A Tops Friendly Market opened in Ellenville on June 8 in the former location of a ShopRite, which closed last August.
Photo by David McIntyre
COMMUNITY PAGES, PAGE 32
DEPARTMENTS
10 Esteemed Reader
Jason Stern reminds us of our purpose.
13 Editor’s Note
Brian K. Mahoney remembers a confidence man.
FOOD & DRINK
14 Olympian Feat: House of Stefas
Greek glam meets Hudson Valley hospitality at House of Stefas, Millbrook’s new freestyle dining temple.
16 Sips and Bites
Recent bar and restaurant openings across the region.
HOME
25 Camp Whatever-it’s Called
A blended Hudson Valley family builds tradition, transformation, and summer magic at their lakeside camp.
HEALTH & WELLNESS
34 Prescription for Collapse
Independent pharmacist Neal Smoller leads the charge against PBMs, fighting for fair pay, legislative reform, and survival for independent pharmacies in New York.
READERS’ CHOICE AWARDS
37 The Envelope Please!
Your guide to the Hudson Valley’s favorite people, places, eats, drinks, shops, and services.
COMMUNITY PAGES
52 Ellenville: Scenes from a Small Town
Pandemic newcomers and legacy locals team up with creativity, cooperation, and community-driven small business.
58 Warwick: Scenes from a Small Town
Warwick unites through wildfire, farmland preservation, infrastructure upgrades, and collaborative leadership.
62 Summer Arts Portraits by David McIntyre
RURAL INTELLIGENCE
66 Endangered Diners
A tribute to the Hudson Valley’s surviving vintage diners— steel-clad, grease-scented, and full of history.
CANNABIS
68 The Great Wait to Inhale
Cannabis cafes remain stalled as New York regulators navigate safety, equity, and a massive application backlog.
At House of Stefas, handpicked decor meets elevated Greek fare, where mohair banquettes and sea glass chandeliers set the stage for Aegean raw bars and family-style options to share at the table.
FOOD, PAGE 14
ARTS
74 Music
Seth Rogovoy reviews She by Rebecca Martin. Tristan Geary reviews Pretty Blue by Gary’s Dream. Peter Aaron reviews Only the Void Stands Between Us by Julie Beth Napolin. Plus listening recommendations from John Blue, owner of BlueByrd’s Haberdashery and Music shop.
75 Books
Peter Aaron reviews Richard Manuel: His Life and Music, from the Hawks and Bob Dylan to the Band by Stephen T. Lewis, a biography of The Band’s pianist and singer. Plus short reviews of A Field of My Own by Cynthia McVay; Writers and Liars by Carol Goodman; Pink Unicorn’s Magical Day by Nico Hughes and illustrted by Chris Ams; Hick by Sarah Miller; and Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart.
76 Poetry
Poems by Marlowe Cloud Amling, Emma Benedetto, Ryan Brennan, Wortley Clutterbuck, Bridget Corso, Robert Harlow, Richard L. Matta, Jason Palomino, Alma L. Strickland. Edited by Phillip X Levine.
PROFILE
78 Stephen Pretronio Closes the Curtain
Choreographer Stephen Petronio is disbanding his renowned company after four decades. Citing funding shifts, pandemic fallout, and political threats to the arts, Steven Petronio Dance will give its farewell performances at Jacob’s Pillow in July— closing one chapter, but not his restless creative drive.
THE GUIDE
80 Femi Kuti and the Positive Force bring the Afrobeat dance party to Assembly in Kingston on July 29.
83 Art Omi presents the first New York institutional solo show of Harold Stevenson, whose bold, sensual paintings of male desire challenged norms and celebrated erotic intimacy.
84 Dave Harris’s darkly comic play “Manakin,” about a Satanworshipping, incestuous family, receives a staged reading July 26 at Marist University during NY Stage and Film’s residency.
87 Live Music: Graham Nash, Lukas Nelson, and a double bill Guster/the Mountain Goats highlight this month’s shows.
87 Short List: Goings-on include the Rosendale Street Festival, Sarah Sherman at Mass MoCA, and the Borscht Belt Festival.
88 Listings of museum and gallery shows across the region, including Thomas Broadbent at Front Room Gallery, “Far & Wide National” at WAAM, and Olivia Bee at Headstone Gallery.
HOROSCOPES
92 The Summer Shocks and Backtracks Cory Nakasue reveals what the stars have in store for us.
PARTING SHOT
96 Upstate Art Weekend
Now in its sixth year, Upstate Art Weekend has become something like the I Ching for the Hudson Valley art scene—a wandering oracle of openings, oddities, and off-road installations.
Somewhere Beyond the Sea
With her large white lid, oversized shades, and contented grin, the mysterious young lady in Giacomo Piussi’s Girl with Bucket Hat smiles contentedly against cool blue tones of sea and sky. Though the work may provoke viewers to ask who and where she is, her identity and location are not the point. Girl is part of the Italian painter’s seaside series where cartoon-like characters exist in bliss away from the weight of the world.
Rather than attempt realism, Piussi’s paintings playfully explore the intersection of dreams and contemporary life with delightfully straightforward aesthetics that have an immediate impact.
“My work is simple: The subject matter is stripped to basics, and what remains is an icon with an aura of philosophical suspension, and a window into the enigma of existence. The drawings on which the paintings are built are precise and have the same aim as those made by cavemen, which was to give a shape to their desires, their dreams,” he says.
Born in 1967 in Udine and raised in Florence, Piussi studied at the Institute d’Arte and completed his artistic education at Milan’s Brera
Art Academy. Now a full-time Florentine, he pursues his passion for painting, bronze, terracotta sculpture, and bas-reliefs.
Italian art of the Middle Ages informed Piussi as to how painting can communicate across barriers of low literacy as much as it did to inspire awe. “It is with that concept in mind that I make art, delivering a message simple and unambiguous. Tuscan early Renaissance painting had great influence in my upbringing as an artist,” he says.
Echoing Italian masters like Giotto and Paolo Uccello and even medieval illuminations (decorative embellishments, typically gold or silver, added to handwritten manuscripts, particularly books, to enhance their beauty and meaning), Piussi reaches the essence of humanity using naturalistic color and semi-abstract shapes in visions that are devoid of distracting details.
“The characters I paint come in the form of essential shapes that relate to the geometric spaces created in the canvas more than to any pretense of realism or anatomical accuracy, he says. “The painting scene is organized in a matter-of-fact fashion, similar to an advertisement. The subjects are inspired by real life in a very loose way; some are made up or inspired by things I read or movies
or art I see. What inspires me are people, their aura, how they inhabit the space around them, how they relate to one another visually. There’s always much to explore,”
Piussi’s routine involves drawing frequently. Rather than using live models, he works from memory, highlighting peculiar qualities of a subject or a situation, after which he rearranges his compositions on canvas. Striking a balance between calculated and instinctive, his work is spontaneous and arresting.
Piussi’s exhibition “Friends of Friends” will be on display at the Robin Rice Gallery in Hudson on July 12 through September 7. An opening reception will be held on July 12 from 5-7pm.
Having exhibited in Florence, Rome, Milan, and Berlin, Piusi met Rice years ago and showed at her gallery in New York City in 2023. After numerous group shows at the Robin Rice Gallery, this is his second solo exhibition in Hudson.
“It’s a very nice town; it has that intact Edward Hopper atmosphere. I’m a big fan of the Hudson River school painters. I’ve seen those landscapes in the Brooklyn Museum many years ago, and I very much relate to that idealized portrayal of nature.”
—Mike Cobb
Giacomo Piussi’s Tuscan Traditions and Beach Day Bliss
Girl with Bucket Hat, Giacomo Piussi, oil on canvas, 2025
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Don’t miss out on summertime fun in the Gunks! Bring this ad in person in order to redeem BOGO offer. Must be in the same vehicle. Valid through August 31, 2025.
Come play outside on the Shawangunk Ridge with a friend! Enjoy exceptional hiking, biking, birding, rock climbing and more. Plan your next adventure at mohonkpreserve.org/visit
Photo: Kate Schoonmaker
Photo: Jeremy Charles
Photo: Bill Winter
EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Brian K. Mahoney brian.mahoney@chronogram.com
CREATIVE DIRECTOR David C. Perry david.perry@chronogram.com
DIGITAL EDITOR Marie Doyon marie.doyon@chronogram.com
ARTS EDITOR Peter Aaron music@chronogram.com
HOME EDITOR Mary Angeles Armstrong home@chronogram.com
POETRY EDITOR Phillip X Levine poetry@chronogram.com
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Anne Pyburn Craig apcraig@chronogram.com
45 Pine Grove Avenue, Suite 303, Kingston, NY 12401 • (845) 334-8600
mission
Founded
Celebrate SUmmer
JUBILEE
JULY 11–13 Fisher Center LAB/Civis Hope Commission
A work-in-progress reading of a libretto by Suzan-Lori Parks
Inspired by Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha
Directed by Steve H. Broadnax III
DALIBOR
JULY 25 – AUGUST 3 SummerScape Opera/New Production by Bedřich Smetana Libretto by Josef Wenzig
Czech translation by Ervín Špindler
Directed by Jean-Romain Vesperini
American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leon Botstein
Sung in Czech with English supertitles
SPIEGELTENT
NOW THROUGH AUGUST 16
Returning for an 18th season of Live Music and More
AUGUST 8–10 AUGUST 14–17
Food can heal communities and the planet. Join us for three summer days of bold ideas, nourishing dialogue, and delicious connections. Featuring changemakers, chefs, and community leaders.
esteemed reader
by Jason Stern
“Then perhaps on the Earth also, would begin to exist the eighteenth personal commandment of our COMMON CREATOR which declared: ‘Love everything that breathes.’”
—An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man, G. I. Gurdjieff
As a new war emerges, I see myself checking the news feeds more often than I should. I send messages to friends and family living in Israel and Iran. My brother in Jerusalem says, “Just got out of the shelter… again. Serious psychological warfare, messing with my sleep.” Apparently the reality of air raid sirens and explosions in the distance bring a soberness bordering on boredom.
My friend who lives in Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city, responds in a culturally characteristically fashion, with mystical poetry. I use a website to translate his message delivered in Farsi and suspect some of the poetic nuance is lost in translation.
The war of the seven nations excused everyone
Because they did not see the truth, they followed the path of legend. Whoever becomes Noah, his love is the captain. Give him safety from the waves of the storm Whoever becomes homeless in the path of love He will be given home in the land of friends.
In the face of the horrific barbarism of psychotic, power-possessing men I am reminded of two principles that are certainties beyond any doubt.
The first principle is that nothing of any value is achieved through violence of any kind. Violence only begets more violence and destruction. The means to achieve anything must be congruent with the desired ends. Peace and harmony can only be the result of peaceful and harmonious means, which must necessarily begin with coming to an unconditional acceptance of myself and my own suffering.
Beholding the monstrous acts of leaders, it is difficult to fathom how a human being could decide to inflict such destruction on his fellow human beings. There can only be a form of psychopathy at its root; wounds so deeply buried and lies so defended that murder and destruction are the only recourse to prevent experiencing one’s own pain and self-deceit.
The second principle is that, however common, the tendency of human beings to destroy one another’s existence is not normal. The phenomenon may be frequent but it is not sane. You and I wouldn’t choose to drop bombs on neighborhoods nor would we train and order soldiers to machine gun groups of starving people searching for food. No one I know would do that. This tendency, evidenced not by ordinary people, but rather by psychopathic powerpossessors, is a malignant disease.
The tendency for humans to kill each other is also not as common as our history books would have us believe. There is a lot more history of harmony than violence, only the story we tell and retell, for some odd reason, is a history of crime. Most people, most of the time, live peacefully and harmoniously together. The periods of mutual destruction are the rare—albeit highly publicized and promoted—anomaly.
The mantra of my Jewish childhood was “never forget.” It referred to the most recent account of attempted extermination. The Holocaust story was the latest chapter in a series of books including the Torah, the Megillah, and the Haggadah, which we ceremoniously read and reread every year. All these books told stories about an evil power bent on enslaving or eradicating our tribe. Around my bar mitzvah, I learned of “self-fulfilling prophecy.” It struck me that recounting our attempted annihilation seemed to guarantee its recurrence, and this victim narrative would justify similar actions against other groups.
The mantra was implanted and continued to resound. Never forget. Was there something I was meant to remember? Not a recapitulation of horrific events of antiquity. Rather I wanted to remember something that might lead to the harmony and peace that is the normal state for human beings living in community with one another. Never forget. But what?
Never forget that no violence of any sort, even an unkind word, has any use. Never forget that my suffering is my own to transform and no one else is responsible. No one is to blame. Never forget that all life is one and everything that lives is holy. Never forget that I came to be born in human form for one purpose only—to learn to be able to love. Never forget to strive to remember myself always and everywhere.
by Brian K. Mahoney
Confidence Man
Father’s Day came and went, but it left me thinking—again—about my dad, who’s been dead seven years now. Not in a sentimental, “he taught me how to ride a bike” kind of way. No Hallmark fuzzies here. What I remember best about my father is the hushhush pact we seemed to enter when I was very young: He would show me how the world really worked—messy, absurd, flammable at times— and in return, I wouldn’t tell Mom.
1.
The first dead body I ever saw belonged to Duchess, our border collie who was the spitting image of Lassie. I must have been four or five years old when I found her in the kitchen one morning, splayed out under the table. A halo of blood framed her head like a religious icon in one of those pre-Renaissance paintings that haven’t quite figured out perspective. The color was deep crimson, almost black—something richer and stranger than any red I’d ever seen. Years later, reading The Odyssey, I came across Homer’s description of the Aegean: “the wine-dark sea.” I knew exactly what he meant.
Not knowing what else to do, I peeled an orange and turned on the TV. “The Great Space Coaster” was on. Gary Gnu was reading the gnews. When the grown-ups came downstairs, my mother and grandmother screamed and then cried. My father handled logistics. My mother wanted Duchess cremated. My father had other ideas, as it was trash day.
I watched my dad double-bag Duchess—not a small dog—and wrangle her body into the bottom of the garbage can like a mafia hitman on a tight deadline. He wheeled her out to the curb and saw me watching from the window. Then he came back inside, knelt down, and said two things:
“Duchess is in a better place now.”
“And don’t tell your mother about this.”
2.
Duchess was actually my grandmother’s dog. Grandma’s real name was Alice Junkin, but when she went to work at NBC she rechristened herself Nancy Booth Craig. Nancy was many things—concert pianist, pilot, radio and television personality, publishing executive—but when she died, she was just a waxy body in a ruched box at Hatton’s Funeral Home. And I, age nine, wanted to stick my finger in her nose.
I was knuckle-deep when a horrified family friend yanked my hand away and ratted me out to my mother. But my dear, sainted mother was too grief-stricken to do anything but weep into a
balled-up tissue. I wandered off to the basement lounge, where I found a lighter and set the edge of the floral-patterned couch on fire. Grief hits humans in a startling variety of ways.
I was in a pyromaniac phase at the time. Trash cans, stacks of newspapers, unattended leaf piles—I’d been lighting little fires all around the neighborhood. A junior arsonist in training. But this one got out of hand.
A dour man from the funeral home caught me admiring my handiwork and ratted me out to my father, who dragged me back to the smoldering couch and sat me down on it.
He said two things:
“You need to stop setting things on fire, or I’m going to have to beat the living daylights out of you.”
“And don’t tell your mother about this.”
3.
The day I realized my father was mortal came not long after Duchess was left on the curb. Dad was preparing a fire in the grill to cook some steaks Mom had left out to defrost. It was a steamy August Saturday. He’d been drinking Genesee Cream Ale all afternoon, the old green cans stacking up like tiny totems on the picnic table. He’d worked at the Genesee Brewery in college and liked to regale me with stories of on-thejob drunkenness, forklift mishaps, and severed appendages. “This was all before OSHA, of course,” he’d say, as if five-year-old me was deeply concerned with federal labor standards.
Lacking lighter fluid, Dad sent me to the garage for the red jerry can of gasoline. I brought it back like a dutiful pageboy, and he doused the grill with it—sloshing some down his pant leg for good measure.
When he struck the match, the resulting fireball roared to life, lit up the siding on the house, and engulfed my father in a vertical wall of flame.
And then he ran.
This man—who had not jogged, stretched, or exercised since the Kennedy administration— sprinted across the yard like a man possessed. He flattened the hostas, hurdled the side of our above-ground pool, and vaulted into the deep end, a flaming comet shedding his gas-soaked cargo.
I stood there, frozen. Awestruck. Watching the bubbles rise.
When he surfaced, steam rolling off his clothes, he didn’t speak. He looked like a mythological creature reborn from the underworld. Then he caught my eye. He grinned the widest grin in his arsenal of grins and said:
“Go get me a beer.”
“And don’t tell your mother about this.”
It’s been years since I’ve heard my dad utter those words, but I can still hear them. They formed the unofficial motto of my childhood. Not a threat. Not exactly a confidence. Just a glimpse into the flawed, hilarious, combustible man behind the dad mask.
Olympian Effort
HOUSE OF STEFAS BRINGS HIGH-GLOSS HOSPITALITY TO MILLBROOK
By Melissa Esposito
At House of Stefas, handpicked decor meets elevated Greek fare, where mohair banquettes and sea glass chandeliers set the stage for Aegean raw bars and family-style options to share at the table.
Innovation, creativity, family, and celebration have been core tenets of Greek culture since ancient times. They’re also the catalysts that drove brothers John and Paul Stefanopoulos to open House of Stefas in the heart of Millbrook. The brothers are no strangers to the casual atmosphere of many area Greek restaurants, as they are heirs to the local Four Brothers Pizza chain that a previous generation of Stefanopoulos brothers founded in the 1970s.
But John and Paul, who are both in their 30s, had an entirely new concept in mind for their latest endeavor (they’re also behind Amenia’s Four Brothers Drive-In). House of Stefas opened in early June after two years of renovations on the building that formerly housed Mediterranean restaurant Aurelia, including adding on an additional 2,000 square feet. Tie in hospitalityobsessed design and sourcing, a menu that’s a combination of luxe and family-recipe inspired Greek fare, and an allure aligned with the swanky eateries of Miami, and you’ve got a destination dining gem.
“We refer to it as ‘freestyle Greek,’ a blend of traditional Greek and our family’s recipes, but with a worldly take,” John says. “But we also honor the bounty of our region. We live locally and choose to use local farms in Millbrook, Pine Plains, and other nearby towns. At the
same time, we wanted to create a space that’s entirely different, with a design that evokes the cosmopolitan glamor of Athenian supper clubs.”
Dionysian Decor
The brothers imbue both passion and playfulness in their outlook on life (as evidenced in their social media documentation of the renovation), but also in terms of business. The Poseidon’s Palace dining room may gleam with handpicked teal mohair banquettes and a sea glass chandelier imported from Mexico, but there’s nothing stuffy about the Stefas vibe.
“Hospitality is our life,” John explains. “If we were going to do something new, something groundbreaking, it would have to start with something that makes us happy and our guests feel good, but we wanted to elevate that. So that’s why everything here is custom and handpicked— all part of why it took so long to open. It took weeks just to choose plates because we wanted the right weight.”
This multisensory approach manifests as soon as guests approach the premises: Passing from the sidewalk and through the gate to the outdoor dining area, dubbed Paradise Gardens, is transportive. Streetside seating feels more like a Greek courtyard with stone flooring and ample greenery, designed as both patio and portal.
Inside, among the whitewashed plaster walls you’ll find art and eye-catching displays everywhere; some hidden—tiny sketches along the bottom of a wall, or small peepholes that peer upon hidden works within a wall—some obvious, like a framed portrait of a woman draped over a tiger. The latter hangs beside the Tiger Bar, named in homage to the majestic big cat kept (and ridden) by Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and festivity.
The spirit of Dionysus flows through the cocktail menu, with options like the Versace 38 with gin, a cucumber-mint-lime clarified cordial, mastic, lime juice, honey syrup, and super foam ($18); the Oracle ($22) with olive oil-washed Kastra Elion vodka, tomato water, feta brine, oregano oil; and the Athenian Spritz ($18) with coconut tequila, oleo saccharum, and cava. A complete wine list includes options by the glass ($14 to $28) or bottle, with local favorites like Millbrook Winery to international bottles from France, Italy, and, of course, Greece.
The design of the Tiger Bar is conceptualized around soft, feminine features—its coral-hued walls glow with dim lighting and a curved marble bar is paired with some of the coziest salmon-hued leather barstools you’ve ever sat upon. Besides the framed art, you’d be hardpressed to find a pointed right angle anywhere else in the room.
There’s an additional bar upstairs in the Blue Room Cocktail Lounge. True to its name, the room is relentlessly indigo, from its lounge seating to drapery walls to the ceiling—until you get to the bar area, which is distinctively set apart with crisp silver tones; clear acrylic bar stools line a bevel-mirror-tiled bar with a white marble top. The mirrored tile continues as a backsplash for the back bar, where a record player sits amid top-tier spirits. Just around a corner is another dining warea that seats 22. (Total restaurant seating is 160.) If the goal is a constant source of sensory stimulation, the upstairs rooms accomplish that mission. Visitors will likely be so wowed they forget to check their phones—or they’ll fill up their storage trying to capture everything in sight.
“We know that we didn’t go the ‘logical’ way of doing this, but we didn’t want this to be ordinary,” Paul says. “Everything is a reflection of who we are—creative, fun, wild, deep—while bringing together Greek tradition and Hudson Valley farm-to-table.”
One more surprise upstairs worth mentioning: the ultra-exclusive Mickey Dongels room. A hidden passageway through the kitchen leads to this by-reservation-way-in-advance private room that’s an extension of the blue lounge’s theme with just a handful of chairs around a central table. The only way to access the room is to be buzzed in, to ensure the utmost privacy, with a corded landline phone
that connects directly to the kitchen for orders. Paul dropped various celebrity names who have already booked the room, such as local resident Liam Neeson.
Who is Mickey Dongels? “It’s a little bit of an inside joke,” Paul laughs. “While we were still renovating the building, people in town were very curious about what the old restaurant would become. So, on April Fool’s Day, we put out a sign that said ‘McDonald’s Coming Soon’— and because Millbrook is very particular about supporting locally owned businesses as opposed to corporate chains, people were more upset than we expected and started making phone calls and all that. So the name is a play on words for McDonald’s, which also makes it ironic because the restaurant couldn’t be further from corporate fast food.”
Going All the Way
Now, about the food. You’ve got options aplenty whether you’re looking for a cocktail and light bite, a table of shared plates, or an intimate dinner for two. “We have the only Aegean raw bar anywhere around—that we know of,” John explains, referring to Aegean Odyssey, an eightcourse Omakase-style meal rooted in Hellenic tradition, curated by chef Erich Hentschel. The executive chef at House of Stefas is Roel Alcudia. Diners can choose from options like ceviche ($21); scallops with Greek yogurt, lemon, and dill ($24); the Bounty for the Aristocracy,
a sharing plate with market dependent fish options; or caviar service ($220) with Loukoumades puff balls, creme, and cured quail egg. Or guests can Let the Gods Decide, an option that allows for complete curatorial trust in your server to bring a series of dishes from the menu (market pricing).
For entrees, there are family-style options that feed two to four guests, like salt-crusted whole fish with ladolemono sauce and skordalia ($180), or braised lamb shoulder with lemon potato and garlic yogurt ($225). Additional dishes include Mama’s Pasta made with beef, peppers, mushrooms, and tomato ($36); swordfish with Manila clams, white wine, and lemon potato ($54); and pork souvlaki with a side of crispy potatoes, garlic yogurt, and pita ($44). It’s fine dining with heart.
“House of Stefas represents our philosophy on life: Go all the way,” John says. “Whether it’s love, life, work there’s no other way. Life is what you make of it, celebrate each day you’re given. And if you want to share that goodness, create a beautiful space for people to enjoy.”
House of Stefas is located at 3299 Franklin Avenue, Millbrook and is open for dinner Monday to Thursday 5 to 10pm and 5 to 10:30pm on Friday. On Saturday and Sunday, the restaurant opens at 11:30am and closes at 10:30pm and 10pm, respectively.
CELEBRATING 20+ YEARS!
sips & bites
Montauk Catch Club
2608 Route 32, Kingston
Beautiful specialty coffee, thoughtfully-sourced tea, plus pastries and savories at our little cafe right on the rail trail.
25 N FRONT STREET
NEW PALTZ
Local farmers’ market favorites Montauk Catch Club celebrated the grand opening of their brick-and-mortar fish market/fish shack in Rosendale in June, serving and selling fresh dayboat seafood direct from the Montauk docks. For cofounder Savannah Jordan, the newly added restaurant aspect of the business is a return to her culinary roots. The CIA grad is turning out a small but well-contemplated menu of seafood classics that include a blend of staples and rotating specials. Highlights include oysters on the half shell ($20 for a half dozen, $36 for a dozen), scallop ceviche served with tortilla chips ($16), and grilled head-on garlic shrimp with green sauce ($24). For heartier fare, there’s a classic fish sandwich with chips ($18) and a decadent lobster roll with chips ($34). The fish market sells everything from scallops to sushi-grade fluke and wild striped bass, with the selection coming fresh directly from dayboat shipping vessels on Long Island.
Montaukcatchclub.com
Night School
21 2nd Street, Athens
Opened by three buddies, brewer Johnny Osborne, mixologist Wes Skopp, and pizzaiolo Nate Gebhard, this cheeky new Athens spot is a pizza parlor and bar, serving “crushable cocktails,” craft beer, pizza, and other pub-forward fare. Playing on the school theme, beers made onsite include Homeroom, an East Coast pale ale; Prereq, German-style Pilsner; and Swing Set, an Australian-style pilsner. You can add “extra credit” (a whisky shot) to any beer for $5. The bar is also the home taproom for the friends’ brand Deep Fried Beer, which collaborates with other breweries, including Return and Union Street, to produce limited-release canned brews like the recent Macrowave and 877 Cash Now. Open daily, Night School also serves wine by the glass and bottle, and nine craft cocktails, including a rotating weekly special. The 10 pizza options are the star of the food menu, but the burgers, salads, and sides (including spicy garlic knots) aren’t to be overlooked.
Nightschool4real.com
Phos
353 Main Street, Catskill
Teased for months through a series of pop-ups at nearby bars and breweries, Phos: My Greek-American Kitchen opened on Catskill’s Main Street in early June under the direction of former Gaskins chef Stephanie Skiadas. In the old New York Restaurant spot, she’s serving what appears, on the surface, to be simple Greek staples. However, Skiadas elevates flavor expectations using local and seasonal ingredients with techniques grounded in years of experience, a delicate balancing act of tradition and exploration. Classic spanakopita ($18) and bluefish ($34), seared and served with Castelvetrano olives, share the menu with gluten- and dairy-free options like tempeh souvlaki served with vegan coconut tzatziki ($18) and a braised pomegranate chicken with lemon potatoes ($30). Don’t sleep on the grilled octopus app ($27), served on a sweeping spoonful of smoked pepper vinaigrette with potatoes and olives.
@Phos_restaurant
Little Goat
6380 Mill Street, Rhinebeck
In the former spot of the Amsterdam in Rhinebeck, perennial trendsetter, restaurateur, and entrepreneur Taavo Somer has opened Little Goat with longtime business partner Erin Winters. The warm, design-forward restaurant is already drawing attention for its plant-focused menu and plans to soon be open all day, every day. The interior is a spot-on manifestation of modern-farmhouse Pinterest vibes with worn wood tables and painted board-and-batten walls. It bills itself as a cafe/bakery/pantry, but at least for now, Little Goat is only open in the evenings, serving a very trim menu of full-on dinner foods like the roasted grilled Hudson Valley steelhead trout with charred hakurei turnips ($29) and the Veritas Farm pork chop with olives, fennel pollen, figs, and capers ($30). Littlegoatny.com
Bad Times Bar
63 Broadway, Tivoli
The new Tivoli cocktail bar Bad Times offers flavorful drinks, light bites, $5 cans of PBR, and endless cheese puffs. A sidewalk lined with soft pink peonies leads to a charming housefront with roses climbing its front porch; it’s a surprisingly gentle welcome for a bar called Bad Times. Once inside, the warm atmosphere, attentive staff, and chatty local patrons elbowed up to the bar stray the vibe further from its name. Bad Times offers a small array of specialty cocktails, with a few additional revolving specials listed on a chalkboard. A short menu of reasonably priced snacks and small plates offers a light bite with complementary flavors to savor alongside your drink. For example, the Tormenta Negra ($11) with mezcal, ginger beer, and lime juice has quickly become a favorite; and its flavor profile, with hints of smoke and spice, is easily tempered by an earthy chicken liver mousse with plum compote and toasted baguette ($12).
@Badtimesbar
—Marie Doyon
Wirecutter just named our chocolates one of the 13 best boxed chocolates of 2025!
Piaule Catskill
333 Mossy Hill Road, Catskill Piaule.com
The restaurant at Piaule Catskill is a true destination–immersed in the landscape and facing a breathtaking view of the Catskill Mountains. The oak and glass-enclosed dining room sets the stage for a three-course prix fixe menu that is hyper-seasonal and emphasizes local farms and purveyors. Seasonal highlights include blistered sugar snap peas, wagyu with miso butter and charred ramps, and blueberry lemon pavlova. But embrace the possibility for surprise: the menu changes almost weekly.
Rooted in seasonality and locally sourced ingredients, Panacea aims to nourish the soul. Chef-owners Jacob Somers and Khendum Namgyal run a full scratch kitchen featuring fresh seafood, housemade pasta, and creative mains paired with signature craft cocktails. Family friendly with a rustic farm-to-table setting, the enchanting garden patio and two dining rooms make Panacea the perfect place to host an event. Now open Thursday through Monday, with a daily happy hour from 5 to 6pm.
Dining Guide
Peekamoose Restaurant & Tap Room
8373 State Route 28, Big Indian (845) 254-6500 Peekamooserestaurant.com
Pioneers of the farm-to-table movement, The Peekamoose Restaurant’s menu changes daily with the seasonal bounty, reflecting the close relationships that the Mills have established with local farmers. Chef Devin Mills grew up in the Catskills and spent his formative years working for some of the top eateries in Manhattan. Nightly bonfires, imaginative cocktails, and locally sourced farmhouse cuisine make this spot a must-visit. Peekamoose is celebrating their 20th year of being a Catskills destination.
Casita
1111 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA Casitaberkshires.com
The seed for Justin and Mariah Forstmann’s new restaurant, Casita, was planted when they parked Chingón Taco Truck in the courtyard at MASS MoCA in North Adams in 2020. After Covid shuttered the restaurants where the couple had been working in Portland, Oregon, the Connecticut natives landed back on the East Coast to plan their next move.
With Justin’s 10-plus years working as a chef in Mexican restaurants and Mariah’s experience in front-of-house, the posted up as a pop-up at Bright Ideas Brewing at MASS MoCA, and Chingón’s reputation for some of the best tacos in the Berkshires took off.
In 2023, Forstmanns opened the doors to Casita—a colorful 70-seat dining room with a full bar and patio located in the museum’s Building 11. A commitment to sourcing from Berkshires farmers and suppliers runs through every dish.
At lunch, the Forstmanns are serving up fan-favorites like tacos with achiote-marinated chicken, carne asada, and carnitas and their hamburguesa (a double smash patty with iceberg, pickled jalapenos, and chipotle mayo).
At night, the menu takes an ambitious turn into more complex regional Mexican preparations. Dishes such as ceviche, whole fried snapper with coconut tamarind broth, and Mayan-style poc chuc (pork in citrus marinade) transport diners to the Yucatan, while fun riffs on classics like mushroom empanadas with pistachio mole and street corn gnocchi are ambitious and comforting too.
“Casita is a love letter to Mexico by way of the Berkshires,” says Mariah. “We respect the cuisine by taking care in our practices, thoughtfully sourcing our ingredients, and never cutting corners.”
Lydia’s Cafe
7 Old US Highway 209, Stone Ridge (845) 687-6373 Lydias-cafe.com
Lydia’s Cafe in Stone Ridge has been a family-owned-and-operated local favorite for over 30 years. Breakfast and lunch are served six days a week under the banner Wesley’s Way Cafe. Saturday nights feature top-shelf jazz artists, along with a specialized menu that includes what duck aficionados say is the best they’ve ever eaten! The atmosphere is friendly, the vibe pleasant, and the food is as exceptional as it is affordable and plentiful.
Lucky Catskills
5932 Main Street, Tannersville (518) 589-1002 Luckycatskills.com
Lucky Catskills is a cafe and provisions shop specializing in authentic flavors from a variety of Asian countries. From its beloved “Taiwanese 3 Cup Chicken” to traditional Japanese ramen and homemade dumplings, diners will find a deep cut of Asian cuisine—plus popular beverages like Ramune Sodas, Milkis, and specialty seltzers, as well as staples like soy sauce, Korean beef bone broth, and soup stock coins for making that Tik Tok-famous dish at home.
Produced by Chronogram Media Branded Content Studio.
Even with all the odds stacked against restaurants during the last five years, Tamarind in Poughkeepsie has found an irresistible recipe for success. In 2020, at the height of the Covid lockdowns, Chef Manoj Rana opened the first iteration of his fine dining Indian restaurant in Wappingers Falls. Two years later, he opened the second location in Newtown, Connecticut, and moved his original restaurant to Poughkeepsie. In August, a third location is set to open in Nyack.
His secret? The restaurant has quietly filled a much-needed gap in the local dining landscape, offering a refined, regionally expansive menu of Indian specialties crafted by chefs trained in awardwinning kitchens across the globe.
“We wanted to open a destination restaurant that would attract foodies from neighboring states and beyond,” says Rana, who leads the kitchen along with chef Chandan Rana. Both chefs trained in Dubai and New York City’s most lauded Indian fine dining restaurants, including Michelin-starred Junoon.
Their dedication to their craft shows. In five years, Tamarind has racked up a slew of awards, including “Best Indian Restaurant” in the Hudson Valley in 2024 and 2025 in the Daily Voice Readers’
A World Away Ambitious Indian Fine Dining at Tamarind in Poughkeepsie
Choice Awards and “Best Vegetarian Restaurant” in 2024 in Hudson Valley magazine’s Best of the Hudson Valley awards.
Deliciousness is in the details. The dishes on Tamarind’s menu traverse the South Asian subcontinent’s many diverse regions, highlighting preparations not commonly found on other local Indian restaurant menus. Diners will find everything from the robust, warming flavors of north India to lighter, often coconut-inflected south Indian fare to Indo-Chinese fusion dishes reflective of the distinct culinary cross-pollination in the Himalayas.
Ambitious and impressively plated dishes starring locally sourced ingredients define the menu. Fan favorites include the crispy palak and kale chaat appetizer, juicy marinated local lamb chops with yogurt, mustard, hummus, and mint chutney, and the thali lunch specials, a curated platter of starters, curries and dals, sauces, rice, and fresh breads. The “Hyderbadi Chicken Dum Biryani”—basmati rice layered with spiced chicken baked under a flaky dough cover—and “Nihari Nali,” a Punjabi specialty made with locally sourced lamb shank and “potli” masala saffron yogurt are a feast for the eyes as well as the palate.
On the drinks side of the menu, diners will find high-caliber wine, spirits, and signature cocktails
with flavor profiles that both complement and provide refreshing contrast for the aromatic spices used throughout the food menu. A drink like the “Tropical Pout,” made with whiskey, mango, passionfruit, coconut, vanilla, rice reduction, and lemongrass echoes the complexity of a South Indian curry, while the “Adarak Bees Knees,” made with floral gin, ginger, lemon, cinnamon-honey syrup, and candied ginger garnish has enough punch to match the assertiveness of flame-licked kabobs fresh from the tandoor oven.
The restaurant, which was renovated in 2024, is both spacious and luxurious—with a sleek bar and lounge, a plethora of cozy circular booths, and subtle Indian-inspired accents throughout. Rana estimates that the Poughkeepsie location is the largest Indian fine dining room in the region, with 280 seats. With a welcoming atmosphere, attentive staff, and a thoughtful approach to the diversity and complexity of Indian culinary history, Tamarind offers a fine dining experience that feels both accessible and transportive for longtime fans or those discovering the cuisine for the first time.
2185 South Road, Poughkeepsie (845) 632-2230; Thetamarindrestaurant.com
Inspired by his training in high-end kitchens in Dubai and New York City, Chef Manoj Rana opened his fine dining Indian restaurant Tamarind in 2020.
Bliss Juice + Smoothie Bar
7501 North Broadway, Red Hook (845) 835-8337 Blissredhook.com
A beloved destination in the Hudson Valley, this cozy and welcoming spot offers a vibrant selection of fresh, wholesome meals and drinks. Enjoy coldpressed-daily, raw organic juices; sublime smoothies and smoothie bowls; healthy grab-and-go salads and bowls; and a variety of breakfast and lunch café items. The organic, locally roasted coffee and espresso bar pairs perfectly with fresh-baked cookies and gluten-free treats. Thoughtfully constructed juice cleanses are also available to help support and expand healthy lifestyles.
Hudson Roastery
4 Park Place, Hudson (518) 697-5633 Hudsonroastery.com
Visit Columbia County’s only coffee roastery offering single origin selections and signature blends. Premium beans are roasted fresh weekly, producing exceptional coffee. Whether it’s Rip Van Winkle, Spook Rock Road, or their hallmark espresso Catskill Campfire, they proudly roast nine coffee varietals to enjoy and take home. Gather here to enjoy the best coffee, conversation, fresh pastry, and chef-inspired breakfast and lunch menu, or book a Coffee Roasting Experience for an immersive, hands-on coffee education.
A Kindred Table
At Garvan’s, Irish Hospitality Is Always on the Menu
Nestled in a historic circa 1759 house a mile from Main Street in New Paltz, Garvan’s is a gathering place where Irish warmth meets Hudson Valley charm. “I want people to feel comfortable, like they’re in my living room,” says owner Garvan McCloskey, who opened the restaurant in 2016.
That warmth shines in every aspect of Garvan’s. Inside the restaurant, its sturdy wood beams, wide-board floors, antique accents, and cozy dining rooms evoke the building’s rich history (and provide stellar date-night vibes). The shady patio and porch, surrounded by black locust trees, transform into an alfresco haven when the weather warms.
At the helm of the kitchen is Executive Chef Kevin Alston, who brings elegance and ease to the table with a menu that’s both sophisticated and soul-satisfying. Expect rotating seasonal dishes that reflect the restaurant’s commitment to local
sourcing alongside hearty Irish-influenced entrees such as Garvan’s wife Leonie’s secret-recipe “Shepherdess Pie,” and comfort-food originals like the succulent seared scallops and asiago risotto with lemon beurre blanc.
Alston’s commitment to excellence resonates at both Garvan’s and sister restaurant Maggie Mae’s, lovingly named in honor of Leonie’s mother and grandmother. At Maggie Mae’s, diners can enjoy casual pub fare with the same culinary heart while taking in breathtaking views of the Shawangunk Ridge.
Like the Irish pubs that served for Garvan’s inspiration, the restaurant is a gathering place above all. In addition to its regular Tuesday through Sunday lunch and dinner service, the gastropub is a favorite for hosting anniversaries, intimate weddings and celebrations.
McCloskey attributes his convivial approach to the staying power of Garvan’s, which will celebrate its 10-year anniversary next year. “I treat
my staff like my family and look after them. I take that responsibility very seriously,” he says. His commitment is also evident in the restaurant’s many glowing online reviews. As one reviewer wrote, “Excellent food. Exceptional customer service. A great vibe all around. The owner actually cares about his customers and their experiences.”
Whether escaping to Garvan’s for a romantic evening or sunlit lunch on the porch, or dining at Maggie Mae’s, diners will always get a warm welcome, a great meal, and a good story to head home with. “I love my job and I love meeting people,” says McCloskey. And, as another online reviewer put it best: “It’s a meal, yes, but it’s also a memory in the making.”
215 Huguenot Street, New Paltz (845) 255-7888
Garvans.com
Garvan and Leonie McCloskey opened Garvan’s in New Paltz in 2016.
Over the last five years, national real estate brokerages have increasingly planted their flags in the Hudson Valley in a quest for greater market share. But Daniel ‘Dan’ Mahar is proving that a big brand name isn’t what sells homes—relationships and grit do.
Born and raised in Claverack, Mahar launched his namesake company, Mahar Real Estate, in August 2024 with a simple but powerful mission: to bring hands-on, hyperlocal service back to the real estate business. “I opened the company because I believe the only constant in life is change,” he says. “I’m seeking those who want to do something different with themselves and the industry.”
With eight years in real estate, Mahar has seen firsthand that the cachet of a national name doesn’t move listings the way it once did. This realization crystallized for him as more and more clients began working with him— drawn by his energy, local connections, and boots-on-the-ground approach.
“The corporate name doesn’t mean everything anymore,” he says. “The internet gives us access to the same media outlets and digital marketing tools, but we have what they don’t: roots. We’re on the ground and know what’s going on in our towns.”
Now, that relentless hustle is the foundation of Mahar Real Estate. “I will outwork everyone. I’m up earlier, I go to bed later, I skip meals, holidays— it doesn’t matter. When something needs to get done—painting a room, moving furniture or staging a space—we’ll do it ourselves because we believe nothing can replace hard work. We suit up and show up.” Mahar says.
Mahar’s brokerage is headquartered in Hudson City Centre, an office hub that also houses attorneys, lenders, and title companies, offering real-time collaboration that many other firms can’t match. While many brokerages have retail space on main streets, most are now empty except on weekends, their windows used as advertising for listings. “We’re in our office, doing the back end work,” he says.
Mahar is also bucking another trend: the push toward ultra-luxury listings. Instead, his focus is squarely on the locals of the Hudson Valley. By prioritizing the needs of longstanding residents, Mahar is doubling down on his commitment to finding working families and first-time buyers a foothold in a rapidly changing market—something he sees as both a business advantage and an ethical imperative, given his ties to the community. “I want to be in the business of making real estate within reach of locals staying local,” he says.
The team Mahar has built reflects his belief in specialization and service. Commercial real estate, often an afterthought for agents in the region, is a growing focus for the team thanks to “Commercial Charlie Brassard,” a former local restaurateur and Culinary Institute of America-trained chef who brings insider knowledge to clients interested in business properties. Two other members of the team, a builder and a professional painter, can work together to walk clients through renovation estimates and potential resale value on the spot. Local credibility extends to Mahar’s growing referral network, which includes tradespeople, attorneys, lenders—many of whom he’s known since childhood.
While a few agents came with real estate experience, many were drawn to the firm through Mahar’s community presence—his cheerful videos on social media, distinctive M-shaped signs, and reputation for getting the job done. Several new agents got licensed specifically to join the company, changing their career trajectories. “They’re responding to our optimism,” he says. “We’re walking the walk and enjoying it.”
That ethos also extends into the firm’s community involvement. Mahar Real Estate is planning a fried chicken fundraiser for Columbia County Recovery Food Kitchen, drawing on a favorite from Commercial Charlie’s restaurant past on July 8 at Padrona in Hudson.
As Mahar looks to expand along the Hudson River corridor—from Poughkeepsie to Saratoga—he’s staying true to what matters: trust, presence, and real connection. “The market is shifting,” he says. “People are moving past the polished photos and corporate logos because they want someone they can rely on—someone who picks up the phone and follows through. That’s who we are at Mahar.”
Meet the team at Maharrealestate.com.
Hustle & Heart Mahar Real Estate’s People-First Approach
Family homes, like Mahar's childhood home in Claverack, are a focus for Mahar Real Estate.
The Mahar Real Estate team.
Where the Road Ends, Possibility Begins
A
once-in-a-generation
opportunity on the Hudson River
Nestled at the very edge of 6881 Rod and Gun Road in Hudson, NY, lies 173 acres of untamed, subdividable land overlooking the river and Catskill Mountains. This is one of the largest undeveloped parcels on the Hudson—on the market for the first time in over twenty years. Just 10 minutes from downtown Hudson and a 2-hour Amtrak ride from Manhattan. Abutting forever-wild lands, this property is equal parts private sanctuary and rare investment.
6881 Rod And Gun Road, Hudson, New York
$5,500,000 USD • 173 Acres
Brady Bunch family includes Max, Shepard, Miles, and Claire, who are all young adults. Their oldest, Brandon, started the custom
Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, if you come knocking on Josh Kowan and Janna Cohen Kowan’s front door in Elizaville, you might not get an answer. Instead, to find either Janna or Josh or one of their five kids, head out back—past the basketball court, the too-narrow skateboard halfpipe, the hammock circle, the fruit trees and the veggie garden—to a trailhead snaking through woods and wetland. Follow the sound of splashing and shouts (you might even hear snatches of the Meatballs anthem) to the family ’s summer outpost along North Twin Lake. “ We live here year round,” explains Janna of the lakeside property the blended family has christened Camp KoCo. “But when Memorial Day weekend comes around, it ’s time again to officially begin camp season and the lake looms large.”
Yearly camp traditions begin early, with a mid-spring cold plunge in the icy lake. “ Then everyone pitches in,” says Janna, founder of the home design and staging business JannaHouse. “ We have to clean and rake and weed and wash and ready the lake and docks for the season. We all work together to open and close the lake, and everyone does the ritual plunges at both times.” Camp KoCo’s motto—“you gotta earn it a little”—expresses the DIY spirit encouraging all-in participation, whether it’s KP duties or rites of passage. These include a camper ’s first swim across the lake (earning them “ Whale” status), and the first daredevil plunge from the rope swing—rope burns and all—into the 100-foot-deep kettle lake. Besides being co-head counselors, the couple also work together flipping neglected homes. But their main job is weaving together
Camp Whateverit’s-Called
A year-round summer camp in
Elizaville
By Mary Angeles Armstrong
by Winona Barton-Ballentine
Photos
Josh Kowan and Janna Cohen Kowan sneak some time on the family rope swing when their kids aren’t looking. The couple’s
woodworking company Cross & Miller in Stone Ridge and now has a family of his own.
Two Major Mixed-Use Opportunities in Hudson
The Upstate Untapped Team is pleased to present two of Hudson’s most unique mixed-use properties:
705 Warren Street
2 Residential Units + 1 Retail Space - $2,495,000
A prime, turn-key mixed-use property on Warren Street in downtown Hudson features two elegant residential units paired with a high-traffic 2,500 sq ft retail space. Ideally positioned just steps from galleries, restaurants, and boutique shops on Warren Street's only park block, this offering is perfect for investors or owner-operators.
Scan To View The Listing
78-90 Green Street
3 Buildings, 1 Parcel - $2,250,000
A three-building commercial/residential property in Hudson’s arts district featuring a 5,000 sq ft artist’s warehouse, six offices, one gallery space, and a restaurant. Situated on 0.71 prime acres ready for development, this offering represents a rare opportunity for investors or owner-operators, with zoning and location creating exceptional potential.
Scan To View The Listing
Janna in the home’s openconcept kitchen. Tackling the room’s renovation was her first time gutting a kitchen. With some hand-holding from designer Ann Stivers she removed a wall to expand the space and added lighting fixtures from DeVol, quartersawn white oak cabinetry from Rhinebeck Kitchen and Bath, and fixtures from Rejuvenation. The bar is a family heirloom from Josh’s mother, who called it a smorgasbord.
disparate family threads—from Janna’s oldest, grown son who lives nearby, down to their two high schoolers—into their own eclectic blend of Camp KoCo camaraderie. By the time the Fourth of July rolls around, the family ’s combined efforts will have paid off. “Mid-summer, when the fireflies are out, and the sun is setting, the kids are taking turns swinging into the water on our colossal rope swing, burgers are grilling, and the campfire gets going on the dock,” says Janna. “It ’s impossible not to feel the summer camp magic.”
Established 2007
Camp founder Josh Kowan first stumbled across the lake in 2006. A forester and real estate agent, he had been surveying Hudson Valley landscapes for almost two decades when Camp Scatico hired him to consult on forest management. “ They were looking for ways to generate capital for infrastructure projects,” Josh says. “So they brought me on to advise on the land ’s value.” An avid outdoor enthusiast, he recognized the property ’s potential immediately. With over 600 feet of lake access and seven wooded acres bordering the camp, it had the makings of a perfect outdoor retreat. He bought the property and erected a 2,400-square-foot manufactured home at the entrance. “It was definitely a new construction house with vinyl siding, linoleum, and carpeting everywhere,” he says. “ The house was less for the house and more for the lake lifestyle.” With three bedrooms, two
baths, and an unfinished basement, the two-story center hall Colonial had plenty of room for Josh and his son. Meanwhile, Janna was expecting her fourth child and outgrowing her Hoboken lifestyle. “I wanted to skip the suburbs for a more peaceful country life,” she says. “I wanted a big garden, some chickens, and to raise my kids with a lot less keeping up with the Joneses and a lot more parking.” She and her former husband relocated the family to Stone Ridge in 2008, where they enrolled their kids in the High Meadow School. During her time as a stay-at-home mom, she began writing what would eventually become her debut novel, Naked Girl, published in 2024 under her maiden name, Janna Brooke Wallack.
Bunkhouse Rebrand
Fast forward a decade: By 2016 Janna and Josh were both single parents and the lake house had morphed into a bachelor pad. At “Camp Kowan,” Josh and his son enjoyed an unfussy lake lifestyle that prioritized outdoor adventures rather than design details. When Janna arrived on the scene, she immediately recognized a kindred spirit. “Josh inspired the camp, and it was just another reason we felt so compatible when we began dating,” she says. They both understood that the property ’s real value wasn’t in a fancy house, but in its potential for creating authentic family experiences that only come from embracing the land completely.
In 2018, their families merged and they marked the transition with a symbolic gesture. “ When the Cohen and Kowan families merged we changed the name to ‘Camp KoCo’ as another way to blend everyone together,” says Janna. After merging two households of keepsakes and family treasures into one cohesive living space, they painted and reshuffled the furniture. Those superficial changes worked until Janna’s emerging career as a designer pushed them toward more ambitious plans.
By flipping her Stone Ridge home, Janna discovered her talent for property transformation. “I renovated it, staged it, and then sold it at a profit,” she says, realizing she’d found a new career. “I like to find diamonds in the rough. Properties people are passing over because of design flaws they can’t see past. I look for things you can’t change like a view, or water feature, and then turn the home into a house another family can love forever. “
As she took on new home-flipping projects, her eye for potential grew sharper, and the lake house’s limitations became more apparent. When the pandemic struck and the family found themselves temporarily living in a Tivoli renovation, opportunity knocked. “ We were stuck in a very big, beautiful house,” says Janna. “ We realized we had an opportunity to rip the lake house apart.”
Old Up a New One
Guided by Josh’s original motto (“you gotta earn it a little,”) Janna approached the pandemic renovation with a clear vision: “Our house is not a luxury spa. It is a camp.” She began on the first floor, opening up the space to create a “ happy flow.”
“The first thing we did was rip out the ceilings everywhere,” she says, adding nine inches to the ceiling height. To create an “old, renovated barn feeling” she added exposed beams and shiplap, then installed wide-plank white oak floors that could handle camp life’s indoor-outdoor demands.
Janna gutted the bland contemporary kitchen, reimagining the space to include deeply personal elements that connected the family ’s daily life to Josh’s forestry work. “ We found a walnut tree at one of my forestry management projects,” explains Josh. “After letting it dry, we milled it, and then finished it at Excelsior Wood.” The tree became the kitchen’s distinctive dark wood shelving, dining room benches, and island legs.
The second floor required a more delicate touch, balancing the camp aesthetic with personal histories while accommodating a large family. Janna’s overhaul of the home’s three bathrooms all “nodded to the campy lake house vibe, with a lot of boho color mixed in,” she says. Her primary
The couple have filled the home’s many lounge areas with art and collectables from family and friends. In a first-floor space dubbed the “music room” they hung an orange modernist painting by Josh’s father, painter Illis Kowan, above the couch and a work by surrealist painter David Keefe above the leather chair. The coffee table is from Hammertown Barn.
Heating • Co oling • Home Performance
& Van Kleecks Lane, Kingston, NY (845)
9W & Van Kleecks Lane, Kingston, NY (845) 338-4936 AugustineNursery.com
8am–5pm and
& Van Kleecks Lane, Kingston, NY (845) 338-4936 AugustineNursery.com
Hours: Monday–Saturday, 8am–5pm and Sunday, 10am–4pm
Kingston, NY (845) 338-4936 AugustineNursery.com
Van Kleecks Lane, Kingston, NY AugustineNursery.com
Lane, Kingston, NY (845) 338-4936 AugustineNursery.com Spring Hours: Monday–Saturday, 8am–5pm and Sunday, 10am–4pm
Hours: Monday–Saturday, 8am–5pm and Sunday, 10am–4pm
Hours: Monday–Saturday, 8am–5pm and Sunday, 10am–4pm
Hours: Monday–Saturday, 8am–5pm and Sunday, 10am–4pm
Top Left: By adding glass doors to a corner of the first floor, the couple created a shared office space. Janna’s desk includes second-hand treasures as well as feathers, bones, and skulls she’s found in the woods. She renamed the thrift store oil painting Naked Girl after her first novel. The bronze figure lamp is from her grandparents.
Top Right: Another family lounge includes a mish-mash of lighting fixtures and an oversized coffee table. The hanging Lusterweibchen (little woman) chandelier is from Germany. In the corner, a red brutalist lamp is by Josh’s father, Illis Kowan.
Bottom: Josh enjoying the family skateboard ramp. At home during the pandemic with four kids, the couple had to get creative. “Our kids were home 24/7 and we had no idea when the parks would reopen,” says Janna. “So we built the ramp and a basketball half court.” The Millennium Falcon is parked in the driveway.
bathroom redesign showcases practicality and style. “ The original layout made no sense,” she explains. “ There was a large picture window but no bathtub underneath and just a plastic shower. “She flipped the spaces, creating a walk-in shower in one corner and placing the tub under the picture window. The room’s finishing touches brought the lakeside setting indoors. “I wanted the tiles to look like lilies on a pond, so I placed them at random,” she says.
I’ve Got the Old Man’s Car
The family ’s most recent home project, a garage, came after the pandemic. “ We built it because the family ’s gear was getting out of control and taking up the whole house,” says Janna. Housed in the garage alongside paddleboards, fishing equipment, boating, and camping supplies, is Josh’s 1974 Cadillac Eldorado convertible. Dubbed the Millennium Falcon, the vintage Cadillac serves a distinctly camp purpose: field trips. “Three or four times a year, we all pile in and go get ice cream,” Janna explains. Although there’s room for everyone, the cherry red convertible has its limitations. “There is a Billy Joel eight-track cassette stuck in it on ‘Zanzibar,’” Janna explains. “If you’re coming along, it’s Billy Joel’s ‘Zanzibar’ or nothing.” The Millennium Falcon captures the Camp KoCo spirit—a little imperfect, totally authentic, and exactly right for a place where flying off the end of a rope into the deep is a badge of honor, where broken things become family traditions, and camp memories are set to the same track, summer after summer, made one ‘Zanzibar’ replay at a time.
Janna and Josh sit on the center staircase. When renovating this staircase, Janna’s goal was to maximize natural light. “The design challenge of the center hallway, and the whole house, was like one of those puzzles where you move the squares around until it works,” she says. “When I did, I was so happy. Everything blended together and nothing sticks out like a sore thumb.”
Lifelong Catskills resident Kim Riera believes that with the right mindset, homeowners can make a short-term rental a force for good in their communities. “The best way to balance the needs of guests and the local community is to create opportunities for shared experiences—moments where people can get to know each other, find common ground, and even celebrate their differences,” Riera explains. “When visitors feel welcomed and locals feel respected, short-term rentals can add to the richness of a place, not take away from it.”
In 2015, Riera founded Stay Catskills, a short-term rental management and real estate company focused on balancing the longterm needs of mountain residents and their communities’ historic reliance on tourism. Riera’s focus is on helping homeowners with deep ties to the region rent out their homes with conscience and care.
Stay Catskills’ portfolio is as diverse as it is quirky—ranging from tiny, off-grid cabins for those seeking solitude to spacious custom log homes that can host large families or groups of friends. “At any given time, I typically manage between 25 and 30 short-term rental properties in the area,” she says. “I’m selective about the clients I work with. I specifically take on homeowners who want to spend time here, who genuinely care about the area, and want to be part of the community.”
For owners looking to be responsible hosts, Riera emphasizes several key principles. “Owners who rent out their homes need to be good neighbors first,” she states. “The most important thing is to treat my rentals like a relationship with the neighbors, not just a business. I want to support homeowners who are truly invested in our community— people who understand that being part of a small town means showing up, being respectful, and giving back.”
Last year, Riera put her decade of experience to work renovating her childhood home in Bovina Center so she could share it with vacationers, too. “After my parents moved in 2022, I wanted to keep the 200-year-old home in our family, and preserve its place in our lives,” she explains. “Rather than selling or leaving it vacant, turning it into a rental gave it a new purpose. My hope is that when my children are older, they might want to live there and continue the tradition.”
Together with her husband Marcelo, who owns local construction company Riera Improvements, the Rieras renovated their family home, known as Bovina Post after its historical function as the town’s post office.
Together the Rieras and their three teenage sons designed the home and outdoor spaces to honor the family’s past while adding cozy updated features. Following the advice she gives her clients, Riera focused on modernizing the home with high-end furnishings from Casper, West Elm, Article, and Spoonflower that would make any vacationer feel right at home.
Vintage elements like original 1970s wallpaper in the three bedrooms and the postmaster’s original inkwell in the dedicated workspace honor the home’s rich history. In the first floor sun porch, she added a green light from her father’s auction house. Multiple lounging spaces, including the wood-trimmed living room, multiple patios, and an ample backyard provide plenty of space to unwind. Riera even partnered with local artisan Taylor Foster of Heaven on Main Street to create custom soaps and candles infused with nostalgic fragrances inspired by her youth.
So far, the experience has been enriching—not just helping with the expense of keeping her childhood home in the family. “One of the most meaningful parts of this experience has been the people,” Riera reflects. “I’ve welcomed guests who used to live in or vacation in Bovina. They’re thrilled to come back and stay in a home with such deep ties to the community. At the same time, it’s been just as exciting to host guests who have never been to the area before. Seeing them fall in love with the town for the first time has been incredibly rewarding.”
Stay-catskills.com
Homegrown Hospitality
Stay Catskills Rentals Are Rooted in Community
Prescription for Collapse
How PBMs Are Squeezing Independent Pharmacies
By Brian K. Mahoney
Neal Smoller is a pharmacist. That used to mean something simple: You came in, handed him your prescription, and he handed you medicine. But in 2025, Smoller, who owns Village Apothecary in Woodstock, spends more time navigating predatory reimbursement contracts than counting pills. His biggest antagonist? Not Big Pharma, not the government—but the shadowy middlemen known as PBMs: Pharmacy Benefit Managers.
Smoller and other independent pharmacists are rallying behind a bill currently in the New York State legislature that would establish a reimbursement floor for prescriptions. Medicaid fee-for-service plans already guarantee pharmacies a minimum of $10.83 above the cost of a drug. But that doesn’t apply to commercial plans or Medicaid-managed care. The bill would extend that floor across the board.
“That $10.83 isn’t just a number,” says Smoller. “It’s a lifeline. It means I can do the math. I can budget. I can staff. I can run a business. Without it, every prescription is like pulling a slot machine. I don’t know if I’m going to make money or lose money.”
Support for the legislation is strong in the State Senate, but it’s currently stalled in committee in the Assembly. More co-sponsors are needed to move it forward before the session ends. Opponents, predictably, argue that it will increase costs. Smoller disagrees: “The only thing it’s going to reduce is PBM profits.” If the bill fails, Smoller says, the outlook for independent pharmacies like his is “dire.”
“PBMs are like Visa or Mastercard,” Smoller says. “But instead of taking three percent they can siphon off 30 percent to 40 percent of every healthcare dollar that passes through them.”
PBMs were originally created to streamline the insurance claims process between pharmacies and insurers. In the analog days, this made sense: Pharmacies submitted paper claims, and PBMs helped adjudicate them faster. But with the rise of real-time digital claims processing, PBMs didn’t fade away. They embedded themselves in the system and got powerful—unaccountably powerful.
Here’s the trick: PBMs negotiate drug prices on behalf of insurers, and also determine how much a pharmacy gets reimbursed for each prescription. But those two numbers don’t have to match. A practice called “spread pricing” lets PBMs tell an insurance company they paid a pharmacy $15, while actually reimbursing the pharmacy only $1. The PBM keeps the $14 difference. “It’s lying,” Smoller says bluntly. “It’s criminal.”
In 2019, a report from New York State Senator James Skoufis estimated that spread pricing cost New York taxpayers over $300 million in Medicaid spending in a single year. That money didn’t go to pharmacies or patients. It padded PBM profits.
And it’s not just Medicaid. PBMs also contract with commercial insurers and employer-based health plans. The three largest PBMs—CVS Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth’s OptumRx—manage nearly 80 percent of prescriptions in the US. Each one owns its own chain of pharmacies or mailorder operations. Which means they profit not only from managing drug benefits but from underpaying their competitors—like Smoller. “PBMs do not provide anything except data processing and often make more than providers on each transaction,” he says.
“They know exactly how much my drugs cost.
They have all the data,” Smoller says. “Then they pay me just enough—or less—and I’m contractually obligated to take it. I can’t back-bill the patient. I can’t decline to fill the prescription. I lose money and they make money.”
The numbers are grim: Village Apothecary is reimbursed below its acquisition cost on 16.5 percent of its prescriptions. That translates to $130,000 a year in losses. “Imagine a restaurant that has to serve chicken parm but loses money on every plate. That’s what it’s like.”
Smoller isn’t alone. Across the country, independent pharmacies are closing at a rate of nine per day and larger pharmacy chains are also hard hit. Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy for the second time in May. Walgreens is being hollowed out by private equity. Pharmacy deserts are spreading, especially in rural and low-income areas. And still, PBMs keep collecting their cut.
“Personally, I’m fine,” he says. “But as a business? It might not make sense to keep going like this. I could sell weed whackers and be more profitable. But at what point am I a hardware store, not a pharmacy?”
Smoller has diversified—selling supplements, offering vaccines, building a robust wellness practice. “Pharmacists have gotten very inventive just to survive,” he says. But the core business is still prescriptions. And if that part of the business is broken, everything else is just a side hustle.
“People come to us because they value us,” Smoller says. “But we lose money trying to serve them. And that’s just wrong.”
What he wants is simple: to be paid fairly for the work he does. To be able to fill prescriptions without hemorrhaging cash. To survive.
And, ideally, to not have to explain what a PBM is ever again.
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Chronogram Readers’ Choice Awards—née the Chronogrammies—turns six this summer, officially old enough to blow out its own candles and demand a second slice of cake. What started in those hazy, handsanitizer-soaked months of 2020 as a morale boost for local businesses has matured into the definitive popularity contest for the Hudson Valley’s best and brightest. Tens of thousands of readers weighed in again this year, clicking, tapping, and occasionally arguing with spouses over 350,000 individual ballots spread across 278 categories.
A few names kept their crowns: Mohonk Preserve once more tops every trail, sunset, and picnic list we can invent, and Willa practically needs a bigger trophy case after scooping Martini, Fries, Craft Cocktails, and Wine List. But there’s fresh glory, too. Local celebrity honors go, naturally, to Molly the Museum Dog (sorry, Paul Rudd). And in the evercompetitive Advocacy section, Kevin O’Connor of RUPCO and Dorothy Varner of Middle Way School remind us that community heroes aren’t found only on ballot lines.
Mark your calendars: We’re throwing a victory lap at Hudson House Distillery in West Park on Thursday, August 14, 6-8:30 pm. Last year’s bash shook the rafters; this year we’ll raise the roof again—bourbon in hand as we rump-shake with DJ Dave Leonard. Winners, finalists, and fans, are all invited to toast the region’s very best. Congratulations to every honoree—and an even bigger salute to the readers who make this democratic circus spin. You cast the votes; now come claim the party.
2025 READERS' CHOICE WINNERS
2025 READERS' CHOICE WINNERS
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SECOND ACTS IN THE CATSKILLS Ellenville
By Anne Pyburn Craig
Photos by David McIntyre
Back in 2020, Tori Messner told her mom that she and her friends—fellow urban creatives who’d taken refuge from the pandemic in Ellenville—intended to revitalize the community, the response was approving but a bit skeptical. “She said, ‘Get back to me in 10 years,’” says Messner. “Well, it’s been five, and things have changed a lot.” Messner, a creative director, and her partner Natalie Moena, a photographer, opened Reservoir Studios when they moved from New York City to offer the growing population of local creatives state-of-the-art branding, production, and content creation services. And as cofounders of COFFE— Coalition of Forward Facing Ellenville—they hit the ground running with Market on Market, a farmer’s market that’s been going strong since 2021.
COFFE now has 150 members and holds monthly meetings, with business, political, and civic leaders as guest speakers. They’ve inherited management of an Instagram account with over 3,700 followers, Destination Ellenville, which has produced tourism and hiking maps for local businesses to distribute. And to Messner’s delight, COFFE has drawn in longtime local business folk and artists to the original group that started scheming over pandemic-era Zoom calls.
“People who moved up here during the pandemic found they truly loved living with nature, which hadn’t really been an option for many of them before remote work,” Messner says. “But they knew the remote situation wouldn’t last forever, so the question became, ‘How do
we build opportunities up here?’ You have to make sure you’re building quality of life for everyone, and it’s hard work. Alongside specialty businesses downtown, you have to continue to lift up useful things that are accessible for everyday needs, for the average person.”
Along with newly opened restaurants and cafes, downtown Ellenville now offers The Common Good, a bookstore/bar/community event space; Everything Nice, a record store that serves espresso amid a broad selection of new and used vinyl, and Vintage Modern, a furniture emporium. Legacy bakery Cohen’s has changed hands, but continues to thrive; Matthews Pharmacy, a fixture since 1858, is serving new customers since Walgreens pulled out. And Tops Friendly Markets, a regional supermarket chain, has just opened a store, hired 120 people, and welcomed hungry locals to its new store in what had been a ShopRite that closed amid great trepidation in August of last year.
Lifelong local Elliot Auerbach is celebrating all of it, but especially that last one. “I cook a lot, so I was feeling that lack of food options perhaps more than some,” he says. “Tops is just what we needed. And I’m excited by what I’m seeing right now—a great synergy between the pandemicera newcomers and the legacy people who’ve been invested for decades. People have bought homes and they’re fixing them up, which is bringing fresh joy and wonderment to everyone here.”
Auerbach is well-positioned to know. His family ran Ace Hardware (still thriving under the ownership of a former
Above: Perched atop the highest section of the Shawangunk Ridge, Sam’s Point offers sweeping views and a rare ecosystem—its dwarf pitch pine barrens are one of the only such habitats in the world.
Opposite, above: At Flowering Sun Ecology Center, a collective commitment to healing land and community unfolds through farming, seed saving, and ecological education.
Opposite, below: Tyler Borchert of StoneStyling laying a Zen garden outside Innway Art Co-op on Liberty Street in preparation for Upsate Art Weekend.
Below: Board members and volunteers
Opposite: Author
This page, above: The staff of the Shawangunk Journal in their office on Canal Street.
gather in the Bungalow Room at the Borscht Belt Museum on Canal Street.
Sophie Taylor reading from her book What Cats Dream About at The Common Good bookstore on Canal Street.
employee) for over half a century; he worked alongside his father there for 20 years, and served the village as mayor for three terms in the 1990s and as manager for seven years. The Ellenville of his youth was a bustling place. “There was a bank on every corner, there were five pharmacies and all kinds of bars and restaurants,” he says. “I’m seeing that coming back, and I’m excited.”
After retiring from his last public service position as deputy state comptroller, Auerbach put his shoulder to the wheel once again on the home front, stepping up to help new mayor Evan Trent get the books sorted out. “The finances were a mess, and he was short-staffed. It was one of those situations where everything that could go wrong did,” he says. “So he inherited a huge financial challenge. He’s a young guy, very smart, very good heart; I love his energy and commitment. I had had the advantage of being mentored by four mayors over the years, so I stepped in and helped sort it out from February to October of 2024.” For his six months of effort, Auerbach was paid one dollar.
Larger projects that may appear stalled, Auerbach believes, are still viable—just
complicated. Nobody’s giving up. Cresco Labs, which purchased a 50,000-square-foot warehouse to great fanfare in 2022 in hopes of employing 375 in the growing, manufacturing and distribution of cannabis, is stalled by federal banking constraints but still hopeful. The new owner of the once-grand Nevele Hotel property remains optimistic about drawing in a new luxury brand. “He’s working hard to get permitting in place and get that off the ground,” Auerbach says. “And the Terrace Motel was just purchased by a group that wants to put a new motel there.”
On the Cusp
Sue Trager, who led the Ellenville-Wawarsing Chamber of Commerce in 2023 and most of ‘24, says a midrange affordable hotel is what the community could really use right now. “That would be a good step in the right direction, to keep the tourism flowing and give more people an opportunity to discover this place,” she says. “I mean, there’s so much here to find. Shadowland [where Judd Hirsch recently starred in “I’m Not Rappaport”], great restaurants, the Borscht Belt Museum, the festivals— there’s a lot to discover here.”
Trager’s own family business, Northeast Off-Road Adventures, is emblematic of the community’s tendency toward new ideas and good fun. Besides offering off-roading instruction, tours, and ride-alongs, the company’s nonprofit side, SOAR Experiences, offers adaptive offroading hiking and air gun marksmanship to people with mobility issues, serving clients from rehab hospitals, universities, and veterans’ organizations. They’re also an authorized dealership for Action Trackchairs, offering free demos on their 75 acres of wilderness to people who thought they’d never hike again. “One more new business coming in and hiring 50, 75 people would be a tipping point,” Trager says. “It can be tough—we faced opposition at first. But now we’re bringing in around 30 to 50 people a month, and we send them to Gaby’s Cafe and Aroma Thyme, to all the restaurants, to see a show or check out the museum.”
At the three-year-old Borscht Belt Museum, director Andrew Jacobs is excited about this summer’s Borscht Belt Festival, happening July 26-27, which will feature Elon Gold headlining a tribute to comedy legend Robert Klein along
with over 30 other comedians. A street fair on Sunday will fill downtown with klezmer music, workshops, artisanal vendors, and the enticing aromas of Jewish food.
The museum, meanwhile, is open six days a week with “And Such Small Portions!” an exhibit exploring the intersection of comedy and food in the Catskills of yore. “New Arrivals,” beginning this summer, will showcase selected items that have been recently donated to the museum’s archives. “We’ve gotten a deluge, and this will be a curated glimpse of the tip of the iceberg,” says Jacobs. “And we got a federal grant for our oral history project, so we’re working with an animator who’s going to make a film from six of them. We have collected 120 so far.”
Diverse and Happy
Alongside an award-winning rural hospital, topflight library, and live theater, Ellenville has also retained another asset that many a community lacks these days: in-depth local news served weekly, both digitally and on paper, from the Shawangunk Journal. Alex Schiffer bought the Ellenville Journal in 2006 and has been striving to bring the good news and the bad without fear or
favor. “The community’s still struggling a bit,” he says. “The village finances, the budget, there’s just not enough money there. And big projects like the Nevele and Cresco are delayed; something might be going on in the background, but it’s hard to know.”
Nevertheless, he agrees there’s hope in the air. “There are six places to get coffee right now, which may be a little crazy, but good places. And Tops is great—nice supermarket, communityminded people who do a lot of advertising, which we love. The people who came up during the pandemic are sincerely invested: they’re getting on volunteer boards, they’re running for office. By and large, the people here are really good people. And even though the school district and the paper have had issues, I’d send my kids there all over again—it’s a diverse place and a happy one.”
Before Ellenville’s struggles with deindustrialization, it was an innovative boomtown. Businesses here didn’t just make things, they originated them—the modular electric TV antenna, the switchblade knife, and the pogo stick all have Ellenville in their DNA— and brought prosperity and renown. Now, at Flowering Sun Ecology Center, permaculturists
have pivoted to growing gourmet mushrooms and are experiencing the fruits of their communal labor with sales to farmers’ markets, stores, and restaurants across the tri-state area.
“We’re very vertically integrated—the only thing we don’t do here is produce the spawn, although we’re getting into that,” says Sam Newman, Flowering Sun’s product developer.
“We see ourselves as educators more than anything, and we’re slowly rolling out classes and workshops. We have a CSA, or people can just reach out to us if they want mushrooms. There’s a lot of value-added potential with mushrooms, and we’ve gotten a FuzeHub manufacturing grant from the state to scale up our value-added facility and develop all sorts of products, drinks, and cosmetics and infused honeys.”
While challenges still lie ahead for the village, Ellenville’s mycorrhizal network hums with potential all over town. The picturesque spot nestled between the mountain ranges may have been down for a minute, but has moved far beyond the grasp of cynics who’d have counted it out—and they’re hoping you’ll stop over for a show, a festival or a good meal, and check out the good news.
Brianna Dunker at the opening of her healing and life coaching center, Soul 2 Soul, on Center Street.
The Warwick Way THE TOWN AND ITS VILLAGES GROW TOGETHER
By Jane Anderson Photo by David McIntyre
The town of Warwick and its villages, through heir long history of cooperation, embody the spirit of the Helen Keller quote: “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” Words became action in November, when over the course of two weeks, the Jennings Creek wildfire burned more than 5,300 acres of land straddling the New York-New Jersey state line at Sterling Forest State Park within the town of Warwick, on the eastern shore of Greenwood Lake. Drought conditions and wind gusts whipped energy into the wildfire; schools closed, and volunteers streamed to the Greenwood Lake Fire Department with donations of water and food. Both Warwick Town Supervisor Jesse Dwyer and Greenwood Lake Mayor Tom Howley praised the coordination by the Orange County Department of Emergency Services.
“‘Impressive’ is a poor adjective to describe the response,” Howley says, recalling that Orange County provided critical communications systems, including radios and drones, in addition to accounting for everything and everyone.
Dwyer is an EMT in Greenwood Lake, and is familiar with emergency services. Still, he appreciates how quickly the county rallied. “We recognized early on that this fire would require a big response,” he says. “I’m happy with how the county responded.” Tragically, one park ranger lost his life in a tree-felling accident in the fire’s early stages; however, no structures within the town were lost.
More than 400 volunteer fire departments—
from the tip of Long Island up to Buffalo, and into New Jersey—responded with trucks and personnel. For days, the smoky air was swarmed with water-bearing Blackhawks and Chinooks that filled buckets from the lake to drop water on the flames.
The final nails in the wildfire’s coffin were experienced “smoke jumpers” from Montana, who rappelled from helicopters into the heart of the fire. One local firefighter recalled turning around, hose in hand, to find a smoke jumper had landed in the woods behind her. Mapping the fire road system in the state park, and improving communication with the state, are two of Dwyer’s goals to improve future fire response.
Partnering to Succeed
On the development front, more than 5,000 acres within the town have been preserved as part of the town’s landmark Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) legislation, and a potential 1,000 additional acres are at the application stage. To put that into perspective, the entire town measures just 67,000 acres. The town’s new partner to help its efforts? Orange County itself, with its own new PDR program.
“We have preserved natural resources as well as property values in the town,” Dwyer says. Those effects trickle to the villages, too, according to Warwick Mayor Michael Newhard. “Over time, the PDR has created a greenbelt of working farms and pushed business growth to its village centers,” explains Newhard, who with his family runs
Newhard’s, a successful department/gift store on the main drag. In a nod to tourism and business, the village recently bought a historic building next to Village Hall to house the Warwick Valley Chamber of Commerce and a visitor center.
Business and Infrastructure
Affordable housing remains an issue, but businesses at the former Mid-Orange Correctional Facility help ease the tax burden, and the town has brought in millions in grants for myriad projects, Dwyer says.
Infrastructure projects loom large, including the imminent repaving of Route 94/17A from the New Jersey line to Goshen. The three-year, $30 million DOT plan includes repairing culverts, installing sidewalks, and adding a roundabout at the intersection of Route 94, Reservoir Road, and County Route 1A. “The outcome will be fantastic, but the process will be difficult,” Dwyer says.
Warwick is also expanding and improving its parks. Mountain Lake Park, the former Kutz Camp, will soon have a new pool. Off Route 94, at the entrance to the village of Warwick, the 14-acre Lewis Woodland will expand through a combination of a gifted parcel and additional property purchased through open space funding from the town, Newhard says.
“Strong villages help define a strong town,” Newhard says. “There is a great deal of communication and camaraderie between elected officials, as well as deep respect for what makes each of these centers unique.”
A group portriat of Warwick residents gathered on the village green in 2023.
Sullivan County Road Trip
The Callicoon Pantry
43 Lower Main Street, Callicoon Thecallicoonpantry.com
Tucked inside the Callicoon Marketplace along the Delaware River, The Callicoon Pantry blends the spirit of a farmers’ market with the mission of a low-waste refillery. The shop, founded by Dania LaScola in 2019, is known for its warm atmosphere and creative in-house offerings inspired by its community.
Many of the shop’s products support low-waste living—including a BYO jar program, prioritizing sustainable product packaging, and sourcing from nearby farms and purveyors as much as possible to reduce food miles. But it’s also the Pantry’s delectable house-made creations and focus on fresh finds that keep customers coming back.
The bestselling Kaleade, a refreshing green juice made weekly with locally sourced ingredients, has become a cult favorite. During warmer months, customers eagerly await the return of the shop’s Creamy Herby Ranch, a vegan ranch dip and spread bursting with flavor from farm fresh herbs.
The shop’s recent expansion has made room for even more locally made products, including a new freezer stocked with handmade bagels and smallbatch ice creams, and a fridge filled with produce from nearby farms.
“The Pantry is a place where people come to chat about dinner inspiration and what variety of lentils are best for their meal, and where being a part of someone’s regular grocery routine means knowing them well enough to cheer them on through different stages of life,” says LaScola. ”It’s a joy to run this shop with a reverence for good food, great people, and the planet that sustains us all.”
The Herbal Scoop
90 Main Street, Narrowsburg Theherbalscoop.com
Find a daily dose of delicious health at The Herbal Scoop. Their wellness drinks and herbal teas are designed by Kendra, a certified herbalist and farmer with 15+ years of experience. They pride themselves on using local ingredients, some even coming straight from their farm, to create refreshing, health-focused recipes. Enjoy vibrant flavors made fresh— right on site. Sip smart, feel great!
2 Queens Coffee
90 Main Street, Narrowsburg 2queenscoffee.com
2 Queens Coffee makes life’s rituals a little more fabulous with locally roasted coffee, fine tea, and sweets! Enjoy delicious coffee with sweeping views of the Delaware River, and friendly staff in a joyful atmosphere.
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The Pantry’s bestselling kaleade.
Cooling Off in the Catskills The Best Pools and Paddling Spots in Delaware County
Anyone who’s spent summer in the Catskill Mountains knows that swimming holes are closely guarded secrets passed only through whispers between good friends. But never fear: locals and day-trippers bound for the Great Western Catskills of Delaware County don’t need to search too hard for a way to beat the summer heat and take a plunge.
Known for its rolling farmland, serene protected forests, and historic hamlets, Delaware County has long drawn artists, writers, and nature lovers looking for quiet beauty and room to roam. With a rich farming legacy, excellent farm-to-table restaurants, a vibrant arts, culture, and shopping scene, and easy access to outdoor recreation, there’s a reason the county continues to be a favorite destination for summer adventures.
From resort stays to serene paddling sessions, here are a few of the best spots for getting out on the water in the Great Western Catskills.
Freshwater Locales with Paddling Aplenty
Delaware County’s sparkling natural waterways offer endless opportunities for exploration.
Nestled in the hills near Andes, Little Pond is a state-operated campground with 67 tent and trailer sites and a 13-acre pond that feels like it’s worlds away. There’s a picturesque sand beach and swimming area, rentals for rowboat, paddle boat, kayak, and canoes, and a leisurely forested trail around the pond’s perimeter. The pond also
has freshwater fishing access, and is minutes away from the world-renowned Beaverkill fly fishing stream.
In Halcottsville, Kayaking New York at Susan’s Pleasant Pheasant Farm offers kayak, row boat, and paddle board rentals for navigating peaceful Lake Wawaka. The serene waters offer an unhurried day on the water, complete with plentiful nature sightings and mountain views.
Downriver in Hancock, OARS (Outdoor Adventure Recreation Services) hosts tubing trips along the Delaware River with pick up and drop off at dedicated access points. With its mix of gentle currents, lush surroundings, and scenic overlooks, this stretch of river is ideal for relaxed summer adventuring. They also have kayak, canoe, and paddle board rentals for use on the Cannonsville Reservoir.
Accommodations with Luxe Poolside Vibes
Looking to stay a few nights? Plenty of accommodations across Delaware County feature on-site pools that combine rustic Catskills charm with modern-day luxury.
The larger-than-life digs at the Roxbury at Stratton Falls feel like they were taken directly from a Broadway stage, with eight fantastical tower cottages and a circa-1800s mansion with seven rooms that take their themes from the property’s storied past. Pair a dip at the Cooked Cabana Pool and Spa’s sparkling outdoor pool with a session in the hot tub or dry sauna for complete relaxation.
In Margaretville, Homestead Farm Resort offers a classic Catskills retreat with a familyfriendly vibe with roots that stretch back to 1819. The charming 150-acre property has a cozy cottage, a seven-room motel, a large outdoor pool, and paddle and row boats on its private lake.
Want private access to an entire pool? Breezy Hill Farmhouse in Fleischmanns provides exclusive access to its pool to anyone who rents out its entire five-bedroom farmhouse located right next to the B&B. Enjoy a cozy getaway with friends or the family and take advantage of leisurely daytime swims.
Town Pools That Feel Like Hidden Gems
For those looking to take a splash with a lifeguard nearby, community pools in Andes, Delhi, Franklin, Stamford, Walton, and Downsville offer an easy way to get some time in the water. With a relaxed vibe and mountain views, all these public pools offer the best of summertime in a small town—plus several have swim lessons and additional programming all summer long.
Whether it’s kayaking in a river known for its exceptional trout fishing or reclining poolside drink in hand, Delaware County’s mix of wild beauty and approachable hospitality makes it a standout destination for summer adventures in the Catskills. For more inspiration on where to go and what to do in Delaware County, visit Greatwesterncatskills.com.
Homestead Farm Resort in Margaretville
Summer Arts Party
Pop-Up
Portraits by David McIntyre
Thanks to all who attended our Summer Arts party at the Fuller Building on June 10!
OPPOSITE: Top row: Abby Joy Strauss, event and production management; Steve Bohn, lyricist, Song Supply Company/Sales WDST Radio Woodstock; Aleksa Sorgatz; Alexandria Wojcik, deputy mayor, Village of New Paltz/poet/pop culture writer and historian/ performance artist; Alan Goolman, creative director, 68 Prince Street Gallery and the Lockwood Gallery.
Middle row: Amelia Williams, artist; Amanda Russo Rubman, artist; Jennifer Hicks, director, Jane St. Art Center; Amelia Biewald, artist and curator with dog TK; Anna Conlan, Neil C. Trager Director, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art.
Bottom row: Anne-Marie Mueschke, photographer; Diane Aznoe, public health preparedness educator; Elizabeth Arnold, artist; Barbara Prisament, marketing and PR consultant; Frank Gaglio, event promoter/antiques dealer.
Inset: Bea Ortiz, artist/founder, Make Your Own Art, Ilona Kohlova, immersive artist, Cris Ortiz, neon artist, Michael Suchorsky, musician, Mace Fleeger, creative director.
Top row: Greg Mills, Community Presents with Brian Whitney and Sydney Schutte; Christina Varga, Varga Gallery and Studio/ Phoenicia Festival of the Arts; Cynthia McVay, author, A Field of My Own: A Memoir of Place; Danny McLean, retired and Carrie Molay, writer.
Middle row: Sajaa Ahmed, local lifelong government servant and Ray Tracy; Jessica Albert, development and events manager, Garrison Art Center and Catherine Graham, executive director, Garrison Art Center; Shelley Eshkar and Elizabeth Simon, Magenta Art Projects; Stacie Flint, artist/board member Roost Arts Hudson Valley, Jeff Eckes, Marcy Bernstein founder, Roost Arts Hudson Valley; Ian Belknap and Grace Rowan, New York Stage and Film; George Kimmerling, BAU Gallery and Soli Pierce, artist.
Bottom row: Carolina Wheat, Jessica Hargreaves, Liz Nielsen, Elijah Wheat Showroom; Sydney Berk, actor and Sarah Reny; Anthony Lovenheim Irwin, Stonykill Coffee & Records and Amelia Toelke, artist; Annie Fox, singer and jewelry designer; Theodore Garrett, actor.
Inset: Sophie Eisner, artist.
OPPOSITE: Top row: Sandra Caldwell, actress/writer HBO; Kim Proal, senior director, Moroccanoil and Anderson Page, property manager; Lauren Whitney and Ramona Whitney; Kasia Skorynkiewicz, artist/IN 7 curator and Maria Fernanda Hubeaut; Margaret Carney, director, International Museum of Dinnerware Design and Bill Walker, museum design specialist.
Second row: Phyllis Segura, painter; Robert Supina, creative director, Supina Creative; Ruy Sanchez-Blanco, assistant director, Unison Arts; Natale Adgnot, artist at Natale Adgnot Studio and Director of N/A Project Space; Liz Shaw, designer/ creative consultant, Liz Shaw Design.
Third row: Kelly M. O’Brien, Material Projects Space; Mike Scherb; Nicole Smyle, Smyle and Associates, LLC; Seth Aylmer, artist; Wayne Coe, artist.
Bottom row: Michael Lockwood, architect/ gallerist and Alison Hoffman, artist; Lee Courtney and John Verner, photographers, Clear Lotus Photo; Nina Doyle, executive director, Woodstock School of Art and Heather Caufield; Paula Kucera and David Kucera, gallerists; Rhonda Lowry, operations manager, Women’s Studio Workshop.
Top row: Kate Murray, Quick Brown Fox Letterpress with JoAnna Kang and Ziggy Mintz; Mimi Young, Little Bit Creates and Richard Hall; Hoodie Crescent, designer/artist and Karl Koeller; Maxine Davidowitz, artist and Rudy Vavra; Phyllis McCabe, photographer and Hugh Reynolds, journalist.
Middle row: Jessica Simms, researcher and writer, SimmsWrites and M. D., data engineer; Mark Thomas Kanter, artist and real estate broker and Heather Hutchison, visual artist; Kristin Reimer, Photomuse and Kevin Kobasic, illustrator; Alison Davy, executive director, Bridge Street Theatre; Olga Joan, maker and business owner and Naomi Iguchi; Marni Pasch, Ashokan Center and Scott Pasch.
Bottom row: Sam Peri, Intobirds.com; Patricia O’Brien, artist with Meryl Meisler and Vis; the Little Histories crew: Chelsea Mize, Sage Higgins, Casey O’Connell, and Marcella Guarino.
Above: Women’s Photo Collective of the Hudson Valley: Morgan Gwenwald, Joan Barker, Kelly Sinclair, Jill Enfield, Judit German-Heins, and Kelly Sinclair.
rural intelligence
Endangered Diners
100 Years of Chrome and Coffee B y Jamie Larson
For the past quarter century, the region’s culinary identity has been celebrated as a destination for elegantly agrarian dining experiences. That’s great. But temples to an older, greasier food tradition still lay scattered across the countryside. Historic, working-class, nononsense, prefabricated diners. With their gleaming steel exteriors, vinyl booths, elbow-worn countertops, and timeless menus, these living pieces of local heritage are worth a pilgrimage.
Dan’s Diner
1005 Route 203, Chatham Built in 1925, this century-old Jerry O’Mahony dining car is one of the oldest operating diners in the country. Dan Rundell rescued the dilapidated 18-seat diner (formerly “Moe’s Diner” in Durham, Connecticut) from the scrap heap in 1993, and spent 12 years meticulously restoring it to its former glory.
The result is a time machine, complete with original tilework, etched glass windows, and gleaming nickel trim. Open seven days a week, Dan’s serves classic American breakfast and lunch in a setting that exists in very few places on Earth. In 2021, Rundell’s brother’s grandson, Austin McComb, took over as owner, operator, and cook at Dan’s.
“I grew up eating here,” says McComb, who’s
lived in Spencertown all his life. “It would be a shame to see this turn into a high-end place with $40 eggs Benedict.”
Martindale Chief Diner
1000 State Route 23, Craryville
The Martindale is a 1958 Silk City model diner opened by diner entrepreneur Bert Cons as part of his “Chief” chain along the Taconic Parkway. With its classic stainless-steel facade and cozy booths, the diner has changed little over the decades.
Located right off the parkway, it’s easy to get in and out of. The iconic and somewhat folk-arty hand-painted sign of the waving chief welcomes travelers off the highway with his trademark blank stare and a malformed hand.
Historic Village Diner
7550 North Broadway, Red Hook
A silver bullet in the heart of Red Hook, the Historic Village Diner is a 1951 Silk City dining car and the first diner in New York State listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Prefabricated by Paterson Vehicle Co. and originally known as the Halfway Diner, it served travelers roughly “halfway” between New
York City and Albany. Over the years, the diner changed hands and even changed locations a few times (it spent some years near the Taconic Parkway), but ultimately returned home to Red Hook, not far from where it first operated in the 1950s. Today its gleaming stainless exterior still sports the old name, “Halfway Diner,” painted on the side. Inside, you’ll find a lovingly maintained period interior. The menu is classic diner all the way. The small town cultural touchstone is currently for sale but its placement on the historic register means little will ever change about its looks at least.
Oakhurst Diner
19 Main Street, Millerton
This unassuming diner, smushed into the base of a steep village street, is a 1950s Silk City model that’s been given a new lease on life. After operating under various names over the years (locals remember it as the Millerton Diner, then Coach’s Diner), it was revamped and rechristened as the Oakhurst in 2010. The modest chrome exterior and cozy counter might suggest a humble greasy spoon, but Oakhurst’s menu is surprisingly inventive. Alongside classic comfort foods like omelets and club sandwiches, you’ll
The Historic Village Diner in Red Hook. Photo by Houlihan Lawrence
find vegetarian options and even Vietnamese pho. The family-owned operation sources ingredients from local farms and has turned Oakhurst into a modern gathering spot without losing its classic character.
M&J’s Taste of Home
53 Park Street, Adams, Massachusetts
Housed in the 1949 Worcester Lunch Car Company diner on Park Street, this spot has been part of the community for over 75 years. Formerly operating as the Miss Adams Diner, it served everything from mill worker breakfasts to comfort-food staples. Inside, you’ll still find the vintage tiled counter, stainless steel finishes, and the original clock above the grill. The diner reopened in June 2024 under new ownership as M&J’s Taste of Home, run by Jeanne and Mark Lapier. While retaining classic breakfast and lunch dishes, M&J’s places a strong emphasis on inhouse baking. The team produces muffins, whoopie pies, raspberry thumbprint cookies, cakes, and other scratchmade sweets daily. The Lapiers bring years of catering and baking experience along with a focus on kids and family.
Hudson Diner
717-719 Warren Street, Hudson
On June 14 the former Diamond Street Diner, which became Grazin’ in 2011, was reopened as Hudson Diner. The project is a collaboration between well known Meat Hook butcher shop owner, Brent Young, and Mel the Bakery partner, Ashley Berman. The diner is currently only open for dinner, with plans to expand to lunch soon. The goal, the owners say, is to open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, seven days a week. The menu is elevated classics and contemporary cocktails.
Previously, the Diamond Street Diner was a fixture of pregentrification Hudson, a classic 1940s stainless steel diner wedged between taller buildings and named after the city’s historic prostitution district, it was shuttered abruptly in 2009.
Diamond Street was replaced by Grazin’, which became the first restaurant in the world to be completely Animal Welfare Approved, sourcing all its grass-fed beef and organic ingredients from local farms. Grazin’ closed in 2024.
CLOSED FOR NOW BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
The Elizaville Diner (For Sale) 573 East Kerleys Corners Road, Elizaville
This 1956 Kullman Dutchess diner was relocated in 2005 from its original home in Lebanon, Pennsylvania—where it had served as the Eatwell Diner—to its current spot in Elizaville. Purchased just before a planned demolition, the restored chrome-and-stainless-steel classic has a vernacular charm— down to the original counter stools and terrazzo floors. Before closing and going on the market, it served diner-style classics along with cocktails and local beer. The restaurant also gained attention as a film location—notably featured in Jim Jarmusch’s tepid zombie polemic The Dead Don’t Die
Dove’s Diner (Hopefully Soon), Formerly West Taghkanic Diner
1016 Route 82, Ancram
This big metal baby began life in 1953 as another one of Bert Cons’s Taconic Parkway diners. With a sleek steel exterior and long counter, it’s in near mint condition—though, it did have its neon “Chief” sign removed a few years back.
For decades, locals and travelers stopped off the parkway for classic breakfasts—“The Big Chief” plate of eggs, pancakes, toast, and meat among them. After a modern revival that fused classic diner fare with farm-sourced ingredients, the operation closed last year and was sold. It’s been reported that later this year the diner will reopen as Dove’s Diner—a fresh take led by former Kitty’s chef Lauren Stanek and Dew East Farm’s Emma Rosenbush.
Collins Diner
53 Main St, Canaan, Connecticut
The last Litchfield dining car diner is currently closed but has hardly changed in 80 years. The diner was manufactured by the Jerry O’Mahony Company in 1942—a small, classic streamlined car with a rounded roof and porcelain enamel panels, it was delivered by rail and set down on Main Street, where it still sits today. From the curvedglass block entryway to the twelvestool counter, the Collins Diner was iconic. For now, its future is unknown.
Great Barrington, MA • 413-528-0100 • mahaiwe.org
Tapas & Pizza Award Winning Wine List
65 Church Street Lenox, MA 01240
413-637-9171
Tapas & Pizza Award Winning Wine List 65 Church Street Lenox, MA 01240 413-637-9171
www.bravalenox.com
www.bravalenox.com
paul reiser
marc broussard
rosanne cash with john leventhal fri jul 25 at 8pm
fri jul 11 at 8pm
wed jul 23 at 8pm
The Great Wait to Inhale
State
Slow to Light Up Lounge Licenses
By Melissa Esposito
If you’re among the many who have daydreamed about Amsterdam-style cafes here in the Hudson Valley with the opportunity to consume cannabis in a commercial space—well, it looks like it’s going to be a while.
Since the rollout of cannabis legalization in New York, those working in the industry are usually the first to tell you that the journey has been marred with setbacks, from rushed application deadlines to delayed approvals and fluctuating expectations. It’s gotten to the point where the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), which governs all of New York State, is hesitant to even give an estimate of when the next phase of the rollout will occur—that phase being legally approved consumption in commercial spaces: bars, restaurants, lounges, and the like. Although the application deadline was at the end of 2023, more than halfway through 2025 the OCM says there is no estimated date in sight for the process to be finalized, citing concerns about regulations for public health and safety as a main factor. But it isn’t just consumers who are impacted and impatient.
“One of the biggest challenges with not knowing when this next phase will be legalized is that people who applied for their license over a year ago are still waiting to hear if they’ve even been approved,” explains Tamika Dunkley, who is involved in the regional cannabis industry as an OCM-approved technical assistance partner, and has helped several dispensaries and microbusinesses to navigate the complex process of applying and maintaining regulations. She is also the cofounder of the Cannabis Roll Call, a quarterly networking event that brings together stakeholders across the industry for education and networking. “What we’re seeing is that many people who applied and then sought out buildings so that they’d be ready to open their business once approved, have now been paying rent for nearly two years on a viable space for a business they can’t open. They’re just waiting it out without knowing: Is there a six-month plan? A two-year plan? The OCM is being cautious about giving any promises or expectations about a timeline because of how many delays have occurred so far.”
New York
Cannabis consumption lounges, like the one pictured above in Amsterdam, were written into the 2021 MRTA bill, but regulations have still not been set in New York.
Why the Holdup?
From the start, the OCM has expressed the need for meticulous attention to detail when rolling out legalization; after all, it’s an industry that has gone from nonexistent (or, completely underground), to generating a billion dollars for the state in less than two years. At the same time, internal turnover within the office, and the state’s promised dedication to social equity initiatives, have each created their own unanticipated delays.
“New York has done well with keeping to their social equity commitment; the numbers don’t lie and the state has more Black, brown, and womenowned cannabis businesses than any other state. But the rollouts have been intense,” Dunkley says. “I think that for consumption lounges, if they collaborated with other governing authorities like the New York State Liquor Authority, which regulates a similar industry, they could’ve been provided with input toward creating safe public consumption lounges a little faster. Instead, they started from the ground up—it’s been a challenge for them and frustrating for applicants. I see it when I provide technical assistance, too—even when people can get through the paperwork, they still don’t know what to expect.”
The delay in consumption lounge rollout seems to stem from two distinct concerns: for one, applications for licenses are still in review. Two, the OCM wants to ensure they leave no stone unturned in terms of public health and safety.
“Our application window ended December 2023 and we divided the more-than 7,000 applications we received into two cohorts: the November queue and the December queue,” explains John Kagia, the OCM’s Director of Policy. “As of June this year, we were still reviewing the November queue. We are reviewing as much as we can, but we received such a large number of applications across the entire supply chain that it’s still going to take time, and we ask that people please continue to be patient with us.”
“Consumption in public is still being built out on the regulatory side, but don’t lose sight that it’s already baked into the law for people to be able to consume in alternative spaces.”
—Jonn Kaiga, director of policy at the Office of Cannabis Managment
Clearing the Smoke
The concerns around health and safety regulations aren’t just for consumers, but extend to the general public and employees—and then to break that down further, there are also discussions for separate guidelines around smoking versus edibles. “We’re still developing regulations around the many questions that need to be addressed in terms of public policy,” Kagia says. “For example, there’s the question of combustion use in these spaces. The state has spent the last nearly 30 years stamping out cigarettes, so there’s a debate to be had about whether it’s appropriate to allow combustible consumption in an indoor space. And then if it will be permitted, what sort of air quality will need to be maintained so that other guests and staff are not subjected if they don’t want to
“New York has done well with keeping to their social equity commitment; the numbers don’t lie and the state has more Black, brown, and women-owned cannabis businesses than any other state.”
— Tamika Dunkley, cofounder of Cannabis Roll Call
be? Workplace safety comes into play here—if smoking is permitted indoors, how then do we regulate the way an employee works in these spaces, when staff can potentially be exposed to smoke all day?”
Kagia also brings up the question of infused foods and edibles. There’s debate on whether they need rules to ensure foods prepared on site receive an even dosing on a consistent basis. “We’ve had interest from people who own restaurants who want to offer infused smoothies, baked goods, THC pizza,” he says. “The question is: How do you ensure the THC is not all in one bite, and that the meals are consistent to what the consumer expects in terms of dosing? There are a few different models: food being prepared on site, food processed and packaged off-site with appropriate dosing, or a combination where maybe instead of preparing a cannabis-infused rice bowl, the chef creates a standard rice bowl but then the guest is given a packaged THCinfused soy sauce on the side.”
Kagia says that the best way to stay up to date on progress is by monitoring publications and board meetings from the OCM. “Board meetings are a top way to stay up to date, so we’d like to urge people to continue checking in,” Kagia says. (A full archive of OCM board meetings are kept at Cannabis.ny.gov.)
“Another thing that we want consumers to remember is that consumption in public is still being built out on the regulatory side, but don’t lose sight that it’s already baked into the law for people to be able to consume in alternative spaces. Yes, it’s critically important to consider who’s around you, such as children or the healthcompromised, if you smoke, but even if we’re still working on regulation for approved consumption sites, we do want people to understand there’s already a great deal of flexibility in terms of safely consuming cannabis.”
Now that New York State’s recreational cannabis rollout is at last up and running, the Hudson Valley is blessed with experts who are growing, crafting, and marketing a creative cornucopia of products. To grasp the breadth and depth of what’s out there, consider a visit to the newly opened Grounded in Poughkeepsie, where the dispensary menu features 70 locally grown selections.
When Dutchess County natives Frank and Stephanie Barone and their parents Richard and Angela Barone were granted one of the state’s first licenses, creating a one-of-a-kind dispensary for their community was top of mind. “We’re deeply rooted in Hyde Park and Poughkeepsie,” he says. “Our mission is to give back to our neighbors, and provide them with the level of customer service they deserve. We’re very interactive here. Someone from our family—whether it’s myself, Stephanie, Richard, or Angela—is always here in the shop,
Strong Roots
Dutchess County Natives Open Grounded Dispensary
and our team is phenomenal, always ready to offer warm, knowledgeable engagement.”
Alongside larger local growers like Hudson Cannabis, Hepworth Farms, and Harney Brothers, Grounded focuses on showcasing the work of micro-producers. “We buy the wares of very small brands, so we have a selection of small-batch products in here that you’ll have a hard time finding anywhere else,” Barone says. “Some of the microbusinesses that we work with are just producing an insanely high quality of flower and product.”
Barone says that each product is as distinctive as each human who walks in their doors. “That’s the thing about cannabis—it’s really a journey of trial and error for each individual of finding the variety that will enhance that person’s life in precisely the way they prefer,” he says. “You can come in here and talk to any of us about what you’re after and discover a non-intoxicating CBD product, the perfect smoke for movie night, or just some great recommendations.
We’re all about education and safety here.”
The vibe at Grounded is all about healing, learning and fun. The dispensary has its own salt cave, where guests are welcome to pause for a mind-clearing deep breath or five. Well-attended “Brunch and Grows,” held the third Saturday of the month, invite the public to come meet and learn from a professional grower. Frank’s wife Stephanie, who is also a yoga teacher, holds classes on site on the fourth Sunday of the month, and the donations collected go to a local charity.
“We did the first two with Hope On a Mission, and we’re actively looking for others who’d like to partner with us. We want to host and sponsor all kinds of events to bring the community together, give back, and find ways for this revolution to benefit everyone, even people who don’t choose to consume cannabis.”
Hvgrounded.com
HERbal Woodstock
17 Tinker Street, Woodstock Herbalwoodstock.com
Pronounced with an emphasis on HER, HERbal Woodstock is 100 percent women/mother-owned, built, and run by trusted plant educators with local roots and a track record of serving the community. The only legal cannabis dispensary in Woodstock, HERbal Woodstock offers a selection of consciously curated products from smaller, independent growers, presented in an atmosphere that’s comfortable and easy to navigate. Order ahead or come in for personalized service from expert budtenders ready to help people get “back to the garden.” A portion of sales goes directly to Woodstock and Ulster County.
Royal Blend Dispensary
2223 Route 32, Kingston Royalblenddispensary.com
Royal Blend Dispensary brings a cozy, curated cannabis experience to Kingston. With a friendly atmosphere and great selection of premium, locally sourced products (flower, prerolls, edibles, vapes, and more!), this boutique dispensary offers a warm welcome to new and experienced consumers alike. Royal Blend is where Hudson Valley “chill” meets elevated wellness. Now offering delivery.
Valley Greens
939 Central Avenue, Peekskill Valleygreensny.com
A retro-inspired cannabis store where nostalgia meets modern convenience. Offering a welcoming and approachable experience for customers of all backgrounds. Inspired by the local general stores of Peekskill’s past, Valley Greens aims to create a trustworthy atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable exploring their carefully curated selection of cannabis products.
Main Street Mary Jane
Seed-to-Shelf Dispensary Hudson Valley Jane Opens in Beacon
Farm-to-table dining is a bedrock principle of the Hudson Valley’s food and beverage culture, so it only makes sense that the region’s recreational cannabis industry—led in large part by farmers themselves—would follow suit. When licensing became available last year for micro dispensaries, Stacey Shurgin and Ben Weiner, owners of Hudson Valley Jane, jumped at the opportunity to open a dispensary in Beacon.
“We’re a New York micro-licenced business with a farm in Ancram and a dispensary on Main Street in Beacon, which means we can engage in the full range of the cannabis business from cultivation to processing to retail, and allow our customers to know exactly where their cannabis comes from,” Shurgin says. “This model creates transparency about what we grow, how we grow it, and what a consumer is ultimately buying and putting into their body. We even have a live video feed of our farm inside so the store shoppers can see first hand where their cannabis is coming from.”
Shurgin and Weiner, longtime friends with a shared background in the real estate industry, began dreaming of teaming up to enter the legal recreational market not long after Shurgin purchased a farm just before the pandemic. “It was 150-acres of farmland that hadn’t been
used in years, and I wanted to bring it back into farming.” Shurgin explains. “Ben was a legacy grower and when we found out that cannabis was being legalized in New York, we decided to get a cultivation license for the farm—and then the idea of starting a cannabis microbusiness felt really manageable.”
The smaller-scale microbusiness license, designed for legacy and small growers, would offer them the ability to oversee everything seed-toshelf. “Once we got the license, we were steadfast in creating the most sustainable type of business we possibly could,” she says.
Thanks to their backgrounds, the founders tapped into a network of friends and colleagues in engineering, textile design, sustainable heating, and more—bringing Hudson Valley Jane to life from the ground up in just 13 months. The result is a revitalized working farm with a state-ofthe-art greenhouse that uses geothermal loops for year-round temperature control, a rainwater capture system for irrigation, and energy-efficient lighting to support healthy plant growth.
The storefront on Main Street in Beacon continues that thoughtful design—a warm, boutique space that blends modern barn charm with upscale finishes. “We’re not your typical
dispensary—it’s peaceful and thoughtfully designed,” says Shurgin. “Think wood beams, lo-fi lighting, and reclaimed wood shelves Ben built himself.”
“It’s cozy,” Weiner adds. “There’s a warmth that makes it great for those who know what they’re looking for, but also those who are exploring and want to learn.”
In terms of products, the shop offers flower, edibles, and accessories. Shurgin notes that dosing education is a passion of hers, as a “late bloomer” cannabis consumer who found that the right dose of an infused gummy could take the edge off after a long day. For those who prefer flower or pre-rolls, their “Boujee Ben” and BB collections— ironically named because Weiner is notoriously down to Earth—offers a range of strains in various potencies, meticulously cultivated to the standards of what they call “craft cannabis.”
“What we’re doing is truly a continuation of the values of the farm-to-table movement,” Shurgin says. “It’s in our ethos to maintain transparency in our agriculture and education in our shop to ensure the highest quality products and experience, from our farm to your hands.”
Hudsonvalleyjane.com
Photo by Marc Goldberg Photography
Rebecca Martin
She
(Sunnyside Records)
The headline of a New York Times review of a 2011 Rebecca Martin club gig reads: “Spare Vocals Illuminate Emotions Underneath.” That’s still an apt-and-accurate description of Martin’s aesthetic, especially as it’s heard on She, the first full album of original songs she’s released in a dozen years. Martin’s purity of approach is remarkably intimate and vulnerable. These folk- and jazz-influenced art songs are arranged for solo voice and acoustic guitar. Sometimes Martin’s vocals are multitracked, allowing her to harmonize with herself. The sum effect forefronts Martin’s sophisticated melodicism and her ethereal vocals, almost dissolving any questions about genre.
The fifty-something Maine native has worked as a chef, an MTV production manager, and a land preservationist. Now based in Kingston, Martin recorded the bulk of the album in Portugal, with additional recording handled by Scott Petito in Catskill. Martin’s songs are often populated by balancing acts. People literally fall in several of her tunes. About one character, she says, “I guess one foot on the ground will simply have to do.” Unspoken or vague allusions to darkness, trouble, brokenness, of the physical and emotional kind, are often subtly implied. In the kickoff track, “Play for Me,” Martin sings, “Music is for anyone who’s open to hear / There’s nothing between us but notes in the air.” The beauty of She is found in that air.
Seth Rogovoy
Julie Beth Napolin Only the Void Stands Between Us (Silver Current Records)
Author. Educator. Singer-songwriter. Beacon’s Julie Beth Napolin floats between disciplines with graceful, ghostly purpose. Napolin here makes her solo debut with the gorgeous Only the Void Stands Between Us
On hazy, sprawling space trips like the title cut, “Sawdust,” “Fire in the City,” and a startling reinterpretation of Lungfish’s mantra-like “Pray for the Living,” former Citay and Meridians member Napolin’s acoustic guitar and distant voice are swathed in watery, monochromatic washes of synth, violin, and light electric fuzz. A sublime experimental psychedelic offering, it’s perfect to bliss out to on a sun-dappled summer afternoon (or a hibernation-inclined winter eve), its seven dreamy, drone-y tracks lingering in the same somnambulistic realm inhabited by Six Organs of Admittance, whose Ben Chasny is an effusive fan—odds are you’ll be one too, once this disc wafts into your earbuds.
—Peter Aaron
Gary’s Dream Pretty Blue (Independent)
Before listening to the contents within, gazing at the album artwork, you peer into a bedroom. Attending to the music inside, you step fully in. With the dream pop of Gary’s Dream’s debut album, Pretty Blue, you’re not just in any bedroom: You’re in the essence of a bedroom. The opening track, “Edges,” starts somniferously with Vive Tilson’s ethereal vocals (we’re in the warm bedroom) and ends in four-on-the-floor drums from Shelby Surrano and overdriven guitar from Ryan Surrano (now we’re in the dank basement of a house show). Other songs have similar builds. Tracks like “The Only” and “Valensteins” sway like dandelions in the breeze, but by their ends, the vocals are belted, the overdrive is engaged, the cymbals crash, and the florets fly off. Reverb-soaked guitars abound. Spectral singing rings through. Nostalgic synths bring us back to childhood, to analog TVs, answering machines—to the bedroom. Above all, Pretty Blue is…blue. It’s the blue of approaching summer. It’s the blue of the bedroom walls. Welcome to Gary’s Dream’s blue world.
—Tristan Geary
SOUND CHECK | John Blue
Each month we ask a member of the community to tell us what music they’ve been digging.
For over 30 years, Maureen Byrd-Blue and I have passionately dedicated ourselves to selling music at our hat store, Blue-Byrd’s, with a strong focus on the vibrant and soulful genre of blues. Since 2018, I have had the privilege of hosting the renowned blues show “Blue’s People” on Radio Kingston, where I share my deep love for this timeless music with our community. Join me on this journey to celebrate and preserve the power of the blues!
Currently, I am enjoying these new releases: Room on the Porch by TajMo
[AKA Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’], Strike Up the Band by Little Feat, Young Fashion Ways by Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Bobby Rush, Crowin’ Around by Professor Louie and the Crowmatix, Lookout Highway by Charlie Musselwhite, Back for Me by Janiva Magness, Truth Is by Carlyn Wonderland, Grown in Mississippi by John Primer, Heartbreak City by Larry McCray, and Gonna Be 2 of Those Days by Jimmy Vivino.
John Blue is the co-owner of BlueByrd’s Haberdashery and Music shop in Kingston and the host of “Blue’s People,” which can be heard live on Radio Kingston each Saturday from 6-8pm.
A Field of My Own
Cynthia McVay LIVING IN A PLACE PRESS, 2025, $59.88
In the winter of 2000, desperate for an escape from New York City, Cynthia McVay, a working, single mother, bought an old, 300-acre orchard in Esopus. At that time, she was, as the title hints, simply looking for a field to call her own. This memoir is part ode to the land, part retelling of how she worked to create her sustainable home, and part gallery for her wide collection of photographs. Every page is a surprise: from her description of the reconstruction of a 180-year-old Amish barn on her property to a photo of the decapitated head of a rabbit killed by her dog Dexter.
Writers and Liars
Carol Goodman
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHING, 2025, $27.99
Maia Gold is a bitter author, still looking for the big break she should have gotten 15 years ago with the book she wrote at a prestigious writers’ retreat in Greece. Now she has a second chance. When invited to return for a second retreat, Maia is ready for redemption. However, Maia’s path to success is strewn with a dead host and the question about just how far one will go to win literary acclaim. Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author, Red Hook resident, and beloved SUNY New Paltz professor
Carol Goodman’s new novel is sure to keep the reader on their toes and make them question just how truthful writers are.
Pink Unicorn’s Magical Day
Written by Nicole Hughes, Illustrated by Chris Ams
BEACON UNICORN FUND, 2025, $28
Not all heroes wear capes: Some wear big, bright pink unicorn costumes. This children’s book is based on the incredible life of David Shelly, a Beacon resident who was often seen walking around Main Street in a pink unicorn costume. He brings joy to everyone he meets by doing all the things Shelly once did, such as handing out free flowers and ice cream vouchers and starting spontaneous sidewalk dance parties. At the end of the book, a virtual kindness kit gives detailed descriptions of how to bring a little joy to the world and teaches the reader how to be their very own Pink Unicorn. All proceeds go to the Beacon Unicorn Fund.
Hick
Sarah Miller
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE, 2025, $20.99
Lorena Hickok, fondly known as Hick, was a renowned journalist who rose from a childhood littered with abuse at the hand of her alcoholic father and the death of her mother from a stroke, and right into the arms of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Her incredible talent with words led to her covering Roosevelt during her husband’s first campaign. Their relationship unfolded in the years after, set against the backdrop of Hyde Park at Val-Kill Cottage, where Eleanor Roosevelt lived. After reading over 3,000 letters between the two women, Sarah Miller is able to give the reader an intimate look into their relationship.
Vera, or Faith
Gary Shteyngart
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE, 2025, $28
Much like the world they live in, the BradfordShmulkin family is falling apart at the seams. The family is a blend of Jewish, Korean, Russian, and New England cultures. Daddy, Anne Mom, and their son Dylan are all flawed and struggling, seen most vividly by Vera, the narrator of the novel. She is Daddy’s daughter and Anne Mom’s stepdaughter. Struggling to make friends, keep her Daddy and Anne Mom together, and manage her overwhelming desire to connect with her birth mom, she is also keenly observant. Red Hook resident Gary Shteyngart’s sixth novel is eye-opening and bitterly witty.
—Abilene Adelman
Richard Manuel: His Life and Music, from the Hawks and Bob Dylan to the Band
Stephen T. Lewis
SCHIFFER PUBLISHING, 2025, $35
The Band was such a complex cast of radically different personalities that it’s a wonder they kept it together as long as they did, during both their initial 16-year run and their 1980s reunion. You had guitarist Robbie Robertson, the ambitious auteur; drummer Levon Helm, the earthy scrapper; bassist Rick Danko, the easygoing kid; organist Garth Hudson, the cerebral genius; and pianist Richard Manuel, the gentle heart. But, as per the title of the 2019 documentary on the group, once they were brothers—brothers united largely by their shared love of making music. Most groups are lucky enough if they manage to have one amazing vocalist, but the Band had three in Danko, Helm, and Manuel. And the latter’s haunting, angelically soulful voice, steeped in the deepest gospel and rhythm and blues, stood out even among those of his incredibly gifted collaborators; Helm himself considered Manuel to be “the Band’s real lead singer.”
But for the retreating Manuel that gift came at a hard-earned price: a life that swung between the highs of artistic success and the lows of painful sensitivity, with a heartbreaking end. In this lovingly and beautifully assembled book, created with the cooperation and blessing of the late musician’s family, author Stephen T. Lewis explores Manuel’s astonishing life with empathy, reverence, and breathtaking depth.
Born in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, in 1943, Manuel, nicknamed “Beak” as a child for his pronounced nose, was the son of an auto-mechanic father and a home-making mother who’d given up her job as a teacher to raise Richard and his three brothers. Encouraged to learn piano at home and sing in the church choir, he fell hard for the new music called rock ’n’ roll and from there that was it. While still a teenager, he formed his first band, the Revols, with whom he caught the ear and eye of Toronto rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins, who in 1961 hired him away for his backing band, the Hawks. The Hawks—Robertson, Helm, Danko, Manuel, and eventually Hudson—broke away from their former boss two years later and banged around on their own until the newly electrified Bob Dylan tapped them to accompany him on his groundbreaking 1965-66 world tour. Upon settling in the Woodstock-Saugerties area in 1967 with Dylan they recorded the quietly influential Basement Tapes before re-emerging on their own as the Band via their landmark 1968 debut Music from Big Pink—and, with Manuel’s poignantly quavering lead vocal announcing their presence to the world on “Tears of Rage,” the album’s moving opening track, the course of popular music would be forever altered. The likewise game-changing The Band would follow, along with five more studio albums before the group split in 1976; they’d reunite for a few more, without Robertson, in 1983. Plagued by insurmountable self-doubt and the addiction that it fueled, Manuel, his undeniable potential as songwriter never fully realized (his scant seven released compositional credits, which include Big Pink’s “In a Station” and “Lonesome Suzy” and The Band’s “Whispering Pines” are pure marvels), took his own life in 1986.
What’s striking about Rochester native Lewis’s book, besides its 400-page heft and gorgeous graphics (included within are dozens of rare images, many of them from family members and early bandmates), is his ability to describe the music itself so tangibly and to vividly imagine and recreate scenarios throughout Manuel’s life. A triumphant tribute to the man and his music, it puts you right by his side for the whole ride, from his revelation of hearing Howlin’ Wolf and Ray Charles on the radio as a kid through his road-dogging with the Hawks, alternately peaceful and wild Woodstock era, heady times with the Band, and desperate final days. Without question it belongs on the shelf of every Band fan, but also on those of music fans in general.
—Peter Aaron
Candle Bars
The size of the bee had the size of him in it
And the size of the bee got on me
The light saw the light
You couldn’t hear the light
You couldn’t hear the teacup
Sweet flowers blooming in the night
Putting the card on the shelf where the birthday was I want to rhyme differently than you Mobile head
Flower head
Duck head
Swan head
I want to find treasures
—Marlowe Cloud Amling (3 years)
I am shaped by a moment that tested my strength
I remember the clear blue color
Of the pool and how the sun beamed off the water I constantly think of how my Tiny hands grabbed her from A place she should have Never been.
I remember the weight Of the water and the Color of her skin, pale purple. I remember the pool And how it held its breath too I’ll never forget how my Screaming broke the loudness Of a big family pool party And how my mom came Running toward me.
As I watched a helicopter
Take my baby sister away from me I realized, heroes don’t wait they act Even when they’re only 6 years old.
—Emma Benedetto (13 years)
River & Stone
We could use another bedroom.
Or even a separate studio.
We could each use more space.
Fill it with all the stuff
we ever wanted.
You could have the West wing and I the East.
I could write about myself. And you could sing to no one.
We could meet in the middle for dinner forget about art and plan out another addition. We could talk to each other not of light and love but of tile and trim.
We could each then go our separate ways to our own big beds to quietly dream of those times when we had much, much, less.
When we woke, ate, painted, and wrote, all in one room.
When your scent became mine. When my eyes became your mirror.
When we held each other closer than a river does it’s bed of stone.
—Ryan Brennan
Tacit
There is music we cannot hear; and like the flesh nearest an apple stem, it is deeply sweet.
Somewhere beneath the skins of seasons sings the moon, crocus, fallen leaf; a brushing of breath against bone.
It is the unheard music we taste; our throats opening to descending scale, the falling light.
—Alma L. Strickland
The Page Alone on the desk, it casts its own light.
There is no sorrow there or pleasure yet. It has to wait for you to decide between the two, inscribing one or the other
as a way to begin, or so it lets you believe, anyway.
No, it just lies there and will still be the same no matter what words rest on its body.
There will always be enough blank space left over, just as it knew there would be, but you didn’t because you can’t tell the difference yet between telling the truth or making something up. Not that it matters as long as someone like you believes in it too.
—Robert Harlow
Full submission guidelines: Chronogram.com/submissions
The Quiet Work Healing doesn’t beg for witness. It doesn’t parade its progress like a trophy polished daily. It is not made for display— it is made for wholeness.
These days, recovery is branded, turned into a narrative with hashtags, as if your ache needs applause to be real.
But true healing is quieter— it slips in like dawn, changing things slowly before you realize the light has shifted.
It doesn’t need a stage. It needs stillness. It needs honesty unshared, grief unposted, growth uncaptioned.
It’s the choice to forgive when no one is watching. The moment you set a boundary without broadcasting it. The day you weep and don’t explain why.
—Jason Palomino
A Mile in North-South Lake
God damn this water’s cold and all I’m wearing is this slinky Lycra one piece while everyone else has fake seal skin wrapped around their flesh sacks and we’re not made for this cold like a thousand knives not one of us is and I’m meant to swim all the way across? Like, all the way? And back? A mile is what they want from this mess of tendons and muscles and grit and fast too - mapping out the longitude of this dark dank lake water like some goddamned pioneer ripping through crystal in the name of manifest destiny with nothing but shouting lifeguards and neon buoys keeping my sanity in check as the adrenaline starts to build and swell and climb and spindle outward from whateverfuckinggland it is that dopes us up with that beautiful mind eraser—KEEP THE BUOYS TO YOUR LEFT—I’m wading out on pointless stilts into that black liquid as far as I can afford to and playing a hopeless game of chicken with the moment I’ll choose to slice my arms through the placid surface and all at once I’m icy gray and
murky and at home in this oblivion—right—I’m swimming I’m swimming swimming swimming as I’ve done a thousand and one miles before this one it’s no different no more treacherous than that mile in the ocean at dusk when the thresher showed me her teeth and I stayed out of respect for her bravery because we’re the dangerous ones crafting things like fake seal skin to wrap up our fragility and penetrate the places we have no business penetrating just like this one—like this lake on this late autumn morning before the sun has crested those ancient mountains and here comes another hit of that sweet nectar from that wild evolutionary pocket in my core and the warmth returns to me now as I move my shocked bones all together in a symphony of buoyancy I feel the heat returning and that precious orb lingers then moves south to my thighs steering the rudders and bulking the wake and it’s happening—it’s taking hold now like a golden dust swirling around my body finding its way in through hidden crevices and Narnian wardrobes and it collects in my arms my hands and finally my feet and toes which I’ve altogether forgotten exist and at once I’m bright and powerful and golden—I’m illuminated and finally I see that I belong here—of course I do—I’m a selkie a mermaid a siren a water-creature and soon my kin will emerge from the depths of this life juice and remind me that it’s time to come home— they’ll engulf me and kiss me and ask “what took you so long?” and they’ll drag me into the ribbons of water-forest waiting below and bury me in a bed of black lake-earth and I want to stay I want to stay so badly I want to seep right into that obsidian water grave but I’m glowing fire and gliding fluid and I’m already looping back - I’m closing in on the end of my pilgrim mile and I never ever ever want to leave but suddenly my legs carry me out on shore without my consent as they are meant to—as they were programmed to—walking the path our ancestors walked so many many many years before and I kiss those ribbons goodbye as I’d kiss a lover on her gentle longing fingertips for the very last time.
My body is a fucking traitor. Doesn’t it know I belong here?
—Bridget Corso
A Canyon Hawk stretches its cry across the sun’s descent— I echo the longing as the horizon rises
—Richard L. Matta
Portrait of Wortley Clutterbuck
Every family has one, that uncle we would care to shun; he ruins ev’ry holiday, that horrible antique roué. He’s from the former century but sticks around, annoyingly; progressive trends he all abhors, he still supports Louis Quatorze; it isn’t just his politics but his damn jokes which he inflicts. His laugh’s atrocious just to hear, your skin will crawl if he gets near; I care not to scorn my forebears but, ladies, watch your derrières; reluctant to be indiscreet, I warn you lads, at game he’ll cheat; and when he pulls out his snuff, it’s appalling for sophisticates. Oh no, the corkscrew’s in his hand— here comes the prattle we can’t stand; I don’t know what I like the less, his snobbery or boorishness; his ideology’s the worst, he’s to the right of Charles the First; he calls Republics bagatelle, ’tis pity he slipped by Cromwell. When puffing up his wig he’ll give advice as to how we should live; he’s thinking women shouldn’t vote while winking at them, that old goat; when he says youth are all strait-laced, here comes more jokes, all in bad taste; he always vents some dreadful thought such as “The Governess is hot” and then you could hear a pin drop— that damned abominable fop! Colossal is his ignorance, this fossil makes good people wince; unfailingly tentiginous, obscene’s his ev’ry reminisce; to see him in his country clothes provokes a man to tweak his nose; he’d ask for satisfaction, but that’s one time his pie-hole stays shut. “Each scoundrel has good qualities, ev’ry good man, some peccancies”* but then there are some men so dull, they bore you clean out of your skull; you’ll yawn and say it’s getting late but he’s got lots more to narrate; the scourge of fam’ly gatherings— gad save us from his blatherings!
*Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liasons Dangereuses —Wortley Clutterbuck
Moving On
Master Choreographer
Stephen Petronio Closes the Curtain on His Company
By Peter Aaron
The title of Stephen Petronio’s 2014 memoir, Confessions of a Motion Addict, spells it out: The highly influential choreographer is not comfortable standing still. Which means that hitting the stop button on the Stephen Petronio Company, the world-renowned dance troupe he founded just over 40 years ago, wasn’t an easy decision for the 69-yearold, who with his associates in late 2024 made the hard choice to disband the company. The shuttering, Petronio explains, is mainly due to three developments: the recent, commendable reprioritizing of public grants toward social-justice projects; the crippling economic impact of the pandemic on live touring performances; and the predicted assaults by the current administration on arts funding. “[The closure] is definitely bittersweet,” says Petronio. “But when we were coming to that decision, it felt instinctively like the right thing to do. And then, when I put it into action, it was a hellacious feeling, to actually begin to talk about it.”
The Stephen Petronio Company has performed in more than 40 countries and frequently in New York City, where the ensemble appeared for 25 seasons at the historic Joyce Theater. The company has been recognized for its courageously innovative and visually astonishing performances, which have combined modern, ballet, and postmodern dance styles, as well as its tradition-challenging concepts of movement, which have explored notions of gender, identity, and sexuality. Petronio, the recipient of numerous awards and grants that include a 1988 Guggenheim Fellowship, the first American Choreographer Award in 1987, and a 1986 New York Dance and Performance Award (AKA the Bessie), has created dances for the Frankfurt Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Sydney Dance Company, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and other prominent companies. The lengthy list of visual artists, composers, designers, and musicians he’s collaborated with includes Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Wire, Rufus Wainwright, the Beastie Boys, Cindy Sherman, Anish Kapoor, Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead, Diamanda Galas, Robert Longo, Stephen Hannock, Fischerspooner, Teresita Fernandez, Janine Antoni, Mostah Black and David Linton, Narciso Rodriguez, Tara Subkoff, and Patricia Field, as well as fellow choreographers like Anna Halperin and Michael Clark.
Thunderstruck
Petronio grew up in Nutley, New Jersey, about 14 miles outside of Manhattan. “It seemed like it was light years away from New York,” he recalls. “It was a very Jewish and Italian area, and my parents were very conservative Italian-American Catholic. There was no art in the household, really. But when I was a kid they took me to see ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ when Zero Mostel was in it, which was great. And for some reason, every couple of years, my parents and my aunts and uncles would go to [famed East Village nightclub] Club 82 to see drag shows—and they’d take me with them, which I loved. I guess going there was kind of their ‘walk on the wild side’ or something [laughs].”
Soon enough, though, the teenage Petronio, an avid reader, began to further connect with modes of artistic expression. “I joined the drama club in high school,” says the choreographer. “Then I started sneaking into the city on my own for things like my first concert, which was the Byrds in Central Park in the early ’70s.” But his life-changing connection with dance wouldn’t come until 1974, when he became the first in his family to attend college, enrolling at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.
“I went to Hampshire with the idea of being a doctor, so I was originally in the pre-medicine program,” Petronio says. “The first week I was there, I met a girl who I danced with at some parties and she said, ‘You’re a pretty good dancer, you should take a dance class.’ So I did it, and in that class, the thunderbolt struck me. It was an improvisation class, and I just realized I had a body that I didn’t know anything about. It turned out that I have a very lucky body, I’m loose-limbed and I have gifted feet. So that really opened things up and made want to go further.” The next revelation came when he met and studied with gymnast-turnedchoreographer Steve Paxton, one of the founders of the pivotal Judson Dance Theater collective and the inventor of the contact improvisation dance technique. “[Contact improvisation] is kind of a ‘sporty’ form, an ‘art sport.’ So that was my entre into thinking about developing my own language within improvisation.”
Stephen Petronio in 1993. Photo by Annie Leibovitz.
Photo by Robert Altman
New York Groove
In 1979, Petronio moved to New York with the express aim of becoming a professional dancer. Artistically, the move paid off quickly: Within six months of his arrival, he’d become the first male dancer in the Trisha Brown Dance Company, performing with the celebrated troupe for nearly seven years. “I was part of the punk generation, and it was the ’80s in New York,” says Petronio, who was a member of the improv performance group Channel Z from 1982 to 1987. “Rap music was taking off, there was live punk rock, club life, and vibrant street art everywhere. It was the decade of excess, and the speed of everything was being turned up. So that had to happen with movement as well, and I wanted to reflect that with dance. In the ’80s I used to say that my work was ‘virtuoso-like’; I wasn’t ballet-trained, but I was attracted to virtuoso movement, and I wanted to show that with my work. I realized that I could look at ballet and steal things from it without understanding the syntax. That really freed me—all movement was fair game.”
In 1984 he broke off on his own to form the Stephen Petronio Company, which quickly gained recognition for its bold and stunning performances of its leader’s works across the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s in New York and around the world. Working with Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed, however, certainly cemented his New Yorkart credibility forever. “I met Laurie Anderson when she was working with Trisha Brown just when [Anderson’s 1981 single] ‘O Superman’ was hitting,” Petronio says. “I was making a work called ‘City of Twist’ [2002], which was in part a reaction to 9/11, and I needed music for
it. I was reticent to ask her because she’d already done Set and Rest with Trisha Brown. But we’d gotten to know each other while working at BAM, and she said yes, amazingly. Later I mentioned to her how I was trying to find music for ‘The Island of Misfit Toys’ [2004], which was to be the other part of a presentation, and I asked her, ‘What other composer would you want to have your own work appear next to?’ And of course, she was married to Lou Reed. She said, ‘Why don’t you ask Lou?’ I told her that Lou scared the shit out of me [laughs]. But she arranged a meeting between us, and it ended up being great. I went to their apartment and by the end of the meeting Lou and I were sitting cross-legged on the floor, with him playing all this music from his catalog and suggesting songs to use.” With his company growing and needing more space, however, Petronio eventually cast his eyes on the Catskills.
Dance Away
In 2018, thanks in part to an initial $1 million gift from the sales of artworks by his friend and collaborator Anish Kapoor, Petronio opened the 175-acre Petronio Residency Center for dance in Round Top. Serving gourmet meals and other amenities to New Yorkescaping dancers and students, the center thrived for five years—and was one of a handful of arts facilities whose rural locations made them active havens during the pandemic—until the touring income that Petronio’s company had counted on to help support the site was wiped out by the eradication of touring due to Covid; the founder put the residency up for sale in 2023. And
now comes the compounding heartbreak of his winding down of the company itself. But for Petronio, the closing of those chapters is by no means the end of the dance. When the administrators of nearby dance mecca Jacob’s Pillow got wind of what was happening, they invited his storied troupe to give its final performances on their Berkshires grounds.
“All of us here have such deep respect for Stephen and what he’s done over four decades with the company,” says Jacob’s Pillow’s executive director, Pamela Tatge, whose establishment has a long history of working with Stephen Petronio Dance. “Of course, we were very sad to hear about its sunsetting. And right now, with the arts and culture under attack, we felt it was especially important to present these last performances.” Over five dates in July, the farewell program will take place exactly 40 years after SPC’s Jacob’s Pillow debut and will include ‘Chair Pillow’ by Yvonne Rainer as well as some of Petronio’s signature works, including ‘MiddleSexGorge’ (1990), ‘BUD’ (2005), ‘Broken Man’ (2002), ‘American Landscapes’ (2019), and a new iteration of his solo piece ‘Another Kind of Steve’ (2024).
But for Petronio it’s by no means the end. After the last step of the last night, he plans to keep right on moving, into the next phases of dancing and life. “I’m looking forward to doing lots and lots of other projects,” he says.
“At a more leisurely pace.”
Stephen Petronio Dance will give its final public performances at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, Massachusetts, July 23-27. Tickets start at $65.
Stephen Petronio Company in “MiddleSexGorge” in 2016 performance at The Joyce Theater.
Beat of the Heart
FEMI KUTI AND THE POSITIVE FORCE AT ASSEMBLY IN KINGSTON
July 29
Assemblykingston.com
When it comes to Afrobeat, Femi Kuti is the music’s anointed royal heir. The Nigerian singer, composer, saxophonist, and political activist, born Olufela Olufemi Anikulapo Kuti in 1962, is the eldest son of the musical genre’s legendary creator himself, the great Fela Kuti. As a bandleader Femi received his baptism by fire in 1984, when his activist father was arrested by the military at the Lagos airport just as his group Africa 80 was preparing to leave for shows in the US; deputized by his dad to lead the ensemble in his absence, Femi and Africa 80 went on to finish a triumphant American tour. Femi, who holds the world record for the longest single note held via the circular breathing saxophone technique, formed his own band, the Positive Force, in the late 1980s, and has released 10 albums and toured the world with the ensemble. He answered the questions below via email. Femi Kuti and the Positive Force will perform at Assembly in Kingston on July 29 at 8pm. Tickets are $53.63.
—Peter Aaron
In recent decades, Afrobeat has found fertile ground in America, most recently with groups like Antibalas and the Budos Band and the award-winning Off-Broadway musical about your father and his music, “Fela!”. Growing up as the son of the genre’s most influential artist, what has it been like to see Afrobeat resonate so strongly in America and other parts of the world?
I am very happy and proud with how my father’s musical creation has gained huge recognition. I think this is because of my father’s sincerity while creating such a powerful and inspiring genre.
You’ve collaborated with many US artists from the funk, soul, jazz, and hip-hop genres. For you, has there ever been a conscious feeling of connecting American-born music back to its roots in Africa?
Yes, there was a conscious feeling connecting, and it was very important from a historical perspective. We seized the opportunity to discuss Africa, and we did connect.
Although your father and his mother Funmilayo RansomeKuti were outspoken advocates for human rights and other causes, and you have credited your mother, Remilekun Taylor, as your greatest influence. In what ways would you say that your mother has influenced you?
My mother installed virtues and self-discipline in me. If you listen to my track “Walk on the Right Side,” it’s all there—what she meant and more.
You once commented that “Nigerians don’t even know about the history of African slavery, because it’s not included in the textbooks,” and your song “Make We Remember” addresses this. This brings to mind the current situation here in the US, where there are people trying to erase our own history of slavery from textbooks and change the facts about things that have happened in the past to suit their agendas. As an observer who’s experienced similar revisionism, how do you think it can best be counteracted?
I don’t think the truth about historical facts can be erased, maybe just difficult to find. One must want to be informed and seek truth, and with the internet it’s easier.
Even though some of your lyrics address serious topics, your concerts are known to be joyous events. What is it you most hope that people get from the experience of attending a Femi Kuti performance?
I hope people are inspired from my concerts. I hope people find the energy not to give up fighting for a better life for everyone.
Femi Kuti and The Positive Force play Assemply in Kingston on July 29.
“Weird Al” Yankovic with Puddles Pity Party
The Black Crowes blink-182 with Alkaline Trio with Jimmy Eat World & New Found Glory
Def Leppard with The Struts
Cyndi Lauper with Jake Wesley Rogers Barenaked Ladies with Sugar Ray & Fastball
Bret Michaels & Vince Neil with Stephen Pearcy
young
hearts
The Black Keys with Gary Clark Jr
Dierks Bentley with Zach Top & The Band Loula
Steve Miller Band with The Rascals
John Mulaney with Fred Armisen, Mike Birbiglia & Nick Kroll
Ishay Ribo
KIDZ BOP with Snoop Dogg s “Doggyland”
Almost Queen with Lez Zeppelin
Tusk The Classic Tribute to Fleetwood Mac Dark Star Orchestra
Tyler Hubbard with Brandon Wisham
The Mesmerized, Harold Stevenson, oil on paper, 1963. Collection of Barry Sloane.
Right: Harold Stevenson, Alphabet des muets, oil on canvas. Collection of Barry Sloane.
Photos by Alon Koppel
Brushstrokes and Beefcake
“HAROLD STEVENSON: LESS REAL THAN MY ROUTINE FANTASY” AT ART OMI
Through October 26
Artomi.org
Known for his provocative paintings of male nudes, Harold Stevenson (1929-2018) explored corporeal sensuality and realms of desire in his art for over 50 years. This summer, Art Omi in Ghent presents “Harold Stevenson: Less Real Than My Routine Fantasy,” which includes his painting, sculpture, writing, and never-before-seen archival materials. Having exhibited in museums around the world including the Louvre, the Whitney, and the Guggenheim, this is the first institutional solo show of Stevenson’s work in New York. Born and raised in Oklahoma, Stevenson studied art at the University of Oklahoma, where he also participated in ROTC military activities. In 1949, he was awarded a national scholarship to attend the Art Students League, and he set off for New York City. Disappointed with the formal ambiance of art training there, he dropped out and soon after met Andy Warhol. Both newly arrived on the scene, they had an immediate camaraderie and remained close until Warhol’s death in 1987. Warhol was both a friend and a mentor, and Stevenson starred in two of his early
films, among other creative collaborations. Stevenson would go on to become enmeshed in the worlds of art, fashion, and high society in Manhattan, eventually working for the famed designer Charles James as a personal secretary, a gig that allowed him the necessary time to focus on his art practice.
Dubbed an “elegant young cowboy from Oklahoma” by the press during the 1960s, Stevenson was itinerant throughout his life and frequently travelled to Europe.
During the height of his early career, he painted The Eye of Lightning Billy (1962), a work that was exhibited in the “New Realists” show at the Sidney Janis Gallery in 1962, alongside Tom Wesselman, Wayne Thiebaud, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, and other powerhouse artists of the era (Billy was collected by the Museum of Modern Art in 2008). A year later, Stevenson’s monumental 40-foot-tall painting of the Spanish bullfighter El Cordobes was hung on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which resulted in traffic jams in the surrounding area, and caused the government to remove the work. (He is considered the first artist to activate the famous landmark as a space to exhibit art.)
In 1964, his paintings were confiscated by the Italian police for indecency. Despite repeated censorship, Stevenson remained resolute about the sensuous content of his work.
The”‘routine fantasy” of Stevenson’s painterly erotica is anything but conventional: His artworks glow in their celebration of intimacy and pleasure. Erect nipples, armpit hair, and fingers take on heightened meaning through his focus on the seductiveness of these forms.
Even eyebrows and eyelashes become otherworldly through his artistic touch, as seen in The Mesmerized (1963), a close-up view of a green-eyed man leaning into his own arm as he looks directly at us in an undeniably sexy moment. With an affinity for erogenous zones, Stevenson often isolates an area of the body to embolden its agency, and the tension and suspense of his style are expressed in works such as Love is an Offering, Lengths of a Chain (Panel One) (1964), featuring a cropped image of a sturdy hand in all its muscular intensity. Later in his life, Stevenson addressed the gay men’s health crisis through works such as AIDS Magic Sparks War (1988) from his Death in Key West series, a painting that features two small and giddy skeleton faces against the torso of a horizontal male nude in a nondescript environment.
Throughout his idiosyncratic career, Stevenson challenged social norms and authority with his bold visions of bodies and the boundless suggestiveness of anatomy. After years of worldly travel and a dynamic lifestyle as an international artist, Stevenson eventually returned to his hometown in Idabel, Oklahoma, where he lived in a modest log cabin in the forest before his death at 89 years of age. His sensual paintings continue to resound his vernation of human flesh as raw, real, and unabashedly randy. Stevenson lived authentically as a man and an artist. He once so bravely stated: “I knew I had to be me from the time I was four years old. I wouldn’t be able to breathe if I tried to be something I’m not. Painting was breathing.”
—Taliesin Thomas
Left:
Dave Harris's new play, "Manakin," will get a staged reading at New York Stage and Film on July 26.
Fowl Play
“MANAKIN” AT NEW YORK STAGE AND FILM AT MARIST UNIVERSITY
July 26 at 6pm Newyorkstageandfilm.org
“I come from a very secretive family,” Dave Harris remarks. But I doubt that the secrets are as extreme as the ones in his play “Manakin,” in which four generations of brothers marry sisters while simultaneously worshiping Satan. A staged reading of the play will take place at Marist University on July 26, part of New York Stage and Film’s summer residency there.
The latest generation of this incestuous household, who are simply named “Brother” and “Sister,” are preparing to get married. A wedding is a hopeful moment for a family, but also one charged with anxiety. Harris examines this duality with grim humor and poetic elegance. “It’s a family where violence and love coexist, and they’re one and the same, often,” Harris observes. And the usual wedding jitters only increase when one is marrying one’s sibling.
Every home has rules, which are often arbitrary. In this family, no one is allowed to blow on their soup to cool it. This leads to an explosive argument between the father and great-grandfather during the wedding feast at the
center of the play. Also during this meal, the family eats an absurd collection of birds: peacock, Cornish hen, peregrine falcon. The title of the play is a type of bird that goes unmentioned, a fruit-loving creature found in South and Central America. Its name combines “man” and “kin”—a male person and a family.
Another of the generational quirks in this play is Satanism. The family awaits the coming of Lucifer with the same glazed optimism with which evangelicals expect the Second Coming.
“Manakin” grew out of Harris’ fascination with Greek tragedy. The play’s invocation retells the tale of the House of Atreus in a style influenced by hip-hop:
Menelaus is not cute, and the stroke is weak. He’s married to Helen. Helen a baddie.
A real baddie. So bad that Menelaus is like let me flex on all my haters…
Contemplating Greek tragedy—as Freud did—one sees patterns that continue today. “Every generation believes it’s going to bring about change, and the question is, ‘Do human beings ever change?’” Harris inquires. In this second era of Trump, it’s easy to be fatalistic about the human race. Because “Manakin” has no geographical setting, and the characters have no individual names, just roles like “Grandmother” and “Father,” the work takes on a philosophical tone. And there are unexpected digressions, such as:
“Cockroaches eat dead skin and human hair, and you lose 50 to 100 strands of hair a day so it’s impossible to not always be feeding the roaches,” says Daughter.
But love can blossom anywhere, even in the most transgressive families. The romance between the greatgrandmother and great-grandfather is both passionate and gentle. They have outlived their errors, and forgiven all.
And moments of high poetry arise, such as this recitation by Godmother, who functions as a deity in this play: “In a world full of animals, / I found I had a body. / A garden. A bounty. / A night sky and stars I could smooth away like dust.”
Originally from Philadelphia, Harris received a master’s degree from UC-San Diego, and presently lives in Los Angeles. He will come to Poughkeepsie for the performance of “Manakin.”
Nowadays, playwrights also write for TV and movies. Harris wrote “Interview with a Vampire” for AMC, and “The Fortress of Solitude” for Amazon. Summertime, his first feature film, debuted at Sundance in 2020. His play “Tambo & Bones” received an LA Drama Critics Award for best new play in 2023. “Manakin” won the Relentless Award of the American Playwriting Foundation last year.
“Manakin” is one of 12 theatrical productions featured in New York Stage and Film’s 40th anniversary season at Marist University.
—Sparrow
Photo by Izak Rappaport
July 2015 a 2 Day Celebration! July 2025
Saturday, July 5th and Sunday, July 6th from 3pm to 7pm and UPSTATE ARTS WEEKEND 2025
July 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 from 1pm to 7pm
MUSIC and PERFORMANCES Hosted by Charles Dennis Elizabeth Clark - Music • Simon Ampel & Rachel Boice -Ampel - Music • Kid Busy - Music Dan Silversmith Trio - Music • Blackistan Twins - Music • Zelda aka Judith Z. MillerStoryteller • Charles Dennis & Spaghetti Eastern Music - Dance/Performance Art/Music • JEM
the
21 – November 2, 2025
of
Enforcement
Sarah Sherman performs at MASS MoCA on July 19.
Oh-Boy! Market
July 5-6 at Wayside Cider
Over 70 designers will be selling their work at the vintage and handmade market. Vendors this year include Rabbit Boy Vintage, Sandy Hyun Jewelry, and Magpies. The market is a relative newcomer in the region, with this year being only its second time running. Free entry. 10am-5pm, Andes.
“Gertrude”
July 12 at Nelly Goletti Theatre at Marist University
New York Stage and Film is back with its 40th summer season, with a Hamletinspired play starring Emmy-winner Edie Falco. Written by Carly Mensch and directed by Liz Flahive, “Gertrude” follows the story of Hamlet told through the perspective of his mother, Queen Gertrude. $52.50. 6pm, Poughkeepsie.
Sarah Sherman
July 19 at MASS MoCA
Sarah Sherman, also known as Sarah Squirm, is the body horror-loving comedian of the hour. Although she’s most known for her work on "Saturday Night Live," she’s also opened for Eric Andre’s comedy shows and will be performing her signature kooky, gross-out comedy show. $42 advance. 8pm, North Adams, Massachusetts.
Rosendale Street Festival
July 19-20 on Main Street, Rosendale
At this celebration of the Hudson Valley’s music scene, over 100 performers will take the eight stages on Rosendale’s vibrant Main Street. Entry to the festival is free, but donations of $5 are suggested. A portion of festival proceeds goes to support music programs in the Kingston, New Paltz, and the Rondout school districts. 12-9pm. Rosendale.
Catskill Mountain Yoga Festival
July 26 at SUNY Delhi
SUNY Delhi hosts the Catskill Mountain Yoga Festival on July 26, with over 50 classes—from Kundalini to paddleboard yoga—plus sound baths, tarot, henna, massage, and more. Renowned instructor Kelly Kamm leads a lineup of teachers from across the country. A full day of movement, mindfulness, and community in the Catskills. $30–$165. 8am–6:30pm, Delhi.
Borscht Belt Festival
July 26-27 in Ellenville
This celebration of comedy, culture, and food commemorates the Borscht Belt resort era of the Catskills, where Jewish entertainers thrived and cultivated a stand-up community. This year’s Borscht Belt Fest will feature comedians Josh Gondelman, Elon Gold, Sarge, author Gary Shteyngart, and a slew of New Yorker cartoonists and writers from “Saturday Night Live” and “The Tonight Show” as well as music, food vendors, art exhibitions, and panel discussions. 10am9pm. $15-$40, Ellenville.
Summer Shorts Film Festival
August 1-3 at Denizen Theatre
Now in its third year, Throughline Artists and Denizen Theatre present a summer slate of up to 50 short films in New Paltz’s arthouse theater. Highlights include Safe Haven, The Driver, and Five Dot Fun Catch last year’s award-winners on July 30. Screenings begin at 3:30pm. Full festival pass: $61.50. Water Street Market, New Paltz.
“The Best Medicine” at Great Barrington Public Theater
August 1-17 at McConnell Theater
This one-woman play tells the story of a woman who is forced to take care of her husband when he falls ill with an incurable disease. She assumes the role of caregiver with a grimace in this darkly funny performance, but finds a purpose when she joins a stand-up comedy class. Starring Caroline Aaron, written by Robin Gerber, and directed by Matthew Penn, “The Best Medicine” is equal parts devastating and hilarious. $44.50. 3pm or 7:30pm, Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Bon-Odori Dance Day for Peace
August 3 at Kingston Point Peach
Marking 80 years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Bon-Odori Dance Day returns to Kingston on August 3 with traditional Japanese dance, taiko drumming, sumi painting, a tea ceremony, and food vendors. The day honors victims and calls for peace through art, rhythm, and remembrance. Free. 12-8pm, Kingston.
—Katie Ondris
Lukas Nelson performs at UPAC on July 23.
Galatic
July 12 at Empire Live in Albany
New Orleans’s Galactic makes its bread on the jam-band circuit, but the brassy septet is a soulful Crescent City funk machine through and through, rather than another school of phree-ranging Phish pilferers. Hey, a party is a party, and as long as the people are dancing and digging what the band is putting down, who cares about labels, right? And with Galactic’s inspirations—from hometown heroes like the Meters and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band along with P-Funk, the J.B.’s, and various jazz and hip-hop greats—there’s much to dig. (Darkstar Orchestra jams July 13; Millington mixes it up July 18.) 7pm. $48.95.
Joe Morris/Elliot Sharp
July 12 at Untouchable Bar in Newburgh
Presented by Elysium Furnace Works, this night at Assisted Living, the performance space of Newburgh’s Untouchable Bar, pairs two titans of avant-garde guitar. Connecticut native Morris rose to become perhaps the foremost next-generation guitarist of the 1990s free jazz scene, while Sharp has been a major figure of New York experimental music since the 1970s. The ESP-Disk label recently released Realism, the first collaborative album by the formidable duo. (Wendy Eisenberg and Ryan Sawyer appear July 3; Bill Brovold and Tamalyn Miller create July 17.) 8pm. See social media for ticket prices.
Graham Nash
July 13 at the Bearsville Theater in Bearsville
How Woodstock can you get? One of the area’s most famed adopted musical sons and frequent visitors comes back to play the venue built by his associated era’s preeminent music mogul, Albert Grossman, for an evening of songs and stories. Besides being a founding member of the Hollies and Crosby, Stills & Nash and a social activist, the British-born singer and songwriter is an accomplished photographer and visual artist whose recent book A Life in Focus collects images from his personal archives. (Todd Rundgren returns July 5-6; John Sebastian and John Simon tell tales of ’60s music July 12.) 7pm. $90.65$388.65.
Cheer-Accident
July 22 at the Avalon Lounge in Catskill Chicago-based math rockers CheerAccident have been at it for more than 30 years, releasing albums on seminal underground labels Skin Graft, Cuneiform, and Pravda and recording with Steve Albini. Led by drummer Thymme Jones, the band is currently a septet comprised of various members who have come and gone throughout the past two decades. The group’s most recent releases include the four volumes (so far) of A New Ear, a series of improvised recordings. With Infantephant and Grocer. (Helen Gillet holds forth July 10; Bad Moves and Theo Grizol rock July 18.) 8pm. $15 advance; $20 door.
Lukas Nelson
July 23 at UPAC in Kingston American Romance, the debut solo album by Lukas Nelson is the convergence of two rightful heirs of country music: Singer-songwriter Nelson is the son of Willie Nelson, while the record’s producer is Shooter Jennings, the son of the late Waylon Jennings. With his band Promise of the Real on indefinite hiatus, Nelson is on the road again (sorry, couldn’t resist) with another group of ace Americana musicians for this much-anticipated show. Payton Howie opens. (Mary Chapin Carpenter and Brandy Clark play the Bardavon August 9; Devon Allman’s Blues Summit hits UPAC August 17.) 7:30pm. $36, $26.
Guster/the Mountain Goats
July 26 at Mass MoCA in Great Barrington, Massachusetts Indie fans ought to be delighted with this double bill. Boston institutions since 1991, Guster have evolved from the sparse, acoustic textures and minimal hand percussion of their early albums into the wider, more produced sound heard on their latest effort, Ooh La La The vehicle of prolific singer-songwriter John Darnielle, the Mountain Goats are revered for the wry literary quality of their brooding songs—which makes sense, given Darnielle’s parallel career as a novelist. (Audrey Golden discusses her book The Raincoats July 31; Bang on a Can’s LOUD Weekend returns July 31-August 2.) 7pm. $66 advance, $77 day of show.
—Peter Aaron
68 PRINCE STREET GALLERY
68 PRINCE STREET, KINGSTON
“Elusive Thresholds.” Work by Jeanette Fintz and Monika Zarzeczna. July 17-August 17.
ADS GALLERY
105 ANN STREET, NEWBURGH
“Life, Still.” Group show curated by Colin Beattie. July 17-21.
ALBANY INSTITUTE OF HISTORY & ART
125 WASHINGTON AVENUE, ALBANY
“On the Road to Cragsmoor with Charles Courtney Curran.” Through October 13.
ALBERT SHAHINIAN FINE
ART GALLERY
22 EAST MARKET STREET, RHINEBECK
“Collected Light—An Exploration.” Work by Veronica Lawlor, Polly M. Law, Christie Scheele. Through July 27.
ART OMI
1405 COUNTY ROUTE 22, GHENT
“Harold Stevenson: Less Real Than My Routine Fantasy. ” Through August 30.
ARTS SOCIETY OF KINGSTON
97 BROADWAY, KINGSTON
“Kingston: A Portrait in Watercolor.” Paintings by Ray Curran. July 5-27.
ARTYARD KINGSTON
80 SMITH AVENUE, KINGSTON
“Garden of Delights.” Group outdoor sculpture show. Through October 31.
AZART GALLERY
40 MILL HILL ROAD, WOODSTOCK
“Unravel.” Work by Imani Bilal. July 5-August 3.
BANK ART GALLERY
94 BROADWAY, NEWBURGH
“A Collector’s Vision.” Work by Meryl Meisler, Sheila Schwid, and Alex Kveton. Through August 3.
BAU GALLERY
506 MAIN STREET, BEACON, NY.
“Soli Pierce: Chasing Light.” Encaustic painting, video, and sculpture. July 11-August 3.
THE BEACON BUILDING
427 MAIN STREET, BEACON
“Beacon Reimagined.” Photos by Scott Lerman presented as eight-by-four-foot banners outside. Through December 31.
BEATTIE-POWERS PLACE
PROSPECT AVENUE, CATSKILL
“Catskill Artists Now.” Work by Jordan Baker, Johanna Burke, Enrique Govantes, Valerie Hammond and Alon Koppel. Through July 21.
BERNAY FINE ART
296 MAIN STREET, GREAT BARRINGTON, MA
“Shifting View.” Work by Chenty Laury, Noah Post, Simona Prives, and Karin Schaefer. Through July 7.
BILL ARNING EXHIBITIONS
17 BROAD STREET, KINDERHOOK
“A Familiar Type of Magic.” Work by Phil
Knoll, Annie Sprinkle, Beth Stephens, Gabriel Martinez, Mathew Gilbert, Rafael Santiago, and Daniella Dooling. Through July 6.
WOMEN’S STUDIO WORKSHOP
722 BINNEWATER LANE, KINGSTON
“You Deserve Your Flowers.” Group ceramics exhibition curated by Lena Chin. Through Septembr 19.
BUSTER LEVI GALLERY
121 MAIN STREET, COLD SPRING
“AI Dating.” Paintings by Lauren Versel. July 5-27.
THE CAMPUS
341 NY-217, HUDSON
“Second Annual Summer Group Exhibition.” Exhibit featuring work by artists including Huma Bhabha, Arlene Shechet, Kiki Smith, Francis Upritchard, and others. Through October 26.
CLARK ART INSTITUTE
225 SOUTH STREET, WILLIAMSTOWN, MA
“A Room of Her Own: Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875-1945.” Through September 14.
“Ground/Work.” Group outdoor sculpture exhibition. Through October 12.
“I Am a Part of Art.” Group show presented by Community Access to the Arts. July 4-September 14.
“Berenice Abbot’s Modern Lens.” Photographs. July 12-October 5.
“Isamu Noguchi: Landscapes of Times.” Sculpture. July 19-October 13.
CPW
25 DEDERICK STREET, KINGSTON
“Flashpoint! Protest Photography in Print, 1950-Present.” Through August 31.
“Larry Fink: Sensual Empathy.” Photos curated by Lucy Sante. Through August 31.
“The Rose.” A sprawling exploration of collage as feminist form, strategy, and genealogy. Through August 31.
CREATE COUNCIL ON THE ARTS
398 MAIN STREET, CATSKILL
“Seen Scenes.” Member show. Through July 27.
D’ARCY SIMPSON ART WORKS
409 WARREN STREET, HUDSON
“Electric Trees.” Featuring art work by Doug Holst. Through July 6.
DIA BEACON
3 BEEKMAN STREET, BEACON
“Mary Heilman: Starry Night.” Long-term view.
“Andy Warhol: Shadows.” An installation that surrounds the viewer with a series of canvases presented edge-to-edge around the perimeter of the room. Long-term view.
DISTORTION SOCIETY
155 MAIN STREET, BEACON
“What She Builds, She Must Destroy.” New paintings by Michelle Silver. Through August 10.
ELIJAH WHEAT SHOWROOM
195 FRONT STREET, NEWBURGH
“Collateral Magic.” An interactive installation and solo exhibition by Johanna Herr. Through September 20.
ETHAN COHEN GALLERY AT THE KUBE ART CENTER
211 FISHKILL AVENUE, BEACON
“Half the Sky.” Work by Cai Jin, Cui Fei, Edie Xu, Guo Zhen, Katinka Huang, Li Daiyun, Lin Tianmiao, Shen Ling, Xiao Lu, Xing Fei, and Yin Mei. Through August 30.
EXPOSURES GALLERY
1357 KINGS HWY, SUGAR LOAF
“In the Garden of Eden.” Featuring photographs of Central America by Nick Zungoli. July 18-December 31.
FENIMORE ART MUSEUM
5798 STATE HIGHWAY 80 (LAKE ROAD), COOPERSTOWN
“Boundless Spirit: American Folk Art.” Through December 31.
“Mary Cassatt/Berthe Morisot: Allies in Impressionism.” Through September 1.
“The Power of Photography: 19th-20th Century Original Master Prints.” Through September 1.
THE FLOW CHART FOUNDATION
348 WARREN STREET, HUDSON
“More Fugitive Than Light.” Digital collages by Daniel Rothbart. Through July 14.
FRANCES LEHMAN LOEB ART CENTER
124 RAYMOND AVENUE, POUGHKEEPSIE
“Great Green Hope for the Urban Blues.” Artists reinterpret and reinstall the Loeb’s collection of Hudson River School art. Through August 10. “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Black Space-Making from Harlem to the Hudson Valley.” Group show retelling of the history of the Hudson Valley. Through August 17.
“Water/Bodies.” Work by Sa’dia Rehman. Through August 17.
FRED J. JOHNSTON HOUSE MUSEUM & GALLERY
63 MAIN STREET, KINGSTON
“Edward Budney: Photographer.” Photographs of Kingston in the 1950s. Through October 31.
FRONT ROOM GALLERY
205 WARREN STREET, HUDSON
“Rewilding.” Paintings by Thomas Broadbent. Through July 13.
GALLERY 40
40 CANNON STREET, POUGHKEEPSIE
“What is a Portrait?” Group show. July 5-August 31.
GARNER ARTS CENTER
55 WEST RAILROAD AVENUE, GARNERVILLE
“Lucretius.” Paintings by Gordon Fearey. July 17-21.
“Gonna Build a Heaven From a Little Hell.” Work by Arden Klemmer and Paul Christopher Conticelli. Through August 3.
GERMANTOWN LIBRARY
31 PALATINE PARK ROAD, GERMANTOWN
“Spare Time: Adam T. Deen.” Photographs. Through July 31.
The Break, Thomas Broadbent, oil on canvas, from “Rewilding” at Front Room Gallery.
Girls Dancing, Rivka Katvan, photograph, 2000, from “Far & Wide National” at WAAM.
GREEN KILL
229 GREENKILL AVENUE, KINGSTON
“Ph. Segura and Steve Van Nort.” Paintings. July 5-August 30.
GRIT WORKS | GRIT GALLERY
115 BROADWAY, NEWBURGH
“Astounding Sanctuaries and Sun Lit Songs.” Abstract paintings by David Lionheart. Through July 6.
“The Art of Vindaris/The Final Rose.” Work by Brown and Lionheart. Through July 31.
HEADSTONE GALLERY
28 HURLEY AVENUE, KINGSTON
“In The Secret Distance.” A solo exhibition by artist Olivia Bee. July 5-August 31.
HESSEL MUSEUM OF ART/CCS BARD
BARD COLLEGE, ANNANDALE-ONHUDSON
“All Manner of Experiments: Legacies of the Baghdad Group for Modern Art.” Arab modern and contemporary art. Through October 19.
HOWLAND CULTURAL CENTER
477 MAIN STREET, BEACON
“Work in Decay—The Renaissance of Beacon
—Then and Now.” Remounting of 1982 show of photos by Patrick Prosser with contemporary additions. Through July 21.
HUDSON BEACH GLASS GALLERY
162 MAIN STREET, BEACON
“Holly Sumner: Drifters.” Paintings on maps mounted to cloth. Through July 6.
HUDSON HALL
327 WARREN STREET, HUDSON
“Hudson Terminus.” Work by Jon Kinzel. July 18-August 17.
HUDSON RIVER MUSEUM
511 WARBURTON AVENUE, YONKERS
“Lens on the Hudson: Photographs by Joseph Squillante.” Through October 19.
“Smoke in Our Hair: Native Memory and Unsettled Time.” Twenty-seven works highlighting some of the most influential Native artists working over the last 60 years. Through August 31.
HUDSON VALLEY MOCA
1701 MAIN STREET, PEEKSKILL.
“Conscience of a Nation.” Work by V. L. Cox. Through September 30.
JACK SHAINMAN: THE SCHOOL
25 BROAD STREET, KINDERHOOK
“General Conditions.” Group show. Through November 29.
KENISE BARNES FINE ART
7 FULLING LANE, KENT, CT
“Poems Without Words.” New paintings by Janna Watson. Through July 27.
KINDERHOOK KNITTING MILL
8 HUDSON STREET, KINDERHOOK
“A Time to Build.” Shaker furniture. Through November 2.
KINOSAITO
115 7TH STREET, VERPLANCK
“Kikuo Saito: Reminiscence in Color.” Through December 21.
“The Unknown and Its Poetics.” Group show curated by Adrian S. Bara. Through December 21.
KLEINERT/JAMES CENTER FOR THE ARTS
36 TINKER STREET, WOODSTOCK
“Touch Wood.” Sculptural paintings by Andrew Lyght. Through July 20.
LABSPACE
2642 NY ROUTE 23, HILLSDALE
“Zohar Lazar: Utopia Pkwy.” Solo exhibition of paintings. July 12-August 24. July 12-August 24.
THE LACE MILL GALLERIES
165 CORNELL STREET, KINGSTON
“Summertide 2025.” Group show. July 1-15. “Upstate Arts Weekend 2025.” Group show presented by The Lace Mill Arts Council. July 17-21.
LE SHAG
292 FAIR STREET, KINGSTON
Ominous Angels. Paintings, poetry, and film by Xek Noir and Atropa. July 19-August 31.
LICHTENSTEIN CENTER FOR THE ARTS
28 RENNE AVENUE, PITTSFIELD, MA
“I Am a Part of Art.” Group show presented by Community Access to the Arts. July 9-August 22.
LIGENZA MOORE GALLERY
78 TROUT BROOK ROAD, COLD SPRING “Destination Earth.” Group show. Through Sunday July 27.
LIGHTFORMS ART CENTER
743 COLUMBIA STREET, HUDSON
“Through Color to Form.” Work by Gerard Wagner (1906-1999). Through July 31.
LIMNER GALLERY
123 WARREN STREET, HUDSON
“Digital Art, Assemblage, and Collage.” Group show. Through July 12.
LOCKWOOD GALLERY
747 ROUTE 28, WEST HURLEY
“Ethan Ryman: Four Years Built.” Work by Ethan Ryman. July 13-August 10.
MAGAZZINO ITALIAN ART
2700 ROUTE 9, COLD SPRING
“Maria Lai. A Journey to America.” Comprehensive overview of Maria Lai’s ( 1919–2013) work. Through July 28.
“Llencols de Aigua.” Installation by Antonio Marras and Maria Lai. Through July 28.
MANITOGA / THE RUSSEL WRIGHT DESIGN CENTER
584 NEW YORK 9D, PHILIPSTOWN
“The Russel & Mary Wright Design Collection.” Through October 4.
MARK GRUBER GALLERY
13 NEW PALTZ PLAZA, NEW PALTZ “Summer Salon Show.” Group show. July 5-August 16.
MASS MOCA
1040 MASS MOCA WAY, NORTH ADAMS, MA.
“Just a Dream…” Vincent Valdez retrospective. Through April 5, 2026.
MATERIAL PROJECTS SPACE
6 MARKET STREET, ELLENVILLE
“A Gathering of Unasked Possibility.” Group exhibition. July 17-21.
MILLBROOK VINEYARDS
26 WING ROAD, MILLBROOK
“Art in the Loft.” Group juried exhibition. Through November 9.
THE MOUNT
2 PLUNKETT STREET, LENOX, MA
“Movement.” Annual group outdoor sculpture exhibition. Through September 30.
THE MUSE
1 MADELINE LANE, ROSENDALE
“Seeding Ancient Mother’s Song.” Paintings by Natali Connell. Through July 12.
OH! DESIGNS INTERIORS
3 STONE STREET, COLD SPRING
“Plein-Air: A Collection.” A solo exhibition of paintings by Daisy de. Puthod. Through July 6.
OLANA STATE HISTORIC SITE
5720 ROUTE 9G, HUDSON
“What’s Missing?” Work by Ellen Harvey and Gabriela Salazar in the landscape. Through November 2.
Joe, Olivia Bee, photograph, 2025, from “In The Secret Distance” at Headstone Gallery.
OLIVE FREE LIBRARY
4033 ROUTE 28A, WEST SHOKAN
“Address: Earth Art Expo—Reef & Desert.” Group show curated by Bibiana Huang Matheis. Through July 12.
“The Color of Light.” Group exhibition juried by Jane Bloodgood-Abrams. July 26-September 6.
ONE MILE GALLERY
475 ABEEL STREET, KINGSTON.
“Demiurge.” Through July 15.
OPUS 40
356 GEORGE SICKLE ROAD, SAUGERTIES
“Forest Bathing.” Group exhibition. Through July 15.
PHILIP DOUGLAS FINE ART
545 WARREN STREET, HUDSON
“The Americans.” New paintings by David Becker. Through July 13.
PINKWATER GALLERY
237 FAIR STREET, KINGSTON
“Ancestry.” The Photography of Brandon Thomas Brown. July 17-September 2.
PRIVATE PUBLIC
530 COLUMBIA STREET, HUDSON
“Eclipse (Amazon, Sept. 7, 1858).” A large-scale video installation by Janet Biggs. July 19-August 24.
QUEEN OF ROGUES
2440 ROUTE 28, GLENFORD
“Address Earth: Cave.” Group show curated by Bibiana Huang Matheis. Through July 12.
ROHMER GALLERY
84 PARTITION STREET, SAUGERTIES
“Look Again.” Work by Andrea Olivia, Rina Kim, Oneslutriot, and J. C. Hopkins, and Robbie Ginsburg. Through August 13.
ROOST ARTS HUDSON VALLEY
122 MAIN STREET, NEW PALTZ
“Drawbak: The Work and Life of Thor Badendyck.” Through July 13.
SAMUEL DORSKY MUSEUM OF ART
1 HAWK DRIVE, SUNY NEW PALTZ
“Landmines.” Work by Dawoud Bey, Christina Fernandez, Richard Mosse, and Rick Silva. Through July 13.
“The Arrested Image: Identity through the Lens of Law Enforcement.” Group show at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Through November 2.
SEGUNDO BESO
65 MAIN STREET, COLD SPRING.
“Urban Jungle.” Garrison Art Center x Segundo Beso. Curated collaboration between art and fashion. Through July 13.
SEPTEMBER 4 HUDSON STREET, KINDERHOOK
“Nicole Cherubini.” Solo exhibition. Through July 31.
THE SKETCHBOOK GALLERY
9 JANE ST, SAUGERTIES.
“Outerwear/Omnipresent.” Work by Kate Dodd. July 5-August 2.
SKY HIGH FARM
675 HALL HILL ROAD, PINE PLAINS
“Trees Never End and Houses Never End.” Group show. Through October 31.
THE SPARK OF HUDSON
502 UNION STREET, HUDSON
“Portraits of Hudson.” Photos by Chad Weckler. Through August 1.
SPENCERTOWN ACADEMY
ARTS CENTER
790 ROUTE 203, SPENCERTOWN
“Gee’s Bend: The Next Generation.” A group quilt exhibition in collaboration with Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy. July 11-August 3.
SUSAN ELEY FINE ART
433 WARREN STREET, HUDSON “Qoutidiana.” Featuring new works by Francie Hester. Through July 17.
THOMAS COLE HISTORIC SITE
218 SPRING STREET, CATSKILL
“Emily Cole: Ceramics, Flora & Contemporary Responses.” Work by the daughter of Thomas Cole. Through November 2.
“On Trees.” Work by Georgia O’Keefe and Thomas Cole. Through December 14.
TIME & SPACE LTD
434 COLUMBIA STREET, HUDSON
“Beyond Form.” Paintings by Philip Gebhardt. Through July 27.
TIVOLI ARTISTS GALLERY
60 BROADWAY, TIVOLI
“Hudson Valley Towns.” July 11-August 10.
TROUTBECK
515 LEEDSVILLE ROAD, AMENIA
“Nature In Pieces.” Nature-focused paintings by Alexis England. Through August 31.
TURN PARK ART SPACE
2 MOSCOW ROAD, STOCKBRIDGE, MA
“Leaving Traces.” Work by Jim Morris. Through August 4.
“Sculpture-Tablets-Chargers.” Ceramics and sculpture by Paul Chaleff. Through August 4.
TYTE GALLERY
3280 FRANKLIN AVENUE, MILLBROOK
“In Pursuit: Five Artists.” Work by Maxine Davidowitz, John McGiff, Mya Muchineuta, Doug Shippee, and Mimi Young. Through September 7.
UNISON ARTS & LEARNING CENTER
9 PARADIES LANE, NEW PALTZ
“I, Witness.” Work by Tona Wilson. Through August 31.
“Voices Unbound.” Work by incarcerated Ulster County women. Through August 31.
WALLKILL RIVER CENTER FOR THE ARTS
232 WARD STREET, MONTGOMERY
“Uncanny Garden.” New work by Theresa Gooby. July 5-August 31.
THE WASSAIC PROJECT
37 FURNACE BANK ROAD, WASSAIC
“So It Goes.” Group show curated by Bowie Zunino, Will Hutnick, Jeff Barnett-Winsby, and Eve Biddle. Through September 13.
WINDHAM FINE ARTS
5380 MAIN STREET, WINDHAM
“Stillness of Summer.” Paintings by H. M. Saffer. July 1-31.
WOODSTOCK ARTISTS
ASSOCIATION AND MUSEUM
28 TINKER STREET, WOODSTOCK
“Recent Acquisitions.” Group show curated by Tom Wolf. Through August 10.
“Far & Wide National: Every Picture Tells a Story.” Annual group showing of a national array of work. Through August 10.
“Soft Assembly.” Paintings by Aaron Hauck. Through August 10.
WOODSTOCK SPA
62 RICKS ROADD, WOODSTOCK
“SCAPE: Sculpture, Community, Arts, Peace, Environment.” Outdoor sculpture installation Linda Dubilier and Jen Dragon. Through October 19
New Paintings by JENNIFER LEVINE
Horoscopes
By Cory Nakasue
The
Summer Shocks and Backtracks
We might be at a point in this turbulent year where we’re ready to give up on anything ever being stable again. Many of us have resigned ourselves to the relentless onslaught of change and upheaval. We may have also trained ourselves to tolerate the unrecognizable so that we’re less consistently shocked. But, as the summer retrograde parade commences, we’ll be able to backtrack over familiar territory in the hopes of integrating the twists and turns of early 2025.
The first planet to station retrograde in July is Neptune. After barely making it into the sign of Aries in March, the gaseous god of the sea turns the tide on July 4th. That day is also host to Venus’s conjunction with Uranus in Taurus just hours before it enters Gemini. This day could contain reversals, confusion, and deep cravings for novelty. A few days later, on the 7th, revolutionary Uranus enters Gemini after a seven-year stint in Taurus. This is the biggest transit of the month, and introduces possible quantum leaps in technology, communications, and travel.
The first lunation of the month is a steadying full Moon in Capricorn on July 10. This full Moon is ruled by Saturn, who is preparing for its retrograde on the 13th. This mid-month period encourages us to slow our roll and reflect on some of the foundations we began to lay in the spring. We may embark on our first round of tweaks. Speaking of adjustments (and adjustments to our speech), Mercury stations retrograde in Leo on the 18th. We may feel compelled to revisit how we’ve presented ourselves in the past and retool our ego expression. The Sun enters Leo on July 22, creating an interesting tension between our desire to be seen and our desire to hide while we’re reconstructing our persona.
ARIES (March 20–April 19)
A disruption of communication patterns in your local environment, course of study, or your own cognitive processing is actually welcome. Or, maybe, you’re the disruptor imposing radical change in the way information is exchanged and processed at work or with your children. Whatever the case, your perspective, and the way you’re learning, is getting an overhaul. Perhaps there’s a new author, teacher, or podcast that is blowing your mind and making you see the world in a whole new light. Share an idea that stirs the pot or upsets the status quo. Allow for this pattern-break. Resistance is futile.
TAURUS (April 19–May 20)
Material stability is elusive, and it would be no surprise if this also affected your emotional stability. You may also be questioning where you belong—whether that’s the town or home you live in, or the people you consider your kin. Instead of trying to hold on to the very things you might be questioning, try submitting to this cosmic course of adaptability training. I know you love your comfort and the idea of a sure thing, but life is asking you to grow. It’s asking you to consider the ability to change as a more realistic form of security.
GEMINI (May 20–June 21)
The energy of Uranus cracks your body, mind, and spirit wide open. You may feel a bit like the proverbial Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and you can’t make up your mind about which you prefer. Maybe you don’t have to choose. Maybe you can find a way to be both. You’re starting to care less about presenting the most palatable and legible version of who you are. You’re becoming less interested in how you fit into certain structures and more interested in your freedoms. Uranus transits can also be expressed as nervous system activation, so practice grounding your body.
CANCER
(June 21–July 22)
You may feel like canceling that hypnosis session or past-life regression journey, because the deep patterns that hide in the psyche aren’t hiding anymore. However, I would recommend that you keep those appointments, along with any depth psychology and somatic experiencing workshops because they’ll guide you. The subconscious mind and body speak to us differently than the conscious mind, and when the contents of the subconscious are loosed, what we don’t integrate, repeats. You have an amazing opportunity to not only witness the patterns you’ve repressed but to free yourself from them. You’re on your way to feeling lighter.
LEO (July 22–August 23)
The people that you involve yourself with will either need to be pathways to greater freedom, or you will gain that freedom by rebelling against them. It’s a good time to try to identify the people in your circles who act as catalysts for change and increasing authenticity, instead of those who expect conformity. Seeking out people who challenge your beliefs and desires is worth the effort. The “experts” say that our identities are heavily influenced by the people we spend the most time with. Be mindful of the people who want to keep you in a holding pattern.
VIRGO (August 23–September 23)
So, what are you doing with your life anyway? Whatever direction you’re moving in and whatever you’ve been aspiring to is about to radically shift. This may show up as intense boredom, reaching a limit with authoritarian structures, or situations that don’t align with a new belief system. There may be surprising career or vocational opportunities on the horizon that, at first glance, might seem completely out of character but undeniably intriguing. Your mental flexibility is at its peak, which makes it easier to notice options you’d never considered before. This is very destabilizing energy. Tend to your breath.
LIBRA (September 23–October 23)
Thinking about moving abroad? How about devoting yourself to a social cause that has you really fired up? The parameters that you’ve set around what you believe and what you’d like to experience are busting open, and all of the familiar inputs that make up your daily life are starting to feel boring or too small. Rote activities might start feeling too mechanical and numbing. There’s an expanded experience that you’re hungry for, one that puts your life in new contexts so that you can make new meaning. It’s time to be a fish out of water.
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SCORPIO
(October 23–November 22)
What would it be like to be more comfortable with uncertainty and more adaptable to forces beyond your control? Sounds scary, but to learn this could be truly empowering and helpful for making deep and lasting changes. These lessons may come in the form of fluctuations in your finances, new desires in your sex life, and transforming the emotional bonds that you have with others. There must be new ways of collaborating with key people in your life and finding a new relationship to the things you fear. The mysteries, and subjects relegated to the dark corners of our minds, hold regenerative power.
SAGITTARIUS
(November 22–December 22)
New relationship energy is on the horizon. You’re attracting people that are meant to radicalize everything you think you know about how you show up in human exchanges. Relationships are mirrors, so this means that some of your own traits might be mirrored back to you in a way that disrupts your self-concept. You may find that you desire things you were sure you did not want. These expressions can come through any personal relationship or the public in general. It’s time to make a break with old dynamics and attitudes regarding the roles other people play in your life.
CAPRICORN
(December 22–January 20)
Your work and health routines demand change, experimentation, and more autonomy. Whatever has become habitual or stagnant must be shaken up. You’ll know what needs changing by an increased desire to break out of ruts with your schedule and how you interact with coworkers. New health protocols might make themselves known through the messages your body is sending you. The same goes for your mental health. It may be time to take up new practices in the way you manage your attention, time, and communications. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new technologies or modalities to assist you in making improvements.
AQUARIUS (January 20–February 19)
You might be more willing to gamble on life, love, and your own inventiveness. You’re embarking on a period of needing new forms of personal expression, untried paths to joy, and inroads to feeling alive. Some of the new things that enter your life might not last a very long time, but that’s okay. The unexpected people or events that show up now do so in the name of breaking patterns and waking you up. If children are a significant part of your life, it’s likely that their unpredictability will teach you many lessons about the illusion of certainty.
PISCES
(February 20–March 19)
Breaking with our past can be quite upsetting. It’s the basis of our identity, emotional body, and life story. It’s also the foundation of our trajectories that reach out into the future. When deep soul stirrings or life events sever our connection to the past we can feel unmoored, like we don’t even know how to move forward. Uranus’s journey through your fourth house is meant to liberate you from tethers to foundations that will impede future progress. You may have to move house, disturb family dynamics, and rewire your nervous system during this process. You’re rooting into situations with more vitality.
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Traces and Revelations
Upstate Art Weekend, July 17-21
Now in its sixth year, Upstate Art Weekend has become something like the I Ching for the Hudson Valley art scene—a wandering oracle of openings, oddities, and off-road installations that reveal the state of the creative union, one barn and Brutalist basement at a time. With more than 130 participants spread across 10 counties, this self-guided festival of contemporary art invites the faithful and the art-curious alike to put some miles on the road and witness what’s blooming around the region. Here are some suggestions.
“Tomokazu Matsuyama: Morning Sun” at the Edward Hopper House Matsuyama’s dazzling, anime-inflected dreamscapes hang like technicolor ghosts in Hopper’s boyhood home in Nyack, a timeslip dialogue between two artists separated by oceans and a century, but united by a fascination with the figure adrift. Matsuyama’s paintings thrum with energy—blending Edo-era iconography, global pop, and fractured consumer mythologies—and manage to make Hopper’s stillness feel more haunted in contrast.
“Life, Still” at ADS Warehouse
Curated by Colin Beattie, the group photography show in Newburgh is less a meditation on stillness than a collective act of refusal—of crisis fatigue, of genre convention, of the illusion that the image is ever neutral. Caleb Stein’s decadelong documentation of a single swimming hole in the Hudson Valley suggests that place, like the human body, is always in flux. Hannah Altman’s images channel Yiddish folklore into an eerily present now, while Asger Carlsen’s AI-generated work tests what happens when the human is only half the author.
Ellsworth Kelly Open Studio
Jack Shear—photographer and partner of Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015)—has cracked open the Kelly archives in the artist’s Spencertown studio for a rare glimpse at his private collection of posters and ephemera. It’s like stumbling into the sanctum sanctorum of American abstraction: the ghost of Kelly’s perfect geometry hovering over the drafting table, his color blocks still vibrating with irrepressible joy.
Upstate Open Studios
New this year, Upstate Open Studios joins the Upstate Art Weekend constellation with an ambitious debut: over 185 artists across the region throwing open their studio doors to the public. From converted barns to backyard kilns, the event offers an intimate glimpse into the spaces where the creative sausage gets made. It’s less polished white cube, more raw encounter—process over product, conversation over spectacle. A chance to see the Hudson Valley’s art scene at work, literally.
“Half the Sky” at KuBe ArtCenter
This show in Beacon brings together 11 groundbreaking Chinese women artists in a long-awaited exhibition first envisioned by curator Joan Lebold Cohen. From Lin Tianmiao’s string-wrapped bicycle to Xiao Lu’s bullet-pierced self-portraits, the show spans mediums and generations, reclaiming space for voices too long overlooked. Curated by Ethan Cohen and Donna Mikkelsen, “Half the Sky” is both homage and upheaval—an urgent testament to power, memory, and transformation.
—Brian K. Mahoney
Morning Sun Dance, Tomokazu Matsuyama, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 2025, from “Tomokazu Matsuyama: Morning Sun” at the Edward Hopper House in Nyack.
