the double-elimination basketball tournament to benefit the Class of 2027. The teams of three were co-ed and had to include at least one non-varsity player.
Each squad was given a name of a prominent college basketball program. The team names were UConn, Florida, UNLV, ‘Bama, UCLA, Duke and Syracuse.
Teacher Deron Bayer got things started. “Ready, set, basketball!”
The teams were afforded two losses before being eliminated. The half-court games required rebounds to be taken behind the arc before beginning a new offensive possession.
UNLV, including Anthony Labbadia, Olivia Brooks and Jaxon Visockis, entered the championship game undefeated. The trio knocked out UCLA, including Anthony Foley, Peyton Bushnell and Madeline Mechare, in the semifinal.
UCLA battled back through the losers bracket for a rematch against UNLV in the final.
Mechare had to leave early, so UCLA subbed in Georgie Clayton. The team proceeded to beat UNLV twice in a row and claim the title.
The event raised more than $100 for the junior class.
Riley Klein
LAKEVILLE — The Hotchkiss School’s boys varsity basketball team claimed the 2026 New England Prep School Athletic Conference Class A title last week.
The Bearcats defeated Phillips Academy Andover 66-54 in the championship game Sunday, March 8. The tournament final was played in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Hotchkiss entered the playoffs as the 5th seed in Class A. The boys defeated Milton Academy 57-54 in the first round Wednesday, March 4, and went on to defeat Phillips Exeter Academy 69-52 in the semifinals Saturday, March 7.
The last time Hotchkiss won the boys Class A tournament was in 2022.
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